"Jimmy, When do you think you'll be back?" I asked across the phone, "If you're planning to stay with that girl for a while, don't you think you need to take some of your stuff with you?"
He exhaled across the phone, I could tell he was smoking something with her,
*exhale "then I'll come by tonight to grab some of my stuff tonight. That's alright with you right?"
I finalised the arrangement for him to come and collect some of his stuff tonight before connecting all my little gadgets to the laptop again for my... business call.
After all, even though the dutch siblings held that spot as an area of influence in their little cartel when a business is destroyed by fire, the owners typically focus on how much their insurance will payout and how long it will take to rebuild. Even then, it will be a place that'll be under a little more observation by the police. That'll be because even if they find remnants of the planted bombs, they won't be able to identify any fingerprint as they have been destroyed in the explosion. Hence, that warehouse area will probably go up for auction and the siblings will relocate to another part of London...And I need to get a pawn of mine to get his hands on the burned down warehouse.
This might require some... Aggressive coercion.
...
After my brother came over in the late afternoon, I started thinking up how I should go about this after my call with the rest of the gangs in the neighbouring areas... My eyes glanced at the television and I saw a clown on it... Hmm yes, that could work I thought with a smile.
I was now eyeing a purple suit with a set of white face paint next to it.
Sigh, I didn't want to do this but after that call with the surrounding gangs, none of them wanted that spot. Hence, I remembered that movie about a clown and took a little inspiration from it.
...
"I've called you here for a meeting because...well...it would seem someone's eyeing our part of London as well as the rest of yours," said a mature feminine voice.
Around a table sat 7 different individuals, all of relatively different ethnicities. A Brown Asian man that sat at the table slightly pursed his lips at that comment,
"And I'd assume this also concerns your group's insurance claim on that warehouse that burned down?"
"That wasn't just a normal warehouse accident, someone planted bombs around specific weaknesses in the building. He even placed them in such a-" The woman nodded before apologising for trying to collect herself "ay uh way that the building started cooking from inside and only then did the smoke start showing followed by fire. The images could make someone's blood run cold, their bodies were charred and completely unrecognisable."
The rest of the groups had a tense expression on their face, not from the actions of the man as they had done similar or worse matters. What made them apprehensive was how this man used his intelligence to cement himself into a position of leverage.
Suddenly however a monotone and deep laughter echoed from the outside of this room as the sound of footsteps could be heard. Abruptly, a purple suited clown was noticed by the attendees.
"It's all in the name of fun though, isn't it? Teehee" said, what seemed to be, A Joker.
One of the other attendees who seemed to be a part of the Chinese triad ended up simply glancing at this joker and said,
"And you would be?"
"Well, that's obvious." said the clown while licking the sides of his mouth and flicking his hair "I'm the guy who's going to solve all of your problems. After all, why would I expose myself to you if not to get all of you into this room... Miss Adelaide?"
"and what's not to stop me from just...killing you right here and now?" said the Desi man.
"Ahah, very good joke. well, you see, I don't think you'd want to be doing that."
The Desi man indicated for one of his goons to go and attack the clown. Before he could continue though, the clown laughed and said,
"Well, how about a card trick?" before pulling out a card from his jacket. He waved it and said, "I'm going to make this card...Disappear."
Suddenly, however, he threw it and it embedded itself into the goon who was about to get up and attack him.
"Tadaaaah" He waved his hands before the Goon fell back, with a card lodged firmly into his skull.
The Chinese Triad member nodded his head whilst the Desi man was silently boiling in rage but not to a point that he was unfocused.
"and how would you go about helping us then?" said one of the older members at this table. He replied explaining that the only thing that's stopping them is the police's ability to crack down on them,
"Simple... err we become the police" He smiled.
They all burst out into hysterics,
"You're mental" some of them replied.
"Well, I'll leave my card here and err you can call me when you need me" The clown replied.
...
"Interesting, very interesting, You completed your task very well. You'll get a bonus as well. Keep this work up and we won't have any problems, will we...Mr Hope?" said a distorted voice through this man's phone.
The relatively middle-aged man was wiping paint off his face before then putting down his phone.
Yes, this man was Jeff Hope, also known as The Cabby. He currently was in his later middle-age and hadn't yet put on any weight. Still sweating, this was one of the only times he felt that he felt intimidated by an individual who was more intelligent than himself.
Finishing removing his make-up and removing his purple suit, He grabbed a picture with two little boys in them and brought it to his face and smiled,
"This is for you two..." He whispered as he kissed the image with a small tear leaving his face.
...
I disconnected from my call and smiled. Jeff Hope was really turning out to be a very useful and intelligent pawn in my plans. Now I had to make another quick call to another person to pull a few more strings together...
...
Tobias Gregson was a man who worked as an Inspector at Scotland Yard yet recently, his daughter's life was threatened by an unknown individual. He had to comply or else her life would be at risk. He didn't tell anyone because then he'd also lose his job as well as everything that he'd built up.
However, after researching things by himself, he found nothing about a man named M which caused him to stress. He thought, either something big was going to happen in the near future or it was someone with deep connections to a gang that had contacted him. He was now on his way back home yet his phone suddenly started vibrating.
*Ring*
*Ring*
*Ring*
Gregson pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the caller ID. Unknown,
'Fuck' he thought before declining the call.
*Ring*
*Ring*
*Ring*
It occurred again, and Gregson sighed before stopping in a phone booth and picked up,
"Well done inspector, you really are as good as your people say, now, this is going to be the start of a very, very long interaction. After all, did you never wonder where that extra little cheque was coming from?" The distorted voice slowly explained, "and your daughter needs that money, she is in the hospital right?"
Gregson started to boil as he thought about what the man voice just said. He had no evidence but a little part of him felt that this M was responsible for his daughter's predicament. And he was right, but he didn't know that.
"Now now, let's keep our calm, think of it as a mutual exchange. You help me and I help you, it's as simple as that... and you get to use that money to save your daughter's life" He said enticingly, "and now is no better time than to action that, there's going to be a very large...commotion. This will involve a few key figures in London Gangs, I want you to apprehend them and give me 5 minutes with them before you take them to the station. Just 5 minutes, in return for a healthier life for your daughter."
Gregson was fuming but held it in and nodded his head as if accepting, " I don't know who you are but...I will find you and, I will kill you if you do anything to my daughter."
"It's a pleasure doing business with you, Inspector Gregson. Now go home...You look tired" The voice stated before closing the call.
Gregson started looking around, but he was on a relatively busy street and saw no one that he would identify as a criminal, "That motherfucker was watching me the whole time"
...
I disconnected the call as I was on the top of a roof and walked away, Tobias Gregson is also a very useful pawn. Although I did have to use a lot of my Radon reserves to induce lung cancer in his daughter, which was a bit low- even for me. However, everything still goes according to plan.
After all, did you think I'd put a bomb in a residential area completely unreasonably? No, that timer wasn't counting down to an explosion, it was counting down to a release of Radon Gas which is a Carcinogenic substance.
Well, It's not worse than any pharmaceutical company. They're truly villains, why do people not understand the simple concept of needing to produce demand. That's simply what I've done, and that's simply what those companies do as well. If they really did put their money to it, then there would be a cure for cancer relatively soon. However, treatment gives them more profit. Hence, I don't understand why these idiots cannot come to that conclusion.