The Man I Became... Because of You (Completed)

A Tiny Step Towards Progress

The entire hotel from top to bottom was searched. Where the fuck could they have possibly gone? Not Pete, any part of him, nor the two women recorded dragging him alive and well into the elevator could be found. How was that humanly possible?

Ae's phone rang. It was a special ringtone picked by a man who had a girl group weakness. Twice's Fancy was an awkward crash into such a heavy moment. Still, it was a welcome sound to Ae.

"Koda. What do you have?"

"More like I want what they have! It's like a universal remote. Who ever created this thing is a genius! I would be their fuckboy just to look at it much less get my hands on it!"

Ae hadn't head Koda this excited since the first time he finally hacked into the Medthanet security, a challenge he had set for himself, refusing any information from Tin.

"A remote? Like they point it at the camera and press a button and the camera has to listen?"

"Essentially. The dumbest move they ever made was not coming back for this after it fell! They must have another one." His excitement was so thick that Ae almost felt like Koda was right in front of him with the levels of energy coming through the phone.

"So Crazy is intelligent." Ae muttered softly. Koda still heard him.

"A super brain if I do say so." He stated proudly as though discussing his own child.

"Not so super. Book smart maybe. But common sense says leave no evidence." There must have been a threat in his voice because Koda went quiet and Thalia was looking at him like she was totally on board.

Once those words left him mouth, something in Ae seemed to have caught up with the situation. He had felt like it wasn't real. Like he was drifting, viewing reality but blocked from it. That feeling couldn't last forever though. 

"Unless this evidence is deadly. Where are you? Still at the hotel?"

"Yes."

"Did you tell the police about the remote?"

"Not yet. I was going to but I wanted to check it out first." Koda admitted softly because, let's be real here, he was tampering with evidence.

"Don't tell them because I think your genius may very well want this thing to be taken in to the station. Or not. I don't know their hidden agendas and it doesn't matter to me at this point in the game. What I do need you to do is take this remote thing to my place. The one we initially looked at to store my statues before we decided it was too far away and hard to access."

"I see." Koda said but he sounded uncertain.

"No you don't, not yet. You have to take it directly there. Do not pass home. Do not go anywhere else that belongs to any of us or is within the range of this remote. Go directly there. If you need your stuff then I'm going to have to trouble you to leave that thing there and go back for whatever you need. Ok?"

"Yes. Will someone be there to monitor the warehouse when I'm not in it?"

Ae looked at Nigel who nodded. "Yes and thank you Koda."

"No problem. If someone shows up to recapture this thing then we'll be ready and waiting for them."

"And Koda, you may be in the dark there for a while ok?"

"Oh. I understand. Just in case, right? I expect the next call for you to be good news ok."

"Thanks for understanding. That thing may be more than a remote." Ae cut the call and looked at Thalia.

"I will have to trouble you for that information Cassie mentioned. However I need something more."

"You got it. Talk to me." It was kinda sexy looking at Ae's brain work and if she was that interested in men, she would have totally made a play if he was free. He was really good at looking at all the individual trees with their unique capabilities and finding ways to make them work together and form a forest. He was the ideal team player.