The King of City

25 THE INVESTIGATION

Hello?". Corrine answered the cell phone, seeing that it was from a private number.

"Corrine, it's me, The Shadow." That's what they called Lucien's most prestigious private investigator.

No one could contact him directly, however, he had already worked for the LICB, but only in what interested him. Simply, he chose the case in which he wanted to participate, requested the files, and then when the case ended, he charged.

"What have you discovered?". Corrine asked who knew the Shadow's work firsthand.

"You know I don't give that kind of information over the phone. Do you have your computer on?".

"Yes, I’m working on it".

"Look at the coordinates I just sent you, we'll see you there in an hour". Then he hung up.

As Corrine looked at the screen, she saw very detailed coordinates appear on a map and a flickering light showing the meeting point. It was too far from there, so Corrine had to get ready to leave quickly, she put on what she could, she didn't even have time to choose her underwear, for what anyone took so they didn’t make a set, she didn’t find socks of the same color so she wore them without them, she had to put on a cap to disguise the messy hair she had, as she got off, she barely grabbed the essentials and took the car keys to go out to meet The Shadow, once she started, she realized that she hadn't even brushed her teeth and had eaten some eggs with garlic salt, but there was no time to go back for that, she had to move on. Upon reaching the coordinates, it was a women's underwear store. Corrine had never seen The Shadow before and really didn't think it would show up to her in that spot, so she was staring at clothes while he appeared.

"You must be Miss Corrine". A delicate man's voice said.

"Yes, it's me…". Corrine said hesitantly because someone wasn’t expected to approach her that way.

"Mr.‘ T.S ’left you this present, he was very emphatic in saying that you should try it on in one of our testers before leaving here, you also decide". The man from the store said, handing her a gift box with her name marked on the card.

On the spot, Corrine went to the fitting room and inside the gift was actually the underwear, however, there was also a countermarked envelope, there it said ‘You won’t see me today, but the information you will see inside this envelope will help you a lot in your research”. When Corrine opened the envelope, she saw that it was the list of applicants for the prestigious Grey Umbrella Safety Company, however, it caught her attention to see that among the list of applicants was the name of 'Larson', which raised Corrine's suspicions about Lionel. On the back of the lists, there was a schedule of activities, from what appeared to be the entrance exams, which left the places and times of the exams in great detail.

At night Corrine wanted to verify only the time of the tests that appeared in the schedule, to verify that the person who was on the list of candidates was the same as her roommate. That was the answer Corrine expected, so she didn't insist further. Minutes later, she waited for Lionel to go to him room to rest and proceeded to call her subordinates to start her surveillance plan, since, finally, after several days of living together, the target was doing something suspicious.

"I need you to do something for me," Corrine told her aides over the phone.

"What would be, Athena?" Corrine's interlocutor, who had already made several requests that didn’t bring any results, said in a contemptuous and lazy tone, from sending agents disguised as gardeners to spy on Lionel while Corrine wasn’t with him, to pest hunters to be able to register his personal belongings, all without success.

"Do we still have that infiltrated contact with Gray Umbrella?". Corrine asked.

"Are you talking about Judith? It's just someone from the archive". He paused to reflect and questioned her. "What do you need it for?". Since he didn't want to waste anyone's time.

"I'm not asking for your permission. Is she still there?" Corrine became severe with her subordinates.

"Yes…". The resigned man admitted. "She renewed his contract last week".

"I need you to get in contact with her, I want you to give her my details and to call me at 00:00 hours, so I’ll make sure Larson doesn't listen to me and tell her to call me on a secure line".

"Right away!". He finished without protesting knowing that nothing would be worth his objections.

Later, Corrine was alone in the living room, Lionel had gone to bed early, since he was always very early, which gave him a little confidence to carry out the call with ease, however, before the time came, Corrine verified that Lionel was asleep, which was the case, or so she believed, since the lights were off and she heard no noise from the other side of the door. When the time came, her cell phone rang with the hour.

"You are very punctual". Corrine said picking up the phone.

"I handle things at work with great zeal". Judith answered on the other end of the line. "What is my mission?". Judith said very willingly, the LICB used to commission several of its agents to infiltrate different world organizations, so Grey Umbrella was no exception. Judith has been with the LICB for six years and no more than three years ago, she was ordered to apply for the position of secretary in Gray Umbrella, which she managed to obtain, and since then, she constantly passes classified information to the LICB.

"I need you to keep an eye on a certain Larson Lande, he's supposed to be taking the admission tests to enter Gray Umbrella, and he's a very powerful man in Blackwing and I want you to keep his eyes on him". She took a breath and emphasized it. "I want you to look at all his movements, from the moments he goes to the tests to the ones when he goes to the bathroom, I don't want you to lose sight of him. Tell me everything!".

"Yes, director!". Judith completed before hanging up.

In the following days, Judith reported in great detail everything that happened inside the Grey Umbrella admission tests, gave her all the details of her mission, she told her how Lionel had passed each and every one of the tests, even those in which he was in a situation that was too disadvantageous for anyone but, despite this, Lionel with great skill managed to overcome them all, exceeding any expectations of his superior.

"Apparently he was among the small group of people that passes each year, he really has many talents". Judith reported.

“I already know that; I’ve seen him with my own eyes. Tell me something I don’t know". Corrine said losing her patience because she had found nothing decisive within the information that Judith had been passing on to her.

"They already assigned him his first mission".

"What was entrusted to him?" Corrine asked anxiously, why it would be the first valuable clue in a long time.

"I don’t know. The files are secret and only the Director of Grey Umbrella knows them”. Corrine seemed to be coming to another standstill and she felt that way, yet Judith wasn’t done. "Although, I did catch a glimpse of the name that appeared in the assigned mission file".

"AND WHAT WAS IT?". Corrine asked too exasperated by so much detour.

"It was assigned to Einstein, the great tycoon of Lucien, I still don't know the content of the mission, but I do know that he commissioned it".

"Thank you!". Corrine said and hung up. Unfortunately, she didn't know much yet, but at least he had a thread to pull, so her next move would be to pay a visit to old Einstein.