Heather pushed open the windows and turned around to smile at Leon as she inhaled the fragrant scent of the flowers in the air. “ Leon, have you heard of Caleb Moriarty?” Perhaps Leon knows something about him, she thought to herself.
However, Leon stared at her with a confused expression. In all honesty, he couldn’t quite recall this person at all, so he asked rather perplexedly, “Is he from Bradfort City?”
Heather shook her head in reply. “Could you help me look into this man? He’s a general from Leisfeld.”
Surprised, Leon wondered, How did she get involved with someone from Leisfeld? He furrowed his brows and placed his cell phone aside.
“Why are you asking me to investigate this person out of the blue?” he asked, needing a plausible reason from her.
Heather, on the other hand, said resignedly, “Today, he paid us a visit and mentioned our arranged marriage…” She couldn’t quite bring herself to mention the rest of it. Obviously, no one would be able to accept this sudden appearance of a so-called fiancé!
“Arranged marriage? Between you and him?” Leon stared at her with an incredulous expression. What the heck? They don’t even know each other!
Generally, an arranged marriage was all due to benefits, but he couldn’t comprehend the reason for this arranged marriage between Heather and Caleb. After all, he couldn’t see what benefits their marriage would bring to the Langstons.
“I’m equally confused too! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have asked you to investigate this person,” Heather muttered with a glum face. There’s no way I’ll agree to this arranged marriage with Caleb!
I’d rather choose Matthias over Caleb! Truth was, she herself was quite surprised by her sudden notion. Leon noted the indignation on her face and wondered, Did Caleb do something to offend her? Why does it seem like she hates him so much?
“Do you dislike Caleb?” he asked carefully.
“It’s more than just dislike. Frankly speaking, I loathe him. I presume you are aware of the current situation in Leisfeld? For him to achieve his position, surely there would be a lot of innocent lives who suffered from his actions.” Heather could not bring it upon herself to have good feelings toward one who disregarded human lives. She intensely disliked Caleb’s pair of eyes that resembled a deep, lifeless pool of water that lacked glimmer.
“I know what you mean, but we can’t quite judge whether people like him are good or bad. You, however, have biasedly decided that he’s a bad guy.”
“Come with me into the bedroom.” Leon considered the situation before mentioning that. Heather’s words had managed to pique his curiosity.
His set of tools were stored in his bedroom. As soon as Heather walked in, she furrowed her brows. How did his bedroom get to this state?
She was met with the sight of an extremely messy room; there was even an opened bag of potato chips on his bedside table. How can Leon live in such a mess?
“I’ll send the cleaners over tomorrow.” Heather couldn’t stand this mess but she was quite anxious to get the important things sorted today, so it wasn’t the best time for any cleaning right now.
Meanwhile, Leon stared at her questioningly. He reckoned that his room was quite tidy, and he had even sprayed some air freshener too. Why is she giving me such a disgusted look?
“I can clean my own room and I don’t need a cleaner,” he protested vehemently. I can do this quite nicely, so there’s no need to hire a cleaner!
However, Heather didn’t want to pursue this topic regarding hiring a cleaner further and she thought to herself, I don’t care what he says but I’m definitely sending the cleaners here tomorrow! Out loud, she said, “Let’s put that aside for the moment. Find me the information on Caleb first.”
Leon nodded to indicate his response before he headed straight to his work desk, which was chosen for him by Heather. The minimalist, European-designed desk looked simple yet elegant.
Then, he switched on his computer. Truth was, he had spent a lot of his pocket money on this machine; it wasn’t like any ordinary computer and it was actually his personal computer, which belonged to him exclusively.
Leon didn’t take much time to investigate Caleb this time around. This was all due to the ample and detailed information provided by Heather.
He flicked through the information and it confirmed her deduction. Caleb is indeed a military general! Staring at the picture of Caleb in his military uniform, Leon concluded that Heather was quite right in her description. This guy does tend to instill a sense of fear.
“How did someone like him seek an arranged marriage with you?” Leon asked this with a look of disbelief on his face. He’s young and talented with a bright future ahead of him. Shouldn’t he be going after someone with a political background to further cement his position? Why did he go after one with a corporate background all of a sudden?
“According to him, our families were close to each other during Grandpa’s generation,” Heather murmured, but she was skeptical about this because Robert clearly didn’t look enthusiastic upon seeing Caleb. The former was at most in awe of the latter.
That’s not how close family friends would be around each other. Besides, Caleb didn’t even show Grandpa much respect, so I don’t believe that they’re our family friends!
“But how is that possible? Leisfeld and Bradfort City are miles apart from each other. I don’t quite understand your definition of close family friend,” Leo remarked snidely, feeling perplexed by the situation.
Just then, Heather pointed to a string of words on the computer screen. “Look—Caleb’s of Asian descent and the Moriartys actually originated from Bradfort City, not Leisfeld.” She shot him an annoyed look. He seems to be enjoying himself making snide remarks about the situation.
“Sorry; I didn’t notice that. I have to say, he’s quite a legend to have achieved the position of a general in Leisfeld despite being of Asian descent, and at less than forty years old at that!” Leon couldn’t help but admire the other man. After all, it was quite natural for men to have their goals and to yearn for power too.
Heather, on the other hand, looked at him quite solemnly. In fact, she was quite unhappy to hear these words.
“Are you trying to say that I’m not good enough for him?” she questioned with a sarcastic tone. Frankly, she had no interest in Caleb.
“Heather, you sure have a great imagination!” Leon muttered and he had the sense that he couldn’t seem to communicate with women well, as each of them seemed to be on their own planet somehow.
“Can you get me a more detailed report? I can’t find anything on the Moriartys relationship with us, and this is the most crucial part!” Heather tugged on Leon’s elbow and persuaded him; right now, she could only depend on his skills.
“It’s not that simple. Leisfeld keeps a tight lid on the information of their military staff, especially with him being a general,” he said with a troubled look. Although he was an experienced hacker, there were some things that were difficult to achieve as well.
“So, do you need to hack into Leisfeld’s Department of Intelligence to get the true information on Caleb?” Heather made a quick guess.
“That’s about right. The details of their important military personnel are stored safely in the database of the Department of Intelligence,” Leon said this with a resigned look, and there was nothing else he could do about it.
“Forget about it then. I’m worried that you’ll eventually get kidnapped by some Leisfeld secret agent because of this someday,” she playfully remarked. I guess this is all the information I can get.
“It looks like you lack confidence in my skills.” Leon winked at her with a playful look on his face. “Although I don’t dare to hack into the Department of Intelligence, I’m actually quite good at gaining speculation and news from my informants. I can’t guarantee the authenticity of the information, but at least we can cross-check all the information and compare everything. We should be able to get the big picture by doing so.” In fact, Leon was quite confident in himself; his previous actions were merely a joke and he quite enjoyed pulling her leg.
“Hurry up then!” Heather rushed him urgently. She had no time to entertain his antics as she was quite anxious to obtain detailed information on Caleb.
“Be patient. Data analysis isn’t that simple and there’s quite a complicated process involved. You should join me.” Analyzing all that data was not only a boring job, it also required great judgment. Just then, Leon felt quite energized at the thought of having Heather working with him.
“How long will it take?” She glanced at the time. If it takes too long then I might not make it for dinner.
“If we’re quick enough, then one or two hours would be sufficient; otherwise, it could take us half a day if we’re not that productive.” For now, Leon couldn’t quite give a specific timeframe as he hadn’t started on it yet.
“I need to start preparing dinner in two hours’ time,” Heather said this with a solemn voice. Cooking dinner was a serious event for her as she had never cooked for anyone else before. This was her first attempt today and it was all for Leon.
“That’s not a problem. Let’s do this first. I must say that I’m so lucky to have you cooking for me!” Leon exclaimed excitedly. He was so happy that he nearly wanted to burrow himself into Heather’s arms.
“Hurry up and do your work!” She pushed his head, which was moving closer and closer to her, aside without hesitation. This boy is so hyperactive and I don’t want to be his mother figure.
In the end, Leon quickly dug up information on Caleb and recorded everything he found—regardless of its authenticity—into a Word file. Meanwhile, Heather looked at him working so skillfully and lamented in her heart, This is my first time seeing him do this.
After some time, Leon finally finished his data collection and he had compiled a fair amount. That was all obtained from multiple different sources, and he had hacked into every other website except for the government agencies.
Heather opened the Word file and she immediately had a headache upon seeing all the words bunched up together. As for Leon, he had done this for the whole afternoon yesterday as well, and repeating this today was a pain for him too.
However, he had his own specific method to remove any similar information and just retain one of it. In no time at all, half of the information was deleted from the Word file.
“Look—everything is starting to fall into place.” He signaled to Heather with a comical expression and he beamed widely at her as he looked at the end result, feeling a huge sense of accomplishment.
Meanwhile, Heather glanced at her watch and saw that one and a half hours had passed without them realizing it. “How can you determine the authenticity of all of these results?” she questioned curiously.
Leon smiled without answering her question and he asked, “Isn’t it time for you to start on dinner?”
“I’ve got another half an hour to go, so I’d like to briefly go through this information first.” In all honesty, she couldn’t wait to look at this half-finished work.
However, he rejected her outright as he smiled cunningly. “Heather, why don’t you go and start on dinner earlier? I’ve got one last step to finish and I should be able to finish my work once you’re done preparing dinner.”
It seemed that Leon intentionally wanted to string her along. Heather looked at him indignantly, but all she could see was him clicking on the close button for the Word file. From his actions, it was quite evident that he wasn’t prepared to let her join in on the last part of the analysis.
“Okay, then.” She curbed her curiosity and left. After all, it would only take at most one to two hours for her to access the information. There was no need to be anxious about things right now.
And so, she walked out of his bedroom and shut the door lightly after her. Leon then shifted his gaze back to his computer screen and rubbed both of his eyes. I’ll eventually overwork my eyes if I keep this up. He yawned and prepared to continue his work once again.
Very soon, the answer would be revealed and he had his own method to authenticate the information. It was quite a complicated process and it required a lot of brainpower, so he reckoned he would be overworking his brain soon.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Heather was preoccupied by thoughts of Caleb. A while ago, she had noticed something amiss in the pile of information she had seen. Although she wasn’t sure of the authenticity of the information right now, it kept popping up in her mind.
The Moriartys originally owned a corporation in Bradfort City and had close ties with the Langstons. Furthermore, the Harts were also closely linked with the two families as well. Never in a million years did she expect the Hart family to be implicated too. As far as she knew, since young, the Harts and their family steered clear of each other.
However, she was quite surprised to note the link between the three families and wondered what happened back then. It seemed that something major must have occurred then and been kept a secret, and she couldn’t help but link this to the incident where Myra and Tony were trailed by someone when they were abroad. Perhaps the incidents are linked?
