Chapter 346: Arrested

When the realization hit them, Valarie tried calling Ivy to inform her about the situation. However, the girl's phone was unavailable and she could do nothing. Valarie could only go with the flow for now and apologize to Ivy later on. It was not her who had arranged for the sudden meeting with the President, but the President himself.

"I guess we will have to handle the situation ourselves." Valarie sighed, her mind unable to process what was even happening around her. Everything was a mess until a few minutes and now, one call from Ivy and everything fell into place automatically. However, with it came more problems and more headaches. 

"I'll take care of her. You can meet the President by then." Preston offered and Valarie nodded at him.

"That's the only option. Why is Ryder not here by the way? Has he gone to buy beverages or prepare the raw ingredients for it from the scratch?" Valarie lamented and just then, the guy in question entered with cups of hot coffee.

"I was just now wondering who was the one scolding me and then I heard the scolding myself. How lucky am I?" Ryder commented as he handed over the cups to the two people. Valarie rolled her eyes at him and plopped on the chair with a loud sigh.

Ryder noticed the grave expressions on their faces and could help but ask them about the matter. And just like Valarie, he too was surprised to hear about the President's visit. But who were they stop him and why would they? They could only wait for the man as they sipped on their coffee and hoped that Ivy would arrive after the man left.

Forty minutes later.

The head office of the Intelligence got to witness a horde of presidential cars for the second time in just a span of few months. Other than Valarie and her friends, nobody else knew about the President's arrival. So, it came as a shock to them to see him arrive unannounced. They could not control the shock even after they saw the bodyguards escorting him inside the building. It was as though they were dreaming about the things that were happening.

The President looked around and on not noticing Frederick Clarke anywhere in his vicinity, his eyes narrowed dangerously. There was visible anger in them and even the guards who were protecting could feel it. Goosebumps rose on their skin seeing the usually calm man lose his cool. However, they still maintained their expressions and protected him. 

Everybody else was frozen in his spot and nobody came forward to receive him. It was not until a good five minutes had passed that they saw Valarie come down, followed by Ryder and Preston. She stepped forward with a professional smile on her face. "Mr. President, we apologize for our lack of hospitality. My colleagues are just shocked to see such a renowned person here."

Luis looked at her indifferently, his eyes narrowed, scrutinizing her every move. "Chief informed me about your arrival. Let me escort you to the meeting room." Valarie held her hand for the man to follow her. However, she did not receive any response from him other than his eyes staring at her without blinking. He was waiting for her to react to his cold behavior, but the woman remained unfazed and continued to maintain a calm expression.

A few minutes passed before the President gave her a curt nod and Valarie led the man towards the room, with his assistant following him closely. When it was only the five people in the room, Luis broke the silence first. "Where is Frederick?" His tone clearly depicted that he was furious and Valarie's assumptions came true immediately. 

She gave one look to her friends who nodded at her assuringly. "Sir, Chief is not here."

"Is it? I wonder where he is."

"Sir, it will take some time for him to arrive."

"As expected." The man scoffed and folded his hands.

Valarie did not know how to start the conversation, but she had to speak at all costs. So, she took a deep breath before she brought up the issue. "Sir, I know why you are here."

Her words surprised Luis and he raised his eyebrows slightly. "You do?"

"Yes Sir. I do. You are here to confront Frederick about his crimes." Valarie's reply made the already surprised man to be stunned even more. 

"How do you know about it?" Luis stared at her in suspicion while he tried to analyze if the woman was only playing games with him. He wanted to know if the three people were also involved with Frederick.

"Sir, I received the email just like how you did," Valarie answered honestly. She had nothing to hide from the man as she was not the one involved in the crime. She had nothing to fear. Now, Luis's expression changed to something which none of them could fathom.

"What video are you talking about?" The man asked trying to suppress his overwhelming emotions. He was testing Valarie and the woman knew about it. But she was not offended by it. Instead, she answered his questions politely.

"The video about Frederick. I received one too and the person who sent it is someone I know." Valarie only allowed the President to know this much. She was not going to reveal about Ivy to him against her wishes. However, she did not want the man to be suspicious of her when she totally innocent here. 

Her answer was completely unexpected. But to Luis, it was good news. If Valarie was saying the truth, then he could hand over the case to her to deal with the situation. At least, he had somebody else to trust now and he knew that the woman before him was quite formidable. For the first time after entering the Intelligence, the man cracked a smile.

"Are you telling the truth? Shall I assume that it was you who sent me the video then?" The man asked, still not satisfied completely. He did not want to take any risks, not at this time when it involved the lives of many innocent people.

"Yes, Sir. Definitely. You could say that it was I who asked the person to forward the video to you." Valarie lied although she knew that she was nowhere related to the video. It was all Ivy's doing. However, she also knew that Ivy would not mind and she would not make a fuss as the matter something that had to be dealt with as soon as possible.

"In that case, I'll hand over Frederick to you. You can deal with him however you want."

"Yes Sir." That was all the three people needed. Now that they had orders from the President, nobody could stop them from taking the disgusting man into custody.

More than an hour had passed since the President's arrival when the man they wanted to catch came rushing in like a maniac startling everyone on the ground floor. As far as they knew, the man was on leave. So, seeing him here out of nowhere, the employees could make a guess why he was even here. He was here after hearing about the President's arrival.

"Where is the President?" The man almost shouted. He was sweating profusely and his hands and feet had gone cold. He had lied to the man blatantly about his whereabouts and now, he did not know how to overcome the situation. One of the employees directed him to the meeting where the President and his assistant were being attended to. 

Not wasting another minute, the man darted towards the room and opened it with a small thud gaining everybody's attention in there. Luis seemed to be smiling at something while Valarie maintained a poker face. Meanwhile, Ryder and Preston were glaring at him which the man did not notice at all.

"Mr. President, I apologize for my lateness. I was held up at some important work." Frederick lied not knowing a thing about the upcoming disaster that would wreck his life beyond his expectations.

'Yeah. At criminal work. We all know what you were up to, you disgusting piece of shit. You can save yourself some trouble and stop acting like an idiot.' Prestin scoffed in his mind. Given an opportunity, he would have voiced his thoughts in front of the man. But that would only make him look like a man with no manners. So, he remained silent.

"I had informed Valarie about your arrival. I hope she assisted you just the way you wanted." The man continued to speak, not knowing how much of a fool he was in everybody else's eyes.

"Calm down, Fredrick. You seemed to have come here in a hurry. Is everything alright?" Luis spoke calmly, his expression not giving away anything.

Although the man was taken aback by the question, Fredrick only brushed it off with a smile. "By the way Sir, what was the mission you were talking about? Is it something important?"

"Yes, very important. I just found out somethings about the recent incident about the poison attack." This time everybody's eyes were on the man and they could clearly see the way the man's face paled visibly. Meanwhile, Frederick's heart had jumped a mile on hearing the mission the President wanted to hand over to his team.

Before Frederick could even speak, Luis continued. "I received an interesting video clip today. Want to take a look at it?" When Luis did not receive any answer, he nodded at Valarie for her to take over from here.

"Chief, let me show you the video too. You will definitely be interested in it and if I am not wrong, your mind will blow away after watching it." Now, Fredrick was having a bad premonition and he could not help but shudder in his seat. 

Valarie turned the laptop towards the man and pressed the button. The video started to play at once. The first few seconds, nothing happened. However, his eyes widened when he saw himself on the screen. Everything that had happened in the factory in the morning replayed as it was in the video. 

By now, he was sweating profusely and all he could think about at the moment was, 'Gone. Everything is gone. Where did things go wrong? How?' The man came out of his thoughts when he felt a cold metal clasp on his hands. He looked down to see that Ryder was handcuffing him with a cold glare on his face. "What the hell are you doing?" He shouted immediately trying to release his hands from Ryder's clutches. 

But the man only held him tighter. "Frederick Clarke, you are under arrest for planning a deadly attack and playing with the lives of innocent people. Also, you are guilty of your involvement in the illegal organ trafficking case. So, cooperate with us and let us escort you to the place where you truly belong, prison."