A pale bald man entered Patriarch Brown"s main office with a thick stack of doc.u.ments in his hands. A letter in the envelope was on top of them. It was the who had been serving the Brown family devotedly for two decades.«I have bad news, Patriarch…» - The man said glumly.
«What"s happened, Allen?» - An imposing man with thick eyebrows and horrible bulging eyes looked up from his notes, frowning at him. The accountant used to solve all the problems on his own, without disturbing the patriarch. Something serious must have happened.
«This morning, I received a letter from the Ministry... It had the genuine seal of the Department of Law and Order of high importance, which means the letter was to be delivered to you personally. The right people had checked it for authenticity, for the possible traps, poison, or just insults. They found it contained lots of numbers and reports on the financial activities of our family. Therefore, it fell into my hands. I"ve been studying it all day, and it was getting worse and worse with each line... It"s a disaster, Sir!»
«Will you cut to the chase already?»
«An investigator had examined the income doc.u.ments of our family and found some inconsistencies! He identified at least five cases of tax evasion in particularly large amounts! I"ve double checked everything, there is no mistake!»
Herman rose sharply from his chair and roared violently:
«What the h.e.l.l?! Which high-ranking investigator dared to dig into our affairs if the whole department was under Grek"s thumb?! Tell me the name of the b.a.s.t.a.r.d with a death wis.h.!.+»
«He didn"t give his name, Sir! He chose to remain anonymous!»
The patriarch tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, cursing under his breath. The penalty for tax evasion was at least five times the amount of the offense. Moreover, the system of relapse made sure that each next violation of the law was punished more severely. Given more than five cases of breaches of law, their family was in for a tangible loss.
«He gave as an ultimatum…» - Allen added in a small quivering voice.
Herman gave the accountant a sharp look.
«Tell me!»
«He has a safe deposit box in the trade guild "Golden Piggy," where he keeps the original income doc.u.ments of our family with recorded violations of law, as well as all the evidence. We can request the administration to have them examined to dispel any doubts. But it will cost us one-fifth of the amount we have not given to the government to buy them out! If we don"t pay for the deposit box in two days, all its content will be sent directly to the head of the Ministry of Justice for a more detailed check! And then the fine will be many times more! It"s a catastrophe! He is blackmailing us!»
Herman was too shocked to speak. His eyes bulged even more as if it had dawned on him only now what catastrophe Allen had been talking about. Whoever the blackmailer was, he was devilishly smart and careful. There were at least two reasons for this.
First, the Golden Piggy guild was number one in the world. There could be no question of any bribery or forcing them to do anything. Only the chosen few had a certain influence in the guild. The Browns did not have their people there. They were ordinary customers, nothing more. The Browns could only request the official inspection of the doc.u.ments from the deposit box.
Secondly, the blackmailer demanded the money for the doc.u.ments without his direct involvement! If the Browns didn"t pay for the deposit box, its contents would automatically go to the place where they didn"t have any power, and a month later, they would face a huge fine, or maybe something worse! He had everything covered.
In this world, transactions through brokers were a rare occurrence. This method of doing business was new for Hernan, so he didn"t really understand how to get out of this trap, which indicated the investigator"s high professional skills.
Herman could only growl powerlessly something along the lines of:
«d.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.d! He dared to mess with the Browns! He will pay with life!»
The offer to pay one-fifth of the amount they owed to the government was way more favorable than the legal punishment. However, Herman had an insider in the department. How could Grek accept the fact that one of his colleagues had his knife into him? What was that buffoon there for?!
«Leave the papers here, I"ll study them later. Go to the guild and request the inspection of the doc.u.ments. Determine their authenticity. If they are real, get the needed sum ready. But don"t send anything without my order! If I can destroy him... Or rather, run him down... Then…» – Herman"s face was distorted with strain and pain. He seemed to have faced an enemy beyond his strength. Even if Hernan managed to catch this cunning investigator, what"s then? The deposit box must have been sealed off and out of his control! He would have to pay the money anyway. But then he could take them away. Yes! That"s the best option. And after that, he would kill the blackmailer in the most sophisticated way.
«I will do as you say, Mister Hernan!» - The bald accountant answered in a tremulous voice and hurriedly left the office.
The patriarch took his sound transmitter and dialed Grek"s frequency.
«Grek speaking.»
«What the h.e.l.l are you doing there?! I"ve received a letter from a high-ranking investigator who claims that we have been evading taxes! Some a.s.shole you work with is blackmailing us! Didn"t you see it coming? Who is to blame?!»
«P-patriarch…» - Grek was panic-stricken. – «I don"t know anyone who would dare to blackmail you! Unless… It"s the rookie…»
«What f.u.c.king rookie?!»
«He is always in his mask. n.o.body knows his first name, but his family name is Stone!»
«The Stones…» - Herman muttered, his voice hardened by obvious despise.
…
Juno tossed and turned in her bed, unable to fall asleep. The poor thing was tormented by curiosity so intense that her eyes welled up with tears. She conducted an investigation and found out that her a.s.sistant hadn"t hired any servants from the Stone family. However, Kyon told Vladimir that he couldn"t have caught 80 criminals without the help of his family. But he did not use any family resources! He did it again... He had defied common sense yet again!
Juno couldn"t stop her racing thoughts. Her entire body shook. She couldn"t think of anything else. Kyon had brazenly exploited her emotional world, and this abuse continued to this day.
~squeak~
«Seven days have pa.s.sed, Juno. Do you have my money ready?» – The moon once again outlined XiaoBai"s imposing silhouette. Its silver light shone on his impa.s.sive face just at the right moment.
Her brother"s visit didn"t surprise Juno. She calmly got out of bed, a malicious smile blossomed on her face:
«I warned you, XiaoBai…»
«So did I!» - XiaoBai ominously interrupted his sister, his shapeless body resembling a huge rissole twitched.
Moonlight fell on a cute cat with magnificent white fur who was peacefully murmuring on XiaoBai"s fat lap. He was stroking the fluffy animal gently like a clichéd villain from a movie. All he needed was a monocle to complete the picture.
Juno gasped when she saw the furry creature. Her s.h.i.+vering increased, her face turned deathly pale as if she wasn"t looking at a cat but at a soul-eater. – «C-c-c-cat…»
The cat"s predatory yellow eyes glowed in the dark, burning the terrified girl.
Unkind sparks lit up the fat guy"s eyes. - «Last time you didn"t play by the rules. You shouldn"t have told the guards to show the "intruder" out. That"s when I realized that you have no respect for your brother. So, today I am not playing by the rules.» - He got up from the chair with the cat in his arms and slowly walked towards his sister who was numb with fear. – «Money is my ikigai, my reason for living, Juno. I"ll risk anything to get it, including our fragile relations.h.i.+p.»
All of a sudden, the door to the room flung open.
«My little Juno! Has he come, yet?..»
Patriarch Bai stopped short and stared at XiaoBai.
Xiao Bai stared at the patriarch.
The cat stared at the patriarch.
The patriarch looked at the cat and then at deathly pale Juno.
«You ugly, filthy beast! How dared you come to my sister at night! Scat! Get out of here!» - XiaoBai let out a piercing scream and hurled the cat at his grandfather. Then he promptly rushed to the door with incredible speed for his build.
The patriarch almost went berserk. The cat in his hands whipped into shape his clouded mind. – «XI-AO-BА-А-А-А-АI!»
The patriarch flung the poor cat out, disappeared from his place and gave his runaway grandson such a nice slap that he rolled head over heels along the corridor of the elite residential complex.
All the tenants peered out their rooms when they heard the loud noise. The sight of the screaming rolling meatball made their heads spin.
«А-а-а-а-а-аh! Grandad! I WAS JUST SAVING MY SISTER!» - The fat guy yelled angrily, shedding tears as a protest against cosmic injustice.
«I WILL KILL YOU! FAT EXTORTIONIST!» - Even superior demons would envy the fury in the old man"s voice. Bai was so furious that he didn"t even think if his grandson would survive his beating. The fat cheeky boy scared the apple of Bai"s eye with a cat, being perfectly aware of her phobia of furry creatures!
XiaoBai kept rolling head over heels through the corridors of the residential complex all night long like a huge tumbleweed. Early in the morning, when the patriarch let out all his anger, his grandson was still conscious. The extensive layer of fat had saved his life. XiaoBai had been growing it precisely for this reason: to protect him from the outraged patriarchs.
«Get out! I don"t want to see you anymore! And don"t you dare to get anywhere close to Juno!» - Bai shouted panting. He could barely restrain himself from hitting him again.
XiaoBai furtively looked at his grandfather like a lost beaten puppy and trudged away from the family territory with his head down. He looked even more like a pig than usual because of his swollen face.
n.o.body understood him. Money was his soul! How could anyone get beaten up so cruelly for trying to get their soul back? Everyone around was a ruthless demon! Everyone but Kyon... XiaoBai couldn"t take it anymore to live with those who hated him and failed to understand his worldview!