Chapter 408 - Danger and Trouble (2)

11 May, JL International Mall, City F and Devil's Lair, City K

Lexi walked into the LY store, looking around. Unlike the scene that she had seen in City Y, just the night before, this store was as she wanted. Staff attentive to customers, regardless of whether they were spending lots of money, little, or simply looking.

As she moved into the store, she was approached by a staff member with a genuine smile on her face. "Ma'am, how can I help you?"

"I am Lexi Yao…"

"Lexi Yao…? As in LY…?"

"Yes…"

"Apologise boss. We were of the understanding Director Karen would be coming today to deal with the issues for the Movie Promotional tour. The store manager is our back. Please follow me, and I will take you straight through."

Lexi, seeing the smoothness of this, felt relieved. This is how her stores were meant to operate. As the staff member opened the door into the back room, three women inside turned and looked at Lexi. All jumped to their feet, before one said "Miss Yao, I recognise you from promotional material. We were expecting Director Karen, but seeing you is a pleasant surprise. The actresses are due to arrive in a few minutes, and we have the dresses that were sent for them to wear. These two people with me are local seamstresses to allow us to make any minor alterations that may be needed to the dresses."

Before Lexi could respond, there was a knock on the door, and another staff member said "Boss, Miss Yao, the actresses are waiting in the VIP shopping area. Mall security were going to escort them here originally but due to the number of people already in the mall they have said for safety we need to go there as it would be too risky for them to come here."

Without thinking, the store manager, turned and loaded onto a garment rack the various garment bags Lexi knew had been sent from the design studio here earlier in the week, along with a second trolley that had shoes and accessories that she had arranged.

Quickly they moved out of the store and towards the VIP area where the actresses were waiting. As she entered and looked up Lexi saw a face she knew, Annabeth Jones. Why was a European actress here?

"Lexi Yao, as I live and breathe. I expected I would see our retail director extraordinaire not you," squealed Annabeth as she ran to Lexi and hugged her.

All Lexi could get out was "What…?"

"What am I doing here? Idiot. I am an actress, and when I arranged my dress last year with you for the Oscars, I told you I was heading to Asia for a series of films, this is one of them. I just hope you have something good for me to wear?"

Shaking herself from her shock, Lexi responded "When have I ever failed. For you and your fellow actresses I have clothes from my soon to be released ready-to-wear collection. They are for you each to use for the full promotion schedule, but you cannot keep them."

One of the other actresses said loudly "It was explained to us. But we were told that we could purchase those we liked."

"Correct," quickly responded Lexi. "If it was just the dresses, I would not be so worried, but we contracted to supply you with complete outfits including shoes and accessories. Those we purchased in. But, As Annabeth knows from past experience the deal on the purchase it is it the complete outfit including shoes and accessories, and it if a fifty percent discount on the retail cost of the clothes and twenty percent discount on what I paid for the shoes and accessories,"

Annabeth called out "Just send the bill for all mine to my manager Lexi."

Lexi quietly said, "We have little time to waste, as you are all due on stage at 11am, so let us get you all ready."

Meanwhile, David Hwang and his key minions had slipped from his villa and headed to the operational centre they had recently established for their final move against the government. 

Looking around the room, the one thing he was p*ssed off with is Naomi was here. His levels of distrust of her were increasing, but the problem was that there was no electronic trail to know what the extent of her betrayal was. Thank god he had his material to frame her, but the question was when to use it? Too soon would ruin his plans but holding on too long would allow her betrayal to be played out. Damn the lack of anything to deal with her now.

Looking around the room, he said "We are set? No one wants to hold off on this?"

Naomi, sensing that he was annoyed with her decided to react "No. We have the pawn in place, and he thinks that he is doing it for his outdated religious course, not knowing that he is being used. Delaying opens him up to be located and your plan to be ruined."

Naomi looked around and saw nods from all the men in the room. These idiots. They did not know they were being played, and if David had his way when everything went down, they would take the fall. Looking at David, again, she was certain he had material to frame her. She had her protection in place, but if she could eliminate it before he had the chance to use it.

Another voice piped up, saying "Boss, she is right. We have come this far and not acting risks detection. Everything is in place and we can trigger when we want to the computer systems."

David paused and looked around the room, before saying "I just wanted you all to be certain. We all want to take down the government for our own reasons, but once this happens, we are committed to our plans and the time frame we have set."

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