Fatal Attraction: The CEO & His Mischievous Wife - Chapter 183
Taking the letter opener, he sliced it through the top to create another opening. It was a smooth cut and thankfully did not cut into the letter directly. The ‘letter’ was around 8″11 but folded in half to fit inside the envelope. Sticking his index finger and his thumb inside, he gripped it by the fold and pulled it out. The fit was a bit tight, but he was able to grab it out without any tears.
Due to his gloves he couldn’t feel the material directly, but the paper felt tough. Almost like card stock which was a fairly easy paper to purchase. If it had been more special, he could have had the paper sourced and potentially narrow down who the sender was. The chances of the sender giving him that opportunity was low, but the thought still crossed his mind.
Fully opening the letter, he was careful to do it over the plastic bag. Just in case something fell out that he did not sense, then at least he could contain it within a bag. All of these actions were precautionary in measure but as he expected, there was nothing inside. With that set aside he could finally focus on the letter and what was written inside. The instant the writing entered his eyesight his eyebrows rose in surprise.
He had expected a couple of things when he first noticed that it was a letter, none of which matched what he was seeing right now. Since the cover had been in typewriter style then it was an automatic ȧssumption that the letter would follow. However, the letter had chosen a completely different route to what he would consider ‘cheesy.’
Internally, he was on high alert up to the letter, but the style of writing made him take it less seriously.
‘Why would they choose to do this?? How many films have they watched?’
A chuckle lingered in the back of his throat and almost slipped out. The letter was on cardstock and there was such a build up for this mystery person to send a magazine cut out of letters. It looked like your typical threat in an 80’s thriller. Pieces of magazines were cut out for each letter and were then glued to the paper to form the sentences they wanted. The letters were in a range of colours from green to purple and varied in size as well. He didn’t even read what the letters were saying since the font itself had stumped him for a couple of seconds.
The sender’s image in his mind had shifted from someone careful and near his age to a bit older. Either they were older or/and being dramatic was a preference. They were probably into films or it played a huge part in their life for this to be their first choice of communication. If it were true, the rest of the package would fall into line with that theory. A animal usb, no return address, a thinly veiled threat, all of these were typical movie tropes. No specific movie title came into mind but he knew that there were at least ten that matched that plot line.
‘Guess my life is filmy enough to receive shit like this now….’
He was curious more than anything to know who the mystery person was. However, he had more than enough things on his plate before this came off as ‘immediate’ and ‘important.’ Just as he had finished a call with Ying Ying then a call with Zhuang Wei, both of which did not necessarily go well. Then he was faced with this package with someone trying to play Mr. Stealth. He did not have the time or dėsɨrė to give it the attention the sender ȧssumed it needed. His current plan was to drop it off to one of his subordinates and have them investigate further. There was one guy he felt like would be best for the job, his name was M for short. He of course had another legal name but preferred a code name when speaking to him. Whatever name he wanted to be called was not a problem, if he wanted to be called grass feeder, he would be fine with that as well. What he valued about M was that he was good at his job and had a fair bit of nifty skills that helped him out. Things like item sourcing, history of unidentified objects, computer hacking, were all trades under his belt. The sentence “Jack of all Trades, Master of None” was the best way to describe M to another.
This usb could be just enough for him to keep busy and earn the pay that he was given. It had been a long time since he had caught up with M and inquired on the previous ȧssignments. This situation was beneficial since it was the reminder he needed to go back to M and check up on things. It would also be nice if M could take the ȧssumptions he had about the sender and verify or veto them.
His deductions seemed useless at first glance, since he technically had nothing really to go off of. Yet, they helped narrow down the suspect list. Figuring out criminal psychology and behaviour patterns were an integral part of war. Just by knowing a couple of things about them, you could use them to strategize against your enemy. When someone said ‘knowledge was half the battle’ they weren’t lying in the slightest.
He had a strong feeling that whatever he received today would not be an easy fix or a simple matter. No matter how childish he found the methods, an enemy was an enemy who he had to watch out for. Rubbing his eyes, he stopped his trail of thoughts and refocused on the letter in his hand.
It started off with the formal introductions, which added to the weirdness of it all. In what he ȧssumes his a threat or warning, what was the need for manners?
“T O M r HaN xILOnG, YoU hAvE…..”