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墨書 Inktalez
I gripped the USB drive tightly, my knuckles turning white as the hum of the air conditioning in the surveillance room mixed with the pounding of my heart. Zhao Yong stood with his back to me, staring at the monitor, sweat staining the collar of his uniform a deep blue. "You think Wang Tao wants to silence us?" He suddenly turned around, slamming his tea cup against the metal table, producing a sharp clink. "Just based on this elevator footage?"
"There's more than that." I pulled out my phone and opened the photo album. In last year's team-building group photo, Wang Tao's wrist was adorned with a Patek Philippe watch that gleamed coldly. "Last month's audit report showed his monthly salary is twenty-eight thousand, but this watch is listed on the official website for six hundred seventy thousand." My finger swiped across the screen to a photo taken in the parking lot where a black Land Rover was slowly lowering its window. "This car is registered under his cousin's name, but last Wednesday when it rained—" I zoomed in on the photo, revealing a blurry profile peeking through the gap of the windshield wiper.
Zhao Yong's pupils dilated suddenly. I knew he recognized it; that rainy day in the garage when he had run into Wang Tao, he was wiping the moisture off his rearview mirror with a tissue. The old detective swallowed hard, grabbing his thermos and gulping down its contents, the goji berries clinking against the wall of the cup.
"The security shift change is at eight tomorrow morning." He snatched the duty roster, pressing down so hard with his ballpoint pen that it nearly punctured the paper. "I'll have Team Three arrive half an hour early." He circled three cameras on the fire escape diagram. "These angles are problematic and need maintenance." When he looked up, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes resembled shadows drawn by a pen. "You better not make me regret this decision."
The office building at three in the morning resembled a metallic skeleton, emergency lights casting pale blue spots along the empty corridors. As I stuffed a spare USB drive into a hidden compartment of the fire hydrant, my fingers brushed against the cold metal pipe. The sound of cables rubbing against each other echoed from the elevator shaft, startling me so much that my back hit the wall—it was just the cleaning lady's cart rolling over the tile seams.
The report materials lay open for the seventh time on the coffee table, coffee stains spreading brown spots over the percentage of "annual profit margin." Suddenly, my phone vibrated; an unknown number had sent a photo: Wang Tao's assistant was counting silver suitcases in the underground parking lot. I rushed to the window and lifted the blinds; beneath the LED sign in the parking lot, two shadows were loading something into a business vehicle's trunk.
Morning fog wrapped around the honking sounds of rush hour as it seeped into the conference room. I tugged at my tie, feeling cold sweat stiffening my shirt collar. A security guard in a baseball cap from row three nodded slightly at me—it was one of Zhao Yong's men adjusting camera angles. Amidst the buzzing sound of the projector starting up, I caught sight of Wang Tao leaning against the door playing with a lighter, its metallic cover clicking open and shut like a ticking second hand.
"Regarding new drug development costs..." My voice caught in my throat as a faint scent of bitter almonds wafted from the central air conditioning vent. Suddenly, Wang Tao straightened up; the blue flame from his lighter illuminated his suddenly tense jawline. The bar graph on the big screen began to distort as the head of R&D covered his mouth and started to gag, chaos erupting in the conference room.
"Electrical fault!" Zhao Yong's shout exploded through an instant as the guard in a baseball cap blocked off the emergency exit. I felt for a bump on the underside of my remote control—it was a miniature camera stuck there with chewing gum from last night. Wang Tao knocked over a chair and charged toward a side door but was met by a fire shutter that sprang open and hit him in the face; blood splattered across his tailored suit like dark red plum blossoms.
The Chief Financial Officer's coffee cup shattered on the floor, brown liquid flowing along the gilded seal of "Special Audit." I raised my phone; switching to live footage from underground parking—the syringe that fell out of one of those silver suitcases glinted under high-definition lenses. Wang Tao's roar mixed with sirens pierced through glass walls: "You fucking set me up!"
Zhao Yong's polished shoes crunched over scattered documents as handcuffs clicked around Wang Tao's wrist with a sharp snap. I released my grip on the edge of the podium; pain from splinters digging into my palm felt all too real at that moment. Morning light broke through clouds and spilled onto the conference table; those altered data points revealed their true form under sunlight like melting ice cream.
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