Hidden Behind the Veil (Complete)

Chapter 31

-Sorry for the extremely late update. But this is longer than usual and it would have been fair only if I gave it as much time as it deserved. Here's where the second phase of this story boosts up.

The job was simple: threaten Oliver- a bald man in his fifties- to give back a USB that supposedly belonged to their leader, Stuart.

The job was to be done at Oliver's house; number 34 Park Avenue at 12 during the night. His three children and wife slept in another room, they had been briefed, while the man himself worked all night long on his laptop, trying to hack into firms, agencies, and yes, gangsters. It was a simple enough job, so two bronze men, one of whom was Charles and the other Henry, were chosen to be led by a silver ranked, Will.

Charles was tired of struggling for so many years through the ranks. He would at least have thought that he had earned his right to be in Silver. But no one was promoted or demoted except when Stuart picked them himself. The pay increase too as one moved higher, so did the amount of respect within the gang.

But what Charles wanted did not concern money or respect, his only reason to live now was to make sure that Stuart died from his own hands. And that too, not in the dead of the night during an attack from behind. No, he wanted to look him in the eye and inflict unimaginable pain on him until he begged Charles to kill him. And only then will he finish the job.

To do that not only required skill and an insane amount of luck, first he needed to move up in the ranks so he could at least meet Stuart in person. For the lower ranks- just like today- the message was just passed on and one would not even get to see Stuart's face.
Someone banged on the door.

"Who is it?" Charles grunted. He felt as if he himself had forgotten his voice.

"Yo itzmeh. Henry!"

"Password." Charles stepped closer to the door so he could clearly hear the voice being produced from the other side.

"Death." Answered Henry.

Charles opened the door to a black American with short hair and a clean shaved face, who burst through the door and made his way towards the small fridge in the right corner of Charles's small room.

"How d'ya even live on them bananas man! I mean look at'cha. One migh' think you need'a eat two cows a day."

Charles remained quiet, as he always did. Henry had begun downing his second banana when Charles's phone rang.
"Yeah." He answered the call. "On our way." He looked at Henry. "Let's go."

Will had joined them on their way and now all three of them were sitting in a black SUV which they had parked at some distance from number 34 Park Avenue. Like all other seniors, Will wasn't talking much to them. Not that Charles wished he would, but Henry seemed keen on prolonging their conversations.

"So we'gonna kill'em or what?" He asked for the third time.

"We've not been given any direct order whether we have to or not...So I guess it just depends on the situation." answered Will.

Charles sat quietly in one corner, drowning himself in the dark and saying no more than he had to since they had left. He glanced down at his wrist watch- no longer a Rado or Armani, but a fragile copy- and spoke for the first time in minutes. "It's time."

They exited the SUV and began walking towards the metallic main gate of Oliver's house. Upon reaching their destination, one by one they swiftly climbed over it and entered within the boundaries of that house. Sometimes Charles wondered why people locked their gates when you could just as easily jump over the whole thing.

They walked through the garage and entered the small passageway on the top right corner which stretched through the other three sides of the house. You could leave the garage from one opening of that passage and exit it from the other side just to realize that you had reached the other corner of it.