Keep The Serious Story Going

Looking into the matter, Kathleen discovered it was a computer error. Something about the name of the clothing business having the same name as another client. She put her top experts in programming to work on that. She then got a call from Scott, telling her he had found the evidence against Rachel.
"She's been quite a busy girl," he said. "and been up to more than you suspected."

"I'll skip over the gross part, but essentially she's been sleeping with men for information. Some give it to her easily, but others need...persuasion. Long story short, if the persuasion doesn't work, she blackmails them", Scott explained.
Kathleen opened her desk draw and took out her second phone. She has five in total. She called Wendy and put both phones on the desk and on speaker. Joint calls were too risky when it came to being traced.
"But here's the interesting part. For almost 8 months she saw one man once a week. Kenneth Wycombe. But that was about 3 years ago. However, she saw him again 2 weeks ago", Scott continued.

"Kenneth Wycombe? I know that name. He was vice president of MacroTech under Gil Bates. I wondered what he did after we shut them down," Kathleen said,=.
"There's more," said Scott. "Wycombe has a start up company called Prism. At least four of our recent 'patients' (code word for their victims) worked for Prism. And remember we never found him the other night? I have a feeling he was never there. We were set up."
"Wait," interjected Wendy. "Nobody outside of Dyad knew you were there that night. That means there's a spy somewhere within Dyad."

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on May 29th 2020 »

"I think I might know who it is. But we'll need her to come in and talk to us. It shouldn't be hard. Scott, can you tell the programmers not to fix that issue with the clothing? She'll be outside my office first thing tomorrow, no doubt", Kathleen asked.
Kathleen of course, was referring to the client who had issues with her orders. The client, called Steph, would've been here often enough to overhear critical information.
"But wait Kath. I haven't talked with Greene yet. What if he's the initial mole we spoke about?", Wendy pointed out.

"I don't think he is," replied Kathleen. "Greene's been with Dyad since the beginning. Why would he suddenly turn now? No, I think he's beeing set up. Probably by our actual mole."
"It's not Steph," Scott put in. "Did you forget she's on maternity leave? She's been out for three weeks."
"There is one other possibility," said Wendy. "Think about it. Who else was there that night?"

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on May 28th 2020 »

Kathleen was extremely confused. Steph had already been in the office tonight in fact. The often came in to complain. But she trusted Scott, and decided to forget about it.
"There were only 3 other people there who could've known. The first and most obvious is Ben, then there was the man who handed us the briefcase of medical instruments, and finally the man who shot Julie (they don't know that it was a fake Julie) could be someone else within the company", Kathleen suggested.
Suddenly, there was a knock on Kathleen's door. It was Ben.

« Last edited by Matt77 on May 29th 2020 »

The gun in Ben's hand quickly made it clear who the mole was. "I'm here to settle the score, Kathleen," he snarled. "You're not half the woman Julie was. The Julie you met the other night? She was a fake. The real Julie has been dead for three years. I'm the one who hired the sniper to take her out, but not you. I wanted to kill you myself."
Kathleen said nothing. Ben hadn't noticed the phones on her desk, and they were still on. Scott and Wendy could hear every word.

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on May 29th 2020 »

"Listen Ben. I've known you for 6 years. This isn't y-", Kathleen said before being interrupted.
"Do you remember...what I said...when I first met you?", Ben asked.
Kathleen knew. She also knew that Ben was using a specific code by pausing every 3 words, twice in a sentence. Scott and Wendy could clearly hear this too. But even though Kenneth was listening in, had no idea. It was only then when Kathleen subtly pointed to one of the phones. But was he legitimately using this code, or was it a trick?

« Last edited by Matt77 on May 29th 2020 »

Ben did not react to her gesture, or even acknowledge it. He didn't even glance at the phones. :Get up, Kathleen," he growled. "You're not going to die sitting down. And it's not going to be quick. No, I want to watch you suffer."
"Why are you doing this, Ben?" Kathleen asked as she slowly stood up.
"It's your fault Julie is dead. You tried to kill her that night when you pushed her out that window, but she survived. That doesn't matter, she became a target because of you," he said. "Julie was more than a boss to me. Don't you understand? I loved her! And she was--"
He didn't get the chance to finish. Four armed security guards burst into the room. One of them tasered Ben, then divested him of his gun.

Kathleen sighed. She was sick of her employees being moles. In just over 3 years, she had dealt with 27 employees who were moles. She only ever felt like she could trust Scott and Wendy. But even then, she always wondered whether one of them was a mole too. She couldn't properly trust anyone in Dyad. She decided to take a few days off work and go with Max and Christina to Seattle. While gone, she left Wendy in charge, with Scott working closely with her. And when Kathleen returned, she would have her interview the following day, and would then be able to continue the investigation of Kenneth, while also question Ben.
However, on her way back to California, she returned alone. Max and Christina were still in Seattle.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jun 3rd 2020 »

Kathleen had to return early because the interview had been pushed up; Max and Christina would be coming home in two days. After completing the interview, Kathleen briefly considered going to her office, but decided against it. It was still her vacation, and she was going to take some time to herself.
She went into the bathroom and drew a warm bubble bath, a luxury she rarefy afforded herself. She lowered herself into the tub, laid back and closed her eyes, enjoying the warm water and frothy bubbles. This was bliss.

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on Jun 3rd 2020 »

Suddenly she felt two hands holding her under. She wasn't strong enough to get out using force, but she was able to kick the attacker in the crotch. They didn't stop, so she came to the assumption that it was a woman. The attacker then jumped in the bath and held all four of Kathleen's limbs down. This was the end unless someone walked in and stopped the attacker. Kathleen couldn't see or hear, but someone did in fact open the door. But it was not who she or her attacker expected.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jun 4th 2020 »

"Mom!" cried a voice, a girl's voice.
The attacker was startled for a moment, and the grip on Kathleen loosened a little. But it was enough. She broke free of her grip and knocked her to the floor. Chrissy stood in the doorway, frozen with fear.
"Chrissy, run!" Kathleen shouted, but she didn't move.
The attacker was starting to get up, and Kathleen realized she had no choice. She leaped, naked, out of the bath and tackled the woman who had attacked her. She did not recognize her--probably a hired thug sent by Prism.

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on Jun 9th 2020 »

Max then rushed in, holding Brandon in his arms. He explained that he and Chrissy left Seattle early because Patricia had to leave town, therefore couldn't look after him any longer.
"She was going to k-"
"Shhh! It's ok." She turned to Chrissy and Brandon. "It's ok my little ones. This was just a very angry lady", Kathleen lied.
She then went to call Scott and inform him of what happened, But her phone was missing...

Had the woman taken it? The police had searched her when they came to arrest her and had not reported finding it. It was certainly not where she left it--she always put her phone on the desk, plugged in to charge, whenever she went to take a shower or bath. Looking at the desk again, she did not see a phone, but she did see something she had not expected, but was happy to see.

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on Jun 7th 2020 »

Wendy had left a note beside a package. Inside, was in fact a phone after all. She was in a rush with the investigation, and seeing as Kathleen was in the bath, she simply replaced the phone without saying anything. It was Dyad policy, for security purposes, to replace phones every 6 months or so. But then she realised; Wendy had to be here when the intruder broke in. How did Wendy not spot her? And if she did, why didn't she stop her?

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jun 7th 2020 »

There were two possible explanations that Kathleen could come up with for this. One, the woman had heard Wendy enter the house and hid. It would have taken efficient Wendy less than five minutes to swap the phones. The woman could have easily remained out of sight during that time, then attacked as soon as Wendy was gone. The other explanation, and the one Kathleen did not want to believe, was that Wendy was in on it. She has always trusted Wendy.

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Thankfully when she called two of her contacts to review the CCTV footage, it confirmed that Wendy arrived but never left. That meant she was still hidden somewhere in this apartment. Which was extremely odd, because it has been over 30 minutes since the attack. Kathleen asked Max to help her search the apartment. Kathleen's search was unsuccessful, but Max called something out in a fright.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jun 8th 2020 »

He had found the unconscious Wendy, bound and gagged, in the hallway closet. That was a third possibility that Kathleen had not considered, but put her doubts about Wendy to rest. Checking her out (Kathleen is a surgeon remember), she determined Wendy wasn't seriously hurt. They untied her as she started to regain consciousness. "Kath," she groaned. "Thank goodness you're all right,"

Wendy revealed that there was also a man who entered the apartment alongside the female attacker. They had tampered with the CCTV in order not to show their identities. But too bad for him that while he was fighting Wendy, she managed to snatch his wallet without him realising. His ID revealed him to be Jack Dane; likely a fake name.
"Have you seen the attacker? She looks so similar to Rachel", Wendy added.
Kathleen quickly stopped the officers before they took the attacker away. And yes, it seemed this woman looked very similar to Rachel. But she had long curly blonde hair and an Eastern-European accent. Rachel was British and had short, cut blonde hair.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jun 9th 2020 »