Chapter 173: Through the fire and flames (5)

"Are they done with the investigation?"

"Not yet."

"What's taking them so long."

Tia agitatedly asked. She figured that by now, the authorities would've find out what happened.

"Tian-Tian calm down. It's not confirmed yet but it seems like it's an inside job."

Ian said. At first, he was hesitant to tell Tia the truth.

But upon remembering how angry she was earlier he decided to tell her.

He's scared what would've happened if she find everything out herself.

"What?! How?!"

"We don't know yet but my team is already checking.

The sprinklers were deactivated and the smoke seems to start at the crawl space in your office."

Ian explained the partial findings to her.

"Mei-Mei..."

Tia gasped and tears started to fall down her face. She remembered Mei Chen asking her to use her room.

"Don't tell me.. What if.. It, it should've me. Oh my God, Why is this happening.."

She wailed and Ian hugged her. She had a feeling that she's the one who's being targeted.

And if its true she would feel extremely guilty towards Mei Chen. She was the one who had to suffer instead of her.

Ian couldn't tell but he also speculate that the culprit was really after Tia.

He stroke her back trying to console her.

"Tian-Tian don't worry I'll make sure to get to the bottom of this."

Ian reassuringly said. He coaxed Tia and due to stress and exhaustion, she eventually fell asleep.

Ian stayed wide awake, he went outside to smoke.

As he puff his cigarette he kept thinking about what Tia said.

"It should've been me..."

He figured if that's really the case then he should double his security.

Rin Chan sent him the result of the investigation.

They all interviewed the employees in the design department.

They said that they heard an explosion and thick smoke started coming down from the ceiling.

They tried calling the security but the intercoms were all disabled.

They all started running to save themselves. It was only Kenny who rushed inside, then after a while he and Mei Chen emerged out of the smoke.

Rin Chan checked the CCTV but they found nothing suspicious.

They couldn't check what happened to Mei Chen cause there's no CCTV inside Tia's office for her privacy.

They confirmed that the explosion came from Tia's office and upon checking, the ceiling had collapsed.

It's apparent that Mei Chen was knocked unconscious by the falling debris from the ceiling.

The explosion was caused by a remotely detonated smoke bomb.

They tried tracing where did the bomb was purchased only to find that it was an IED (¹) variant.

They are still investigating how did the sprinklers and the intercoms got deactivated before the explosion happened.

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(1) IED-  improvised explosive device is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action.