Lion's Den(On Hold)

Chapter-10 The Fifth Player

The rugged floor covered with dried and blackened blood was a common scene in the underground basement of the Lansky gang. But today however, a unique prisoner was tied up under the spotlight.

Half conscious, a bloodied and bruised face and broken bones made him practically unrecognisable. Yet, his attitude and sneer at the boss, Victor Lansky never changed.

The snitch within the gang who was Terranova’s informer had been finally found. His face was filled with wrinkles showing years of hardship. There was a slight hint of irritation on Victor’s face and his hand itched to use his knife when he found that his head butler belonged to the Terranova.

“You will never be able to defeat the Terranova, Victor”  he mumbled in a scratchy voice.
Victor gave a sadistic smile before stabbing right into the chest multiple times. The old man's upper body leaned forward lifelessly. Victor dropped the knife and cleaned himself.

“Send word that we are holding a trafficking from the warehouse 2241 tonight. Use the snitch’s phone to inform on the fake transaction with their special code. Terranova will attack for sure not knowing it is a fake location. Stake out their captain and we capture him.”
“Yes boss”

A few hours later, Victor and his men left a few attackers at the warehouse and surrounded the place to watch from a distance.
Not knowing about the ambush set for them, the captain of Terranova and his men entered the warehouse area. Victor watched the men at the warehouse being shot down. He signalled the others waiting outside to begin attacking.

The captain understood the situation and rallied his men to fight against the boss. However they were overpowered and all the men lay dead except Terranova’s captain who staggered with a shot taken to his leg. Although he had evaded it enough to be a flesh wound, blood was spilling out.

“Well well, if it isn’t Damian, the captain of Terranova and youngest of the Terranova brothers”
“If it isn’t the dumbass boss, Victor Lansky”
Victor punched Damian across the face. Damian rubbed the blood and snickered, half standing.

“You fuckers thought you could hinder my business and get away with it?”
“Your hit reminds me of the famous quote ‘my grandma hits better’ “
“Don’t worry Damian. There are so much better options available in our basement. Take him away.”
Damian was dragged away towards the van by Victor's men while he maintained an indifferent face.
************************************
Today, Derek and I are clicking pictures from outside a mansion which is also the regular rendezvous point of the Lansky gang.
This would be our final evidence collection so we were doing it together. Strangely enough, there was no attack from the Terranova gang even though trafficking was supposed to take place. It ended quickly and we saw the trucks leaving.

There was no sign of edginess in the men either, they seemed to be casually waiting for someone to arrive. Nate’s urgent voice came through.
“That’s enough evidence. Get back to safehouse immediately. I have some important news and after this, I don’t think it’s safe to stay there.”
“Okay, we are returning.”

Before Derek and I could move away, there was a hushed entry of two extravagant cars. The men assembled to the front and the man who was supposedly the boss, Victor Lansky came out in the open to welcome the mysterious visitors.

The car doors were opened and out stepped two men in white suits. The driver opened the door of the back seat for a man wearing a black suit. The outline of his face was visible in the dusk and the soft lights highlighted one side.

When Derek and I took pictures there was a faint familiarity in the visible part of his face, it was a face you would see in magazines. They proceeded to enter the mansion with a sense of cordiality. There was only one question at this point: Where have we seen this man before?

“Let’s go, Diana”
Derek and I returned to the safehouse to find Nate probing into his laptop seriously. He didn’t bother looking up and began speaking.
“Terranova’s captain has been captured by the Lansky gang”
“What!?” we both exclaimed together.
“Yes, they held their transaction without any obstruction today?”
“Yeah, wait…there’s more Nate”

Derek handed the camera to Nate to take a look at the pictures.
“This man arrived with a flashy group at the mansion today and the boss himself came to welcome him… we have seen this mystery guy somewhere.”

Nate’s frown deepened and he rapidly typed in something and an image was projected on the screen.
“Was this him?” he asked for further confirmation which was unlike him.

Platinum blonde wavy hair, hazel eyes and a light beard- overall, a gorgeous man’s picture on a magazine was what appeared on the screen. It was a useless article discussing about him being the most eligible bachelor.

“Yeah, that’s him. It says ‘the Knight corp’ here…then, is the mystery man ‘The Dominic Knight’?” I quoted with my fingers.
“No wonder his face felt familiar” Derek agreed nodding.

“Fuck!” Nate snapped letting out a few more silent curses. He was instantly connected to Gabriel and there was a bit of argument and apparently, we’ve got more work. At the end of the call, Nate was busy on his laptop as we waited patiently. Once he was done, he came to the desk to discuss.

“Okay, here’s the overview. The raid has been cancelled for now and we need to find an important piece of information. As you are aware, this man is Dominic Knight and the leader of the knight corp. It is unfortunate that he makes an appearance at this juncture. Knight corp handles the board of directors of 4 other companies with it’s own parent company. The parent company produces electronic components. The first 2 companies under them are collaborating with an alliance to produce electronic items which include technological gadgets and appliances. The next two companies are the problem, they produce weapon parts and ammunition. They have a tie up with the government but him coming here indicates that he is a neutral. He helps both sides and establishes on simply collecting profits.”

“That is absolute bullshit. Why can’t we just use his photo and throw him into the cells with Lansky?”
“No, it is complicated because the knight corp has it’s way of legalising any illegal transaction cases thrown against them. If they are accused of selling anything like weapons to the mafia, all proofs and evidences would become useless paper. They also supply their products to the government so they definitely have some solid support. To accuse them is foolishness.”

“Then if they decide to join hands with Victor Lansky…”
“All evidences you both strived to produce would go to dust”

To say we were shocked was an understatement. All of those life endangering missions and out of nowhere, this guy appears to crush them all?

“Dominic Knight…a fifth player has emerged and who he decides as his ally, will reign as new King. The question is..are the Terranova that easy to overthrow? But right now, we are exactly in the middle so we need to take careful steps from now for our survival. Even one rash decision will bring our downfall.”