Chapter 363: Poor Alistair
*Kringgg... *Kringgg...
The sound of Gray’s phone ringing suddenly echoed inside the office.
Gray, who had been reviewing some documents on his desk, quickly paused. His eyes slowly looked up to his phone that was lying just beside his laptop. His forehead creased when he saw that the number on the screen was unfamiliar.
For a second, he simply stared at it. Then his heart started beating faster when he realized something.
’Could this be it?’
Across the room, Mara, who was doing her own work, also noticed the change in his expression. She momentarily stopped what she was doing and glanced at him.
"Who is it?" she asked curiously.
Gray didn’t answer it as he was also unsure of it. Instead of dwelling on the question, he picked up his phone and glanced at the number. Then he stood up slowly.
"I think... this is the call."
Mara’s eyes widened instantly at that. Meanwhile, Gray pressed the answer button and raised the phone to his ear.
"Hello?"
"It’s us."A calm voice responded from the other side.
Gray immediately recognized it. It was definitely from them. Hearing them, the tension in his chest slowly relaxed.
’Finally!’ he thought.
"Ah," but Gray tried to remain calm about it, especially since they still needed to talk about some matters. "I thought it was a random person."
"Yeah, it took us a few days," the man replied on the other end. "We needed to time it properly since you want it to be as discreet as possible."
"Yeah, I figured that out." Gray leaned lightly against the edge of his desk while listening. "So how did it go?"
"We had to make sure the envelopes would arrive at the right moment," the man explained calmly. "Some were delivered through private mail, and some through courier services. A few were placed directly in their mailboxes."
"If everything arrived at the same time, it would raise suspicion. So we spaced them out."
"That’s fine." Gray nodded slowly.
While talking, his eyes gazed to the side. In there, he saw that Mara was staring at him with wide and expectant eyes. Seeing that, he gave her a small nod.
The moment Mara saw that, her eyes widened even more. She immediately stood up and ran quickly to him. She almost tripped as she ran closer.
Gray slightly lowered the phone on the table and put it on speaker so she could hear the voice as well. They had been waiting for this call for days.
"Everything has been delivered already," the man continued on the other end of the line.
Mara covered her mouth slightly at that. Even Gray could feel the excitement building inside his chest.
"And as agreed," the man added, "the job is done."
"Good work." Gray let out a quiet breath. "How about payment?"
"Regarding the payment," the man said calmly from the other end of the line, "The total cost is $15k."
Gray didn’t even pause to think about it. For him, every dollar he’d pay for this man was worth it.
"That’s fine," he replied immediately.
Mara turned to look at him in slight surprise. For her, the money was huge, but Gray simply continued speaking as if the amount was nothing.
"Send the payment details to my secretary. You have her number, right?" he said. "She’ll handle the transfer."
"Alright," the man responded shortly.
There was a brief pause before the other man’s voice came through the line.
"Then our job here is finished."
"Understood," Gray replied.
"Good doing business with you." Then, not a second after, the line from the other side went dead.
*Beeep.
The call ended after just a few minutes of talking to one another. For a few seconds, the room fell completely silent. He just stared at his phone, but across from him, Mara was staring at him with widened eyes.
They looked at each other. Then—
"Yes!" Mara suddenly exclaimed, almost jumping in place.
Gray couldn’t help but laugh softly at her reaction. He knew that she was the most anxious about this plan.
"Yes, finally," he also muttered with a grin.
They had been waiting for that call for days, and now it was finally done. They could already relax about it.
Gray took one sigh and then looked at Mara.
"Alright," he said calmly, though the smile on his face still hadn’t disappeared. "Go take care of the payment."
"Don’t worry. Leave it to me!" Mara nodded immediately.
She hurried back to her desk, already pulling up her computer and preparing the transfer details.
Meanwhile, Gray leaned back slightly against his desk and crossed his arms. His eyes drifted toward the window of the office.
The city looked completely normal from the outside. But very soon, he knew that things were about to get interesting.
As if the universe was listening to his thoughts, his phone suddenly buzzed again on the table.
Gray glanced down at it. At first, he didn’t think much of it. But when his eyes landed on the name displayed on the screen, his brows lifted slightly.
He just got a message from Alistair. The man has been messaging him frequently than usual, so he was starting to get annoyed at it. Still, Gray picked up the phone and opened the message so he could read it.
The moment he read it, the corner of his lips slowly curled upward.
[Alistair:] Do you know what’s going on? I’ve been trying to contact some people, but none of them are responding. Not a single one of them has replied to my messages.
Gray read the message, then let out a soft chuckle.
He couldn’t believe that Alistair would message him such things. After talking yesterday, it seemed like Alistair has gotten more anxious about it. Oh well, who wouldn’t? The election was very near so he and his allies shouldn’t break apart.
Gray placed the phone back on the table and leaned against the desk again. He didn’t reply too.
"Poor Alistair..." he muttered quietly.
