💸 — starstxff
some would take the peace that followed keung's second recovery period has a gift; no news is good news and sometimes, it's best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. but old snips of wisdom in the form of aged sayings never sat particularly well with aelius and he could practically feel himself growing restless with every passing day. as keung took his time regaining his balance, coming back into full control of his body, aelius had taken temporary leave of his office—citing personal business—and left the front to huajin, still determining how much he could trust her but deciding that if she hadn't run the investment business into the ground yet, she could be at least trusted with that much. but though he thought spending all his spare time and waking moments with keung would preoccupy his thoughts to the point of oblivion, he only found his restlessness grow. it had come to the point where, as soon as he had been certain that keung was not completely defenseless on his own, he had left the apartment without so much as a warning.
in hindsight, he supposes he should have told keung—so when something went wrong, someone would know where to find him, know how to help. but at the same time he didn't want that: he wanted to go it alone and if date decided that it was time for him to go, then so be it. the suffering had started with him and he would end it with his own death. it would be the most noble thing he had done and he supposed it's only appropriate that he had done it in keung's name.
though alone had never been his favorite to spend time—always having enjoyed some human interaction between his quiet nights—aelius had kept to himself, far from contact with either keung or huajin so he could concentrate on finding his little stalker. it had taken some time; first combing painstakingly through every message and every call the boss had made since aelius had left the states and even before that, trying to find patterns and match up purchases and bank deposits—really any information he could get his hands on at this point. it had gotten so difficult that at times, aelius felt like he was running in circles or making up the messages he supposedly saw between the lines.
but after working at it for what felt like a small eternity in his own hell, he had figured it out: an m. ryder had been making contacts out to shanghai for a while now and had been hiring different investigators and making various investments that came close to aelius' field but never fully overlapping. as he stared at the name—the cumulative of sleepless nights and maybe days without eating—he can't help but feel as if he's seen it before.
not wanting to waste any more time, though, aelius had taken the first flight out to new york and gave himself adequate time to scope out the apartment building. it seemed the best place; an office building would have too many eyes, too many people not minding their own business whereas a private residence would usually draw desert questions, would have less ears pressed so keenly to the walls. that's what wealth was for after all: the ultimate sense of privacy.
despite his eagerness to get this through and done with—to free both himself and keung from this reign of terror—aelius had taken his time scoping out the place, mapping every detail and watching every turn of the doorman until he was sure that he had memorized every working detail of the place, down to the voltage of most plugs and the likelihood of rats in the cellar. and it's only then that he makes his way in, calm as he walks past the doorman without so much as a question—his confidence and clothes easily allowing him to blend into the crowds that frequented the place. and with deft fingers and a quick mind, he broke his way into the apartment and gun drawn, slowly started to scan the area for movement.
