Gabriel Agreste/Hawkmoth
"My son is upstairs. I told you not to come here."
He growled at the man child standing in front of him. Damien grinned, holding up a print out of a news article.
"I'm doing the job you asked me to do."
Gabriel snatched the paper, reading over it. It talked about some superhero in America, supporting a tech company.
"What is this?"
Damien pointed at the name he had circled on the page, someone called 'William Staffon.'
"This is the Reaper?"
"Yep. I was shocked, to say the least. He isn't really the hacker type. Anyway I started looking in to his business, and found something pretty intriguing. His company has several branches. One of which, is a weapons department. Can you guess who donated to said department?"
Damien sounded smug, and it grated on Gabriel's nerves.
"Who?"
"I counted at least six superheros. Which didn't make sense. What heros would willingly donate to a weapons branch, when their main objective is peace?"
That was odd. Gabriel looked back down at the paper, leveling his gaze on the hero known as knight owl. He was shaking hands with the reaper, who wore a smug smile.
"Blackmail?"
He questioned, and Damien nodded.
"I think so. I tried to check out this weapons department, but I couldn't find any actual records of it. Theres an address for the branch, but the address doesn't exist. It has all the markers for a scam."
"Thank you Damien. Natalie, pay him."
Damien looked displeased, standing up straighter.
"That's it?"
"You did your job."
He watched him run a hand through his greasy hair, before shrugging.
"I just thought maybe I could do more. Try to break through the firewalls he has. Something."
He mumbled as Natalie set a duffle bag at his feet, loaded with cash.
"If you wish to do so, fine. If you fail, I won't pay you for the time wasted."
Damien nodded, picking up the bag.
"Walk him out Natalie."
"Of course sir."
She walked him out of the office, and he stared down at the news clipping on his desk. If this hacker really was trying to discover his identity, it would make sense that he had done so before, with these superheros. Perhaps one of them held a grudge. Natalie returned, and he motioned her closer.
"We're going to the states. Summon Adrien for me."
"Sir, we're going to the states? The hacker is here in paris."
She kept her voice low, and he shook his head, pointing at the superhero on the page.
"He might be, but his enemies are in America. Summon Adrien."
She nodded, before briskly walking away. This was his last option. He would retrieve one of the hacker's enemies, have him come to paris to destroy this 'William' person, and take the miraculous. A superhero would be an excellent acuma. And since the hacker had already threatened them, it would be easy to manipulate their emotions. Natalie returned with Adrien in tow, and he walked up to his desk, staring ahead.
"Yes father?"
The emotionless tone he took always struck a cord, and made his heart ache. He loved Adrien. Yes, he had been distant. After Emile, his interaction with Adrien had become less and less, but he never went without. He had everything he could ever want. When Emile returned, he would repair their relationship. He would fix everything.
"Natalie and I have to go to the states on business. Your bodyguard will remain here with you until we return."
"You're leaving now? Graduation is-"
"We will be back in time for your graduation. You know the rules, no one is to come over unless you get permission from me."
Adrien looked down at the desk, his face hardened. He would fix their relationship. Soon enough. Adrien's features changed to one of confusion, and Gabriel realized he was looking at the news clipping.
"Are you going to meet a superhero?"
"No. The man in the picture next to him runs a prominent business, that I wish to invest in."
Gabriel grabbed the paper from the desk, passing it to Natalie. The less Adrien knew the better.
"Is that all father?"
"I expect you to keep up with your photo shoots, as well as any meetings you have. Natalie will send you an itinerary."
Adrien nodded, looking him in the eye.
"I understand father."
"Good. You may go."
Adrien turned on his heel, quickly leaving. He seemed uncomfortable being around him now, and he wondered when Adrien had started feeling that way.
"Are you sure this is the best way to go Gabriel?"
"This is all I have left Natalie. Make preparations. We leave tomorrow."
Adrien
"You saw that right?"
Plagg questioned as Adrien shut the door, and he shook his head.
"It's just a coincidence."
"That was Grant though, in that picture. Why would your father be going in to business with Grant?"
Adrien brushed Plagg off his shoulder, sitting down at his computer.
"Did you see what was circled?"
"William something."
Plagg mumbled as he sat down on the desk, watching the computer screen. Adrien pulled up the search bar, and typed in 'William' followed by 'American business'. He scrolled through the results, stopping when he saw a picture of Grant. He was in a suit and tie, and the scruff on his face was gone.
"So the hacker runs a tech company. How fitting."
He sighed, clicking on the link. He ran a billion dollar company, it didn't make sense for him to track down superheros just to make a few bucks. Did he seriously just do it for kicks? What kind of a loser was he?
"You think that it's a coincidence that you hire the guy to look into hawkmoth, and your father suddenly wants to do business with him?"
Plagg's tone was almost condescending, and Adrien frowned at him, pulling out his phone. Maybe Grant's number was still in there.
"It has to be. We ruled him out as a suspect remember?"
"You ruled Marinette out as Ladybug. Remember?"
Adrien gritted his teeth, glaring at Plagg. He didn't need the reminder. He should have known it was suspicious. He should have known a lot of things. But he didn't.
"You know when I suspected Marinette, you were pretty insistent that it couldn't be her. Why are you so suspect of my father?"
He asked, pulling up the number Grant had texted him from.
"Your dad has those vibes."
"Did you just seriously say vibes?"
Plagg shrugged, and Adrien started typing a message to send to Grant. If they really were doing business together, it meant Grant was dragging his family into the scheme. And that would not be tolerated.
"I wouldn't do that. If your father is hawkmoth, he might find out you contacted Grant."
Adrien rolled his eyes at that, standing up. His father was tech savvy, but not enough to hack a hacker.
"Fine. Let's go pay him a visit then."
* * * * *
Grant was sitting at the desks when Chat showed up, his back facing the door. He glanced behind him, crushing out a cigarette into the ashtray next to him.
"That's a dirty habit you know."
"So is sneaking up on people."
Grant muttered, swiveling around in his chair. Chat walked over to one of the fold out chairs, taking a seat. He didn't want to out right ask what the hell Grant was doing, because what if he wasn't doing anything? What if it really was all his father?
"What's up? You look tense."
There was something that resembled concern in his voice, and Chat shook his head. Grant didn't care about them. He cared about money. Which was hilarious, considering how the guy was practically made of it.
"Any news on hawkmoth?"
"Unfortunately no. The guy has little to no online presence. Which was why I suggested trying to draw him out."
"Have you even tried to find him?"
Grant looked annoyed, turning his chair and clicking on one of the keys, lighting up all of the screens, except the one Ladybug had destroyed. Thousands of tabs of chatrooms, forums, posts and even a small tab with the lady blog was open.
"Wow."
"Yeah. I've been working. And I think I struck a nerve. Someone tried to break into my servers."
There was no way his father was capable of that. He used his tablet to design jackets for fucks sake.
"You don't know who?"
"I do. It's a petty hacker I've seen pop up a couple of times. I'm not sure why he's interested though. Or how he even knew where to look. I go by a lot of different aliases on these sites. It's remarkable he picked it up so quickly."
Chat shifted in his chair, leaning forward. What if hawkmoth hired a hacker, just like they had? Did his father even know anyone like that?
"Your name is William. Isn't it?"
Grant seemed to freeze, before returning to his casual smirk.
"Huh. I thought maybe the girl would figure it out, but not you. From what I could tell, shit flies over your head like lightning. Maybe you aren't as clueless as you seem."
"Oh I am. Believe me. I just stumbled across it. What I want to know, is why you're trying to insert yourself into my life. What would a tech company want with a fashion designer?"
The comment was to test the waters, and from the look on Grant's face, the waters were indeed shark infested.
"Your dad? I don't want anything to do with your dad. Did he say something about me?"
Damn. So his father had lied. But it couldn't be that he was hawk moth. Maybe him and Natalie were finally getting together, and just wanted some vacation time. A pitiful thought, but a hopeful one.
"No."
"That's a lie Chat. I don't like liars."
Grant's tone changed, it was almost threatening.
"I hired you remember?"
"Yes, but I hold all the cards. Your father was looking in to me. Wasn't he?"
Chat sighed, his gaze wandering over the screens. He knew Grant would jump to conclusions. His father wasn't hawkmoth. They had already eliminated him.
"Yeah."
"That's suspicious."
"It's just a coincidence."
He snapped, and Grant raised an eyebrow at him. Chat swallowed, trying to keep his tone in check. If he acted this way around Ladybug, she'd know there were ties between him and Gabriel Agreste.
"He used to be a suspect, wasn't he?"
"How did you know?"
"Ladybug told me."
Chat closed his eyes, wishing she hadn't. Though, she had no reason not to tell Grant. She didn't know.
"You mean Mari."
Grant whistled, clapping his hands. Chat could hurt this guy. Now he realized why Ladybug hated him so much. He was too smug. He needed to be knocked down a few pegs.
"Clever cat. I was sure my comments had gone by unnoticed when you didn't react to them."
"We already ruled out Gabriel."
Chat said quickly, not wanting to get on to the topic of his lady.
"Let me guess. Right around the time you started suspecting him right?"
"That could have been a coincidence too."
Grant stood, pacing over to Chat and placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Look kid. I know you want to protect your dad, but I've got a job to do. If it is him, even if it's just a coincidence, I've gotta investigate."
"I'm not a kid. Besides my father's going to America for a bit. So you won't be able to do much investigating."
"You'd be suprised."
He shrugged Grant's hand off, and he took the time to light up another cigarette.
"Why is he going to America?"
"I... don't know."
It was the truth. His father had lied to his face. He didnt know what Gabriel was really going to America for. As much as he would love to believe it was for Natalie, he couldn't. It didn't make sense. His father was still grieving over his mother.
"Hmm. Guess we'll have to wait and see, won't we?"
"I guess so."