Chapter 197 - I will be damned.

But before any of them can move from their places, Srinivas interrupted, "I think you are asking all the wrong questions while the answer had been staring at you all this time…"

Shreya who was about to exit the office stopped in her tracks. She turned around to find an awfully comfortable sitting Srinivas staring at the painting with a thoughtful look on his face.

"What do you mean?" she asked frowning not understanding what he was getting at. After all, she had cracked her brains to her maximum extent for the past hour thinking of any possible leads.

"Don't you think you should be asking, why did he place this painting here in the first place? After all, he could have just as well hung it at his study at home or not hung it at all if the primary purpose for the painting was to give away money. I mean look at that… it is not one of the paintings that are going to elicit pride by showing off your ownership nor does it scream elegance or beauty… No matter how handicapped he might be, he should still be able to know that this painting is not exactly what you would call display-worthy… at least not in the office of the President of Sri corp… he still hung it and it was at a place he spent almost all of his time at and this building is as secure as it can get. So, don't you think there might be another reason altogether as to why he was so particular about hanging this painting here?" Srinivas said in his all too calm voice all over again staring at the painting peculiarly. His gaze unwavering and piercing.

"Shit!!" Pritham swore loudly as he scrambled from his place and turned to look at the painting.

Shreya remained shell shocked for a second before scooting towards the painting too.

"I will be damned!" Akash said under his breath seeing the painting in awe.

Within minutes, 5 people stood there facing the painting eyeing it as if it was some Budha statue.

Akash and Srinivas were the tallest two people in the group. So they volunteered to bring down the painting using her table as a ladder while Shreya stood there in a distance biting on her lips. She never felt so anxious before. But at that moment, she really prayed to all gods that this one pan out. Or else she was running out of ideas actually. And also the will to fight was depleting day by day. She was getting tired… mostly because of her distance from Charan and Akira… She so wanted to just say 'f.u.c.k it' to all of this and run away from this place as far away as she could and start over.

They lifted the painting and stared at the wall… after clear inspection… they wore a disappointed face. There was nothing behind the painting on the wall… no safe… nothing. Not even a scratch.

That is when Shreya's voice echoed through the office, "Flip it. He did not believe in safes. He believed in hiding things at plain sight… He has the habit of putting things in the most inconspicuous of places."

As soon as her sentence left her mouth, Akash rested the painting on the table facing down. The canvas was actually stretched over wood rather than being framed. There was something small taped to one corner of the canvas.

Akash pulled it out with shaky hands and revealed a pen drive. It was actually big compared to the ones available nowadays but then this type was top of the class when Adithya died a few years back. One of his own innovations actually.

"Is this what I think it is?" He asked unsurely. He did not want to jinx it but at the same time, he wanted it to be the evidence so badly. If this did not work, they would have officially run out of places to look and then they would have to come up with an entirely new plan to deal with Naren and party.

"Only one way to find out!" Pritham replied taking away the pen drive from his grasps and looked at Shreya.

Shreya starred back not believing her eyes for a second before she walked straight towards the rows of shelves on her office.

Under the curious gaze of Srinivas, she actually pulled out one specific book and the whole shelf slid away revealing an iron door inside with heavy digital locks attached to it.

First, she entered her thumbprint followed by Akash and Adam. Then Shreya entered a series of numbers in the lock… it ran to about 30 numbers. But she entered it without blinking an eye in rapid succession.

"I would never get used to seeing this shit ever. Especially given she changed the password every week and wouldn't bother to even write it down…" Pritham grumbled from behind.

This was the server room that Adithya had set up when he was still alive. But when Shreya took over, she had upgraded the security system in it.

For safety purposes, the door actually needed at least 3 biometrics out of the 8 which was programmed. And on top of it, it needs a 30 digit PIN code which only Shreya knows. Without that PIN, the only way to open the door was to punch in the biometrics of all the other 7 people.

The security was so high on this mainly because it housed the company offline server. It was completely off the network of the company. And it had all their and all the associated people's personal information including the information on her network and connections she had ever built over the years. And since it was offline, there was no way of accessing it from outside. And any unauthorized breach will result in triggering the self-destructive software and the whole room will end up catching fire in a matter of minutes.

Just as the door opened, Pritham eagerly went in with the pen drive and plugged it in right away. The rest of them hovered behind him anxiously.