CHAPTER 4

Two minutes later, Zach walked into the most luxurious room in the club with blood all over his hand but none on his suit or his crisp white shirt.

Big Al was reduced to a stammer as he stared at the man making himself comfortable across the table from him. “Who... How...Who...” He could not formulate the right question to ask this strangely calm man. “Are you here to kill me?” He finally asked once he had gotten control over his tongue.

“No,” Zach answered calmly, “As I said, am here to talk.” He poured himself a glass of wine after wiping the blood off his hand using the paper towels on the table. “I am simply here to claim on my investment.”

Big Al was puzzled, “What investment? Do we know each other?”

“You don’t know me but I know you. After all, you only have your power because of my money. Remember about four and a half years ago just before your rise to the biggest thug in this city.”

The look on Big Al’s face changed to one of shock. He immediately had a flashback to about four and a half years ago when he was still a small-time thug in the city.

One morning he had found a note under his door, ‘Hello Albert. You don’t know me but I know you. I am someone making an investment in you. I know all there is to know about you, your ailing mother, your drunken father, and the six siblings you care for using the meager income you make from pick-pocketing. I want to help you rise from all that and make you the most important man in this city. But you must follow my plan to the letter. After all, I will be back to collect on my investment.”

The note went on to provide a detailed plan on how to acquire power in the city to which Albert followed to the letter to this day, the details to a bank account with enough millions to put the plan in motion, and the consequences of failure to adhere to the plan. Big Al would still be nobody had it not been for his mysterious benefactor. He had tried over the years to find out the identity of the mystery man but after some clear warnings with decapitated heads and other body parts, he understood the message and left the identity issue alone. After all, he had all the power he needed in case the mystery man came calling.

He did not expect to be seated face-to-face with his benefactor. He expected a sly-looking old woman but was surprised to see a young man in his late twenties.

“As you have already figured out, I am your mysterious benefactor. The entire mess outside would have been easily avoidable had you not let your pride get the better of you. But that is not what’s important here. I am here for an issue I need thoroughly investigated. After all, you hold the most powerful force in this city. You can get the information that no one else can. I need all the information on an accident that happened five years ago outside Creedmoor City Hospital involving a couple named Zach Garrett and his wife Rachel Kent. I need everything you can get on the perpetrators, the masterminds, and anyone else involved in the accident.”

“This issue is of utmost importance so no one must know if and why you are looking into the matter. I don’t need the people whose involvement I suspect to get spooked and begin making unnecessary actions.”

“Take this phone,” Zach said as he placed a small cell phone on the table, “And use it to contact me whenever you have any information. You will answer it any time I call you, day or night. You will respond to any requests I make to my satisfaction, failure to which you receive punishment in equal measure.”

As he walked to the door, he looked back directly at Big Al and said, “No one can know that we ever met. You don’t know me, I don’t know you. You will not bother finding out my identity, my previous message still stands. If I want you to know anything you will know it.” With that, he walked out of the club and into the awaiting vehicle, and left the scene.

Big Al was too shocked to immediately recover. He could not fathom what had just happened. He then walked out of the private room only to meet carnage at the door. Most of his men had been slaughtered.

It could only be called a slaughter as some of his men looked as though they had been cleaved in half across the face or across the waist. No one of his men was alive apart from the two guards at the door. He knew had seen the face of the devil himself. He was lucky that his best men were out on mission otherwise his power would have been cut in half by a single man.

He knew better than to test any guests who came calling. He was still an ant compared to his benefactor.

He immediately whipped out his cell phone and made a call to an unregistered number

Elsewhere across the city, a man answered a call from an unknown number, “A powerful party is looking into the matter from five years ago. Beware.”

The call was terminated before the man could ask any further questions.

This was bad. For a lot of reasons, and, for a lot of people. But the biggest problem was with him.

He has to find out who was investigating the accident.

All involved had been eliminated.

He was the only one who knew what happened and who was involved.

The truth had to stay buried otherwise everything he had would come crumbling down.

And no one could be allowed to bring him down.

He made a call to another number, "Find out who is investigating an accident that happened five years ago. Get me all the details about it. Do it covertly. As usual the pay will be good." And he hung up without waiting for a reply.