America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 640 The Theft

Because he was awakened by Elizabeth Olsen's loving kiss just as dawn broke, Martin arrived at the company relatively early after finishing his morning exercise.

Alice, the receptionist, has already come to the company and opened the door.

Martin nodded to her and went upstairs with Bruce.

The elevator quickly reached the fourth floor. Martin entered the elevator and caught a faint whiff of something strange: "What's that weird smell? Old Brooks, can you smell it?"

Bruce sniffed hard: "Was someone with smelly feet taking off their shoes in the elevator last night?"

Martin stepped out of the elevator and arrived at the office door. Just as he was about to open the door, his eyes fell on the brass handle, and he immediately withdrew his hand.

He noticed that the keyhole of the handle was stained with some oil.

Upon closer inspection, there are faint scratches near the keyhole.

Martin instinctively stepped back and said to Bruce, who had followed him, "Something's not right."

Without saying a word, Bruce pulled out two pistols, handed one to Martin, and then walked to the door, close to the marble wall.

He glanced at it and said, "The lock is new; there's no way it could have these marks. It was opened with a non-matching key."

Martin gripped his pistol tightly in both hands, keeping watch behind Bruce, and said, "Let's back down first; Jessica might have opened the door."

Jessica also has a key to his office, and she is responsible for the daily cleaning.

Bruce reminded him, "Go back the way you came."

If someone has illegally broken in, try not to leave any traces.

The two men, one guarding the front and the other the rear, retreated back into the elevator lobby.

Martin examined the ground carefully and found no other traces besides his and Bruce's footprints.

The two then took the elevator downstairs.

As Jessica and Emily stepped out of the elevator and were about to go upstairs, they were stunned to see Martin and Bruce holding guns.

What game is the boss playing? Using a gun in the company?

Jessica asked, "Boss, what are you doing?"

Martin stepped out of the elevator and asked, "I wasn't in yesterday, but did anyone enter my office?"

Jessica shook her head: "No."

Emily was certain: "No one went up to the fourth floor yesterday except for the cleaning staff."

Jessica asked, "Boss, what happened?"

Bruce holstered his pistol: "The company may have been burgled."

When Martin saw Alice approaching curiously, he shielded her with his body from the gun and said, "Alice, go to the door and stop the other employees. Don't let anyone in for now."

He then said to Bruce, "Call the police."

Bruce took out his phone and called the police. Several people had entered the first floor in succession, and even the diligent Alice had done a quick clean-up.

Martin looked around, then went to the doorway. He checked the lock, then lowered the security door to take a look. He called Alice over and asked her a few questions, but found nothing.

Bruce and Jessica checked the surveillance footage and found that it was not working properly, the hard drive had been forcibly removed, and the backup power supply had been damaged.

Two patrol officers quickly arrived outside the door.

They were simply maintaining order and reminding people to protect the scene.

A dozen minutes later, a detective from the police department arrived with his team and technical personnel.

The staff were dispersed to inquire about the relevant situation, and they were very polite and careful in their words and actions.

Inspector Geralt, well aware of Martin's relationship with the chief, came over, shook hands with Martin, and personally inquired about what he had discovered.

Martin explained it to him in detail and then had Bruce take him to the monitoring room.

Geralt immediately made a phone call to gather more people and sent others to inquire and check the situation in the vicinity.

After a long period of turmoil, Martin simply gave most of the company's employees a leave of absence, leaving only managers such as Jessica and Emily.

Geralt then came over and invited Martin upstairs.

"We found some traces, but very few; the intruders were very careful," he said as he walked out of the elevator. "They must have worn shoe covers and gloves; there were no fingerprints or clear footprints."

Arriving at Martin's office door, he pointed to the lock: "At least one of them is a skilled locksmith; he not only opened this door, but he also opened your safe."

Martin remembers clearly: "There didn't seem to be any valuables in the office safe."

Geralt said, "Check if anything is missing."

Martin carefully checked the office and found nothing missing. He then went to the safe where several technicians were gathered.

The safe was empty except for two scripts.

Geralt asked, "Is anything missing?"

Martin shook his head, squatted down to examine the script, and noticed that it seemed to have been flipped through, causing him to frown slightly.

He answered Geralt's question first: "Nothing is missing. I didn't put anything else in this safe except for two documents."

Geralt asked, "Didn't you steal anything?"

Martin said to Bruce, "Check out the other areas one by one."

Not long after, Bruce came over and said, "Nothing is missing. Apart from your office, nothing in the other rooms has been touched."

Martin roughly understood that the thieves hadn't come in to steal valuables; their target was most likely the safe.

He found Geralt and gave him a brief explanation.

Geralt told Martin to keep quiet for the time being and leave it to the professionals to investigate.

Soon, more information came in.

The electrical distribution box connected to the building had been opened, and the hard drive containing the surveillance cameras and the hidden spare disk were all missing; they had obviously been taken away.

However, there was also good news: some traces were found at the back of the office building, suggesting that someone climbed up to the fourth floor by following the drainpipe, security bars, and air conditioner units, and violently damaged the security bars on the safety passage window.

In addition, surveillance cameras in a nearby building captured several figures dressed in black, wearing black clothes and black hoods.

However, there is relatively little surveillance here, and public surveillance cameras are scarcely located outside the main road. We can only wait for the police department to conduct further investigations to find other clues.

Geralt exchanged a few polite words with Martin, then quickly led his men to retreat.

Martin and Bruce remained in the office.

The latter asked directly, "Are they here for the script?"

Martin took out two scripts, placed them on the table in front of him, and looked at the covers, saying, "Seventh Son and Transcendence. I thought I'd need these two scripts, so I casually tossed them into the safe. I never expected they'd attract a thief..."

Bruce asked, "Who knows?"

Martin said, "It wasn't a secret within the company that I had seen scripts that were rejected but didn't have the copyright to. Many people knew that I had two scripts."

All full-time employees can access the studio's collaborative office software database.

This feature was originally intended to encourage employees to recommend scripts.

Bruce then asked, "You think highly of these two scripts?"

"No," Martin said simply, "It's a fantasy epic, you know."

Bruce had heard Martin say more than once that he refused to take on any fantasy epic projects or roles.

Martin said, "If they came for the script, what would they think if they saw the script I kept locked in a safe?"

Bruce, knowing Martin's reputation for having a good eye for talent was now exceptionally strong, said, "Contact the copyright holders immediately to acquire the script rights, and there's a possibility of investing heavily in its production."

"Although I don't know who did it, since they stole it from my place, I have to help them out no matter what." Martin stood up, took a few steps, picked up the phone, and dialed a number: "Jesse, you and Emily come over here."

Jessica and Emily quickly entered the office.

Martin handed them the script and said, "You should contact the scriptwriter or the copyright holder to discuss the acquisition of the script."

Jessica glanced down; if she remembered correctly, Martin had rejected both scripts last time.

Martin further instructed: "Make a show of being determined to win, create a lot of noise, drag out the negotiations, but don't actually buy the script rights, understand?"

Emily chimed in, "Shall we create the impression that we're determined to win over these two scripts?"

Martin nodded: "That's right, let's do it now."

Jessica and Emily immediately contacted the screenwriter, whose contact information was on the script.

Once the office door closed, Bruce asked, "You want to find the perpetrator through this?"

Martin said, "If someone spent a lot of money to buy these two scripts, would they just leave them in a script library? They would definitely invest in making them into movies."

He went to the window and looked across at the Disney studio: "Which thieves did it isn't really important. What's most important is who or what forces are behind them."

Bruce sighed: "It's not that we want to cause trouble, it's just that there are too many scumbags in this industry, so many that if we don't mess with them, someone else will mess with us."

Martin laughed: "In the eyes of many of the bigger figures in Hollywood, I might not even be as good as Tom Cruise."

Bruce understood what he meant: Tom Cruise had the backing of Scientology and thirty years of accumulated experience, yet he was still almost smeared to the point of no return. Fortunately, he had enough "health bar" (i.e., resilience and resilience) to back him up...

"We need to be more discreet when we buy projects in the future," Martin said after thinking for a moment. "I'll talk to Harris later and set up a shell company in his name. If we see a project we like, Harris will be the one to talk to people first."

He then said to Bruce, "Although there are no important valuables here at the company, security still needs to be upgraded."

Bruce replied, "I'll get right to it."

The whole morning was spent dealing with these messy things.

In the afternoon, Martin went to Century City and met with Nokia's Marketing Director, Klose, at WMA.

Nokia's two-year endorsement contract with Martin expires this month.

In the past two years, Nokia phones have maintained a very considerable market share in North America because smartphones and Android have not yet fully taken off, coupled with Martin's appeal and the decline of its old rival Motorola.

Martin declined Nokia's offer to renew his contract, even though Nokia offered him a $1500 million endorsement deal per year.

Close couldn't understand Martin's choice at all: "Our collaboration over the past two years has been very successful, why not continue?"

"This involves my personal privacy," Martin said vaguely. "I can only apologize."

(End of this chapter)