“That I can do.” Queenie made a quick phone call. “Good morning, Kenny... yes, I know it’s early but I have some potential donors that would like to examine the studios... 5:30 today? Let me check.”
Queenie saw heads bobbing in agreement. “5:30 is good. See you then.” She clicked off her phone. “That’ll be the end of the business day, and after that we can have a celebratory dinner.”
“Noah,” Byron said, “I just want to confirm that I am not wasting my time. If we’re in, you’re in. Is that right?”
“Yes and no… Even if you’re not in, the Chad Huang Foundation is still good to go.”
“And we can cement this by end of today?”
“That’s why I’m in New York.”
Chapter 23
After Byron, Jeff and Leonard left the boardroom, Noah, Olivia and Queenie stayed to conference.
“Should I bring Abby tonight?” asked Olivia.
“Definitely. Did you see those old lechers staring at you and me? Sex sells and the more sex, the better,” snickered Queenie.
“What about JJ?” asked Noah.
“Is he part of your package, Noah? None of those guys are gay so if we don’t need him, just leave him be. He’d be a distraction,” said Queenie.
“You seem a little testy, Queenie,” remarked Noah.
“That a-hole Byron said I looked like a whore. So what do you think he’ll say about JJ?” Queenie spat out vehemently. “I hate dealing with guys like the Manhattan Investors Syndicate. They know they’ve got me over a barrel.”
“You want a lot of money, Queenie. They’re just being careful,” said Olivia, trying to calm not only her but Noah, who she knew felt the same way.
Queenie slapped the table hard. “Do you want me to grovel? Well, I won’t. Period.”
Olivia inhaled, then addressed Noah. “If they dropped out, would you do it on your own?”
“I’d have to think about it. It’s more than a hundred times what we normally commit and I would feel more comfortable not doing it by ourselves,” said Noah.
“Could you at least consider it?” appealed Olivia.
“Don’t push it, Olivia.”
Outside the Devonshire, Queenie made a call.
“Hello,” said Chin.
“I need seventy-five million dollars fast,” said Queenie.
“I don’t have that kind of cash to commit.”
“It’s a temporary loan. I will give it back.”
“I still don’t have it.”
“What am I going to do then? Noah’s waffling. He won’t guarantee handing out the cash unless I have someone willing to kick in something as well.” Queenie then gave a summary of the meeting and repeated the brief conversation between Noah, Olivia and herself.
Queenie endured moments of tense silence before Chin uttered, “You have learned valuable information. The money is accessible. Work with that. If you are hunting elephants, use an elephant gun.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“If the situation says you should take no prisoners, you need to have prisoners to start with. And the more valuable the prisoners, the more likely you will get what you want. But don’t kill them. Dead golden geese don’t lay any eggs. You know Noah’s soft spots. Press those buttons until the pain is unbearable.” Chin hung up.
To Queenie, the last twenty seconds were a crazy, useless bit of philosophy. But then…
Okay. Who’s got Noah’s ear? An old girlfriend? A Shaolin monk?
An idea started germinating. Brawn and brain. She’d taken care of the brains part. But the brawn? The only people that could handle the job…
She made another phone call. “Alexei, I need a couple of badasses.”
The Russian-accented voice responded, “You always need something but never give.”
“You’ll get your cash soon. The shipment’s back on track.”
“Why don’t you use your lover, Hassan?” sneered Alexei.
“Because I killed him. And he stank worse than you. Now, when are you going to get me somebody?”
Queenie felt Alexei shaking his head on the other end of the phone. She knew that he appreciated her getting rid of Hassan. The Iraqi had grabbed too much limelight. “You owe me for that, Alexei.”
“Dmitri and Boris are on their way. They’ll do.”
Chapter 24
JJ had been in Central Park since 6 a.m. The first two hours were spent by Turtle Pond in mindful meditation. All his life, he had been taught to be righteous, to value nothing of the physical world and to stay sexually pure. But, for some time, these strict values had started battling an evolving inner core.
While Noah was not the reason for his transformation, meeting Noah escalated the change.
His sexuality began awakening when he met Dr. Lisa Mah, doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine and snake venomologist. Noah had brought her along to Heaven as part of the medical team treating Master Wu. Although Lisa tried to kill JJ, eventually she turned into his savior, sucking in the poison of a snake, sacrificing herself to save him.
It was at that moment he knew his days as a monk were over. He developed a taste for nice clothes and became a voracious consumer of pop culture, especially music, movies and women.
Meeting Abby introduced a new chapter to JJ’s life. Unlike Lisa, whose attraction was purely physical, there was something more about Abby that he wanted to pursue. Before coming to the park, he searched the Internet for “Abby Sung.” There were over a thousand sites to explore so he kept drilling down. Not satisfied with what he was finding, he came to the park to meditate. However, as soon as he stopped the deep reflection, his thoughts of Abby returned.
Walking toward the park entrance, his eyes were fixed on his cell phone screen. He was astounded at the speed of communication. Someone had already posted pictures of last night at Café du Music on Facebook and Instagram. There were images of Abby, Olivia and Benjamin onstage as well as pictures of him, Queenie and Noah seated at their table.
Then he spotted a disturbing photo that showed someone who resembled the Samaritan who helped the gorilla after his fight with him. JJ didn’t notice him at Café du Music because the man was facing in the opposite direction and sitting a few tables behind him. While the Samaritan was standing up and clapping, he wasn’t looking at the stage. The objects of his attention were JJ and Noah.
Was that a coincidence or was there something more? What was the connection? He was so preoccupied that he paid no attention to a couple of street people approaching with their shopping cart.
That’s exactly what the supposed street people sent by Alexei, Dmitri and Boris, hoped for.
Dmitri retrieved a small club hidden beneath the blankets in the cart.
“You hurt me!” screamed Boris. “Don’t ever do that to me again!”
JJ, drawn to Boris’ supposed predicament, never noticed the club in Dmitri’s hand speeding at his head. The harsh blow knocked JJ out.
Boris and Dmitri quickly stuffed JJ into the cart, covered him with the filthy blankets, and pushed him half a mile to a panel van belonging to Odessa Flowers.
At 10:30 a.m., New York was wide awake as Noah and Olivia ambled down the busy street. Neither of them noticed the designer shops, hot dog stands or people rushing to their next appointments.
Neither felt like saying a word but Noah had to try. “Olivia, can we talk?”
“I don’t think so... I... I might cry.”
“I can listen.” Then a thought struck Noah. “You’ve got someone else?”
“No! How can you even think that?”
At that moment, Noah flashed on a statement his father often made whenever Noah’s mother had what he felt was an irrational moment. Women are crazy.
“I don’t jump in bed with just anybody, Noah Reid.” Olivia stopped in the middle of the pavement. “Being a musician was not only Abby’s dream, it was mine. When Abby and I were on stage at Café du Music the other night… If I had died that night, I would ha
ve been happy. And then, to come to the sickening realization that no matter how good I was, it would never be enough... I’m in mourning, Noah.”
“I’d be happy to work through it with you. I want to work through it with you.”
She shook her head. “The road less traveled needs to be traveled alone.”
Noah turned his head away. “Shall I still come at 5:30?”
“Of course. We need you there. Let’s not mix our personal lives with business.”
Leaving Noah staring in the opposite direction, Olivia began walking away. The Odessa Flowers van pulled to a stop beside her. The side door opened and a huge bald guy carrying a bouquet of roses stepped onto the street. When he passed Olivia, he dropped the flowers and quickly put his hand over her mouth.
As the big man dragged her inside the van, Olivia bit on his hand.
“Ow!” screamed the thug, taking his hand off Olivia’s mouth for a moment.
“Noah!” screamed Olivia.
Noah turned around to see Olivia inside the van just before the door slammed shut.
As the floral delivery van took off, Noah followed it, trying to wend his way through the crowded sidewalk. It was hard to keep the vehicle in sight, especially when the driver gunned through a red light, narrowly avoiding a FedEx delivery truck.
Realizing that fighting the crowd on the sidewalk was a lost cause, Noah jumped into the traffic-filled street to chase the vehicle, avoiding honking cars and having near misses from cars slamming on their brakes to miss him.
Seeing the van disappearing from sight, Noah leaped up onto the hood of a car, then hopped from vehicle to vehicle to try to catch up.
Seeing a short stretch of empty asphalt, Noah leapt off the cab he was on and began to run.
Focused only on catching up with his target, Noah paid no attention to a car shooting out from an alley.
The driver was too late in hitting his brakes and he plowed into the speeding runner.
Two decades of sharply honed martial arts’ instincts came into play. Noah sensed the danger the moment the car hit him and immediately leapt into the air. He came down hard, smashing the windshield of the convertible he landed on.
Picking himself up from the glass shards on the convertible’s passenger seat, Noah saw the dark vehicle whipping around the corner. He got out of the car to stalk his prey.
Inside the panel van, Dmitri held Olivia while the driver, Boris, kept one hand on the steering wheel and used his other to rifle through her purse.
“Damn. There’s only a hundred and fifty bucks in here. What’s wrong with you, Dmitri?”
“Hey. You said look for rich bitches. These are real designer clothes she’s got. No fakes here. No Walmart on this lady.”
Boris looked at Olivia’s driver’s license. “What’s this? This girl’s from Hong Kong. Olivia Southam. This might be our lucky day. The only white people in Hong Kong are rich expats or expensive hookers. We will make money or we will have fun.”
Suddenly, there was a thud on the roof. Noah had landed. Trying to stay stable, he lay down, then precariously leaned over and looked inside the driver’s side window.
Seeing Noah, Boris started swerving, trying to shake the intruder off.
Noah punched through the glass and grabbed Boris’ hand. Noah tried to keep the steering wheel steady but it was impossible. Boris was able to jerk it right and left, left and right.
Unable to maintain a grip, the wobbly movement threw Noah off the vehicle’s roof.
As he fell, Noah reached through the driver’s window and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands.
Boris started pounding on Noah’s arms, trying to get him to release the wheel by breaking his arms.
Noah screamed as loudly as he could in Chinese, “Wěn tā!” Kiss him!
Olivia yelled back, “Wie, shenme?” Why?
“Jiù zuò ba! Just do it!”
“No Chinese,” snarled Boris.
“No Chinese? How about French?” said Olivia. She planted a huge kiss on Dmitri’s lips and started to push her tongue through his mouth. The shocked Russian let down his guard for just a moment—exactly what Noah hoped would happen.
Olivia seized on the opportunity. She butted her head against Dmitri’s, then clapped her hands hard over his ears.
A searing pain bolted through the Russian. He launched one mother of a mitt at Olivia.
She agilely ducked, then launched a straight arm with a balled fist at her captor’s head.
This bounced off Dmitri like water off a duck’s back as he grabbed her arm and resumed his vise-like hold.
Meanwhile, Noah pulled hard on the steering wheel and propelled his head inside to connect with Boris’ temple.
Now disoriented, Boris started swerving wildly.
The motion was just enough to slightly loosen Dmitri’s tight grip on Olivia. She pulled her arm away from him then swung it back, delivering a sidearm smash to his head.
Again, not a whole lot of effect. She tried flailing but Dmitri was just too strong. “For that, I do you twice.” With his teeth, he tore Olivia’s top.
Noah elbowed Boris’ jaw hard, knocking him out. Unconscious, the driver’s foot stayed on the accelerator and the dark vehicle picked up speed.
Noah took the steering wheel and steered away from oncoming cars and pedestrians.
“Yǎo tā! Bite him!” yelled Noah.
Olivia sunk her teeth into Dmitri’s wrist. The Russian roared and shoved her head away.
This was the distraction Noah wanted. “Jump out, Olivia!”
As Olivia opened the door, she saw Dmitri’s hand pulling on Noah’s hair. He was about to mash Noah’s head against the steering wheel when Noah released the steering wheel and jammed his thumb into the Russian’s eye.
Noah leapt into the back, grabbed Olivia, and the two jumped out the side door.
Noah held her tight to cushion her against the hard ground. They rolled twenty feet before coming to a stop.
Both looked up to see the truck straightening and getting lost in the traffic.
Noah smiled painfully. “Why is it that when I’m with you, I get shot at, mugged and attacked?”
Olivia shrugged. “Maybe I’m your good luck charm.”
“Hello.”
Queenie recognized the gruff tone of Alexei’s voice. “Okay, Queenie. Job is done.”
“I hope you didn’t hurt them. Just scared them, right?”
“We are professionals. You say kill them, we kill. You say hurt them, we hurt. You say scare them, we scare. You say make the guy a hero, the guy’s a hero. We make them think they get out by themselves.
“Good enough. Five thousand coming at you.”
Five gs for an hour’s work. Not bad by anyone’s standards.
“What do you want me to do with the Chinaman? He’s still knocked out under the blankets in the truck. I can remove him now if you like.”
“No, I need you to keep him neutralized but alive for a few days.”
“That’s another five. I put him in my house.”
Queenie was well aware of this space. When she had a shipment, she sometimes made deliveries there. “The house is perfect.”
Chapter 25
When JJ woke up, it was dark, hard to breathe, and his head was pounding. Extricating himself from the tarps that covered his body, his heart broke. He was in a locked room with a dozen young white girls. All wore dirty threadbare shorts and T-shirts. Some were children; none had passed their teenaged years. They were obviously mistreated. They were thin, listless and had the dulled eyes of the living dead. Almost every arm was lined with pinprick scars. He had only been part of the outside world for three weeks but, by immersing himself in modern culture, JJ knew these were ‘slave’ girls that made men’s fantasies come true.
The large windowless room was a pigsty. Stale smoke, stale urine, stale body odor and stale sex permeated the room. Old boxes of Chinese takeout, pizza, Ukrainian sausage and perogies littered the floor, s
ofa and counters.
JJ estimated he had been there for about an hour when the locked door opened. One nasty mother came in and pulled three girls out of the room.
While he didn’t know exactly what happened, he was sure that in twenty minutes the girls would be washed, had their hair blow-dried, had make-up applied by professional quality estheticians, transforming them into delectable young harlots for a clientele that included diplomats, judges, Wall Street brokers, and politicians. The girls would always satisfy their men no matter how perverse or kinky the requests. They had seen what happened if they didn’t.
JJ approached one of them and asked, “Where are we?” but the girls were too afraid to say anything. One of them glanced at a clearly mounted video camera and JJ understood the girls’ reluctance to speak.
Inside this concrete prison, his cell phone was useless for its normal function of talking with the outside world, but that didn’t stop it from being a tool of communication.
JJ deftly spun to angle himself so that the video camera couldn’t see what he was doing. He typed a note on the cell phone. “How to get out?” and discreetly showed it to the girl who had pointed out the camera.
The girl leapt up and slapped JJ on the face and screamed at him. “I wouldn’t have sex with you in a million years. In ten seconds, the door is going to open and someone is going to come in and beat the crap out of you.”
She then tried to kick JJ in the balls but she was so high that she stumbled to the floor. Unseen by the video camera, she mouthed to JJ, “Save me.”
Just like the unwilling young whore predicted, the door burst open and Alexei’s three toughs entered—Boris, Dmitri and Raoul.
Raoul, Alexei’s right hand man and two hundred pounds of solid Russian muscle, barked, “No freebies. Leave the girls alone,” and launched a hamfist right at JJ’s head.
Bad move.
JJ ducked Raoul’s arm and countered with a kick to the groin. Raoul, always ready for a dirty fight, wore a jockstrap and JJ’s punt bounced off without damage.
The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series: Books 1-3 (plus special bonuses) Page 49
