Darkstone Code

Chapter 1061 - 1059: Honey Pot

"I’ll go touch up my makeup..." With twenty minutes left before the celebration officially began, Austin voluntarily let go of Lynch’s arm.

Lynch agreed to her departure, and with the guidance of a female attendant, Austin arrived at the bathroom of the "President’s Mansion" in this miniature Kingdom.

If Paradise Island is considered a Kingdom, then the security forces on the island are this "nation’s" military, and the office building of Paradise Island Company is the President’s Mansion of this Kingdom.

Horn works in this building, and some inaccurate reports claim that during the construction of Paradise Island’s headquarters, six additional downward passages were built that are not on the design blueprints.

During the entire construction of Paradise Island, a foreign construction team was responsible for part of the foundational work, but their actual stay on Paradise Island was much longer than required for their job.

They spent about two-thirds of their time on the island and rarely appeared in front of people.

The external message was that they were constantly working out of sight, but some discovered that they seemed to be building some underground spaces.

This implies that if there’s something underground on this island, at least some passages are right in this building.

The celebration is taking place in the hall of this building, which is a great opportunity.

After arriving at the bathroom with the female attendant, Austin stood in front of a huge mirror, tidying up her clothes.

She was genuinely afraid that her melons might pop out suddenly from her two strips of cloth; she had been extremely cautious all evening. But it turns out Lynch was right.

They seemed ready to pop out at any moment, yet they never did, staying snugly hidden inside.

"Can you stop watching me here?" Austin pulled out her makeup kit from her purse, glancing at the girl standing by the wall not far away.

The female attendant smiled and turned around, showing her profile to Austin, her gaze fixed on the wall.

"I mean, can you leave? You’re making me very uncomfortable!" Austin had to send the girl away; otherwise, with her staring, Austin couldn’t do anything.

"Okay, ma’am!" The female attendant left the bathroom.

Listening to the footsteps gradually fade away outside, Austin quickly gathered her items, opened the door a crack, and confirmed there was no one outside.

She had observed when she arrived that directly opposite the bathroom was a closed emergency exit, which she noted had handrail stairs that should lead upward.

She stepped out of the bathroom, holding her lock-picking tool ready, and as her body pressed against the emergency exit, the tool was already inserted into the lock cylinder.

The door wasn’t locked, which was good news.

She pushed lightly, and disappeared into the corridor.

There were no stairs leading down, only upwards.

This time, her primary objectives were twofold: investigate if Paradise Island really had underground spaces, and if so, ideally find some entrances.

Her second goal was to attempt to approach Horn’s office and see if there was any valuable information inside.

Today was Paradise Island’s celebration ceremony, and Horn would be busy attending to distinguished guests downstairs, ensuring his office was empty.

This period was precisely when Austin would act.

Perhaps Horn didn’t realize that on the first day of Paradise Island’s official opening, someone would be thinking about how to infiltrate, leading to lax security across the island.

It also indicated that they weren’t professional; if Horn was willing to spend money and trusted Darkstone Security, he could entirely hire Darkstone Security’s professional services.

They would never allow a "small bug" to sneak into an "unimportant" emergency passage so stealthily.

From the first floor, she climbed directly to the twelfth floor, nearly exhausted and short of breath.

Although she was in pretty good physical shape, she was pressed for time this occasion, needing to ascend quickly, which temporarily overtaxed her stamina.

After taking a few breaths to steady herself, she pulled out her lock-picking tool again to open the emergency passage door on the twelfth floor.

The compact mirror came in handy at that moment; the corridor was empty. Everyone was downstairs at this time, and this floor housed the CEO and board members’ offices.

Regular employees weren’t authorized to work here, so it was silent.

She soon located Horn’s office and then picked the lock to enter.

Horn’s office wasn’t particularly small, featuring an indoor golf course, and a tank... She wasn’t sure what kind of fish they were, but their faces were bright red, with green backs and brown-yellow bodies, looking very agile.

The aquarium was very large, with at least a hundred of these fish, seemingly unafraid of humans. When Austin entered the room, the fish from all corners of the aquarium swam to the spot closest to her.

Some even attempted to bump into the glass, very aggressively!

She withdrew her attention, quickly moving to Horn’s office desk, where she opened the drawer.

Austin quickly opened one of several file folders in each drawer, but to her surprise, the documents inside were all blank sheets of paper!

The second, third, fourth were all the same.

Just as she sensed her mission this time might yield no results, footsteps suddenly echoed from the corridor outside.

Startled, she ducked behind the aquarium.

Behind the fish tank are some indoor plants, as large as a wall, seemingly arranged by Horn to create some kind of atmosphere.

This also provided Austin an opportunity to hide.

A dozen seconds later, the door opened.

Horn walked in, somewhat surprised at the group of piranhas clustered together, finding it odd.

Generally, these fish only cluster together when feeding, always like this.

Such a gathering without feeding, like today, is rare.

But at the moment, he had many matters to attend to, so he didn’t have the time to think deeply, just figured the fish might be hungry, and dragged out an iron bucket from the cabinet below the fish tank, containing chunks of meat soaking in bloody water.

He skewered two pieces and threw them in.

The fish tank instantly seemed to boil, those ferocious piranhas frantically tearing the meat chunks dropped into the water, which couldn’t even settle normally to the tank bottom.

Horn whistled, pushed the iron bucket back, and walked to his desk.

He unexpectedly glanced at the last drawer on the right side of his desk, which seemed not completely shut, slightly protruding compared to the others.

Hiding behind the plants, Austin cursed inwardly, some curses aimed at Horn, others at herself.

Fortunately, Horn didn’t become suspicious, he simply kicked the drawer shut and then picked up the phone on his desk.

"Hey, it’s me, I heard you were looking for me?", he opened the cigarette box on his desk, pulled out a single packaged cigarette, and then retrieved a small box.

Every Moment’s stuff is really freaking intriguing, everyone knows it’s not worth that much, yet everyone’s willing to buy it.

Because what they purchase isn’t the enjoyment, the quality, the cost performance, but the symbol of identity and status.

Whatever was said on the phone, Horn’s expression quickly turned unpleasant, and his tone carried a trace of gravitas, "I understand... Okay, I know, this matter won’t involve any of you, understand?"

"No problem at all, rest assured, no one can find us..."

"Alright, alright, I’ll arrange it as best as I can, we’ll discuss it when we meet, some things are inconvenient to say over the phone."

A piece of bad news.

The person on the other end has immense energy, one of the few truly big figures among those Horn knows.

Now this person calls to inform him that some Federation security departments are investigating him, advising him to clean up his act.

He reassures there will be no trouble, yet he still worries.

He’s managed, with great effort, to seize an opportunity, using his eloquence and ability, along with his storytelling talent, convincing many of his plan’s certain success.

He has struggled through various difficulties and stands here now, on the threshold of success, unwilling to give it up lightly.

Those afraid of poverty will never forget how terrible poverty is!

He doesn’t want to return to the past, doesn’t want to become that kind of poor person again, it would be better to die quickly!

He paced back and forth in the office with a cigarette in his mouth, glanced at the fish tank.

A few fish within it had already returned to their usual slow, free, and unbound wandering.

But still, plenty remained clustered, tails facing him, making him feel odd.

Is it possible... there’s something behind the fish tank?

He suddenly recalled how, sometimes, when he entered the room, these fish would stare at him as if wanting to eat him.

This thought brought an unexplained unease, he walked towards the plant wall.

It was close, close enough to be only a dozen steps away, close enough that Austin could already see the foot he had stepped out, preparing to subdue Horn, when the telephone rang.

Horn turned counterclockwise from his left, barely missing it, had he turned clockwise from his right, perhaps he would have seen Austin hiding behind the plant background wall.

He walked to the desk, picked up the phone, "Okay, I understand, I’ll be right down."

The time was nearing the scheduled appointment, and a Senator had arrived, Horn had to go down to meet him personally, without the slightest negligence.

He didn’t continue exploring the secrets behind the fish tank, turning away and leaving.

The footsteps grew increasingly distant and then vanished, only then did Austin breathe a sigh of relief.

She emerged and continued browsing through all the files in the drawer, every page was blank.

This also made her realize that this office is likely fake!

This is a fake office!