Felicia raised an eyebrow. The culprit was quick. As soon as they realized she'd infiltrated the backend surveillance system, they retaliated, attempting to delete all the footage. What a wishful thinker!
Felicia countered, her fingers flying across the keyboard. She activated a counter-surveillance program to track the hacker's location. The hacker, startled, scrambled to erase their traces. Felicia was faster, closing in. Just as she was about to obtain their location, the plane hit turbulence.
That jolt caused a keystroke error, allowing the hacker to escape, their presence concealed. Both devices returned to normal; the surveillance footage was completely deleted. Felicia's eye twitched as she tossed her tablet aside.
Scarlet had watched intently. She understood the intensity of the clash between Felicia and the hacker—a battle of speed and skill, a back-and-forth of hacking and counter-hacking. Felicia almost won, if not for the turbulence.
Scarlet swirled her wine, finishing it before asking, "Do you know the missing woman?"
"Not exactly. I've only met her once," Felicia replied, leaning back, glancing at her hand. Her voice was soft. "I almost killed her. A little more, and she would have been dead."
"Huh?" Scarlet perked up. "Care to elaborate?" She didn't believe Felicia would have almost killed someone for no reason, unless…she'd lost control.
"Exactly," Felicia chuckled. "That's why I hired you. When necessary, I need you to tie me up, knock me out, or…"
Before she could finish, Scarlet interrupted, "While getting paid to beat up my boss sounds fun, I don't want to kill you. Who would pay my salary then?"
Felicia remained silent. Scarlet patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. As long as I'm here, I won't let anything happen to you." Felicia shook her head, unconvinced.
The distraction almost made her forget the pressing matter. She returned to her search, spurred by the old woman's plea about her missing granddaughter. To her surprise, she found other similar cases—all involving young women, recently missing. The cases, from different locations and circumstances, shared a pattern: families reported missing daughters, but the cases lacked public traction.
Felicia browsed comments, the most frequent being, "Missing? With looks like that, she probably ran off with a guy!" A disgusting comment. Felicia furrowed her brows. A string of missing person cases, all involving young women. The longest case was two months old; the most recent, Jennifer's, only a day. Coincidence?
Felicia tapped the table, looking at Scarlet. "When we reach Seldvale, I need you to help me investigate. Start with Jennifer's disappearance and track down her boyfriend."