38. The Footage
A look of realization shone on Lucas’s face.
He rarely stayed home and always left early then returned very late. So those foods he’d been eating all these years were made by that silly woman.
A complex emotion flashed in his eyes, as he spaced out for a few seconds.
Retaining his blank expression, he pushed his chair back, stood up and left, finding the maid’s food as if it was something alien.
At The Company.
Amanda hurried up to him, her voice filled with disbelief and excitement. ” Mr. Harrison, this is strange. The tech team found nothing wrong with my computer’s privacy. It means no one has tampered with the reports from my end. How strange, you got different kinds of reports-”
“Make me a cup of coffee.”
It was as if Lucas wasn’t listening. His eyes were cascaded with an impending rage, his stern expression making the employees walking past scurrying out of the way.
“Y-Yes. Right away.” Amanda gulped and scampered off.
Lucas glanced at his wristwatch, his eyes narrowing.
He walked away from the secretaries’ area, heading down to the Tech Department. Amanda returned later with a hot cup of black coffee and was met with an empty space.
Ivan was engrossed in playing games with his phone when the table behind him crashed.
“Is this what I pay you to do! Where are the results!?”
Lucas Harrison’s deep and unfriendly voice made the guy lose hold of his phone.
“Please accept my apology, Mr. Harrison.” Ivan broke into a cold sweat. “I- I, of course. I looked into it. The voice note was indeed an automated one, cloned from the original voices.”
He turned on his computer, his fingers shaking as he fiddled with the mouse.
Lucas’s expression eased down, knowing he couldn’t have been wrong.
“And the surveillance?” He asked.
Ivan scratched his head and laughed nervously. “Hehe, Mr. Harrison. The virus is strong. Please give me a few more days-”
“Do it now!” Lucas snapped. “Or lose your job.”
Lucas Harrison wasn’t going to forgive him for playing games in the workplace.
Ivan knew he was in hot soup.
He sank onto his chair, shivering, his fingers dancing across the keyboard.
To please his Boss, there was only one thing he had to do.
Break all the cyber rules. Even though he was a top hacker, Ivan worked for a legal company like GK Group so breaking the rules was an offensive act.
But to save his job, who cares about those damned rules!?
In thirty minutes, Ivan cleared out the virus, hacked into the satellite and retrieved the surveillance footage of NightBay Street.
He traced the date and time, and boom!
Lucas was standing over the guy’s shoulder, a look of impatience registered on his face.
Once Ivan retrieved the footage, every answer was right in front of him.
A car drove into the desolate neighborhood at a high speed. Then that car was blocked, front and back, by two bigger cars.
Similar-looking men alighted from those scars and three of them jumped inside the victim’s car.
The car’s light was on, and he could see what was happening inside.
As Heidi struggled against the masked men, one of them pinned her down and the other men rummaged through her clothes, ransacking the whole car.
That wasn’t enough; after they left, another masked man chased her with a knife.
Something snapped, the startling sound bringing everyone in the tech team back to their senses.
The metal chair’s headrest where Lucas’s hand had once been was now squeezed like a wool, looking unrecognizable.
After seeing the whole footage, Lucas’s lips pulled into a disdainful smile, a sinister look flashing in his eyes.
Everyone shivered and maintained a safe distance from the man.
Lucas brought out his phone and copied the voice cloner’s address, texting it to someone with one instruction.
[Bring him. Fifteen minutes.]
Ten Minutes Later…
Lucas sat on his swivel chair inside his office, his icy glare fixed on the guy who was kneeling in front of him.
“Mr. Harrison, I- I didn’t do anything. It wasn’t me, I swear. I don’t even know how to operate a computer!” Buckets of sweat poured down the guy’s face, dampening his yellow t-shirt.
“I can cut off your means of livelihood, send you to jail, and make sure you never come out. Otherwise, I’ll let you go if you tell me who’s behind this.”
“You only have one chance.”
“No! Mr. Harrison.” The guy broke down, his snots running freely. “I-I’ll, I’ll tell the truth.”
Then he started spilling out every piece of information as if it were a hot pie on his tongue.
As the guy spoke on, Lucas’s expression became so fierce that Amanda, who had just entered with a new cup of coffee, quietly sneaked out of the office.
