Chapter 3 - Surprise and A call
Jasper sat back in his chair, pen spinning lazily between his fingers. Across the room, Elias typed steadily, the soft clack of keys the only sound.
"Boss," Raj entered the room and placed the file on the table.
Two days. That's how long it had taken him—CCTV footage pulled from the café, license plate traced, address verified, phone number confirmed. He'd dug carefully. Too carefully. With the Sinclair, mistakes cost more than pride.
He didn't wish to miss anything, or he would have a body part missing. After working for the brothers, he was crystal clear about it.
"Leave."
Jasper picked up the file, turning pages over.
Name: Iris Rosella FieldsAge: 19DOB: 04 FebruaryParents: DeceasedEducation: UnlistedEmployment: FreelanceAssociations: LimitedNotes: Partial data suppression
"Covered up," Jasper raised an eyebrow, passing the file to Elias. It caught his attention how the information regarding her was limited or entirely missing. It was not up to the level to consider as the person entirely nonexistent, but enough to avoid few people finding them.
Normal people don't have that done.
Elias's eyes skimmed the page, then paused on the grainy still pulled from the café camera. Wavy brown hair. Average height. Nothing remarkable.
Except the gaps.
Anyways, how she looked was not important. It was more important to get her to work for them.
"Does it matter?" Elias said. As long as she was going to bring profits to the company, it didn't matter to him if she even had a criminal record. Hence, Sinclair's had many shady people working under them. They helped them clean their record and start a new life under their guidance.
"Emilia," he called their secretary.
"Mr. Sinclair," she entered the office. "Set up a meeting with Ms. Fields," he ordered. Emilia nodded and left.
Jasper leaned back, thoughtful. Nineteen was younger than he'd expected. No formal education trail. No visible employer. Clean, but not careless.
"Interesting girl," he murmured.
Elias didn't reply. He was already back to work.
---
"Flint, get your ugly ass down," Rhea yelled from the living room at her brother.
"Whyyyy," he whined from above. "Iris is here," she yelled back.
Flint appeared moments later, sliding down the stair rail and landing badly. "Hi," he said, grinning.
"My bestie," Rhea pouted as she pulled Iris in a hug. "No hug for me," Flint whined. Iris shrugged.
Iris gave him a look. "You'll survive."
They settled into work quickly. Tablet out. USB passed across the table.
"This is everything I could access," Iris said. "Nothing illegal. Mostly market patterns and supplier behavior."
That was her job, to hack information from various companies and sell them to people. Though her work was illegal to a certain point, the people with whom she would sell the information would mostly be small start-ups, lawyers, and private investors.
It was half a lie—but a safe one.
She never dug deep enough to scare people. She didn't touch politicians. Didn't touch billionaires. She sold fragments—useful, but harmless on their own.
That was how she stayed alive.
She was a lone wolf.
She couldn't risk her life. She was not a big fan of having a death warrant on her head from both the government and the underworld.
Plus, the information was not that deep enough to have people think of harming her. Flint and Rhea's parents were one of her clients. Their mom was a successful lawyer, and their father had an investigation firm.
They usually paid a couple of thousand dollars to her for finding information. Also, they shielded her in case of any mishaps.
It is how she made money as a nineteen-year-old girl. Information is money. That's what she learned from her parents.
Iris's parents were both professors at a university. Her mother taught mathematics, and her father was a computer scientist. She grew as a geeky kid with a ton of books and quizzes. Not that her parents forced her into it, but she genuinely enjoyed learning them.
Until she was 14, when both her parents died in a car accident. Instead of getting into foster care, she ran from home and started living on her own. She met the blonde twin's Flint and Rhea at a bookstore. After arguing over which Hogwarts houses they belong to, a beautiful friendship blossomed.
Her parents then helped her settle down and continue learning.
She is very grateful to the family.
Iris has always been a shy kid. She enjoyed her own company more than anyone. Her parents taught her to rely on herself more than anyone. She won't lie. She enjoyed living with fictional characters more than common homo sapiens.
Though she treasured spending her free time with the twins.
She is a human.
Humans are social animals.
They need human communication from time to time to feel alive and functioning.
Flint connected his laptop to the projector. Designs filled the wall—clean lines, muted palettes, pricing charts.
Rhea leaned forward, animated. "I'm thinking Paris. I have someone in mind for design."
"France is good," Iris said. "The timing works."
Three hours passed faster than expected.
By the end, Rhea stretched and sighed. "Done."
She turned to Iris, smiling. "You're a genius. Honestly, I wish you were my sister."
Flint scoffed. "Wow."
"I meant it," Rhea said. "Unlike you."
They bickered, loudly and affectionately, Rhea pulling up a old event threatening to snitch him to their parents. Iris watched with a small smile.
She packed her things quietly. "I should go."
Rhea walked her to the door. "You okay?"
Iris nodded. "Always."
"You are going to snitch on Flint," Iris felt a little bad. He is always good to her. "Nah, I am not going do it," Rhea waved off. Iris frowned at her reply. She just said she would snitch. Looking at her confused face, Rhea let a helpless smile. Iris was simple-minded.
"It feels good to threaten him. I won't snitch on him so that he doesn't snitch on me. Snitches get stitches," she explained. "It's bad to lie," Iris frowned. Her mother always scolded her whenever she lied. Even after the mother passed away, her teachings remained buried deep in her heart.
Maybe because she lost her mother early on. She did not want to let go of those feelings and her values so that she could remember her mother and father more. Iris still had the naivety of a fourteen-year-old girl at some points.
No one was there to teach her that stuff. She would usually shy away from people, making her harder to make friends, as she could approach anyone by herself. So she only had two friends, Rhea and Flint, who she valued a lot.
Also, her introverted and anti-social personality blocked 90% of her human contact, making her a little oblivious to the real world. She became more of a closed person when her parents died. Though she was naïve in certain expectations, she could differentiate between right and wrong.
Sometimes she would stumble on dark stuff while hacking. She would feel guilty for all those who suffered under power exploitation. She learned quite a lot from her computer, which people to avoid and who to befriend.
She is book smart, not street smart.
"It is good to lie sometimes," Rhea mischievously grinned at her. Iris giggled at her expression. Saying her goodbyes, she drove back to her tiny, cozy apartment.
"I am back," she said to the fluffy toys in her home.
She washed her hands and made herself a quick lunch. Eating alone while watching anime, she felt content.
Her phone rang. Looking at the unknown caller ID, she frowned but picked up the call.
"Ms. Iris Fields?" a woman asked.
"Yes."
"This is Emilia Brooke from Sinclair Corporation. Mr. Sinclair would like to meet you regarding a note you left and the information behind it."
The room felt smaller.
"I see...," Iris said carefully.
"We'll send you the details."
The call ended.
Iris stared at her phone for a long moment.
Then she exhaled.
So much for staying small.