Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 94: THE TAKEDOWN BEGINS*

I didn't get his actions at all. If he was the one who hacked into Melberlin and stole their designs, why would he need to come here and bid on them?

"There's one answer that fits this scenario," Kiran said. "The only reason he would go through all this trouble would be to maximize his profits. Though, I can't imagine why the CEO of a successful business needs to exploit all these people for a few extra bucks, well, a few extra millions, but he seems way too desperate to just call it a hobby. Your ex sure picked up some nasty habits."

Who's ex? I don’t even recognize that man anymore. He didn't think twice about asking Melissa out after claiming that Leiya was his true love, on top of the fact that he was getting married soon. I also got the feeling that I couldn't deter him by saying I was seeing someone else.

It's possible that this had something to do with the 'blackmail' that he reacted to but didn't confirm when I brought it up at the football game. Honestly, I didn't even know why I was worrying about this so much when I had completely detached myself from him. I just hoped Andrei couldn't tell what was going on in my head, otherwise I'd never hear the end of it the next time I saw him.

It was time for the third round. We had to win this round in order to have a chance of winning Daniel's little game. He was playing very aggressively to win, but as it turns out, even though Daniel was a very fast hacker, he was not the better cyber-espionage. By manipulating a multitude of programs, Kiran outwitted his programming strategies in the remaining three rounds and won not just the bets on the boxing matches, but also the bids for all of the designs.

The battle felt fiercer than I imagined a hacking battle would be. I could not have possibly won on my own. It was impressive that Daniel managed to hold his own against one of Andrei's best agents.

"You thought I would lose, didn't you?"

"No, of course not. I had no doubt you would win."

"Yea, I'm sure you did. Anyway, he put up a good fight. As a programmer, he's good at his job, but as a hacker, I'm better at mine."

"Why do you think he lost?" asked an arrogant-sounding voice in my ear. "Daniel could have won had he not made a fundamental mistake."

"I could make a million guesses and still not get the answer to your question, so you're better off just telling me."

After another arrogant-sounding chuckle, he replied, "Daniel revealed all of his cards too early. Whether it's due to pride, arrogance or, in his case, hastiness, playing your entire hand at the beginning of a fight means you haven't accounted for the cards your opposition intends to play and you leave yourself more vulnerable to defeat."

He did mention something similar before. However, even though we won this side game with Daniel, we still needed evidence of the renegade's treachery.

"We're going to get that right now?" replied the voice in my ear, whose owner had been trying to make me believe that he was always reading my facial expressions, but just proved he had real telepathic ability all along.

While we packed up our things, the renegade announced over the video chat that all the designs had been accounted for and asked the winners to return to his booth. On the way, we met Daniel in a secluded corridor, who was not very pleased with the results.

"You do remember our agreement, don't you? You'll answer one question truthfully."

"Yes, I remember. What did you want to ask me?"

"Frankly, Daniel, when I met you at the office, I never thought your face was capable of such dark and ugly expressions."

"That sounds more like an insult than a question," he cut in with a snarky tone.

"What was the reason you were so desperate to get Andrei to do a job for you?"

I noticed his face wince at my question and he looked up at the ceiling, then down the walls of the corridor as if looking for an escape route. When he found none and gave up, he reluctantly answered the question.

"It didn't seem like you knew about that earlier. Were you just playing me, like he did?" he asked while looking at Kiran, who smiled back at him.

"Just answer the question…truthfully."

"If I answer you, will he do the job?"

"Maybe." The sudden shuffling noises I heard on the mic felt like Andrei either hit himself with a facepalm or he threw his hands in the air. It was funny to imagine his reaction either way.

"I want him to find my brother. The last time I saw him was briefly at my engagement party, but I haven't heard from him since then."

"How often does he normally contact you?" Saffil had been pulling the disappearing act since middle school, so it wasn't strange, but if Daniel was that worried about it, it might be serious.

"I normally hear from him one way or another at least one to two times each month. So, will he help me?"

"Sure." My reply was followed by the sounds of laughter in my earpiece. Andrei must have found my decisive replies by proxy amusing. I could tell he probably did not want to get involved, but we're talking about a missing person here.

The look on Daniel's face when I replied was even more convincing that this issue was costing him several nights of sleep. Wasn't it better for Andrei to help him before Daniel gets targeted by Homeland security?

"Just so you know, we're not taking this on as an official job, but we'll look into it…if you give us all the evidence from the hacking job you did to steal those designs from Melberlin. We promise to leave your name out of this," Kiran chimed in with impeccable timing once again. He didn't need instructions from Andrei to know how to turn the situation in our favor.

But, hold on. Was this what Andrei was after from the moment he said we were going to get evidence of the renegade's treachery? If he knew the conversation would turn out like this, was he just pretending to be surprised at my replies? For what reason?

"Fine," Daniel replied. "I'll send you everything right now."

Daniel took out his laptop and sent the evidence over an encrypted network that Kiran shared with him. Somehow, I started to feel as though this was all planned from the beginning. It may have seemed like it wasn't, but the more I thought about it and correlated it to how Andrei thinks, the more I felt like this was planned.

However, what would have happened if I hadn't noticed Daniel from the beginning? It's just like Andrei to have plan B and plan C anyway, so I'm sure he would have found a way. I suppose I was starting to feel a little irritated that I was not privy to any of this information. Not the fact that Daniel had approached him about Saffil, nor the fact that he was going to be here tonight. Heck, I bet he already knew that Daniel was the one who stole the designs but he still pretended as though he had just found out during the battle earlier.

Do I still not deserve full disclosure? Tell me, Andrei. What would it take for you to stop hiding things from me?

I couldn't find the answer to that question when I thought about it on the way home after collecting those designs. It was satisfying to watch from a distance as the renegade was escorted outside of the building by Andrei's agents who had connections to various law enforcement agencies. As soon as Andrei confirmed that the evidence was legit, we quickly got those designs while pretending in front of the renegade that everything was fine, then we got out of there as soon as possible.

As promised, we ensured Daniel was no longer associated with the renegade before the rest of Andrei's agents, who I was told were on standby, whisked away the renegade unnoticed by the crowd. It only took a few minutes for him to be expertly discarded, and once he was, my obligations were finally complete.

The mission that I thought would last for a few nights only took one night to be resolved, thanks to Andrei's foresight and the power of the Undercode. Thus, I resumed my usual routine for the rest of the week. I went to work at Bolster, then in the evenings, I either went to acting lessons, which were twice per week, or to the gym on other days, three times per week. After my evening curriculars, I went to the safehouse, where I continued working on Paradox and refreshed the arsenal of weapons I needed on my other mission at Merz.

I suppose the only thing that was now different and that I had never accounted for, was this new interest in Andrei's missions and the feeling of frustration at my own inadequacies whenever there was something I was incapable of doing. Just like that mission on Tuesday, neither Kiran nor I were confident in my ability to out-type the opposing hacker, so as soon as I returned to the safehouse, I asked Kiran to help me practice for the rest of the night.

Although I was aware of how deeply I was falling into Andrei's plot, I could no longer stop myself from not just becoming, but desiring to become more involved in his life. All the bark I had a few months ago about not wanting anything to do with this Undercode world had grown weak and now I was waist-deep in his world with no way of getting out. If there was no way of escaping then, the only thing I could do was learn to swim and survive.

And now on Friday, I resumed another very important mission for the first time since my fallout with Gillian. With a fresh perspective, I stepped foot into another lion's den, highly determined not to get eaten alive.

I sharpened my survival instincts and renewed my vows as I walked through Merz's polished glass doors on Friday.

Let the takedown finally begin.