The Billionaire Twins Need A New Mommy!-Chapter 697: Why Was He There?

"A pyramid?" Slater questioned as he walked in, dragging a chair. "Sis, are we talking about a pyramid scam or a real pyramid?"

"Oh," Lola opened her mouth, then stopped. "Well... I didn’t think of that."

"Sis, what did you do to our board?" Hugo asked as he dragged a chair, spun it around, and sat on it with the backrest against his chest. He pointed at the board behind Lola. "I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to build a board. But... it looks nice."

"No," Lola shook her head as she approached the table. "I mean, I know. But the thing is... this is how Yuri did it."

Atlas pushed himself up, his hair slightly messy from sleep, watching Lola lean over to explain.

"So, while reviewing Yuri’s recording, there’s this faint sound in the background. At first, it seems like nothing, but if you pay attention, she was building something — maybe out of habit," she began, putting the flash drives together. "If you noticed, each flash drive has a different size and design. We quickly assumed she just used whatever was available."

Lola went on, explaining how she arrived at the idea and why the timestamps and files seemed so messy.

"It’s hard to see things from the perspective of one of the greatest detectives," she said, "but one thing we can all agree on is that Yuri has a brilliant mind."

She placed the final piece in position. The flash drives formed one solid shape — a pyramid.

She lifted her gaze, holding theirs. "And when you build a pyramid, you don’t start at the top. You start at the bottom and work your way up."

When creating a board, they usually start with the source and expand outward. That was why they had been taking so long — their method was different from Yuri’s.

"But with this..." Lola stepped aside, revealing the board. "It’s a pyramid."

To be honest, what they had been doing wasn’t entirely wrong. It just would have taken much longer than following this method. Hence, they all looked jumbled.

"Look at this," she said, walking closer and pointing at the place where Yuri was last seen. "This is where Yuri was last seen, and I checked every country near it. I kept asking myself why she chose this place. What’s there?"

She lowered her hand slowly. "And I realized it’s because Sangard has a pier for ships heading elsewhere."

"Ah..." Hugo nodded, his mouth falling open. "I think I get it. Sangard has one small pier that connects to nearby regions, and another that opens to international routes. If Yuri hopped from one ship to another, she could eventually reach a country where pyramids are tourist sites — without ever taking a plane."

"Exactly," Lola nodded. "There are flights that would be faster. But if someone wanted to stay undetected, this way is much safer."

Of course, there would still be boarding records. But unless Yuri had already been under surveillance, this method would have been highly effective.

"So we were right?" Allen, who had been standing in the same spot, stepped closer to Lola, eyes still on the board. "Yuri didn’t disappear in Sangard. That’s not where she was abducted."

Lola nodded. "That much is clear now. Sangard is the last place she was seen, but that doesn’t mean she got into trouble there. That’s where she started covering her tracks — most likely because she believed the Order would eventually figure out where to go from there."

"..." Atlas blinked, resting a hand on the edge of the table, deep in thought. "Allen."

His voice snapped everyone out of their thoughts.

"Not long ago, I heard about a hijacking." Atlas slowly lifted his gaze, meeting Allen’s eyes — then Hugo’s. "Find out the destination of that ship before it disappeared."

Even before Atlas explained further, Allen stiffened, his eyes widening. He nodded and immediately returned to his station. He had heard about it too, but hadn’t paid much attention since it was outside their jurisdiction.

Besides, hijackings and missing ships weren’t uncommon.

At least, not big enough to make major headlines. Still, news like that reached the right people.

"Now that I think about it..." Hugo leaned back. "I think Mint received a request about the rise in missing ships. She wasn’t interested, but she probably knows something."

Smacking his lips, he jumped from his seat and walked off to make a call. Slater, meanwhile, cupped his cheek, thinking.

After a moment, he blinked and looked at Lola. "Sis."

Lola was organizing the files on the table when he called. She paused and looked at him. Atlas did the same.

"Did you sleep?"

For a second, Lola was confused, then she smiled. "Of course. I’m planning to sleep early tonight, so I’m getting as much work done as I can now. We can’t stay here long — not when every second counts, right?"

Slater studied her, then nodded. "Well, I should get to work too!"

"Though... this is quite something," he muttered. "It feels like things are going smoothly for us, thanks to Yuri’s information. Still, I think she should’ve gone to Novera — it’s just a few hours by plane."

"If she’s staying under the radar, wouldn’t going to Novera be the opposite?"

"Everyone’s in Novera when First Brother is there," Slater replied casually. "It wouldn’t raise suspicion. Wherever my brother goes, people gather. I wouldn’t even be in Novera if not for him. Penny and Zoren were there too, remember?"

"How can we fully understand Yuri’s brilliant mind?" Lola quipped. "Anyone want coffee?"

"I do, I do~!" Slater raised a hand, though Allen offered to make it himself, which she rejected.

But as Lola started walking away, Atlas suddenly spoke.

"Why was he in Novera?"

Her steps slowed. The others paused, turning to Atlas. His brows were knit.

"Everyone was in Novera," he murmured. "Everyone... including Vito."

Atlas lifted his eyes to meet theirs. "Allen, call Hajime and Scarlet — I trust them. We’re making our first move."