What If?

Chapter 33 - First Mission: Scouting for the Loophole

Glenn tapped his fingers impatiently on the desk. The girl he was waiting for was taking forever to return from the restroom.

"Where the hell is she? She’s taking too long," Glenn grumbled toward Jerry, who was casually flipping through a magazine on the sofa.

"Maybe she has an upset stomach, just chill. It’s only been ten minutes," Jerry replied nonchalantly without looking up.

Glenn scoffed in annoyance. His instincts told him there was something off about Launa's behavior today. It felt as though his new assistant was deliberately hiding something from him.

A moment later, the glass door slid open and Launa stepped inside with her head down. Glenn narrowed his eyes instantly, closely watching her awkward movements.

"Are you seriously on your period?" Glenn asked bluntly, unable to contain his curiosity.

Launa snapped her head up in shock, then shook it quickly, her face tense. Without a word, she hurriedly grabbed the draft report Glenn had requested earlier and placed it straight onto her boss's desk.

Seeing that the draft was ready, Glenn immediately called his other assistant over. "Jer, get over here."

Jerry tossed his magazine aside and walked over.

Glenn began flipping through the pages, intending to loop Launa in so she could understand the case as well. "Launa, you too. Come sit near my desk."

Launa complied, but she deliberately chose a chair that was positioned quite far from Glenn. Just as Glenn was about to open his mouth to start the discussion, his phone on the desk suddenly rang. It was a call from an unknown number.

"Yeah, hello?" Glenn answered, but there was no sound coming from the other end.

Glenn clicked his tongue in annoyance, listened for a brief second, and then hung up immediately, dismissing it as unimportant. Driven by curiosity as to how a random number could have gotten his line, Glenn instinctively opened his phone app to check his call logs.

The moment the screen displayed the call history, Glenn’s eyes locked onto it. He saw Jerry’s name listed for twenty missed calls last night. But right above that long string of Jerry's name, there was one specific log that caused Glenn's heart to suddenly drop.

Launa. There was an incoming call from Launa last night, and it had lasted for about ten seconds.

Glenn froze instantly. He slowly turned his head to look at Launa, but with a lightning-fast movement, the girl immediately whipped her face away in the opposite direction. A bad feeling suddenly washed over Glenn. A dark foreboding struck his mind.

Without a word, Glenn stood up from his chair, grabbed Jerry’s arm, and dragged him forcefully to the corner of the room.

"Hey, what the hell is your problem? Why are you pulling me around like this?!" Jerry protested in a harsh whisper, startled by Glenn's sudden outburst.

"Jer, I swear to God, you need to answer me honestly," Glenn whispered frantically, his face suddenly draining of color. "Last night, you said you found me in that hotel room... in what kind of state, exactly?"

"Yeah, what about it? Are you just now remembering?" Jerry asked, completely bewildered.

"I don't remember a damn thing! But the problem is, according to my call logs, Launa called me last night, Jer. Ten seconds!" Glenn hissed in frustration, gripping his own hair. His mind immediately began running wild.

He was panicked out of his mind, imagining what on earth Launa could have heard within those ten seconds. What if her bizarre behavior today had everything to do with that phone call last night?

Jerry’s jaw dropped, joining in on the panic. "Do you think... when she called, you were right in the middle of it, or you blurted out some weird, messed-up stuff to her because you were so wasted?"

Glenn exhaled a heavy breath, trying to steady his chaotic heartbeat. The man in the brown tweed jacket slowly walked back toward his desk. The moment Glenn drew near, Launa instinctively slid her chair backward to maintain a safe distance.

Glenn swallowed hard. His voice sounded a bit hesitant as he tried to speak. "Last night... did you call me? Why?"

Launa fell silent for a few moments, her fingers tightly gripping her skirt underneath the desk. "I... I was just worried, sir. Last night, Mr. Jerry called me to ask about your whereabouts because you weren't answering any of his calls. That’s why I tried calling you myself."

Glenn’s heart pounded even more wildly. He leaned forward slightly, staring intently into Launa’s almond eyes. "Then... then, when you called, what was I doing? What did I... say?"

Launa hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to answer. The audio recording of those heavy moans from last night automatically replayed in her head, making her chest tighten with sudden disappointment. But for the sake of professionalism, she ultimately chose to lie.

"It was nothing, sir. Just silence. The call went through, but it was completely dead silent, there wasn't any sound at all, so I hung up right away," Launa said as flatly as possible, trying her best to act nonchalant in front of her boss.

Glenn gave a faint nod, pretending to accept her explanation even though his mind was still riddled with deep doubt. He cleared his throat once, trying to break the suffocating awkwardness filling the room.

Instead of physically walking over to the door, Glenn simply reached out toward the crystal touchscreen control panel embedded in the corner of his desk. With a single tactical tap, he activated 'Privacy & Soundproof' mode.

Instantly, a subtle mechanical click echoed as the biometric system locked the sliding glass door automatically. Within seconds, the entire expanse of transparent glass walls surrounding the Head of Audit's office transformed completely into a frosted opacity, cutting off all visibility from the outside office while fully engaging the soundproof system.

The room was now entirely isolated. The access door could not be opened from the outside unless done by someone within, or by using a fingerprint registered in the exclusive access biometric system which, so far, was only possessed by Glenn, Jerry, and now... Launa, as his new personal assistant. Regular employees from other divisions couldn't even dream of just slipping inside without permission.

Jerry picked up on the situation immediately. He moved his seat closer to Glenn's desk. Meanwhile, Launa, despite her heart still hammering with awkwardness, was forced to slide her chair forward until the distance between the three of them narrowed tightly.

"Alright, forget about last night. Let's get back to business," Glenn said in a harsh whisper the moment he sat back down. His voice instantly turned cold and professional. "Jer, take a look at the harbor draft report Chriss brought in yesterday."

Jerry leaned forward, his eyes scanning the physical sheets of paper. "Is this the manifest data from The Oceanic Star?"

"Yeah. The official Coast Guard report claims it was a purely technical accident. But don't you think it's weird that in this crew manifest draft, there's a name whose seafarer competency certification number turns out to be fictitious and completely unregistered in the central database?" Glenn tapped his finger right on Frank Robert’s name, which was highlighted in red. He looked back and forth between Jerry and Launa, seeking their input.

Glenn leaned in closer, lowering his voice further. "Chriss himself doesn't know specifically who this Frank guy actually is. He was only able to check that the certificate data was invalid in the system. But what we don't know yet is whether this Frank was an actual crew member whose data was deliberately manipulated, or if he was an outsider whose identity was fabricated by The Architect just to be smuggled onto my mom's ship. The problem is, Chriss couldn't look into it that deeply because he doesn't have access to the central database."

Jerry stroked his chin, thinking hard while joining in with a soft whisper. "It’s highly possible, Glenn. If he’s an outsider undercover, then he was intentionally placed there for a specific mission. But if he’s a real crew member whose data was just altered, the question is... where is the real Frank now? We can't jump to conclusions until we find out who he truly is."

"Exactly, that’s the catch. And the very first thing we need to investigate is the authenticity of this document," Glenn slid the paper closer to Jerry. "Chriss mentioned yesterday that Frank's document cleared the harbor master because it’s allegedly the work of The Architect, a notorious black-market forger. There’s a micro-flaw, an encryption line that’s off by zero-point-something millimeters in the corner of this bottom hologram. In your opinion, what’s the safest initial step to trace The Architect’s trail without tipping off the FTSA?"

Jerry seemed to weigh his options. "It’s too risky to investigate on the ground right now, Glenn. The FTSA people have been on edge ever since Joshua Vance vanished from the hospital. One wrong move, and we could be flagged for meddling in this conspiracy."

Glenn exhaled a heavy sigh, tapping his fingers against the desk. "Then a digital approach is our only option. Looks like I’ll have to recruit another outsider, a tech expert to help us dissect this micro-flaw. Analyzing this document and cracking the encryption code in this botched hologram requires an expert—"

"Let me do it, sir. I'll give it a shot."

The words slipped out of Launa's mouth effortlessly. Her voice, calm yet brimming with confidence, instantly cut Glenn off.

Instantly, Glenn and Jerry turned to look at Launa in unison. Both men blinked, staring at the new assistant in front of them with brows furrowed in a mix of confusion and intrigue.

"You?" Glenn raised an eyebrow, scanning Launa from head to toe. "You understand this kind of stuff?"

Launa blinked for a split second, trying to master her nerves under her boss's intense gaze, before looking down at the physical draft document on the desk with a confident gleam in her eyes. "I do, sir. I happen to be an Information Systems and Programming major. In my opinion, a digital approach is far safer as a first step. To dissect an encryption flaw as messy as this, I can write my own script to automatically extract the pattern. We can trace the digital fingerprint of this document without ever tipping off the FTSA."

Hearing that tactical explanation, the cold look on Glenn’s face instantly melted away. His eyes lit up brightly, radiating a profound sense of satisfaction and immense relief. A wide smile broke across his face, looking absolutely ecstatic as if he had just hit the lottery in the middle of this grim situation. Beside him, Jerry’s jaw dropped in sheer admiration, and he gave her a enthusiastic thumbs-up.

"Are you serious? You can actually do this?" Glenn asked to confirm, the corner of his lips curving into a proud smirk. Unconsciously, he leaned his body even closer to Launa and chimed in casually, "Outstanding. If you can really clean up this data, I’ll double your salary."

Launa’s cheeks instinctively flushed with a faint blush upon hearing her boss's remark caught between the excitement of a potential raise and the sheer awkwardness of their closely narrowed distance.

With sudden enthusiasm, Glenn immediately spun his personal work laptop around to face Launa. "In that case, you use my laptop right now. All data access, decryption tools, and the office's internal network are right here. That is your first official task as my personal assistant, Launa. I want you to scan the micro-flaw section on this physical document's hologram, then run it through your programming script to extract it into digital data. Let's find out exactly where the digital transaction funds for this Architect guy are flowing."

Launa sat up straight, ignoring her racing pulse as the faint scent of Glenn’s masculine cologne washed over her once again. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, getting into position. "Understood, sir. I’ll start scanning the document now."

"Keep it clean and completely under wraps. Not a single soul outside this department can know we're looking into this," Glenn asserted, leaning back in his chair.

Yet, before Launa could truly lose herself in her lines of code, Glenn cleared his throat once more, halting the movement of her fingers.

"One more thing," Glenn added, his tone softening, no longer as cold as before. "Just do what you can. But don't let the company's regular administrative tasks slip through the cracks either."

Launa looked up, slightly taken by surprise by that small gesture of consideration.

Glenn jerked his chin toward the stack of corporate folders in the corner of the desk. "I don’t want your focus to be split, but in the eyes of the rest of the office especially my father your work as my personal assistant needs to look absolutely flawless. We can't give them any reason to get suspicious or have an excuse to transfer you out of my division. Got it?"

Hearing Glenn’s father mentioned with such a guarded tone, Jerry nodded firmly in agreement, fully backing his boss’s cautious tactic.

Launa offered a faint smile, feeling a heavy weight of responsibility, yet at the same time, a sense of security knowing that Glenn was looking out for her position.

"Understood, sir. I’ll make sure all the office operational tasks are completed on time while running this programming script."

"Good," Glenn replied briefly.

The man then leaned back into his executive chair once more, watching Launa’s fingers begin to dance nimbly across the keyboard. At the very least, getting down to business had successfully diverted their focus for a moment. However, every time Glenn’s eyes strayed to the remaining call log on his phone screen, a strange tug twisted in his chest. Ten seconds. Was it really just dead silence? Glenn thought, still deeply haunted by an overwhelming curiosity.

*****