HA2 23.1 – Unexpected Call
As soon as the train arrived, Hide and Takeo immediately got in. It was Sunday so the whole train was almost empty. Hide and Takeo only found a mother and her kid in the train they entered.
As soon as they sat in a corner, Takeo immediately started a conversation. “Is it okay for both of us using same broker to get our second ID?”
“Paolo will find the connection between us even if he carries the background check only on one of us,” Hide calmly replied.
Takeo instantly creased his left brow. “How so?”
“Elven Robotics,” Hide calmly replied. “He will also recognize it’s only a paper company we create to make an impression that we are hired and get paid by it.”
“I almost forget about it and the digital trace it has.” Takeo taking a deep breath before asking another question, “What will we tell him if Paolo ask why we need a second ID?”
‘That’s what I want to tell you before we meet him,’ Hide muttered before explaining, “You want to help your parent pay their debt. I want to have medical studies overseas. And so, we steal money from rich jerk’s credit card, 5000 Dillar for each jerk to be precise.
Then, we use the money to buy custom RC toys and sell it online through third party. But now, we decide to sell the toy and receive the payment through our second ID.”
“Will he believe this last minute made-up story?” Takeo curiously asked.
“It doesn’t matter he believe it or not. As long as he’s sure we don’t bring any harm, he will arrange a meeting with ID maker,” Hide calmly replied. “Paolo also won’t know the detail of our second ID.”
“What if he asks about the third party we use to sell RC toys?”
“He won’t ask it because we have no obligation to tell him the detail of our trade.”
“I see.”
After a moment of silence Hide added, “If Paolo agrees to help us, he will ask us to wait for 2-3 weeks and use this time span to run a background check on us. He will also tail us a few times.
Therefore, when we go to the workshop, we will go together, through subway maintenance network with entrance point 5-6 km from Chikara Tower, and fully turn off our cellphone.”
“Is Paolo very good at tailing people?” Takeo curiously asked.
Hide firmly replied, “He is not only good at stalking people, but also very dangerous.”
“He is only a former IT guy. Isn’t he?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Tell me what I miss,” Takeo eagerly said.
“It’s a long story.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“We have lots of time and I really want to know.”
“Okay.” After pausing for a moment Hide started the story.
Paolo got arrested for credit card manipulation when he was 19-year-old. At that time Italica military was about to start a program to form a signal squadron that could assist a team of tier one unit from close vicinity when this team was sent to carry black ops in hellhole. Paolo joint this program to avoid jail time.
The first two years of hellish training turned Paolo into an expert of small arms, multiple language speaker, hand-to-hand combat, urban stalking, lock picking, and analog intelligence gathering, while the last two shaped his IT and hacking skill to accommodate the state of the art net-centric equipment he would operate.
Out of 16 candidates, only Paolo and the other five completed the program. This team then received codename Sofa Team Six. It did excellent assist for countless black ops, and even performed several cover for high-risk retreats without losing its member.
Unfortunately, a powerful figure in Italica administration secretly used Sofa Team Six to gather information that enabled him to have leverage in politics and business deal. Sometimes he would even send the team to carry out an assassination being masked as accident. It then led to the liquidation of Sofa Team Six dishonorably. Paolo entered private sector after that.
After taking a deep breath Hide closed his explanation, “Instead calling him a former IT guy, it’s more fit to call Paolo a professional killer with hacking skill set and mindset.
Back then, I managed to stalk him until he arrived at Bill’s place, and then put him and Bill unconscious because I knew him and Bill well, while they knew nothing about me and fully unprepared.”
Takeo nodded and said in solemn tone, “I see.”
Silence then envelope the two as they enjoyed the rest of the journey by contemplating in silence.
---
Every week Paolo took his day off at Sunday. On this day, his daughter would handle the pasta shop for the whole day. Meanwhile, he would spend the first half of his day for high-speed walk. The route was simple. He would just circle the neighborhood around his pasta shop, but he would do it for four hours straight at 6 km/h.
Paolo just made a turn at a corner when his cellphone suddenly rang. He didn’t recognize the number but it was not new thing for him, so he stopped his walk and took the call.
“Paolo, here.”
[Please check the plastic bag on your left.]
Paolo instantly turned his gaze to the only plastic bag on his left. It’s a normal plastic bag, stuffed to the brim, and lay motionlessly next to a garbage dump. However, he couldn’t help but recalled a bad memory as his eyes was fixed on it.
“No thanks,” Paolo firmly replied. “Last time I checked a plastic bag on a side of a road, it almost blew me into pieces.”
[Dude, we are not in Suriya.]
“I know, but I offend lot of nasty people, who know if they want to settle some score.”
[If I want to kill you, you will already lay motionlessly on the side of the road right now. Just checks the bag when I ask you nicely.]
‘Fuck.’ Paolo cursed before heaving of a deep sigh, and then he went to check the plastic bag.
As his heart rate went faster, Paolo opened the plastic bag. He couldn’t help but had presumption he would see an artillery shell with some cables, but all he found was only a stack of Treasury bond. Paolo instantly took a deep breath full of relief, and then resumed the conversation with the unknown caller.
“What do you want me to do with a stack of Treasury bond? I’m just an owner of pasta shop.”
[Let’s cut the chit chat. Ask Morris Abram to liquid it, and tell her to use it for humanitarian effort in Avrika.]
“If you know my financial contact in Bermuda,” Paolo casually said. “I presume you also know she will need your identity and the summary on how you get the bond.”
[Normally, that’s the case, but not when the money is used for humanitarian effort. She won’t care who handed over the bond or who the original owner was. And just so you know, Morris is the only humanitarian organizer I can trust.]
“It seems you know her personally.”
[Not personally, she hired me to escort humanitarian convoy a few times. So, I know her work is real deal. I also worked with you once even if we had not met until the operation end.]
Big question mark instantly popped up on Paolo’s forehead, “When and where?”
[2019, long highway that connected Lebunon and Suriya, my team was tasked to provide long range sniper over watch for humanitarian convoy that would pass this highway. We took position on the ridgeline.]
Paolo instantly fell into reminiscent. He remembered the mission very clearly. It was his first mission after he entered private sector. That day, every party-with-interest had agreed to let the humanitarian convoy to pass through untouched.
Until someone decided that it’s a good day to break the agreement, and sending jamming and coordinated assault on both the convoy and sniper over watch. Fortunately, Paolo managed to recover the communication before it was too late.
[If you didn’t recover our coms, no one would know what had happened to us or provide counter battery to save our ass.]
“How many KIA we suffered from opposing mortar?”
[Seven, including my team leader, a former Jarhead Scout Sniper, a stern but very reliable dude, especially in a life and death situation.]
“Seem you were really there.”
[I was.]
Paolo paused as he recalled that until this moment the detail of the incident had never been mention in any media. People only remembered it as one of many versus contact between local groups in the area.
“Can you come to my pasta shop?” Paolo asked with gentle tone. “Allow me to treat you a nice meal.”
[I want to, but in a few hours I have to carry a job in Golden Triangle.]
“Well, in that case please have no worry about the bond.” Paolo was very disappointed that he lost a chance to have a chat with someone he considered an old friend, but he tried his best to not show it. “However, when you return to Nikko later, please come over to my place.”
[I will, and thanks for the help.]
“It’s my pleasure.”
After he ended the call, Paolo immediately took the bond and went straight home to his pasta shop. All the way he was in good mood. He was even humming softly.
*****