The Rebirth Of The Hidden Heir

Chapter 6

Joey sat across from Ethan and Logan an hour later. He recapped everything slowly and precisely, like a good witness.

“The senator bragged,” Joey said. “Said everything they did gets buried. Said he has a drive somewhere, evidences like videos, audios, everything. Every crime they've committed, their partners every details. Then he turned to a director, the Bliss director and told him to clear any problems or face consequences.”

Logan fingered the edge of a file. “The senator named names?”

Joey nodded. “Yeah. He said inspectors get reassigned. Reports disappear. A judge gets nudged. The director promised to clean it up. He… he sounded like he expected to be untouchable.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened. “That director is their inside man. If he really does that, he’s the most dangerous link we have. He sits at our table and clears messes at Bliss Corporation for Rhodes.”

Logan leaned back and drew two lines on the map spread before him, one from the Rhodes hotels to Senator Rhodes house, the other from the Rhodes circle to the Bliss director’s office. “Good work,” he said quietly. “Joey heard what we needed.”

He paused, eyes cold. “We’ll set two teams tonight. One tail for the senator, someone who follows him, watch his car, his contacts, his apartments. We need a man on his movements. We need to follow him, he's our lead to the drive.”

“And the director?” Ethan asked.

Logan’s voice dropped even lower. “Put a shadow on the director. Follow his commute, watch who he meets at Bliss, who calls him from the Rhodes. If he clears messes, we find the paper trail. If he tries to do anything suspicious about the contract cancellation, we find who he pays to renew the contract. If he tries to burn evidence, we catch him.”

Ethan scribbled names and times, already dialing. “I’ll get Manny on the senator. He’s quiet, and stays at a distance. I'll call him tonight and he’ll be there by dawn. And I’ll send Claire to the director, she’s good at blending into corporate circles and fixing things.”

Joey watched them with the steady calm of a man who’d done this before. “That drive might be locked down. That senator said it’s in a safe place.”

“Which means we don’t follow him blindly,” Logan said. “We get the drive another way. It might be in his hotel room. If a cleaner accesses the room, we’ll have a cleaner’s key inserted by our man. If the senator moves the drive, we follow the transfer.”

Ethan’s fingers tapped the table. “So two spies. One on the senator, one on the director. What about Joey? You want me to keep him in place as a waiter?”

Logan looked at Joey. “Keep him ready. If the senator or director make a call that reveals a move, Joey is our early warning. He’s already in their orbit. He’s small and invisible. That’s his job.”

Joey nodded. He felt the muscles in his jaw set. “Got it.”

Logan spread a photograph of the hotel’s 12th floor plan and tapped room 1209 with a pen. “This might be his room. We do not rush. We gather. We collect proof that can be shown in daylight. If they kill a witness, we show more witnesses. If they delete files, we find backups. If they threaten the director, we let him feel the pressure.”

Ethan’s face was stony. “We’ll move tonight. I'll put Manny on the senator, and Claire on the director. Joey stays in the hotel as planned. If they slip up, we pounce.”

Logan folded his hands, the plan tightening in his chest like a fist. “Damian and the Rhodes think they humiliated me at a gala and in a lobby. They think their money shields them. They’re about to learn how quickly a shield rusts.”

Joey stood to leave. “I’ll go back tomorrow. I’ll listen harder. I’ll watch who goes in and out of room 1209.”

Logan watched him go, then turned to Ethan. “Once they see the first thread pulled, they’ll panic. People who panic make mistakes.”

Ethan tapped the table in agreement. “Then we watch the panic.”

Logan’s eyes didn’t leave the map. “And when they panic, we cut.”

Night had a hush to it when Ethan’s teams split. Logan watched the map for a long moment, then met Ethan’s eyes. “This week,” Logan said, blunt and quiet. “No mistakes.”

Ethan nodded and repeated the plan. “You’ll have eyes on both targets. Claire takes the director. Manny shadows the senator. Joey keeps listening at the hotel. If either slips, we close.”

Both spies watched their targets for a few days and then it was time to strike.

At Bliss Corporation, the maintenance crew worked late. The building hummed, elevators moved quietly, and most of the office lights were dim. Under the pretense of a server-room inspection, a lady with a maintenance badge, the technician Ethan had slipped into the company, then she rode the lift alone to the director’s floor.

She walked the corridor with the slow, ordinary step of someone who belonged. Passersby barely glanced. At the director’s suite, the tech greeted the receptionist with a practiced nod and the right paperwork. “Routine check,” she said. “Security updated the patch. IT told me to run the diagnostics.”

She frowned, looked at her with disgust then waved her through, Claire’s heart thudded in her chest, but her face wore the expression of a lady who fixes broken things and knew her job very well..

Once inside the director’s office, she worked quickly and quietly. She opened the laptop on the glossy mahogany desk, connected a small encrypted drive the size of a thumb, and moved with the calmness of someone who had rehearsed every second. She did not mutter commands aloud or explain what she was doing. She only watched the progress bar on the screen and kept an ear open for footsteps.

Outside, on a parked van two blocks away, Ethan’s small team monitored a live feed. They watched the director’s calendar, correspondence flags, and the technician’s heartbeat in micro-vibrations relayed by a collar mic. They guided her timing, fed her a heads-up when the director stepped out to take a call, and told her when the corridor would be empty.

Minutes passed like hours. When the laptop confirmed the transfer, the technician disconnected the drive, wiped trace logs as her team instructed her to, and closed the laptop. She straightened the chair, smoothed her shirt, and walked out the same way she’d come like an ordinary lady leaving a tidy office after a routine job. No trace or suspicion.

She met Ethan’s car two blocks away, slid the drive into a sealed pouch, and exhaled for the first time. “Got it,” she said. Her voice was steady, but her hands trembled just a little.

***

The senator’s hotel was a different kind of beast, private corridors, plush carpets, staff who knew their bosses and learned to nod at whims. Manny, the man assigned as the senator’s stand-in driver, had rehearsed his role for a few days. He knew which elevator stopped for staff, where the senator favored his coffee, how long he took to change when interrupted.

He arrived that night in a bland suit, looking like any driver called for a late errand. The senator’s aide recognized him, waved him up, and Manny followed with unremarkable obedience. The senator, in a private room on the twelfth floor, was surrounded by a handful of confidants, aides, a security man, and a slim folder that remained closed on the table.

“Bring him a drink,” the senator barked at Manny without looking up, as soon as the door of the hotel room opened.

Manny walked towards the wine bar and approached with a tray and nodded, pouring politely. He waited until he saw the senator reach for a napkin, then he accidentally bumped the tray. The senator’s glass tipped, wine splashing across his cuff. The room erupted with exclamations of annoyance.

“Get out of here, man,” the senator barked, rising to his feet. “This..this is amateur and unprofessional.”

Manny bowed, apologetic. “I’m so sorry, sir. I’ll get someone to clean it.” He retreated with practiced clumsiness as the senator left to change.

When the door clicked and the senator was out of sight, Manny moved. He wasn’t alone, through earpieces, Claire and Ethan’s techs fed him a silent cadence, on what to scan, where to look. His handheld lens swept the walls, the desk, the bookshelves. He kept his movements casual, like a man straightening cushions between tasks.

He noticed the seam almost by accident, a faint line beneath a picture frame, a hairline gap in a paneling seam. He ran his fingers, found a catch, and the picture came away from the wall like a loose tooth. Behind it, a small recessed locker. His chest hit his throat.

He reported in a whisper to the van. “Found something. A small compartment behind the frame. It could be the room’s safe.The place the drive is hidden.”