The Footage [2]

Xiajun was lead back outside by the COO himself and lead the whole long way to the control panel room of Y Corp. HQ. While he was led there, COO Kang talked to Xiajun about all sorts of things regarding the new businesses and future plans for the employees. Xiajun laughed and tried to match the energy of the COO even though he just wanted to get things done with.

"Alright, right in here, Detective" COO Kang muttered as he pushed back a white glazed door set apart from rest of the building. Addressing the numerous guards working the control panels, COO announced, "Guards, this is Detective Jun here to investigate the... incident. Listen to him and treat him with the uttermost respect." Then he turned to Xiajun. "I've got some work to do, so I'll be off. The guards won't ask any questions and will quietly comply with your requests. Good day."

Xiajun nodded as the COO hurried off past him.

"Right..." he muttered, turning back to the guards who looked upon him with uncertainty. "Open up the footage from that day, starting from 5:00 am. Let's go!"

At once, there was a rush of things as people ran here and there in confusion. Some understood the assignment and clicked buttons on the control panel, checking the monitor screens every second or so, while the others murmured furtively, standing idle.

After a long while, the footage was pulled up and Xiajun was called over to check.

"Good," Xiajun muttered to himself, his eyes on 3 specific monitor screens only That showed the high flight of steps and the road in front of Y Corp. HQ. No suspicious activity at 5:00pm, just the early bees arriving to work.

"Fast forward 15 minutes." The tape was forwarded as commanded. Still no suspicious activity. Few cars drove by on the road, a few more workers arrived... nothing noteworthy as of yet.

"Fat forward 15 minutes. Again." And it was exactly done so, though nothing to raise suspicion appeared on the screens.

"Fast forward 1 hour." The tape was forwarded to 6:30 am. Now, several more workers had arrived, hurrying up the steps to reach the entrance. Everybody was dresses in formal work attire, and nothing seemed out of place. More cars drove by and cabs dropped off employees.

"Fast forward 1 hour, again." The footage blurred as it fast forwarded to 7:30, the check in time for most employees. The steps were swarming with workers as they climbed up the tall fleet of stairs, files, briefcases and purses in hands. Again, nothing to be suspicious of.

Xiajun sighed, growing impatience. His keen eyes scanned every angle, every person's face, every nook shown in the monitors but nothing seemed strange to him.

"Mmkay... Fast forward 30 minutes-" As the guard clicked the button to forward the footage, which blurred instantly as it played on 2x speed, Xiajun noticed something in the blurry video. "Go back, go back! Rewind 15 minutes."

As the video played back and came to rest, the time, 7:45 am, Xiajun leaned in and focused on a small black dot in the background. The dot grew bigger and bigger as it crossed the street, taking form of a man dressed in all black. The guy walked over to the building, looked up at the blue skyscraper for a few seconds, and pulled out what roughly seemed like a phone and put it to his ear.

"Do you have sound?" Xiajun said as he pointed his finger to his ear, addressing a guard. The guard nodded and pushed a few keys before the sound rose up. Static whirring of cars and clacking of footsteps were to be heard in the control room.

"Volume up," Xiajun mumbled as he leaned in, focusing solely on the black figure of a man. The volume went up and the man's distant mumbles were to be heard. "Your sound recording system isn't very good," Xiajun commented, as he couldn't figure out anything the man was saying. "Can you zoom in on the black clothed man?"

The guard working the control panel nodded and did his best to zoom in on the man's face, but since the man kept pacing the sidewalk, his face couldn't stay on the monitor for very long. Xiajun sighed, frustrated.

Soon, the man put his phone back into his pocket and went back across the street, disappearing from the range of the CCTV cameras. When Xiajun thought everything was over, a yellow cab pulled up in front of the HQ and a man staggered out from the back seat. He wore a casual jacket and jeans, blood splatters here and there. Wu Yanlin had showed up.

"Focus on him!" Xiajun bellowed.

Everybody watched openmouthed as Wu Yanlin staggered drowsily over to the steps and only managed to climb a few before he fell down , the loud thud of his skull cracking against the cold concrete echoing in the control room. Everyone winced, while Xiajun stared on poker-faced.

It wasn't long before people started to notice and a crowd began to form. White flashes of phone cameras and faint click-click-click sounds rose up. Someone must've notified the emergency services because soon enough, a distant wee-woo-wee-woo of an ambulance drew closer and closer until the white vehicle parked in front of the HQ and the chairman's limp body was carried in before the vehicle peeled away.

The guard paused the footage after a while and Xiajun stood back with his hands on his hips, deep in thought. One thing he hadn't failed to notice was that the piece of paper with The Phantoms' symbol on it wasn't put into his pocket after Yanlin had fainted. It was in his pocket before he even got out of the cab.

The cab...

"Rewind the footage to when the Chairman got out of the vehicle," Xiajun ordered and his orders were instantly complied to. The familiar footage was in action again and soon enough, the familiar yellow cab pulled up. "Pause and zoom in."

The guard zoomed in on the car. Xiajun noticed 3 people in total inside, the cab driver, Wu Yanlin, and one other person sitting beside him. Judging from how Wu Yanlin was pushed out of the cab, someone had a hand in it. The cab was just close enough to gain a blurry picture of the faces inside the car.

"Send that photo to me," Xiajun muttered to the guard, who looked up helplessly. Xiajun's plan was to get it cleared and sharpened by an acquaintance. Only then would he be able to pick up a lead regarding who was involved in the attacking...and most importantly, why?