Out of the Dark

The Enemy of an Enemy is a Friend (Danny)

[Julian] Holy Christ! That feels like some Hollywood movie shit!

[Danny] True dude! We found her after half an hour of searching, unconscious in the dumping yard of the factory.

[Julian] This girl has some real balls of steel! I didn't know this side of her, before.

[Danny] Her past experiences changed her great deal, dude! She's grown very cold-hearted towards death and bloodshed. Her best quality is she's selfless for the people she loves.

[Julian] You're one lucky man to have met this version of Louise Robillard. I liked her for whatever she was back then, but this version is absolutely lit!

[Danny] I assume that you still have a soft-corner for her. Your eyes spoke your heart.

[Julian] No harsh feelings, buddy, but I missed us, when I met her last time. I hope everything goes well between you two. I shall pray.

[Danny] Thank you so much for the cooperation and for your precious time. You're a better businessman than your father and being an open risk-taker always proves positive for an expanding business. Best of luck with the future!

[Julian] Wish you luck with the trial! Ciao.

Though it sounded a bit informal between us, the friendship is needed for business. Pure business alliance. It's been two days since our phone call. Louise seems to heal pretty fast. She looks very happy with the family, she craved to get till the last few months. Gabriel loved me like his own son. I wonder why he lived alone. Was he still unmarried or divorced? He didn't have children? I decided to ask these questions, directly.

After dinner, Louise stayed busy gossiping with Darcey and Patricio seemed to have found interest in the girly chit-chats. Such a kiddish guy could become such a beast when handed an AK-47M. Thanks to God, he's in right hands. Such immature boys are often easy targets to be tamed by terror campaigns of some such organisations. Had Laden been trained under a man like Gabriel, he would have been alive and not recognised as a terrorist, today. I shook away my silly thoughts and asked out Gabriel for a smoke. We walked into the living hall and sat across the bar niche, puffing into our cigars.

"Can I ask you something, Monsieur?"

"Yes, my child. Go ahead."

"Where are your wife and kids?"

"I never had kids."

"And what about a wife?"

"She was killed." He puffed a huge amount of smoke out.

"How? When?"

"I used to be a part of Robillard Corporation, once upon a time! I had married my high school girlfriend, but didn't have kids. 20th January, 1992. We were kids. We didn't need kids then. It was a destination wedding in Hawaii, escaping the snowfall of Paris. You had to see Samuel, blooming like a flower out of happiness. We were so much in love and new to our father's business. It was a large-scale business then, but wasn't a multi-national giant like today. Things started going out of order the day we brothers decided to make collaborations and expand the business. The biggest tycoon then, was the Stepanov Global Enterprise, which belonged to the most powerful Russian Mafia Prince Zultan Stepanov and his sons. Just two successful business collaborations with the lesser alliances of Stepanov and it got the Prince furious. He didn't like small collaborations. We received a letter from the Russian Prince to stop expanding business in the Russian-occupied markets. We sent him an apology and expressed our wish to expand business with them. Never knew so much brutality until the day, I found our father, mother and my wife, dead in front of our office building and hung by ropes, like banners by the window panes!"