ONE WEEK CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The whole world was in an uproar over what was being broadcasted, after all, Andrew wasn’t just a small timer. He was among the top three richest men in the world, and this wasn’t just based on business alone, since there were some kings of some nations who were wealthy, but Andrew ranks above them. If it was based on businesses alone, Andrew had long occupied the first position for a long time and was stably there with no competitor at all. Even the former richest family in his nation during their prime were not able to come close to his current wealth, that’s to show how wealthy he currently is.

Some were happy over the fact that Andrew has been abducted, while some were sad, some didn’t care at all. It was the nature of the world after all. But some people were currently worried, and that included Lucious and his business partners who were currently in an online meeting.

“How can you say it isn’t under your jurisdiction? We all thought you were the one who gave the order and was pleased with your works already”, the former family members who had been praising him were currently berating him, he didn’t say anything in retort though and just sat there, he knew the shouts would only intensify if he were to say any word. “Have you tried using your connections to find out where those thugs took him?”, another asks with a calm expression. “I have tried, they are still trying to dig up who those people are”, Lucious says in reply.

“We would try from our ends to find out who is responsible, and we will crush them. We can also use this opportunity to take care of that kid once and for all”, another says. They all agreed and the meeting was cut short as they all disconnected.

Lucious laid back in his seat, in just an hour, he has been exhausted more than he have been since he was given birth. He thinks back to when he was average in wealth hustling every day to provide. But then his family was happy and didn’t have to go through this stress. He was suddenly elevated in his family over and over again. Although he knew he came from this family, that didn’t mean that everyone was rich and he didn’t have any hope of entering the top table. But this all came to him rapidly and people whom he didn’t know supported him.

But looking now and before, he knew that he was distant from his wife, he had made his love for money rub off on his son, since his son was trying to prove his worth to him, he had done various things that he should have never done. He sighs lightly, but that was when a call comes in. Looking at the phone, it was his connection whom he sought to search for the whereabouts of Andrew. He quickly answers the call and a voice from which fear could be felt sounds out at this moment, “Which kind of existence did you send me to search for?”, the man on the other end asks. “Huh, why are you asking that? Have you found him”, Lucious asks the man.

“All of them... all of them”, the voice sounds out trembling, seemed like it just went through a trauma. “What are you trying to say?”, Lucious was getting annoyed at what this person was trying to say. “All of my men have been wiped out. Even their bodies cannot be found. Don’t ever call me again”, the man screams before ending the call. Lucious was shocked by what the man said, he first didn’t understand his words.

But that didn’t last long as another call came in. Same from his connection whom he asked to find out the whereabouts of Andrew. The same thing happened on their end and he said a similar thing as the first guy same as the first, before ending the call. Calls after calls came in and this shakes up Lucious as all of them told him the same thing. One hadn’t called him though, so he took the liberty to call the person, as it was a close friend of his. The call was answered and Lucious quickly says, “Stop going after Andrew. Quickly stop”.

“Ohhhh”, a voice sounds out from the other side which shocks Lucious, he didn’t recognize the owner of this voice, hence he removed the phone from his ear to check if he had dialed the right number, and it was indeed the right one.

“Where is the owner of the phone? Can you please pass it over to him”, Lucious says politely.

“Erm, I can’t right now”, the voice sounds out. “Why can’t you? I want to talk to him”, Lucious almost screams. “Well, since you are asking. That’s because the owner of the phone is currently about to the killed”, the voice says and at the next moment, a gunshot was heard which almost deafens Lucious. It almost seemed like the gun was shot in his ear and he quickly drops the phone out of shock and reverberation.

After getting through the sound in his ear, Lucious laid back again on his chair, this time he wasn’t thinking about the old days, he was wondering what he has gotten himself into and who these newcomers were that were disrupting his plans, this plan that has been made over years, and various simulations have been made on it so that it could be perfected.

It seemed like someone, somewhere was mocking him. But that wouldn’t be all as the Andrew whom everyone was looking for and whom the whole world has judged to have been kidnapped was currently sitting down, eating apples in a room. The chairs were being arranged in this room like it was a round table and Andrew was seated at the head, various people were seated and none said a word. Only the sound of Andrew eating apples was being heard as we go back his memory lane to when shots were being fired in his cell.

The lock to the cell was being broken by the shots and the door was open. Andrew calmly walks out of the cell and says, “I didn’t want things to get to this stage. Why don’t people understand how peace-loving I am?”. The armed men didn’t dare say any word in reply and it seemed like they had their heads bowed in reverence to Andrew.

“What should we do to these cops?”, one of the armed men asks. Andrew just looks at the cops dully. They were part of the cops who had initially mocked him. After a few seconds of staring, Andrew says blandly, “Kill them”. The cops were about to say something, probably to plead, but it was too late as they were killed.

“What should we do now boss?”, another of the men asks. “Did you take out the cameras on your way in?” Andrew asks. “Yeah, we did. Except the one at the front though”, another replies. “That’s perfect then. I am going to give that fool a way to verify all the facts he has gathered up until now”, Andrew says. “Hmm?”, the men didn’t quite understand what Andrew was trying to say. “We are going to make it look like a kidnapping case”, Andrew clarifies their thoughts. “You are going to put a mask over my head and drag me towards the vehicle like I have been hit unconscious and take me away”, Andrew says with a devilish expression on his face.

The men were shocked, before the one who seemed to be the leader said, “We wouldn’t dare.....”, but he was cut short by Andrew who replies with an icy tone, “I wasn’t asking for your permission, I am telling you what you should do with no questions asked”.

The moment Andrew says those words, they did not dare dawdle anymore as they quickly carried out his orders and they moved away. Their acting was so on point that it seemed like they were Oscar’s winning actors.

And that was how we got here, very precise and short. There were two empty seats present in this place, it seemed weird that the head of a meeting was here before the rest, but since the head didn’t say anything, nobody dared to say anything either. It was at this moment that the door was open, and two men came in at this moment. One seem older than Andrew and one seem to be in his teens, but had a sharp look, probably he has gone through some things.

The man who seems mature than Andrew took an empty seat by the side and the young teenager who was about to sit down noticed that someone was at the head seat which hasn’t been occupied for years since being a part of this organization. This man seem too carefree as he was currently eating apples without a care in the world. The mature man after coming in, sat down and didn’t say a word like the other men, fully quiet waiting for Andrew to say something. The teenager on the other hand felt somehow seeing that man over there sitting down. He knew that the man close to him was the second in command of this organization, the whereabouts of the head unknown, and nobody had raised any suggestion of making the mature man close to him the head. The day he brought up the suggestion during a meeting, he was quickly shunned and even the mature man wrote him down and told him never to repeat such words. The mature man happened to be his biological father, who has been running this organization for a long while now. He was angry that the head happens to be this man, of course, he knew the true identity of this man. Andrew, who was one of the top richest men in the world, and who had lost his brother recently. He had quickly judged that this man was weak and wasn’t fit to be the head as if it has been his father, such a thing wouldn’t have occurred in the first place.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Well, this was the most notorious organization in this part of the continent, the smilers who have their hands stretched over various countries. Their powers were unfathomable, and the head whom they had been searching for was Andrew. If the whole world knew this, they would be dumbfounded, as there were no criminal records attached to Andrew’s file. Even the recent crimes laid against him were unbelievable, but that didn’t change that there was proof and his arrest has been guaranteed.

Soon, Andrew was through eating all the apples, he turns towards the mature man before he says, “You are late, Williams”. The mature man turns out to be the same Williams from when they were kids, it was a surprise that he was still alive until this point, and he was the second in command of this popular organization. One can’t help to wonder how they were able to get to this position where they currently are.

“Sorry, Andrew”, he replies with his head bowed. “You know I hate waiting for people", he pauses which almost causes Thomas to start sweating profusely, before he continues, "But I would overlook this because it has been a long while since I have been here. How long has it been? Probably ten years huh?”, Andrew says with a nostalgic expression on his face like he was thinking about the good old days. “Thanks, Andrew”, Williams says not daring to retort.

“Well then, we should start this meeting up. Don’t tell me that even with that last help I rendered you, you weren’t able to figure out what I wanted you to”, Andrew says. “Of course, I was able to dig up all the information you wanted”, Williams replies. “That’s good then. Although I have my guesses, I want to know the truth from you”, Andrew says with a nonchalant expression.

“The people behind this plot are the Boxos family. They feel like you shouldn’t be where you are right now, they want you dead, but they are doing it the roundabout way since they want to usurp all your wealth and...”, Williams was suddenly interrupted by Andrew, “They are good enough to be called small fries. I want to know who dared to take the contract to carry out such an operation”.

Seeing his father being interrupted causes the young teenager by the side to be angry. Nobody has dared interrupted his father or warned him rudely like this, his father has always been the one doing such. And it was rare to have such a meeting where all the top brass of the organization were physically present. Most of their meetings were usually done online using a secure network. But now, they are all gathered here, most probably flew over from different parts of the world they were stationed in.

Williams was silent for a while before he replies, “It’s James”. “Ohhohh”, Andrew sounds out while rubbing his chin. “That I didn’t expect. I thought he had died since he didn’t say or do anything for a long while, but seems like he is still alive”, he continues, “Is he still in the country then?”.

“Yes, his location has been confirmed”, Williams replies. “Hmm”, Andrew just sits back and stare into blank space for a while, at which there was absolute silence that one would be able to hear a pin drop. Some of the top brass even started sweating probably from nervousness.

“Since I am back, I guess I should go loud”, Andrew starts. Those words cause everybody to be shocked. They all thought the same thing, ‘This is bad. He is back’. Andrew suddenly sits upright before he continues, “Pass down my order. Seal off the entire country. Let me show them that this is my domain. Announce to the whole world that Kelizo is back. They have awoken the sleeping tiger. I have hibernated long enough”. These words shocks everybody, but nobody said anything apart from the impulsive teenager in their midst who quickly stood up and said, “How can you order the country to be sealed off? It’s just like announcing to the world that you are here. You would be endangering us all, just because of your revenge....”, he wasn’t able to continue his words though as all of the top brass had their guns pointed at him, if he said any more words, it was sure that he would be dead, he gulps hard seeing himself in such a situation. Even the ones he thought he had made friends with were pointing guns at him just because of this man who sat at the head, who has been missing for a long while, not seeming to have cared about if the organization was functioning properly or not.

“This is your child right?”, Andrew asks with a smile on his face. Williams's hands were tightened underneath the table, but he answered, “Yes, he is”. “I like his guts. But do tell him not to repeat such a mistake. He won’t live to complete his first sentence”, Andrew says before walking away.

“I want to see my orders carried out. Block out every escape route. Cut off every flight, vehicle, or ship movement. Nobody leaves or enters this country. I would uproot all those who had the guts to plan against me. They would feel my wrath. None of them would live past today”, he continues while walking away with a swagger. This was totally different from the public figure whom everyone has known as Andrew.

The moment Andrew left the room, almost all the top brass starts breathing heavily like they have been afraid to breathe when Andrew has been around. Williams’ son, on the other hand, sits down quietly on his chair, not daring to say another word. Another meeting was carried out to ensure the full enforcement of Andrew’s orders.

An hour later, that early morning, the orders of Andrew were fully enforced. Nobody could transport anything whether locally or internationally. The influence of the Smilers organization was so deep and far that nobody dared to ignore the orders, and those who have stayed long in the underworld knew who Kelizo was and the kind of havoc he wrecked in time past. They were more shocked that he was alive and that he was the leader of the Smilers organization. It immediately went on all news.

Lucious who was facing the worse of his life at this moment happens to switch on the news and saw the latest gist. He starts wondering what kind of influence this Kelizo had to be able to order such a thing, and how manage he had never heard of him from anyone since he came to power in this family, even his secret sources didn’t have any record of who he was.

‘Is it possible that this Kelizo is secretly helping Andrew? But if that is the case, why would he be kidnapped? Or was it just a cover-up?’, he was about to think through the possibility of such before he starts getting calls from his business partners. All talking about how dangerous the mess he has gotten them into was. They were all telling him to surrender himself and pin all the blame on himself. If he did that, they would take care of his family members and make sure they were well-to-do.

He suddenly aged at this moment. Not fully understanding what was going on. How manage the name of a single person caused them to be this way? Why should he surrender himself? What really was going on in the underground world?

For the first time since assuming this position, he felt like he was a frog in the well. Not knowing anything about this country he was currently in.