Emerald Chains

03. Undercover

Ethan had his head down at his desk, running through some papers. He was looking through the companies accounts, hunting for any anomalies in the funds going in and out. It was a long process as there was a lot of account data to run over. Specifically, he was looking for smaller, cash deposits into the company. That was normally how money laundering worked. Once he compiled a list he would have to analyse where they were coming from. All up the process had taken months.

Ethan was brought on under the guise of an external consultant for one of the larger contracts in Asia. This allowed him his own office and access to the financial reports of the company. It was easy getting the foot in the door of such a large company that already dealt with many external contractors.

Besides, he was also keeping a watchful eye on Richard Faulkner from his office. Richard was the manager of the finance department. An older man in his mid 50s. It was suspected he wasn't working alone and it was up to Ethan to find out who else was involved.

His phone rang and he picked up. "Ethan, it's Damian. Can you come up to my office I want to do one final sweep over the contract."

"I'll be up in a minute" replied Ethan.

Ethan headed up to the top floor of the building and knocked on Hayden's door.

"Enter" replied Hayden. And with that Ethan walked through the double doors to his office.

Hayden Wilde was the CEO of Wilde Enterprises. He had taken over a massive empire from his late father last year and from what was told he was a force to be reckoned with within the business world. He was one of the youngest CEO's of a multi-billion dollar company and had his foot in the door of almost every industry you could think of. The majority of his business coming from the latest advances in technology. Everything you could think of from AI to cybersecurity. How he managed everything was a mystery to Ethan.

"Ethan, thanks for coming up. Do you have the proposal?" asked Hayden.

"Yes sir, right here" he replied while placing a stack of papers on his desk. "I changed some parts in the proposal to reflect the economic changes in China. You should review these sections" Ethan pointed out.

Ethan had a contact within the police force designated to complete the mundane tasks of actual work, leaving him free to do what he was best at, catching the criminals. It was difficult to keep his cover and do police work as he still had to know the ins and outs of the documents he was presenting to not raise any suspicion. Not even the CEO of the company knew he was an undercover cop.

Hayden continued to scan the documents. His hand running through his raven-black hair and down to rub the back of his muscular neck. He looked calm on the outside, always maintaining a strong presence but there was always a sense that it could be a mask for his true nature. Either way, Ethan liked Hayden, he was a workaholic like him and he felt they shared similar ground.

"This is great Ethan, can you just double-check these financial figures with Richard and then send me the final copy."

"I'll get that to you tomorrow" replied Ethan as he exited the room and headed back to his office.

It was 1 pm when Richard came over and knocked on his door.

"Hey Ethan, ready to grab some lunch," asked Richard.

"Sure thing, just let me put these away," Ethan replied while shuffling his papers into his desk and locking up.

Ethan had managed to become friendly with Richard after integrating with his other work friends. He found it easy to manipulate people, which is why he was so good as his job. Richard took a liking to Ethan as he said he reminded him of his late son who passed away early last year. Of course, Ethan doing his research before he started the position paid off. He already knew that was the angle he wanted to play so he made sure to research his sons' life, even down to the way he styled his hair. Good job Richards son was a stylish man.