Chapter 242 - Intern Eddie

By the third day of his internship, Edward had made a name for himself. Although the spy still hasn't gotten a chance to get close to the inner workings of the company, he was able to gather more information than the other spies hadn't. It wasn't the ones at the top who knew all the dirty dealings that went under the table, it was the ones who worked on the ground who heard many things who gave Edward the most useful hints. Those on the ground often liked to gossip and through those gossips, Edward learned a few things.

"You say that EZ Express doesn't do most of its own shipping?"

Edward's boss nodded. "I didn't know that at first but after you worked here for long enough, you hear things from the admin and logistic department. They work closely with several smaller companies but for a few years now, we've been using Pineapple Group's partner."

The spy thought for a while. Pineapple Group's partner? "Are you talking about Diamond Containers and East-West China Airline?"

Impressed, Randy, Edward's boss praised him. "You sure pick up quick, Eddie! You got a bright future ahead of you if only you're less lazy about things."

Edward grimaced outwardly as an act but also to express distaste for this horrible alias that Elfie chose for him. He had to make sure Elfie never spoke a word about this to anyone else, the name was too horribly childish! He didn't want Scarlet using this as an inspiration for a pet name either. He'd rather be known as 'Ed' than 'Eddie'.

Still, the information was starting to make sense. The server hosting was outsourced to scatter information. The shipping was outsourced and the admin does not know some of the items they place orders for, they just follow the information passed down by the top management.

Still, Edward didn't understand why they would work for both sides. "How did they get the contract? Diamond Containers and East-West China Airlines, I mean. Weren't they the main contractors for Pineapple Group? The chinese usually don't do business with the west without good reasons. EZ Express would have used an intermediate party even if they wanted to deal with China."

Randy nodded. "Blame it on the family and personal affairs of the CEO. Before the son took over, the company worked in the way that you said. It wasn't very effective at all and profits were heavily affected. However, after Julian Anastasia became the new CEO and succeeded his father, business boomed. Of course, they say that he is a man of many connections but the main reason for EZ Express' success in recent years is because of that lady.

"That lady?"

Randy noded. "Messy story, I tell you. But it's none of my business. Leah Yuan is the heiress to Crown Princess Hotel Group but she's also a huge investor in Diamond Containers and East-West China Airline. Apparently Ms Yuan and our boss met at a party when she was accompanying her fiance Mr Zhu and fell for our boss. Ever since then, she has been lending EZ Express a hand using her influence within the Pineapple Group as well."

Edward thought about it and Randy checked the time. It was almost lunch and the manager was about to leave when the phone rang. With a sigh, he answered it with a hint of annoyance.

"Now? Got it. I'll send the intern up in five minutes."

Edward heard it but pretended to not know anything, keeping true to his lazy image. Randy sighed and smacked him lightly with a file.

"Stop pretending you didn't hear that!" he snapped half-heartedly. "The secretary of our CEO is calling. They need someone to bring up a bag and set up a spare laptop for him. Mr Anastasia is going to meet an important client so they want everything in place. She will pass you a thumb drive with the proposal that you should download into the spare laptop and set up a desktop shortcut. Don't screw anything up, it's an important deal that the boss has been trying to get for months now."

Edward blinked. "Are you sure you should be sending someone like me for something so important? Also, why a spare laptop? Doesn't he work from a laptop?"

Randy deadpanned. "There's no need for us to go and stop making up excuses! It's a company policy to only use desktops here so spare laptops have to be configured for everyone else who doesn't work in the sales department."

Not giving up the golden opportunity to worm his way into the CEO's office and digging out whatever he could, Edward readied the virus and listening bugs that he carried with him just in case he could find an opportunity to use them. While Randy grabbed the spare laptop and bag, Edward slipped the things he needed into his pocket and waited lazily with an extreme unwilling expression on his face.

"Here you go, don't mess this up."

Edward sulked. "It's going to eat into lunch..."

Finding this intern ridiculous, Randy patted Edward's shoulder. "Just do a good job and you can extend lunch by thirty minutes today. I'll close an eye only for today."

Beaming, Edward made the deal and took the laptop bag to the top floor where Julian's secretary was waiting for him. The spy took the thumb drive from the strict lady who repeated her instructions twice just because she wasn't sure if Edward was listening to her. While she nagged, Edward was surveying the security on the top floor. It was surprisingly relaxed but the spy wasn't fooled. He wouldn't lower his guard on enemy turf.

"So I just need to copy over the powerpoint presentation, a few folders for the contract and a software that he would need for demonstration purpose and save them to the desktop,? Got it."

The secretary was about to repeat it for the third time when Edward cut her off. Mutely, she passed Edward the thumb drive who sighed and went to the CEO's room to copy out the required software from his desktop. He knew that the secretary had doubts if he was able to do the job well and that was exactly the reaction that Edward wanted. Julian wouldn't suspect an intern being a spy.

Once Edward was in the office, he quickly flipped open the laptop and pretended to turn it on and waited. In reality, Edward was installing the virus onto the desktop and network using Julian's desktop. With an admin override password, Edward now had free access to all his backed up files. Edward texted Elfie and told his friend to work quickly.

From outside the office, only the sound of tapping on the keyboard could be heard as Edward worked. The spy also took the opportunity to hide a listening bug underneath Julian's chair in a spot that was difficult to find and worked on his actual task - setting the spare laptop up for the meeting. Randy said to set it up and leave everything with Julian's secretary so Edward tried to hurry. She didn't seem like she enjoyed working way into her lunch hours.

Elfie: I've backed everything out. See if you can gather more information in hardcopy in his office in case we don't find anything here.

Edward: Will do. I'm going to leave for a bit, take care of the screen.

The spy walked out and looked at the secretary.

"Sorry, there are some setting issues with the spare laptop I'm trying to configure for the software now. It's going to take a while and I don't know how long it will take so I don't want to hold you up from lunch. Once I'm done I will leave the spare laptop on your table if that's alright with you."

Relieved, the secretary agreed with Edward's arrangement and left. Now that there wasn't anyone else around, Edward informed Elfie to down the security footage and replace the clip so that he could start digging for doc.u.ments to make copies of.

Elfie and Edward worked quickly in tandem and Edward took photographs of everything he could find. He was slightly surprised to find some loan agreements and contact numbers of politicians in Julian's drawer but he wasn't complaining. He needed Elfie to start digging into these people to trace and hack Julian's personal phone and business phone for more damning evidence of his illegal involvement.

Twenty minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Edward got the software installed and the files copied out just in time and left the spare laptop on the secretary's desk, ensuring that there were no traces of him searching through Julain's things. Elfie copied the video in the security footage to give Edward more credibility. Edward didn't know what else he could do now that his primary objective was done. Elfie was now able to access the juicy inner network and all Edward had to do was wait for information tonight.

Edward: Are you able to find the location of their servers?

Elfie: Still working on it. Did you find anything about their working partners? Do we have a lead to hit up?

Edward: Diamond Containers and East-West China Airline work with them because of Julian's fiancee. Dig out what you can on the politicians I sent you and Leah Yuan. I doubt that CEO Zhu knows about her betrayal to his company.

Elfie: Sounds like we have all our answers falling into place now. By the way, your dad told me to remind you about the priority. In fact, he wants you to get out of there asap.

Edward snorted and texted back while he headed for lunch.

Edward: Tell him to strap on his seat belt and wait for me because I'm bringing him what his best agents couldn't. This company might be clean but Julian isn't. As long as I can find his scent, we can track it back to their stinking hideout. When that time comes, I'm leaving it up to you and him to clean up this mess.

Elfie: Whatever. Don't take too long or do stupid things, your girlfriend misses you.