VegasPete : The Way You Taste

31 - The old safe house - part 3

Pete's POV

"Even Jenny being so skilled, she wasn't a genius like your friend Arm. Was it so easy for Jenny to break the security system of the minor family? Of course not. I got some help. That's when the chess room comes in, as you asked.

Chess room is a meeting between mafia leaders who have won the right to sit at the table to play chess, so to speak. It's pretty restricted. I'm just talking about the Asian mafia elite.

Metaphorically speaking, you need a key to open the chess room door and make deals. It is actually an object... a crystal and diamonds chess piece (1). It is made especially for the chess room and it is really hard to get one. Negotiations are made while participants play chess. Anything can be traded, weapons, drugs...even people, but very secretly. Tianshi was traded in the chess room (2).

Matches can be face-to-face or virtual. Anonymous participants prefer the virtual room. There are strict rules for executing traded orders and severe punishments if they are not observed. This prevents cheating.

An anonymous participant started a match with me in the virtual room. I don't know how, but he knew that I was in partnership discussions with Porsche and Vegas and said that he could help me get exclusive information about the minor family. In return I should share the information and execute an assassination order when asked. It looked like a great deal.

This chess opponent provided a code to break your security system and for the next three months all the information collected was passed to him through a secure chess room link that not even Arm could break. Rest assured that I didn't upload your videos with Vegas. I don't like the idea of sharing the object of my desire with anyone.

Right after killing Tianshi I received a notification from the chess room to enter. That's when the dialogue you showed took place. The assassination order was set. Your name was given. I got surprised. But as I said, the rules for executing orders are strict. Once you accept a deal, you can't go back except by strict cancellation rules, which in practice never happen. And in short, if I didn't kill you, I would be killed.

I don't know who that chess opponent is, if that's what you're thinking. And I don't know why he or she asked for your head. You would be killed in that harbor against my will, Pete.

But something very curious happened as I was arriving at the port.

I got another message from the chess room. But this time it was another chess opponent, I think. An anonymous participant started a match. But that participant wasn't negotiating a new order. But rather claiming the execution of an old order that person had traded with my father."

"What order?" 

"An order for you to be delivered alive."

"And why did this order take precedence over the other order?"

"It was an order from over five, ten or even more than twenty years ago, Pete (3). I can not say. I never heard my father talk about that order or about you before. "

"Over twenty years?! I don't understand..."

"As I said, there are specific rules for an order to be cancelled. And this previous order took precedence over the assassination order. You've been traded, Pete, since long ago. I don't know for what purpose. But someone, I don't know who either, decided to claim the order on the same day that the assassination order would be executed. As we were leaving the island, I received another message from the chess room for you to be taken to The Diamond Hotel until further notice of delivery day. The second night you were in my penthouse, I received one last message, for you to be delivered the next day...the day Vegas came to rescue you. You would be collected from my hotel and I was advised that you should be delivered intact.

"What about the assassination order?"

"It had to be suspended. The other chess opponent was not happy with the news, but as long as you would disappear for good, he would be pleased."

"And the delivery order?"

"It's still open. And you know that sooner or later it will have to be executed, don't you?!Just the chess opponent can cancel it. Not me."

"I need to know who your chess opponents are and why they traded these orders."

"It's impossible. I have no way of knowing unless they reveal themselves. Only chess room controllers know how to identify participants to apply punishments. And we don't know who the controllers are."

"Put me in the chess room."

"I can't. I've already told you, it's very difficult to get in. We are talking about the most restricted group among the mafia families of the Asian continent. Also, the chess room was created in China. The physical room is there. Here in Thailand there is not much information."

"As you said, find a weakness and make good use of it. You will help me, Sanya, whether you like it or not. Or I will destroy everything you hold dear, starting with your hotel and your damn Chinese imperial vases. Prove me how powerful and capable you are. Get me a key to the chess room."

"You are a fast learner, Pete."

"Am I not learning with the best?" I start to praise him. He is a narcissist, after all.

"Okay then. I'll go to China to get you a key. But you have to keep your crazy jealous husband far from me. I'm pretty sure he tried to kill me almost three times this month out of jeaulosy."

"Consider it done."

"Are you going to tell him about all this?"

"I don't have to."

"You keep a lot of secrets, Pete" Khun Sanya smile.

"No...I promised him I would not keep secrets from him anymore. (4)"

"So...?!"

"Before you find assistant Lee outside, please, say goodbye to Vegas, Khun Sanya" I smile widely.

"..." Khun Sanya makes a puzzled face.

I point to a hidden camera in the room and wave to Vegas.

...

Author's note:

Hey guys!This is the last part of the chapter "The old safe house".

References:

(1) - Chapter 29: Khun Sanya gives Pete and Vegas crystal and diamond chess pieces (a knight and a king). Pete tells Vegas that those pieces are keys. 

(2) - Chapter 30: Khun Sanya told Pete that Tianshi was traded by his father and obtained from a Chinese mafia boss. Nasty !

(3) - Chapter 30 - Khun Sanya tells Pete that his past is interesting.

(4) - Chapter 29: Pete promised Vegas he wouldn't keep any more secrets from him.