A tactical response

Turning his head back to Penny with a serious look in his eyes for the first time, Hugo said.

"From your expression, he has already told you everything that had happened right".

Penny nodded her head in response.

"Alright. Explain it to me then. And don't miss anything".

It didn't take up to 10 minutes for Penny to explain everything to Hugo, while the latter took his time to digest the information while taking a glance at Philip once in a while.

Meanwhile, Lucien stood there as he pondered on what to do next.

Because no matter how far lying could take him, it still didn't change the fact that it also had its limits, and the more time he spends here, the more time the chances of him being found out increased.

After some time, Hugo sighed under his breath and looked at the man who claims to be Philip Beniot once more and said.

"Very well, you can come with me, sir".

Hugo gestured for Lucien to follow him as he turned his gaze back to Penny.

"I will take it from here Penny. Although you have been in this job for two months, it still doesn't change the fact that you are inexperienced in things like this. And if the manager ever gets word about this, just tell him that I handled it myself, okay" He said.

"Okay" Penny replied with slight worry in her eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that? If everything goes well, I might even receive a bonus salary and the favour of the Durand family if we can catch the culprit so you should instead be getting jealous rather than looking worried" Hugo responded as he walked away.

"And make sure you keep an eye out for any strange individuals or inform the security guards if you catch anyone behaving suspiciously" He added.

"Alright I will" Penny answered before she headed back to her work as another customer approached her.

"Good evening sir, How may I be of help to you?"

......

"Here we are Mr Philip" Hugo said as he pushed open the door, showing the dimly light room which contained several small TVs with various black and white images showing on each tv.

And two seats were placed in front of them.

"Now let's try to find the culprit before he gets away" Hugo said as he moved to a particular screen.

Meanwhile, Lucien's eyes were moving to and fro through the various screens that were stacked up against each other.

This was his main purpose for coming here. Because, why search through each floor one by one when he could search all of them at once through the security cameras on each floor.

Lucien kept on moving from screen to screen until his eyes landed on a particular screen.

"Hey, Mr Hugo" Lucien said.

"Call me Hugo Sir" Hugo said as his attention was drawn to Lucien.

"Alright" Lucien responded before saying "Why is this particular screen blank?".

"Unfortunately, the cables that are connected to that floor are faulting. So that's why we couldn't monitor that floor as the image won't come up".

"Oh! But isn't that dangerous, considering that there are also guests on that floor? What if something bad happens on that floor? Wouldn't that be a problem since there's no way you could know what and when it happens?".

"I understand your worries Mr Philip, but that floor has been sealed shut for the rest of the night. You know how expensive those wires are right? Hopefully, by tomorrow evening we will be able to fix those cables and resolve the problems" Hugo replied as he went back to his work.

"And which particular floor is that?".

"It's the 30th floor" Hugo replied nonchalantly.

'I have finally found you' Lucien thought with a smile as a fierce glint flashed through his eyes.

Lucien couldn't help but let out a grin as his plan had succeeded in finding out where the bands of monsters were hiding.

"Umm!! Excuse me Mr Philip, but I think that there might be a problem" Hugo said with confusion evident in his voice.

"What is it?"

"I have checked every camera placed on the 25th floor. But I can't find the problem that you mentioned. Hell, even the cameras in the surveillance room on the 25th floor are okay" Hugo said as he focussed all his attention on the screen.

"Even in the main hall, everything looks fine. Let me just tune back a bit and see if we could find the perpetrator before the proposal begins…."

Feeling his hands halt as he stared at the individuals on the screen with shock and realization dawning upon him, Hugo could see the faces of the two individuals that had pulled the attention of the crowd even though the black and white images weren't that clear.

But there was one thing he was sure of, that the man kneeling on the ground on one kneel as he proposed to the woman who was Miss Charlotte Durand wasn't the same man standing in this room with him.

That means….

"Gulp!!"

"I-I think that I have found the culprit sir".

"You have. So who is he?" Lucien said as he appeared behind Hugo, looking at the screen with a smile as he once more saw the image of the real Philip Beniot proposing to Charlotte.

Meanwhile, Hugo immediately tensed up as soon as he heard Lucien's voice sounding from behind him.

"I can't see any culprit on the screen, where is he? Come on tell me".

"You aren't the real Philip Beniot are you?" Hugo asked as a tired expression appeared on his face.

"No. I am not" Lucien replied, a little surprised by the man's straightforwardness.

"Okay. Let me guide you out of the hotel then".

"" ""

"" ""

"Sir, did you hear what I said?" Hugo replied as he felt a little tense from Lucien's lack of response.

"You are going to let me go just like that?".