Never Judge

When Dave returned with the paper bag containing the tapes and all the other relevant equipment for Adolfo to analyze the video.

"Who ran the test for you last time?" Adolfo asked Natalia as he plugged in the hard drive to the computer.

​​

"It was Ken." Natalia said with a shrug.

"Hah! Kendrick Chua? Seriously?" Adolfo laughed as he began to type something on the computer.

"He\'s the best." Natalia said with a shrug.

"Second best, he always came second." Adolfo said with a grin as he continued to work on the video.

"Natalia, if you knew Adolfo was better than that Ken guy, why didn\'t you take the video to Adolfo?" Cedric asked.

"Because I thought Adolfo was still in the military. Plus Ken has always been nicer to me." Natalia explained.

"He\'s just nice cause he has a thing for you." Adolfo said with a laugh. It seemed that Adolfo turned to a whole different person when Natalia was around, he was more confident and he spoke more. Cedric was quite surprised by the change but chose not to say anything.

"That\'s stupid Adolfo." Natalia said, rolling her eyes.

"Well it\'s true." Adolfo said as he finally looked up at her. "Remember our last year at the academy? He was going to confess, I have no idea what happened but he seemed to have backed out."

"The last year. . ." Natalia said as he voice trailed off. 

Adolfo\'s typing completely took over the silent room as Cedric watched the younger man at work.

"Oh, shit, I told him I was in an arranged marriage." Natalia said with a gasp. 

"Really Natalia?" Adolfo asked as he laughed at what she said. "Then again, it\'s completely believable. He knew Miguel, and Miguel was always complaining about how his family would probably set him up for an arranged marriage. The Sebastian\'s aren\'t exactly known for being progressive thinkers either. Well back then at least."

"Shouldn\'t you be focusing on that?" Natalia asked as she was embarrassed by Adolfo\'s words.

"This? You know that this is way too easy for me." Adolfo said, rolling his eyes. "Don\'t pretend that you don\'t know how good I am." He said quite confidently.

"Wow Adolfo, I\'ve never seen you this confident." Dave teased, taking the words right out of Cedric\'s mouth. He too wanted to tease the younger man.

"What are you talking about?" Adolfo asked as he continued to work. "I\'m always like this."

"Of course not. You\'re usually the silent type." Cedric said.

"Adolfo, silent? Are you pulling my leg Cedric?" Natalia said as she looked at Cedric curiously.

"He barely speaks." Cedric told Natalia.

"Done!" Adolfo said victoriously,

"And?" Natalia asked, quickly dropping the topic.

"It\'s definitely been tampered." Adolfo said as he called everyone over. "I really don\'t know how Ken could have missed this. I mean it\'s a really badly done tamper."

"He said it was clean." Natalia said as she pushed Adolfo\'s seat and began typing on the computer.

"You can do these things?" Cedric asked Natalia as he watched her type on the computer.

"Natalia can do a lot of things Cedric. She\'s multitalented. Plus this was one of the basic things we were taught at the academy." Adolfo explained. Cedric wasn\'t surprised that there were a lot of things he didn\'t know about Natalia, he wasn\'t around for quite a while and he missed a lot of things. 

"How did he miss this?" Natalia asked as she looked at the video and repeatedly played the scene.

"Didn\'t you check after he took a look at it?" Adolfo asked her.

"No, I trust him. And he is much better at this than me." Natalia said as she stepped away from the computer. "How could Ken miss this?"

"Natalia, don\'t you think he could have lied to you?" Dave asked.

"No, I don\'t think so." Natalia said, shaking her head. "He doesn\'t have a reason to lie."

"Natalia, everyone can have a reason to lie." Adolfo said as he looked her in the eyes.

"Cedric I\'m so sorry." Natalia said with a frown.

"Natalia, you don\'t need to apologize. You trusted this Ken guy and he said nothing was wrong with the surveillance tapes." Cedric explained to her. 

"Thank you Adolfo." Natalia said in barely audible volume.

"Speak up, Natalia. I can\'t quite hear you." Adolfo said with a grin. 

"I said thank you." Natalia said with a frown. "I don\'t understand why Ken did this and I will get to the bottom of it." Natalia said with much conviction.

"Don\'t." Cedric suddenly said. "If it is something that can potentially place you in harm\'s way, don\'t do it. Your brother will never forgive me and I don\'t want you to risk your safety."

"Cedric\'s right." Adolfo said. "I should have told you this as soon as you mentioned Ken, but last I heard he and his family have been going through a tough financial situation. I think he has turned to the black market and he may have even been the one that tampered with this video. He didn\'t care to cover his tracks, he knew you would go to him so he kept his work sloppy. He knows you trust him, he knew you wouldn\'t personally check the videos if he told you they were clean."

"I need to know why he did it." Natalia said.

"Natalia, he did it for money." Adolfo said as he tried to shake some sense into her. "Life isn\'t as complicated as you think it is. Sometimes it\'s as simple as he needs the money."

Natalia frowned at Adolfo\'s words but didn\'t retaliate.

Cedric breathed a sigh of relief when Natalia simply accepted what Adolfo had said, in all honesty he didn\'t want to see the pair fighting again.

"So they are tampered." Cedric said as he looked at the computer screen, he too was frustrated. He could have asked Adolfo for help the first time they studied the video, but he also trusted Natalia\'s guy.

"Yes. The video itself was changed." Adolfo explained.

"Can you somehow retrieve the missing clip?" Cedric asked nervously.

"I can, but it will take time." Adolfo said with a frown. "As it is you are already asking me to do something else. I work on both at the same time." Adolfo said with a shrug. He would never lie to Cedric about his. 

"Which can be done faster?" Cedric asked.

"The video, I should have it reconstructed by the end of the week." Adolfo said.

"Alright. I\'ll give you a week. Tell me if you get it done sooner." Cedric said with a nod. He was hoping his friend could finish it before his deadline.