~Lyle~

7:27 pm.

I sat calmly on the ground behind a few bushes, trying to look as if I was working on my laptop in the middle of the park on a Friday night. In reality, I was keeping an eye on the main entrance of my father's tech company headquarters.

The long, four story building stretched out across the green grass, the architect styling the box structure in strange ways to make it look unique but failing miserably, much like all the other buildings in Silicon Valley. If I had to choose where to set up the main headquarters of my company, it would be in Los Angeles and built to look like a flashy casino. But of course, although all millionaires and billionaires are non-conformists and rebels to some extent, it wasn't enough to pull my father away from being another Silicon Valley billion dollar company. It's not like Silicon Valley was a bad place. It was nice and pretty, and the houses were beyond interesting. It's just that nothing seems to change. Everything's always the same.

For god's sake, the most interesting building is a giant navel.

I sighed and resumed to focus on my job. I needed access to my father's company files to see what they're up to. The problem with my father's company is that all of the files can only be accessed on their own devices. All work is stored locally until employees get to the office the next the day and upload it onto the servers. This meant that there was no cloud service or website I could hack into remotely. I needed access to one of their devices. 

Of course, I could've tried to get on my father's computer at home, but with his paranoia, he probably configured it to shoot lasers if someone without his fingerprints touched the keyboard. So, I settled for the next best thing.

Stealing an employee's laptop.

Hence why I was hiding behind some bushes and spying on the front doors while trying to look natural in the middle of the park. I had already chosen an employee. It was just a matter of getting to him.

My target wasn't so high up in the company that his laptop going missing would cause immediate turmoil, but high up enough for me to know his name. As far as I could tell, my father trusts him completely, which means it could contain everything. Or at least, as much as my father would ever lend to someone other than himself.

7:30 pm.

I looked back up and, just as expected, Julian Cox pushed through the revolving glass doors. His blue suite hung crisp, even after a day's work, and a golden Rolex glittered on his wrist. The black laptop bag didn't even swing a centimeter in his hands. He looked pristine and commanding. But I could see through his facade.

The blue suite, no matter how straight it was, was worn at the edges, a clear effect of him only having two suites that he rotates through every day. With my love for watches, even from a distance, I could tell the Rolex was a rip-off. The arm carrying his bag was too stiff and looked like it was more used to swinging things casually.

As expected, he walked down the street and entered a cafe where he usually picked up a blueberry muffin. Having his schedule memorized, I took this as my cue to start my way around the park, closer to the south end.

7:40 pm.

Julian Cox entered the park, carrying one muffin, and heading towards his regular bench. I spotted the guy I had paid earlier watching him too from the corner of my eye. Julian sat down in his bench and stretched his feet, beginning to relax as he ate his muffin. The laptop bag was placed to the left of him, just where it would be visible in the corner of his eye.

7:43 pm.

After waiting for a few minutes, just long enough to finish eating his muffin, I approached him. The boy I had paid who was pretending to practice some soccer tricks started to roll the ball closer and closer to the bench.

"Mr. Cox?" I called from a few feet away, letting fake surprise seep into my voice.

Julian Cox turned and his eyes widened as he recognized before he covered it up with a smile. "Lyle Gray."

Julian, no matter how much he tried to cover it, looked tense. I couldn't blame him. He was having an impromptu meeting with his boss's son after all, and unlike his boss, the son of a tech empire is usually hard to predict. He wouldn't know what cards to play to get in my good graces. Unfortunately, I already controlled the deck.

I reveled in the fact that he was so scared, but I needed him to be comfortable for this to work. He needs to feel more personally connected and safe enough with me to drop his guard. The first way would be to get on a first name basis. People always got comfortable when you used their first names. So I would force his hand.

"Mr. Cox, I didn't expect to see you here."

"Please, call me Julian."

Perfect.

"I didn't expect to see you here either, Mr. Gray."

"Lyle, please. And I was just visiting the park to get some fresh air as I finished my homework."

"Did you want to see your father's office too... Lyle?" He hesitated to call me Lyle instead of Mr. Gray, but it was a start.

I preformed a sheepish laugh and lied, "Well, I had originally planned on giving my father a surprise visit in the office but decided against it."

"Ah, yes," Julian said as he placed a hand on his thigh, trying to look older. "That was a good call."

I tilted my head. "Why?"

"Well, Mr. Gray seemed much more... tense today."

I feigned concern as I sat down next to him on the park bench. "What happened?"

Julian turned a little to face me, his back on the laptop bag. "It's nothing much. Just a couple investors pulled out."

The boy playing with a soccer ball was now nearly a foot away from the bench and swinging his backpack off his shoulders. I just needed to keep Julian's attention a little while longer.

"Wait, why? Did something happen?" I faked worry while also letting a bit of my own curiousness seep through.

Through the corner of my eyes I noticed the soccer boy pull out an exact replica of Julian's bag and swap it out. Julian looked none the wiser as his attention was fixed on me, his eyebrows furrowed as he brought my act.

I should be getting an Oscar.

"Oh, no. Nothing happened. I think it was a problem on the investor's side. The economy is starting to go into a downturn and the investors needed quick money so they sold their shares. Nothing's wrong."

The soccer boy was shoved the real bag into his backpack and quietly headed towards the exit.

"Oh," I breathed a sigh of relief despite the suspicion that had been filling me. "Okay."

I let a silence fall for a few seconds as I let my thoughts consume me.

Is the Circumvent already making their first moves against the Empires? Or is the investor just a coincidence?

It was too early to tell. I would have to monitor stocks more closely to confirm my suspicions.

Julian checked his watch and said, "It's getting late."

"Oh, yeah," I chuckled sheepishly. "I should probably be heading home."

The two of us stood and I spoke, "It's been nice running into you, Julian. Hope I'll see you again."

Like, tomorrow morning when I have to switch out your fake laptop for your real one.

"Of course. Have a great day, Lyle."

I headed back the way I came and exited the park. My steps were quick as I crossed the street and followed numerous turns before slipping into an alley behind a building. Sure enough, the soccer boy was waiting at the end.

He wordlessly slipped the backpack off his shoulders and pulled out the Julian's laptop bag. I procured a hundred dollar bill from my pocket and handed it to him.

"The rest will be given tomorrow morning after the second the swap."

The boy nodded and took off down the street. I grabbed the laptop bag and made my way back out of the alley, a skip in my step as I was high off victory.

The replica bag that was now in Julian's possession was organized to look exactly the same as his real one, inside and out. Ever pen and charger was accounted for. I had even coded the laptop's lock screen to look exactly like all of the company laptops. Of course, Julian wouldn't be able to log in and therefore simply presume that his laptop was malfunctioning or he had accidentally taken someone else's. By tomorrow morning, I would upload a few glitches on his real one and swap them out again so by the time he gives it to tech support, there would be no evidence of the crime.

But of course, that also meant that I only had the night to hack into the laptop and get all the information needed.

It was time to get to work.

A/N: I've been jumping around a lot concerning where to set their general location, although I knew it would be in California. So I know I have a lot of references to Los Angeles in the past and then sometimes somewhere in northern California, but I've finally decided on the San Francisco to Silicon Valley. To me it personally just makes sense since some of their parents have tech companies and it would most likely base yourself in Silicon Valley.

(The only outlier would be Alyssa who would fit better in LA with a model mom and film star biological dad, but her mom is close to Vera's and just followed wherever she went)