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Now for the real work.
Investigation: Michael Arthur.
She opened the sandbox again, and the man's face popped up on the screen. Late-thirties, with thick brows and a charming grin, clean-shaven and calm, looking like the perfect dad and husband. She didn't know where she had seen him, but he felt kind of familiar. She tapped into street cameras, private servers, phone towers, and mirrored signals to trace his movements. First, she discovered, he's married and has an 8-year-old daughter. GhostNet said he didn't change his identity over the last ten years, so maybe it could be a reason; he's married now.
But still, the first day's results came back looking pretty normal.
Maybe too normal for a man like him, who's a businessman.
Breakfast was right at 7:12 AM, and he had a simple meal: oats, a boiled egg, and an avocado sliced up nicely.
At 8:00 AM, he dropped his 8-year-old daughter off at school. She hopped out of the car, her little backpack bouncing as she turned back to give him a bright smile and a cheerful wave goodbye.
After that, he headed over to his office at S&E Holdings, which was a pretty standard three-story building. The place had a bit of a sketchy vibe, especially with all the CCTV cameras watching every corner, and GhostNet told her that he's involved in global syndicate stuff, but it just didn't seem like that kind of place. Maybe he had really left that life behind to start fresh with his wife and daughter.
Once inside, he took the elevator up to the third floor, where his office was. The usual corporate setup awaited him, cubicles everywhere, and the constant buzz of fluorescent lights overhead. His workday kicked off in a predictable way, filled with back-to-back meetings, a ton of emails, and a never-ending list of tasks.
The security footage showed him glued to his desk until noon, lost in his work. He looked pretty focused, leaning in with a furrowed brow, juggling two computer monitors while trying to tackle everything on his plate.
At 12:07 PM, he headed out to pick up his daughter from school. The drive home was filled with chatter and laughter, making it one of those perfect moments. When they got back, his wife was waiting for them with a big smile and dashed over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. He handed her a small box that looked like it could be a ring box. She shyly accepted it and told the maid to take it to their room.
After that, she asked the second maid to set the table for lunch. While the maids were busy preparing, the three of them hung out in the lobby, chatting and giggling together, with his daughter cozy in his lap. In just ten minutes, the dining table was all set with a bunch of delicious dishes. The maid called them over, and they moved to the dining table, starting their lunch in a comfortable, quiet way.
Once they finished eating, he made his way back to the office and dove into his usual work routine until the evening. The sweet moments with his family stuck in his mind, keeping him company while he signed a pile of documents. By 9 PM, after everyone else had clocked out, he took some time to check each office cabin on every floor. It seemed like he genuinely cared about his employees and wanted to make sure no one was working late at night.
After doing his rounds and making sure everything was in order, he headed down to the garage, got into his car, and drove home.
But as Lunel thought about it, something felt off. She couldn't help but wonder why the global syndicate seemed so invested in the well-being of its workers. What was really going on behind that caring façade?
Later that night, Lunel settled into her chair and pulled up the CCTV footage from the office. The glow from the screen illuminated her face as she leaned in closer, feeling an unease creeping in. The same scenes kept playing on loop: him sipping coffee from his old favorite mug, chatting on the phone with a coworker, and the way he always leaned back in his chair like he owned the place, which is right he owned the place. It was like time was stuck on repeat.
A nagging suspicion tugged at her, so she slowed the footage down, picking it apart frame by frame. That's when she noticed some strange stuff, tiny bits missing from certain clips and weird glitches flickering in the darker corners.
"Looping…" she said to herself, a mix of disbelief and determination flowing through her. "You sneaky jerk."
With that thought in mind, she quickly fired up some code to extract and compare every frame from the cameras in his office and those on the street outside. As she watched each second of footage flash across her screen, she looked for anything out of the ordinary that might help her make sense of the situation.
Then she found it.
Camera 11, positioned at the rear exit, recorded everything in crystal-clear quality, and it looked like no one had touched the footage. It was as if the security team had completely missed this camera. Lunel couldn't help but grin as she realized that the company building was more than just three stories; it actually had a basement with a secret exit. "Interesting, very interesting," she thought to herself.
The timestamp was spot on. At exactly 4:12 PM, he slipped out through the hidden exit door. He moved fast, quickly throwing on a black jacket, dark glasses, a cap pulled down low, and a mask to hide his face. Then he hopped into this sleek black SUV that looked like it could fly. But what really stood out to her was that there wasn't just one SUV, there were three, and they were all backed up by guards. Lunel thought, "So, he keeps his guards away from his family."