Chapter 70 - Arc 1 69 – Recruit Him By All Means

Ever since the event, the man had been on tenterhooks, constantly looking over his shoulder. The only reason why he came to work today was because 1) he feared that not coming to work would be suspicious, and 2) he felt that Pharmath building was far safer than his own home.

Corporate espionage was punishable by law; thus, the man had taken all the precautions and guarded this secret well thus far. The quartet had managed to extract a confession from him this easily only because the man was already close to the breaking point.

Sure, a guilty conscience was eating at him, making him unable to eat and sleep properly.

Sure, being questioned by an Intenter, and further pressured by Astar Levi, this madman with a murderous aura, helped push the already wavering man off the edge.

But those weren’t the most important motivators for a greedy spineless bureaucrat such as him. What was far more distressing for him was the abrupt change in the nature of his crime. It was one thing to be charged with corporate espionage, and another entirely to be charged with terrorism.

If he refused to speak when questioned by the inspector, perhaps no one would find out about his espionage, but then he’d only end up accused with more serious charges! It was a choice between a rock and a hard place. Since he couldn’t get away scot-free, he could only choose the lesser of two evils.

Yet, the most potent factor in extracting his confession was actually not this either; rather, it was the man’s fear for his own life!

If he hadn’t received that spam email when he did, he wouldn’t be shivering in his office right now; he’d be a cold corpse in the morgue! What did this mean? It meant that his buyer was done using him and wanted to erase all the evidence! He might have managed to escape with his life by a fluke yesterday, but what about next time?

Out of all the people present, he might be the one who wanted the perpetrators caught the most! Only if they were locked behind bars would his little life be safe!

After squeezing out all of the valuable clues from this slag of a man, Fynn called the situation in and arranged protection for him. He could arrest the man immediately, but that wasn’t the best course of action. Instead of alarming the terrorists, Fynn wished to draw them out instead.

It might sound coldblooded, but Fynn hoped the terrorists would attempt to dispose of this liability. Capturing whoever was sent on this task would bring them closer to solving the case.

After arranging peacekeepers in place, the quartet made their way towards Druxa Pharmaceuticals.

To find the person behind the spy, one only had to look at who profited from the obtained information the most. And that was undoubtedly Druxa Pharmaceuticals.

Due to the illegal nature of the espionage, both parties involved went to great lengths to cover their tracks.

So how did the terrorists gain information about this matter and even gain access to the anonymous accounts used? Since the info didn’t leak from the spy’s side, it could only leak from the buyer’s side.

In other words, the buyer had access to large sums of money, would greatly profit from the transaction, and had a close link to the terrorists!

For the first time since the start of this case, they had a solid lead on the identity of their terrorists, as well as a clearer grasp on the target and the motive.

Druxa had repeatedly failed at poaching the Fluxer, who was a valuable asset to their competitors. If they couldn’t have him, then it was better to get rid of him entirely. Thus, he was designated as the “bomb”.

As for who this bomb was supposed to blow up, the terrorists had a target in mind but did not know where that target would be. Thus, they only sent the information of the restaurant when their target arrived there.

And judging from the time and place, their goal was very likely the murder of Noah or Levi.

Perhaps they wanted to stop the union of Concordia and Astarea.

Perhaps they sought to attack the leadership of the cities.

Perhaps they wished to fan the flames of hate towards high ranking power users and change the structure of society.

Or perhaps they just wished to create chaos and watch the world burn.

***

Druxa Pharmaceuticals was a big company with tight building security; thus, the quartet naturally couldn’t just waltz in and go wherever they pleased. If they wished to gain access to certain information, areas, or people, they either needed a warrant or permission from a company officer with a high enough authorization level.

After explaining their intentions, they were made to wait in a conference room while the receptionist called the relevant personnel.

They didn’t need to wait long before a handsome man in his thirties, brimming with confidence bordering arrogance, entered the room. This man was not one of the Druxa higher-ups that they needed to investigate. In fact, he wasn’t related to the corporate espionage matter at all. However, his importance couldn’t be underestimated, for this man was the Druxa recruiter sent to poach the Fluxer.

“Yeah, we’ve been trying to recruit that sanctimonious asshole for years. Practically everyone from my department had a go at him. I was only put in charge of recruiting him a month ago,” the man candidly admitted.

“Four weeks, I bent over backward, trying to please him! There was no method I haven’t tried–” he abruptly stopped his heated speech and then added, “I mean legal method, of course…”

He cleared his throat and continued, “But he just wouldn’t listen! Nothing could please the oh so high and mighty saint who is above all earthy matters,”–his derisive sneer deepened, his voice dripping with sarcasm–“a true champion of loyalty!

“Wasted so much time, effort, and company funds!” he snorted furiously, “Thanks to him, that promotion I was gunning for ended up slipping between my fingers!

“Nearly died, did he?” he chuckled, “Well, sorry for not feeling sympathetic.”

The man raised his chin proudly, “I told him he’d regret it, who knew retribution would come so quickly?

“Of course I had nothing to do with it! Yes, we had a falling out, and I might have said a lot of nasty things in the spur of the moment, but that was the end of it.”

Fynn exchanged looks with Levi and Noah. The intents coming from the man were very clear - he might have used some underhanded methods while trying to recruit the Fluxer, but he truly had nothing to do with the power rampages.

Fynn turned his attention back to the man, “You said that you tried everything to recruit him. Do you usually go so far to recruit someone?”

“Of course not,” the man rolled his eyes, “Do you know how rare an S-ranked Fluxer is? Druxa is such a big company, yet even we only have a single one. Most of our competitors don’t have any.”

“You say you already have an S-ranked Fluxer, but from what you’ve described, it sounds to me like your company wanted to recruit him by all means…” Fynn softly tapped his fingers on the table, “You’ve been trying to recruit him for years, but the most recent attempt seems much more… aggressive than usual? Why is that?”

“Perhaps the higher-ups have gotten tired of all the rejections and wanted to put in one last effort before giving up?” The man shrugged, “I was just doing what I was told.”