Chapter 8

Hearing this, Nick let out a slight chuckle and looked at Ryan. "Indeed Ms.Mira went overboard this time. But you have to know that Mira is someone whom I personally hired. You should have chosen a better cover."

With that he walked out of the room.

Ryan, who had been silently watching all this while, walked up to the perpetrators and pulled them to their camp site with the aid of body gaurds. While, Mira had a genuinely shocked expression on her face, Ryan couldn't help but come back to give her a nudge to bring her back to senses.

"Ms.Mira, Boss never suspected you. It was all a show we had put to make those culprits let their gaurd down. We didn't tell you because it wouldn't look natural if you already knew of the plan. My apologies."

Listening to Ryan's words, Mira turned to him and gave a nod and said, "Please don't apologise. It is those traitors who sold the company intel to others that should feel guilty and apologise." Then she rushed out of the office to find Nick. When she learned that he was going to the elevator, she rushed behind and gave him a bright smile and said, "Thank you, sir for trusting me. I'll not let you down. I'm glad that we are able to identify the culprits" With that she beamed with happiness. Looking at her happy face, Nick said with a straight face, "It looks like Ms.Mira is quite happy that we have traitors in my company. Do you also want to join them?" Mira immediately realized that she said something wrong and corrected herself. "No, No. Don't get me wrong. What I mean is it is good that we identified those culprits without further loss. But it is already a pity that we lost today's bid. It would have been great if we could have known this beforehand and submitted an alternate proposal. Our company is very well respected in the industry. Now, with this incident it is like we got a black mark. I'll definitely work hard much more, please tell me what you need in the future." 

Nick looked at her face and amused that she said so much in one breath that she was almost panting at the end of her speech. "I think you should check what is happening on the internet sometimes. Crying doesn't help. I would have much appreciated if you tried to find who the culprit was with so much aggression just like how you lashed earlier in my office."

Hearing his words, Mira remembered how she had shouted in his office earlier that day and bowed her head and apologied thoroughly." Please forgive me for my rude behavior earlier. I really thought you believed that I was the culprit. I should have known that you were not so narrow-minded to believe in rumors without doing an investigation. I'm very sorry sir. Please accept my apology." and with that she stepped aside and the elevator doors closed immediately. She stood there for a while looking dazed.

After sometime, she came back to her senses and remembered Nick's words. She immediately pulled out her phone and went online. She widened her eyes in shock. Oh my!!Nick is such a perfectionist. He had known about treachery from a long time and even prepared a new proposal. It seems that she forgot how meticulous Nick was in his work. Good then our company is now #1 trending with the title "Asher group continues saga". She quickly opened the topic and read through it and said to herself, Wow, Mr.Asher is so awesome and she giggled to herself and patted her cheeks to bring down her excitement.

"Ms.Mira, please don't slap too hard, we can't afford to give you an off tomorrow." And Ryan walked away from her leaving a dumbfounded Mira, who wanted to dig a hole and hide herself.

********

"How did it come to this? " Asked a man completely enraged.

"S..sir, the Asher group submitted a second proposal under different name" replied his assistant. He had been working with this man for many years but he had almost never seen him so angry. He was terrified thinking of the consequences.

"We are supposed to get that bid. And it slipped our hands in a hairgap."

"Boss, we bribed the managers in the Asher group and got the original proposal details but what no one knew is that Nick personally drafted another proposal and submitted it at the last moment."

"That cunning bastard." He understood that Nick had long suspected moles in his team. So he let everyone believe that he trusted his team completely and let them do their thing. Yet he waited for the last moments, so even if the proposal is leaked, no one could utilize it since the time has already lapsed.

"Did he already take care of the traitors?"

"Yes,boss. Nick already found 2 of them.  He had thrown them to the cops. I've already made all the required arrangements. Those people will never dare to say our name"

"Nick should never know that we are behind the scenes."

It seems that not just getting rid of him, getting a bid from him is also difficult. He has become a thorn in my path. I need to get rid of him at the earliest.

"Who are his confidants other than that good for nothing Ryan"

"It seems that there is a woman. She is his personal secretary."

"He has many secretaries in his office. What about this woman?"

"After she joined the office, it is either Ryan or her that usually directly contacts Nick. All the proposals go through her."

As his boss was in thought, the assistant quickly added.

"Originally, our people wanted to put the blame on her. But after the complete fiasco it seems that Nick is pretty confident about her that she can't be compromised."

"Interesting, who is she?"

"Her name is Mira. It is just been an year that she joined the company."

"Do they have any romantic relationship?"

"No. They only show a professional relationship."

"Does he have any other woman beside him?"

"No sir."

Hmmm...looks like I need to bring up my plan. Things are going to be interesting.

"What about going back?"

"Everything is pretty much arranged sir. Nobody in the country knows that you are the boss. Everything is handled by the local heads there."

"And as per your previous instructions, I've made arrangement for your travel. We can travel in a week's time."

"Only the office head knows that we are going back. It is kept confidential. No one else knows that you are going back."

"Good. Let's keep it that way for now. That Nick will not stay calm after the aution. He would definitely dig into our company's background. "

"Also, do a background check on his little secretary. Um what was her name again...Mira, right. I want to know everything about her."

"Yes boss. I've already looked into her. Here are the details." with that the assistant immediately shared a document with his boss.

As he flipped through the document, he realized that the girl doesn't have anything special about her. She had a humble background and had good grades during the studies.

Though she was originally from Greenwood, she has grown up in a different place. But when working she is back to Greenwood, showing she wanted to stay in her hometown.

Except for her good education, there is nothing intriguing about the girl. Its strange why Nick would keep her on his side.

"I think we should meet thing young lady when we go back. And those encounters should not be obvious. Otherwise that sniffer dog Nick would think there is something going on. "

And with that as the assistant was about to leave, he heard, "Make sure no mistakes are made with those in custody."

"Yes, boss."