Monopoly

Chapter 1

  June 23rd, 2068
  "Ok."
Richard Brown tried to keep a straight face as he disconnected the call, but it wasn't easy. The call was from India. Another raid had taken place. The third one in three weeks. Things were not looking good.
Richard was the owner of Brown Industries, a company he inherited from his father, Ryan Brown. They were mainly into the petroleum industry, but under Richard, they had expanded a lot more. Now they were leaders in the fashion and real estate industries. Richard, one of the world's youngest billionaires at 29, was also the founder of the non-profit medical organisation called the Heart of Gold Foundation. They are currently trying to set up hospitals all over the world to provide everyone with affordable and good quality healthcare. But that wasn't it. Richard had another side to him; a dark side not many knew about.
Richard was one of the biggest names in the black market. He had all sorts of holdings everywhere. From marijuana fields in Mexico to brothels in Mumbai, from organ harvesting in Nepal to human trafficking in Libya - you name the commodity, he had something to do with it. He had been on a quick rise, en route to become one of the wealthiest bigwigs in the underworld. But he had run into a road block, seemingly infinite in length. He had lost over 100 acres of land holdings in Mexico. Seven hospitals which took part in organ trade around the world had shut down. He was losing his footing in the market as quickly as he had gained it earlier. He was incurring losses all around the world. And there was nothing he could do about it.
The World Parliament was behind this. After the United Nations was dissolved in 2053, the countries of the world came together to form a single united government to look into world matters. They felt that it would help to take quick strict action against the growing list of evils around the globe. And surprisingly, it had been working very well till then. No reports of corruption had come up, as vulnerable it might have been to that flaw. No country had yet tried to dominate it such that they reaped the benefits and all of them were actually behaving in a very humanitarian manner. They had reduced the global poverty by almost half. Water crises were almost unheard of. They had outshone the achievements of the UN their short lifetime of 15 years. And over the last three years, they had started to take strict action against the black market.
No matter how much Richard tried to protect his assets, he was always a step behind. And off-late, there had been rumours spreading about how much of his wealth was actually legal. He needed to act quickly or else he would be in big trouble. And to do so, he had been coming up with a plan.
The plan was incomplete, and was more of an idea than a plan or scheme. Although he was incurring huge losses all over the world, there was one place where he had remained untouched. These were his holdings in Australia regarding tobacco which had not taken a hit. This was a bizarre find. Of all places, he expected his Australian markets to take the biggest blow. He had taken extra precautions here. But considering the profits he had been making in Australia, just his precautions couldn't be behind it. The reason was the fact that the Australian Representative of the World Government had been protecting his assets here. But she had no reason to. All the same, his idea could be implemented via her. Richard felt that from now in, instead of protecting his assets directly, he could do it indirectly by influencing the government through this Representative. But it was not going to be easy.
  For the Australian Representative was none other than his ex-wife, Ava Jones, who probably had absolutely no reason to protect his Australian holdings. She had the best reason to ruin Richard - just simply her hate for him.
  And he was going to have to use her to get his wishes.