159 The Startling News

Jimmy lay back in his seat, his eyes void of emotion, his face mirthless. He was smoking his eighth cigarette, going over the facts of the case again and again. It hadn't initially been his plan to fly over to Country M, but a startling news on his end had made him come there.

One of his sources had reported an attempted security breach in the system of Amber Aviation, a chief arms and aircraft company that Hunter Corporation was an investor in. He had been informed of the breach formally too, but what information had been tried to be hacked into wasn't communicated to him. His own man had informed him – through Amber Aviation's database, someone had tried to steal the transaction history between the governments of both the countries. The number of arms and aircrafts ordered, bought and traded off outside borders, and encryption keys to some of the plants' locations had tried to be tapped into.

The infiltration had been successfully tackled, but the startling news had been the IP address of the system that had tried to tap into this confidential information. Its location had been traced back to Hunter manor.

Jim blew smoke from deep within his throat, and watched the curls of it rise to the ceiling.

It wasn't very complicated, of course he exercised authority and confidence enough to not be a suspect in any way whatsoever. But the act did involve the defence division of two countries and Jimmy had to rush in to offer assistance. Amber Aviation had withheld from him the stellar fact regarding the information that had been tried to be stolen, but they had known he would have found out anyway.

It wasn't difficult for Jim to imagine who was behind this little stunt.

It had Kang Sheng written all over it.

The man was neck deep in dirt anyway. It wasn't out of his insane head to attempt an international security breach, if it couldn't be traced back to him. Jimmy did keep his mind open for other possible enemies though. Jim himself wanted to clear his stance to the people involved, including the government officials from both countries. As to why the location had been traced back to his house, there was only one of two possibilities.

Either the hacking system had been traced wrong, which was doubtful. Or, someone had attempted the infiltration while on Hunter grounds.

That meant godly skills as a hacker, because even though the attempt had failed, it had been potent enough to cause turmoil.

Jim had already got back reports on who had been in the Hunter manor during the time of the infiltration. Security camera footages had been checked too, just in case. The obvious possibility was that the attempt had been made from somewhere nearby instead of in the Hunter estate, and Jim had called in for footages from all nearby cameras.

His team was still working on it.

His mind was at its best, as he went over every detail in his head one by one. Who had Sheng planted? Why Amber Aviation? If it was just a prank, or involved deeper motive? He had also tightened security around Ben and Miya, just in case all of this was just an upscale ruse to commit smaller crime, that was, to harm Ben or his wife.

All this while, Jim had also been wary if his own investigation of his house would alarm Park, so he had kept it a secret from him. Chairman knew of it, of course, and he had left Jim to work it away. That was why Jim was especially careful about the butler. He was already doing the head breaking task of figuring out his wife's background. And if he knew of this, the old man would certainly want to jump in on the team and work on this as well.

It worried Jim to the core, how much Park worked. He didn't rest unless Jim sternly ordered him to. Which in itself, was very rare.

Jim only had a meeting pending with Amber Aviation in the evening, and another deal that he had to sign with a second firm. After that collaboration was over, he had made the arrangement to fly back home at night.

It was when he picked up his ninth stick to smoke that his phone began to vibrate. Thinking it was someone from work, he quickly picked it up.

Pleasantly, Jim saw his wife's name flash across his screen. He took the call.

"Missing me?" he smiled, feeling less tense when he heard her audacious voice.

"Of course! I have no one to fight with back home!"

'Home'. Jim grinned.

"Isn't Ben doing my job?"

"You know he doesn't fight me."

"Yeah. He's a total mommy's boy."

Jim heard Miya's familiar sigh over the phone. His own breath calmed down, and he relaxed further into the chair. She didn't say anything for a while too, and just heard the soft sound of his breath over the phone.

"Jimmy?" her voice was concerned.

"Yes, dear?"

"How much have you smoked?"

Jim closed his eyes in reflex. He didn't lie.

"Eight."

"Are you very stressed out? You promised you wouldn't go over two."

"I am. But… sorry."

"Don't apologize!" Her tone was ferocious. Jim could imagine her indignant face, telling him she understood his work was immense and stressful, "Just rest for a bit, alright?" she said, "And wash up and have something to eat. Don't work too hard, Jim. Do you want me to come over?"

It was her last statement that forced Jim to open his eyes. It took him by surprise. Another soft smile spread on his lips.

"I'm not next door, Miya," he reminded her.

"I could always board a plane," she retorted.

"You'd do that for me?"

"Of course!"

Jimmy's smile broadened to his ears, his heart calm, his body further relaxed.

Her words were plenty. He would never make her board a plane all alone even if he did want to see her. He knew she was terrified of airplanes.

Beaming, he changed the course of the topic.

"What are you doing?"

"Planning to go out for a while."

"Where to?"

"Haven't decided yet."

"Stay safe, alright?"

"Alright! Trust me."

"I do. Otherwise I would have Chenric follow you around all day. Though I do think he'd love that. He seems to admire you more than he respects me."

"He does?" she sounded surprised.

Jim chuckled.

"Yes, I think. You should go now, and don't come home alone if it's too late. Call for a car."

"Okay, but I'll pick up Ben after school and rush home, so don't worry!"

"Alright. Talk to you later then."

"Okay!"

"Tell Ben to work hard. I'll see him soon."

"Ah ha!"

"And miss me a lot."

"Yes, yes. Just come back soon, okay?"

"If you say."

Once the call had ended, Jim let out a deep sigh. But somehow, the pressure in his head had gone away now. He smiled at the scattered documents and files, put back the cigarette he had taken out and ordered a pizza for himself. When he had abided by all of his wife's instructions, he finally set to work again.

He was done with only a few files, when his phone pinged again.

Kind of excited, wondering if it was a text from Miya, Jim picked it up quickly. It was however, a message from an unknown number.

And his heart almost stopped beating when he looked at what it was.

The text was a simple picture, which was blur and old. And yet, the two figures in it were too familiar for him to not be able to recognize.

There was the small, pale face of a much younger Miya, who was crouching on a tree with a snake coiling on her arm. Beneath the branch, stood a tall, elegant, dangerously calm woman leaning against the bark.

Jim felt like he was staring at a mirror.

Mother…

…. And Miya.

His heart leaped to his throat, and it became difficult for him to breathe.

What the f*** was going on?