Welcome, dear reader!!

Get yourself ready for a short but eventful journey to the city of Amela, where someone wants more money, someone has the means to help him, and an innocent someone is in danger because of these two…

It was 11:47 pm. As he stared at the clock, he nodded to himself.

“Time to make that call.”

He picked up the phone, and calmly scrolled through the call log. Finding the number he was looking for, he pressed the call button and held the phone to his ear.

The dial tone sounded twice, and in the middle of the third beep, the recipient answered the phone.

“Hello?” a scruffy-sounding voice answered.

“Yes, good evening. This is Mr. Nathan. I’d like to confirm the deal.”

A brief pause followed. “Umm, Mr. Nathan? I don’t seem to remember…”

“Nathan Dixon, Mr. Kiros, Nathan Dixon. We met last week Monday, around 9:30.”

“Oh yessss! Yes, yes, yes, I remember now… yes, sir. I must confess, though, I thought for a moment you weren’t interested after our conversation last week.”

A silent laugh over the phone to that statement followed, then Nathan answered, “Chief, once it has something to do with the possibility of making more money and getting protection, I will always be interested.”

“Oh, uh, ok, sir. Forgive me. I was just distracted by the tone and all…”

“Forget about that,” Nathan said sharply. “It’s time to talk business now. So the proposal is still available, right?”

“Y-yes, sir. Most definitely. My men have been tracking a particular target for a couple of days now, ever since our first talk. If you’re ready, we can get to work as early as tomorrow.”

“Oh, that soon?”

“Yes. It won’t be any major hustle. Today is Tuesday, right? You can come around on Friday morning with the money.”

“Oh, excellent. That would be fantastic,” Nathan said passionately, obviously very pleased with how speedy the process sounded. This would be much faster than he had initially anticipated.

“Yes… umm, so the amount we agreed on, does it stand?”

“Yes, yes, seventy thousand. I’ll have the briefcase handy when it’s time.”

“Oh, okay, okay. That’s good. Umm, and just to clarify, I can execute straight away, right? Because that’s the normal standard around here.”

“No. I’d like to see the target for myself before you get to do the main work.”

“Hmmm… I see. Not many customers make that sort of request. Just a few do, but… it’s not regular.”

“Well, I’m a different breed. I do my business differently. Any problem with that?”

“No, sir, not at all. The first time we met, I could tell you were something else. No problems at all. Now that you’ve confirmed the deal, I’m going to get to work on it straight away.”

“Good! So I’ll be expecting your call once the target has been acquired.”

“Not a problem at all, sir. You shall hear from me by this time tomorrow.”

“Excellent. Thank you very much. Good night.”

He placed the phone on the coffee table and crossed his legs as he smiled, speaking to himself.

“Perfect. Shouldn’t be too long till I get what I need.”

***

Kiros put down the phone and shook his head.

From the moment he first met with this man, he knew he would be a different kind of client. He had a forcefulness about him, fueled by a clear love for money. And a penchant for wanting things done his way. For whatever reason, he seemed to be the type who wanted to go against the status quo and stand out.

But hey, this was a man who apparently owned great hectares of land and a number of fancy residential apartments, could you blame him for that? Such rich men sometimes acted like that: bossy and pushy. Especially when it came to money matters. It was more than likely this man did things the cutthroat way, so he acted like that toward everyone.

Anyways, this was a business transaction. Mr. Nathan sounded more than ready to fulfill his end of the deal. So it was time to do his part.

Time to get the assignment to his henchmen.

“Moyo! Keti!” he called.

No response.

He called again. “MOYO! KETI!”

Still no response.

He shook his head. “They’re probably asleep,” he muttered to himself as he rose from his chair and walked out of his office and onto the corridor, as he headed for their room.

***

Entering Henchmen Room 1, which was a brief walk down the corridor from his office, he found them.

Sprawled out on their bunk bed, fast asleep.

Moyo and Keti. His two most trusted henchmen, and the ones assigned to carry out the major tasks of the Villa.

He shook his head in disgust as the bushy-haired one at the top snored loudly. “Ugh. Moyo and his stupid snores,” he grumbled.

He clapped loudly and yelled, “MOYO! KETI!”

The two men sprang up from their beds, Moyo literally hopping off his bed at the top onto the ground. “Boss!”

Kiros shook his head as the two men, clad in nothing but their boxers, stood before him, looking ready to spring into action. “Happily making use of your nights off, aren’t you?”

Moyo sheepishly grinned and nodded. “I guess so…”

“Yeah. It would’ve been nicer if I didn’t have to deal with his guy snoring like a maniac,” Keti muttered, more to himself than to Kiros or Moyo. “Took me almost 45 minutes to fall asleep…”

“Man, shut up!” Moyo snapped at him. “You dunno what you’re talking about. I do not snore.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Do NOT…”

Kiros clearing his throat was enough to put an end to that silly little exchange between the two. They quickly apologized, heads down with their hands behind their backs as he glared at them.

If these two henchmen of his weren’t super effective at completing the tasks given to them, he’d have thrown them out a long time ago. They just could not go a day without arguing and having a go at each other. If you ever sought to find Tom and Jerry in human form, they were the ones you’d be looking for.

“Keti! The target you spoke of the last time. Is he still around?” he sharply asked.

Keti immediately raised his head. “Yes sir, he’s still around.”

“He still uses the regular routes you know of?”

“Yes sir, as always.”

“Good. So that means we can swoop in tomorrow?”

Keti paused for a moment, then shook his head. “No sir, he’s usually not available on Wednesdays. Our best bet would be to go after him on Thursday; that’s a definite.”

Kiros stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. “Okay then. Thursday will be perfect, anyways. So get in touch with Yusa in the morning and let’s get to work on it, alright?”

“Yes sir!” the two bare-chested men in front of him responded loudly.

Kiros nodded with pleasure. That was why he kept them, they knew how to carry out the tasks he gave them, and they never disappointed him.

“Good. You can return to your rest now,” he said as he turned to exit the room.

As his henchmen jumped onto their beds, he called out, “Yes, and Moyo. Do something about your snoring. It’s terrible.”

He closed the door, shaking his head more in amusement than annoyance as he heard Keti gloat in victory, much to the chagrin of Moyo.

“What efficient idiots I have,” he snickered to himself as he walked back to his office. “Super efficient, but good lord, they’re some squabbling twats. But yeah, I know they’ll get the job done. And they’ll get this one done, for sure…”

Is this some trafficking ring or something? Coz the amounts involved and the targets…