Chapter 13

Thursday

We’re up with the alarm, and we’re all quick to get ready. It’s not all that far to Washington, but the traffic can be murder. So we have to make a lot of allowances for delays, because we must be there on time for the commission meeting. Today’s breakfast has all of the usual suspects plus Kira, Mai, and her daughters. Rob often looks at Kira, he must be wondering where she came from, since she wasn’t here last night when we first went to bed, and I told Madeline not to say anything. I told her I’ll tell Rob about her arrival later, when it suits me to do so.

We discuss general business until all are finished eating. Instead of getting up I lean back, and I cough for attention, they turn to look at me. I give a weak smile, “Please don’t ask how I know. I’ve got access to an information source which I know very little about.” Rob and Dad sit up to pay a lot more attention. “Efforts are being made to make a positive ID, but I’ve got it on very good authority the man this morning is an ex KGB assassin who switched to doing general contract work when the Iron Curtain fell. Most of his work was for the Bratva. He disappeared off everyone’s radar a few years ago. His orders last night were to find documents relating to Nagumi, and to capture or kill the businessman Adams. As we know, that failed. But it shows who let the contract out doesn’t know the true situation. I want to keep it that way.” I turn to Dad, “Please have Sharon call in sick for you today, and to give no reason. I want to give the impression you’re not physically capable of doing that. Don’t answer the phone or leave the penthouse. Keep Mai and her girls safe.” He nods to show he understands.

I turn to Rob, “The dead man was best known as The Surgeon.” Both Rob and Dad look shocked. “My source on ID is Kira here, she’s his niece and assistant we took prisoner last night. She’s my newest slave, and she’s now happy to help us.” This gets surprised looks from Rob and my other guests. Rob flicks his eyes to Kira, and back to me. I give my head a small shake to indicate the topic is closed. “Dad, you and our other confined guests may like to help Sharon with her research, or they can read one of my books. Just keep the four of you out of sight when the police and work crews are around. I don’t want any spies talking about seeing any of you.” He nods again.

We break up, and start to head for our various destinations. Three guards are staying here, a few more to accompany the girls to school, Leslie will go with El, with Rob leading ten guards and two drivers in the Hummers on our trip to Washington. I let him know I’m taking Kira with me. Rob doesn’t like the idea, but he accepts my decision.

The trip to Washington, DC, goes a lot better than we expected, so we’re very early. A nice drive after we pick up Randy on the way through town. He rides in AREA 50 with Rob while Kira and I follow in AREA 51. I take the opportunity for a nap while we drive. I feel secure in the armoured vehicle with Graham driving and five guards - one in front, two with me, and two in the back. Rob has set up the guard positions as the first in the front, then the rest go centre, back, centre, back, etc. until all are in. I expect normal routine will be two or three guards. Today we’ve five, because of the concerns about what Williams will do next, due to last night’s events.

Washington

We’re nearing Washington when my cell phone rings. I answer it, “Al, John, when do you expect to reach Washington today?” I tell him we’re on the outskirts. “Good, can you detour by this address, please?” He gives me an address, which I pass on to Rob by radio.

Forty minutes later we pull up outside an office block in an area that isn’t up-market or down-market, but very middle-market. We stop, and two guards exit each vehicle, setting up a four point watch while Rob stands beside the lead vehicle. A man gets out of a very ordinary car on the opposite side of the road, and he walks over to us. He looks like a typical middle level businessman. Oh so very ordinary, too ordinary to my eyes. Rob gives a start when he sees him. Spotting Rob the man starts to head that way, then he spots the number plates, and he smiles when he turns back to my vehicle. I get out, and the three of us meet on the footpath between the cars.

The man says, “Good to meet you, Al. You do look as young as your photos show you to be.” He turns to Rob, “How are you, sergeant?”

Rob smiles, “Doing well, General, doing well. I knew taking the job with Al was the best thing I could do, but seeing you here with Al is very reassuring, Sir.”

The man turns back to me, “As you can probably guess, John is my coded title and not my name. Please continue to call me John.” I nod yes to him. “Can you and Kira join me on a visit to the middleman, I want to rattle his cage to see if we can find out who hired him.”

I smile, “Let’s go calling, he’ll tell us what we want to know. That I’m sure of, but how it’s done is something you must never tell anyone, nor even tell anyone it was done.” His eyes go wide. “Rob, please get Randy while I get Kira. John, can you get someone else from your car. I’m sure they’re watching us, and I want it to look like we’re the number twos organising the meeting of the primaries who we’re about to get from the cars.” Both of them smile, nod yes, and we all shake hands.

Fatal Errors

A moment later Rob is escorting Randy while I escort Kira, and John escorts another man when we walk into a building two doors down. The place we want is on the second floor, so we all take the stairs together. We move as an odd group with Rob as tail a few steps behind us while I’m on point a full flight ahead, with the rest making a tight foursome between us. I’d spoken to Kira before escorting her out of the car, she’s armed and very dangerous, but she’s there to protect John and Randy. I have a belt holster with two extra magazines I got from my guards.

On the second floor I see two guards flanking a door part way down the hall. I move out and down a bit. When the rest of my party arrives I move past the guards to split their attention while John walks up, and asks to speak to Grigori Vladstok. The guards flinch, because all here know him as George Vadim, and John just used his birth name.

One guard opens the door, and he speaks inside in rapid Russian. He’s still speaking when Kira unwinds like a striking cobra, she crushes his throat with her right hand as she slides a stiletto into the throat of the other guard while spitting rapid Russian into the room. We all move aside when she says, “He was telling them to set up to kill us all. I’ve told them to reconsider that order if they wish to live past the next two minutes. I also gave them a code phrase from Uncle Sergei.”

A moment later the door opens wider, and a man steps out to look at the two dead guards. He and Kira speak in very rapid Russian; to me it sounds like a heavy duty cat fight. The man nods yes, waves inside, and four men come out. Two take up guard posts while the other two put the dead on a plastic sheet to drag them down the hall, and into another room. The man nods, and Kira motions Rob and I inside to check it out.

We enter to check the room, even opening the doors to check the rooms opening off it, one has an older man sitting at a desk - flanked by two guards. I stick my head back out, and Kira enters the room, she checks our work, then signs for the rest of our people to enter. This makes it look like she’s the senior guard in our group. Rob and the man with John take up positions each side of the door to the inner office, and the rest of us walk through. I take a position by the door as Kira, John, and Randy take seats in front of the desk after moving them to the side.

Kira and the man at the desk exchange words in Russian. Kira turns to John, “He refuses to promise to answer the questions until he hears them. I’ve not yet said anything about why we’re here. He understands and speaks excellent English, but he’s trying to play games with us. They were very shocked when you gave his true name, and further shocked by my clear understanding of colloquial Russian. He has many more shocks to come, but we wait for those while you conduct your business before I get to mine, General Johnson. Yes, I recognised you.” Grigori gives her a surprised look at her recognising John, as he must be a shadow player.

John half grins, “Grigori, you recently took a contract to deal with a person in Frederick. I want to know the full details of the contract, and who wrote it. If I don’t have those answers in the next thirty seconds you will be in great trouble.”

Grigori laughs, and leans back with a sly look. I don’t like it, so I act. He’s still reclining when I bring my gun up, and yell, “Contact,” while I fire a line of bullets across the mirror behind his office bar along one side of the room. Kira reacts too, lifting her gun to shoot the two guards in the forehead. Our first two shots ring out together, the second shot is accompanied by one in the outer office, and a fourth gun on our third. I smile when the mirror glass shatters to show a room of four guards with shocked looks while dying. I’d spaced ten shots across the mirror, five missed while five hit. But I got all four guards with one round each, one got hit on each side of the neck, and he has blood spurting from both sides, a short guard took a round in the forehead, the rest hit necks.

I step forward to lean over the desk to face Grigori, “Quiet, do not move, and answer all questions with full honesty. How many guards?”

He gulps, and his hand freezes with his gun half drawn, “Twelve.”

John counts the six dead in here, and calls to his man in the outer office, they’ve got three more there, two in the office and one in sight through the door. Nine down. I say, “Twelve before or after the two we killed on arrival?” We soon learn twelve to start, so eleven down with one to go. We let Rob know. Randy is sitting there looking very pale.

I turn to him, “Sorry, Randy, we thought he’d play easy ball, but there must be more involved than we know about for him to react this way.” He gives me a weak smile as he gulps. I turn back to Grigori, “Why did you send The Surgeon out without a full brief?”

His eyes go very wide, “What has The Surgeon got to worry about from a businessman? I gave him everything the client gave me. I’d have sent another, and kept more of the money for such an easy one, but he was the only one I could reach on such short notice. The order only came through at noon yesterday.”

John laughs, “You fool, don’t you know not to trust amateur work. You sent The Surgeon out against The Prairie Dog without telling him. Now he’s dead, Prairie Dog took him down with ease.” I never knew Dad had a nickname, let alone being internationally known to that extent. I’m as surprised at this as Grigori is, but I hide it better, because he looks very shocked by this information.

Kira adds, “Does the name Stalina Smirnoff mean anything to you?” Grigori gulps, and nods yes. “She won’t be happy to learn her brother is dead because you screwed up on the brief. I believe you were partly responsible for the fuck up where her husband, Yuri Breshnya, got killed. That makes you involved in the deaths of both her men.” He gulps a lot harder, and he’s now very scared.

I jump in, “Name and address of who ordered the contract.” Not a question, an order. He tells us Paul Williams the Third, and he gives us an address. Kira writes it down. “Put your gun away. Disable all of the booby traps and recording devices in this office right now!” He gets up, and does so. “Open up all of the safes and places where confidential and important data is.” He obeys, opening two safes and three drawers. “Do you use electronic banking?” A nod yes. “Open up the five accounts with the most money.” He does, two in Switzerland, one in the Cayman Islands, one in Moscow, and one in New York. I help him set about transferring the balances to accounts Bryce set up via others in Geneva, New York, and the Cayman Islands some months back. I ask John, “Do you know of an account we can transfer money to in Moscow?” He grins while he makes a phone call, a few minutes later he’s handing us the details so Grigori is soon transferring the Moscow money.

“Grigori, roughly how much is in your other accounts?”

“About thirty thousand dollars, they’re only clearing accounts.”

“Are there any other accounts you have access to or control of?” He soon has them open. He’s very frightened when we transfer all of those moneys on. The full total is over seven hundred million dollars.

While we’re doing this Kira is transferring all of the materials from the safes and drawers into boxes for us to take with us. She even finds a document trolley in the outer office on which she stacks it all. I turn him over to John. He starts in on a long list of questions while using a tape to record it all. Rob reports back, they found and finished the last guard. I send him back to recover all of the brass and rounds we fired. Rob gulps, so Kira tells him what to finish packing while she grabs the first aid kit, and goes to do clean up. I help with the packing, and check out the rest of the files. We have it all ready to go when Kira returns with a plastic bag containing a pile of brass and bullets, she has a bullet for each casing, and checks with each of us on how many rounds we fired. She counted as she went, and we soon know she has the lot. Let forensics do what they can, they’ve no evidence to work with. No prints, because we’re all wearing latex gloves we slipped on while coming up the stairs.

John is finished with Grigori, so I tell him, “You’ll not shoot anyone else with your gun. You’ll not tell anyone about us or what we did, either in writing or verbally. Clear all of your transactions from your computer when we leave. After that you can do as you wish.” We leave, taking all of the records with us.

Downstairs we’re fast while we pack everything in the back of my car, hop into our cars, and we depart. John, Randy, and Rob join Kira and me in AREA 51 while John’s man jumps in their car. Kira and I hand the guns back, and they’re soon cleaned and reloaded. We talk on the way to the Securities Commission hearing. We agree Kira and John will stay in my car while they go through the records to sort out what needs action first. The rest of us will be at the hearing.

Hearing Games

We pull up around the corner from the Securities Commission office block where the hearing is being held in one of their conference rooms. I tell Rob to stay to keep an eye on things with the cars. He nods yes while Randy and I get out with three guards from each car accompanying us. I’ve my sunglasses on as well as carrying papers and bags for Randy, I’m looking very much like a junior clerk from his office. The guards form up around us, and we walk around the corner to the proper office block.

We arrive about half an hour early, so we set up at the tables set aside for us. Bryce is there already, so is a delegation from Nagumi, including the CEO, Mr Nagumi. There are three tables, the Nagumi group in the middle, with us on their left, and the Williams group on their right. Bryce and Randy set up with two of the guards sitting facing the panel to hear the matter, I sit on the end with my back to the other tables, just like a good junior clerk. I’ve got a couple of piles of papers on the table, and some bags beside me with more papers. All of the paperwork has ten copies, two for each of the parties plus four for the commissioners. The rest of my guards set up as a group in the general gallery, with one acting like the primary being guarded by the rest when they sit around him.

We’re ready with lots of time to spare, so are the Nagumi and the Williams groups. The Commission members walk in dead on time. The case starts with a summary of events leading up to the calling of this hearing. Williams gets to speak first, taking nearly an hour to say very little. The Nagumi contingent is next to they spend thirty minutes saying twice as much as the Williams group. They detail the purchase of the shares from Bryce, including the phone discussion. They make a point of saying they never mentioned any specific aims or intended actions after the purchase; they stick to the facts and only the facts. So far there’s nothing for the commission to hang any accusations on. Everyone expects any lies to be by these two, but they expect us to tell the truth, because we have nothing to gain by lying about the events.

Bryce gives his evidence on getting instructions from the chairman of the Trust Board about consolidating shares, and to dump the shares after Williams’ attempt to hold us up for ransom with a ridiculous price. He finishes with a straight forward account of the negotiations and sale.

Bryce submits documents to justify all of his actions, including copies of emails and the file notes on phone conversations he made. He’s well in the clear with nothing untoward at this point. It now comes down to the absurd looking actions of the AREA Trust board chairman.

Randy takes over by quoting from Maryland and US Federal laws while offering copies for the commission to read. After quoting the laws he says, “In accordance with those laws I declare the name and images of the AREA Trust Chairman of the Board are not approved for public display, and any organisation or person who makes the information public, now or at any time in the future, will be sued under those laws for one billion dollars per incident; this includes all those in the decision and the physical process of releasing the information. Should a reporter breach this we will sue the reporter, their employer, the individuals in charge of organising that report, and all of the managers to the managing director and board members. We’ll sue collectively and individually for the stated amount of one billion dollars each in every lawsuit. If an agreement is reached beforehand, and a written approval is given by my client, we will not sue anyone involved in an approved incident. But that approval will be restricted to the matter for which the approval is given, and only that matter. In light of all that we require all visual recording devices be turned off, all voice recording devices to be turned off, all court and media artists and persons not immediately involved in this matter are to leave the room. Then my client will provide evidence of their identity to the members of the panel. Such identity is not to be disclosed, and my client is to be referred to simply as Mister Chairman by all in this hearing. Any use of his personal name by anyone will be seen as a breach of the above mentioned laws, and the person will be sued, as will the provision of any information that can lead others to identify my client. Information like the names of other family members or personal details of where they now live, or did live, or were born, or educational institutions is regarded as being covered by this too.”

This causes discussion amongst all of those present. One panel member, a lawyer by trade, looks at Randy. He quotes some of the laws stated, and he says, “You’ll provide evidence this person is the chairperson of the AREA Trust, and the laws I just mentioned apply to them.” Randy nods yes while he verbally confirms he will.

Paul Williams the Fourth is in a heated discussion with his legal help when he says, in a loud voice, “What the fuck is all this, Peter Adams isn’t here. So we should have this on a slam dunk, because Area Trust haven’t met their legal obligations to the commission?” They try to shush him, and they’re having some trouble doing so.

Randy jumps in with, “I give notice to sue Mister Paul Williams for breach of the terms just stated, and I ask this panel for an order on the media present to stop them disseminating that information further. I think these legal actions take precedence, and should be dealt with before the rest of this hearing can go forward. All trading of the affected companies should be frozen until those cases, and this hearing, are properly finished.” I grin, because this may see Williams destroyed and broke before the matter is even heard, if there’s a long delay.

This causes more trouble at the Williams table, and much discussion amongst the panel. One of the Williams attorneys comes over for a quick talk with Randy. He says, “Assuming the laws you mention apply, I take it the name mentioned by my client breaches those terms?” A nod yes is his reply. “How much to settle out of court right now?”

We’d discussed what to do if this comes up, so he knows what to do. Randy smiles, “Either a cashiers cheque or your trust account cheque for five million dollars made out to me, and we sign a settlement that covers the use of that name for now, and during the rest of the hearing. Any further outbursts that provides further information will see the amount doubled per outburst, and the use of my client’s real name will cost you twenty million for an out of court settlement.” He gulps. “My client is worth close to a billion dollars, and his name isn’t publicly known. Giving that information out will severely affect his privacy and lifestyle. He wishes to squash anyone who screws him over. Save yourself a fortune, shove a gag in Williams’ mouth, and make it clear to him he’s not to say anything after this hearing is over.” The lawyer nods agreement before he goes back to his table.

More arguments erupt at their table while the rest of us sit and watch. Then Mrs Williams walks in, and she’s given an update of events. She goes white, then she spins around to slap her husband very hard.

The lawyer comes back with a cheque on his firm’s trust account. I hand Randy a prepared form for him to enter the final details. We expected this, and had it ready beforehand; in fact, we’ve four sets ready. The lawyer looks at it, and he’s surprised. Randy says, “We know about Mister Williams and his lack of control. We expected a few breaches by him. We expect a major one when my client prepares to talk. So you may want to sit on Williams.” He nods again, and he returns to his table to have the papers signed by his side. He brings them back, and we sign. He’s shocked when he sees me sign as well as Randy. I can tell when the light goes on for him. He slowly nods yes, and goes back to his table, sitting down and not saying a word.

The panel leader orders all of the extras out of the court, and all of the recorders are turned off. The only record will be the transcript by the clerk. While the people are leaving the room Randy hands up papers to the panel on the trust’s by-laws with list of beneficiaries, along with my personal ID of passport and driver’s licence. I got it before school started, but I haven’t used it as I want more practice before hitting the public roads. I enjoy watching their surprise when they read the documents, and they take in what they mean.

In a few minutes the room is cleared of all of the extras, leaving just those at the tables, the members of the panel, and the two clerks. The panel leader says, “We have seen, and accepted, the documents provided. They prove the person we are about to question is, in fact, the only person currently permitted to be the chairperson of the AREA Trust Board, that they are the person so named, and the laws previously quoted apply. So the restrictions placed on this hearing a few minutes ago by the AREA Trust counsel do apply, and are binding. We note the person who’s ID we’ve seen is in the court, and he is ready to speak on the matter. Please, Mister Chairman, tell us why you took the actions you did, and why the matter before us should be dismissed?”

I half smile while I move around the table to talk into the microphone. I see Mr Nagumi’s eyes go wide, and he smiles. Williams goes white, and he opens his mouth to speak. The lawyer who handled the settlement a moment ago grabs him with a hand over his mouth while saying, “Shut the fuck up, you stupid asshole. Just shut up.” I grin wider.

My Turn

I look at the panel, “Nearly a year ago a stupid and very rich idiotic bastard got behind the wheel of a car while drunk. This was the third time he was caught at this activity. Unfortunately he wasn’t caught until he caused a collision between his car and the one carrying my family. I was lucky, or unlucky, to be elsewhere at the time. By the time the dust of that matter was settled my worth through compensation and inheritances was over four hundred million dollars. I already had a working trust account with a business manager, because I’ve been making a good living as an author for some years. All of my assets were placed in the trust, and the manager, Bryce, was instructed to sort out the management structure by getting full control of what he can, and to dispose of what we can’t control. He started this by having all of the shares sold to the trust from the companies by paying cash, or having the owner’s equity adjusted for the companies we fully owned. He then set about buying the remaining shares for those we had a huge majority holding for. He rang me about one share holder who was asking an outrageous price for their shares in some companies. I checked the performance of those companies and shares, then I reviewed how they sat within our corporate structure as it was then. I know nothing about share trading or the share market. All I saw was some arse hole trying to rip me off while I took control of some companies that aren’t important to any part of my overall corporate structure. I had other shares in that part of the industry too. I decided, since that bastard wanted to shaft me I’d shaft him by dumping the shares to those companies on the market to depress their value. I was out to fuck him over while I make a smaller loss than if I bought his shares. I told Bryce to sell those shares along with everything else we had in that part of the market. He started to do that, and he got a good offer from someone else. He rang me back to get approval to sell those shares, and some others that weren’t part of the initial instructions. The deal would be very profitable, and we’d get shares we want in some other companies we’ve an interest in. I gave him the go ahead. He finalised the deal, and he faxed me many forms to fill in, they all related to giving him approval as my agent to trade the shares, and to spend big bucks in doing so. I gave him those approvals. I had no idea of who was involved in the deal. Due to my never having known who was trying to shaft me, or who I was making a profit from, it’s damned hard for me to have conspired with anyone to get at anyone in particular.”

One panel member asks, “When did you learn who was involved in the transactions?”

“At dinner the next night I was talking with a gentleman whose job it is to watch the market. He saw Williams eating dinner at the same place, and the conversation turned to the situation with Nagumi, and the share trading. I didn’t let him know I was involved, because it wasn’t relevant to our discussion, but it did let me in on a lot of the background to this situation. Since then I’ve had cause to be wary of Mister Williams. A few days after the share deal people broke into my corporate offices while searching for information about AREA Trust and its officers. They found information on the hotel where I stay, and my family name. A few days ago an attempt was made to kidnap me from outside the high school I attend. This prompted me to hire armed body guards. About two o’clock this morning an internationally known hired assassin was killed trying to break into my suite. The three matters are still under police investigation in their respective locations. However, one informal source has told an investigator this morning’s attempt was to get hold of all information on the Nagumi deal, and to assassinate my father to stop him from attending this hearing. My security team leader reads this as a mistake in their intelligence, because they mistook my father for my role in the matter. We don’t know who’s behind any of these acts, but the police are determined to find out.” I watch the Williams table with close attention during the criminal revelations, no surprise from Paul on the break in, but the rest surprises him as much as it surprises the rest. Interesting reactions, very interesting.

Results

A few more questions then some deliberations before the panel gives a decision the takeover can go ahead. With the decision the hearing is over. Mrs Williams is giving Paul a right telling off, because his stupid power games just cost her over thirty million dollars. We’re packing up when the panel leader warns everyone about certain aspects having to remain secret. Grabbing some papers from Randy I go to the Williams table to speak to the lawyer who gagged Williams. He’s quick to read the papers, and he notes Belle’s witnessed signature. After taking a deep breath he takes them to the arguing couple, and gets both to sign them.

They don’t even look at them. He smiles when he hands them back, and says, “Annabelle is a nice girl. How did you get involved in her life?”

“We go to the same school, and PW Five tried to clean my clock the other day. He got in a glancing blow before he hit the wall, and busted his hand. Belle helped clean my face up.” He glances at the scratches. “I thanked her, and gave her a hug. She broke down at that. It was clear to me she’s starved for affection. She knows I’ve a couple of slaves who live with me, and she asked me if I’d take her in as a slave. I didn’t want her as another slave, but I couldn’t turn her away to send her back to that hell known as the Williams House. This is the legal clean-up for her to live with me. Now I’ll see to her care in all things. She’s been staying with me for a few days, and her dear momma and papa haven’t even noticed she’s not at home.” His eyes go wide. “Only one person has noticed her absence, one of the maids. A few of the others at school have commented on how much happier and balanced she is now. She has a chance at life now, not a normal life; she never had a chance for that in that house, but a happier one than otherwise.” He smiles at me while we part. I hand the papers to Randy to finish the processing of them.