Winter wanted to get to the opening of the new ‘place’ KD mentioned. Though, being there would be trouble. If it got into the media there was the risk of his picture getting out, which meant people would know where he was. It would also be weird for him to know about it at all, when he didn’t know Max was a part of that family just a minute ago.
“Should we maybe go out?” Thom broke the silence, treading lightly with his words, as if it was somehow his fault. Seriously, what was up with these two, Winter thought, as he looked at Thom and Coach.
“Let’s” Winter agreed, deciding it would be a good opportunity to do something else. They wouldn’t really accomplish anything inside anyway. Coach just meekly followed without saying much.
Winter was tired. Tired of the situation, tired of not knowing where Max was, tired of keeping secrets, as well as tired of being kept secrets from. Should he just come half-way clean and tell them he knew about the opening of the ‘place’? He wouldn’t want to tell where he knew.
Oh, how stupid he felt. If there had been media coverage, of course it would already be out on the internet. Why hadn’t Winter checked that at the very start, before implicating himself, as well as taking unnecessary risks by calling KD?
Lowering his speed, he searched around on the web.
“Weird…” He mumbled to himself as he scrolled and searched. Winter wasn’t able to find anything about a place or an opening. Why? KD had said it was all over the media, both good and bad, so how come it was all squeaky clean now? A bad feeling started to creep close as a hand on Winter’s shoulder startled him.
“Did you see a ghost?” Thom said, trying to joke a bit, but it sounded painful and forced. Winter shook his head, knowing full well it wasn’t an actual question, but for some reason, he really wanted to see a ghost. The ghost of the internet articles, that was.
It isn’t normal for that kind of news to be able to disappear. Once on the internet, always on the internet. But somehow was it not only gone, but it was gone on the same day it should have the most coverage. The opening.
“Uhm… Does Max’s dad have any new projects going on?” Winter asked, feeling like his brain that was usually his savior had gone on vacation. How subtle it was. Not.
Thom looked at Coach with a question-mark in his eyes, and Coach finally seemed to get a bit light and life back.
“There is this new building project that’s opening soon. I don’t know the exact date, though” Coach answered, sounding unsure of every syllable he pronounced. Winter unwillingly gave a little sigh. That wasn’t helpful at all. The date was today, and the project was a place. So in short, Coach didn’t know anything.
“Could you find out?” Winter asked, feeling his helplessness getting the better of him, as he was tired of just standing around. Maybe he could call Max’s dad, as it seemed like he had a direct line to him.
Coach nodded and searched on his phone. Winter just sighed. He wasn’t going to find anything on that.
“That’s weird…” Coach said, sounding baffled.
“It was all over the internet before, but now there isn’t anything anywhere!” Coach seemed to forget his self-blaming for a while, and sounded almost… Happy? Winter was confused.
“Max is okay!” Coach smiled to Thom, who nodded along, being in on whatever there was to be in on. Winter was now taking the role of being baffled. Oh. It’s like that, Winter thought.
“Don’t tell me… Max is a hacker?” Winter asked with disbelief. As much as he didn’t want to believe it, it seemed to be the only thing making sense under the current conditions.
“The best!” Coach said with pride, as if he was the one who had done the deed.
“But why would Max delete something about his dad’s project?” Winter asked, hoping to finally get some useful info out of them. This seemed to do the trick. Thom and Coach looked uncomfortably at each other, then at the ground, and then back at Winter.
“Max and his dad… Doesn’t really get along much…” Coach mumbled as he fiddled with his fingers in a way that managed to make Winter uncomfortable as well. Finally, something of an answer. However, Winter was still unsure about what had happened then.
“If Max is fine, then why would he leave his phone and no message?” Winter asked, not beating around the bush anymore. Thom and Coach should both care more about Max than whatever Winter said at this point, that most questions wouldn’t raise any alarm bells.
“He is… Uhm. Maybe he…” Coach tried to find words, seemingly feeling somewhat ashamed for some reason. It most of all seemed like he had grasped at straws, and now those straws broke. Winter didn’t really understand what was going on, but that seemed to be the theme of today.
“I don’t know” Coach finally said, having given up on making sense of Max’s behavior. Meaning they were just as lost as before, and though Winter had some things confirmed, they still hadn’t moved any closer to finding Max. There was also the uncomfortable feeling Winter kept getting. As if something didn’t add up.
The best scenario would be that Max faked a kidnapping, and then deleted every kind of news about his dad. But if the end goal was to hurt his dad, wouldn’t it have made more sense to not only mass-produce the bad news, but also write fake news about it, instead of wiping the internet? Brining attention to something his dad is doing wrong, would make much more sense than trying to hide it. Especially since it seemed like there had been a lot of controversy about it.
Which lead Winter to believe, this wasn’t a fake kidnapping, and that Max was forced to remove every trace of attention it had had.
Who would profit from that? Max’s dad, most likely.
So did Max’s dad kidnap Max?
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