“What, are we just going to give up?” Denise asked with a helpless expression after leaving Thalia's room.
“Anthony would never give up so easily!” Benjamin replied calmly.
“As much as I hate to admit it, Benjamin does know me very well,” Anthony said.
“Then why did you stop questioning her?” Denise asked.
“Thalia may seem all carefree and gullible, but she's actually incredibly smart about what she says. She only tells us stuff that she wants us to hear. She wouldn't disclose any information that she doesn't feel like disclosing or isn't allowed to disclose. I mean, she's professionally trained to resist interrogation! There's no way a bunch of kids like us could ever get her to tell us anything against her will!” Anthony explained.
Denise nodded in agreement after hearing that. “I suppose you're right... What should we do, then? We're not going to just leave this be, are we?”
“Leave this be? Do I look like the kind of person who would do such a thing?” Anthony asked.
“Wow! You look a lot like Daddy when you said that, Tony!” Denise exclaimed.
Anthony narrowed his eyes. “I look really cool, don't I?”
“You know what? Forget I said anything...”
Anthony decided to stop teasing her as he continued, “Spencer, Dave, and Thalia are the key individuals we should focus on. Daddy and Nat aren't going to tell us anything, so we can just ignore them and focus on the above three. We've tested Thalia and confirmed that she definitely knows something. She just won't tell us about it.”
“So?”
“So, we will have to split up to make this work.”
“What will we do?”
“We'll each pick one of the three and try to find out whatever we can from them. It'll be a lot more effective to attack them all at once instead of focusing on one at a time. That should somewhat increase our chances of success,” Anthony explained.
Benjamin nodded in approval. “That makes sense.”
Denise nodded as well. “All right, then. I'll go along with your plan.”
“Right now, we need to decide on how we pick our targets,” Anthony said.
Benjamin and Denise knew exactly what he meant. “I'll pick Mr. Dave! Just a few days ago, he was talking about taking me in as his goddaughter. He won't be on guard when dealing with me!” Denise proposed.
Anthony nodded. “That sounds good.”
“I'll go with Thalia, then?” Benjamin asked.
“Yeah. She likes you the most, so she should drop her guard when she's with you. I'd say you have a very high chance at getting that information out of her.”
“You get Spencer, then?”
“Spencer and I aren't that close, but I can still give it a shot,” Anthony replied with a frown.
“Tony, I think your chances of success are low regardless of who you pick. You just give off that impression that you want something out of others whenever you approach them,” Denise commented.
Of course, Anthony knew that very well. “Yeah, because I'm born with an air of excellence. It's not easy being so great.”
“Come on, Denise. Let's go grab a snack downstairs,” Benjamin said.
“Yeah, let's go!” Denise was quick to go along with his suggestion.
Anthony glared at them as he said, “I know you two don't want to admit it, but it's the truth.”
Benjamin and Denise ignored him and continued walking toward the stairs.
“Hey, wait up! What are you guys going to eat? Wait for me!” he shouted while running after them.
Natasha went over to Thalia's room as usual that afternoon.
Thalia was sitting on the bed and staring blankly into space when she came in through the door.
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