Chapter 1

Octavio, a shrewd businessman who was ready to get involved in any business provided it wasn’t legal. He always thought legal was boring. Average height and bulky, his face was always clean shaved as he claimed it made him look younger.

Legally, he was into the sales of modern artworks and ceramics. On the side, he ran a smuggling ring and underground sales of rare objects. His latest job was to source for a collection of rare artifacts for a buyer he often referred to as the Collector whom to Octavio, was a regular as they had done several businesses over the years.

Octavio and his men waited patiently for their buyers. He pulled out a cigar and sniffed at it the whole time - maybe it was some source of inspiration, no one could tell.

A couple moments later, a number of black jeeps stopped at the entrance of the trade venue. It was all dark as it was night already, so the vehicles belonging to both parties had their headlights on. A good number of men came off the black jeeps and waited for their leader to step out from his vehicle before making their way to the spot where Octavio and his crew stood.

“And here they are” Octavio said with arms outstretched in a welcome gesture. “Welcome Victor”.

“Hello Octavio.” the leader of the buying team, Victor replied and bowed as a sign of courtesy.

Victor had an intimidating look. He was a direct opposite of Octavio. He was much taller and almost perfectly built. He wore a tattoo on his right cheek to conceal a scar from a bullet wound.

"There is your money." said Victor as he ordered a mean looking man to drop two black bags to the ground inbetween both parties "We will like our cargo now."

"Ah yes" replied Octavio. "I'll just get-"

"Not you. Someone else should" Victor cut in. He held a cold gaze at Octavio, who understood the intention and smiled warmly.

"Trust...must be hard to come by these days." Octavio lamented.

"Don't get me wrong, my boss trusts you, I don't."

"No offense taken. It's quite normal." Octavio replied, then he signalled for the cargo to be brought forward and two of his men retreated almost immediately towards a parked vehicle behind them.

He was no stranger to distrust. In this line of business, it was a powerful weapon every party wielded including him. Although he was a great actor and had mastered the act of concealing it. You couldn’t pick anything from his speech, tone or body movement, but as the saying goes; everyone has got that day.

The atmosphere was tensed up. Both parties had come fully armed and who could blame either. It was a deal that could go either way. Victor thought it all felt wrong, he noticed sweat drops formed on the forehead of some of Octavio's men, eyeballs rolled in their sockets on immobile faces, scanning and monitoring every bit of the scene for the smallest movement and they all had their hands at ready positions to grab their weapons if need be.

At the time, Octavio wore a flat smile which confirmed Victor's suspicion that something was definitely wrong.

"You know it doesn't seem fair...to me. After all these years of doing business together, I'm yet to know my real contact, the Collector. And this, which happens to be our biggest deal, he sends a representative again." Octavio finished with a click of his tongue.

Victor arched the corner of his lip a little to form a faint smile "its not really necessary but-" He held back the rest of the sentence. He thought 'this might be it'. A statement like Octavio's never came from a heart with good intentions.

Octavio looked expectantly, waiting for Victor to finish his statement but Victor retained his silence.

"Not like I'm trying to poke nose, but this meeting he..., your boss ditched our deal for-"

"I never made mention of any meeting." Victor cut in.

Octavio clicked his tongue again. He had the look of someone who was caught right in the middle of a mischief. And of course he was. Although he had mastered this act and could pull off looks without giving out anything, today seemed different. For whatever reason he just couldn't just get into character and now he was an open book from which Victor read freely.

"Sorry I usually take it upon myself to keep tabs on my clients. You should know better. I hope you understand... Its just business." Octavio said, and then he nodded towards one of the men on Victor’s team.

Victor immediately docked as a bullet flew past him and caught one of Octavio's men in the chest, knocking him out.

The venue for the deal was a warehouse section of an abandoned private port acquired by Octavio and serverd this very purpose. It was his home turf, his trade center for such off-record deals such as this and he had a good record here.

Excellently built and standing at about thirty feet, with most of the steel racks still in position and the office positioned strategically at one far end which oversaw the warehouse, thereby providing a general oversight of the venue. From the moment the buying team came in, Victor had noticed the office structure and placed a marker on it since it posed a good position for a sniper as the negotiation spot was a hundred percent in its view. One couldn't be more careful about such places.

The warehouse was all metal except for the materials used in construction of the office section which looked like they had seen better days and quite oddly, a large partially covered glass which rested on one of the racks.

Victor also noticed the glass when they walked in and it provided a view of his team from the negotiation spot so he often glanced at it from time to time to keep everyone in check. He had already seen the gunman prior to the shooting. The gunman had a few times exchanged glances with Octavio and made suspicious movements so that when he pulled the gun, Victor saw him in the glass and docked.

To the others, Victor must have been a super human but it was just the glass.

The resulting gun battle was a nightmare. The shooter was gunned down almost immediately by one of his fellows close by. Bullets flew in every direction and as everyone tried to run for cover, they shot at each other and docked when possible. An escort shielded Victor while two others fired at random targets to provide some cover until he was safe in his bullet proof vehicle.

Octavio ran straight for his vehicle in the heat of the gunfire. It was the same vehicle that the duo had gone to retrieve the cargo earlier. He drove off leaving the gun battle behind. When he arrived at his fortress, his vehicle had some scars from the battle he just escaped.

The vehicle came to a stop and a handful of armed guards hurried towards it. Octavio alighted and barked orders at the guards to return to their positions and asked for more men to be stationed at the gate. He thought if he was followed, they should be on guard to ward off the adversary. Although it was almost unlikely to happen since he couldn't recall seeing any headlights trailing him on his way back.

He rushed to the rear of the vehicle and flung the trunk of the vehicle open only to find it empty. Octavio sat on the ground with his hands on his head. He looked completely drained.

Back at the warehouse, the fighting was over and calm was restored with dozens of lifeless bodies littered all over. The buying party was victorious and had begun to remove every trace of their presence at the scene. Of the seventeen gunmen that came with the buying team for the deal, there were just five of them left alive and Victor himself, making them six.

"I think we should be on our way." one gunman said to the Victor, who waved him off.

"Not yet. Look around again and make sure we're clear." Victor ordered.

He stepped out of the vehicle and made his way though the corpses. He turned over those that lay face down and in the process recognised one of the men sent to retrieve the cargo among them. But the other was nowhere to be found.

One gunman saw a trail of blood from behind one of Octavio's team vehicle and alerted Victor who followed it into the empty office and behold his prize was there, much more than he expected; both the cash and the cargo.

Octavio's hitman bled from a fatal bullet wound at the upper part of his belly and another bullet had pierced his lungs which caused him to wheeze with each breathe.

"What do we do with this one boss?" One of the gunmen asked and lifted the man's face with the nuzzle of his gun.

"We leave him in here." Victor said and tapped the gunman's shoulder "we got what we came for, I don't think its nice to take more. Moreover this man is in need of help. It'll be wrong not to let him get a shot at it."

One of Victor's men picked a cellphone off a dead guy and tossed it to the dying man, while the crew left with everything they came for.