“Prince, think about it for a moment. You have the girls with you. Instead of giving them directly to Alexei, use them for a day, maybe a couple of days as hostages. Let Noah know you have them and that if he doesn’t pony up some dough you will kill them but one at a time until I get the money received as I direct.”
Prince pauses, then responds. “Why should I let you handle the money? It should go to me.”
“First of all, it goes to me because it’s mine. Secondly, is there anyone in your organization that you can trust to handle two hundred million dollars? You got a bunch of people working for you that are all tough guys, think they can control the world with a couple of punches. There’s nobody with brains.”
“You’re not so smart. You got Garret and Tommy, and they stabbed you in the back.”
“Which is my point. I learned that you kids aren’t ready. I trusted Duke. I personally trained him to take over. If I hadn’t done so, Garret and Tommy would never gotten away with this.”
Prince reflects on this. While he was not close to Duke, he admired him for being one tough mother. But as tough as he was, Prince had to admit that his stepbrother had no organizational or management skills.
“You think I can get two hundred million?”
Chin, at the other end of the phone, is smiling - he knows he’s got Prince hooked. Of course, he had to lie about Duke. Chin thought he was as dumb as Prince but knowing that Prince respected this older brother, he played it up. Also by showing some false humility, that would get through Prince’s tough veneer.
“Of course. I have to make it worth your while as well as mine. We will ask for five hundred million.”
“What about Alexei?”
“If you still want to play with the big cats after we collect, go ahead. It’s your funeral. I will send you the deposit account information. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“I want to keep you alive, Prince.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You might be able to fool Alexei, but you can’t fool me. I saw your video. I saw the darts. I saw the unlocked cage. You would never have gotten away with it.
Click.
***
How did he know? He had taken such precautions in the match. If there really was a chance that a leopard might defeat him, pandemonium would have erupted. One of his men would quietly let one of the leopards outside The Arena escape from its cage. The animal would charge into the audience, and they would frantically try to save their own skins. No one would be looking at Prince, and that would give another henchmen the opportunity to fire a small dart at the leopard that Prince was fighting. This would neutralize the leopard just fractions of a second, long enough for Prince to break the animal’s neck.
Prince would break down the chain-link fence, rush out and kill the leopard in the audience.
Prince would be even more of a hero.
What a stupid idea.
His father caught him in his bluff about killing Noah and JJ. If Noah and JJ are dead, where are the bodies?
Prince opens his cell phone and replays the last bit of the video where Alexei and Noah on his office floor. He watches very carefully and sees something he didn’t see the last time he watched it - Noah’s hand is twitching very slightly. The foundation president is not dead.
What else does his father know? What else is wrong with Super Match?
Alexei. The problem is Alexei. He is a bullshitter.
Prince makes another call.
“Yes, Prince.”
“If you were the one working with me on Super Match, could you pull it off?”
“One thing at a time, Son. One thing at a time. But the answer is, ‘Of course.’”
***
Chin has heard the talk of his demise, of his death, of his defeat, of his financial ruin.
And some of the talk is true. Obviously, he’s not dead, but his fortune has been decimated. No, he’s not broke, but for someone who was a multibillionaire just a few months ago, to be reduced to less than ten million net worth is humiliating and distressing.
He will use anything he can to get back on his feet. He just needs to make sure all the pieces are in place. Chin makes a phone call.
“Hello, Chin. Is all well?”
“All is well. Prince is going after the money from Noah. And he’s asked me to partner with him on Super Match. How about your sons?”
“They are excited to be part of your operation.”
It takes a while to build this kind of relationship, and Li Peng and Chin have a history. Twenty three years ago - the same year that Prince was born Li Peng joined Chin’s Triad. Li Peng had two special skills:- he was most talented at training Chin’s stable of tigers, and he was an excellent sparring partner for martial arts.
However, like many, when he had two sons of his own, Li Peng wanted to move to America to pursue a better life. Garret Southam was Chin’s lawyer, and he made all the arrangements.
There is not a whole lot of work available for tiger trainers, so Chin encouraged Li Peng to switch to leopards. It wasn’t too difficult.
Without Prince knowing his background, Li Peng was hired by Prince to be his personal martial arts trainer as well as to work with the leopards. This, of course, was Chin’s doing and his way of keeping track of his son.
Li Peng has twin sons in their mid-twenties. One just finished his MBA at the Wharton School of Business, and the other his law degree at NYU. They could have accepted starting salaries at one hundred and fifty thousand-plus per year at any number of firms. However, when their father outlined the opportunity and compensation package from Chin, it was goodbye, Wall Street. They knew how well Garret and Tommy were paid.
Li Peng had another exceptional talent: He was a great actor or at least good enough to fool Prince. Prince thought that the ideas that he and Li Peng came up with were Prince’s own thoughts, but in reality Li Peng was gently pushing Chin’s agenda.
None of it had to do with Prince’s intellectual “brilliance.”
It was Chin’s idea for Prince to hold the leopard match.
It was Chin’s idea how to save Prince and turn him into a hero should there be any problem.
It was Chin’s idea having Prince partner with Alexei on the upcoming Super Match.
It was Chin’s idea upon hearing of JJ and Noah’s taking of the Chinese girls of having Tony and Leo making their doomed lives useful by car bombing the safe in The Arena.
Things are looking up. If Prince is successful in extorting the funds from Noah and Super Match is the success that he knows it can be, he is well on his way to financial as well as physical recovery.
“Xia, help me get up.”
The Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine leans over the bandaged man lying in a bed. “That’s not a good idea yet, Chin. You need to rest some more. Allow yourself to heal. The qi, the energy, is not right yet.”
“It doesn’t matter. I need to prepare to go back to work.”
Dr. Xia helps Chin get up. It’s a slow and painful process, but after five minutes, Chin is standing beside his bed.
“You really want to go through with it?” asks Huang. “It’s still experimental, not thoroughly tested.”
The procedure under discussion is a skin graft for burn patients who have little of their own skin available for transplant. This new skin is grown in labs using unburned portions of the patient’s own skin cells. For Chin, because there was so little unburned skin, it has taken months, rather than weeks, to grow enough skin to supply the graft. It was supplemented by other lab-grown skin using the foreskin of newborns to grow swatches of skin.
The procedure is not merely cosmetic. The new skin has many of the same components as the original skin, reducing pain and the re-emergence of sweat glands, nerves and hair follicles.
“It will work,” says Chin confidently.
“How can you know?”
“Because if it doesn’t work, I will kill every single one of the doctors, nu
rses and aides that was part of the procedure. And that includes you. That is about to change.”
CHAPTER 21
“Eat up,” bellows Alexei, most definitely looking like a pirate with his new eye patch. Nothing like a good, hearty Russian meal to complete the healing process.
Kandinsky has definitely delivered. Stroganoff, dumplings, goulash, thin pancakes, cabbage rolls and more are washed down with copious amounts of vodka in the doctor’s lounge at Zubov’s office.
Eating like this will lead to a cardiac disaster but hey - you’ll be happy. After all, it is a time of celebration. Noah Reid is dead, he’s going to taste the delicious Tanya again after lunch and he’s going to do a deal with Prince that is going to put him on the world map. After all these years, those bastards are going to have to pay attention to him.
And then he gets a text from Prince.
Super Match off. Forget the deal. I will keep girls. Keep your dough. Don’t bother coming. P.
Alexei roars like a lion. “Get the Hummer.”
He lifts up the table and overturns it, strewing the feast onto the floor.
***
The text to Alexei was not the only text that Prince sent out. From Queenie’s cell phone clone that Alexei had given him, he sent out texts to the last two hundred people who texted her or whom she had texted. As many were from phone numbers or aliases, he really didn’t know who they were going to but the message was identical to them all.
I’m waiting. Prince
Some of those receiving the texts are undoubtedly going to think that they were getting spam texted or maybe being stalked. However, a few of them were undoubtedly going to the people that he wanted them to go to - Noah Reid or his associates.
Yes, Prince was waiting.
He knows it will be at least an hour before anyone shows up, so it’s time to shake out some of the residual aches in his body from the leopard match. A short run is in order.
He walks over to The Barn to pick out an animal.
Unlike zoo or circus animals, the animals in The Barn have kept and sharpened their animal hunting instincts. Three times a week instead of eating food that the staff provides, the cats have to hunt for their meals. In the forest around The Ranch, there are ample numbers of feral pigs and rabbits.
Prince and his men will accompany the unleashed animals for a run, allowing them to capture an unlucky rabbit or boar. This is an activity that Prince loves, and only under the most mitigating of circumstances will he skip a day.
When his men go out, Prince’s men put muzzles on the leopards, taking them off only when they see prey close by.
Not Prince. His felines are always unmuzzled, but he does have a knife handy just in case one of them misbehaves or has a brain freeze.
Today, he’s taking out three-year-old Frisco. He’s an exceptionally healthy cat and very strong. He’s challenging and brings out the best in him. If Prince is going to survive, he’s got to be completely on his guard, ready to pounce, ready to retreat.
In other words, Frisco is great warm-up for his meeting with Noah Reid.
CHAPTER 22
A voice calls to Noah in his delirium. Noah, Noah.
Noah’s body and lips cannot move, but his mind answers back. Who are you?
Twenty-five years Ago
Three-year-old Noah lies on a bed, stirring fitfully and alternating between shivering and sweating profusely. His whole body ached, and he was unable to hold down food or fluid.
He had accompanied his parents to a farm where itinerant farmers had requested prayer against a drought that had severely damaged their crops. Young Noah had played with a stray dog that was full of ticks, and several of them had feasted themselves on the young boy. Ballooned to over six times their original size with Noah’s blood, the farmers tore the blood-sucking insects off, but the damage was done.
Swelling was immediate and huge. Fever came within two hours, and for three days the young child burned with fever, with a temperature hovering around 104. In a city, this is cause for an immediate visit to a hospital emergency room. In this remote area, well, there was a doctor in the mission three hours away.
“Daddy, will you save me? Please save me, Daddy.”
Sarah Reid, Noah’s mother, leans over and kisses her son on the forehead. “Daddy will be back soon. He’s just gone to get the doctor.”
“No, Mommy, Daddy’s right here. Save me, Daddy. Please. Mommy, can you turn off the light? It’s too bright. Too bright.”
Sarah looks at Noah with alarm. She had heard stories from people with near-death experiences tell how they saw bright lights as they were dying. The room they were in was dark - the farmers they were staying with had no electricity, and the curtains were drawn. Her worst fears looked a reality in the making.
“No, God, no! Don’t take Noah away. Please, God. No!”
“Daddy, save me! Please.”
Then Noah stopped talking. He had fallen unconscious. Sarah lay over him, sobbing, praying... there was nothing else she could do.
Two hours later, Noah’s father returned with the doctor.
The doctor touches Noah’s forehead. He then forces open Noah’s tongue and examines it, then takes the young child’s pulse. A frown appears on his countenance.
“What’s the matter, Dr. Yang?” asks the worried mother.
“He seems perfectly fine. His pulse, his tongue... all are okay.”
Noah wakes up. “Of course I’m okay. My daddy saved me.”
George, Noah’s father, says, “I didn’t do anything, Noah.”
“Not you. My real Daddy. My Big Daddy.”
Present Day
Noah’s eyes open, and he sits up in his bed to see Zach and Dr. Tang smiling at him.
“Why am I here? The last thing I remember is getting into a fight with a big Russian guy in his restaurant.”
“You’re here because you had an unbelievable cocktail of drugs injected into you that almost killed you. You don’t know how lucky you are to be alive, Noah,” says Dr. Tang.
“Where are my friends? Where are the girls?”
“JJ and Olivia went off with a black policeman named Willie Mays. They went to find the girls and the policeman’s son.”
***
“So you got two kids, Walrus and Jackie. You still married?” Olivia to Willie Mays from the back seat of the Toyota.
“Fifteen years and going strong. Maxine’s my Rock of Gibraltar.”
“Wow. That is a great compliment.”
“It’s true. Works all day in electrical sales at Home Depot, is the best damned cook I ever met, keeps the boys and me in line when the world goes nuts, then sings her ass off in church on Sunday. She gets them howling in the aisle. I hear from Walrus Abby’s a singer too.”
“Yeah, she’s great. Went to Juilliard,” says Olivia.
Willie Mays shakes his head. “Never could understand going to school for music. Either you got it, or you don’t.”
“Yeah, can’t disagree with you there. But going to school never hurts.”
“Me, I prefer the sounds of the street. Of booze, pills, smoke. You’ll never sing like Ella or Sarah or Billie in a classroom,” says Willie Mays.
“But I gotta admit. She is one gorgeous lady.” He looks over to JJ. “You agree, JJ?”
JJ reddens and says nothing.
“Hell, what’s the matter with you, JJ? You should be going after that girl like a cat chasing a mouse. You gotta pounce, man. Pounce.”
BANG! A black Hummer has just rear-ended the Toyota and is pushing the car ahead faster and faster.
Willie Mays makes a sudden veer to the right and allows the Hummer to pass.
But the driver in the Hummer is no slouch. As soon as he passes the Toyota, he swings his vehicle in front and slams on his brakes.
Willie Mays, not expecting this, rear-ends the Hummer at full speed. Not a dent on the Hummer but the hood of the Toyota has just been scrunched.
The Hummer throws itself into rever
se, and the Toyota helplessly allows itself to be pushed backward. Willie Mays tries turning the steering wheel, left and right, but it seems that the Toyota’s hood is locked to the Hummer.
And then another problem: Willie Mays looks in the rearview mirror to see a panel truck gaining speed on them a hundred feet behind.
JJ opens the passenger door of the Toyota. He holds on tight to the top of the Toyota and swings himself onto the Japanese car’s hood.
Without missing a step, he leaps onto the top of the Hummer.
Two of the hoods in the Hummer open their windows on either side of the car. Even if he were a miracle worker, no way JJ could split himself in two and dismantle both of the gun-toting thugs.
Or can he?
Both start firing at JJ. It’s awkward for the bad guys because at such close range, they might hit each other. Not to mention that at breakneck speed where every little movement is exaggerated, accuracy of aim is nonexistent.
JJ jumps, dodges and ducks the deadly little projectiles that come flying at him.
But the panel truck is almost upon the Toyota.
JJ whips out a martial arts star and with the force of a mini-rocket launcher, he throws the star at the panel truck’s front windshield.
The glass shatters into fragments, some which cut the driver’s arms, some which fly into his eyes.
Screaming in pain, the driver jerks his hands up to his face, losing control of the vehicle. The panel truck harmlessly bypasses the Toyota.
Meanwhile, the Hummer is still in reverse, pushing the Toyota against the flow of traffic.
“Get in,” screams Willie Mays.
JJ leaps from the roof of the Hummer to the roof of the Toyota and pulls himself inside the small car.
There’s a highway full of cars, trucks and vans honking and blaring at the speeding vehicles as they bob in and out of the forest of motor vehicles.
SLAVERY UNBOUND: Cruelty & Lust with the Emerging Eastern Mafia (Noah Reid Action Thriller series Book 4) Page 14