"That was cool. You really brainwashed them."Aster was very impressed."Oh, please. It's like managing a kindergarten. They are just greedy but they are not evil. The person who played them is your enemy. You should control these people so he wouldn't make them go against you at the right time."Aster became thoughtful. He was actually prejudiced against them. When he was young, there were two kinds of people in his mind. Good and Bad. But now, seeing what Lia had done, he felt that people were greyer. They weren't in the extreme ends of the spectrum but they were always oscillating here and there.Like she said, one enemy less was good. "Then according to you, how should I use them?""They can be good spies if you can allow them."She just said this but Aster had a whole level of different ideas. She was right. He had to use every resource to find the murderer. Why was he wasting this group of wonderful people because he had a grudge against them?If not something else, he should u
"I need money."Aster was not surprised when he answered Lia's call."It's not a month yet. I can't give your salary now."Lia rolled her eyes."I need money because I have to invest in the transformation plan."Transformation plan? What was that?He asked the same question."What's this now?""I have to spend money to become friends with the aunts. I arranged a spa day for them. And I need money for that. You are my only investor. So, I came to you."Aster understood the matter now. So, she wanted money to spend on his aunts. He never thought he would willingly give them money one day. But impossible inherently means I'm possible."I'll transfer money to you now. Any other problem?"Lia was done with her problems for now. "No. I will hang up then."Ding.She opened the notification.AsterB transferred 10,00,000 to you.Wow. 1 million. Just like that. But the spa day wouldn't need that much, right?Lia wanted to see how the aunts reacted on that day.Seeing her involved with her phone
"You are bleeding!"Lia exclaimed. She felt the world spinning. "Come with me."Aster leaned on her and took her away. By the time the surrounding people understood, Aster had taken Lia away."You should go to a hospital. I'll call 108. Wait where's my phone? The one time. I don't have a phone with me. What to do?""Calm down. Take my phone and dial the first speed dial. Someone will come. Take me to my apartment."Lia supported him and took the elevator. She used the exclusive one that opened in his apartment. It just used his biometrics as identification. Otherwise, she couldn't have entered the lift, she guessed. "There are mechanisms such identify me. Some are invisible. So, it should be nearly impossible for any intruder to appear."By the time, she had settled him, the doorbell rang. A tall man entered and he instantly focused on Aster. She went out and stood there. She was worried. It was the first time she saw blood like this. Normally whenever she and her brother got hurt
Asher spent so much time in Lia's home. Because her mother loved the kid, he was treated on a whole different level.Her mother's precise words were "This kid is so good. You guys were just like monkeys always troubling me."Listening to this, Jake made a face at her. He always had to listen to this kind of scolding because he was naughty. Lia had always complained about him and he had received his share of scolding. The only thing was that their parents never hit them. Her father just gave them a look and they became honest. That is because they had just received scolding and a lot of angry faces. Their mother had a relatively mild approach. She just made them do all the chores without allowing any entertainment. They would work and reflect on themselves. It was enough for them to go apologize later."Grandma, I want that."Asher pointed towards a cookie on the page and their mother immediately got up to make those. That kind of treatment was something they never received. Jake wa
Liking is reflective. Liking is involuntary. Liking is unreasonable. Liking is voluntary.After everything, liking is reasonable. You can't choose who you like. Sometimes, it just clicks. Maybe unconsciously, you start liking someone and then realise suddenly. And then you know, you start to fall in love. No matter how much you want to stop this, the train never stops at any station and finally reaches its destination.Falling in love is like falling asleep. You just do fall. You can stay awake but finally, you have to admit it. But these are wonderful feelings. Not everyone experiences this. When you do, you will know.Lia also knew at this moment. Because it just struck to her when Aster spoke about his future wife. She wanted to be the one who took away the book he read when he fell asleep. She wanted to make sure he was safe. She liked him. That's just her liking part.But what about her reality? Let's imagine everything is solved in the end, then what? She had to separate from
"You are being so forthright with me."Lia could hear the sneer in his tone. She was shocked to see that Chris was behaving this way."Anyway, I have to rest. Can we talk later?""Why are you acting weird?""I'm so sorry. I would have talked with you for a while. But I'm feeling sleepy. Maybe i can still talk with you."Why was Chris not reading the situation? Aster was not well.If she could come out, she would have taken Chris back."Pretentious."Chris left."He is gone. You can come out."Lia came out from the corner. She was nearly found out."I'll go back."She practically ran away. Aster couldn't find the reason so he said nothing.Lia just came back to her room and then her door was knocked.This time it was Jake."We are going to play Karaoke Cats. Wanna come?"She had nothing else to do.She stood between Chris and Jake and started the game. They had to sing while jumping to catch the treats on their turn. She was surprisingly good at this. Jake missed almost all the time.
Aster spent most of the time working and resting. But he was also doing some other things. Like interrogating. He wore his headphones and he could listen to the words being exchanged by his assistant Ray and the people they had deemed suspects."Mr.Aster, come and sit here."He was called by Jake for a lunch date. Asher was also with them. Aster was having the best of both worlds by listening to Ray and watching the family."Aster, what are you doing?""Mrs. Carver, just some work stuff. I will be free in five minutes.""Kids these days. You always work. Look at Lia, she is nose-deep in her laptop and Jake is always living with his phone. you should spend some time with nature too."Aster smiled like a good boy. Chris snorted seeing this."I will listen to your words, Mrs.Carver. Definitely."As a gesture, he removed his earpiece and sat peacefully. "Pretentious," Chris mumbled."What's that now?""Nothing, Aunt. I was just clearing my throat."Aster kept smiling like seeing this d
The lunch was over and everyone was just sitting watching television. Because the autumn festival was arriving, there were many galas on the channels. They watched the national channel and enjoyed the programs. Asher was sleepy. Aster took him to the secluded sofa and allowed him to sleep. He tucked him in and came back to watch the program. Lia's mother went back to rest and there were now four of them watching television. Chris and Jake fell asleep lulled by the television. Lia was also nodding on and off and then she also dozed. Aster was the only one who couldn't sleep. His wound was itching and he couldn't really fall asleep. He took a shawl from the corner and put it on Lia. He completely ignored the two guys and went to the balcony. He closed the door and called Ray. "Have you followed him?" "Yes, sir." Ray answered. "He stays home every day and I never saw him coming out." "Are the lights turned on in his house?" "No, sir." "He left then. Maybe in disguise." Ast
The date was wonderful. When they came back, Lia couldn't stop smiling."So, I'll see you tomorrow. "Aster dawdled without wanting to leave. Lia smiled and nodded. "Yeah, you go first. I'll wait for your signal."Lia left first and opened the door to Jake's face."Have you son some lottery again?""Noo!"Lia wanted to stop her face from smiling like an idiot but it was proving to be hard."Then your experiment was successful. I knew it, let's celebrate by eating leftover ice cream from yesterday."Lia didn't pay attention to him. At this point, she didn't need to pay attention to him as he was already taking out ice cream. She slipped away to her room.Lia then opened her window and opened the balcony curtain. It was yellow, and the signal successfully alerted Aster. He smiled and sat in his room, waiting for Asher to come back.Aster wanted to talk to his brother and tell him how happy he was today.It was like he was floating. And nothing could stand in his way or hurt him today.
Butterflies were dancing everywhere. Lia felt like she had eaten some and some were flapping around her.That was really hilarious to think. But the thought of dating Aster sent her over the edge. She was being foolish but she was really happy.Lia cleaned her desk three times in a row before managing to calm herself down.Aster- How about we go to the museum today?Lia sent a reply lightning-fast.Lia- YesMuseum date, haha.She would love it.Museums were interesting and she would get to see a slow motion world there.No crowds today and more time to watch the exhibits she loved.Like the historic paintings and fossils.Lia wasn't worried about other things because she found herself wondering. The impact of the dating was this. She found herself double guessing her double guessing results.Finally, she dressed herself in a very casual way.And like always, she left her apartment with a note taped to the door. In case her brother wanted her to a grocery run, he could see the note and
Lia- YesAster grinned happily and he wanted to do a cartwheel. That ended badly as he knocked over the vase on the table. But that didn't damp his enthusiasm.It was a feeling he never experienced. It was like he was living in a fluffy cloud and he was made of a fluffy cloud too.The high he was feeling made him forget so many things. For instance, the stupid contract he made then. And the threatening things in their lives. And the fact that he never told her that the Lexor family was related to her.Yeah, love has selective vision and he was the perfect example.Lia was somehow the more clear headed one in this scenario. She just started working on her game. Lia had this habit. When she was bursting with something, she would try to delay it with some other work as a tactic. And when she felt somewhat calm, she would deal with it.This only worked for ten minutes and she kept having flashes of Aster. Lia sighed and smiled."Stupid Lia!"This showed that her tactic wasn't working an
"Do you want to confront him?"Marvin asked Aster.Aster really wanted to ask that person how could he betray his family. This guy was his mother's cousin. And to do this, it was really bad. Simon had sent so many items from his mother's collection and they were more or less bad. Similar to the stuff the old man gave. Now he was really doubtful about the old man too.Was he also involved in this shady stuff? Was he the mastermind behind this operation?Aster didn't know."What's the guarantee that he will tell me everything if I ask him?"Lia nodded. Yes, he could lie. Then they would lose their edge by making the enemy know that they were onto him."Yes, you are right. I think all of the people we found are scapegoats. If it was that easy to find him, your brother or your parents would have found him. And to keep doing this stuff for such a long time, he should be somewhat proficient, right?"Lia rambled.She really thought that way. "Also, we found this organization. Maybe there are
"Yes, the animal categories are very disturbing. It makes no sense why they used that but then again, it all depends on the person who is making the categories. If it was me, I would give them artistic names. Like painting, singing, dancing, you get it, right?"Albert answered and chuckled.But who asked him anything about this? No one. He was very interested in knowing and answering questions. "Hey, you are still working on the cats' folder, Marvin is now combing through monkeys."He also provided status updates.Good guy.This was making Lia nervous and competitive. She felt like she was taking a competitive exam and she had only thirty minutes left to solve half of the question paper."Got it. Your decryption algorithm worked, let's see the results."They all surrounded Aster."Let's see the first image."It was actually a cat playing with a red dot but after the decryption, it became something else.There were words instead.59 million gain 15 million lossAJ recruited"What's thi
Lia watched Aster set up the equipment and do a final check. She stood out of the way watching everything.Albert just stayed there in the chair hanging his legs out and nearly falling asleep. He slapped himself awake and it was very funny to watch.Lia then watched Marvin coming out with cups of coffee.She took one because let's face it, she wasn't awake completely."Okay, we are ready. On your signal."Marvin nodded."It's time. Start."Aster pressed the button and the screen started changing. The text was scrolling and Lia found it difficult to read."This is going well. We don't have much to copy. It will be done in three minutes."And like he said, the status bar came to a stop."It's done."It felt less party kind of an exclamation but they were still happy. Lia thought that they would all jump in the air and celebrate. But the reality was that even with coffee, they were all very sleepy.""I'm going to sleep."Albert fell asleep there.As it was done, Lia nodded and went to her
"Mom I have to talk about the class schedule with Marvin and Aster. I'll be home late.""Okay, have fun."Lia had finished her dinner and when everyone were watching television, she got a signal from Marvin."You go. I'll watch Asher and Jake."Oggy declared. Well, if he was so sure, then why not?"So, what is that water thing?"Lia almost forgot. Oggy was also a member of the kid gang.Seeing their attention drawn to the fountain, the three of them left the room.They went to Albert's apartment because apparently Aster's was not totally safe now.They didn't get rid of all the spy chips there. They left one as a formality.And that's why they had to change their Lair."Tell me, tell me, tell me."Albert started repeating."Wait, let Lia settle down."Yes, Lia was searching for a good cushion. She was embarrassed at having that pointed out "I'm okay, you can start."She coughed."Okay, so here's what we found."Marvin then motioned for Aster to start talking."Marvin connected my cop
"Whew, we are back home. The whole thing was very stressful."Aster felt like he was in heaven when he saw his couch. He was that happy."Yeah, take rest now. We will check the computer in the evening. Let's get the information sooner so that we can work on other things later."Marvin changed out of his clothes and he was ready to go out.Aster was surprised."You aren't going to rest?"He questioned Marvin."Yes, I have to go check the company. With the headquarters not here, I have so much backlogged by being out."Aster felt sad for Marcin. Good thing Ray did his work in the meantime.Maybe when his brother woke up, he would be free and sleep till he naturally woke up.Those were some happy days.Aster sighed and fell asleep on the couch."Uncle, you are back."It should be later because he was woken up by Asher."Yes, Aster, you are back. When did you come back? We didn't know anything."Jake was with Asher."I came around afternoon. Then I fell asleep. I would have met you all in
"This is a disaster," Aster told himself when he saw the bustling crowd in there. The club was totally filled with people and it was getting on Aster's nerves.He had never seen these many people in such a closed space.He made his way to the other end to get to a secluded place.Marvin had gone to the other side so he could keep an eye on people coming and going out of the side door.Aster felt that Marvin was doing a very focused job. Marvin kept shooting him messages that kept popping before his eyes and Aster wanted to block him.Marvin was having fun with the glasses but Aster had worked on them for so long so he didn't have any preference over it."Hey, handsome, are you alone?"Aster was brought out of his reverie by a voice.It was a guy.He had short spiky hair that looked like it could really hurt someone."Oh, no. I'm in my company."That guy came near him and sat beside him."Crazy night, right?""You realize it's just afternoon now.""What? Its night. See."Aster saw no p