Chapter 40: The Price Will Be Higher
A couple of hours ago, after leaving the studio, Klaus had studied the list and picked up five individuals who would not just expand his influence but would also prove useful in the future.
One of them was the most trusted and loved anchor of the Global Summit news channel, Liliana Palmer.
As per the list, she was being threatened by an anonymous person with deepfake images, and being the cautious person she was, she didn’t have anyone to lean on.
Which made it easier for him to get the current reaction out of her.
’Got you.’
He turned to her and asked flatly, "Do you care more about that than finding out who is behind those letters?"
Liliana went silent for a second before she sat back in her chair and said, "Don’t you think it would be more logical that the person aware of the letters is the one doing it?"
"That is indeed more logical. However, do you think the person who didn’t dare to appear before you until today would do so now?"
"He must have become bolder after sending the picture," she reasoned.
"That can happen," he nodded. "But it’s too risky."
"A single picture is far from enough to make him this bold, don’t you think?"
She knit her brows together and muttered with slouched shoulders, "I don’t know."
A defeated look appeared on her face, and she continued, "Nothing makes sense to me. That person just sends me a letter without any threat."
Klaus walked closer to her table and said slowly, "If I had to guess, he just wants to see you tensed... and distressed from this. He wants you, the best anchor of the current years, to break."
Liliana’s face grimmed, and she lowered her head.
"What should I do?" She asked, her voice delicate.
He leaned on her desk and whispered near her ear, "Do you want my help?"
She slightly raised her head and looked at him with a deep frown. She wasn’t dumb.
She clearly understood the motive behind his words. He wasn’t asking whether she wanted his help or not; he was asking what he would get from that.
For a few moments, a thoughtful expression covered her face, and then she pointed at her door. "Leave."
Klaus chuckled. "As you wish."
With smiling eyes, he walked to the door, and she asked, "What’s your name?"
He grabbed the door’s handle and pulled it as he responded, "I am Leo Maker."
’Leo Maker,’ she burned his name in her memory, and he left, his departing words echoing in her head.
"You may be sending me away today, but you would call for me, and when you do, remember the price would be much higher."
She stared at her door with a hardened jaw and spewed sharply, "What does he think he is to put a price on me? I’ll show him that there’s nothing I cannot do."
Klaus checked the hallway and quickly went down to the ground floor using the employee card and then to the men’s bathroom.
Then he walked to the toilet at the very end of the room and pushed its door.
"Still here, eh?"
An unconscious man sat there. He was the employee Klaus had knocked out without harming him to get into the employee-only areas of the building; Liliana’s office was one of them.
"Thanks a lot, man."
He patted his shoulder, put the card back in that man’s shirt pocket, and quickly left the building.
After that, he took a taxi and made his way to his next destination.
The taxi moved past the bustling city and entered the quieter, more luxurious area that belonged to the rich.
Just to enter this area, he had to purchase a ten-grand yearly entrance card. He was still salty about it, but he was fine with sacrificing that much for the greater good.
After about an hour from leaving Global Summit’s building, the taxi stopped before an iron-bar gate with a green sign on the right.
Sparrow Men Golf Club
He exited the taxi, paid the fare, and walked past the iron-bar gate.
This was the only place where he could meet his next target: Trenton Schwartz, a highly valued Project Manager of Hephaestus Technology and Powers.
’He better be worth it; I have already paid 15 grands to join this club,’ Klaus remarked inwardly.
He looked around with curious eyes; the place was well taken care of, and many beautiful art pieces and statues were placed by the brick pathway leading to the main spot.
"I can see why they charge so much."
After a few minutes of walking, he found a group of people chatting with one another.
’Should I ask them?’ He wondered and then walked over to them. ’Why not?’
He halted a few steps from them and asked, "Hello, gentlemen. Does any of you know where Mr. Schwartz is?"
They looked at him with faint smiles, though Klaus could help but focus on their gold chains and gem-engraved watches.
"Ah. He must be by the pool like always," said one of them, while pointing toward the location of the pool.
"Thanks a lot," he mumbled with a slightly dazed expression and walked to the said director.
’I didn’t expect it to be so easy.’
He had expected them to react haughtily or make fun of him for his cheap attire, but nothing like that happened. Instead, they answered him with a smile.
What stranger does that? None of the ones I met before did that.
Following their words, he soon reached the pool. It was beautiful, more so because Klaus had never seen a natural pool before.
However, he hadn’t come here to enjoy the scene but to meet the person sitting on the bench beside it.
His lips curled upward, and he strode toward him with quick steps.
Trenton stared in the pool with a smile, a single thought in his mind.
’Ah... how much I want to see that bastard drown in this... it would be so beautiful and peaceful.’