In a Los Angeles apartment, Lyle pocketed his phone.
Playboy Rob asked curiously, "Lyle, call from the girlfriend?"
"No, not at all!"
Lyle shook his head hurriedly. "A friend asking for computer tips—Charlie knows him too."
Charlie, who'd been frowning in thought, heard his name.
He looked at Lyle curiously. "I know him? An old pal?"
"Not really," Lyle said. "The Chinese kid who tunes our cars—he's big on computers."
"He's come over a dozen times this past month to pick my brain."
Charlie immediately pictured Hunter.
He remembered him very clearly:
a young Asian Youth who was brilliant at car mods.
Plus, Charlie had noticed the Asian Kid was good-looking
and far easier to work with than most tuning pros he'd dealt with.
Getting someone in the States to pull an all-nighter is almost as hard as getting them to commit murder—
especially when they've got real skill.
Up to now, Charlie's opinion of Hunter, after two collaborations, had been excellent.
But hearing Lyle mention him just now,
the ever-cautious Charlie was struck by an ugly suspicion.
"Lyle!"
He jerked his head up. "When you chat with Hunter, do you ever talk about what we're up to?"
"Or has he asked why we're modifying the cars?"
The thought had flashed through Charlie a moment earlier.
With the gold at Steve's place apparently swiped by someone ahead of them,
Charlie suddenly wondered if the leak had come from their side.
He couldn't help being hypersensitive: Slate had been captured by Steve, after all.
Now, while hunting for a way to rescue Slate, Charlie was also busy plugging holes
in case another problem was brewing inside the team.
Charlie's question was blunt.
Playboy Rob frowned slightly, glanced at Charlie, then looked toward Lyle.
Left Ear, the black man, also stared at Charlie in surprise before fixing his gaze on Lyle.
He was Charlie's demolition man, skilled in electronics, bomb-making, and pinpoint blasts.
Left Ear wasn't his name—it was the black man's handle.
At ten, while making his first explosive, he'd destroyed the hearing in his right ear for good.
Since then he'd called himself Left Ear, and the name stuck.
Lyle might be a homebody with so-so social skills,
Besides, Charlie had asked the question very bluntly, and he saw his companions all turning to look at him.
Lyle panicked too, waving his hands repeatedly as he answered, "Charlie, you're overthinking it."
"I've known Hunter for almost a month. Apart from asking me about computer tech, most of the time he just listens to me talk about my school days and the big stories in the internet circle."
"Hunter never asked me what the modified car was for. He never once asked about your identity. I can guarantee that."
Charlie still trusted this partner he'd worked with for years.
Hearing that, the suspicion in his heart faded quite a bit.
Seeing Lyle flush red with anxiety, Charlie realized he'd probably been too sensitive.
After all, they'd meticulously planned for months, yet the plan against Steve had been exposed before it even started.
Along with it, the woman he loved had been abducted by Steve.
Although Charlie looked calm on the surface, the truth was he was just as panicked.
"Sorry, I was too sensitive."
Charlie quickly apologized to Lyle and changed the subject. "Lyle, how long do you need to get the surveillance footage from around Steve's villa the night before last?"
Though Lyle was a top-tier hacker, he was still a homebody at heart and relatively simple-minded.
Seeing Charlie apologize, the bit of resentment in his heart vanished.
He thought for a moment before saying, "Give me ten-odd minutes!"
Opening the top-tier laptop he'd brought, Lyle went to work.
Seven or eight minutes later, a smile appeared on his face.
"Done!"
More than half a month ago, Lyle had cracked a vulnerability in the computers of the security company responsible for the area where Steve's villa was located, and left control software inside.
Now he successfully slipped in and retrieved the surveillance footage for the area around Steve's villa.
After quickly downloading the footage to his laptop, Lyle turned the screen toward Charlie and the others, then began opening the files one by one.
Charlie and the others watched carefully and soon spotted some problems.
"These cameras filmed us."
"Looks like Steve decided we stole the gold."
"He must have gone to the security company afterward and pulled the footage."
Charlie felt a bit guilty; he'd actually noticed the surveillance cameras near Steve's villa when he first found the place.
But later, when he learned those cameras belonged to the security company guarding the neighborhood where Steve's villa was located,
Charlie stopped worrying about it!
He knew Steve was a suspicious man who didn't even fully trust his own men,
much less entrust the villa's security to that company.
He also figured that even if they were caught on camera,
once the plan succeeded and Steve investigated, he'd realize it was his former comrades coming for revenge.
He'd never considered that the plan might be exposed before it even began.
Yet that was exactly what had happened.
"Charlie!"
Playboy Rob stared at the computer screen, examining the footage clip by clip.
Soon he noticed some telltale traces.
"Looks like you were tailed."
Security companies usually keep surveillance footage for only seven days to half a month.
But this one was unusually responsible and had kept a full month's worth.
Charlie's group had started watching from the oldest clips, not expecting a bonus discovery.
In one camera near Steve's villa they spotted a silhouette,
and in another nearby camera, Charlie and Slate were caught scouting around Steve's villa.
The team huddled together, grimly checking every video frame by frame.
Before long, they again saw that familiar-looking figure in footage from several cameras.
The man was clearly well-prepared, wrapped up so tightly
that they could only confirm he was male and seemed to be tailing Charlie's group—nothing more.
For a moment, the whole team fell silent.
Even Charlie hadn't expected
that after a lifetime of hunting birds, this time a bird had pecked his eyes out.
From start to finish, he hadn't realized someone was watching him.
For a moment, he was overwhelmed with regret...
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