Chapter 185: Helix

"You were a day late to get to the extraction site, you want to explain why?" A man in a suit with a frown on his face asked.He was currently standing in a dimly lit concrete room, hands clasped behind his back. His expression wasn’t angry, no, it was extremely calm.

Reid Carver stood opposite him with a stiff posture, and his two underlings stood behind him like shadows, they had just been put on probation for a whole month the moment they returned from their last mission.

The Helix emblem, three slashes through a circle, hung on the wall behind the suited man.

From the aura he gave off, one could tell that he was of a high authority in the company, probably one of the higher ups.

Though, his name was unknown to anyone below him since the higher ups never bothered with introductions since that was just a waste of their time.

"Like I said," Reid began, his tone was completely steady, "we were being followed, so we had to reroute. Lost a day dealing with... complications."

"Complications," the suited man repeated quietly. "You do realize this delay could’ve risked us getting reveal don’t you?"

"Yes," Reid nodded. "But we handled it."

"And the tail?" the man pressed. "Who was it? Police?"

Reid seemed a bit confused as he thought for a while before saying,

"We lost them," he answered. "Don’t know who they were, probably a group of amateurs."

The man frowned for a moment, it seemed like he had his doubts but just sighed and said.

"Fine," the man finally said. "Submit your full report within forty-eight hours. We’ll sweep the area you mentioned and check for any loose threads."

"Understood," Reid said.

"And Carver?"

"Yes?"

The man had no expression on his face as he looked at Reid.

"You know the consequences of lying to us... don’t you?"

Reid smiled, it was a small polite one.

"I’m not lying."

"You better not be," the man said with a frown on his face before adding, "out."

With that, Reid and his two underlings walked out of the room leaving the man alone.

The man’s face held a bit of frown before he tapped on one of the walls and with a small beep, it shifted revealing multiple screens, each with a person on it.

Unlike the man, all the others on the screen wore masks, though they also had another thing in common, the Helix logo was on each of their expensive looking suits.

"Report," a voice said, though it sounded female, it was distorted enough not to be recognizable.

"I interrogated the three," the man said, "both separately and together."

"And?" Another asked.

"They seem clean," the man answered, "their answers were mostly the same and from their expressions, they don’t seem to be lying..or they completely believe whatever they were saying."

The people on the screens were completely quiet for a short while before another asked, "is it possible that they had been conditioned to think like that?"

The man was silent for a bit after that, thinking back to Carver’s momentarily confused expression before saying.

"That’s also my suspicion," the man said, "but no, our team has run scans on their brains the moment they returned and compared the activity to their previous ones and it perfectly matched which means they’re under no hypnosis of a sort."

"I see," the higher up who asked, muttered, "still, it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye on them."

"Carver is one of our most effective field operatives," the distorted voice said. "If someone managed to intercept him without alerting any of us, then either Helix is getting sloppy..." The voice trailed off for a moment, "...or a third party is operating at a level we have not accounted for."

The entire room went silent, he was right, never before has any of their mercenaries been compromised, so it meant one thing if it started now, they were getting too comfortable.

Finally, the woman’s distorted voice broke the silence.

"Very well then, we should continue surveillance. Keep all three under routine behavioral audit for the next three months. No direct contact unless they deviate from standard."

"Understood."

"And the woman?" another asked. "The target. Lillian Hayes. Status?"

"She was successfully delivered to the client," the man answered. "Carver’s testimony aligns with the tracker logs. The handoff took place according to the original plan. The crate was opened, payload intact, and extracted by the client’s men. Carver’s team left immediately afterward."

One of the masked figures exhaled sharply.

"So the client is satisfied."

"They were," the man answered, "until she was retrieved, Lillian Hayes has successfully returned and it seems OmniTech Corp is planning a product release."

"Is that so?" the figure who had asked muttered. "I really don’t keep up with the news these days."

Before the man could respond, another masked figure leaned slightly forward on their screen.

"What about retaliation?" the figure asked. "Has OmniTech made any moves? Public or covert? Anything to suggest they’re looking for the perpetrators?"

The suited man paused, recalling the reports he’d skimmed earlier in the day.

"According to our intel," he began, "OmniTech has not issued any public statements regarding the kidnapping. There had been no police involvement or even any heard of underground one."

He took a short pause and the masked figures patiently waited.

"there’s been no confirmed movement from OmniTech," he finally finished.

"No confirmed movement does not equate to no movement," one of the higher ups said, "should we try planting a mole in their company to find out their movements?"

"OmniTech’s CEO is anonymous," another figure said, tapping a gloved finger against their desk. "Their internal structure is airtight. Their cybersecurity is... unique. We can’t assume they’ll behave like a typical corporation."

"Agreed," the distorted female voice added. "If the CEO is competent, and considering OmniTech’s rapid ascent, he is, then we should expect his retaliation, maybe sooner than we think."

The suited man nodded.

"It may be worth noting," he said carefully, "that Carver’s team reported encountering an unidentified hostile presence after the handoff, which was the reason for their delay."

"We don’t know if those two incidents are related," someone countered.

"Perhaps not," the man conceded. "But I find the timing... concerning."

Another round of silence followed his words, he had been getting a bad feeling ever since they took this job and it was only getting worse.

That was the reason why he demanded the three be interrogated by himself, personally. He wanted to make sure that they were completely clean, by himself.

But before anything else could be said, an unrecognized voice was heard from one of the monitors.

"Now isn’t this an interesting gathering?"

They all froze at the unrecognized addition to this private meeting.

The suited man stiffened.

"...Identify yourself," he demanded, tone darkening.

"Hmm," the new arrival let out, "that’s unimportant, but if you’re really curious, you could just identify me as the collector."

"How did you gain access to this channel?" One of the masked higher ups asked, "this is supposed to be a secured channel."

"Secured?" the intruder chuckled, the sound distorted yet unmistakably amused. "Even my backup hacking team would be able to easily stroll through the pathetic encryption you people call ’secure.’ Honestly... I expected more from Helix Global."

Every masked figure froze at his words.

The suited man’s jaw clenched, "...State your purpose."

"Purpose?" the man on the feed replied, voice dripping with entertainment. "I could say I’m here to help you avert you downfall."

A few of the masked figures frowned at his words.

"What do you mean?" The man asked.

"Well you see," the collector started, "you’ve pissed off a very cunning person and he does not intend to let you walk free, so I’m here to offer a helping hand."

"Let’s say we do need your help," the feminine voice came again, "what do you gain from this?"

"Pawns of course," the collector answered without a bit of hesitation, "you see, I and OmniTech’s CEO are currently playing a complicated game of chess, I’m sure you kids won’t understand, and I need pawns."

"Helix is anything but pawns," one of the masked higher ups slammed his palm on a table, "we have survived a lot more than the temper tantrum of some CEO playing hide and seek while they can’t even protect their own important people."

"Is that what you think?" The collector asked, his amusement evident in his voice, "then you have no idea what’s coming your way."

"If what you say is true, then tell us why you’re here. What do you want, collector?"

"Simple," he answered before taking a pause. "You are now one of his targets."

"So I’m offering you a bargain. You give me a few of your... assets. Disposable pieces, nothing meaningful to Helix."

"Why?" one demanded.

"Because I need a few pawns to be sacrificed," the collector said casually. "And if you give me enough of them, I might... might... be able to redirect the blow when he comes for you."

"And if we refuse?" a masked figure asked.

The collector let out a soft sigh, as if disappointed by their lack of intelligence.

"Then I suggest you begin writing your wills."

With that, the line went static as the screen turned completely black, leaving behind the stunned higher ups.