An Apology
Thursday, continued…
“Thank you, Supervisor An,” Anna said, accepting the documents with a polite nod.
She quickly set up her laptop and pretended to log into the legal department’s intranet, but instead, she used the credentials for the CEO’s network, which Assistant Wang had provided earlier. As soon as she logged in, a message from Hou Yi appeared on her screen.
‘Are you back safe and sound?’
Anna typed back, ‘I am. I’m ninety-nine percent sure that no one saw me leaving when I was surrounded by the bodyguards and caught a taxi back as if I had been released by the immigration department.’
‘OK.’
‘Just one thing: if we’re going to do the setups like today, we better make sure that I have a second set of clothes with me, a flirty set, like a new bride visiting her CEO husband at lunchtime. It’ll lessen the risk of someone potentially putting things together, especially when I’m here working.’
‘Not a problem. How about in the future, you leave the legal department saying you’re going to a meeting before 12pm with documents. You walk up and hand over a set of ‘blank’ pages to Assistant Wang, go downstairs, and leave via taxi before returning as my wife. You then leave around 1:50pm, and we reverse the process for you to return as Anna Jones, the lawyer.’
Before Anna could reply, there was a knock on the door. She immediately clicked on the video and audio surveillance in the room and responded, “Come in.”
At the same time, she sent a quick message to Hou Yi: ‘Lawyer Mei is coming in. I’ve put the cameras on if you’re interested.’
The door opened, and Lawyer Mei stepped in, taking a seat across from Anna’s desk.
“Lawyer Jones,” Lawyer Mei began.
“Yes?” Anna replied a little more abruptly than she intended, her mind still focused on the recent conversation with Hou Yi.
“I have to apologise to you,” Lawyer Mei said quietly. “Please don’t hate me. After you were introduced to us, I did a quick internet search. This confirmed that you were a lawyer in Australia, but I doubted you were married or had the right permits to work here, so I called immigration and reported you to them. Given your return, it seems they’ve satisfied themselves about your ability to work here. I can only apologise for reporting you to them.”
Anna remained calm and composed. “Thank you for your apology. I can only guess that you were concerned about the company and didn’t want any trouble to happen. Please, however, do not call me ‘Lawyer Jones.’ My name is Anna, or if that’s too hard, call me Miss Jones.”
At the same time, Anna messaged Hou Yi: ‘Yi, she admitted she called immigration and apologised. I’ll message you soon.’
“I can only apologise, Miss Anna, for what I did,” Lawyer Mei continued. “I have to admit, I’ve never liked the name my parents gave me, so I always introduce myself as Amanda.”
“Amanda, there is no need to apologise. I can see that you meant no harm,” Anna replied, her voice softening.
“Miss Anna, do you mind telling me a little about how you came to be here?” Amanda asked, her curiosity piqued.
Anna glanced at her phone for a moment before responding. A message from Hou Yi popped up: ‘Be careful. I still don’t trust her motives, despite knowing her and her apology for calling immigration.’
Anna quickly typed back: ‘Will do.’
She then turned her attention back to Amanda. “Amanda, I’m married to a businessman who values his privacy. We met in Australia and decided to get married in City T, his hometown. We obtained our marriage certificate a couple of days ago, intending to have our honeymoon before returning to Australia so I can finalise my life there before returning here permanently due to his business needs.”
Anna paused to take a breath and continued, “My employers, ANX Lawyers in Australia, contacted me yesterday afternoon about a serious issue concerning the Australian Subsidiary. Since I was already here, arrangements were made for me to come in, handle the matter, and send documents back to Australia. Look, I would love to talk more, but I really need to get into the work I have to do. The quicker it’s done, the sooner I can go on my honeymoon with my husband.”
“Not a problem,” Amanda replied, standing up. “I’ll let you get to it.”
As Amanda left the room, Anna quickly sent a final message to Hou Yi: ‘She apologized and admitted to calling immigration. I’m fine. I’ll update you soon.’
Once the door closed, Anna let out a breath, trying to process the conversation. She had expected something like this—Amanda had seemed nervous from the start, and now Anna could see how far her suspicions about Anna had gone. But for now, she had handled it well, and her focus had to remain on the task at hand.
The question still loomed: Who else was involved? How deep did the betrayal go within Hou Enterprises? And what would happen if they couldn’t identify all the spies in time?
As Anna returned to her laptop, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the situation was growing more complicated by the minute.
