"You know who is behind Zero Day?" Grey asked.
"I do." Tanya said. "It's a video game developer."
"Wait, how does a video game developer know about bombs?" Wrench questioned.
"I didn't finish." Tanya interrupted. "I have a picture of him."
What seemed to be a average height man with shoulder length brown hair and white skin appeared on screen.
"This is Josh Singleton. A man who claims to be a video game developer, but he only designed one game." Tanya said.
"That still makes him a video game developer." Sitara corrected.
"Whatever. What matters is that he is behind Zero Day."
"How do you know?" T-Bone asked.
Footage was shown of Josh's house. It seemed like a normal house. Josh had a wife and a daughter.
"Um, what are we looking at?" Grey said.
"Look at what's inside the garage that Josh forbids his wife and child from entering."
The footage ended.
"Just tell me if you find anything." Tanya said before cutting out.
Everyone was more confused than relieved.
"What the heck? This doesn't solve anything!" Grey said.
"Maybe Tanya knows what she's talking about." Lucy said.
"You wish." Wrench said.
"Come on everyone, what if Tanya was telling the truth?" Lucy said to the group. "You guys might have your names cleared."
"Alright, let's investigate Josh's place." Grey said.
"Problem. We don't know where Josh lives." Scott said.
"Search up Josh Singleton." Grey asked to T-Bone.
T-Bone searched up Josh.
"Josh Singleton is a video game developer who is known for developing the hit indie game, Inside Them."
"Oh, that game that is constantly played everywhere?" Grey said. "On social media?"
"Correct. Some of his other games include The Harry Stickell Collection, Battlebots, and Pillars Of Eternity."
"Cool." Sitara said. "I played those games."
"He works for a company known as InnerSloth."
"So where do we find InnerSloth HQ?" Lucy asked.
T-Bone researched InnerSloth.
"Bingo. I'm sending Grey the coordinates."
Grey received a text for the coordinates.
"Wish me luck."
Grey left Dedsec HQ.
"So what do you guys want to do?" Scott asked.
"Play some of Josh's video games?" Lucy suggested.
Grey made his way over to InnerSloth. What seemed to be a normal video game company housed a bomber, and Grey was ready to expose him. But how was he going to sneak in? Seeing an employee who resembled him going out for a burger, he swiftly knocked him out and took his outfit as a disguise. He then passed by security without any trouble.
"Ok guys, I'm in."
"Good. Now find Josh." T-Bone said.
Grey walked through the game company noticing servers for Inside Them overly huge. Well, the game was immensely popular after all. Grey noticed all of the employees gathered for a meeting in the office room. Wanting to blend in, he sat with them.
"Okay, we need new game ideas. We're not one of those Triple-A companies who mistreats their employees or gives crunch. This gives us a public image. Everyone will like us if we have good working conditions." The CEO said.
"How about a high-fantasy game?" An employee asked. "We get to fight dragons, orcs, spiders, and-"
"Too overused."
"What about a game where you're shrunk to the size of an ant and have to survive?" Another employee asked.
"It's creative, but it'll cost us too many resources."
"How about a game where you are a target of assassination, evading capture from other assassins?" A third employee answered.
"Go on."
"The mechanics work like this. Everytime you move, so does the enemy. You have to kill your assassins with guns, melee weapons, and throwable objects."
"This sounds like an interesting idea." The CEO said.
"I vote for it." Grey said, blending in.
"Me too." Another employee added.
Everyone was in agreement. They all went to the drawing board for mechanics. Grey excused himself to go to the bathroom. He went to the server room. He used his phone to hack into the servers revealing personal information for the developers. He scrolled through them until eventually finding Josh's information. He copied the info and returned to the others. The team spent the rest of the day brainstorming ideas and mechanics before being sent home. Grey returned the outfit to the knocked out employee.
"Guys, I have a lead on Josh." He said.
"Good job." Sitara said.
"I'm heading to his house now."
Josh Singleton, after a long day of work, arrived home to meet his wife Emily, and his daughter, Candace. Grey spied him through the window.
"Guys, Josh seems pretty chill." Grey said.
No answer came.
"Guys?"
Tanya answered instead.
"Kill that son of a gun."
"You serious?" Grey said. "I might be on Albion's most wanted list! And besides, even if we don't like Albion, we wouldn't want to break the law."
"Have it your way."
When the Singleton family left for dinner, Grey opened the window and slowly made his way inside. His heart raced. He held his breath. He took slow steps in the hallway. Luckily, he turned off the lights in the hallway he was in.
"So what's for dinner?" Josh said in the background.
"Meatloaf!" Emily said.
Grey swooped past the entrance to the kitchen as the family sat down for dinner. He noticed a sign on a door on the staircase reading "Do not Enter". Grey opened the door and silently closed it. Of course, it was dark. Grey used the flashlight feature on his phone. He noticed something hard, something metallic, and it smelled like oil. Was that an engine? He examined much closer. It was an engine. Grey moved the flashlight up, revealing a metallic shell of red and a bicycle seat. It was motorbike. But why was Josh hiding it from Emily and Candace?
GIRL, WE HAVE A CONNECTION!
I LOVE YOU MORE THAN MY LEGO COLLECTION!
That was from Grey's phone. But why now? He was sure he had it silent. Grey quickly turned it off, but it was too late.
"Hey!"
The lights turned on, revealing Grey's location to Josh, Emily, and Candace. Grey quickly brought out a weapon.
"He's got a weapon!" Emily screamed.
"Into the living room, now!" Grey ordered.
Grey had everyone sit down on the couch. The family all had beads of sweat running down their faces.
"You've got some questions I need answering." Grey said, grabbing Josh.
"Let me go!" Josh yelled.
Grey placed his weapon to Josh's throat.
"Why were you behind the bombings?" He threatened.
"Bombings? What bombings?"
"You know, Zero Day! An informant of mine named Tanya told me so!"
"I think your Tanya may be lying to you." Josh said.
"What?" Grey said, letting go.
"Listen, I don't what Tanya you are referring to, but how is a video game developer like myself know anything about bomb making?"
Grey paused at that question. Was he that easily fooled? Was Josh telling the truth? A cackle rang out. The next thing Grey saw was Josh's head with a hole in the direct center of his forehead. Josh collapsed to the ground.
"NO!" Emily screamed.
Grey saw a bullet hole through the window. As Emily and Candace took cover, Grey got a closer look at the direction to where the bullet came from. He noticed a strange figure standing on the rooftop of the house across the street. She was holding a long object in her hands. Grey didn't know if the shooter was targeting the entire family or just him. Still, he was taking no chances. He took out his phone and cut out all of the lights in the neighborhood. The shooter used her flashlight attachment on her gun to search for Grey. No life form as in sight.
A head whacked her back. As she was busy trying to balance herself, Grey knocked her off the roof. She collapsed onto the yard below. Grey examined her body as he dropped down.
"I knew it."
Tanya awoke to find herself tied up to a chair. Dedsec stood in front of her, demanding answers.
"You gave us a false lead." Grey said. "You said a video game developer was behind those bombings. Also, you killed him right in front of me."
"Pfft, you think I was the perpetrator for Zero Day?" Tanya said. "Nowadays, I shall sue you for putting violence against women!"
"Nice try, but we don't treat women very poorly here." Wrench added.
"One other thing, why do want to kill Josh?" Lucy asked. "He did nothing wrong."
"He did something wrong to me!" Tanya argued. "He made me lose my job!"
"What did Josh do to you that made you lose your job?" Sitara asked.
"He made rude remarks to me. And of course, no one believed it. So I planned my own revenge."
Dedsec looked at each other.
"The bottom line is that I wasn't behind those bombings. In fact, I tried to stop them. Albion and Clan Crystal have made a ton of money off of those bombings. Why haven't you gone after them?"
"Whatevs, mate." Grey said. "Even if you were telling the truth, you did enough damage for one day."
After Tanya's interrogation, Dedsec had to plan their next objective. Taking down Albion.
"If Albion profited off of the bombings as the Writer said, we have to prove that they did that." Grey said.
"I got an idea." Scott said. "I'll return to Albion HQ to dig up some new information."
"Good plan." Lucy said.
"I'll go with him." Grey added.
"Even better plan." T-Bone stated.
Scott and Grey walked out of Dedsec HQ. After the fall of the Clan Crystal organization, Albion placed citizens under stricter laws. A group of protestors were arrested without question from Albion guards.
"My god, it's getting worse." Scott said, examining the event.
"Come on, Scott. Let's do this." Grey stated.
CONNECTION LOST...
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