Chapter 885 - Sigma army at the Chateau (1)

~ France, Chateau ~

As soon as Aiden and Sarah reached their Castle, and finished in-person introductions with the staff, they started setting up devices for Eve through the property.

Drones came in handy in capturing layout and landscape in order to find best places for cameras and other sensors.

Sarah and Aiden want to hire more staff but are cautious about it because they fear that Eastern European families might try to infiltrate their people.

Existing staff is working here long before this Chateau ended up as Sarah's (and Aiden's)  property, so probability of them being secret spies is very low.

This is their closest property to the Lebedev family territory, and even though that is one of the reasons it was purchased, they can't help but be worried of potential attacks. That is where Eve comes handy: constant surveillance.

Sarah explained to the staff that they are setting up state-of-art security system which can warn them of any intruders, and it can lockdown the castle in case of emergency. In order not to reveal Eve to the staff, they installed few "lockdown buttons" through the castle and told the staff that if they press it, it will do it's named purpose to lock and unlock the castle respectively: doors and windows.

The staff exchanged puzzled looks which said: 'Why would anyone intrude here?' They are working here for decades and they never had any thieves. And to the point that they need to lock themselves into the castle?

Sarah could guess their thoughts and said that it's better safe than sorry with an additional explanation that they should understand how two of them are a bit paranoid because those things happen in United States often. She didn't want to tell them about the potential dangers. But that only confirmed that they should hire capable security and few people they can trust. That will be a challenge.

Eve can warn them of intruders, and even if she knocks them out, there should be some people who can deal with that mess.

After all this talk with staff, Aiden decided to work on his French. Eve was live-translating through his earpiece what the staff said, but he relied on Sarah to speak to them. 

Lucija and Petar arrived first. They were impressed with the Chateau and they agreed to postpone official tour of the place for when everyone gathers. After seeing where the living and dining room are as well as the kitchen, Lucija and Petar retreated to their room and told Sarah and Aiden that they will see each other for dinner, with an excuse that they are tired from the trip.

Sarah only raised her eyebrow suspiciously; she knows what those looks mean. They are not tired, but who is she to expose them?

After dinner, they all headed to their rooms. The rest of the gang is scheduled to arrive next day.

"What do you think?", Aiden asked Sarah.

"About?"

"Everything.", he spread his arms.

"I like the place very much. Thank you."

Aiden smiled. Her lit up expression is the affirmation that he did a good job in picking this castle.

Sarah thought that she should say more. "I mean it. You always think about everything. The place is amazing, it has space for everything, and I think that one of the rooms in the basement can be used as a VR room. Also, I would like to go and check the stables tomorrow. The place came with horses, right?"

Aiden confirmed. "We can go riding tomorrow."

Sarah gave him a smacking kiss. They didn't ride horses together (yet). She can imagine Aiden looking regal on top of a horse like a dashing knight.

Aiden knocked her on the forehead lightly. "Stop daydreaming."

"What?" Sarah was startled. "How do you know?"

He laughed. "I told you many times, I know your daydreaming face."

Sarah pouted. "You interrupted me. It was about you."

"Oh? Now I'm curious."

"No. I'm not telling. You are obviously not appreciating it, why would I tell you and inflate your ego?"

Aiden widened his eyes. "Now I really need to know."

"If you help out with this, I might tell you.", Sarah got her laptop and pushed his in front of him.

He didn't object. "What are we doing?"

"Ellie's job. We are done with looking into those three shareholders. I believe there is enough for Ellie to make pressure for them to give in. Between proof of bribing officials, hiding evidence in a lawsuit, insider trading and cheating, they can't afford any of that to go public."

Aiden found that besides three which are legal offenses, one is sticking out like sore thumb: "Cheating?"

"Yes. The Dickinson guy has some lady in her mid-forties on the side. I can imagine that his Mrs. will not be happy about it."

Aiden looked at the things listed. "That is a lot. Each of them has at least three things, and we have evidence for all of them."

"I don't know if it's a lot, but it should be enough. Those three are in the game for a long time, and when they started a lot of regulations were not in place. It's difficult to stop a practice which plays to your advantage after you enjoyed it for years. It's something like an addiction.", Sarah explained and thought how their hacking is also a type of addiction. They need to find out more, and most of the time they don't care if what they are doing is legal. But that is a different topic. She will NOT judge herself or the man next to her. Whatever he does, it's always right.

"I'm sending this to Ethan so that they can start working on getting the stocks and adding a note that second part of the job will take longer."

"That is where you want me to help?"

Sarah didn't confirm nor deny. "I'm looking into those frozen assets. Historically looking into Jasper's finances, large amount of money was given to him by his grandfather over time, starting when he was a teen. So far I found over fifty million dollars." Sarah explained while pointing at the information on her screen. "Besides money, there is a number of properties, and a small company. Jasper didn't do much with the properties or the company, but they continued generating revenue, and the company even doubled in size in first five years. I assume that his grandfather placed people there to manage it until Jasper is ready to take over. Jasper used the money as a starting capital and made some good investments. He multiplied it several folds within few years. It's an impressive sum. What is left is to figure out how his father managed to lock him out. It's not uncommon for parents or guardians to keep money and other assets away from kids who are underage, but Jasper is old enough to handle his finances. Also, I found traces of two attempts when Jasper tried getting those back under his control but was not successful. We need to figure out what happened."

"Is his grandfather still alive?"

Sarah paused. "You think that grandpa passed away and then Norman started giving Jasper a hard time?"

Aiden shrugged indicating that he is not sure. "It is a possibility."

Sarah agreed. "I will check on that." She took a note on the side.

"Which one of those should I work on?", Aiden asked while flexing his fingers over the keyboard.

"None of those." Sarah's response earned her a raised eyebrow from Aiden. She smiled and continued: "Everything I mentioned so far, I will do. I was giving you my status and letting you know of my plans. It will be helpful if you look into his father. Find the skeletons Norman is hiding."

Aiden thought for a second and nodded in approval. "If they are going to confront his father, it's best to have something directly against him. It will prevent Norman from retaliating."

Sarah smiled. "That is why I love you. You are smart, I don't need to explain too much."

Aiden flashed a smile. "And I love your mind as well. Coming up with these plans… very seductive."

"If we don't stop, we will not do any work tonight…", Sarah weakly complained between kisses.

"We can work later. This is important.", Aiden said matter-of-factly while carrying Sarah to the bed. "You know that it will be our first time in this Chateau… Heck! It will be our first time in France."

"Oh…" Sarah remembered that their first visit to France they didn't even kiss, and second time he was keeping it platonic. She smiled playfully at the sight of Aiden removing his clothes. "You are right. We should make it special."

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