Fair Trade

“Don’t tell me did you go through my bag?”

I can’t even speak properly.
What do you want me to explain?

Sei nervously snatched the watch from Guilio’s palm.
Judging from her experience, She even wondered if he had strangled her in order to easily search her bag.

“I checked it to see if you were carrying anything unusual.”

He responded coldly, frowning, and leaned back against the back of his chair.
Sei had the impression she was being interrogated.
She drew her knees together and stared at him as she always did.

However, her fingers continued to tremble, and chills ran down her spine.
Her mouth began to dry up, and she let out a sigh.

‘Am I really that scared of him?’

Sei was indeed afraid of Guilio.
She was afraid he’d strangle her with those big hands again.
Something shifted within her.

“I need my bag and some water to drink.
If you bring them to me, I’ll explain everything to you.”

He rose up and cast a speculative glance at Sei.
Before leaving the room, Giulio left a tray with bottled water and medicine on it.
He then reappeared, carrying her bag.
Surprisingly, he did it without any reproach or sarcastic remarks.

It was natural for an ordinary person to suddenly change, but he was Giulio Parenti.
The head of the Sicilian Mafia.

“Take it.”

“Th-thank you….”

Sei took the things he offered with a puzzled expression.
Then the man sat in the same position as before and waited patiently for her words.

This is a little weird.
Giulio Parenti, who lived with threats and sarcasm, has changed.

Sei opened the bottle, glancing at Giulio’s face.
After moistening her throat with the cold water, the words that would let her live came out naturally.
Licking the water from her mouth with her tongue, she opened the bag and took out a box.
Yuri had actually put it in before she even realized it.

Fortunately, when she checked its contents on the plane, they matched with what they had discussed in their previous conversation.

“It’s about the account I told you about yesterday.
The person who opened the account is an American named Keith Miller and he is 29 years old.
He is affiliated to the MDP.
This is not just a mere normal watch.
Having this means that the person is a hacker belonging to the MDP.”

Sei handed over the papers and the watch together.
Giulio looked at the documents with the IP address and brief history on it, and turned the leather watch back and forth with a disagreeable face.

“Where did you find this?”

“That’s what is important.
On the day I got off the cruise, I last robbed a room in the morning.
I saw some men going down to the restaurant, so I went into the room.
Then I noticed something wasn’t quite right.
There were… a lot of computers.”

Trying to lie caused her throat to dry up.
Normally, Sei would have appeared suspicious drinking so much water, but not now.

She continued after drinking as much water as she could.

“It was the room of the MDP hacker group.
You know, they are a secret hacktivist group.
On one of them, the program we use was running.
Every time I went through the account, there was a change in funds by a cent.
That’s how it became a huge sum.
In about two months, the account would have been completely robbed.
But I couldn’t prove it, so I stole this watch.”

“Then why didn’t you contact me right away? You should have told me as soon as you got the watch.
Don’t you think so?”

Sei realised once more that her acting abilities were quite good.
She shook her head, as if unable to speak, and covered her sore throat.

“As I said, it was a group.
It was necessary to figure out who did it.
The answer came out yesterday.
Did you know? That person was also on that cruise ship.”

Giulio was lost in thought as he fiddled with his watch.
The source of the information at the bottom of the document was MI6.
When she glanced at it, she tried to calm her pounding heart.

Compared to Yuri, she was just a beginner in dealing with small programs.
She couldn’t believe he had hacked into MI6’s internal documents.

Thank you for overestimating my abilities, but this is also an over-kindness that I can’t get used to.

Guilio was completely sold on her story.
Giulio Parenti, like everyone else, had a habit of overestimating her abilities.

“All right, if you didn’t betray me, there’s no reason for me to doubt you.”

Giulio got up, clutching the papers he had received from Sei and the watch in another hand.

‘It worked.’

She cheered silently.

But rather than going straight out, he stood for a long time looking down at the bandage wrapped around Sei’s neck with dark eyes.