“Calm down, don’t apologize without telling me what happened.” Kaze stopped Conan from apologizing and asked, “What happened? The money is gone?” He had made it clear that the two billion from the Hornberg and Powell families should be donated to charity. Yet someone extended their wicked thoughts on the money, which turned his expression dark. “If the money is simply taken away, it wouldn’t be as bad.” Conan’s expression turned bitter as he explained, “The Powell family from Glowmoss somehow reached an agreement to exchange assets with Sanwell Finances. Sanwell Finances’ assets in Eurathia are to be transferred to the Powell family. “As for the two billion in Arcadia, Sanwell Finances swallowed them all. I’ve sent men from the Queen family to retrieve the money but last night, some underworld forces appeared and took them all away. “One of the people in charge was killed and thrown into the river. The body was found this morning. The underworld is supported by Sanwell Fi
Kaze knew he had to move his schedule up. He must go to Riverbank soon, to retrieve the two billion and punish Sanwell Finances. However, he has to be careful not to affect the livelihood of tens of thousands of people, which would eventually cause a riot. A while later, Kaze said to Conan, “Go to Riverbank now. Investigate what happened. As for the one who got killed in the conflict, I’ll make sure he won’t die in vain.” “Aight, Bro! I’m leaving immediately.” Conan bowed. Kaze added, “And, bring Miru along. She has been eyeing Riverbank for a while now and since the underworld was involved this time, we can let Miru take over after we uproot them.” No matter who the underworld forces were, or how big, from the moment they decided to work for Sanwell Finances, their fates were sealed. Once an underworld organization was wiped out, the spot would immediately be filled. Kaze planned to use the underworld as a starting point to move against Sanwell Finances. “Roger tha
Jared was officially appointed the new mayor of Lilyrose and he would be sworn into office tomorrow. When Rove got listed, Jared and his wife, Fanny, were there to show their support to Kaze. Kaze appreciated the gesture. He talked to Elder Nectar of the cabinet about the appointment. Moreover, given Jared’s resume, he had always been the ideal candidate for mayor. With him governing the city, Kaze’s previous policies would stand and the people would benefit from them. Besides, Jared was the son-in-law of the Hiden family, which equaled a strong background. It almost certainly guaranteed that he could govern with clear ideals without being affected by power or money. It was unlikely that he would become someone’s puppet. “Go tell Mayor Styles that I am going to Riverbank. I’ll pass on the ceremony. I thank him for the invitation,” Kaze smiled and declined the invitation. Jared was Miru’s uncle, a close one, so Kaze saw him as a senior as well. He would not act superior
The call with Lock lifted Kaze’s spirits, which had been dampened by Sanwell Finances. “Tap!” Kaze was about to close his eyes for a quick nap when he was interrupted by a rude tap on the shoulder. The tap was intruding and intimidating. Nevertheless, Kaze remained unfazed and opened his eyes to a burly skinhead. The man’s hairy arm was on Kaze’s shoulder. “Switch seats, bro.” The skinhead said while pointing at the seat next to Kaze. “I’m with my girlfriend, but we couldn’t get seats together.” Behind him was a beautiful young woman showing off her midriff. She buried her face in her phone with a straight face. Furrowing his brows, Kaze was not in a hurry to get up. “Where are you supposed to sit?” “Here you go. It’s carriage number three in the back. It’s just the next one.” The man dangled his ticket at Kaze and placed his luggage on the rack before Kaze even agreed to the switch. “Hang on.” Kaze stopped the man and said indifferently, “It doesn’t make sens
The silence was deafening in the compartment. Kaze’s earlier composure was an indication of his incoming attack. The mean-looking skinhead was like a ragdoll in Kaze’s hands. With a blank face, Kaze dragged Butch to the door and turned him around. “Take this money and get lost.” After using Butch’s words on him, Kaze kicked him in the butt. “Bang!” The skinhead fell into carriage number three, causing quite a stir. The passengers in Kaze’s compartment, be they impressed or fearful, calmly returned to their seats. “Please step aside.” The beautiful woman stared blankly at Kaze. Startled by Kaze’s voice, she exclaimed, “Ah, bastard! How dare you hit my man! I’m going to kill you!” While shrieking, the woman clawed Kaze with her long fingernails. By the looks of her, she was tempted to scar Kaze’s face. “Smack!” Kaze whipped his hand across her face. The burning sensation on her cheek snapped the woman back to reality. “You’re more foolish than your man,” K
“But your little assistant seems to run into a little problem. Do you need my help?” Cole smiled at Butch. Raph cocked his head back and asked with a frown, “What’s going on?” Butch held his face and pointed wickedly at Kaze who was minding his own business on his seat. “I paid to switch seats with the guy, but he attacked me and my girlfriend, Raph. “Look what he did to us.” He showed Raph the handprint on his and his girlfriend’s faces. Raph’s face fell, and he scoffed. “Who hit my assistant?” He looked over at Kaze. As Kaze’s head was down, Raph yelled with a scowl, “What? Can’t own up to your mistake? Pick your head up!” “I hit your assistant. What are you going to do about it?” Kaze looked away from his phone and replied indifferently. Raph pulled a dirty look. “Hmph! What’s with the attitude when you are the attacker? Uh? You?” Suddenly, Raph froze and stared at Kaze, wide-eyed. He did not expect to see Kaze here. Reminded by the incident at Snow’s pl
“In that case, I’ll call the transport police.” Cole grinned and looked at the train conductor who came to investigate. Pointing his finger, Cole said coldly, “Get your chief steward and transport police here.” All train conductors had been briefed in advance about a group of VIPs reserving the business-class compartment for the train bound for Riverbank. Recognizing Cole as the VIP in the business-class compartment, the train conductor felt his heart skip a beat. The train conductor hunched over. “A moment, please, sir.” He pressed on the walkie-talkie on his chest to call the chief steward and transport police.Soon, a chief steward and a transport police officer arrived on the scene. The chief steward approached Cole with respect, his head kept down. “Hello, Mr. Libra. What can I do for you?” Cole pointed at Kaze and said indifferently, “The violent man attacked my friend in public. Apprehend him and hand him to the Riverbank police later.” The chief steward was m
Kaze furrowed his brows. The incident during his train ride was rather baffling. However, he had an appointment with Lock, and the latter sent a car for him to meet at the train station. Kaze did not want any delays. He glanced at Cole, knowing that the issue lay with him. Kaze pulled out his phone and texted Conan while saying indifferently, “So you accuse me on false grounds and make me apologize because he’s some VIP? “You butter him up in hopes you might get some perks. Heck, you might get a promotion that will launch your career ahead of time. “Anyhow, you don’t want to upset the VIP. At the very least, you want him to enjoy your service on the train. “I get where you are coming from. You live cautiously, afraid of upsetting those you can’t mess with. You don’t want to bring trouble to yourself and your family. “However, there is one person you can’t upset too.” Kaze pointed at Cole, then himself. He asked with a straight face, “Are you sure you can take me on?”
“How dare those men hijack the plane and take Kaze. They must be punished…” Despite her grumbles, Snow grew anxious. “Given Mr. Lee’s capabilities, he won’t be hurt.” The agents around her tried to comfort her. They believed she was being too nervous. “I know, but we as subordinates have failed him by allowing this to happen. We have to do our best to make up for the mistake, and not rely on Mr. Lee to get out because he can.” Snow drowned in self-blame and regretted not being able to help. It was her negligence that allowed the hijacking to happen. “But there’s nothing you can do now. It’s late. Even the hijackers need to rest. They won’t do anything yet.” “It’s because the hijackers need to rest that we have to hurry and beat them to it. That’s the only way to solve this matter!” “But we’ve searched high and low and didn’t find anything. No one knows where they have gone. Even if they transported the passengers via buses, we didn’t see any tracks.” The agents discu
Kaze breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly went over to Miguel and pressed his hands with the gun down so that it would not misfire. “Good job.” “Thanks.” Miguel curled his lips into a nervous smile. He frequently trained in the gym and mixed martial arts but had never encountered any real-life incident before, thus being inexperienced. Fortunately, his mentality was stronger than the others and allowed him to act accordingly. “I’ll be taking the gun. This is self-defense, you won’t be charged and you won’t need to take responsibility,” Kaze said. Miguel’s pale face looked relieved. “What should we do now? Are there more of them?” Miguel dared not let go of the gun, worried there might be more enemies. “I’ve counted the numbers and this guy here should be the last one.” He then took the gun from Miguel’s hands. “Really? Gosh! That was crazy! I was so terrified!” Miguel finally loosened up and let his instinct take over. His heart was pounding so fast that it
Manson came over and saw the mercenaries lying in their own puddle of blood. The gore shocked him and made him sick. He tried his best to hold back the urge to throw up as it would attract attention. “Don’t look if you can’t take it! Don’t make things worse!” “Yeah! Professor! Grow a pair of balls!” “I have never seen dead bodies like this before!” he explained with a flush of embarrassment on his face. “Can we go out now and run away?” The hostages were eager to leave as things had settled down outside. They thought the danger was over. A dead mercenary was inside the container with them and they were still horrified. Once the others found out about this, the hostages would be shot to death. “If you want to die, be my guest. The moment you step out, you’ll be shot!” Callahan said as he looked at the others scornfully. One of the hostages had already put his hand on the handle of the door and was ready to dash out, but he quickly pulled his hand back after listening
“Tsk. Hold on.” Vexed, the man clicked his tongue and then waved at his colleague. “Come here. Someone fainted. Help me get him out.” The man wanted to take the professor out of the container. Manson’s heart pounded as he listened to the man. He was afraid he might be exposed, but there was no turning back now—he had to play along. Kaze stood behind the door, calming his breath down to lower his presence. “Get back. Stay away from the door. If anyone gets close, don’t blame me for being rough,” said the man as he unlocked the container. He opened the door and saw a number of hostages still sleeping. He then looked at the professor on the floor. He went closer to nudge him but did not get a response. It seemed like the professor needed medical attention. “Come on. Help me get him out.” The other man outside the container was on edge, looking as if he would pull the trigger at the slightest movement. “Why don’t we do it?” Callahan and Miguel volunteered. “You two
“It’s freaking troublesome.” “Boss, don’t worry about it. We’ll get an update tomorrow.” “Yeah. It’s late. Get some rest.” Tiguan’s men told him to get some rest and not worry so much. A few of them were already snoring on the chair. Tiguan sighed and killed the cigarette. He then closed his eyes to get some rest, too. The container that Kaze was in fell into silence once more. No one dared to make any noise but they all looked at Kaze, hoping to find out about his plans. Kaze’s eyes remained fixed on the window and showed no intention of revealing his thoughts. Miguel and Callahan were annoyed by the other hostages. “If you people want to get out of here alive, you better cooperate or come up with your own idea. No one is responsible for saving you.”“Yeah. I don’t want you guys to turn on us after we do all the heavy lifting. It will cost us our lives and you people won’t even be grateful.” Miguel’s tone was sarcastic because he disliked how the others looked at t
Kaze read the hostages’ minds and refused to be used. He wanted to leave but not under such circumstances. “That’s not true. We just don’t have the skills for this kind of situation. You guys are stronger, of course, you should be in the front,” said the man in glasses and a suit. A hint of sharpness gleamed in his eyes. Miguel knew what the man was planning, either. “That’s some plan you have there. You are just trying to use us to escape this place and no matter what happens, you’ll win.” “That’s not it! I just want everyone to stand together and get out of this place. I’ve never thought of using anyone!” the man argued, trying to look innocent. Even a monkey knew what he was planning, yet no one dared to speak up because they would benefit from it too. “Why don’t you guys think of something? If you need our help, we’ll help,” said another middle-aged gentleman who looked more just and fair, as if he could lead the group. “Then what is your plan?” Kaze suddenly wante
The hostages were locked up in the containers. Some of them were elites in their own field while some were ordinary people with average income, yet all of them got into trouble when they boarded the plane. Most of them could not accept their fate. Yet they dared not defy or resist the mercenaries. When things started to calm down, they broke down in tears, weeping in silence as resentment consumed them. Kaze sat down at a clean corner that allowed him to look outside the window. The window was dirty but at least he could see outside. The space inside the container was filled with people sitting closely, offering comfort to one another. They were aware they were just temporarily safe in this container. No one knew what the mercenaries would do to them at the next moment. “My parents must be worried. I said I would call them when I land but now I can’t even get in touch,” Barney muttered as he sat beside Kaze. He too looked outside the window, his feelings mixed. He watc
Kaze thought of what he had overheard in the toilet. If he told the hostages about that, they would probably panic. “It’s nothing. They are just going to separate us into different rooms or containers. They said the buses would be disposed of,” he said. He did not want to reveal too much because it would cause panic. Once the hostages knew their lives were on the line, things might spiral out of control. The mercenaries could kill a few of them to make an example, and none of the hostages would dare to cause problems anymore. Kaze kept it a secret because he wanted to protect the people. “That’s it?” “Is there anything else? How many men are there? What is their plan? Who are they looking for?” “We want to know because we want to survive. This isn't our problem—we just got caught up in it.” The hostages looked at Kaze, their eyes filled with worry. They felt aggrieved because they should not be caught in such a huge problem. “I don’t know either.” No matter how m
“There’s a room there. Get in.” The mercenary pointed his gun at the mother and son, which led them to look at Kaze nervously, seemingly asking for help. “What do you want?” The mother was nervous. She clutched her son’s hand tightly, nearly making him cry, but she reacted quickly enough to cover her son’s mouth to prevent him from doing so. “All women must go into that room. You go in now,” the mercenary explained. He did not want the woman to get the wrong idea. “You people won’t hurt me, right?” the mother asked, worried that she might be ravaged. “We are not into MILF,” said the other mercenary who was escorting Kaze, indirectly assuring the mother. Kaze shot a glance at the mother and nodded at her. “They told us they were going to separate us, so there’s nothing to worry about,” he said, worried that the mother and son would not cooperate. The mother then carried her son and followed the other mercenary into the room. It was called a room but it was actually ju