Never Judge

While Ian was on the phone with Seth, Leon entered the room informing Cedric that they had thoroughly swept his office and that they had found all of the listening devices in the room.

"Do you have a plan on how to get Guan Ming out of the situation he is in?" Cedric asked Leon as he packed up his things, signaling to Ian to do the same.

"Yes sir, and we wanted to run it by you before actually doing it." Leon told Cedric.Â

"Alright. Let's move to my office and I want to know the plan as soon as possible." Cedric said as he checked his things.Â

Leon quickly picked up Cedric's laptop and documents, allowing the CEO to lead the way back to his office.

When Ian noticed that Cedic was leaving, he quickly ended his call and packed up his things and followed Cedric and Leon out.

"Were you really going to leave me?" Ian grumbled as they walked down the hallway.

"You seemed to be busy." Cedric said as they approached his office.

Leon stifled a laugh as he noticed the annoyed look on Ian's face.

"I have information for you." Ian said as they entered Cedric's office.

"Alright, Leon first then you." Cedric said as he made his way to his seat, thankful that the sweep was done.Â

No matter how comfortable or homey his sister's office felt, it still wasn't his and he somewhat had a hard time concentrating with all the unnecessary items in the room.

Leon looked at the door and made sure that it was closed behind Ian. It seemed that he had reason to doubt that someone could be listening in from the hallway.

"We haven't checked if Wu Jun left listening devices outside." Leon informed Cedric.

"I checked the receiving area earlier, there were none." Cedric told Leon. "But the other areas , I didn't have the chance."

"I'm having my men do a sweep now." Leon said with a nod. "We could do it faster, but we are stretched a little bit too thin."

"It's understandable." Cedric said with a nod as he acknowledged his head of Security's predicament. "What do you have planned then? We need to get Guan Ming out of there."

"We plan to create several false locations and send a much smaller team to fetch Guan Ming." Leon informed Cedric.

"Wouldn't that still draw the attention of the attackers?" Ian asked. "And how is it possible that our people cannot get those men when there are so little of them involved?"

"They are highly trained and very skilled, unfortunately it seems like they are former military." Leon said with a frown.

"I guess this is where my information comes in." Ian said with a grin as he stood up and walked in front of Cedric's desk stopping next to Leon.

"Seth had something important for you?" Cedric asked as he looked at his friend.

Ian nodded and smiled.

"It seems that there is a Mafia family that has long been on bad terms both with the King of the Underworld, aka Ray, the other Mafia Families, and the Gangs." Ian explained. "Their specialty was armed militia doing whatever you wanted, whenever, wherever."Â

"If they were clashing with Ray and the other groups, how did they manage to survive this long?" Cedric asked.

"They didn't." Ian said, shaking his head. "Their first warning came a generation ago, with uncle Benedicto, he had most of their resources seized and many of their men killed. After that they still didn't learn their lesson, so Ray decided to wipe them out."

"So they should be dead?" Cedric asked, confused as to where Ian was going.

"Should be, but it seems that some of them survived and decided to team up with Lucius Ting." Ian told Cedric.

"How well trained are their people?" Cedric asked.

"Mostly ex-special forces that didn't like how restrictive military life was, it's not just locals but international forces as well." Ian explained.

"There can't be that many of them." Cedric said as he thought of the people attacking Guan Ming.

"But they probably have an exit plan." Leon added. "I'll have my people check the vicinity of the airport, if anyone acts suspiciously we will take them."

Leon bowed to Cedric and turned to leave.

"Leon, I don't think I need to remind you, but I want them alive. We need evidence against Lucius Ting." Cedric said in a stern and commanding tone.

"Yes, sir." Leon said as he exited the room, leaving Ian and Cedric alone.

"There was more that you wanted to say?" Cedric asked as he looked at his friend. He knew that Ian had more information, it was just not relevant to Leon's work.

"I did." Ian said with a nod. "These people could be related to Lucius Ting, biologically."

"Are you sure?" Cedric asked as he tried to contain his shock. This was as far as they had managed to get to Lucius Ting's biological parents.

"Yes, and I only have this suspicion because of what Nicole and Seth have both told me." Ian told Cedric.

"Go on." Cedric said with a nod as he encouraged his friend to speak.

"According to Nicole, her grandfather was telling her about a side of their family that made all the wrong marriages, which kind of explains their paranoia with who people marry." Ian said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Not the point of this conversation, Ian." Cedric told Ian.

"Right, right. Anyway, it was believed that they had links to the underworld and they had used those connections to try to get more of Saints Hospital. Unfortunately whoever their connections were seemed to vanish and so did their resources." Ian explained.

"So you think those connections are this supposedly dead Mafia family you were telling me about?" Cedric asked.

"Yes." Ian said with a nod. "Seth told me that this family, the Carino Family, wouldn't stick their neck out for anyone except their own. They wouldn't have come out unless it's important."

"See if you can find proof." Cedric said with a nod. "But for now I want to keep this between us."

Ian nodded in response, he knew how important keeping this information within a small group was.

"Cedric, have you told Camilla?" Ian asked his friend, his face full of worry.

"Not yet, but I'll call her when I know more. I don't want her charging into the airport just to save Guan Ming." Cedric told Ian with a nervous laugh.

"Come on, Camilla has more brains than Guan Ming, she wouldn't do that, right?" Ian asked, making Cedric simply shake his head.

It was a mystery what love could make two people do.. Even when it came to two very intelligent and logical people like Camilla and Guan Ming, sometimes love managed to blind people and make them stupid.