Reynolds was already on his way to The Johns conglomerate when Jovian answered the phone. Since the vehicle at his house was broken, he opted for another taxi. The driver was North African, and his words came out with an accent like dried magma.Jovian's surprise to hear Reynolds's voice was evident in his tone, but, quickly, he got over his initial shock and explained the state of things to Reynolds. Apparently Kayla had been abducted that morning and taken to God knows where. He and Lei were wounded in the course of the attack, he told Reynolds, and while she was incapacitated, he was not. The family was gathered at the family house. Readying the calvary, Reynolds hoped earnestly. His wife and unborn child where at stake."Change of plans," he told the driver. "Take me to 305 Fifth Avenue."The driver hit the brakes eagerly, reversed the vehicle and rerouted himself, right in the middle of traffic. He spurred the car into a dash. Reynolds decided that he liked the man. There was
"Fourteen armed men on the ground, two on the roof. That is a total of sixteen men." The commander said, gesturing at the screen, as he addressed the legion that was assembled before him.The laptop was small and compact and it had been set down on the top of one of the humvees. On its screen, a red dot moved. The red dot was Reizei, an undetectable tracker having been placed on him before he entered the building. They had the blueprint of the building and aerial vision from a drone.By then, the names of the men that had abducted Kayla were common knowledge. James Corrigan, popularly known as Jamie. And Riker. That one needed no introduction whatsoever.Jovian wiped sweat from his brow. His body was a furnace. It was the fever that had finally come to take him. His vision blurred at the sides and a headache raged inside his head. They had placed a tracker on the trio that went before them to scope the place and loosen its guard. To soften the ground, as some would call it.He shook
The tracker vanished all of a sudden and Jovian's head jerked with a start. He had been watching his wearable monitor almost boredly up till it happened. “What the--?" He spat."What?" asked Ceneau who had also been observant."Do we move?" one of the aides asked. Jovian nodded. He dd not want to say that the tracker had been lost. They'd just drive to where it was last seen.Everybody prepared hastily. Even Ceneau fiddled with a rifle he probably couldn't use. They piled in and hit the gas, hard.****The first thing Reizei did was strike the overhead sensor. He guessed that damaging it could shut the mantap on one end (for both doors) and lock half the guards out momentarily. And it worked. The only people to cross were the three of them, Riker, and about half the escort party.Once Reynolds grabbed the nearest guard's gun, he had acted, ramming his fist into the circular sensor above his head. There were screams, including his.The Chairman scrambled. The guard behind Reizei gra
The police never got around to finding Riker. He was ghost, they said. Came and went as he pleased. In truth, he was aboard the next flight out of the country after the Johns foiled his coup. With his absence came peace. The Chairman gave Reynolds a position in the company to work alongside Hamish. Kayla's baby continued to grow, her belly ballooned, pushing against her buttons. For the couple and the Johns, the world seemed a kindlier place.All except Hamish.He was angered by the turn of events, especially with Reynolds' new position as his managerial superior. Bloody Reynolds? His Superior! They had no inkling what he was capable of. Maybe he would have to show them. By himself this time. He would restore his honor by taking out all his enemies and their accomplices, in any form they manifested. Including those who directly limited him, and those who did so indirectly, by being dumb and sluggish, by playing with his goals.The first, perfect victim would be Grant.Luckily, a d
Hamish was painstaking meticulous at planning. He knew when things could go slow, when they could go fast, and when they needed to go fast. Killing Rey was a fast game. It had to be if it would be played, as it was also a cagey game. Not that he was not a cagey man, or that he doubted his own genius. His master-mind. Rather, because he knew that perfection was not cheap, and if you were going to kill your next-door neighbour without taking a dent, you required perfection.He had two usable routes. One was direct: strike Rey. This required precision and care, seeing as the man had become his father's favourite. The other was a bit more accommodating: Strike Rey through Kayla. That is, strike Kayla, and when it impacted and exposed Reynolds, he’d then put the man to rest permanently.Being the genius that he was, Hamish kept both routes open. It would be like a double barrel, a kill-both-birds-with-one-stone formula. He was almost enjoying the prospect. All his track would be clean.
Impatiently, the Chairman waited for Rey to arrive. More than clarity, he needed to prove to his son-in-law—and himself—that he was mistaken. If they hadn't been from Rey, he would have paid the messages no heed. He found it rather confusing under the given circumstances. He waited in his topfloor office in the conglomerate that morning, when he should have been busy with other concerns. Reynolds needed to explain. It was not that the strings had no connection whatsoever. No, the Chairman wasn't imprudent. It was the way they connected. And the who they connected to. Those were the things he could not accept. At least, not without hard, infallible proof.His desk phone beeped and he picked it up. It was Rezei, asking if he wanted to see Reynolds."Yes, let him come," he said. Then he glanced sharply at the central air conditioner, feeling like the temperature in the room had fallen by a hinedered degrees Celsius in one second. The door opened almost immediately to reveal Reynolds
Doctor Benny liked the concept of a bright future. He had always liked it and other terms like it. Future. Success. Opportunity. Yes, that one. Opportunity. There wasn't very much of it for him in his profession. He wasn't poor or anything—of course he had stuff to be grateful for. But he sensed it could be more. So he tried to get more.Wen he had got the call from Hamish's aide to get a lethal solution ready, he, as any rational person, did not like it. But what choice did he have? His wife was a compulsive shopper and his children sometimes forgot he wasn't a billionaire. So he asked himself what he had to lose and the answer was not much. He didn't know if he had a strong or weak conscience. He only knew he could use the money they were offering. He took the offer. He had hoped it would be a one-off thing. Prepare the solution, have it delivered, get his money, forget any of it ever happened. Now it was staring him on the face. That was the problem with crime. It made for str
There was one more person to put away when the scheme was done with. That doctor.As much as Hamish hated to deal with it, another clumsy character on the scene meant another loose end. He was going to go all out till he got his package... and till it worked. They he'd pay the man in full before making him disappear.Of course basic logic would question his choice of paying first. He just thought it necessary to stick to one's part of a deal no matter what. So he'd pay the man's family for his service, then kill him. He knew he'd needed a new aide for that job, since Sparks would have to go, too. Either in the process or after the process.In fact, he had started to feel a sense of urgency to do away with Sparks before something spilled. The man was already becoming disgruntled. He was already becoming too important. Nobody became too important with Hamish.But first Sparks needed to get the dirty work done, before he eliminated and dissociated him.****When Benny launched himself