Chapter 68 – Lifesaving spam

The Fluxer was a very valued employee of Pharmath; thus, the executives were very accommodating towards the investigation. Soon enough, the quartet had questioned all of the coworkers the Fluxer had been in regular contact with and checked the surveillance footage.

The security cameras (that they had been given access to) captured the Fluxer briskly leaving the building around lunchtime in the company of another man. The timestamp of them leaving was several minutes after the time Noah, Levi, and Trey had left the private beach.

“That’s the man!” Noah shot up from his seat inside the security footage monitoring room, “That’s the white-collar worker who had been with the Fluxer in the restaurant!”

Levi also nodded his head, “Yes. That’s him.”

Since both the Fluxer and his companion had left Pharmath together, it was safe to assume that the unidentified man was also an employee of Pharmath.

Their assumption proved to be correct. The questioning of the Fluxer’s coworkers quickly produced the name of the man. The man, who was a manager of Pharmath high up in the ladder, had shown up to pick the Fluxer up for lunch. The two probably had a previously agreed upon lunch appointment because the Fluxer wasn’t surprised by the other’s visit.

Though most coworkers couldn’t provide any particularly useful information, the quartet did manage to obtain a few notable pieces of intel. They found out which rival company had tried to recruit the Fluxer most aggressively – Druxa Pharmaceuticals.

Fynn recognized the name. Not only was it among the names of rival companies obtained by questioning the Fluxer’s wife, but it had also been especially circled by Fynn for further investigation because one of its shareholders was councilor Desmond, who was known for opposing the city lord of Concordia at every turn. Also, the heir set to inherit the company was well acquainted with Cordia Aris.

After obtaining the details of the Fluxer’s companion, the quartet, without further ado, showed up knocking on the mentioned man’s office door.

The middle-aged white-collar worker opened the door with a confident and composed bearing of someone of high status. Bearing that nearly fell apart as soon as he saw Fynn’s inspector badge.

The man didn’t invite them in; on the contrary, he went out of his office as if he was just leaving, and seemingly very regretfully offered his business card. “Apologies, I am currently unavailable for questioning. I have an important meeting to attend to.”

If the man’s sudden change of attitude was obvious enough to the other three, how would Fynn’s Intenter self not feel the man’s intentions even more distinctly?

Fynn gave the man a deep look, “I feel compelled to inform you that I am an Intenter…” ‘…I can tell that your ‘important meeting’ doesn’t exist.’

The man caught on to the implied meaning because his apologetic smile cracked apart, and his ready to bolt figure stiffened.

“The choice is yours,” Fynn smiled meaningfully, “We can do this here, or we can take this conversation to the station.”

Left with no better alternative, the man awkwardly moved aside to let the quartet into the privacy of his office.

After seating themselves in the armchairs, Fynn eyed this man who was trying to put up a calm front yet whose paling complexion betrayed his inner turmoil. The man’s intents spoke of a guilty conscience; however, the fact that he had yet to scream for a lawyer meant that while guilty, he might not necessarily be guilty of terrorism.

Fynn spoke two words - the name of the Fluxer - and saw the man nearly imperceptibly flinch.

“You two left Pharmath for lunch yesterday, correct?”

The man nodded, “We previously made a lunch appointment to discuss business matters.”

“I see,” Fynn eyed the man who was neither lying nor telling the full truth. “Why did you two decide to have your lunch in that specific restaurant?”

The man’s already white face turned even whiter. His lips trembled as he attempted to explain, yet not a word left his mouth.

Fynn’s eyes flashed, “Who told you to go there?”

“I… I… I had no idea something like that would happen!” the man stammered out; fine beads of cold sweat glistened on his forehead.

“Who told you to bring him there?” Fynn repeated himself, his tone dropping lower.

The man abruptly fell silent; he averted his eyes from Fynn’s sharp gaze, yet, very unfortunately, his line of sight fell on Levi. One look at the loner wolf’s chilling stare and bloodthirsty aura was enough to bring braver men to their knees, let alone this manager who could in no way be considered brave.

The man felt his blood run cold, and his limbs went soft. Before he could even process what he was saying, he had, though incoherently, spilled the beans entirely.

The man was reluctant to speak of the truth and reeked of a guilty conscience because he was a corporate spy. For years now, he had been secretly selling inside information to a rival pharmaceutical company, as well as making some moves behind the scenes.

He didn’t know the identity of his buyer because the two communicated through emails, and he received his payments in untraceable cryptocurrencies. The man didn’t know which company his contact was working for; however, knowing what information he provided and how his leaks influenced certain proceedings, the man could give the quartet a confident guess as to which one it was.

Unsurprisingly, Druxa Pharmaceuticals was mentioned once again.

So, what did all of this have to do with yesterday’s lunch appointment? Apparently, everything.

It turned out that several days before, the man had received instructions from his contact to invite the Fluxer for a business lunch on that specific day. He was told he would be given further instructions on the day itself about when to leave for lunch and which restaurant to go to.

The man didn’t think about it much because he was used to making such small moves behind the scenes. And thus, he made a lunch appointment as instructed. And on the day, just as expected, he received another email telling him to take the Fluxer to the aquarium resort with due haste.

He picked up the Fluxer, and the two made their way to the resort. Along the way, he received another email with the address of the restaurant and even the details of the table where he was supposed to sit.

The man had carefully deleted all of the emails, so they couldn’t compare the time stamp, but by their estimations, this email had been sent around the time the three had seated themselves at the restaurant.

This corporate spy was very diligent in fulfilling his spy duties. So after seating himself at the mentioned table, when he felt his communicator vibrate with a new email notification, he thought that his contact had further instructions. He then, naturally, excused himself and went to the toilet to read the email.

It turned out that the new email he received wasn’t from his contact, but just some weekly newsletter. Yet it was this spam email that literally saved his life!

When he was about to come back to the table, there was an explosion, and everyone started fleeing the restaurant. The man naturally didn’t return back to his seat but escaped the restaurant together with the crowd.

After leaving the restaurant, he noticed that the Fluxer didn’t make it out, so with his guilty conscience eating at him, he quickly fled the scene.