by Newbiel
"I agree, I was going to insist on it in fact." Diane said, Mary and Karine nodding along, proof that they had discussed it beforehand.
After the stress that they all had, some holiday was exactly what they all needed, especially Robert. He was still tired after his three day of being locked down on the other side of the globe.
"And after that?"
"After that we are going to need to hire more security personnel, ex-military preferably. After what I did in Saudi Arabia, some people are going to hold grudges and are going to want revenge. When they will, I want all of you to be well protected. Moms, I know that you do not like to be followed around but in this case I will not give you the choice, I want you to be safe."
"Are you sure it's really necessary?" Mary asked.
"Yes." He answers seriously.
"Alright, I will accept it but only for you sweetie." Mary finally decided, seeing the concern look into her son's eyes.
"If they don't stop me from doing my work, I will too." Karine answers.
"They won't. I will recruit them myself, trust me." Nathaniel nodded.
"And who is going to pay for their salary? After all you are the reason all of this happened." Robert said offhandedly.
"Yeah, you are right. It was me that got kidnapped in Rome." Nathaniel frowned at him.
"We could have paid their ransom and be done with it. You choose to kill them all and bomb two building in the Saudi Arabia capital." Robert frowned back at him.
"I didn't know we were ready to fund terrorists to save our skin in this family. I could pay them but I know you are bluffing grandpa so just don't bother." Nathaniel smiled at him.
Surprise flash in the eyes of his grandfather before the hint of a proud smile flashes on his face before he turns back to his usual stern expression.
"You are certainly sure of yourself grandson, why?"
"Because even you know that you need more and better security around you. You also know that I'm good at finding talents in people and even if I'm your grandson, you will never allow someone to follow you around if they are not on your payroll." He added with a crafty smile that made his grandmother smile. His grandfather on his side grunt but did not say he was wrong.
"How many people do you want in addition to our current security? After all, if I have to believe what you told us, you are more competent in this kind of thing than me."
"I am. I would say we need ten to twelve more people. Starting now, I want grandpa to be escorted with six armed personnel at any times and three for the rest of you. I want the house in the Hamptons equipped with a top of the line security system and ten mens in eight hours rotation every day. For the Lyndon Tower, we will keep our current security as it is already on par with what I want, not mentioning that the headquarters of my team will be there, that should boster our security quite a bit." Nathaniel explained.
"How much time do you need to recruit these people?"
"I already have a list of names, people with impressive skills but did not make the cut for my team. For our purpose now, they will be perfect on the other hand. I will go recruit them next week to have them start early next year."
"But sweetie, you said that we will all rest until Christmas." Karine said.
"Mom, I will don't worry but keeping you safe is of utmost importance to me. Moreover, I will recruit my team in the meantime too. I called Maggie earlier and she confirmed that the movie is going to start early february, the script has to be modified to suit me better. I want at least a month with my team to train them to bring them to my standart, I would have liked more time with them but hey, I'll make it work." Nathaniel sighed.
"And how Maggie took the fact that you will be away the week after the release of your album and movie?" Mary smirked.
"Well, she was not thrilled that's for sure. I told her I had the flu so she did not bother me too much about it and had kept me updated on the movie result at the box office by text. So far it's more than the studio had projected which is good, the movie is also very well received in Europe with great scores in Germany and France. I did not have the time to look at my twitter account recently but I believe I won a lot of followers."
"Are you not even curious about the sales of your own album?" His grandmother asked with a smile.
"I am actually but I simply did not have the time to look as Maggie focused on the movie part of my life right now. Do you have the numbers?" Nathaniel asked curiously.
"I do in fact, you just passed the one hundred and fifty thousand album sold this afternoon." She said with a smile.
Hearing that number, Nathaniel was shocked, his mouth wide open.
Chapter 161: :
New York, JFK Airport. 15/12/2012, 11:45.
Sitting in one of the chairs in the jet owned by his family company, Nathaniel was reading some personal files waiting for Scott to join him. He did not like to leave home just after coming back but he did not have any other choice in this instance. A man has to do whatever it takes to protect his family and he would do everything necessary for his. hearing picking up footsteps, Nathaniel put the files he was reading on the table and looked in the direction of the entry.
Running inside with sweat beading from his forehead, Scott entered the plane.
"Sorry I'm late, the circulation was a nightmare at this time of day." He justified himself, putting his travel bag in the storage.
Looking at his watch, Nathaniel looked back at him with an eyebrow raised.
"You're two minutes late Scott, don't worry about it." Nathaniel waves that away.
"I was taught to consider myself late if I'm not ten minutes early at the minimum." He said, sitting in front of him.
"Don't mention it if anything I'm the one to blame to warn you this late about our departure."
"So, how was your trip to DC?" He asked.
"I got debriefed by the President and his pissed off head of Secret Service, I sleep in the Lincoln bedroom and I was asked to talk with his oldest son to help with his condition." Nathaniel summarized quickly.
"Ah, wait! The son of the President is sick?" Scott asked in surprise.
"No, he was just being kind of a dick with his family." Nathaniel answered with a smile, Scott laughing.
"Since when is this something that can be cured?" He smiled back.
"Well, I tried anyway. Did you hear about the shootout in DC yesterday morning?"
"Yes, it was all over the news yesterday, something about all the gang members involved being shot in the same place…" He started to say before his eyes opened wide. "You didn't!" He gasped the last bit.
"I did. Let's just say that the First Lady was not happy with me, not mentioning Tobias." Nathaniel laughed.
"And you would have deserved it. Did it work at least?" He shook his head.
"Kind of, I did show him the way, it depends on him if he wants to change now but I could tell he was less arrogant once I brought him back to the White House then earlier that day."
"That's good I guess. Did you give them the files that we took from Saudi Arabia?"
"Not all of them but yes."
"Do you think this is wise to hide the rest from the president?"
"I want to make sure to know what we are giving them and until Lina accesses the hard drive that we took from them, we won't. This is better this way Scott."
"You are the boss." He nodded. "So where are we going?"
"Here first." Nathaniel said, sliding a number of files in front of him.
Opening the first one on the pile, Scott started reading and raised one of his eyebrow, the motor of the jet starting to turn.
"Interesting." He finally said.
*****
New Orleans, 13:50. 15/12/2012.
In a shabby pub near the shore in Little Wood district, seven men could be found drinking and talking loudly in it around a table. On the wall of the pub, a picture of medal and military men in deployment could be found with a smile on her face. The lights were dimmed inside and bes
ide the seven mens drinking, there were only two other customers sitting at another table, a waitress and a barman in the pub.
The sound of someone opening the front door gathers the attention of everyone inside, plissing their eyes at the suddent light before the door closes behind them. Looking attentively at the two newcomers, they were surprised to see a young blond man followed by a thirty something years old men. Looking at the two new people inside, a lot of the people here start to sneer.
"Sir, we should leave." Scott said, picking up the mood inside the bar.
"No it's okay Scott." Nathaniel answers, walking to the counter.
"What do you want son? We are not serving orange juice here and since you do not look old enough to drink, you should leave." The barman said with a condescending smile.
Nathaniel smiled back, not bothered by the barman remark since he loved orange juice. Turning to Scott, Nathaniel nodded.
"I'm not here to drink, sir." Nathaniel answered politely.
"I'm going to ask you to leave then."
"A beer please." Scott asked, pushing a bill on the counter.
The barman was going to send him away when he noticed the army tattoo on Scott's arm. Recognizing the Delta Force sign, he nodded with new found respect and got him a beer, not touching the bill still on the counter. Nathaniel noticed the change of demeanor of the barman and nodded to himself until he heard movement behind him. The barman, seeing two mens coming behind them sighed to himself and backed off.
"Boy, this is a military bar here, you should leave before something happens to you." Someone said behind him, putting a hand on Nathaniel's shoulder and starting to squeeze.
Chapter 162: :
Turning around, Nathaniel looked at the people who had come to them. He was glad to see that they were not among the group of people he wanted to talk to. They were two mens around forty years old with sailor outfits and unkempt beards. They were also very drunk. Letting Nathaniel turn, the man that had his hand on his shoulder start to squeeze his shoulder even harder.
"You shouldn't do that." Scott advised offhandedly, taking a gulp of his beer.
"And why is that? Are you his bodyguard or something?" The other asked taking a critical look at Scott's figure.
"Hum, kind of but I'm nice enough to warn you to stop what you're doing before you finish on the ground." Scott smiled.
"Are you threatening us?" The man demanded aggressively.
"No, he's trying to warn you quite kindly by the way." Nathaniel interjects in the conversation. "You know you should slow down with beer, being drunk this early in the day is not a healthy response to whatever is going on in your life."
"You know nothing about my life fu**ing bastard!" He yells at Nathaniel's face, squeezing his shoulder even harder.
"Okay that's it. Let go of me, now." Nathaniel said, his blue eyes sharpening.
"And what if I refuse?" He asked with a crooked grin.
"When you are going to wake up, you should take a long and hard look at your life and try to fix it. Assaulting a boy less than half your age is beneath you and beneath the code of conduct of the navy."
"You're dea…" The man yelled, arming his fist to punch Nathaniel in the face.
Unfortunately for him, he never had the chance to finish what he was yelling when Nathaniel clapped his two hands on his ears, stunning him and making him grunt in pain. Nathaniel followed by a chop to his neck that made him crumple to the ground. It was at the same moment that a punch was rushing to Nathaniel's head. Sidestepping it, He took the extended arm and twisted it to the side making the other fall on his knee, unable to counter the force of the move. Using the opportunity he created, Nathaniel took the man's head in a choke hold with his knee and started to squeeze. Thrashing uncontrolably to get out of the hold, the man could not make Nathaniel budge until he stopped moving and faint on the ground, Nathaniel releasing him.
Once it was done, the atmosphere in the bar was still and silent. Sighing to himself, Nathaniel picked the two bodies using their vest as leverage and dragged them to a bench where he made them lie down. Going back to the counter, Nathaniel could feel the seven people in the table not far away sending speculative glances his way.
"Are they going to be alright?" The bartender asked with a hint of steel in his voice.
"Yes but they are going to wake up in two hours with a hell of a headache. Do these two have a tab here and how much is it?"
"Yes they have and I believe it is around seven hundred dollars. Why?"
"I'm going to pay it, just make sure to water the beer down a little in the future."
"It's your money." The man shrugged.
"How much for your best bottle of whiskey?"
"Nine hundred dollars but I still can't sell it to you, you are underaged."
"It's not for me, it's for my friend Scott here." Nathaniel smiled.
The bartender's eyes wandered between the two of them, he finally grunt and put an old looking bottle on the counter. Putting the cash on the counter, the bartender frowned.
"This is more than the price I give you." He said, lifting an eyebrow.
"I know, the rest is for inconvenience. Thank you." Nathaniel said, taking the bottle and walking to the only table who was occupied, Scott following him with his beer.
"Hi guys, can we sit with you? I brought a gift." Nathaniel asked nicely to the people sitting in front of him, putting the bottle on the table.
It was to be said that these seven people could not be considered normal by any means. They were all towering around 6" and had bulging muscle but not bulged enough to impend their body movement. Nathaniel knew the names of all seven of them has he come for them specifically. He also knew that if the meeting did not go well, it could be really dangerous. He didn't think he could win against all of them in unarmed combat.
"We don't want trouble." One of them said.
"I'm not here to cause one but I don't like to be touched or insulted by strangers either. I did go easy on them though, I could tell they were not really bad people."
Hearing that, they all nodded subconsciously as they were experts in unarmed combat themselves. They could tell that Nathaniel had pulled his punch and did the maximum to put them out without harming them too much. In fact, a lot of them were curious about the kid and who had trained him as they were very familiar with the move he used.
"Sit then, thanks for the bottle."
Pulling a chair from a nearby table, Nathaniel then took a seat. One of them looking at Nathaniel with a hint of recognition in his eyes and another looking at Scott intently which did not seem to bother Scott as he was giving an unbother stare.
"Military?" He asked Scott who nodded in assent. "Commando?"
"Ex Delta Force." Scott precise succinctly.
Nodding once again, the one who had invited Nathaniel to sit focus on him.
"Your bodyguard I presume seeing you spend thousands of dollars like it was nothing."
"Do I look like I need protection Ethan?" Nathaniel smiled.
The mens around the table stiffen hearing that name and a couple of hands leave the table and disappear underneath it. Ethan on the other hand looked at Nathaniel long and hard for a moment.
"Who are you?" He asked threateningly.
"My name is Nathaniel Lyndon."
"That's it! I knew that I saw him before!" One of the men exclaims around the table surprising the others.
"What are you talking about Keith?" Ethan asked, annoyed.
"That kid! I know who he is. He's a singer slash actor, my daughter loves him. She even forced me to look at an interview he gave on national TV. His grandfather is Robert Lyndon, crazy rich and crazy influential." He exclaimed.
Pausing at that new information, everybody starts to look at Nathaniel with new interest and not a small amount of curiosity.
"I see. How do you know my name and what do you want from me?" He asked more nicely.
"I know a lot about you Ethan, I also know a lot about all
of you. I also know why you are only seven around the table and not twelve like your team demand it to be operational."
"Bullshit!" One of them shouted angrily.
"Panama, a little town named Achutupu and a training exercise that goes badly because of defective equipment. Do I need to say more than that Morgan?" Nathaniel responded, shutting him up effectively.
"I'm not going to repeat myself, what do you want?" Ethan asked with a somber attitude.
"I want to recruit all of you to work as security for my family company."
"Well if it's just that, I can send you away right now. We are still engaged in the army." Ethan rebukes harshly.
"That's a lie and you know it. Your term has ended two weeks ago and so far none of you have chosen to re enlist. I'm not blaming any of you mind you, especially after what happened to your team, I get it trust me. I just thought that you could be open to other opportunities."
"He's right Ethan, we should at least hear him out before flatly refusing him." Keith said, a few of them voicing their support or nodding in assent.
"Alright, start talking." Ethan nodded.
"If you are expecting a commercial pitch, you are going to be disappointed as I'm not a market vendor. I'm just gonna give you two piece of paper, on the first will be your annual salary and on the other what your job will entail. There will also be my phone number in case you want to talk about a few points that are not clear to you. Now, I believe I abused too much of our time and I'm going to take my leave. Enjoy the whiskey guys." Nathaniel said, getting to his feet, Scott following him.
"What? That's it?" Ethan asked dumbstruck.
"Ah no! I was going to forget." He shook his head, taking something from the inside of his jacket and put it in front of Keith. "Gift for you Keith, this is my new album. I wrote a little message on the back to make it special. I believe someone you know is going to like that quite a lot." He smiled at him before walking outside of the pub.
Chapter 163: :
"Do you think they are going to accept?" Scott asked.
"Yes for the majority of them but I'm not sure for all seven. Some still had the patriotic fiber running deep inside of them. Ultimately, this is going to be a war between loyalty for the army or loyalty in the team."