"What do we do now, Val?" Ryder queried the moment they reached her office.

"Bastard." Valerie kicked the chair hard and it went spiraling towards the wall.

Fortunately for them, neither Ryder nor Preston was in its way. They had never seen Valerie this furious before, and for a moment, they were stunned to find her fuming. Among the trio, Valerie was the calmest and she had stayed this way even at the most crucial times. But today, it was not so.

They were running out of time and they had to find the truth somehow. After listening to Jared's assistant, they were now sure that only Jared knew about his plan. He had kept all his men in the dark lest they should betray him as his assistant had done. Moreover, Jared was already prepared for this day, and given his confidence, it seemed as though he had everything under control.

"Maggie, I hope you find something about Jared. Please." She begged as she walked back and forth in her office, and neither of the men dared to come in her way. Their Deputy was beyond furious, and they did not wish to be the reason she exploded, neither were they interested in dying from her hands.

"Do you think we should ask Jared again? Maybe he might disclose some secrets if we use force on him." Preston suggested. But Valerie shook her head immediately, rejecting it right away.

"Jared will not speak a word about it until we give him what he wants. He will die but will not say a word about his plan, and seeing his confidence and his annoying smile, I am sure he is not lying to us about his plan. He had it all prepared." Valerie let out a huff and rubbed her forehead.

"And we cannot let him go. What if he uses this freedom and starts with his plans to destroy our nation again?" Ryder added and both Preston and Valerie agreed with him.

Letting Jared go was the last thing they had in mind. He was a danger to society, to people and he had to be restricted, confined, and executed before he harmed anybody else. Now, all they could do was pin their hopes on Maggie, who right now was using all her knowledge about Jared and his men to find out what he was planning.

Preston and Ryder called all their sources to find out if they had found any suspicious activities recently. But all they got was a negative response. None of their sources had any idea about what Jared was up to. Either Jared was lying to them blatantly or had worked out everything in the dark so as to keep this matter a secret from everyone.

"Jared, could not have worked alone in this. No way." Valerie continued to walk back and forth as she tried to discern all that she had heard and learned from Jared.

"Yes. Otherwise, he would not have waited until we arrested him to put his plan into action. He must have ordered someone to carry out the plan. We now need to find who Jared was in contact with to find out more." Preston agreed as he read a message from one of his sources.

"Ugh, Valerie, Jared is not lying in this matter. Apparently, two scientists from Japan visited our country five days ago and they returned home just yesterday."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, one of my sources told me. They were here to attend a conference regarding their research." Preston continued.

"But that does not prove that they were the ones Jared had been in contact with," Ryder stated his opinion.

"Yes, it doesn't. But these two researchers study viruses and other deadly microorganisms. I am suddenly having a bad feeling about this."

"What are their names?" I'll ask Maggie to find out more about them.

"I'll forward their details I have with me. You can send it to Maggie."historical

Every time they spoke about Maggie, Ryder's heart skipped a beat. He was missing her badly, and all he wanted was to go to her and hug her tight, kiss her even. He had a lot of things to tell her and confessions to make. He had to let her know how much he loved her, and most importantly, he had to make sure she was fine. Months of separation was driving him crazy and only he knew, how much effort he had to use to retain his sanity.

Although he wanted to speak to her, he stopped himself, allowing his Deputy to take over. They had important matters to attend to first, and Maggie did not need any distractions before they solved everything. She was their only hope in this matter.

"Maggie, any progress on this matter?" Valerie completely skipped her greetings and asked the girl what she was dying to find out all this while.

"I am on it. But Jared has been discreet in his work for a few days. So, I am unable to find any leads. Don't worry, I have asked Joshua Martin to help me. We will find something soon. How much time do we have?"

Valerie could hear the clicking of the keys from the other sides and she realized that she had disturbed her friend in her work. But she had no choice either.

"We have less than two hours, Maggie. Either we will have to release Jared in exchange for information or we will be putting innocent lives at risk. He has played us well this time."

"I see...." Maggie did not have the chance to continue for Valerie interrupted her.

"Maggie, listen to me. I will send you the names of two researchers who visited our country for a few days. Check if they had any contact with Jared. We might find something using this."

"I am on it. Send them to me. I will see what I can find. Also, Val, I am checking all his call logs from the last few days. I will call you back the moment I find something."

The call ended and Valerie closed her eyes for a moment. "Maggie will revert to us once she finds anything."

"Val," Ryder bit his lip as he a notion hit him. "Since Jared has planned a large-scale disaster, he must be targeting events which have more people attending. If we can stop these events from happening."

"We cannot intervene without absolute proof, Ryder. We will have to bear the public's brunt and questions and it would only make matters worse if we are wrong about it. Maggie has promised to call back in a few minutes. Let us wait until then before we take any action. To be on the safer side, let us make a list of all the events that are happening in the country today." Valerie remarked.

The nation was already in a state of frenzy from the chaotic news that was revealed the previous night. If a matter like this spread, then it would only become difficult for them to control the people.

Valerie's plan was the best option they had at hand.. So, the three people started to make a list of all the group events that were happening in the country as they waited for Maggie's call.