“This one is okay to give anyone?” Chu asked.
“Yes, anyone who needs to communicate with the gang. For instance, the local kids that follow women around the city for up-skirt content, give them all a phone. They are your employees and you need to remain in contact with them at all times. This will allow you to split up in teams and hit the entire city, increasing your offering of footage. This should bump up your site membership tremendously.”
I moved the boxes looking for a specific one, a small one, which I found right away. I opened it and took out a couple of phones with large, touch-sensitive screens.
“This is the new REV 4G. It’s the fastest phone on the market. It’s so fast it can shoot live video in HD and upload it to the Internet in real time. You literally become your own live news channel.”
“So I make a video with the phone and then transfer to computer and upload to a website?” Chu said.
“Even better. As you’re shooting the footage, it simultaneously uploads to the website so people can see what you’re filming in real time.”
“It work anywhere?”
“CSL Telecommunications launched a 4G network in Hong Kong. You’re all set.”
The men tore into the boxes with the 4G phones, clearly the most impressive offering so far today.
“Remember: The key to efficient organization is communication.” I stole that line straight out the Teleco sales book. “Make sure every new recruit communicates via direct connect. Without that, there will be no efficiency and that will hurt the bottom line.”
Chu shouted something in Chinese to the gang. It was an order and I’m guessing it was to reiterate what I said. Sing, of course, sat to the side and quietly smoked his tipped cigarillo, not adding to the conversation at all.
I turned back to Chu. “What else?” I said. “We’re off to a great start.”
“We place GPS bracelet on our one prostitute. Now we know where she is all the time.” Chu said as he opened the GPS tracking program. “She is at home now. Resting.”
I looked at the red dot blinking on the map and smiled. “We need more prostitutes,” I said as I patted Chu on the shoulder. “Enough to work night and day shifts. Men screw all the time. It’s important the gang have women available at all times.”
I moved around the boxes around until I found the one I was looking for and opened it.
“In here are GPS locators and one thousand bracelets for whatever you want to track. Canvas the neighborhood, even the city with your women. You will be able to monitor all of them from this computer. In fact, I got something even better.”
I opened up some of the bigger boxes and took out brand new laptops.
“You needed more, so I threw these into the mix. This desktop computer will be your central hub; the laptops will be connected to the hub allowing everyone to easily share information in real time. This way you can continue to manage your prostitution assets and your up-skirt footage out in the field in multiple areas. All of this will triple, even quadruple the amount of business for the gang.”
“What about the loan sharking?” Chu said. “Loan shark operations not so good.”
“Use the GPS bracelets. Slap one on every person who takes a loan. You’ll be able to track and collect. They can run but you’ll always know where. They can’t escape the big eye in the sky,” I said pointing up.
I opened another box. “These are wireless order takers for the restaurant. From now on all food orders will be taken with this. If a customer also wants to place a bet, you log it on here as well. All of this information will be translated to the main hub and filed under food or bets. Your cook will know what order has been placed and you will know what bets have been taken. Together these items will ensure that both your gambling and loan shark operations get back on track. That alone will start making the gang money. Then you can focus on increasing the bets.”
Chu shook his head back and forth.
“What’s the matter?”
“This is good. We have big problems with customers who have no money to repay loan.”
“Threaten them.”
“We do. We break fingers with hammer.”
“And?”
“Well, sometimes they really have no money. After we break fingers, we still in same place.”
“I see. I have a solution.” Again I searched through the stack of boxes. I opened a medium-sized box, took out a tiny plastic device about the size of a quarter, and held it up so everyone could see it. “These are the latest mobile credit card chargers,” I said with a big grin on my face. I was so proud of my ability to quickly solve collection problems. Sadly, the feeling wasn’t mutual. Everyone stared back at me with empty looks, even Chu.
“No one has any idea what this does? These devices plug into your phones and allow you to charge a credit card right there. Just slide the card between the two pieces of plastic.”
Silence from the peanut gallery. Not a peep.
I looked around. The restaurant staff had set all the tables except the ones we occupied. I looked at my watch and saw that we were creeping up on 11:30 a.m. “Chu, the GPS bracelet I left with you on my last visit––where is it?”
“We use it.”
“It’s on a customer right now?’
“Yes.”
“And he owes money?”
“Yes, we know where he is. We find him and break his fingers but still no money. Not worth it to kill or hurt his family.”
Hearing Chu say that freaked me out. A reminder of the mentality I was dealing with here. “Why don’t I show you guys the air charger in action?”
Chu ordered some of the men to move the boxes to the dry storage area in the kitchen. When they were done, we headed out. It was time to collect money.
Chu had his laptop open and was utilizing a broadband card for an Internet connection. On a map of the city, we were able to find our target pretty quickly––a little red dot that had no chance of escaping.
Chapter 79
When we arrived in the Mong Kok, one of the gang members immediately spotted our guy. Unfortunately, he spotted us first and took off. Chu and his men were ready to give chase.
“Hold up,” I said. “There’s no need to chase him. He can’t hide.”
We followed the blinking red dot on the laptop until we were literally standing on top of it. But there was no one around.
I motioned to an overturned garbage can and two of the gang members flipped it over. Underneath was a tiny man, shaking in his pants. His left hand was bandaged, giving truth to what Chu said earlier. He was dressed in a navy blue jacket with matching slacks. Underneath he wore a white shirt and a stripped yellow and blue tie. How could he not have money? He’s obviously a businessman.
I walked over to him. ”Give me your credit card.”
“What?”
I whacked him in the head with my fist. “Give me your credit card.”
He fumbled with his wallet and eventually produced a card for me. I held up my phone and plugged the credit card charger in where normally the headphones would go.
“Watch and learn guys. We launch the application…and, viola, it’s ready.”
My cell phone was ready to accept payment. All of the chargers were already set up for the LC Toys, Inc., for which the gang controlled the bank account.
“How much does he owe?” I asked Chu.
“HK$250,000.”
“HK$300,000 dollars,” I said as I punched in the numbers.
“Hey, that’s fifty thousand more than I owe,” the man protested.
“I know. Convenience fee.”
The gang let out a roar of laughter as I swiped the poor fool’s credit card through the plastic charge on my phone. A second later it beeped and an approval message appeared in the screen.
“He’s all paid up.”
I handed the credit card back to the businessman and said, “Not a single word to the credit card company, or else you can say goodbye to your other hand as well as yo
ur feet and knees.”
Extortion. Threatening to commit a crime. Way to go, Darb.
Chapter 80
Chu and the gang worked hard over the next couple of days to improve their operations. Every morning we met at the restaurant at nine sharp for training. Later, we would head out and conduct trial runs. Chu made it a priority to know each device inside and out and how it could increase the success of the gang’s various rackets. He quickly became the nerdy go-to person when problems arose. And so it should be.
Sing however, still showed little to no interest in anything we were doing. Like a deaf-mute he sat in the restaurant smoking his stupid cigarillos. I wanted to slap that silly thing out of his mouth. Was this a sign of problems to come? I hoped not. I had a case study to collect and he’d better not mess it up.
After a week and half, the gang had successfully incorporated my wireless business solutions into most of their operations. By the end of the second week, the gang was kicking ass. The amount of income they were generating was insane in the membrane. It was astonishing. And it was only going to increase.
I was especially excited when I got paid the first week. I had made a deal with the gang to take fifteen percent cut of the gang’s weekly gross for the first twelve weeks starting from day one. It was a fair arrangement. I had basically provided all the seed money and training for the gang at no charge. I had assumed all the risk upfront. It would have worked no other way.
While the gang’s first week’s take was an impressive increase of nine hundred percent, it was still only HK$7,000 and yielded me a little over HK$1,000. But with the gang clearing HK$35,000 the second week, I was looking forward to a substantial bump in profit. But by the end of the second week, I received no payment. I began to worry the gang was trying to screw me. I could hear Tav telling me, “I told you so.” Don’t panic, Darb, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation. There had better be.
By Wednesday of the following week, my profit forecasts showed the gang was on track to triple their profits. That was huge. I helped earn it, and I’ll be damned if I was going to get screwed over. Of course a small part of me worried that Sing had had a change of heart. But how could he? I was single-handedly responsible for all of their success. After the first week’s increase, Sing had warmed up to what I was doing. We all celebrated at the restaurant by drinking whiskey. They even brought out the good stuff: Hennessy Cognac VO.
I tried to bring it up with Sing the day after the second payment was due but he was busy and told me we would talk later. At the time I didn’t think it was a big deal. I let it slide. Then we got busy. Next thing you know, three days go by and I still haven’t been paid. The upside was things were going well. The gang felt invincible. They were actually functioning like a real Triad faction. Their respect level had even crept up. Who was I to spoil the party? The guy who wasn’t getting paid––that’s who.
I waited until Friday night to make my move. As usual, we were all celebrating another successful week. By one in the morning, everyone would be drunk beyond belief so I needed to act by then. About an hour into the celebration, I saw Chu head into the storeroom. Perfect. “Chu, how are you? Feeling good?”
“I’m good. Gang has improved; we make a lot of money now. You agree?”
“Oh I agree. I definitely agree that my services have helped the gang turn itself around.”
“Yes, let’s drink.”
“Yes, but how about payment first?”
Chu unscrewed the aluminum cap off the bottle and took a swig of the cognac. He handed me the bottle.
I took it and waited for him to finish swallowing. “What about payment? I haven’t received my cut for the last two weeks, Chu.”
Chu smiled and slapped an arm around my shoulder. “We drink now. Come on.” He started to usher me back to the dining room.
The hell with this. I shook free and stopped him. “Look, Chu, level with me. Am I getting paid?”
The expression on Chu’s face said it all. He couldn’t even look me in the eyes. All he could do was look down and kick at the floor.
I bent down a little to regain eyesight with him, “Chu? Were you told not to pay me? Was it Sing?”
Sweat poured down his face. Not the sign I was hoping for. He then followed up with unrecognizable babble. If this wasn’t the sign for you’ve been screwed, I didn’t know what was.
“Look, Chu, I need to know.”
“Sing say not to pay.”
“What? Why?”
“He say you already get enough.”
“Enough of what? Money?” I yelled in a hush tone. “That was not part of the deal. You know that, Chu.”
“I know. I tell Sing this. He not care.”
“I earned that money fair and square.”
“I know, but Sing say no payment.” And then Chu turned around and left the storeroom.
Chapter 81
There I was, alone in the dark storage room, bent over, grabbing my ankles. I couldn’t believe the gang was doing this. And what was I to do? Was I going to fight them? Turn them over to Leslie? No. I needed to think of something fast.
My mind raced like it had a starring role in The Fast and the Furious. I wasn’t going to let these guys bully me. I also didn’t want to get hurt. It never occurred to me the gang would not pay. How stupid is that? The situation reminded me of people who keep boa constrictors as pets and then are surprised one day when Lucy tries to eat them. This was the awakening I needed.
If I didn’t get paid soon, I wouldn’t be able to make the payments on my credit cards for the initial order, which I paid to Teleco in full. The bill for the follow up orders would all be due in thirty days, payable by LC Toys, Inc. If the company went delinquent, it was guaranteed that my path to heavy-hitter land would be put on hold. Teleco was cautious with doing business with delinquent customers, especially new ones. Until I had a plan in place, I decided to put on the face and play it cool.
When I entered the dining room, the gang turned to me and raised their drinks for a toast. A brother shoved a glass into my hand and then filled it with cognac.
“To Get Organized” they all shouted in unison.
I tipped the glass back and swallowed the golden liquid. It left a warm trail down my throat. I watched the gang laugh, drink, and slap each other on the back as if nothing were wrong. I was definitely the elephant in the room, and they were all running a nasty train on me.
Chapter 82
Unable to sleep, I crawled out of bed earlier than I wanted to. I was depressed and embarrassed that I allowed myself to be taken advantage of.
And then the answer came to me. It was such an obvious solution. I knew how to get paid. A smile appeared on my face as I mentally patted myself on my back. I quickly made a few phone calls and then jumped into the shower. Problem deadbeat gang, solved.
I decided to get away from the gang––maybe another soapy massage. Plus I needed time for my plan to play out.
When I exited the elevator in the lobby, I heard my name being called.
“Mr. Darby, Mr. Darby.”
The receptionist stood obediently behind the front desk. Her hair was pulled back into a neat bun. She wore a navy blue pantsuit, most likely issued by the hotel. She was young and attractive, and wore very little make-up, most of it lipstick that popped against her fair skin.
“Mr. Darby. Mr. Darby,” she repeated, “You have message.”
I wasn’t expecting anything. I took the piece of paper she held out to me and read it.
Please come to the Crimson Dragon.
This makes no sense, why would the Dragon Lady want me to come back?
“Excuse me, who left this note here?”
“Message already here when I start my shift.”
“How did they know I was staying here?”
“I don’t know, Mr. Darby. You not tell them?”
“No, I didn’t. That’s okay, thanks.”
I turned and headed toward the exit. Why would the old
lady want to see me? I was confused, but more importantly, I was curious. I had nothing better to do, so why not see what the hag wanted. Maybe she wants to refund my money.
When I arrived at Crimson Dragon, it looked exactly as I remembered––like it went out of business. My phone rang. It was Chu calling. I chuckled and turned my ringer off.
I opened the metal security door and then pushed the wooden door behind it open. The lounge was dark, lit by the familiar reddish light. Straight ahead was the counter and behind it was a mean geriatric with a statuesque stare.
“Hello?”
The old woman said nothing, didn’t even react to my presence.
“Did you ask me to come here?” I placed the message on the counter top.
She looked at the message and then back at me and then motioned for me to follow her through a beaded curtain. I hope she’s not looking to give me a massage.
The old woman pointed to a small wooden chair near a table in what looked like the office/employee area with a tiny stove, some filling cabinets, and some stacked boxes. She placed two teacups on the table and then brought over a ceramic teapot decorated with blue and white flowers. Instantly, the smell of fragrant jasmine invaded my nostrils.
“Drink,” she finally said.
I picked up the cup, wondering if the tea was poisoned. Didn’t much care after the first sip. It tasted amazing.
“Darby, why do you come to Hong Kong? For the sights?”
“How do you know my name?”
“How? You mean why? How I got it is not as important as why I want to know it.”
I sighed. “Are you going to speak in riddles all day?”
“Are you going to answer my questions with questions?”
Darby Stansfield Thriller Series (Books 1-3 & Bonus Novella) Page 18