Chapter 30 - Knight Moves

430 66 1
                                    

THE ASIAN Man glanced at his smartphone. The Controller, again. He had passed on a message from Mr. Wilkes with a photo taken in front of Tess Herbert's house. The Controller had asked if he knew the man depicted and asked for any direction to proceed. The Controller was, well, controlling, but it was still the Asian Man's operation.

"Your girlfriend, again?" A coworker mumbled from one desk over.

"Shut up!" The Asian Man, playing his character, gave back good-heartedly. "You wish you were this lucky."

"Is she hot?"

"Three words: siz-ze-ling!"

The Asian Man looked at the photo again. No doubt, he had seen the man before. He had no name, but he had been visiting the CEO of Strom Defense Industries the previous day with the late Mr. Schwartz. In his message, Wilkes had briefly described the deferred way that the unknown man had been received by the police at the crime scene, so he had some sort of clout or official status.

Not good. So, the late Mr. Schwartz had been in the ranks of the police or secret service.

Not a disaster either because he was pretty sure that the money getaway was still good.

Was it? Maybe now was the time to play it safe!

The Asian Man typed a brief reply: "Have the man followed. Assemble and engage an action team for disruption."

He paused briefly before sending out the email to consider his action once more. An action team meant exposure and lots and lots of police. But things were getting dicey. Time to pull the plug and create a massive distraction. He pressed the send button. Done is done.

Then he went back to work.

TroubleshooterWhere stories live. Discover now