Chapter 571: Teamwork?

Safehouse later that day.

Papers were strewn across the dining table while the team hovered over them. Chris, Gus, and Felix arrived to join the whole crew as they dissected the data gathered from the Alliance Shipping and Logistics company a few hours ago.

At first, Katherine's gut feeling was what urged her to focus on this company. But after seeing Shadow agents in the building, she couldn't be more confident that they were indeed on the right path.

However, now that they were looking at the information in front of them, she didn't know what to look for exactly. All she and others who came from Shadow could only agree on one thing—that Parker was using Josiah Connor's shipping company. Though the latter had many other businesses on the side, this was the only one that made sense to them.

Parker was the kind of man who nobody could guess what his next moves were. He built principles for himself, which made him look like he's a man who respects the government's system—but at the same time, he did very questionable things that were against an innocent person's morals. He played mind games, and he was excellent at getting someone to work for him or with him.

Just like how he got to Josiah Connor. But they couldn't tell whether Parker came to Connor for his relationship with Director Hughes or if he initially approached the man because of Alliance and the rest just fell on his lap.

With everyone trying to figure out how they would use the shipping company's data, Katherine couldn't help but think about the near future—when they could finally put an end to Shadow.

"This is a shipping company, so it has to have something to do with whatever is being imported here," Damien began.

"Or exported," Katherine added. "We can't rule anything out. We don't exactly know what we're dealing with… So we have to consider everything. Even the smallest details."

Chris nodded in agreement. There were so many theories in his head, but there was just no time to test all of them. They had to be smarter. "You're right. But how do we know what to look for? It could be any of these shipments. We don't have time to go through all of them and we can't check them ourselves all the time either. That's just not conducive."

Contemplating on what to do, Katherine scanned the people in the room and assessed each of their skills. Damien and Christopher were both strategists. Gus, Felix, and Amelia were great at fieldwork, and the latter was also good at being in the command center with Styles who was always behind the monitor.

Noticing Katherine's silence, Styles furrowed his brows and crossed his arms as he examined her. "I'm not sure if I'm liking how you are in deep thought right now. I'm sometimes afraid of you, Queen. You need to speak your mind, and don't keep it to yourself."

She swallowed when everyone lifted their heads, and their eyes landed on her. She was already regretting what she had thought just now. "Okay, listen up."

The team straightened up and waited for her to speak.

"We don't have the luxury to check every single one of these shipments. So we're going to have to split the work." She turned to face Gus and Felix. "You two—surveillance. You tail Connor. I'm 90% sure that Parker would want to make everything smooth, and that means personal involvement. So you follow him wherever he goes, and keep us updated."

The two nodded, not finding any problem with the task given to them. But Gus turned to Styles and asked, "Can you track where he is now?"

"I mean… I could try… It will take me time, though," Styles responded as he started on his computer.

Katherine walked up behind him and asked him to contact his secretary instead. And once the call came through, she spoke professionally and gently. "Good afternoon. I have an express delivery for Mr. Connor. May I know if he's in the office right now?" She paused as she listened to the other's response. "I understand, but we can't deliver this without his signature." Another pause. "Alright. Thank you. Have a great day."

They all waited for her to end the phone call, and when it did, she faced Gus and Felix again, saying, "He's in the office, but he's leaving in an hour. I trust that you two can do this?"

Gus and Felix exchanged brief looks and nodded. Then she told Styles to continue his search regarding the company's activities and see if anything was suspicious. Next, she looked at Damien and Chris.

"I need you two to brainstorm and plan on what we can and should do once we find something worth checking into," said Katherine. The moment the words left her mouth, Damien and Chris's brows immediately drew together, but she ignored and added. "There could be many possibilities—imports, goods, crates or cargos, strategies on—"

"Woah—wait, wait..." The two men interrupted her.

Damien placed his hands on his hips, looking exasperated. "Katherine, you can't possibly think..." He chuckled mockingly, yet the irritation was evident on his face as he pointed at Chris. "I can't work with this guy."

"He took the words right out of my mouth," Chris agreed. "I refuse to work with him."

Katherine shrugged, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "You have no choice. Falcon and I need to work on something."

"He killed people, and he hurt you. There's no way I would work with him!" Damien seethed.

"Ha!" Chris scoffed. "Right. Like you haven't killed. You're a Park!"

The two started exchanging insults and were sizing each other like college frat boys. She could only roll her eyes.

Letting out a sigh, Katherine shook her head and took a deep breath. She already felt the headache creeping up, and she could only clench her hand into a fist to control her temper. Then she spat, "Enough! In this room, we all have killed. We're not innocent."

Slowly, Styles raised his hand as he swiveled his chair around. Then he spoke in a low and weak voice, "I… I haven't killed anyone—"

"Shut up!" All of them shouted at him in unison, their annoyed expression directed at him.

Styles immediately closed his mouth shut and then pouted as he turned to his monitors again. "Seriously… You all are getting meaner every day."

Ignoring Styles, Katherine faced Damien and Chris again. "I still haven't forgiven you for what you did to me, Chris, and I don't think I ever will. But I'm going to set that aside for now like what I've been doing since we started working together because there are more important things to take care of." Then she looked at Damien. "So you two should grow up and work it out without trying to kill each other. I need you both on this. Two heads are better than one."

Although Damien didn't like the thought of working with Chris, he would always do anything for Katherine. So he'd have to put off his plans on choking the other until all of this ends.

Clenching his jaw, he nodded in agreement, albeit reluctantly. "What about you?"

She shifted her gaze to Amelia, grabbing the latter's jacket from the back of a chair and tossing it to her as she said, "We're going to do some fieldwork at the docks. We work faster together."

"I can't let you go anywhere by yourself," Damien worried.

Walking towards him, Katherine pressed a kiss on the corner of his lips and smiled. "I need you to trust me, Damien. Besides, I'm not alone."

He watched as Katherine and his mother walked out of the door. The last time the two women hung out together—they ended up in jail.