Chapter 418 - 414: Spying

Alice's eyes rested on the place where it shouldn't have been, but she didn't seem to care. She could see that Ryder couldn't see because of shampoo, and his eyes were closed. 

She wanted to leave but she couldn't at the same time. After finishing the shampoo, Ryder reached out his hand to find the knob to turn on the shower.

Seeing that, Alice slowly walked back since she knew that he would be able to see after he did that. 

She left the bathroom and went back to her room, where she used the toilet.

Ryder turned on the shower, which fell over his head. He rinsed his head as the shampoo slid down.

After a few more minutes, he turned off the shower.

He picked up the shower and started wiping the body as he walked out of there, only to get stunned after seeing the door open.

He remembered closing the door. How was it open? Did someone enter? He thought as he frowned. 

He looked around, but he didn't find anyone. He wrapped the towel around his waist before he stepped out. 

"She isn't sleeping? Could it be that she?" He muttered as he wondered.

He knew that he couldn't do anything even if she saw since she wasn't saying anything. Asking anything was only going to embarrass her. He closed the door of his room before he started getting dressed.

He dressed in black clothes and made sure that his clothes were the least standing out.

He soon left the room.

"Alice?" He called out as he opened the door of her room.

Alice was covering herself with a blanket, pretending to be sleeping, but Ryder had a feeling that she was up.

"I am going to work. I can be late tonight. Don't wait for me. Use room service to order food and don't leave the room," he told Alice before he left.

Ryder left the hotel and walked towards the FBI headquarters.

It was only 6 in the morning. Ryder knew that the FBI office always had agents inside, but he still went so early to find people that were going to start their work after 6.

He wanted to find one such guy and observe him without being caught.

After walking for twenty minutes, he found a completely empty street which was surrounded by tall buildings on both sides. He entered the street and decided to hide his face.

He wore black gloves on his face and changed his shoes, and brought another one of the masks that he had purchased.

The mask this time was from another popular character nowadays. It was the main character of a famous series called Tokemon. The character was called Tash Retchum, who was a kids' favorite.

Ryder wore the mask with his face to hide his real face. After getting ready, he took one last glance at his surroundings. After making sure he was completely alone, he started using his abilities and flew up.

He flew straight up to the top of the building and landed on it.

After making sure there was no one on the roofs and no helicopters around, he left his conservations and flew straight towards the FBI building.

It didn't take him long to get near the building; however, he didn't go straight to the building. He stopped in the nearest building that was even taller than the FBI headquarters.

He decided to stay there. He brought out his binoculars, which he was going to use to keep an eye on the entrance of the building to find his perfect prey.

For the next hour, he kept an eye on the entrance and soon found a guy he thought had a high enough authority. It was a man who had come in a black sedan.

The man was dressed in a white shirt and black coat. He commanded an authoritative aura that made Ryder feel like he had a pretty high position. The agents at the entrance also greeted him with full respect, which made him even more sure that the person was the one he needed.

Ryder watched the man enter the place. After that, he started waiting. He waited for the man to come out of the building.

He realized the wait was going to be long since there was a good chance that the man wasn't going to come out until the evening, but he had already prepared for the wait.

While he was waiting, he also did something else. He had noticed the direction that the car came from.

It was mostly certain that the man lived in that direction, but he couldn't wait there as that was going to attract a lot of attention, so he did something else. He decided to change places, so he could be sitting in a building in that direction. 

He wanted to be closer to the car when it left the headquarters so that he didn't need to chase after it as much.

He once again found the right opportunity before he flew over to the other side of the FBI headquarters and landed on the building.

He again positioned himself to make sure that he couldn't be seen by anyone before he continued keeping watch.

The day started passing. Time seemed to be moving as slow as a snail. Since Ryder was waiting, it moved even slower for him.

He decided to do some time pass, but as he couldn't use his phone or take his eyes off, the only thing he could do was to call someone. 

As he thought to call someone, two names came to his head— Esmi and Herriet. He had last talked to the two of them at the same time, which wasn't that long ago. He was much closer to Esmi, so he called her first.

After only two rings, Esmi picked up the call.

"You finally remembered me, did you?" She asked, sounding upset.

"What do you mean? We last talked the day before yesterday. It's not even been that long," Ryder asked, smiling wryly.

"Are you out of the city?" Esmi asked suddenly.

"How do you know?" Ryder asked, stunned at the fact that she knew.

"It's nothing. Bastion came back to the city. He went to meet you at the new address you had given. He came back to inform me that you left the city, which was surprising since you didn't tell me," Esmi explained, sighing.

Ryder could feel that this call was turning into a complaint call at this point.

"It all happened so fast, and the stress of work, I couldn't tell you. I called you to tell you about it now," he made an excuse.

He knew that it wouldn't work, so before Esmi could point anything, he changed the topic subtly.

"Why didn't he call me, though? He went to meet me and didn't even call? Is everything alright?" He asked.

"I know you're changing the topic, but I'll let it go now," Esmi muttered, shaking her head.

"I don't know why. I think he brought a gift for you from his journey. He probably wanted to give you a surprise. That's why he didn't tell you, I think. After finding out that you were out of the city, he came back."

"Did you see what gift he brought?"Ryder asked, curious.

"I'm not sure," Esmi asked, shaking her head.

"Alright. I'll come back and meet him to see myself. That aside, did you find anything about the guys behind contracting to kill Bastion?" Ryder inquired.

"You don't have to worry about that," Esmi answered. "The right people will be dealing with that stuff."

Their conversation continued lightly about random things before it changed to some spicy topics, which even made Ryder stunned. He couldn't believe this was a conversation he was having when he was out on such a serious mission, but he didn't deny.

He engaged in the conversation properly, which lasted for two hours.

After two hours, Ryder disconnected the call since Esmi needed to get to some work.

After being done with her, he called Herriet to ask her how work was going and how things were progressing. He had already suggested to her the plans to make the Aviation Branch more successful, which was something he had copied from the main timeline where Herriet had come up with them on her own. 

Herriet made her company rise to the top using them, but now that she was part of Ryder's company, he gave her those ideas himself since he couldn't wait for her to come up with the ideas herself.

"Yeah. If everything goes the way planned, we could be really profitable," Herriet told Ryder as she smiled. "We can make a commotion in the business world."

"That's what my plan is. We won't only create commotion, but we would create explosions that will have everyone talking about us for months to come. It's just going to be the start," Ryder answered as he smiled.

"Alright. I'll call you later. Something important has come up," he said as he noticed his target come out of the building.