by Tod Eten
It was not long afterwards that Asan had asked Hanif if he would like to truly follow the path of Islam as he himself did and Hanif had said yes and willingly gone with Asan to special teachings at the Mosque where he was taught how the Muslims were persecuted and kept in poverty. At these lessons Hanif learnt the truth about the evil ways of the West. He learnt how the non believers embraced sin and depravity. He was taught about the crimes committed against his Muslim brothers and sisters around the world by these godless people whose only interest was greed and debauchery and Hanif became very angry. The anger in Hanif grew and grew the more he learnt of how the Muslims were being persecuted and how the will of Allah was being disobeyed. One day Hanif had finally had enough, he could not simply carry on as normal when his brothers and sisters were being killed. He could not live like a coward anymore. He decided he must stand up for the truth. Hanif told this to Asan and said that he wished to fight with his Muslim brothers. Asan had listened to him in silence. Then Asan asked if he was certain that this was what he wanted and Hanif had said yes with all his heart and Asan had simply nodded and said he would see what he could do.
A few weeks after this conversation with Asan Hanif found himself in a training camp in Northern Pakistan, nervously standing on a training ground with a number of other raw recruits soon to be taught the ways of war. Hanif quickly proved himself an excellent student quickly grasping the tactics of guerrilla warfare and bomb making. He was soon put in charge of a small group of men and sent into Afghanistan. Hanif smiled to himself, how proud he had been that he was now able to serve Allah. Once in Afganistan he led his men on a number of successful missions killing many Western infidels who were invading the country and not losing a single man from his unit. After that Hanif had rapidly risen through the ranks soon becoming a division Commander, as well as one of the most wanted terrorists in the region. But none knew his true identity! So careful had he been in his activities that only a handful of people knew who he really was.
Hanif had expected to remain in Afganistan until the invaders were driven out or he was killed but then quite unexpectedly he was suddenly sent back to England where he was told to make ready for a great war that was coming in which the Muslims would once and for all conquer the world. Hanif had been given no more information other than that and had now been waiting in this house for the past year and more. Having to put up with this wretched country of unbelievers who lived lives of filth and greed had been a great burden for him. But Hanif did not complain for he was here to serve Allah and if this was Allah's will then so be it!
At the agreed hour there was a knock at the front door and on opening it Hanif found Asan, a small nondescript man in his fifties standing on the doorstep. Assan had an unremarkable face his neatly trimmed grey beard and the small pair of spectacles he wore made him look like a simple shop keeper. He had on an old brown overcoat whose collar had been drawn up about his neck to keep out the chill air.
‘Please come in father’ Hanif said quickly standing aside.
‘We do not have time I am afraid Hanif. I had hoped that we could have had a farewell meal before you depart but I am afraid that cannot not be, here take this.’ Asan said handing Hanif a thick white envelope. ‘There are passports, money and tickets for a 6.00am flight out of Heathrow this morning so you had better get packing now.’
‘Thank you father’ Hanif said taking the envelope.
‘You will be met at the other end by Fariq. I think you worked with him in Pakistan yes?’ Asan continued.
‘Yes’ Hanif nodded.
‘Good, now may Allah bless you on your journey my son’ Asan finally said kissing Hanif on both cheeks then he embracing him. Then turning Asan quickly walked away disappearing into the night.
Rafferty adjusted his tie in the back of his limousine and thought about the woman he had just been talking to. She was a real beauty and of that there could be no doubt and he was sure she had a firm nicely formed body under all those clothes. He made a note to get his secretary to send her a bunch of roses and an invitation to dinner. Yes a real beauty! He then thought over what he had learnt from the meeting and saw that it had more or less backed up what he himself had found out about Eden. Eden had been pet project of his for some years now ever since he had read an old book about the subject. The book had been the trigger that had started him on this particular journey. Could it really exist he wondered drumming his fingers on the seat rest. He looked out of the car widow for a moment watching the people rushing about outside. He saw with some satisfaction that most of them held mobile phones to their ears. As one of the companies he owned supplied a chip that sat in everyone of those phones it was always gave him a warm feeling when he saw people using mobiles. Rafferty took out his own mobile and looked up the share price of the company and saw with some satisfaction that it was up 30p on the day. Rafferty stroked the soft leather of the car seat and took a deep breath smelling the interior of his new Rolls Royce, a smell that only a Rolls Royce could give, the smell of wealth and power.
Rafferty thought back to the day that had changed his life and set him on the road to success, he could still see it clearly as if it was yesterday. He had been waiting on a railway station platform. A skinny nine year boy waiting for a train to some place or other that he had long since forgotten. But it was not the destination that was important, no that was not important at all. It was what had happened while he was waiting for the train. As he stood there quietly another train pulled in on the opposite platform aboard which there were a group of older kids who were fooling about in the carriage that stopped opposite him. A boy who was by an open window had looked at Rafferty and started laughing and pointing at him. He shouted out to the others ‘ look he’s got no shoes’. With that a sea of young faces appeared at the carriage window all pointing and laughing at him. Looking down Rafferty saw that they were right he was wearing sandals not shoes. He had never given this a thought before but like the turning on of a light switch he realised that they were laughing at him because he was poor. Rafferty remembered how he was dressed as he stood on the platform. He was wearing a badly knitted jumper that his mother had made and the rest of his clothes came from charity shops even his hair had been cut by his mother. It was on that station platform that he had first realised that he was poor and he became very angry. Angry with his parents whom he blamed for doing this to him but even more angry at these children who were laughing at him. He had resolved there and then that one day he would be the one who would be looking down and laughing, which was exactly what he had done. Rafferty with a smile wondered if some of those children who had laughed at him on that day now worked for him in one of his companies. He was sure that that they did and smiled once more.
The Rolls came to a halt in the underground car park of his impressive London home and Rafferty quickly got out of the car and took the lift to the second floor where he headed straight for his Study. Shutting the solid oak doors he went to his desk and turned on his computer carefully entering his password. The computer was programmed to wipe the hard disks clean if the password was entered incorrectly more than three times. So Rafferty always took special care when entering this! With the code correctly entered Rafferty opened up his emails to see if there was anything interesting but nothing really seemed to catch his eye.
That incident at station platform triggered memories of Rafferty's first real job, working as a mail boy for a computer chip manufacturer near his home. He had worked hard and had impressed one of the company directors who had promoted him ito a trainee sales position. Initially Rafferty had kept his head down and learnt the ropes but with the effort he put in and his natural talent for making deals he soon started to excel at his job and within a few years he became the top salesman in the company. But in doing this he had also made his fair share of enemies, whether it was due to his success, his age, or both! Many in the company did not approve of him, saying that he was too young and his methods too brash. Some even suggested that he wa
s bringing the company into disrepute. It was also obvious that his even own manager wanted him out of the company no doubt scared that Rafferty would take his job. So one way or the other Rafferty knew that his days were numbered at the firm. But he would not give up without a fight. He now remembered the look on all their smug faces when he, Rafferty, successfully organised a management buyout. Rafferty secured financial backing from a major city bank, the happily married manger of which Rafferty had introduced to a particularly nice young lady. Rafferty had asked this nice young lady to be exceptionally kind to the bank manager and Rafferty had some great photos to prove it. After that the manger had been more than happy to help Rafferty with his MBO! But the look on their faces, Rafferty thought back with a smile. When he told them all he was now the owner of the company was a moment that he would always cherish and personally sacking the senior management would be the second. He had felt a bit of sympathy when he sacked the old director who had had first promoted him, but he had to grow the company and the whole bunch of them were all yesterday’s men who would not and could not grow company to where he wanted it. Rafferty now at the helm of the company had quickly grown the business and it had flourished. But it was still just a medium sized company and a long way from where he wanted it to be. But he knew it was only a matter of time before his real break would come and come it did.
It started when a letter from Peter Chester had landed on his desk claiming that he had created a chip that would revolutionise mobile phone technology. Rafferty never slow to see an opportunity had immediately seen the immense potential of what Peter had claimed to have invented. He had contacted Peter and had several meetings with the man, getting to know what type of person he was dealing with. Rafferty soon found out that the guy was far too naive and trusting. As with most inventors his first concern was his invention and its design with the business side of things coming a very distant second. In fact Rafferty had got to know Peter so well that he was even welcomed into the heart of Peter’s family and introduced to his wife and three children. Rafferty soon found out that Peter had mortgaged his home to the hilt to pay for his invention and that he was getting desperate for money. He had learnt most of this from his wife, with whom he had spent a rather memorable day with in the luxury suite at the Ritz. Peter’s wife Rafferty remembered with a smile looked great despite the fact she had had three children and for such a quiet woman she had been a great performer in bed. It’s always the quiet ones Rafferty thought with a smile. Now armed with the knowledge from his wife Rafferty had told Peter that his idea was a world beater and had promised him a partnership in his own business and great financial rewards. But Rafferty had also said that he would need to confirm that the chip really did do all that Peter said it would. So they would of course need to make some prototypes and Peter had willingly given over his designs and research notes. However what Rafferty was really doing was reengineering Peter’s design and quickly rushing his own worldwide patents through on the chip. When Rafferty’s patents were approved he had simply emailed Peter saying sorry it was no deal. Peter had tried to contact him many times over the next few months his pleas becoming more and more desperate. It was only when some months after that Peter’s wife had told him that they would lose their home that he decided to take some pity on the man and pulled a few strings to get him a well paid job in another company he had an anonymous stake in. But that chip design of Peters, no his design he corrected himself. Had launched his company into the big league giving him the money and the power he so desperately desired.
Rafferty thought about the Ancient Civilisations meeting once more. He made it a point to never dismiss anything, no matter how odd ball it sounded because every so often you will find something that no one else has seen. Most would have considered the meeting tonight as just a bunch of losers and the usual end of the world and we love alien’s brigade getting together and talking rubbish. But not Rafferty, he could see the potential. For if what that pretty Aya said was correct, that this Eden did really exist and it was the last sanctuary for man. And that there was an end of the world scenario as she described! If that actually happened Rafferty figured that who ever controlled this Eden would become the most powerful person in the world and Rafferty liked the thought of being the most powerful man on Earth!
Rafferty picked up his specially scrambled business phone. The phone encrypted all his calls so that even if someone managed to hack his phone line all they would get was a garbled message which would take fifty years at least with the most powerful super computer know to man to unscramble. He quickly dialled a number and listened to it ring a few times at the other end of the line before being picked up.
‘Hi Rafferty’ Said a deep Scottish voice at the other end.
‘Hi Jock, how did your meeting go with our politician friend this evening?’ Rafferty asked getting straight to the point.
‘Aye, the slimy bastard is as greedy as ever but he said that there would be no problem in us raising prices as the Government could do with the increased tax revenue. But he was not so keen on the job losses.’ Jock answered.
‘Well he is not paid to think!’ Rafferty said in anger.
‘Aye boss, nay worries there I put him straight on that account. He said that there would be a lot of job losses coming up in the public sector over the next month and suggests we make the cuts sooner rather than later as the news about the public sector job losses should cover it all up.’ Jock replied calmly.
‘And if it is not covered up?’ Rafferty demanded.
‘Then he will create some noise about how the last government had ruined the technology sector. He says he has enough dirt to keep the media more than happy and off our backs.’ Jock replied.
‘Good, how much did it all cost this time?’
‘The usual fifty thousand cash plus another week at the hideaway for him and his mistress.’ Jock said in a matter of fact voice ‘Oh and the cost of the meal we had. He insisted on drinking the vintage wine at £400 a bottle so the meal came to near enough two thousand.’
‘It could be worse I suppose’ Rafferty said satisfied. ‘Yes good work Jock. OK now listen, I had that meeting with the Coven today and we are all agreed on price increases across the board. We have set the figure at three 2% jumps over the next nine months. So talk to your opposite numbers to make sure we are all singing from the same hymn sheet. Now that we have the politics done all that needs to be taken care of are the media, so make sure you have some good stories to feed them should they get too interested in what we are doing.’
‘Right you are boss’ Jock replied.
‘And I want a 20% reduction in our wage costs again across the board’ Rafferty ordered.
‘How do you want it done?’ Jock asked.
‘15% in job cuts the balance in pay cuts’ Rafferty said without hesitation
‘Yes boss’ Jock replied.
‘Oh I have a meeting with the CEO of Clear Corp on Thursday, see if you can dig up any dirt on him will you.’ Rafferty ordered.
‘Yes boss’ Jock answered.
‘OK that’s all for now I will see you tomorrow afternoon.’ Rafferty said and hung up without waiting for a reply.
Rafferty next sent an email to his stock broker ordering him to start buying shares in his companies immediately after news of the job cuts reach the markets. Rafferty knew that as soon as the markets got wind of the job cuts all his company’s share prices would fall. But what the markets would not realise until later were the increased profits that they would be making by year end! With that done Rafferty once more looked up the current share prices of his companies, which were all connected in one way or the other to the mobile phone industry. He saw with a smile that they were all doing well despite the impact of the current down turn. His personal wealth he now estimated at close to half a billion pounds. But that was only the start he would get ten times that amount before long. He just had to get the right opportunity which he knew would eventually come along. Yes life was good Ra
fferty thought to himself, if only he knew the names of those kids on that train he would love to be able to show them who he was now.
Rafferty once again, as he had on several occasions since receiving it, opened the email that had been sent to him last night and re read the short message.
Rafferty,
Have a proposal that will interest you, will call midnight Sunday usual number.
C
Rafferty rubbed his hands together in anticipation for this email was from none other than Lord Charles Raybourne one of the most powerful men in world, though not many people were aware of this fact. Charles was the quintessential English Lord an image he had cultivated carefully over the years. But beneath the surface there lay one of the most ruthless business men that Rafferty had ever met. Lord Raybourne also controlled the UK Governments secret services so he was a person that was both powerful and dangerous and Rafferty knew he had to tread wearily around this man. Rafferty looked at his diamond studded Rolex and saw that it was nearly midnight and began composing himself for the call.