Chapter 1698 - Missing (1)

Hande was nervously pacing in front of the planning room.

They cleared up most of the locations and marked them as safe. Felix, Nico, and Beck returned back to the Cliffside Villa, more and more kids are home and on standby, and there are no new incidents reported for more than an hour. However, there are still no news from Ade or Aiden.

Hande jolted when her phone rang. It's a familiar ringtone.

"It's Ade!" Hande exclaimed when she dashed into the planning room. She answered the call on the speaker.

"Ade? How are things!?" Hande asked with excitement. She was hoping to hear that all is done, and they are coming back.

"Ugh… they waited for us… we need help…" Based on Ade's voice, it was obvious that he is struggling to speak.

No one breathed.

'Tut… tut… tut…' The sound of a disconnected call filled the space.

"Ade? Ade!" Hande screamed, even though she knew that it's no use.

"We have two helicopters here. Are they ready?" Sophia was the first one to snap out of it.

Zack confirmed. "I'm going."

"I'm going also!" Hande said in a shaky voice.

"Me too." JoAnna declared. "It seems they will need a doctor. Imani should also come. Get two squads from the Army of Chaos to meet us there."

"What should I tell Sarah?" Sophia asked JoAnna.

"Nothing. Don't tell her anything until we figure out what happened. With helicopters, we can be there in fifteen minutes or less…"

"Where are you going?" Sophia asked Felix.

"The surveillance there is still down. Someone needs to fix it. I will take Nico and Beck with me…"

Sophia watched from the door as Felix, JoAnna, Zack, Masika, Imani, and Hande dashed down the hallway and she sighed. Haru and Nala were two seconds behind them, and Jamari was already in the garage, starting the helicopter.

Michael rubbed his forehead. "It will be fine." He was not sure if he said that to himself or to Sophia and Oni who were in the room.

Sophia had a bad feeling about this. Why did Ade call and not Aiden? How bad is Ade hurt if he was unable to stay on the line? But she kept her fears to herself.

…

On the lowest level...

Sarah was busy typing when her phone rang. She recognized the number: SP3CT3R.

"Sarah White?"

"Speaking." Sarah did her best to sound professional.

"I found the information you asked me to look into. Smithsonite corp. was hacked and I followed the trace to Europe, but the server is offline and that is where the trail gets cold. For the other two, I provided you with the information on who accessed the data in the last month. There is a small bonus included. Everything is sent to your email."

Sarah swiftly accessed her email and saw the attachments. SP3CT3R is impressive.

"Mr. Specter, about the payment…"

"I don't need anything at this point. Let's say you owe me one and I will come to collect."

"How do you know what I can offer?" Sarah asked and frowned when the man chuckled.

"I know you, Sarah, more than you think. Or should I call you Sigma? Or Nyx?"

Sarah's mouth was slightly open, and her brain refused to work. Well, she should not expect less from SP3CT3R. No secret is safe from him. Of course, he looked her up... he is not crazy to do favors blindly.

It took Sarah a few seconds to regain control of her voice.

"Uhm… OK… Thank you."

"I believe that your father told you that you can reach out to me whenever you need something. Feel free to contact me anytime."

"What is your relationship with my father?" Sarah blurted out the question.

"That is for me to know, and for you to guess. Have a good day, Sarah."

Sarah looked at her phone. He ended the call without giving her a chance to say goodbye. Well, at least she said thanks.

Sarah checked the attachments in the email SP3CT3R sent, and saw that things add up. There are names, dates, locations, images, and some video files.

Sarah's mind exploded: that really is SP3CT3R! How on Earth did Edward meet him and got SP3CT3R to owe him to the point of doing favors for Sarah without questions asked?

The targeted information related to Long Industries was known to a handful of people. In the Long family, every person manages their resources and only Steve and Gabriel have the full list of assets which include people, warehouses, storages, equipment, ships, and routes. Steve and Gabriel are the main suspects because if it's not them, six other people would need to collaborate, and that is not likely because Long family members don't collaborate. Other than log entries of Steve and Gabriel reading the data, there is a log of Victoria Long logging into Gabriel's work laptop one week ago... timestamp shows that it happened at 3:21 AM. 

In a similar way, SP3CT3R provided details on who accessed the information in question from the White corp. And a log where George Patrikis accessed it stands out among other names which are repetitive.

SP3CT3R already told her that Smithsonite corp. was hacked and that the trail is old, and bonus he mentioned is the information that online attacks which flooded the internet that morning originated from a server that was in use by Chelsea Davis.

Sarah has no idea who George Patrikis and Chelsea Davis are, but Victoria Long is remarkably familiar.

Sarah swiftly separated and formatted information with the goal of sending it to Jeff, Charlie, and Steve. They should be able to investigate further and catch the culprits.

Sarah was halfway through formatting when she got an idea about Eve that distracted her, and she returned to analyzing code. Ah, there is so much work to do!

Anyway, those few culprits are not going anywhere. She can finish working on that later.

…

In the planning room…

Sophia, Oni, and Michael listened to updates from JoAnna who was in the helicopter, on her way back to the Cliffside Villa. "Two dozen members from the Army of Chaos arrived five minutes after us. Out of seven army members who were here, two are dead, and five injured. Ade is unconscious but stable. It seems that he was hit with some sedative from the distance… Hero has two gunshot wounds and he is critical… We should reach the Cliffside Villa in twelve minutes…"

Sophia waited to hear the rest, but JoAnna was silent. "Anna? What about Aiden?"

JoAnna sucked in a shaky breath. "Aiden… is missing."

Sophia was not sure she heard JoAnna right. "What do you mean, missing?"

"We found his phone and his bracelet on the ground, close to Ade. His belt and ear stud were a few meters away." JoAnna explained.

"Are you saying that someone took him away?" Michael asked.

"I don't know. But if they took him, they removed nearly all metallic devices and accessories he was wearing. Some of the army members are still searching the area, but…" JoAnna didn't finish. "Felix said that the lens has small memory storage and he hopes to retrieve some information from Ade's lens. He is on the helicopter with us. Nico and Beck stayed back to fix the surveillance at the port…"

Sophia listened to JoAnna and rapped her fingers on the desk. She didn't miss the point that whoever got Aiden, removed all metallic devices. That is what the Lebedev family did when they got their hands on Sarah and Aiden after the event at the White corp. three years ago. With every passing second, Sophia was more convinced that Lebedevs are behind this but… how is it possible that their mother didn't prevent it, or at least warned them? Did King take action without Stella's knowledge? Not possible. For an operation of this size, Stella would know about it.

"I'm going there." Michael said.

"Why are you going?" Sophia asked.

"I will take Ron and Zula with me, they are back from their last mission. And I will take Luna and Bella. They can help in the search."

Sophia approved Michael's idea. Dogs will be able to track Aiden's scent. Hopefully.

"I'm also going." Oni stood up.

Michael rejected her. "Stay here and help Sophia. There are many army members there, I will be fine."

"Be careful."

Michael gave Oni a light kiss on the lips. "Always."

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