Success, Opulence and Power by Hebru Young (best novel books to read .TXT) 📗

Eventually he walked back to his unit to run checks on the driver’s documentation, remaining in the car for at least ten minutes. The policeman returned with the driver’s particulars then asked the boys for their IDs. They handed their IDs to the officer, and again he returned to his vehicle. The boys remained quiet. Finally, the policeman returned to the taxi still holding the boys’ IDs.

“So, what is this school event you boys are travelling to?” asked the officer.

This was Eddie’s plan, so he felt responsible for answering the officer’s question. He already had his plan laid out if the officer decided to search the car. He was going to make the taxi driver take the fall, and the poor guy didn’t even have a clue about what was going on. Eddie was a bit less nervous than the other two.

 “We are representing our school in this year’s annual debate competition. We plan on bringing the trophy home this year,” said Eddie.

“Is that so? This coach of yours, what’s his name?” the police officer asked.

“Alfredo Guzman, sir,” Eddie replied.

“Do you have a contact number for him?” asked the police officer.

“Sure, it’s 305-209-9801,” Eddie said.

“Okay, I’m gonna check this out. You all sit tight,” said the officer.

The boys were now even more nervous. They couldn’t talk amongst themselves without exposing the fact that they were nervous. There wasn’t much they could do without looking suspicious. Five minutes later, the officer walked back to the car and stared at the boys for a few seconds.

“Everything checks out, you are all free to go,” said the police officer.

He handed their IDs back to them, and the taxi driver drove off. The boys were so relieved, they all looked at each other, seeing the relief in each other’s faces. Eddie had previously spoken to Raphael asking him to verify that he was Alfredo Guzman and corroborate the story.

Moments later, they pulled up to Raphael’s. Since the plan had been disrupted by the police officer, the original plan—to make a phony call saying that another taxi had been booked—had to change. If that story was true, the second taxi would have already arrived and left by the time the boys arrived. Thinking fast, Eddie pretended to make a call indicating that Mr. Guzman would drive them all to the airport instead.

“Sorry, sir, Mr. Guzman decided he’ll just drive his car to the airport instead. He will use the parking service there. But here’s the full payment anyway. Thank you, sir,” Eddie said.

The driver got out of the car and retrieved the boys’ luggage. As the taxi departed, the boys grabbed the suitcases and headed for Raphael’s door.

Chapter 24

Kidnapping

Where: Edom Group, The United Nations of Europe and Americas, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

When: 1330 hours, Thursday, November 7, 2041

Currency: UNEA credits

The lunch from Sergio’s went down quite well. Everyone must have been starving, because there was no food left by the time we were finished. We needed to go over the rest of the charges and take action where we could.

“So, Joe, what’s next?” I asked.

“The kidnapping charge,” Joe responded.

“Yeah, that one. Here’s the problem with that one, having kidnapped so many people over the years, it would be difficult to figure out who chirped,” I said.

“What we can do is get on the secure comms to our people on both sides of the Nations. We’ll need to rely on our guys’ memory seeing as we don’t keep a record of kidnappees,” Alex laughed. We’ll try to narrow down who we didn’t get rid of after they were kidnapped and then get rid of them. That is if they haven’t already gone into witness protection,” Alex continued.

“Good idea, Alex—can you and Chris get started with that right away? Compile the list and proceed accordingly, ” I said.

“We’re on it.” Chris replied.

Like I did with Jason Byrne, I had given several orders in the past for people to be picked up and questioned for whatever we suspected they were involved in. We hadn’t killed everyone we had abducted, so it was obvious that one of the people we released was chirping. I never thought any of those people would be brave enough to cooperate with the enforcers. As we decided for the other charges, we would narrow down our list of offenders and start wiping them out.

I recall an incident with a guy we snatched up for being rude to Laura. We decided to celebrate our tenth anniversary by having dinner at the Big Fish. This was the perfect location, because it was where Laura and I first met. Since I owned the place, the staff would go the extra mile to make everything perfect. On this night, we went in through the rear entrance. We said hello to the chef and everyone working in the kitchen. Laura walked over to the big pot of bubbling tomato sauce. The chef saw she was intrigued, so he offered her a taste by handing her the wooden spoon he’d been stirring the sauce with. She had a taste and complimented the chef, telling him he made the best sauce in all of Milwaukee.

After entering the restaurant from the kitchen, we sat at our table and made our way through our starter. Laura stood and said she needed to visit the restroom. As she took a few steps, a guy at the bar suddenly rose from his barstool and somehow managed to bump into Laura. She apologized to the guy. Instead of responding with poise, he started yelling at her. The guy clearly didn’t know who he’d yelled at, otherwise he wouldn’t have done it. We get people from all walks of life at the restaurant. Most were wealthy people with class, but sometimes we got wannabe gangsters who behaved as if they owned the joint.

Laura didn’t think much of it,