6.15 a.m, The Castles, Evening PartyMark picked the invitation card from the table.“The Starlings”“You familiar with them?”, His boss asked, twirling on his executive chair towards him.Mark took a while to reply. Fiona hadn't told him about the evening party.“Nah”“You sure?”,His boss stood up from his seat,a slim file in his hand.“Here's their bio data anyway”He dropped the file in front of Mark.“I could have gotten this yesterday you know”“Yeah … but you are the favorite agent”“And the best too”, the lady in black across the room said, turning slightly to them. Priscy. She was the CIA's best computer programmer and of course hacker.And she wore her badge proudly.Mark smiled at her statement, taking the bio data file over to her. His free hand slipped the invitation card into his back pocket.“Come on, Priscy. How about you soft copy this for me?”“Hmm… I take transfers Mark”Mark let out a groggy laughter. He shook her shoulders from behind playfully.“Priscy!!”“You kno
7.00 p.m, Evening Party , The CastlesGuests trooped into the hall, the organizers and their workers going out as they did. The wows never stopped. The guests were totally taken aback by the absolute magnificence of the hall,a true representation of what luxury and royalty could offer. Crystals, almost uncountable, hung down from the top of the building, the ceiling covered in glitter and minute crystals. Some parts of the ceiling shimmered with gold and the mood setting lights did justice to that. Curtains draped down throughout the walls, the room got just enough lighting from its decorative features. A section of the hall was left for - what was suspected to be - ball dancing.Heck. It was “a Lord and Lady” themed party.The hall looked even more colourful from the gallery where Fiona stood. She watched them from above - the hall was rainbowed with beautiful evening gowns of so many colours in so many different shades. Some were more extravagant and others kept it a simple, straigh
Alistair was late for the party.Not that he'd planned to be early.It just seemed like Starling was bent on making him come.Buru finished polishing his shoes. He knocked on his walk in wardrobe room door.“Come in”Buru did so, holding the pair with two of his fingers on his left hand.“Thank you sir”“Thank you for these nicely polished shoes”, Alistair responded with a smile. Alistair shifted back a little from the mirror and Buru got down on one knee and placed them in front of him.“Thank you Buru”Alistair placed his legs into the well polished maroon red shoes. They matched his Italian suit, a slightly lighter shade, which had two slightly lengthy ends instead of buttons. They'd been tied into a perfect bow and it gave the outfit a rather grand than child - like look.Looked like he'd found a new favourite pattern of suits.His breast pocket handkerchief had the same maroon red colour too. Alistair slipped down his hair, holding himself against the urge to take up the comb and
“Any extra arms on them?”“Nah”Mark hadn't seen anything with the X-ray glasses, he'd put on when he entered the hall. The glasses were in his pocket now as he straightened his suit in front of the mirror.“Any other useful piece of information?”Mark prepared to open the door. He could hear the voices of impatient men outside.“Someone seems to be trailing Charlie. Someone that seems to be working with Capuedo's men as well”His boss rolled his eyes. “Give up this Charlie story Mark”“Apologies folks. Door got jammed”, he said as he opened the door. He let some of them come in, making his way out of there.“It's not a story if it's obvious. The men communicate with one another and one of them is obviously out of Charlie.”“Well, maybe Wilde's hired them”“Hired them?”“It could be. There is an unspoken animosity between the two men and it just happens that Wilde looses his shares at Voxx and Charlie seems a million bucks richer the next week. He'd need to bully Charlie into getting
Mark could see the Capuedo boys.He could see Wilde leaving for the bathroom angrily.But where the hell was Charlie?“Charlie”, Wilde called out as he shut the bathroom back door.“Gerald. I'm surprised you're here”Wilde smirked. “Didn’t think I'll show face after the scandal did you?”“I presumed you'd be occupied.”“With what?”“For one, perhaps sealing your tracks more properly. One leads to all leads Wilde. And you know we won't let that happen”“Your ego never really dims, does it? Your fatal belief in your failed securities”“What do you want Wilde?”“But that's by the way. Something more important is before us. Back room please”Wilde led the way to the backroom of the Castles building and Charlie hesitated before he followed.“Any update yet?”“None, only I'm trying to find Charlie and I'm not seeing him yet”“Where’s Wilde? Took a bathroom break since. He's been there for a while now. He's been doing that often since the start of the party”“Any reason why?”“Nothing suspic
“Mark? Mark couldn't be here”It had been the same guy she'd spotted from above, the same guy that had been so strikingly familiar.“It couldn't be”The lady she'd been conversing with, noticed how distracted she was.“Fiona?”“Yes ma'am, you were saying?”“As I was saying dear, the dojad eggs taste quite different from well, most I've tasted. A little tingy in taste…I presume it's not a basic recipe and it could a little bit of improv…”Whatever the woman was saying Fiona wasn't listening. What conversation could her father possibly be having with the young man? Her father wasn't the type to take too well with people, especially people of her generation. His oversight of them, a general stereotype he was almost bigoted about, was that they were mostly irresponsible with unproductive mindsets. A self obsessed personality, she found he hardly had friends, talk less of attempting to make new friends.“Argh! A roach!”Fiona's attention snapped away from them as the woman jumped in panic.
She placed her hands behind her, zipping the whole thing back up. She looked around, trying to find if she'll still see the mysterious guy she'd been following. She looked down at her knife. It was filled with a little blood. She stared at it as she walked, her legs constantly bending because of her broken heel. She grabbed the napkin from the closest table, destroying the cock pattern design it had been folded into as she cleaned the pocket knife she was holding. There was a welling of emotions in her and tears gathered in her eyes for reasons she could not exactly explain. She was getting a trigger of post-traumatic stress and Fiona did her best to breathe.In sight was the exit. She needed some air.Just as she was getting to the exit door, her father caught sight of her and called her.“Fiona”Fiona freezed. What the hell did he want?******** Her father, not being too far, walked up to her.“Fiona”, he called again.“Come, I wanted you to meet the newest president of the Voxx Gr
“Like I was saying, there's an unspoken animosity between us.”Wilde turned yet again to Charlie. “I know you are the one who let all that information out. You’ve always wanted me out so bad, Charlie. You can't deny that. And immediately I had my shares withdrawn,..”Wilde snapped his fingers. “You went for it”Wilde paused to smile. “You've always been a greedy fool. That's why you couldn't even pay off your own debt”“That wasn't me.”“Then who was it Charlie?”, Wilde responded in question, his tone no longer chilly and calm.“You can't tell me you didn't buy those shares because how do you explain this?”, Wilde smashed the printed white sheet of paper on the table in front of Charlie. He bent over, the level of his face matching up to Charlie's.“Tell me Charlie. Even if we were to assume you didn't buy the shares and you have so much more money but you're indebted to Capuedo, how did you afford two hundred and fifty thousand hectares of land just a week after the scandal?”Charlie
Alistair brought the boat cruise to a stop. Just when he decided to take his mind off the chaos happening. Elara was killed, and he found his way to a hotel room.Nathan, Layla, and Reagan were with him. "I think this is the right time to let the authorities in on this," Layla muttered."Yeah, this was the same thought on my mind as we exited the boat. Tomorrow morning I am going to head back home, gather all the evidence, get Mark involved in this, and report this to the authorities.""Exactly, this is the best thing to do if you ask me. We can no longer contain this. It would have been you, but Elara took your spot.Who knows who would be next? It could be me, Layla, or you. That's more reason you need to get Mark to go with you tomorrow morning. It's time to bring an end to this madness of Mr. Wilde, and his partners."(The next day)Mr. Alistair quickly rushed home and got hold of the files. He already informed Mark about his plans and asked him to wait for him at the police stati
Layla was briefed about what she needed to do by Alistair. Unlike the last time, Nathan agreed to this, he was in full support.The plan was for Alistair to call for a meeting, he made it for Mr. Sterling to attend. Making sure Layla won't have any problem retrieving the document.Layla arrived early at Voxx's Technologies. She waited for him to leave for the meeting. Immediately she was sure he had left. She immediately went into his room, Fiona was at the door watching out for her.Just in case her brother or anyone tries to go in. Layla went straight to the shelf and did just like Fiona explained. The shelf moved away revealing a safe.She smiled, and quickly imputed the code which Fiona gave to her. The safe opened, but to her amazement the safe was empty. She was confused, and immediately she brought out her phone and took a photo.She sent it to Alistair and quickly closed the safe. The shelf went back to its position. She came out of Mr. Sterling's office, Fiona was expecting t
Alistair, Nathan, Layla, Burundi, and Mark stepped out of his study room. Mark came to submit some files of illegal acts Mr. Wilde has been engaged in the past.They were all tired after accessing each case one by one. But none of the cases has to do with Voxx's Group or his father's death. The only information they found useful was the fact that he possessed a certain USB key.They all retired to their different rooms, while Mark went home. Alistair couldn't get sleep, so he brought the file to the dining room, sat down, and went through it once more. Hoping he would find something.Mrs. Tricia, who came out to make a phone call to someone, was shocked to see Alistair seated in the dining room. Before she could retrace her step, Alistair sighted her. She composed herself and walked towards him."You aren't asleep, what's going on? You also look worried, are you fine?"Alistair shook his head, "I ain't fine, a lot of things are going on."She sat down, "Do you care to share what's goi
(Three weeks later)Kathy was present in the office of her boss, Mr. Alistair. She had a little bottle which Oliver gave her to spike Alistair's drink. She was a bit scared, but at the same time, she knew she also needed to be careful.She paced to and fro in his office, waiting for a particular time to do what she had in mind to do. Her gaze was on everyone in the room, all she was waiting for was Mr. Alistair to request coffee or tea."Kathy, please get me tea just before the meeting starts." She smiled at him, but it was a dry smile. "Yes boss, I am on it."She walked out of the office and went straight to her office. She already had the tea made, all she had to do was to pour in the liquid that would spike the drink. She got a mug, poured the drink into it, and poured in the liquid.She did the sign of the cross and walked out of her office heading back to Mr. Alistair's office. She tried to compose herself, she knew how observant Mr. Alistair and Nathan were.If she acts in a sha
Ethan walked out of the bathroom, he was shocked to see the three ladies lying down on the bed.He wanted to shout at them, but then he remembered this wasn't his home. It was just a brothel. He picked up his shirt, phone, and car keys, and walked out of the room.He wasn't watching where he was going, and he bumped into a guy. He got annoyed and was about to retaliate only to find out it was Oliver."Oliver.""Ethan," Oliver called out. Ethan's gaze moved to the lady beside him, "Kathy? Wait a minute, can someone tell me what's going on here?""Man calm down, you don't have to get confused. She's my girlfriend, you know the ethics of the common, you can't date your colleagues.Well, it just happened that we fell in love with each other, and we just couldn't throw it under the bridge because of some dumb organization stuff.""Wait a minute Oliver, for how long has this been happening?"Oliver looked at Kathy, "Two tears.""What? You mean you guys have been dating for a good two years,
(Few Hours Later)"You look really tense, and should I say unhappy, what's going on?" Elara asked as she reached for Mr. Alistair's hands.Mr. Alistair smiled, this was one of his tricks to get her into doing whatever he wanted her to do. "Let's just say I am extremely tired, you know what it means to work as the president of Vox's Group right?"She nodded her head, "Yeah I partially have an idea. There are times when I see my Dad in a terrible state just because of work. That's one of the reasons I said to myself I was never going to work.Not like work work, I mean get into the corporate work. I saw the torment it caused to my Dad, that shit pissed me off. That's more reason I decided to follow the career path of my Dad."Mr. Alistair was taking note of the things she said about her Dad. "Do you think your Dad has something special he's hiding? You know maybe a special property in his safe?"Elara smiled, "I don't fucking have an idea about that. How am I supposed to know if he does
Mr. Alistair turned towards him, "What, and what have you found about it?""Well I have found someone who can be of much help to us," he answered as he stepped out of the elevator."Really? How come I didn't know about this, and what if this so-called person is one of Mr. Wild's loyal fans?"They got into his office, and Layla was asleep. "Come on man, don't you trust me anymore? I did my research, and he has definitely nothing to do with Mr. Wilde. Besides, he's an undercover CIA agent. Trust me when I say he can be of much help.""Wait a minute, did you just say ah undercover CIA agent?"Layla woke up due to the pitch of their voice. "Yeah, you heard me correctly. An undercover CIA agent.""If he's an undercover CIA agent, how did you get to him? Don't you think if you can find him, whosoever he was made to watch won't also have a problem in finding out that he's a CIA agent?"He chuckled, "I think I didn't really explain things to you. Well, there's this friend of mine who I used t
(Few Hours Later)Fiona and Mr. Alistair were seated in the restaurant as they were both having steaks and juice. "What is it, you wanted to tell me?"Fiona smiled, "I know this might sound crazy, but I think this is what we need to do."Mr. Alistair was confused, so he sat up. "What do you mean, please explain."She cleared her throat and reached for his hands. "I know this sounds funny, but I want to propose something.""What's that?""I need us to act. I mean I want us to act as boyfriend and girlfriend. I am tired of my father nagging about getting married to you.Truth be told, I don't like you one bit. But I am just doing this because of my Dad, nothing more, nothing less.""Really? Do you want the both of us to act as couples? Do you think that's the way out?""Yes, that's the way out. If you ask me, it's the only way out. There's no way out than this," she replied, raising her voice."This is the reason why you called me right? To propose this piece of shit to me? Come on, are
Elara sat down on her bed smiling as she gazed at her phone. Her mum walked into her room without knocking."What's with that look on your face?" She asked, resting on her door."It's none of your business, Mum. But if you must know, it's just some random chat with a friend," she replied, her gaze not leaving her phone."A male friend, I suppose right?" She asked as she walked towards the bed."Come on Mum, what's with all this question?""I am glad you asked. Dear Elara, you aren't getting any younger, don't you think it's time for you to settle down? It's high time you need to get married," Mrs. Wilde muttered.Elara burst into laughter, "Mum, is this what you wanted to say? Come on, you don't have to worry about it, I am already working on it.""Wait a minute, do you mean you are already in a relationship with someone or what?"She nodded her head, "Yes mum, but don't ask me for any details. I ain't going to tell you anything, but be rest assured that your lovely daughter is in a r