Page 53 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 5-8
Alice grinned. “Like five of you have a long drive. We should eat together before you go. And I think Dana wants to show Jaewoong her Lego houses. Collin, are you coming or staying?”
Collin blushed. “Staying.”
Damian called for his shadow—aka bodyguard of the day—to join him in the gym. After a quick shower, he left with them for his office. The floor was quiet. His staff had New Year’s off, and his partner, Eleanor, was in the Bahamas. The place was empty and silent. His bodyguard did a sweep and then made himself scarce at the front desk where he could watch the security cameras. Unlocking his corner office, Damian let his shoulders relax, taking in the space and emptiness of the morning. He dropped into his seat, a place he hadn’t been in over two weeks, and closed his eyes, letting the stress fade and his analytic state fill him up, almost like a meditation. There were several ongoing projects for Reevesworth Industries: nothing urgent. Everything else was scheduled out for no sooner than the fifth of the month.
So all that was pressing on Damian’s plate was Jun’s legal matters.
There were a lot of those.
He opened his eyes and turned on his computers, arranging his triple monitors into sections of research and starting a project flow. There were a few things on the top of his priorities: find Jun’s father, hire a forensic accountant to dig up what could be found concerning 5N’s finances and BBB3, collaborate with Yun to file a lawsuit on behalf of 5N to get their financials, and, finally, request expedited official copies of Jun’s US birth certificate and social security card.
That was just the civil matters. There were also the criminal matters, such as the still-active request for Jun to sit down with police detectives from Seoul and the request for official investigation into Jun’s kidnapping, which still wasn’t getting traction.
He opened his emails and messages and started plotting on his massive glass dry-erase boards everything that was already done, who had been spoken to, and who was handling what.
Deep in the zone, he heard his phone chime with a new message.
Alice:
They absolutely could. There were a lot of low-level investigations of social media and public records Ash and Alice could get out of the way. Pearsen could do the more intense stuff. Ash probably had a few more resources to tap into that Damian would carefully not question, and Alice had proved to be no slouch the last week even when digging around on topics that weren’t primarily in her native language.
Damian:
Alice sent back an excited emoji face and two thumbs-up.
He texted it to her and closed his phone. Where was Jun, then?
He opened his phone back up and texted Jun.
Jun didn’t reply right away. Damian went back to his emails from Yun.
About ten minutes later Jun wrote back.
Damian:
Jun’s typing dots bounced for a couple moments as he wrote back.
Good. Jun was expressing a want. Damian could give him quiet, at least for a while. And he was safe in The Residency. Damian could put his whole mental effort into what he was doing.
Ash and Alice arrived hauling backpacks full of laptops and other research tools of their own, including large water bottles. Alice smacked a cold kombucha down in front of Damian. “It’s good for you.”
“She makes me drink them, too.” Ash held up his own, half empty. “Don’t fight it.”
Damian chuckled, opening the bottle. “It is good for you. For future reference, my favorite flavor is blackberry and ginger.”
“Noted.” Alice pulled open her bag, digging out her gear. “What’s the assignment?”
“Jun’s father. He’s only seen him once, and all I have is a last name, but…he was a graduate student at the same university as Jun’s mother and at the same time. We have a full legal name for her now.”
Ash made “gimme, gimme” hands and Damian tapped the whiteboard where he’d already written down known names, years, and the university.
Alice stared at the information until it appeared she’d memorized it. “Perfect. I’m assuming what I can’t read is her name in Korean?”
“Chinese, actually.”
“I thought Jun was Korean.”
“Publicly, yes, but he’s half Chinese and half Korean by citizenship of his parents and ethnicity.”
