Chapter 130 Paperwork
Dante's POV
It was so clear, it was right there, but somehow, I kept overlooking it, playing it down.
But this time, it weighed on me more than I could think.
“Are we calling it a day now?” Nico asked as we came together again.
I nodded even though I couldn't quite relax with everything. “I guess so,” I added.
Marcus shrugged as we headed back.
But even as we jumped in, the thoughts hadn't left my head. We'd hit five warehouses already and each one seemed cleaner than the last.
The logs matched, the crates were all sealed, and nothing looked out of place.
But as we drove out of the fifth, and what we agreed to be the last, my mind wandered back to that basic thing we'd overlooked.
Papers, did we ever really check the physical ledgers? Everything ran digitally these days, the transactions were recorded and stormed online, backed up in the cloud, way easy to search out.
It kept things fast, secure, or so I thought.
But what if the mole was playing between the gaps? Probably hiding in the old-school stuff we never bothered with.
I glanced at Marcus through the rearview. "Hey, do we even use papers anymore? I mean, for real checks?" I asked.
He leaned forward while raising his eyebrow. "You mean the hard copies? Thought everything was digital now,” he remarked.
"Yeah, it is," I said, slowing at a traffic light. "But we still make physical backups. I get them to do so, scan 'em in and store both, just in case. I've never dug into the originals, though,” I explained.
Nico shifted in his seat. "Why bother? The scans match the system. Going through stacks of papers is headache, that's hours of flipping pages when the computer's right there,” he complained.
While Marcus shrugged behind us. "No harm in trying. If there's a slip, it might be in the stuff no one's looking at,” he remarked.
I nodded as I drove on with the idea sticking. "You're right. Let's pull the physicals and compare,” I added.
“You sure, Don?” Nico continued.
“Besides, the papers contain different views of transactions and are collected directly. Then passed by different hands before being stored online, anything could happen then,” I explained.
Nico resisted again, rubbing his chin. "That's a lot of work, Don. Calling in favors, hauling files..."
"Stress or not, we do it," I said firmly. "Better safe," I added.
He sighed and agreed. "Fine. Who's handling the pull?" He asked.
“I'll handle that,” I replied, pulling out my phone and dialing Shawn.
I knew I could trust him among everyone and he's already in charge of most operations. He won't mind handling this without questions.
“Shawn,” I called out as it connected. “I need you to round up physical ledgers from all warehouses,” I started.
“Physical ledgers?” He asked as I expected.
“Yeah, the full sets from the last one year, every transaction, every note. They must match the digital units word for word. Bring 'em to the main office. Now," I added firmly.
"On it, Don," he replied with no further pushback. "Give me thirty minutes," he added.
I hung up and turned the car towards the main office as it stood tall despite the rummaging of the city.
Traffic was light on the way and we pulled in twenty minutes later, parking in the underground lot.
The place was quiet as we made our way up to the top floor where my executive office laid, away from the daily struggles.
We took the elevator up, stepping into the wide office after a short walk through the hallway.
I looked around carefully as it had been a long while since I had been here. With everything happening with Serena, Luca and the war, I barely even remembered I had a place like this.
Everything looked intact, just the way I remembered it. I stepped over to the large table and flicked on the system, pulling up the digital logs.
“Settle in. This could take a while,” I suggested.
Right on cue, a few minutes later, the door buzzed and Shawn walked in with his arms filled up and two guys behind him hauling boxes stacked high with files.
They had thick binders and loose sheets sticking out from different ends, all bundled together and looked like a year's worth from all sites for sure.
"Everything's here, Don, pulled fresh. Let me know if you need more,” he remarked.
"Good work," I said, nodding towards him. "You can head out. We'll handle it."
He nodded, signaling his guys to drop the load on the conference table before leaving.
The door clicked shut after the last guy, leaving just us three.
Nico eyed the pile, whistling under his breath. "We got a lot of work ahead," he remarked.
Marcus immediately grabbed a stack. "No time like now. Start with warehouse one?" He asked.
I nodded, and we dove straight in, spreading out the physical ledgers next to the laptops and cross-checking line by line.
I ran my finger down the paper in hand with my eyes flicking to the screen every now and then.
They matched perfectly. "Clear," I called out from the first warehouse records.
We moved to the second with Nico handling the bulk, muttering as he flipped through pages
“Everything lines up here too,” Nico muttered.
Marcus chimed in after a while. “Same here. Clean as a whistle."
Hours ticked by, bundles went down and cups of coffee from the secretary had gone cold.
My back ached and I could tell they felt same from consistently leaning over. We hit warehouse seventh around the three-hour mark.
"Still nothing," I said, stretching out a bit.
After five hours in, we'd cleared the last building.
Nico leaned back, rubbing his eyes repeatedly. "Told you, Don. Nothing, the mole talk was probably crap," he yawned.
Marcus stacked his last bundle up. "Yeah, maybe a waste of time, but at least we know now,” he replied.
I pushed my chair back, scanning the table as I was more than ready to call it a day.
There were files lined everywhere with all stacked carefully on the floor as we did with all those that had been checked.
As I reached forward to pick up my phone, my pen slipped from the table and I crouched to pick it up.
But as I raised my head slightly after picking it up, my eyes fell on a folder by Nico's side, slightly sticking out from the pile.
Wait, could that mean something?