Several times, Shawn wanted to press his advantage and interrogate Victor until he cracked. But he held back each time.
Take it slow, he told himself. Earn enough trust, and it'll be easier to get what you need.
And so, without drawing attention, Shawn became Victor's best friend. Bar none.
When Victor had problems, he came to Shawn for advice. When he was heartbroken over a breakup, he came to Shawn to cry.
He was such a simple, genuine person. It truly pained Shawn to deceive him.
But the longer he stayed at LD, the more questions piled up, and Shawn was running out of patience.
Thankfully, today he'd gotten a promotion and a raise—cause for celebration.
Victor would surely offer heartfelt congratulations, and they'd open a bottle of wine and share a few glasses.
Normally, a few glasses in, Victor would be red-faced and drowsy. But this time, he would fall into a deep sleep and not wake until morning.
He might even be late for work, but that was fine. After years of punctual attendance, one late morning wouldn't hurt.
With this in mind, Shawn poured the wine and slipped a small pill into one of the glasses.
The doorbell rang. Victor stood at the door, beaming. "Congratulations to my good friend on the promotion and raise!" He handed over a gift and stepped inside.
"I'm still a long way from your level," Shawn said modestly, handing him the doctored glass.
Victor didn't think twice. He drained it in a few gulps.
They sat on the couch discussing Impressionism, and before long, Victor's eyes grew heavy and he drifted off to sleep.
Shawn called his name a few times to confirm he was truly unconscious, then dragged him to the bed.
He gazed at his innocent friend with a pang of guilt, pulled the covers over him, and slipped away with his phone.
Thanks to the fingerprint lock system, Shawn quickly unlocked it. He needed to access the location history in the map app.
He knew that Victor, as an S-level employee, must have visited the classified facility. Being slightly directionally challenged, Victor would definitely have used phone navigation. But the map history was empty.
Fortunately, there was a history recovery function, but it required three security passwords.
"Favorite painter?" — Paul Cézanne.
"Favorite wine brand?" — PETRUS.
"First cat's name?" — MONA.
Shawn had previously sneaked a look at Victor's phone and discovered these password prompts.
Over their time as friends, he'd subtly drawn out these three words, all to unlock Victor's map history.
Shawn stared at the "Recovering..." on screen, his body trembling slightly with nerves.
He glanced at Victor, who lay deeply asleep in bed. The map history finished recovering at that very moment.
He'd finally found LD Technologies' legendary "classified facility."
He had to suppress a scream of triumph.
Shawn entered the address into his own phone, set up navigation, then swiped Victor's employee badge—a keycard that served as LD's access pass.
He didn't know whether the employee badge alone would get him into the classified facility.
But he had to try. Even if it didn't work, just finding the location was a major breakthrough.
Shawn clutched his phone and Victor's badge, stepped out, and pulled the door shut behind him.
The click of the lock echoed crisply. In the bedroom, Victor slowly opened his eyes.
He crawled out from under the covers, padded around the room, grabbed a bag of chips, then climbed back into bed and turned on the TV.
People always get so excited about discovering secrets that they forget the world is full of traps, and let their guard down.
A phone that easy to unlock. Passwords discovered without effort. Location history left unrecovered. An employee badge conveniently left in a bag... Seriously, foolish humans, use your brains for once.
Victor lounged on Shawn's bed, crunched a chip, and smiled.
"This honey flavor is pretty good."