"Impulse? Are you here?"

Zedaph knocked on Impulse's office door.

And as he expected, he got no response. As usual, Impulse wasn't in his office. He sighed, before opening the door, knowing it was unlocked. He really needs to learn how to lock doors.

He walked into the small room.
He'd been there countless times before, so he immediately recognized the layout. He walked over to the desk, he was really only there to get the needed files, and they weren't that important. He hoped that Impulse would've been in his office so he would have a chance to have another talk with him, but oh well.

He reached for the desk cabinet, and looked through the mildly organized space to take what he came for. He found it pretty quickly, already knowing where to look, and after taking them out, he closed the cabinet door again. The noise of the cabinet closing sounded loud and echoed through the silent office.

He took one more look around the room, but as he was about to just turn around to leave, something caught his eye. He caught a brief glimpse of Impulse's computer screen when he entered and passed by it, but after he got a bit closer, he could actually make out what's on screen.

It seemed to be some sort of public news page, as he seemed to be looking at some sort of article. But of course, that wasn't the part that caught his eye, it was the headline of the article.

X-T-R High Official, found dead in office overnight, building shows signs of an intruder

First thing to take in was that the article was posted on Hermald.com only an hour ago. From that statement alone, you'd already see three things wrong with it. First, the posted article already seemed suspicious from first glance. Second, it was only posted an hour ago. But most importantly of all, Hermald.com seemed to be up on the web again.

Zed stared silently at the screen with the gears in his head ticking for a bit. Thinking a quick read wouldn't hurt, he decided to read it through, intrigued. He tapped on the mouse wheel, and scrolled down the page.

Last night on XX/XX/XX... found dead at office... signs of a slight struggle found... place seemed to be tampered with... dirt and leaves of the potted plant scattered around the back side of the office... missing files... Hallways of basement... showed signs of an infiltration... CEO stated... visited at 11 PM midnight... culprit not known...

He skimmed through the article, mentally noting down the important parts in his mind.

No intruders were spotted... cameras showed no suspicious behaviour... based on current evidence... culprit thought to be a high leveled, trusted staff... might also potentially be a high level assassination...

Another assassination...? Zedaph faltered a bit. Just this month, there have been over multiple high level assassinations, more than there has been for the entire year. It can't be just a coincidence.

He decided to continue reading on a bit before deciding anything, though.

No current suspects... Evidence on building infiltration point towards the fact that culprit must've been an outsider... the likelihood of it being a high level assassination high... though no calling card was left at the scene... currently not able to match up the crime scene evidence and state of body with any of the city's well known assassin's modus operandi's... CEO stated... Investigate the matter further... Until more evidence is found... no one arrested.

And now there's even more proof of the thing being an assassination. Weird.

There was definitely something going on currently in the city, something strange, something dark. Although Zed knew he really had no part in all of this, he still felt like he couldn't just keep himself out of this mystery. He felt like he needed to investigate this matter further, and now that it seemed that the XTV company had something to do with all of this, he felt like he needed to investigate more about this company.

And so, carrying the files he needed in his hand, he exited the office, making sure to remember to investigate further on the matter when he got back to his desk.

On his way back, the gears in his brain are really ticking.

The thought of the fact that despite this new incident seeming like just an ordinary high level assassination just doesn't sit quite right for him. A thing that makes it really stand out from the assassinations that took place in Aque corp prior is that the culprit was absolutely unknown. No one had any idea who committed it.

The fact that the supposed 'assassin' was able to traverse the building in and out without anyone noticing nor any trace of evidence left behind suggested the fact that this culprit knew the layout of the building very well. But keeping that fact in mind, that meant that this person must also have known about the layout of the vents and all the cameras, which even someone who knew the building would still have a hard time memorizing the exact placements.

He sighed, knowing the mystery was far from over.

He decided to open his phone, maybe he'll reread the article again while heading back. He opened Hermald.com, and just typed in the search bar 'XTV', before scrolling down and going to some of the last pages.

But what he saw when the search results popped up just stopped him dead in his tracks. He stopped walking in the middle of the hallway, stunned.

CONFIDENTIAL FILES LEAKED! What they didn't tell you about the XTV

THE DARK TRUTH OF XTV FINALLY EXPOSED?

The Truth About the XTV - We were lied to

The now dead 'right-hand-man- of the CEO of XTV now charged with ordering multiple assassinations on Aque Corp officials

You could've ran when you had the chance butcha did it again