Chapter 37 - Background Check On Ivy
Chapter 37 – Background Check On Ivy
The President, Luis Truman, congratulated the members of the Intelligence. He was in the office of the Intelligence. He had come to congratulate the team on their accomplishment and he was quite happy with their work. They had successfully captured David Peters and his gang, stopping a huge catastrophe from happening. But he still couldn't remove the journalist's words from his mind. He was still in a great dilemma. What if Ivy's assumptions are true? Is there anybody else involved in this act? If so, how would he find out about this and get to the bottom of it?
"Mr President." The Chief of the Intelligence, Frederick Clarke, called him, breaking his train of thoughts.
"This is Valarie Evans, the Deputy Chief. She was the one who led our team in this mission."
"She is the one who led the team?" Valarie looked quite young, around thirty maybe, to be the Deputy Chief. He was quite surprised looking at her poised expression. She looked like a soldier, ready to face any situation.
"I must say, lady, you were very impressive," Luis said, shaking her hand. Indeed he was quite impressed. He had met two outstanding women in just a span of one day.
"Thank you, Mr. President. It is my honor and my job." Valarie said, politely. "And I couldn't have done it without the support of my team."
"Indeed," Luis said, nodding at her.
"Mr President, Chief. I need to talk to you in private. I have something important to tell." Valarie said, reducing her voice.
"Is it something urgent?" Frederick asked, leading the other two to his office room.
"Yes Chief. It is about the virus."
Luis, Frederick and Valarie entered his office while Luis's guards and assistants stayed outside.
"What is it about?" Luis asked taking a seat on the couch.
"Mr President, it is about David Peters. I feel that there is something we are missing."
"What do you mean?" This time it was Frederick who asked the question.
"I feel that there is somebody else also involved in this plan, someone who helped him behind the scenes."
Luis was baffled. It was the same thing Ivy had said when he had met her after the conference.
"Why do you feel that way?" Luis asked, trying to hide his shocked expression. As expected of the Intelligence, he thought.
"Mr. President, I feel Mr. Peters is not that capable of getting something like a deadly virus smuggled into the country without anybody noticing it. So, I feel there is someone more capable of doing the work."
"Hmm. Just as I had thought." Luis said, removing his framed glasses.
"What do you mean Mr. President? Did you know about this?" Frederick asked, listening to the words being exchanged between Luis and Valarie.
"I had a hunch," Luis said standing up. " So, what are you going to do now?"
"Sir, first we need to make a background check on Mr. Peters and his men. We have to know who had been in contact with them to find out anything." Valarie said, following him to the door.
"Let me know once you find something."
"Yes Mr President. Thank you for your time." Frederick walked beside Luis while Valarie followed them.
"Just a second. May I have a word with you alone?" Luis stopped in front of the door and stared at Valarie.
"I'll take your leave now Mr President." Frederick left the room, closing the door behind him.
"Do you know anybody by the name of Ivy West? She is a reporter." Luis spoke when they were left alone.
"No. Mr President. It's the first time I am hearing the name."
Luis nodded.
"Why Mr President? Is there a problem?"
"I met this reporter during the press meet yesterday. She told me the same thing whatever you told me about somebody else being involved. So, I assumed maybe you were acquainted with each other."
"No Mr President. I do not know anybody by that name."
"Okay. Let me know if you find any valuable information." Luis said with a smile and left the room.
"Ivy West. Hmm."
She pulled out her phone and made a call to someone.
"Get me all information regarding a person named Ivy West. She is a journalist." She then cut the call, straightening her back and walked out of the room.
"Deputy Chief, what did the President and the Chief say?" The guy with the spectacles said as soon as she returned from the Chief's office.
"It seems the President already had a hunch about it, Ryder. But the Chief was quite shocked."
Ryder Quinn was the person who had disguised himself to be in David's gang, in order to extract more information on their mission. In reality, he was the Assistant Deputy in the Intelligence. Just like Valarie, he too had a feeling that somebody else was involved in this mission.
"What do you mean? The President knew about it."
"Some journalist by the name of Ivy West had told him about it. It seems she too had the same notion."
"Ohh. Is it?"
"Yes. So, I have asked for a background check on her. Let's see what we get."
Valarie then continued to mingle around with her colleagues while she waited for her phone to ring. After forty minutes, his phone dinged indicating the arrival of an email. She opened her phone and looked at the information. It was the complete bio-data of Ivy. There was nothing significant about her except that her father, Oliver West, had gone missing three years ago. Like Ivy, her father was also a journalist.
Ryder immediately walked to her when he saw her grim expression.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yes. This is the information I received. Ivy is just a normal journalist. There is nothing out of ordinary about her."
"Let me have a look." Ryder read through the information on the phone.
"Oh my God." He exclaimed after going through it completely.
"What happened?" Valarie asked looking at him intently.
"Ivy's Dad is Oliver West."
"So?"
"Oliver West. Doesn't it ring a bell in your mind?"
"It does sound familiar. What are you trying to say?"
"Val, Oliver was the journalist who was covering the news about organ trafficking three years back."
"What?" Valarie asked grabbing her phone back and going through the information again. She had been searching for Oliver for three years but without any results. It looked like he just vanished from the world suddenly. She had also tried searching for his family. But his details had been erased completely, there were no records of him having a family. Yet she somehow managed to find his address. However, his family had relocated by then and she had found nothing about them. After reading the name again, she raised her head.
"Now I have to meet this Ivy West."