Chapter Ten-The Ultimate Compliance

Lot 27 Security room. . Khaid

I was reviewing the MetroPaul situation. The key necklace danced elegantly between my fingers.

“How shallow of him to infuse a key in a necklace that is carried around?”

“Boss, the girl refused to stop shouting. Should we knock her out?” Kael asked impatiently.

“Nahhh, there's no fun in that. Leave her” I dismissed the idea with a wave of hand.

“How cooperative is that old thing?” I twirled my chair around leisurely.

“Our consignment is on its way to the location we gave. I already put men at standby in strategic places”

“Good. You can go”

He exited and I focused my gaze on the key in my grasp. Is it white or is it a colour my eyes can't decipher. The necklace looked so familiar.

Then the red alert flickered on my private console. It wasn't the internal Level Three Threat alarm that Satera’s poor aliases triggered. This was the perimeter intrusion alert, Code 7: Passive Breach.

“Kael” I spoke into the room's command system, my voice a low, precise command.

Kael materialized within seconds. He didn't ask what I needed. He merely waited for instruction, a human guard dog perpetually ready for the scent of trouble.

“Perimeter north face. Code 7. Passive Breach. Check the sensor data.”

The main screen switched from financial projections to a live feed of the main black gate. The night was dark, illuminated only by the expensive, upward-angled floodlights hidden in the landscaping. I leaned closer, expecting a stray animal or perhaps a delivery drone that had lost its way. Then the figure came into focus. A small, dark shape crumpled at the base of the gate, one hand weakly touching the steel.

“Zoom in” I ordered.

The image pixelated for a moment before resolving with chilling clarity. It was Dalia Bluey. The black dress she was wearing earlier was rumpled, her face pale and slack with unconsciousness, and the leather bag lay lazily beside her. She hadn't returned in defiance. She had returned in collapse.

“Well” I murmured, leaning back in my chair, the absurdity of it hitting me with clinical amusement. “It seems Bluey has decided to take the ‘captive employee’ option without demanding compensation first.”

Kael looked at the screen, his expression unchanging. “Protocol is to detain and interrogate, Boss. She breached the physical boundary.”

“No. Protocol is to recognize ultimate compliance” I corrected, pressing a button that opened a comm line to the gate security booth. “She is not a threat, Kael. She is merely a kitten that ran out of stamina and collapsed on the doorstep of the nearest shelter.”

I looked at the image again. The sight of her, feverish and defeated, was more satisfying than any amount of screaming during sex or any signed contract. What amount of combined shock and exhaustion had driven her back to the one place in Belg City she truly feared?

“Retrieve her” I commanded. "She is not to be harmed. She is not to be interrogated. She is not a prisoner. She is an asset that requires immediate stabilization.”

Kael's eyebrows twitched, the closest he ever came to showing surprise. “Stabilization, Boss?”

"She is valuable, Kael. She cannot be valuable to me if she is dead. Her formula is useless without her hands to perfect the process. Get her inside. Have her stripped of that stained rag she's wearing and place her in the guest wing. The one facing the north gardens. Alert Dr. Lin. She needs to be conscious, stable, and ready”

“But boss. . You don't even take those hideous things in the vial. It's all hoarded and stored up” Kael protested.

“Watch me and do as I say”

“Understood, Boss. Guest wing. Dr. Lin.” Kael turned to leave, his massive frame already moving with predatory speed.

“And Kael” I added, stopping him at the door. “Scrutinize the leather bag before rescue. Make sure she's not a pawn in this game.”

“Noted boss” Kael bowed and took his leave.

I watched the screen as Kael's silhouette moved towards the gate with Dr. Li and two of the maids behind him. The phone I used in calling MetroPaul rang. I already knew he's the one. “Hello, who is this?” I feigned ignorance.

“Stop messing with me, Khaid. I am not five” He growled.

“Neither am I two, Paul”

I could hear his laboured breathing over the phone trying to control his rage. It's very satisfactory to my ear.

“Your consignment is at the stated location. Where's my daughter?. . .” Metropaul asked. “And the key necklace?”

“I have some advice for you, Paul.” I sat up. “Do not dare me in the future. I do not inherit enmity. Neither will I include myself in any beef you have with my father but the day you interfere in my affairs, I will show why I am the son of the man who once defeated your weak self”

★

MTP Clan

“That thing. . That brat. . . That little bastard dare speak to me in such a manner. . . Ahhhh” MetroPaul’s scream shook the entire Clan. He was in his room pacing around and fuming like a bomb about to explode.

Jerry stood on one side of the room, watching his boss display grade three of his rage. His hands clasped delicately behind his back and his breathing slow and silent for fear that he would offend the boss by just breathing.

“Why are you standing there? Go to this bastard's house and bring me his head!” MetroPaul yelled and flipped a couch. It hits the TV and everything comes crashing down in a chilling thud.

“Boss, we have to be strategic with our moves. That man. . I mean that boy is a tech guru with a lot of five star rated and high class machines and technologies forming his security. He has tons of cameras. Robots disguised as securities and aides and maids. I even heard he has a gate inside his gate and fences inside his home address fence. . . It's a wild technology defense, "boss” Jerry recounted.

MetroPaul faced him. His eyes blazing like an inferno. His veins dancing ballet inside his skin and his eyes shone like a thousand galaxies in desperation. “So, what are you saying? That I can't get his head? That I will go through what I went through with his father with him again? Is that what you are telling me?”

Within the speed of light, He has his fist around Jerry's neck. He pushed him against the wall and increased the force on his neck. “You can as well die if you are going to be useless”

“Boss. .I. . Please. . .” Jerry pleaded breathlessly. His eyes were losing vision and his breath already got caught his throats. He held onto MetroPaul's hands pleading for mercy. His body jerked in defense but his boss didn't bulge.

“I have someone. . .I know of a. . . person. He can. . carry out the. .job” He stuttered. Knowing that is his last change at living. MetroPaul released his neck and he fell on the floor in a heap like a jute sack.

“You better start speaking or you might as well be on your way to hell!” He yelled, lighting his pipe and crashing on his customized lion-shaped chair.

“Wait for me, Khaid. I will shred you into tiny pieces and grind your remains into dust. Your father. . Your father will feel the crust of grief gnawing his insides and you, you will scream your veins out” MetroPaul smirked.