Zach was in his apartment when he had a text message. He checked his phone and viewed a picture sent to him. He smiled and decided to call the number that had sent the message.
The person picked up.
"Wow , I love your progress" Zach said.
"Let's see in the evening" Zach said again. He listened for some moments at what the person had to say. Then he smiled again.
"Okay, good".
And he hung up.
********
Derek sat down at the balcony and thought for a while. He wanted calling on Eric and that made him very depressed. What had he done to deserve this? Absolutely nothing… He felt so alone. Well he would surely make his wife and son proud. He kept thinking for a long time and decided to look at pictures of his wife and son.
He went into his room and started looking at the pictures, one at a time. The first picture was of their wedding. He clearly remembered that day. It made him so gloomy when he remembered her white gown, their vows, their honeymoon. He didn't want to dwell in the feeling that would make him depressed, so he moved to the next one.
He kept looking at the pics till he got to one that made him stop. It was the picture of his wife and little Eric. Eric was just four years old then. She pecked Eric in the picture. Derek just looked at the joy of his life. This picture was so special to him because he was the one who took the picture.
In this particular picture, Eric was tugging at his mum's bracelet; a red coloured bracelet with a star sign. Eric had been so fond of the bracelet. His mother bought two of the bracelet type. One for herself and the other for Zach's mum; Olivia. They had been Friends. But Olivia had died about ten years ago. That was five years after Miranda; his wife died. Olivia had died from a chronic heart disease.
Miranda had given her bracelet to Kelvin, her brother. While Olivia's, was no where to be seen. Derek loved the closeness between Miranda and her twin brother. He smiled at this. He was so glad that he didn't dwell on depressing memories for now.
His phone chose at this moment to ring. Lincoln was the caller. Derek picked up.
"Derek , I have found something about Zach. I will send you some pictures now". Lincoln greeted.
"I can't wait to see them".
His phone beeped and he checked the message. The pictures were of a man and Zach. They seemed to be in a very deep conversation. In the first picture, Zach didn't seem to agree with the man. But with the subsequent pictures, they seemed to get along. Derek didn't know the man, so his question was :
What could they possibly be discussing?
"Looks suspicious, right"? Lincoln asked
"I told you he's our man. He will regret ever doing this, when I get hold of him".
"Sure Derek , doing that was the greatest mistake of his life. Whatever he's doing would lead us to their leader".
"That's what I'm waiting for. But in the meantime, check out this man's background and continue to look into Zach" Derek said. "Thank you so much for this. It means a lot to me".
"You're always welcome Derek".
When the call ended, Derek looked at the pictures and decided to know his enemy better . Well, he would do this by being close. That's what he would do , but the question, was how to appear friendly to his enemy.
************
Mr Kennedy, Josh ; his son and four other people were celebrating their victory.
"We toast to wealth, health and the best future"! Mr Kennedy said.
"Cheers, cheers"!
After drinking from their wine, Mr Kennedy continued
"Wow! Our last enemy had been taken care of. This is to show that no one messes with us".
"Right there, right there" the others chorused.
"The ounces of siredanium we took, had been sold. So the profit would be sent to your different accounts".
This pleased his members. They nodded and smiled to each other.
"Since the executioner had perfectly done their duty, there would be a reward".
The executioner , the one who had had the 'shaky' voice, was very pleased and said that they were honoured. This time around, their voice was steady.
"No one suspects us, but we can't take chances. We need to get very close to him, to know what he knows. We can't have them ruining our success".
"Yes boss, that would be carried out" the executioner said confidently.
Mr Kennedy nodded at them and the celebration conducted in an underground, continued.