Chapter 192: ANONYMOUS
In the underground gambling, Adrian took a seat on the other side and watched the gamblers play. Viper was on an ’official’ business trip and as his right-hand man, he was the second in command to keep everyone in order.
As he watched the gamblers play silently, his mind drove back to Erika. When he’d revealed to her that Ethan was dead, she’d immediately rejected it with so much assurance. It was as if she was certain he wasn’t dead which worried him a little. What if Ethan wasn’t dead? he wondered.
"There’s no way Ethan could be alive, it’s just impossible," he muttered to himself with assurance when he recalled Ethan’s lifeless body lying on the ground as blood oozed out of his head after he was shot. "That motherfucker is dead," he added.
Adrian brought out his phone and glared at it. Erika was the one who took his phone, he was sure of it. A smile tugged on the side of his lips, pulling it up to form a devious grin. His eyes illuminated the display of the white screen as he checked the call log for the nth time.
"Erika is trying to outsmart me, huh. Well, she will need to try harder than this."
When he hadn’t seen any outgoing calls, he released a sigh of relief. Luckily for Erika, the call with the police had not been displayed in the call log so Adrian knew nothing about it.
Suddenly, he remembered something. Since Ethan had been declared dead, why hasn’t any funeral been held for him? He frowned, thinking about the possibility that his funeral was held secretly. Come to think of it, the Andersons and Walters have been too quiet since the day Ethan died.
"What is wrong with those people? I killed their son, shouldn’t they have called the entire military to come after me?" He wondered as he rubbed his chin. After concluding, he decided, "I will have to look into them. They are too silent for my liking."
**
"How’s the tracing going?" Felix asked Edward whose fingers had been dancing on the keyboard for quite a while now.
"I’m getting there," said Edward.
Felix released a sigh before he glanced at Ethan, who was napping. Earlier, he had been trying to recall faces he couldn’t remember and ended up with a headache. The doctor had prescribed him painkillers and a sleeping pill to ease the pain.
"I feel sorry for Ethan," Felix mumbled and Daniel, who was by his side, glanced at him.
"I feel more sorry for you, Felix. All of this happened on your wedding day. If that jerk hadn’t created this mess, you and Monica would be on your honeymoon by now," said Daniel.
Nothing had been going well for everyone. The Walters had to buy another mansion since Adrian bombed the other one. No one had the appetite to eat anymore. And all they wanted was to find Erika immediately and catch Adrian.
Felix released a slight chuckle as he pondered on what Daniel said. It was his wedding that everything had taken place so he’d personally vowed to be the one to end Adrian’s life for ruining his chance to marry Monica and officially make her his wife.
Felix was about to remark but was interrupted when Edward announced, "I’ve found him. He’s in a club called the Midnight Mirage."
"That was what I’d suspected. He goes to that club too much," said Felix. "I don’t think he makes his money only by going to the club every day. Adrian could be involved in an illegal business, besides, the club is the one place where illegal businesses and trading occur," he added.
Both Daniel and Edward gave it some thought before Edward continued to type on the keyboard.
"What are you doing?" Daniel asked Edward.
"Just like Felix said, this Adrian guy could be involved in an illegal business so I’m going to dig deeper," he responded.
The two brothers took a seat and waited for Edward. Silence enveloped the hospital room and the only thing that could be heard was the dancing keyboard.
After several more minutes of researching the Midnight Mirage club, Edward was finally able to find something.
"I’ve found something," he declared. And instantly, the two brothers sprang up from their seats to look into the computer. They saw the images of gambling tables displayed on the computer screen.
"What is this place?" Daniel asked with a tone of unfamiliarity.
"This is called underground gambling. Just by its name only, one would know it’s underground and it’s connected to the Midnight Mirage club," Edward responded.
"But isn’t gambling illegal?" Daniel asked.
"Of course it is, I guess it’s the reason this one is underground, so that people won’t know anything about it. It’s hidden and perfect for all kinds of criminal activities to take place," Edward explained to Daniel and the latter nodded in understanding.
"So all we have to do now is go back to that club and look for the underground gambling," said Felix.
Edward gave it some thought before he responded,
"Yes, but that doesn’t bring us any closer to finding Erika."
"It does," Felix remarked. "There was this guy we saw with Adrian one time we went to the club. He gives me the criminal vibe. The both of them could be working together," he added.
"I see, do you know his name?" Edward asked, ready to type on the keyboard but Felix shook his head.
"I don’t know his name," he replied. "Why don’t you research the name of the owner of the club? Someone should be in charge of handling such an underground business," he suggested. And without wasting any more seconds, Edward released his fingers on the keyboard.
Codes and codes of numbers were displayed on the computer screen which confused Daniel to no bounds. Felix could do tracing and stuff but he wasn’t better than Edward who had military training. He did understand some code meanings but not all.
"I can’t seem to find the owner of the club, his face is anonymous," said Edward. He continued to type to try to reveal the identity of the owner but nothing was showing.
"That’s impossible! A club like that should have an owner," said Felix.
"Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find the face," he replied. "I will need to call experts to do this tracing."
"You can’t do it?" Felix asked with a raised eyebrow, as if mocking Edward which the latter didn’t take likely.
"Hey! I did my best. Do you think it’s easy to trace someone just like that? Hacking into people’s computers isn’t my type of job but I was able to do my best," he nearly yells out of frustration.
Daniel, who was on the other side, could already sense some bickering coming up so he simply went to sit back on the chair he was sitting on earlier and watch them.
"You started it already, isn’t it better if you finish what you started?" Felix retorted.
Edward scoffed before he remarked, "Weren’t you the one doing the tracing before I got here? Why didn’t you continue?"
"I didn’t know Ethan already contacted you dammit!" Felix responded.
"Is that so?" Edward asked. "Well, even if he didn’t contact me, I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to come this far."
Felix took offense at what Edward just said and rebuked,
"Says the one who still couldn’t complete his task."
"Are you insulting me?" Edward questioned Felix with a glare.
"I never insulted you, I was just stating a fact," Felix glared back.
Edward gasped as he placed his hand on his chest dramatically. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was feared by his juniors and seniors because his skill was at the top. But to be insulted by someone who didn’t appreciate his skill hurt his ego.
Angrily, he pointed his index finger at Felix, intending to insult back but a voice interrupted him,
"If you two want to fight, do it outside. My head is pounding with a headache and you are only making it worse."
The both of them turned to face the bed where the voice was coming from. Ethan had his eyes closed as he continued,
"This banter isn’t going to help us in any way so just stop it."
Both Felix and Edward glared at each other one last time before Edward excused himself to go make a call.
"What did you guys find out?" Ethan asked after he opened his eyes.
"Well," Felix began. There’s underground gambling in the club that Adrian always goes to."
"Underground gambling?" Ethan asked.
"Yes," Daniel continued from where Felix left off. "We are trying to find the owner of the club because we suspect that Adrian could be connected to it."
Ethan nodded in understanding. Part of him was happy because sooner than later, Erika would be by his side. While the other part of him wasn’t happy because he couldn’t be involved in this research. He felt useless.
