The Beast

The Attack

Mr Santiago Montoya was on his way to Montoya art gallery, a branch of his wealth, for inspection purposes. When he arrived, it was in flames.

‘’What the devil happened here?’’ he asked the security who were evacuating the building.

‘’There was an explosion from an unknown source.’’ one of the guards replied as he kept on evacuating. Still trying to figure out what happened, there was a call from his last son, Diego.

‘’What’s it, Diego? There’s an emergency at the art gallery!’’ Santiago screamed.

‘’Looks like not just one of your art galleries is in flames but five out of eight have suffered from an explosion.’’

‘’What?!’’

‘’This is planned. Someone planted bombs in all of the five art galleries. An enemy of yours.’’ Santiago looked angry suddenly. Who could have planned such a thing?

‘’The only enemy I’m dealing with currently is the father of that divorced wife of your brother.’’

‘’Mr Alcantara!’’

‘’What do you mean by now?’’ Nanny Claire asked quite confused.

‘’It has been my dream for years to get into the Montoya mansion and destroy that family. I’ll come in as a friend and I’ll be their beast.’’ Ivan said dramatically.

‘’Weak people revenge.’’

‘’Don’t give me that, Nanny. They messed with the wrong family. This isn’t revenge...’’

‘’What’s it then?’’ Nanny Claire asked sharply.

‘’It’s more than revenge.’’

An emergency board meeting was held at the Montoya industries.

‘’What just happened?’’ Santiago asked as he took his seat.

‘’As I explained to you over the phone, five of the art galleries have been bombed by an unknown source,’’ Diego repeated.

‘’What I don’t get is why would they go for an art gallery?’’ Eduardo asked.

‘’Eduardo, my son. I thought you were reasonable enough not to ask that question. We receive millions of money from those galleries that help in the Montoya processing industry.’’ Santiago replied to his second son.

‘’How stable is the Montoya industry now?’’ Eduardo asked the secretary.

‘’We’re nothing close to stable, Mr Eduardo. The galleries were supposed to be opened tomorrow for a major exhibit but after the bombings, we have lost the money we’d have received tomorrow. We need money to rebuild the structures, remake our wonderful artworks, remake the ancient interior designs from South Africa, buy traditional hand-woven kente cloth from Ghana and also pay for the medical expenses of all those who were injured. Not to speak of the security of the building. I’m talking about millions of dollars here.’’ Rhian replied.

‘’What is termed as our quickest solution here?’’ Santiago’s first son, Damien Montoya finally asked.

‘’We’ll need a third investor.’’ nineteen-year-old Diego finally replied.

‘’Point of correction, Diego. You’ll need an investor.’’ Mr Santos replied. They all turned to look at him. He was their number one investor. He turned to stare at the face of Mr Eli Guerrero who was seated adjacent him. Another investor?

‘’What do you mean, Mr Santos?’’ Eduardo asked politely.

‘’Both Eli and I have decided to stop investing in the Montoya business. After what just happened, we’ll be receiving loss instead of interests and this is going to affect our very own businesses.’’ Mr Santos stood to his feet.

‘’That’s rude,’’ Diego yelled ‘’You’re leaving us alone in the middle of a crisis. When everything was running smoothly you stayed but one little problem…’’

‘’You call being attacked a little problem?’’ Eli asked.

‘’Find those perpetrators before you find an investor. We’re sorry but we have to leave.’’ Mr Santos said as he led the way.

‘’I hope you don’t run into my house the same way you walked out of this office, Christian. It would be nasty.’’ Santiago smiled.

‘’And just like that, they’re gone,’’ Diego said putting his head in the stomach of his hands.

‘’What now?’’

‘’This is the best news I’ve ever heard in a while.’’ Raphael Alcantara laughed as he switched off the television set. The journalists were broadcasting the recent bombings at the Montoya galleries.

‘’Did you have anything to do with that?’’ his daughter, Jessie asked.

‘’Did you really think I’ll be capable of doing something like this? Why waste bombs on a building if Damien is still as fit as a fiddle.’’

‘’Don’t you dare do anything to him!’’ Jessie warned.

‘’I was just giving an example. I wouldn’t waste my time on something like this. The truth is I’m trying to figure out which other enemies of that family could do something this serious. I know for a fact that George won’t go that far. Who is responsible for this.’’ Raphael confessed and his daughter felt the sincerity in his words.

‘’Somehow Mr Santos is right. We need to find out those who tried to attack us. The media would be calling for a press soon and we’ll have to tell them something.’’ Eduardo said. He turned his seat towards the direction of his father.

‘’You’re right my son. Did the CCTV cameras take anything?’’ Santiago asked sharply turning to look at Rhian.

‘’Thanks for reminding me. The CCTV footage shows men clothed in black and blue suits leaving their briefcases in the gallery. This happened some few minutes away from the explosion. There is a connection. I’m sure that those bombs were in the briefcases.’’ Rhian ended statistically.

‘’At least we have something to tell the press. I’m sure we’ll be able to identify their faces.’’ Damien said.

‘’That’s the problem, Sir Damien. Not even one of those five faces were recorded on camera. All we have is their dress code. They seemed to be turning away from the cameras.’’

‘’Back to zero,’’ Santiago said exhaustedly.

‘’It’s not completely shattered. We have a lead that someone was involved with this. We can give this to the Police as proof. They might use the traffic cameras as of that moment to capture the perpetrators.’’