67 The Past of Xander Sylvex

"What?! One day?"

Just as Liz voiced this question in a shocked tone, the CEO entered the room through the other door holding a file in his hands and said, "Yes, we have barely 19 hours left. It's all hands on deck; the employees back in the US are also being worked overtime. We must find what he wants."

Hearing this, Liz was about to take out her tablet but paused in her tracks as she had just seen Mr. Will smile at her slightly before sitting down in front of her on the other end of the table.

It had only been on his face for the briefest of moments, but she had definitely seen it.

Remembering what she had been told the night before, Liz was almost tempted to smile back but she controlled herself.

In one way or the other, everyone was broken. Hell, she, herself, had gone through so much that it was a miracle that she was still her bubbly self.

Still, Liz did find in herself that the resolution she had made before in Luke's diner to stay professional no matter what wasn't as strong as it had been then.

Hence, with half of her mind telling her to smile and the other half telling her not to, Liz ended up doing both at the same time.

The end result: a grimace that almost looked like she was growling at the CEO.

Mr. Will's eyebrows faintly rose on seeing this, and he seemed like he was about to ask her something.

Thankfully, Keren interrupted them both, saying, "This is all we know about him."

Freezing her face into a serious expression, Liz turned around and saw that the projector was now displaying the life history of Xander Sylvex.

Born in a branch of the Sylvex family which was situated in a harbor town in Europe, he had always been fascinated by the sea.

During his teenage years, he was rumored to have headed a pillaging fleet of the family which saw great success terrorizing the waters near the harbor town.

Due to these activities, he was noticed by the leadership and was selected as a potential candidate.

What was surprising was that the operation he headed to win over the other candidates was actually supposed to be in the US.

The exact details of the operation hadn't been found yet, as it had happened many decades ago, making it so that time was required to dig out concrete information.

Still, there were clues which connected him to a very successful illegal weapons manufacturing ring which had been shut down a year or so after his departure.

Seeing the many 'maybe's in the report, Liz realized that this man had been very good at covering his tracks.

With this little amount of information, it would be very difficult to find out just what he wanted.

After thinking for a while with his hand on his chin, the CEO picked up his phone which was vibrating and talked for a little while.

After a few seconds, he said, "All right people, I've spoken to the headquarters. Reports about this man will be sent at regular intervals, and you should go through them and notify me if you find anything which can be used. Don't hesitate even if it seems silly; we can't ignore anything about him now. Meanwhile, I'll try to find out if what he said is really true. If worst comes to worst, we should make a plan to take him out of the equation. This operation is too important."

Saying so, he walked out, leaving a bewildered Liz.

Did the CEO just say that he might kill the man?

"Take him…out?", she asked Keren with a mortified look on her face.

"He means to abduct him to try to stop him from acting as he wishes. It's going to be a long day."

Sighing with relief, Liz took out her tablet and started going through the first report that had just been sent.

6 hours later, Liz's mind was aching due to all the information she had gone through, and her stomach was also growling due to not having had anything since waking up so long ago.

Both of them had completely been consumed by work, and had had no chance to address their bodily needs due to the urgency of the situation.

Suddenly, hearing the door open, Keren and Liz looked up to see that it was Will whose head was poking into the room.

"Miss. Liz, please come out for a bit, I need to speak to you about something."

Yet, just as Liz was about to innocently nod and walk out, Keren's words made her freeze.

"Don't order anything hot this time; we don't have time to waste for you two to go change. And get me some food after your date is over."