Chapter 67 Flavio’s Revelation
“Do you have a picture of her that we may look at?” Val was questioned by the CCTV technician as he looked at him from an angle while his fingers deftly punched over the rolls of keyboards that were placed on the desk.
Large monitors are mounted on the wall, showing all the nooks and crannies around the city. Val sighs as he pulled his phone, scrolled through his snaps, and came about the first photo he took at the auction when Kael purchased Lilia.
“Here,” he said as he handed it to the technician and plugged a cord into his phone. He then copied the photo into the computer to scan her features and began the search through the footage.
The computer screen went haywire, and Lilia's face appeared in the middle of it. Val stared at her with wide eyes filled with terror as she was being auctioned off like a herd of cattle, not knowing what the future holds for her.
Kael changed a bit since she arrived in his life, and Val is quite confused about his feelings if either he’s being glad that the one person he considered his own friend somehow showed compassion to a specific individual.
Now, everything seems to be repeating from the day they almost lost her in the forest.
Kael had gone wild with rage a moment ago when he received the news that Lilia was nowhere to be found, both she and her personal maid, Aya. He must be scouring all over Venice right at this moment, and he will definitely tear this place in half just to find her.
“Could it be her?” The technician spoke, taking him out of his thoughts as he followed the arrow pointed at the two people on the boat.
Val scrutinized the footage, squinting his eyes as he leaned closer over the large screen, verifying if it is them until he noticed one of their men hustling around the pathway, and when the technician zoomed the footage, Lilia’s smiling face became clear.
They seemed to be having a great time, taking turns in snapping photos with a digital camera.
“When was this?” He asked, observing everything that is happening on the video, and noting any suspicious activities.
“Round seven o'clock later on tonight. There had been a delay of two hours.” The technician responded to his query, zooming out the footage and observing further. It hasn't been that long since they’ve gone missing and where could Kael be at the moment?
“Nothing seemed to be unusual, but they disappeared right there. Under the bridge,” he said as he rewound the clips that showed the moment when the boat that Lilia and Aya were in passed under the massive bridge but was unable to continue on to the other side.
Val’s brows furrowed in confusion. How could they not get passed the bridge? Were there any passages there that would lead them to another route?
“Any other points where they could be?”
The technician inhaled deeply, scrolling through his mouse and fingers typing codes on the keyboards, coordinates with all the CCTV cameras installed all about the city.
“No tracks of them since then—oh, there,” he stopped, pausing certain footage on the screen.
“They are on the railways in approximately thirty minutes lapse and away from the place of disappearance.”
The clips don't make any sense, Val thought. How can they transport to another place without being seen? Was Lilia trying to escape again? Val studied Lilia and Aya’s movement, they seem to be having fun.
“How did they get there without crossing the bridge?” he finally uttered his wondering aloud with perplexity.
The technician paused for a moment as though he realized something.
“Sewers,” he muttered, turning around and looking at him. “There was a labyrinth of channels there. A person who's knowledgeable enough could get them passed through towards the lagoon near the railway station of Santa Lucia.”
Now that made sense and the only people who knew the channels around the canal are the “The gondolier.”
He concluded, realizing that something wrong is happening.
It seems as though the footage shown was that Lilia wanted to get rid of the guards following around them to have the moment to themselves, but something turned out unexpected with their little rebellion. They waited and watch till the end of the footage, but after a moment when they got back to the small dock, the monitors glitched, and then nothing follows. Only a display of various striped colors usually showed when there was no signal.
The technician vigorously typed on his keyboards with codes, but the footage seemed to be hacked and never been recovered.
Kael has to know about this.
Val tugged the cord from his phone and punched in his boss’ number.
It took only a few rings before Kael picked up the call.
“We found something,” he uttered without any preamble.
“Meet me outside the building,” Kael instructed him with no further delays, and Val immediately make his leave without even saying a thank you to the technician.
He ran outside and saw Kael’s car parked on the side. Val wasted no time and briskly crosses the area and slipped himself into the vehicle.
He told Kael everything he learned and saw from the footage, explaining what were the possible things that might have transpired.
However, while they were in the middle of their conversation, Kael’s new phone rang, cutting them off. He always had spare phones in case of any unexpected circumstances and it always comes in handy in times like these.
Kael look down at the caller ID with suspicion but he swiped the green button and answered the call nonetheless.
Val on the other hand listened intently to whom was calling his boss.
“My, my, how are you, Kael?” said the caller before Kael could utter a word.
“Who’s this?” coldness dripped on each word that he had spoken, his face distorted into confusion as to whom the caller is.
“Your memory seemed to have started to fail you, mio caro amico,” the jaunty voice echoed through the receiver, making Kael’s blood boil in fury.
“Who the hell are you?” He demanded, barking on his phone, and if only the person he was talking to was right in front of them, Kael might already have given him a good beating. However, the caller’s identity remains to be a puzzle.
“Wanna see something?”
The phone pinged in the notification. Kael put the call into loudspeakers’ mode and open the video attachment emailed through him.
It was another footage from the CCTV. But this time, it was the deleted portion of what Val had seen.
“Don’t you dare lay a hand on her!” he bellowed, seeing how Lilia had been taken away.
“Ah, the reaction I just anticipated,” the caller laughed, and another notification popped on Kael’s phone.
“Meet me at the address I am sending you, ciao!”
The call ended and Kael was tempted to throw his phone once more but he halted himself and thought that getting another in this tight situation will be a hassle.
“Who was that?” Asked Val, starting at his phone as though the metal device could answer the question.
“The Clemente,” Kael responded promptly, tossing the phone into the dashboard.
“Flavio Clemente?”
“None other than.”
“That bastard is still alive?”
“He wanted some revenge,” Kael growled, thrusting the ignition of his car, and roaring the engine into life.