by Newbiel
Nathaniel kept his eyes on his phone, reading the most liked answers, discovering that others stars had commented on it and answering them when he had something to say, just liking when he had nothing to say. He knew that at least two people had passed the front door and more were coming but he didn't care to look in their direction and acknowledge their presence so soon.
"Andy, stop growling please, be nice."
That's when the fifth men pass the door that Andy starts growling back up and with more animosity that he ever hears coming from him and even Jaydon starts hissing which prompts Nathaniel to look at the person in question. He was 6'3' and was at least 300 pound big. He was bold with a huge scar on his scalp and he also had tattoos all over his body, Nathaniel could tell that he was in the mid forties or early fifties. He was the more powerful of the five which was impressive considering that he didn't have a weapon beside a long jagged dagger on his belt.
The other four were arranged in an arc around him, three mens and a woman. They were all in their thirties and had a handgun or a shotgun in hand. Only one man had a tranquilizer gun on his back. They also all add a knife or two on their person and they were looking like they knew how to use them.
"Mister Lyndon, forgive me for coming unannounced and entering like that but to our discharge, the door and the gate were wide open." The man said in a dignified voice, walking forward.
"I understand, I would invite you to sit but I don't know your name. We seem to be at a disadvantage here."
"Bernard Breiheim." The man said before sitting in the chair that was near Nathaniel.
"Mister Breiheim, I presume that you are here for a reason. Do we have a business you want to talk about?" Nathaniel asked calmly.
"Ah yes, this is where it gets difficult. You hold in your possession something that is rightfully mine. I would like to get it back."
"I see now, can I ask about what is yours that I have in my possession? Let me tell you that I don't take kindly to being called a thief in my own home, Mister Breihem." Displeasure leaking from Nathaniel's mouth.
"It was not my intention really, I have huge respect for you and your family Mister Lyndon, I'm afraid that this is just a misunderstanding. You know before you found the cat and the wolf here, they were mine, they just escaped. I will of course compensate you for the time and money you invest in them if you were to return them to me." He said, generously.
"Mister Breiheim, I'm afraid that this is not possible. You see, I'm the owner of Andy and Jaydon here both officially and legally. I would also advise you to not make wild claims like that, after all considering the unorthodox way they come to get into the country, it could bring a lot of legal issues your way. I would hate to see you and your associate over there go to jail for such a frivolous declaration."
Seeing the man starting to drop his dignified facade and get angry, Nathaniel added something.
"However, I'm not a completely unreasonable person. I understand that he took some effort to bring these two beautifuls animals here and I'm willing to pay for them. You are a businessman after all, no?"
"I am in fact a businessman and in other cases I would be willing to cooperate but in this case this is simply not possible. These two are already spoken for by important people that even myself are not willing to cross. I would be open to provide you with other rare and exotic animals at a discounted price if you were to help me in this instance." He tried again.
"Sorry but I can't either, they are my pets after all." Nathaniel shook his head.
"It's a pity really, at least I can say I tried." He shook his head before getting to his feet. "I know your grandfather's reputation but the people I work with are equally or even more ruthless than him. It's just too bad that you didn't accept when you had the chance. Kill him and take the cat and the crossbreed." Bernard ordered his people before turning his back on Nathaniel like he was already dead.
Chapter 206: :
"Just like that hum?" Nathaniel asked bitterly.
"You had your chance kid, now it's over. Can someone please kill the pretty boy over here?" He ordered aggressively, not bothering to look at Nathaniel anymore.
"I see so I should try to return the favor you gave me. Drop your weapon on the ground, get to your knees and put your hands behind your head in the next twenty seconds or you are all going to die." Nathaniel said in a placid, calm voice, like he was talking of the weather.
This time, Nathaniel managed to get the attention of Bernard and in fact even the one who was going to shoot him stopped himself from pressing the trigger. Looking at his leader for order, Bernard made a sign to tell him to wait and start laughing.
"This is where you try a bluff and tell us that the cops are on their way there? We have been monitoring the police frequencies since we got there and we didn't hear anything about this on it. You know, you are not the first genius I met and curiously you are all the same. It seems to be when you are in danger, your big intellect just froze and you become like a deer in the headlight."
"Yes, I saw the same thing on multiple occasions. In fact, many studies were published that prove your point, it seems that people with lower IQ react more quickly in case of danger. By the way, you still have six second to surrender yourself or you will die." He said casually.
"You are a delusional kid, do you know what is going to happen in six second? Nothing, absolutely nothing beside you dying, us taking the two animals and maybe looting the house for some easy money. You know what, the more I think about it, the more I think that we should take you as well for some juicy ransom money, after all, you stole my property and I need some compensation." He said greedily, looking at the house with interest.
"Why they never listen?" Nathaniel said out loud to no one in particular, scratching Andy behind his ear. ��Ethan, you have a go."
Once the signal was given, everything happened very fast. One second Bernard and his people were sneering at Nathaniel's face when the next eight mens with tactical gear came from every direction with M4 and flashlight aiming them right at Bernard and his people's faces.
"PUT YOUR WEAPON DOWN AND GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES!" The eight start yelling.
It happened so fast that they did not have the time to defend themselves that they were put to their knees and stripped of every weapon they had. Once it was done, they all turned to Nathaniel who absentmindedly nodded his head. Understanding the movement, they knock them out using the cross of their M4 to the back of their head.
"What do you think Ethan? Why they never take me seriously?" Nathaniel asked once he was sure that they were all out.
"I believe you age and your face is the reason, sir." Ethan answers respectfully, his eyes twinkling behind his hood.
"What is wrong with my face exactly?" Nathaniel asked, frowning at him.
"Hum, I would say that you look like a pretty boy and people in our line of work don't have respect for pretty boys."
"I see, it doesn't look like there's something I can do to change that. Do you have your itinerary?"
"Yes, sir." He nodded.
"Good, take also their car, Matthew, you're driving. Follow the itinerary to the letter, it will make you pass through the city without being picked by CCTV surveillance. I'm coming with you, let me a second to put these two furballs back into their rooms."
A chorus of 'Yes, sir' echoed again across the room and they immediately picked the unconscious people on the ground and carried them out of the house.
*****
One hour later, the two cars finally arrived in front of an old ranch ten miles outside of the city. The particular ranch was foreclosed until he was recently bought anonymously by a shell company that quickly closed once the purchase was done. Even if the ranch was in an administrative limbo, the owner of this piece of land was none other than Nathaniel. He had picked it because the price was good, it was also so far away from the road that it was peaceful and the neighbors were too far away to hear anything happening here. After looking at the perimete
r, Ethan came back still wearing his hood.
"Sir, the prisoners are secured inside." He said.
Nathaniel nodded appreciatively, Seals were really something else entirely and their training was nearly perfect. Since they accepted his offer to work for him late last year, they had moved to New York and had started tailing his grandfather everywhere he was going. The Lyndon security was busy protecting him while he put them in observation. Their job was simple, following and looking around his grandfather from far aways and picking if someone was tailing him or preparing an ambush on them.
Since what happened in Italy last year, Nathaniel chose to not take any risk and was willing to do everything to protect his annoying grandfather. That was why he hired them in New Orleans last december. They were only seven at that time and Ethan quickly proposed someone who was also an Ex Seals to fill the eighth place. It was also a nice thing to have some back up if his team needed more bodies for a special operation. He was also thinking of organizing a training session with them but it was still too early as their weakest members were not at that level yet. Based on what he heard, Hans and Lina were progressing nicely under Scott training.
"Good, I need two with a strong stomach inside with me, the others start patrolling around the ranch in pairs, Ethan put that in place please, I'm going in." Nathaniel ordered before walking in the ranch direction. Before passing the door, Ethan was already behind him with another that Nathaniel recognized.
"Oh, hi Keith." Nathaniel smiled.
"How can you know it's me? We are all wearing camo, we have the same build and it's too dark to see my eyes. I didn't even talk yet and you still guess that it was me."
"You have a slight nasal deviation that makes you whistle quietly when you breath by the nose. Nothing life threatening, but I guess if you were to marry, your wife to be would be annoyed by this." Nathaniel answers with amusement.
"Oh."
"I told you you were making noise when you were sleeping." Ethan laughed, they had bunked a lot together when they were in the army and in operation.
Hearing Keith cursed under his breath, Nathaniel laughed before focusing on the five people tied to the chair, gradually losing his smile.
"Let's wake them up shall we?" Nathaniel said, taking a bucket filled with cold, stalled water and throwing it at them.
Waking with a jerk, they took a few seconds to realize where they were and what was their current situation. In the meantime, with a simple hand signal made by Nathaniel, Ethan and Keith walk away from him and take position respectively on his far right and on his far left. Even if their weapons were pointed to the ground, they left no doubt that they were watching with attention and they could use them quickly in case of danger.
"So, you buy yourself a nice mercenary team heh? I should have expected it coming from a rich brat with a foul mouth like you. Tired of getting beat up by everyone?" Bernard sneer.
"Not really, I mean that was so obvious I can't believe you fell for that. No grandparents, no security, the gate and the front door open almost waiting for you. At least, I can say you are not the type of people guilty to overthink things." Nathaniel mock.
"What do you want?" He growled angrily.
"I have questions, you have answers." Nathaniel said simply.
"Let me guess, if we talked, you let us go and if we don't, these two over here are going to start torturing us?" He laughed.
"Wrong on both counts, that ship already sailed. You are all going to die here, the only question is if you want to leave this world peacefully or beg to be finished off. And no, these two are here just to observe, I will do the torturing all by myself."
This time, all five of them start laughing out loud and mocking him openly. Nathaniel just ignored it and picked a wooden axe that was embedded into a support beam and started walking in front of them. Making the axe turn between his fingers to get a feel for it, Nathaniel kept walking under the increasing cursing coming his way.
"You should drop the axe before you cut your own di** off pretty boy. Ah ah ah." The woman who was in the second chairs to the right was the first to mock.
"Yeah, just free us and we will maybe not kill you outright." The man on the chair to the far left jeered.
Nathaniel just let them talk with a little smile on his face when the man on the far right decided to take things up a notch to get a reaction.
"And when we will be done with you and the others pussies here, we are going to find you two pretty mothers en **** them until they are too broken to care and then we will kill them as well!"
That's when Nathaniel finally made a move. He turned back to the one who had just talked, his entire body spinning to the left, his left arm with the axe extended forward. The axe cut through the man's neck with enough force that it continued his way and finally took the entire man's head off from his body. The head rolled to the floor and finally stopped a few feet away from Bernard, the eyes and mouth of the dead man still open in surprise. The attack was so sudden and brutal that there was only silence now while Nathaniel kept walking a few steps.
"You know, people don't react to the same stimulus the same way. For some people, the first insult on their intelligence or appearance will suffice to get a reaction, for others, only specified attack on their family, friends or loved ones will get someone mad. Me? I'm a mommy's boy, I could go to war with the entire country if they were to harm them. Now, I have questions and you are going to give me the answers I want."
Chapter 207: :
Nathaniel had learned that in a psychology book regarding hostages taker, by killing the first person in such a brutal way and without mercy, Nathaniel was in fact torturing psychologically the others fours as well. Not far from him, Ethan and Keith start talking in a low voice using their earpiece.
"I understand why he asked for mens with strong stomach only, my god that was gruesome." Ethan said.
"He just cut that man's head off like it was nothing, look at how he speaks and how he walks, he's too calm! I saw a CIA interrogator not as composed as he is right now. Yes, he met some who like inflicting pain and others were just blasé after conducting too many of them, but never he met one who was that composed after doing that. "He's giving me the creep to be honest." Keith answers, if he did not have his hood on, everybody would see that he was very pale right now.
"Wait, what? Who cut who's head off!?" Someone asked in the com.
"Williams shut your mouth!" Ethan rebuked angrily. "Echo teams, sitrep!"
"Echo one, clear."
"Echo two, clear."
"Echo three, clear."
"Rodger, keep radio silence unless you have something to report." Ethan coolly orders.
"Oh my god, Ethan he just cut the woman's leg off!" Keith almost shouts in the com.
It was only forty five minutes later than Nathaniel was satisfied with the answers he received. At that point, of the five that was here initially, four of them had died and Bernard was the last to be alive even if he was missing a foot and most of his fingers. Nathaniel finally walks away and signals Ethan and Keith to come over. Once they were here, he immediately started speaking.
"Something is bothering me about this."
"Yeah, you just torture and killed four people!" Keith answers almost instantly.
"No, not that, they were scums and they deserved it, you heard what they confess doing. No, something is not right with Bernard. Tell me, if you were to be taken, forced to see your entire team get tortured and killed in front of your eyes and then also being tortured with no hope of escaping or surviving, what would your reaction be?"
"I don't know, I think I would be desperate, I would scream in pain." Ethan starts answering.
"I would beg anyone to release me." Keith added.
"I would want to die." Ethan also added.
"Exactly. Now, look at him and tell me what you see." Nathaniel instructed the two ex-Seals members.
"Anger, Rage." Keith answers.
"Pain and… wait! Glee? What
the hell?" Ethan shouted, surprised.
"Bingo, based on my basic understanding of human psychology, there are only two reason for someone to experience that kind of emotion in this situation. First, he is currently suffering from a psychotic breakdown and he's delusional or he believes that someone is coming to save him and the glee is there because for him, we are already dead."
"But how would someone know where he is? We have taken precaution and we made sure no one followed us here and we turned off their phone." Ethan asked.
Nodding, Nathaniel walked to the entry of the barn where the bag containing all their belongings was resting. Opening it, he started rummaging through it and saw the man's phone turn off with the battery out like Ethan told him. Looking at the others phone, he could see that they were all turned off with the batteries out. Not discouraged, he kept looking until he found the electronic watch of Bernard in it. Looking attentively, he found a small panic button on the side of it. Lifting it off the bag to show it to Ethan and Keith, he spied Bernard giving a pained smile.
"Electronic watch with GPS, he must have pressed the panic button on it before being knocked out. We are going to have company very soon." Nathaniel said.
"Echo team, report, do you see any contact?" Ethan asked into his earpiece. "Sir, everything is clear, we should leave now."
