Billionaire’s plight

Chapter five. The mail

We worked through the night, the next day and now It was almost midnight, and I was still in my office because Dominic sent me a message that said, "Wait for me, do not leave."

The whole building was empty, and the lights in the hallway were off. Only my desk lamp was on, and the light from the laptop screen was bright on my face. I had been looking at bank numbers and emails for five hours, and my eyes were tired, but I could not stop because Dominic said phase two was starting tonight.

The door opened, and Dominic walked in fast. He was not wearing his normal suit. He had a black shirt, black pants, and his face looked hard.

"Did you finish it?" he asked. He did not say hello.

"Yes," I said, and I turned the laptop so he could see.

"The money from the charity went to a company in Panama. That company sent the money to buy a house in France. The house is in the name of James Lane son. I have the bank papers, the emails, and the photos of the house. It is all here."

Dominic put his bag on my desk, and he took the laptop and put it inside. He did not say good job, he did not say thank you. "We are leaving," he said.

"Now?" I asked. "It is almost midnight. Where are we going?"

"We are not safe here," he said. He walked to the window and looked down at the street for a few seconds. "Someone knows about you, Ava. Someone knows you are working on Project Chim"

I stood up from my chair. "Who knows? How?"

He turned around to face me.

"I got an email three hours ago. It came to my private account, the one only two people know about. The email said they know about the Chim files, and they know you are the one finding the information. They said they want to talk to you."

"Who sent it?"

"I do not know yet," he said. "The email was sent from a fake address, and it went through five different countries. My team is trying to track it, but it is not easy. Until I know who it is, you cannot stay in your apartment, and you cannot come to this office tomorrow."

He walked to my side of the desk and picked up my bag. "We are going to my house outside the city. No one knows about it except my driver. We will work from there."

"Wait," I said. "You said two people know your private email. You and who else?"

"Mark," he said. "My head of security. He has been with me for ten years. He sets up all my safe accounts."

"Do you think it was him?" I asked.

Dominic looked at me, and his eyes were very serious. "I do not trust anyone right now, Ava. Not until I have proof."

He opened the door, and I followed him. The hallway was dark, and only the small red lights near the floor were on. We did not take the normal lift. We took the service lift in the back, and it went down to the basement. The basement was cold, and our steps were loud on the floor.

A black car was waiting with the engine on. The driver was a man I had never seen before. He did not look at me. Dominic opened the back door for me, and I got inside. He got in after me and closed the door.

"Drive," he told the driver.

The car moved out of the basement and into the street. The city was still awake, and there were other cars and lights, but inside our car it was quiet. Dominic took out his phone and started to type fast. He made two calls, and both times he talked in a low voice that I could not hear well. When he was done, he put the phone down and looked at me.

"The email said something else," he said.

"What?" I asked.

He waited for a second before he spoke. "It said you are the only person who can destroy Hale Industries, and it said they can help you do it if you want. They gave a phone number and said to call if you want to be free from me."

I did not speak. I did not know what to say to that.

Dominic leaned forward, and his arms were on his knees. "Three people knew you were working on Chimera. You, me, and Mark. Mark says he did not send the email. That leaves you and me, Ava."

"Are you saying I sent it?" I asked, and my voice was loud now.

"I am asking," he said. "I am not saying. I am asking if you talked to anyone about this work. Did you tell Zara, did you tell your family, did you tell anyone?"

"No," I said. "I told no one. You told me not to, and I did not. I swear I did not."

He stared at me for a long time, and the car kept driving. "If it was not you, and it was not me, then Mark lied," he said. "And if Mark lied, then he has been working against me for a long time."

"Why would he do that?" I asked.

"Money, power, or someone is paying him," Dominic said. "I will find out. But until I do, you and I are the only ones we can trust."

The car turned off the main road, and the lights outside got less. We were leaving the city. There were trees now and no buildings.

"Where is this house?" I asked.

"One hour from here," he said. "It is in the hills. No one comes there. No cameras, no staff unless I call them."

I looked out the window. It was very dark. "What if Mark follows us?" I asked.

"He will not," Dominic said. "I told him to stay at the office and watch the servers. I told him I was going home. He does not know about this house."

We did not talk for a while. I looked at my hands, and I saw they were shaking a little. Dominic saw it too.

"You are scared," he said. It was not a question.

"Yes," I said. "Someone knows my name. Someone knows what I am doing. I do not even know what Project Chimera really is, but now someone wants me to help destroy you."

"Do you want to?" he asked. He was looking straight at me.

"No," I said. "I do not want that."

He nodded once, but he did not smile. He took his phone again and looked at it. Then he put it in his pocket. "There is one more problem," he said.

"What else?" I asked.

"The person who sent the email, they sent a photo with it," he said. He took his phone out again and opened a picture. He turned the screen to me.

It was a photo of me. I was walking into the building this morning. The photo was taken from across the street and whoever took it was watching me.

"They have been watching you, Ava," Dominic said. "Maybe for days or for weeks."

I looked at the photo, and then I looked at him. "So what do we do now?" I asked.

"We go to the house, and we do not leave until I know who this is," he said. "And we find out if the leak is you, me, or Mark. Because one of us is not telling the truth."

He said that last part and looked right at my eyes. He did not look away.