***
Chaeyoung was surprised to know that both the Kim and Zhang Family had been imprisoned, their estate destroyed from various reasons. Jungkook also informed her that Ryujin and the Hwang Family of Korea were arrested and obliterated on the same night. Their estates and businesses were bankrupt and sold.
"Wow." she said to herself as she watched Lisa's sleeping silhouette. The latter arrive really late last night, she did not even remember the time that Lisa laid next to her. Her wife is very capable yet, she would just wait for Chaeyoung's orders whenever they are together. Lisa pampers her and protects her. This woman is just the best wife in the world.
"Young Miss the car is ready for you downstairs." she heard Jin said.
"Okay… you stay here with Lisa. I will bring Wang Bolin with me. Tell Lisa the bank finally agreed to let me open the vault. I won't take long." she said as she got up and slowly walked out of the room.
The address that Jia Yan's father gave her led to this bank. Yet, it took a long time to have a non citizen opened the vault as they needed to a lot of proof of Chaeyoung's identity. This is because the person who owned the vault was considered a top client and is keeping this vault for more than twenty years already.
She let out a long sigh before she walked towards the VIP garage where Wang Bolin is waiting for them.
Chaeyoung went inside the car and thought about what she discovered during her search yesterday. When Lisa was dealing with the Kim and Zhang Family, Chaeyoung found out about a certain operation from the Queen's mouth. It was called 'Operation Hermes.'
As to the meaning of the word, Chaeyoung already had her guesses. Hermes is the god of thieves. This operation is just akin to the Zhou Family stealing the throne from the Lee Family.
However, she won't let that happen. From her research Chaeyoung knew that Henry Lee was planning a big scale cyber attack. As for the type of attack, Chaeyoung thought that Henry Lee might attack the power and maybe other establishments that would cause chaos in the country.
The only thing Chaeyoung does not understand now is the fact that the Queen and Henry's plan is a bit different from each other. They are supposed to be allies, so how come the Queen is making her own move?
After a good ten minute drive, the car slowed down and Chaeyoung got out of the car and walked towards the entrance of the bank. She then introduced herself and asked to see the manager who will be the one attending her today.
An old woman in her fifties instantly introduce herself to Chaeyoung as the manager. Then she led Chaeyoung into a very secure part of the building with a lot of security. She watched as the woman scanned her badge before entering a series of codes.
"This is the most secure part of the bank. This is where we keep the lockers of our VIP clients." she said after she did an iris and a palm imprint scan.
"This vault number that you gave had been with us for more than 20 years now." she added before she asked the code from Chaeyoung.
She immediately gave the code that she deciphered from the letter and watched as the woman entered the series of numbers and letter before a small click was heard.
"Take as much time as you need. After you are done. Please press that red button over there so I could come and get you." she smiled before leaving the room.
Chaeyoung let out a sigh before she looked at the vault that is now slightly opened. Whatever information that she will see in this vault might help her with Claire's real identity. However, for some reason, Chaeyoung is very nervous right now. As if something… sinister is waiting for her inside that vault.
Chaeyoung bit her lips as she stared at the vault in front of her. Her heartbeat was as loud as thunder, wildly racking against her chest. She clenched her fists before taking a deep breath.
'This is it.' She thought while trying to compose herself. She then slowly opened the vault and held her breath, as the light of the room slowly reached the innermost parts of it.
'Eh?' She looked confusedly at the box that was inside the vault. It looked ordinary, nothing but a brown box made of wood. It was not big, just about one foot wide and half a foot tall. She slowly took it out of the vault and carefully put it onto the table, which was at the center of the room.
Then, she slowly opened it.
Chaeyoung furrowed her brows when she saw a stack of papers inside the box. Articles and some photos were revealed, the moment she opened the wooden box. No letters, no hidden messages were inside. Just a lot of news articles and a small stack of papers that were neatly folded and held by a rubber band.
The news articles were written in the language of a western country. Chaeyoung guessed that it was the language of Italy. A country full of small gangs, mafias and mercenaries. It was a country, controlled and occupied by the most ruthless people in the world. That country was the home of mafia and drug empires.
This was not the first time that Chaeyoung encountered that language. However, she could only recognize a small number of words from the article. 'I need to learn this language as soon as possible to read these articles,' she thought as she continued separating the articles from the photos inside the box.
Though she could not understand the whole article, Chaeyoung could clearly see from the photos that those news articles were about an explosion that killed a lot of kids and innocent people.
Then, her eyes were glued to the last photo in the box. It was an old, yellowish photo of six people, wearing an all-black uniform.
"Military," she thought out loud before she held her breath in surprise. She held the photo closer to her eyes so she could see the features of the people on it more clearly.
The first one to the left was a western man who looked very tall and bulky. Chaeyoung wondered if he was the leader of the group. Then, next to him was another man who was half feet a shorter than him. He was holding a pistol and proudly showing it to the camera. Her eyes did not linger on the second person too much as she looked at the woman next to that man. The woman was sporting a bob with....
This woman…
Was her mother!
Once again Chaeyoung's heart started beating even faster. What was her mother doing with some western men? Why was she wearing their uniform?
Claire was smiling shyly, she was holding what looked like a military issued binoculars. To her left was a man who was looking at her, instead of the camera.
Chaeyoung narrowed her eyes at the man before she let out a gasp. That man looked exactly like Henry Lee!
Chaeyoung widened her eyes as she looked at the photo again. Her mother and Henry Lee were together in the same photo! Was it possible that they were members of the same military unit before?
Her eyes traveled to the person next to Henry Lee. It was a woman that was on the other photo with her mother. The photo that was given by Jia Yan's father. She was still smiling as she held her hands on top of Henry's head, creating some sort of letter V that looked like horns at the back of his head. The woman's other hand was also doing the same to the man next to her.
"Jia Yan's father," she murmured as she remembered Mr. Jia's photo from the internet.
Chaeyoung felt helpless while looking at the photos. Just who was her mother? Her mind was buzzing with ideas as she let out a long sigh and looked at the articles again.
She checked an article, trying to figure out the meaning of the words written there before looking at the date the article had been published.
It was just a few months before she was born!
A few months before her mother had run away from her father!
Once again she looked at the article.
'20 kids dead…'
'Explosion..'
'Unknown... Unknown... Unknown...'
She could not make out any proper information from the article!
Unable to figure it out, Chaeyoung looked at the last clue in the box. The stack of papers, which was held by a rubber band. She hastily removed the rubber band, her impatience and confusion were making her a little bit upset.
With all these clues, she was still clueless about her mother's real identity! How was that even possible! She should have studied that language before!
She then opened the papers and let out a gasp as she read the content.
It was an order! A letter to a Phoenix team to annihilate the source of some infection.
Now, what the hell was that infection?
...
"Are you sure about this?" Lisa asked Chaeyoung after she showed her the results of her online research.
"Yes. Lisa… look at this. This must be the real reason my mother has run away. She has not run away because of my father's identity. She has run away because she had done something terrible." She said while looking at the news articles opened on her laptop screen. "This explosion has happened nine months before my birthday! Nine months! She must have been pregnant when she left."
Lisa just continued looking at Chaeyoung's laptop. She was right, the explosion, which had killed a total of twenty children and fourteen other innocent people, had happened exactly nine months before Chaeyoung's date of birth.
"There must be something else… my mother is not this cold-hearted. She won't kill children. I know she won't do that." She said as she opened the letter that she had found inside the vault. "Look at this. The name of the sender was intentionally blurred. As if it was some highly confidential letter from a government or something like that."
Chaeyoung held the letter, carefully looking at the blurred message. There was no seal or anything that could help her distinguish the source of the message. Then, she held it up towards the incandescent bulb on chandelier of their room.
"What are you doing?" Lisa asked.
"Just checking for hidden messages or maybe something else." She sighed before putting the piece of paper back onto the table. "Lis, if I am right, then… my mother should be a member of the organization that has killed those children."
"We can't really determine it from these papers alone." Lisa said. After analyzing those articles and photos she could only come up with one conclusion.
"This can't be considered as solid evidence. What if someone has deliberately planted these images to make your mother look bad? To make you investigate something that is totally unrelated to your mother?"
"You have a point." She nodded. Chaeyoung was fully aware that she did immediately jump into conclusions. She didn't even think of it properly before she concluded that her mother was involved in that accident. However, who could blame Chaeyoung? It was, after all, concerning her mother-someone very important to her
"Lisa... what if she really was involved in this?" She asked, her face serious. "What if she really killed these people in cold blood?"
Seeing Lisa just stare at her, Chaeyoung added, "What do you think?"
"We don't know that yet. All these 'what if's' will only make us more and more confused. It will hinder us from carefully analyzing the overall situation. I think we should not jump into conclusions. We need more clear and solid evidence." Lisa answered. "I also think that it is the worst time to think about this right now. Tomorrow is the Cabinet meeting. We need to prepare properly." Lisa stated.
Chaeyoung closed her eyes before she slowly massaged her temples. Her research on her mother's past was already making progress. However, she really needed to concentrate on tomorrow's affairs.
"You are right."
...
On the next day, Chaeyoung and Lisa woke up early. The Cabinet meeting was going to start exactly at nine in the morning. However, Chaeyoung needed to arrive earlier than the Ministers so she could prepare for her presentation.
"Is everything prepared?" She asked Lisa who had just finished her call with the Chief of the security.
"I will be waiting in a safe house just two blocks away from the palace. Jungkook and Jimin will be with me. They will be in charge of tracing any suspicious activities on the palace's servers. If they detect anything, they will immediately send a signal to your phone." Lisa explained. "It has been encrypted with the best protocols that we have, so our communication will be safe."
"Are you ready?" Lisa asked.
The Cabinet meeting was something that usually took place quarterly. However, it could also be called in case of emergency. It was like a private meeting with the King, the Prime Minister, the Crown Prince, and all the Ministers.
Since it was an emergency meeting, it was being held behind closed doors, in a highly-secured place, deep underground of the palace area.
The meeting was being held in a secure room with a big, oval, mahogany table and leather-bound chairs. Outside of the room, around twenty guards always were being stationed. Moreover, the security in that area was impeccable.
Chaeyoung stared at the group of guards who were escorting her to the meeting room. There were actually six of them. They were all wearing complete body armor and holding long arm weapons. She wondered if this was something that they usually did during every meeting or it had something to do with the upcoming attack. Did Gideon prepare this as a security measure?
"Alright. We are here. You may come in now." She heard the leader of the group say after he opened the door of the room. 'It seems that some people have arrived early,' she thought when she saw the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister already sitting on their seats. Aside from them, Secretary Jia and other two Ministers were already present too.
"Good morning, Gentlemen," she greeted as she walked towards her designated seat, located just at the right of the King. She looked at the seating arrangements and was somewhat wondering why was the Prime Minister and not the Crown Prince seated at the left side of the King.
Was Gideon finally showing his claws towards his fake son?
With that in mind, Chaeyoung started preparing for her presentation, as more and more Cabinet members were arriving and occupying their seats. She was working on her laptop when she noticed her phone vibrating. Chaeyoung immediately checked it out and was somehow surprised seeing the context of the message from Lisa.
Someone was trying to hack into the traffic system of the capital city and six other big cities in the country.
Chaeyoung immediately clenched her jaws as a thought came into her mind. Was Henry trying to cause chaos on the outside by sabotaging the traffic lights? It would immediately cause countless accidents and maybe even deaths.
But why choose the traffic system?
Then, another message came through.
This time Lisa was telling that the same was happening to the power system and communication towers.
"Is everything alright, Miss Park?" She heard the Crown Prince ask, his tone was full of mockery.
"Yes... I just forgot to feed my cats." She answered while smiling at him. She wondered if this lousy Crown Prince was mocking her for coming here and falling into their trap, or he was mocking her for frowning.
"Oh... cats. I love to eat cats." Carlisle said. "They are good."
"Really?" Chaeyoung smiled at him before propping her head onto her hands. Her face was full of interest in the topic. "I love to eat people who eat cats." She then stared at him intently. Her eyes traveled from his head to his arms, before she licked her lips.
Her actions might seem seductive to some other people. But to Carlisle, they were really scary, to the extent that the hairs at the back of his neck raised, as Chaeyoung continued staring at him.
"You…"
"Pfft…" Chaeyoung suddenly laughed. "I was joking… Your Highness." Once again, she laughed at him. "You don't have to get that scared. I don't eat people. I just kill them, that's all."
"I promise..." she added before she winked at Secretary Jia who was trying to hold back his laughter. Seeing that she had already achieved her goal, Chaeyoung turned her attention back to her laptop as she opened a new window and started typing a new series of codes.
Carlisle, on the other hand, was gritting his teeth. He was about to retort and accuse Chaeyoung of threatening the Crown Prince, yet the Prime Minister held him back. Clearly, the Prime Minister was trying to stop him from falling into Chaeyoung's trap and creating a ruckus out of nothing.
He could only watch, as Chaeyoung happily typed on her computer while occasionally smiling to herself.
Carlisle looked at his wristwatch and smiled inwardly.
Five more minutes and the meeting would start. Then, at nine thirty... His mother would come, barging in, as the attack on the city would begin. He smugly looked at Chaeyoung, as he was silently mocking her in his mind. No matter how smart she was, she could not possibly have countermeasures against something that she was not aware of.
Mr. Choi told him that he had been preparing for this attack for months. There was just no way that Chaeyoung could counter their attack on the same day.
Today, Chaeyoung would end up being locked in prison while he… the Crown Prince of this country would get recognition and compliments. He would solidify his position as the one, who would be the next King after the current King's death.
And it would happen today…!!!
...
Meanwhile, Queen Alexa was already getting dressed for the great show. Everything had been prepared and she was ready to barge into the meeting room to have Chaeyoung arrested.
"Your Highness, a man with a surname Qin is here to see you." She heard a servant say.
"Let him in." She gestured before checking herself in the mirror. "You can leave now." She ordered the servant as she turned her attention to the handsome, young man in front of her.
"How old are you?" She asked. The man in front of her was very pretty. He was about 180 centimeters tall, with a lean physique and extremely pale skin. He was also very handsome with his tall nose and pink lips.
"Nineteen, Your Highness." The man answered.
"Good. Come, sit beside me." She smiled. The meeting was about to start, yet, Queen Alexa couldn't stop the itching that she was feeling lately.
As a Queen, who had been abandoned by her King, Queen Alexa had a weird way to take off the stress from her body. And that was through sex. However, her type of men was very different from Mason. She wanted someone young and handsome.
In her thinking, Mason had already abandoned her. So why shouldn't she enjoy herself with a beautiful, young lad once in a while?
This practice was not something that the Queen had developed overnight. In fact, this habit only started when she had got to know about Chaeyoung's existence. The amount of stress that Chaeyoung brought to her was tremendous, she could not even sleep anymore. Then, she found out that having this type of activity could make her more relaxed and could take away some of her stress.
Afterward, it had become her addiction. In fact, without doing it with a man more than half her age, she could not sleep anymore. Of course, she also had a very good way of silencing those men after she had already taken advantage of them.
At that moment, though the Queen was not really that tired, she decided to have a little taste before going to the meeting room. After all, she had already concluded that this day would end with nothing but success for her and her son.
It should not be so bad to celebrate, right?
...
The Cabinet meeting started with no problem.
At first, Gideon made a speech before he let the Prime Minister introduce the topic of the day. Then, Chaeyoung started her presentation for everyone.
"Miss Park, this project is highly sophisticated. Can you tell us its success rate?" One of the ministers asked.
"99%," she answered shortly. "I have previously made this technology for my own drone." She declared, surprising everyone in the room.
"Are you saying that you have a drone that can spy on someone? Now?" The Prime Minister asked.
"Yes, you are right." She nodded.
The Ministers began to whisper among each other. They were clearly having second thoughts on her words.
"Miss Park, have you tried using that device before?" Secretary Jia asked. "How come the satellites were not able to detect your device flying around Japan? If I may ask, the one that we saw hovering on top of Wang Empire's building, is it the drone that you are talking about?"
"Yes," she answered. "My drone has a special way to avoid the detection of all the satellites. Of course, that is different from the things that I will make for your military."
"What do you mean? Why different?" Every military force would dream about having a technology that could avoid all the satellites detection. How come Chaeyoung was saying all those things now and refusing to make that technology for Luxembourg's military?
"Miss Park, we are very much willing to pay you. No matter the amount. As long as we can have that technology." The Prime Minister said. 'This technology is something that no one ever heard of. Luxembourg need to own it at any cost,' thought the Prime Minister.
"It is not a part of my proposal." She answered. "I am showing it to you simply to let you know that the technology has been evolving at a very fast pace, and sooner or later someone else will create something like this. However, I am not planning to sell this yet, because it still needs many changes. This technology is not perfect yet. Now, going back to my previous topic..." she diverted the conversation. Her sole purpose in mentioning about her drone was actually to scare the Prime Minister and Carlisle.
Moreover, she was also planning to act ahead of the Zhou Family today.
"As a live demonstration, a drone is currently flying on top of this palace. This is the live feedback of everything that had been happening inside the palace," she said before she switched on the live feedback of the drone on the monitor.
A lot of gasps were heard, as everyone marveled at the sight in front of them. The drone was able to pass through walls. It clearly showed the interior of the palace, including its guards and the people walking inside of the palace.
"As you can see… we are here." Chaeyoung pointed at the left part of the palace. "And this is... the King's room." Everyone looked at the live feedback in front of them. Until some of them furrowed their brows.
"Ehem… ummm... Miss Park... What is that... On the ummm... Is that the Queen chambers?"
....