Chapter 6

Alexander drove through the highway in his scooter, stopping a distance away from the Thompson's empire. He parked by the roadside and walked down to it.

He has his dark shades on to conceal his identity. He was casually dressed, trying to avoid drawing attention to himself. He got into the building, went into the elevator, and headed for his office.

When he got in, he was welcomed by his secretary. “Good Morning sir,” Ruth greeted. She was holding an Apple tablet where Alex's schedules for the day were recorded.

“What's first today?” He asked as he began taking off his casual shirt to put on a well-ironed t-shirt hanging behind his desk.

“Your appointment with the Blackwoods sir. I've placed a call and they're already on their way. The meeting will commence at nine o'clock,” Maya said.

Alex completed the buttoning of his shirt and looked into his office mirror. A smile played at the edge of his lips. He couldn't wait.

“Tell me once they've arrived,” he dismissed her.

A few minutes before eight, Mr. Blackwood, Elias, and Philip walked into the building. They were paid the respect expected to be given to a very wealthy and prominent family. 

“The conference hall is this way sir,” a lady working under the Thompson's empire directed them. They went into the elevator, went up the next six floors, and stepped out into the very large room.

There was a long center table that could contain about forty seats. Before the center-placed chair, was the name of the chairman, ‘ Mr. Thompson’ carved boldly in a fine wood sitting on the table.

“Our chairman will be with you shortly sir, please have your seat,” the lady led them to the seats. They sat comfortably, waiting for the chairman.

Alex watched from the CCTV in his office. He was sipping from his hot cup of coffee when his secretary walked in. She saw he already knew of the Blackwoods' arrival, but still thought it was necessary to inform him again.

“Sir, the Blackwoods are in the conference room,” she said.

“I see,” he smiled, gently placing the cup on his desk. “a seat please?” he asked. Ruth hurriedly pulled out a seat from one of the desks in the office and took it to him. He sat with crossed legs, watching in delight as his plan unfolded in his head.

 “Sir, do I leave them any message?” Ruth asked.

“I'll be there shortly,” were the only things he said. As Ruth walked out of his room, he went to his desk and inputted the securities number in his telephone. It was his security.

 The line beeped and a masculine voice answered from the other side of the phone. “Yes, sir,” 

“Proceed,” Alex instructed. He placed the telephone back and swiveled back to the CCTV. His hands rubbed against each other in anticipation.

The Blackwoods were served a glass of water as they waited patiently. The doors opened, and they were about standing up thinking it was the chairman. But on seeing it was just a security personnel, they sat back.

“Good morning,” the security greeted. But they didn't respond. “Please the chairman don't condone footwear in the conference room. Also, he'd prefer your bags be stationed outside for security reasons,” he told them.

“The chairman doesn't like footwear in the conference room? So are we supposed to —”

Elias kept mute as his eyes met that of his fathers’. He sighed with a smile. “No problems,” he said.

One after the other, they took off their footwear and dropped them into the bin being carried by the security. 

“These are expensive, careful with them,” Philip said but in a polite manner. They didn't want to offend their dad who was avoiding offending the chairman.

The security let them take their bags outside themselves, then he dropped the bin by the door of the conference room. “Thank you very much, the chairman will be with you soon,” he said and walked out.

Elias scoffed, turning to his dad. “Dad, do you still not know the identity of the new chairman? The late one never did anything of such to us. When did all these rules start?”

Mr. Blackwood dashed a glare at him. “Now listen, if you don't want to be kicked out of here, then you should do as instructed. We need this deal with the Thompsons to help our finances keep growing,” he said.

“Or have you forgotten that your sister got married to a useless man and now no one on the board wants to associate with us? We barely get intel on forthcoming projects which would boost us”

“This deal with the Thompsons will serve as a big blow to the board members, and they'll learn to respect our family once again. Anyone who messes up this opportunity will face my wrath,” he added.

Elias sank into his chair quietly. He was growing impatient. Philip as well. They had sat for about thirty minutes. The doors to the office opened again and Alex's secretary walked in.

“Good Morning Mr. Blackwood. Please who amongst you is Elias Blackwood?” She asked.

“I am,” Elias sat up. The secretary walked closer to the table.

“Please be on your feet. The chairman thinks you're too heavy for his seat,” she said.

It was quite surprising, but Elias was heavy. A gym rat with a well-built body, he weighed tons of pounds. Mr. Blackwood stole a glance at Elias who was about to question the secretary. He smiled, covering up his anger.

“Sure,” he said and walked behind the chair. Ruth turned to leave but Philip called her back.

“Please will the chairman be out soon?” He asked.

“Yes, shortly,” Ruth answered and left.

Three hours and counting, and no one had walked into the conference room to attend to them. Philip and Elias were growing impatient. Mr. Blackwood, however, was on a conference call meeting on his phone. 

Elias had stood for three hours. He could feel his legs trembling. Sweat trailed down his back, drenching his black t-shirt. Philip was tapping his gold ring on the table, trying not to do anything stupid.

As he was about to have an outburst, the doors opened again. It was Ruth again. Before Philip could say anything, she dropped her message.

“I'm sorry but the chairman has decided to reschedule the meeting. There was an urgent matter which he needed to attend to,”

As much as Elias wanted to express his anger, his dad's words rang in his head. He nodded, looking around the office. “Perfect,” he muttered.

Ruth escorted them to where they picked their shoes and bags out of the bin. She followed them till they went into the elevator. 

“Please do reach out to me when you get a date,” she said just before the elevator closed.

Elias kept cursing in the elevator, till it came to a halt at the ground floor. Mr. Blackwood scoffed. He of all people knew what dealing with powerful men was like. However, this was just something else.

As they walked past the door, the security alarm flared up, drawing everyone's attention. In split seconds, they were surrounded by security personnel.

“We need to see your bags,” one of them said.

“Huh! Do you know who we are? How dare you insinuate—” 

“Your bags sirs,” the security interrupted Philip. Mr. Blackwood handed him over to them. They searched it and found nothing. 

“Yours,” they moved to Elias. He gave them arrogantly and they returned it after seeing nothing of interest.

“Yours please,” they moved into Philip. He gave them. After a few seconds of searching, the security pulled out a gold pen, worth hundreds of millions. Philip's mouth dropped in shock.

“No, that's not mine, I don't even know how that got in there,” he defended.

“Take him,” the security instructed. They surrounded Philip who kept trying to defend himself with his hands in the air. Elias was trying to get past them to be with his brother. 

Just as he was being led into the white police van, Philip saw Alex hurriedly slip out of the building from an exit close by. 

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