Chapter 143

Chapter 143

"That's totally different!" Oscar slapped his thigh, eyes lighting up. "So you two were arranged from childhood?"

Alexander didn't seem inclined to hide it. "Yeah, but Isabella got lost when we were kids. Never thought we'd meet again..."

As he spoke, his fingers absently traced over Isabella's knuckles, a hint of tenderness in his eyes that most wouldn't catch.

"Oh man," Oscar clutched his cheek, making an exaggerated grimace. "Alright, alright, enough already."

Zachary, unusually talkative, asked, "So Mr. Radcliffe, you came all this way just to see the boss?"

"Mm." Alexander answered frankly. "But mainly to see her."

Octavia reminded them, "Food's ready. Let's eat and talk."

Everyone surged toward the dining table. Isabella pulled Alexander along to the dining room.

Alexander scanned the room and, noticing Victoria's absence, asked curiously, "Didn't you rescue Victoria? She's not here?"

"No, she's resting right now. She'll come out for dinner when she's hungry tonight. She's not doing too well, so we're letting her rest properly."

Alexander looked thoughtful but didn't press further.

Oscar mumbled through a mouthful of food, "Mr. Radcliffe, who chased who between you and our boss?"

Isabella shot him an expressionless glance.

Oscar reflexively shrank back, but the fire of gossip had clearly burned through his survival instincts.

Alexander smiled, ladling a bowl of soup and setting it beside Isabella's hand. His tone was unhurried. "I chased her. I confessed first too..."

"Did she say yes right away?"

Alexander glanced at Isabella, the smile in his eyes deepening. "Not really. Almost didn't catch her."

Everyone burst out laughing.

Oscar grinned. "I used to think she'd die alone. Never expected someone to actually win her over. Had to be you, Mr. Radcliffe."

Isabella's expression remained neutral, but the tips of her ears quietly flushed red.

Oscar, emboldened beyond reason, was about to continue when Zachary kicked him under the table. He sheepishly shut his mouth.

The meal passed in lively conversation.

Though Alexander was new here, his manner was relaxed. He struck the right balance in conversation—neither standoffish nor trying too hard to please.

After a few rounds of casual chat, the atmosphere turned out far more harmonious than expected.

Octavia said seriously, "Mr. Radcliffe, our boss has a tough exterior, but she's soft-hearted. Please bear with her."

Alexander nodded earnestly. "I know."

Isabella raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'tough exterior'?"

Octavia immediately shut up and focused on her rice.

Oscar seized the opening. "Just means you're strong! Boss, don't overthink it!"

Isabella couldn't be bothered with him. She turned to glance at Alexander.

He was smiling and chatting with Finnian, his profile softened by the warm yellow glow of the lights.

Sensing her gaze, he turned toward her. Their eyes met lightly in the air.

Under the table, Alexander quietly hooked her pinky finger and curved his eyes in a smile.

After dinner, Isabella gave Oscar a sidelong look. "Alright, time to work. Pull up the floor plan of the nursing home first."

He immediately returned to his computer, pulling up the floor plan and projecting it on the wall. "The west exterior wall of the main building has ventilation openings, four rows of cast iron bars..."

"The middle row of screws shows obvious rust, and the rust is concentrated on the side of the screw heads, suggesting they might've been tampered with recently. Someone may have infiltrated..."

Zachary added, "I found the drainage ditch entrance behind the bushes on the back hill. It's hidden by wild roses. Once you push them aside, the opening's about sixty centimeters wide."

After hearing all the reports, Alexander asked three questions. "Can someone move through the drainage ditch? How many people are on night duty? Is there a backup evacuation plan?"

Oscar replied, "The dry sections of the drainage ditch are passable. The narrowest part requires crouching for about ten meters."

"Night duty numbers aren't fixed—two people the day before yesterday, one yesterday. Two backup plans: there's a section of aging wire fence on the west wall that can be cut through."

Octavia added, "With two people, once we cut power at the electrical room, there's a four-minute window before the backup generator kicks in. Four minutes is enough to get from the ventilation opening to the end of the hallway."

Alexander turned to Isabella. "What do you think?"

Isabella had been leaning against the arm of the sofa, listening. She pulled off a pen cap and clicked it back on. "Four-minute window. From the exterior wall ventilation opening to the end of the hallway takes about two minutes, leaving two minutes for inspection."

"You're coming with me."

Two hours before departure, Oscar intercepted a new message.

The screen showed Vincent's vehicle route that day—starting from downtown, stopping at a pharmacy in the south district for four minutes, then continuing toward Maple Hill Township.

"He never stops at that pharmacy when he takes this route." Oscar enlarged the street view of the pharmacy. "Over the past three weeks, he's bought glucose injection solution there six times, three vials each time, at intervals of seven to ten days."

Finnian pulled up the nursing home's structural diagram. "If there's a care unit in the basement, they'd definitely need to replenish basic IV equipment and supplies regularly."

Isabella stood behind Oscar, watching the monitor. "The frequency of his glucose purchases matches what Victoria said about 'getting injections every few days.' So he's not just delivering documents—he's bringing supplies and medicine too."

Oscar pulled up the nursing home's perimeter surveillance patterns from the past seven days, circling anomalies and marking them on a timeline. "Tonight's during their personnel rotation gap."

"Every Wednesday night, their duty staff drops from two people to one because there's an administrative handover at the main building. Between 2 and 4 a.m., there's no fixed patrol."

Isabella looked at Alexander. "We go tonight. If we miss this chance, we'll have to wait another week. We don't have that kind of time."

"Mm." Alexander naturally had no objections.

At 2 a.m., two vehicles departed separately.

Alexander took Zachary and Oscar on the front route, handling signal suppression at the electrical room and perimeter support.

Isabella, Octavia, and Finnian circled around from the back hill to the drainage ditch entrance.

The drainage ditch entrance was narrower than expected. Octavia used pliers to cut through several main stems of wild roses, barely clearing a gap wide enough for one person.

She squeezed in sideways, flashlight sweeping around. The bottom of the ditch was paved with old concrete slabs covered in a layer of dried mud.

Isabella followed behind her, shoulders brushing against moss on both sides of the ditch walls.

Octavia lowered her voice ahead. "Turning."

Alexander's voice came through the earpiece. "Electrical room cut. Timer starting."

Isabella looked up ahead. After the left turn, the passage widened slightly. Octavia stopped at an iron grate at the end.

The padlock was heavily rusted, the shackle oxidized to a dark red.

Octavia clamped the shackle with hydraulic cutters and applied pressure with her wrist. 'Snap'—the shackle broke.

She pushed open the iron grate. Before them lay a horizontal underground corridor.

The walls were tiled with old white ceramic tiles, several already fallen off.

At the end of the corridor was a gray fire door, a sliver of light leaking through the gap.