The White Wolf Chapter 169: The Video

Alexia gave him an unimpressed look. “I have a lot of work to do.”

Setting his computer down in front of her it covered her desk. “This is more important.”

“Ok. I’m listening.” She said leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. 

He came around next to her and began clicking on the computer. “So you remember yesterday whenever everyone was looking for the kid.”

“Vaguely.” She said sarcastically. 

“Well, I went to check the security footage.” He began recounting the time since they had last seen one another. 

“About that where did you go? We never saw you again.” Alexia interrupted remembering that she never saw him again. 

“I got distracted by this.” He said pointing to the computer. 

“There was a missing child!” She said exasperated before reaching over and downing the last of her coffee. She needed the extra energy to deal with him. 

“You found him, didn’t you? If the guards didn’t they should have been executed for incompetence.”

She shrugged fair enough. “So what is it? Have you even slept? You look awful.” There were dark bags under his eyes in constraint to the red that lingered in his eyes. 

“No. I was looking through the footage and I noticed some of the backlog footage had been deleted.” He said energetically bypassing her comments. 

His seriousness put Alexia on alert. He was focused and to the point. The lack of joking was alarming to her. “Why would footage get deleted?”

“It shouldn’t.” He said looking at her eagerly. 

“Why would someone delete footage of children?” It wasn’t making sense to her. Why would someone cover up where a child had gone missing? 

“They didn’t. It was footage of the day of the attack.” His voice raised in emphasis as he built up steam in his explanation. 

Alexia sat up in alarm. “All of the footage?”

“No just part of it. Outside of your chambers.” He said pointing off to the direction of her chambers. 

“That would have been noticed. The diamond went missing. The footage is the first place they would check.” She challenged. There was no way the footage had gone missing. It was a part of the protocol to check the cameras. 

“Exactly. That’s why they put duplicate footage over it. Here look.” Edmund pressed some buttons and a video of outside her chambers played. 

“There’s nothing.” She said seeing no change in the video just the halls leading to her door. 

“It’s a loop,” Edmund explained meaning the video repeated the same scene over and over. 

Her eyes squinted as Edmund explained how he came to find this out. The technical jargon did little for her but she tried her best to follow. 

“Can we find the original footage?” Alexia asked staring at the screen. 

“I’m working on that now. Luckily there’s a backup server that everything gets loaded onto. It’s not known for security reasons.”

“So whoever deleted the footage is not high ranking.” Alexia finished the thought. If only the higher ranks were aware of the protocol and the footage was in the backup it was not them. 

“Correct.” He praised. 

“So we need to work our way through the lower ranks.” Looking at the ceiling she began thinking of a plan. 

“Discreetly, with Caspian away it could cause panic.” Edmund amended her plans. They needed to keep the palace running smoothly while Caspian was away. So that he had a home to return to. 

“How long will it take to access the server.” She grew impatient. 

“I’m working on that now, I’m downloading all the past footage from that day.” The amount of footage would take a while to download due to the sheer volume. 

Since they had time and Harley had not arrived yet, Alexia rang for breakfast to be delivered to her study. 

Looking at the state Edmund was in, no doubt he had skipped dinner along with staying up all night. 

While they waited for breakfast and the footage to load. Edmund excused himself to shower and freshen up. 

The reports she had been looking at were long abandoned. With her hands clasped together, she turned from side to side in her chair thinking. Planning. Plotting. 

She thought of the best ways to find the mole but she was coming up empty. If only her father was here. He would know what to do. 

Edmund had only been gone twenty minutes when he returned in jeans and a t-shirt with freshly washed hair. 

He didn’t look as worn down as he had Easily but it was evident he was tired. 

Breakfast part two for Alexia arrived soon after. Edmund was grateful inhaling all that he could almost causing himself to choke. 

Alexia however sipped her coffee peacefully. Harley slipped in to deliver the post and collect Alexia’s notes. 

When Alexia handed over her notes, she asked Harley to send for Enzo as well. He would need to know as well and better to have him here than have to recount everything to him. 

Harley disappeared to complete her tasks and do her rounds. 

The morning was in full swing when Enzo arrived. Edmund brought him up to speed as he sat patiently waiting for the prince to finish. He seemed to grasp what he was saying with very little effort. 

By the time Edmund finished his explanation, the download was complete. Alexia moved out of his way as he began typing away on his computer. 

There was an enormous amount of footage from the day. He narrated it down by camera which took time to find the correct one and then time frame. 

He pressed play after Alexia left for the morning. Servants walked by. The guards did their rounds. It was mostly just a view of the hall. Very boring. 

“Can we speed it up?” Enzo asked impatiently tired of watching the video in real time. 

The sleep deprivation prevented Edmund from having the same idea and he quickly corrected it. Enhancing the speed of the video the day soon began to fly by. 

Then it happened. After the initial bombs went off and before Alexia had returned. They leaned in to watch. 

“That bitch.” Alexia said aloud.