Chapter 252 - Seduce the CEO

Two weeks was a very short time for some and a very long time for others. For Edward, he didn't know to call it long or short. While he was finding it incredibly short because of his lack of progress trying to get enough dirt on the Anastasia family, he was finding it long from his time away from Scarlet.

"Work came first," he reminded himself as he fixed yet another stupid minor problem on some admin girl's desktop. This was the third time she had called him that week and Edward hated her.

The girl was obviously not an idiot and the attempt to strike up a conversation to invite him out was a very glaring attempt at trying to flirt. Edward didn't like her for obvious reasons. He already told her that he had a girlfriend but this dumb chick didn't take a hint and continued to doll herself up, each time with thicker make-up and perfume than before.

"It's done," he told her coldly and glared at her when she touched his arm. "The next time you have another IT problem, try and google it before calling us. We're busy."

With a pout, the admin girl watched 'Eddie' leave and sulked. From the other tables, some girls laughed and teased her for another failed attempt and Edward shook his head, rolling his eyes in the lift, not really looking at who was present.

"Why the terrible expression?" the man beside him laughed and Edward groaned. Yet another bored person in this comp[any. Seriously, how did EZ Express make so much money by hiring incompetent people? Then again, Edward knew better how they did it, he just wasn't able to find the evidence to prove that they were doing this illegally. Perhaps this was why the company kept so many stupid people.

"Sorry, it was nothing," Edward apologised and looked up. His heart stopped for a moment. This was bad! He accidentally made contact with the target.

Julian Anastasia smiled. He had just returned from the lunch meeting with Kiwi Cat Studio and was in a foul mood when he spotted someone else in a worse mood than he was. That instantly made him feel better. Upon closer inspection, this face was new but pleasant to look at. Although he was sloppily dressed and had a rather unrefined attitude, he was Julian's type with the way he suddenly froze in shock at realising who he was speaking to.

"I uh... h-how was the meeting, sir? Was there anything wrong with the laptop?" Edward swallowed and acted nervously, playing the fool's card and hoping his simple-minded act will make Julian lower his guard. His father was going to have a field day if he succeeded in finding a crucial clue to Julian's operations by talking to the suspect in person.

Cute. Julian smirked. So this was the intern that set his laptop up. No wonder he hadn't seen him around before. It's a pity that this cutie would be here for only another week or so. Still, he could afford to have some fun before he has to leave, right?

Exaggerating a sigh, Julian gave him the side-eye. "Now that you mentioned it, there were some technical issues. I suppose I'd have to visit the IT department later to ask for the one responsible for setting it up. It isn't the first time that Randy has screwed up, I guess it's high time to replace him."

Acting panicked and guilty, Edward hesitated for two moments before admitting that it was actually his fault and begged Julian not to fire Randy.

"Please sir, I-I was the one who dealt with that laptop. Randy has nothing to do with it! I reformatted the whole thing and set-up everything including installing the software you needed and copying the presentation that I received from your secretary... There were some issues on that day that took longer because I was unfamiliar with the software so I might have accidentally done something wrong during the troubleshooting process. It's not Randy's fault, it was mine."

Seeing the intern act so meek, Julian felt the fire grow in his loins and his pupils darkened in excitement watching this boy tremble. How long has it been since he met such a wonderfully innocent boy? Julian couldn't help but take advantage of the situation. It was almost at the floor that Edward was meant to get off so Julian made a decision quickly.

"If you're truly sorry, you will come to my office at five later to apologise. I want to hear the full story."

The lift stopped and Edward looked at Julian disbelievingly to make his act convincing. He pretended to be slightly stunned and stumbled over his words before excusing himself and running away once the lift doors opened.

Julian smirked. Who would have thought that there would be such an interesting person in his boring workplace? Most of his bed partners were hardened men from the mafia or experienced gigolos who leeched onto him for money. If it wasn't because of his deal with his father, he would never have agreed to run such a boring company. Compared to intimidating people with words in business negotiations, Julian much preferred the cold-blooded murder and physical torture he often dealt with after office hours. Nothing turned him on more than hearing people begging him earnestly and looking at him with fear in their eyes.

After the lift door closed, Edward quickly turned to the nearest washroom and locked himself in a stall. What in the nine hells just happened?

"No, calm down, Edward... That's not right... he was simply taking interest in a new face. That wasn't seduction, right?"

No matter how the spy tried to justify it, he would never mistake that hungry look. As a man, he understood what that was. Besides, that tent that suddenly grew in those tight black slacks could never be mistaken as something else.

Hands trembling, Edward wondered what he was going to do. He might not be innocent in the bedroom because of his job but he definitely kept his cherry boy status for his back entrance. Was he really going to have to use this in exchange for finding Anastasia's weak point? Sure, he would do anything for Scarlet but he didn't know if he was mentally prepared for such a thing. Worse still, Edward didn't know if Scarlet would ever forgive him if she found out what he did. Probably not.

Deeply distressed, Edward called the only person he knew he could discuss this with and hoped that Elfie would have a good solution to this. While it was a tangled situation, this was also a good opportunity for Edward to get underneath the pristine glossy corporate surface that EZ Express maintained under Julian's tight control.

"Did you find something good?" Elfie asked when the call was connected.

"Yes and no," Edward told him and proceeded to explain the entire elevator situation before asking the hacker what he should do.

"Wow. Just wow... Who would have thought that Julian Anastasia was gay? No wonder none of the secretaries sent worked. The Interpol should have just sent Julian a male secretary instead! Also, I cannot believe that you're somebody's type. What did you do to seduce him?"

Edward hissed. "I didn't seduce him! The only person I'll ever seduce is Scarlet!"

Highly amused by Edward's anger, Elfie had to tape down their phone conversation. As embarrassed as Edward was, they finally figured out a good way to work around the barrier called Julian Anastasia. Once Edward ended his internship, it was the Interpol's time to shine. Although Elfie thought that he made a great team with Edward, this operation's scale was far too large for two individuals to handle even with Jasper and Wilmer's help. All they could do at this point was to pave the way for the tanks and big guns to come in blazing. Edward was doing a great job of finding out the opening to Julian's network even by accident.

"Hey listen," he told Edward who was rambling away in what sounded like a panic attack. "That's a very huge clue. I don't think you have enough time to really seduce everything out of Julian but here's what you can do. If you can bug Julian's personal phone, I can tap into everything that he does illegally on it. Once that is done, you can pack up and disappear forever and leave the rest to your father. I'm going to inform Danny about this information so they can make preparations. It's a very huge and useful clue, probably the only thing left that we need after finding out the identity of the spy from CEO Zhu's side."

Edward took several deep breaths to calm himself down and locked away all his emotions. Slowly, his rationality kicked in and Edward checked the time. His meeting with Julian was at five, there was still an hour left.

"Alright," Edward agreed. "Tell me how to bug his phone. I won't sell myself for the mission, I'll just do the bare basics and get my ass out of there. As much as I want to work on this case after getting so close to the answer, I don't want to betray Scarlet's trust in me more than I already have."

Elfie approved of his friend's resolution and calmly told Edward what he needed to do.

"Exchange contacts with him on his personal phone using the Bluetooth function and the virus will automatically be sent. I don't know if he will give you his private number but you have to find out and convince him somehow. We already have his company number that I'm sending you in now so compare them carefully. He might also have more than one phone, I don't know."

Edward studied it. "Is there another way to transfer that virus?" he asked. "I can somehow access the company's intranet and Wi-Fi. I bet everyone connects to this at work."

Elfie groaned. "It is possible but we don't know whose phone is going to be bugged and there will be thousands of IP to trace! There's no guarantee that Julian will use his company' network with his personal phone either."

Edward smirked. "I have a feeling he will. I've been hearing things from the IT department and I picked out a few executives who might suspiciously belong to the other operation team under Julian's command. There were too many viruses and phishing emails. I've also shortlisted the names that frequently give unknown sales and purchase orders to the admin and logistic teams. I just couldn't confirm the items being delivered but they might be what we're looking for. Diamond Containers and East-West China Airlines handle those orders. I need more manpower to investigate those leads."

Overjoyed that they made so much progress in just a week, Elfie told Edward to continue being careful. "I will send you the program for you to upload to the intranet and wi-fi. Please don't die, Scarlet would be heartbroken."

"I won't" Edward promised and waited for the program to be sent before he uploaded it to the company's network and waited for the bug to be downloaded.

He checked the time and swallowed. Only forty more minutes before five, how was he going to explain this to Randy? With a reluctant sigh, Edward left the bathroom.