Aris and Simon have just entered an empty elevator after their conversation with his father's greatest employee.
"He did give us his best wishes as well," he laughed. "It was a pretty genius idea, really." Aris nodded her head in approval. If she had said that they were only friends, then it would be unnatural to see them together all the time. However, by saying that she is his fiancee, no one will suspect. "Yeah, it came out of the blue." He replied.
Actually, it did come out of the blue, his idea that is. When she was being stared at with those hungry eyes, he hated it. I guess that's why when an opportunity came knocking he grabbed it by the tail and hoped for the best. He never felt restless over a girl. He did though, once.
But she was already gone.
The elevator opened, snapping his head back to reality. Aris was now his bodyguard, and will be with him wherever he goes. After coming to Denver, his life was attempted to so many times already but secretly he was pretty happy about it. He hadn't had this much adventure in his lifetime, and he gets to meet Aris too. He could die happy now.
Those words haunted Theodore's mind all night. The body found seven years ago in Jeanette's car wasn't her. It was someone else's. He didn't care about the other girl, just that it wasn't Jeanette in the car.
"WHAT THE HECK!" He screamed. He wanted to know, needed to know, if Jeanette was still alive or not.
"You say this Crimson looked very similar to Miss Seville, am I correct?" He remembered Parker ask him last night.
"Yes."
"Then it is possible," Parker shifted his glasses, "that Crimson and Miss Seville is the same person."
Theodore was silent. Inside, he knew such a possibility can exist now that it was clear Priscilla may still be alive. But for her to be Crimson herself... Impossible.
"You must be careful though, Kingston." Parker started packing up. "I smell a conspiracy going on. I'll look into it more and then I'll tell you if I find anything." Parker said his goodbye and left, leaving Theodore stunned to silence.
Theodore looked up to see the sun shining over him. He checked his watch and found out it was already 8:30 in the morning. He quickly got up, grabbed his keys, and drove straight to Central. Something's going on - something big.
"Conspiracy, huh."
The room was quiet. As Simon signed papers on his desk, he couldn't help but take a look at Aris who was busy doing something at her computer.
"I'm not naked, so stop staring at me," she said to him, but her eyes didn't leave her computer screen.
"It would be better if you were," he replied. She slowly placed her hand on the hem of her skirt, lifting it up so he could he see the revolver sitting idly on her thigh. "Then again, you're beautiful either way," he said uneasily. Aris grinned.
"You have a hundred and thirty million dollars invested in this headquarter alone. Two- hundred million dollars in San Francisco, and who knows how much more in UK. No wonder you have everyone vying for your head."
Aris was reading up the Seville Family files.
"First of all, stop hacking my Intel. Secondly, it's four-hundred twenty million Euros." He stood up from his table and sat beside Aris who seemed absorbed with her information.
She closed her computer and stared at him.
"What I don't understand is this - why are they after you now? You've been assigned the heir for a couple of years, so why not then?"
This silenced Simon. Aris was right.
"I don't really know either."
"My sources still haven't found out anything about your family except that your family has some ties with my boss. Do you know anything about that?"
"None." He replied. "My grandfather founded this company a while back. That's all I know. I haven't seen him for a long time."
"Since When?"
"Around..." Seven years ago, when he decided to come over. Jeanette, she was there too.
"Simon?"
"Seven years ago. He came over here when I was living here."
"Oh yeah, about that. I read that you lived here in Denver before. Why did you leave?"
Why did I leave? Why, I wonder. I don't even know why myself. Or maybe I do know, but I want to deny the very existence of that reason.
"Hey, Simon you're not answering my ques-"
"Stop asking so much!"
He stood up. Aris only looked at him. "I'm getting coffee." He left her in his office.
"What the heck was that?" He thought to himself. He knew what he did was wrong and practically immature, but she doesn't want her knowing about anything yet.
After all, how would she feel when she find out about his past? He sighed. Simon walked back in his office to apologize but Aris wasn't there anymore. His phone vibrated; a message:
Be right back.
P.S I'm sorry for earlier. - A
"It's nice to see your face again, Kingston."
"Same here, 007." The man in front of Theodore laughed. "You know he's my father. I like being called Parker, very normal."
Theodore reached the Central Headquarters. He was restless after their conversation from last night.
"How's your father been anyway? I forgot to ask last night." He said to Parker.
"You know, laid back as usual. But I assume you weren't here for that?" Parker led him to the boardroom where three men in black suits sat quietly. "I told them about what happened. They're here to discuss it."
Parker was talking about the three men in charge of the special division - the division where Theodore and Parker are a part of. Founded by Parker's father, this division was in charge of special cases which even the FBI and the Homeland security cannot handle.
The two entered and sat on the opposite ends of the round table. Theodore could feel the tension in the air that he wished he had a knife to cut it.
The man on his right cleared his throat, grabbing Derek's attention.
"Welcome, Kingston. Let's get down to business, shall we?"
"Yes, I would like that." He replied. "Let me get to the point. What is your agenda regarding the Seville family?"
"What do you mean?" The chipmunk on his left asked in wonder.
"I am talking about the possible connections between the family and the underworld. Is there a possibility that they have ties with any assassination organizations?"
The room was quiet.
"They do not." The third men answered. "Or more accurately, we don't know ourselves. However, why are we discussing such matter? Is not your mission to exterminate Crimson?"
"Yes, but-"
"Have you made progress?"
"Not yet. Howe-"
"Then please focus on that instead. We are busy people, not idle enough to have such pathetic talks. Excuse us." And then they left, leaving only Parker and Theodore inside.
Theodore slammed the table. "Those bastards," he breathed. "Well, they certainly are trying to hide something, I can tell that much."
"Well, they've always hated talking. Even to me."
Parker stood up. "Get yourself back there and try to figure out Crimson's real identity. I'll support you from here," he said.
"I believe," Parker looked up, "something rotten is going on in Denver."