The Pride Game

Chapter 9

"Why did we have to come here!" Jonathan asked; he wasn't comfortable in this place. The passengers have disembarked. There were six people in the car Jonathan was driving some time ago.

Not only did Jonathan ask Samuel about their current whereabouts, but the old man and two others also asked Samuel the same thing.

"Are you sure we should wait here?" asked a Pakistani man, his name was Abdul.

Samuel nodded his head. "Yes, I think we should wait here."

So far, Samuel's guess has never been wrong, so the old man and Abdul did not protest at all. Near them, many people came. They were at the underground station, waiting for someone to arrive, but no one came to them twenty-five minutes later.

"Are you sure that this is where we're going?" Jonathan's voice lowered, he knew Samuel had good analytical skills, but he wasn't sure that Samuel's guess this time was correct. "I also got the same message as you." Jonathan opened his cell phone, and he gave it to Samuel.

Samuel's eyes went wide, and he read the message. The message was sent simultaneously, from the same number, but with different contents.

"Look at the messages on each other's cell phones!" said Samuel quickly. His heart was beating fast.

The clock on his message asked him to come at five in the afternoon, while Jonathan's cell phone statement read twenty-five minutes past four.

"I didn't get any messages," said Abdul's friend, whose name is Jin.

Samuel turned to Abdul; he asked with a worried question haunting his head for a long time, why did the invitee ask us to come at different times?

He swallowed his saliva.

"I'm fifty past four," said Abdul. He looked at the contents of his cell phone.

While the old man said, "I'm thirty past four."

And the woman looked at them all and said, "I'm thirty-five past four."

The eyes of the five people who had got their respective schedules looked at Jin. "I don't have a schedule yet; maybe mine isn't today," he said.

Samuel's eyes looked at the newspaper seller; he suddenly became excited. "Wait here, and I'll go over there." He pointed at the newspaper seller, and the five people were curious about what Samuel was looking for, so they followed Samuel.

"Are you still selling the newspaper edition a month ago?" Samuel asked the newspaper seller; unfortunately, the newspaper seller who heard Samuel's question was offended. He kicked Samuel out. "You think my wares don't sell!" He took the stick and hit Samuel. "Go! Go! Otherwise, I will call security!" threatened the newspaper seller.

"Ow!" cried Samuel; he felt the pain from the blow from the newspaper seller. The old man was offended. "Get out of my sight! You useless humans!"

When Samuel tried to dodge the old man's punch, his eyes fell on the sheet of newspaper that the seller used as a bed. "Wait! Wait! I'll buy the newspaper!" cried Samuel.

The old man did not believe what Samuel said, and he still hit Samuel with his stick. "I told you to get out of my stall! You still dare to talk here! Get out of here! What a useless human!"

"Aw! It hurts, Sir! I want to buy your newspaper! Aw! Please don't hit again, Sir!"

Jonathan and the others scattered, avoiding the newspaper seller and Samuel circling them. Samuel shouted, "Help! Help!" but others were wise enough not to get into trouble with the newspaper seller.

They wondered why Samuel wanted to buy the newspaper on which the father slept, but when they saw the sheet of paper, Jonathan gasped and immediately helped Samuel.

"Sir! Sir! Wait! Stop!" exclaimed Jonathan with a pitiful face. He took money out of his pocket, and he still had to save a lot to stay alive until the end of the month. "Here, Sir. I'll pay for this paper," Jonathan said, taking the dollar bill from his pocket. "I'm sorry about my friend, he's crazy," Jonathan begged the old man.

Samuel glared at Jonathan; Jonathan had just said he was out of his mind. His teeth gritted, but Jonathan ignored him.

When the man's eyes fell on the money Jonathan had shown him, he suddenly stopped and counted with his index finger pointed at it. "One, two, three, four." He winked. "Four? That's a lot? How many newspapers would you like to buy, young man?" asked the man. Jonathan immediately pointed to the sheet of newspaper that the man was sleeping on.

Feeling mocked, the man shouted again, "Do you want to be beaten!"

Jonathan's hands moved wildly in front of his chest. "No. No. Look. This money is real. Then why should I joke with you?" he asked.

The old man's shoulders rose and fell, he was annoyed and promised to beat up the young people if they joke on him but his eyes betrayed his body. He wanted the money. "Give me the money right now, so I know you're not kidding me!" he snapped.

Jonathan bit his lip; it was tough for him to give the money to the old man, but his face was ferocious, so he couldn't help but share the money with the newspaper seller.

"Thank you!" said the old man, taking what Jonathan was clinging. "Take this."

Still shielding his head from the old man's punch, Samuel occasionally glanced at Jonathan. The man walked with a fierce face and immediately gave the newspaper to Jonathan. "You all better get out of here!" exclaimed him with a look still angry.

Samuel took advantage of this opportunity, and he immediately ran towards Jonathan. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he said as he bowed several times. His body was in pain because of the blow from the newspaper seller earlier. The man struck him like he was chasing a street dog. He still stung from the impact.

Jonathan ignored him; he immediately walked away from Samuel and followed his other friends.

Samuel followed behind them; in front of him, Jonathan spread the newspaper, studied it, and found what Samuel was looking for.

"What did you see in the newspaper?" Jonathan asked; he folded the paper and showed the paper's title on page five. "Is this what you're looking for?" he asked.

All the former detectives surrounding Jonathan looked in the direction Jonathan was pointing.

The pieces of paper in each envelope were taken from a newspaper published one month ago.

"Someone who has sent an invitation to us is a wealthy person," said Alena; she took the invitation she had crushed earlier so that Samuel and Jonathan would not find out. She matched it with every title in the newspaper. "He bought the newspaper in bulk and only needed one page to cut and paste in this invitation letter."

Samuel nodded his head. "Look. Everything we need for an answer to this invitation is in last month's paper." Samuel paused his sentence. His index finger pointed to another part still listed on page five. "Here, in this paper, it is written that the work on the three projects carried out in the first three months of this year amounted to seven million dollars. That means--"

Jonathan's eyes lit up wide, his mouth open as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "That means seven million dollars will be given to the winner of this game?"

Everyone looked at Samuel, their eyes sparkling. Samuel nodded his head. "Yes, seven million dollars will go to the winner of this match."

"How do we confirm this match?" asked Abdul; he still couldn't believe it, his palms were wet, he wanted the money.

***

"Sorry, Abdul. But you can't come with us." A friend who was going to go on a case refused Abdul to come with him.

Abdul is confused. He didn't know what he had done wrong. "But there's my name on the list." Abdul pointed to the list still stuck to the wall.

Then he ran to the laminated list paper. His eyes widened. He really couldn't believe it. Why isn't his name there! "It was still there this morning! This morning my name was still there! I'm not lying! My name was there!" Abdul shouted. He hit the wall where the paper was pasted, while the others ignored his protests anymore.

"Come on, let's go," said his friend to the others and was about to leave Abdul alone.

Abdul's chest hurts because his superiors always ignore him.

"Hey, you!" Abdul ran; he immediately grabbed his friend's collar. "Hey, stop all of you!" His eyes were filled with anger. It was as if all the blood had pooled on the top of his head. He was filled with emotion.

"What do you want to do!" challenged his friend, grinning at Abdul.

"You lecherous men! You guys always slow me down like this!" shouted Abdul. He did not accept the treatment of his friends.

With all his strength, Abdul punched the man in the face in front of him.

The punched man licked the blood that was dripping from his lips. "Ah, so this is what you want. Fine," he said, shrugging his shoulders. He smiled horribly. Then walking to Abdul, he took the ink on Abdul's desk and sprayed it into Abdul's eyes, making Abdul scream. "My eyes! My eyes!" shouted Abdul.

His friend laughed evilly and immediately removed the tie from his neck, and he immediately strangled Abdul's neck. Abdul could not scream, he kept on struggling, but no one helped him. Abdul's hands drooped limply; the noose around his neck was so painful, he was helpless. His friend was so satisfied, and he let Abdul to the floor then spat on him.

"What is the problem?" Their superior came out of the room and asked his nephew.

His nephew adjusted his tie as before. He smoothed the edges of his shirt that had come out of his pants.

"This man won't cooperate. But don't worry, Uncle. I've taken care of him. He's like a wild horse out of his harness, so I have to remind him again where he is."

One corner of his uncle's lips lifted; he immediately called a guard there and asked them to take care of Abdul's body.

***

Samuel stood in front of them all. "We don't need to confirm anything with them. They already know that we're coming to their place."

Abdul's eyes widened; in his mind, seven million dollars was calling him; he wanted to take revenge on those who had insulted him. "Is that true?"

Samuel nodded his head again. "Yeah, that's true. They wouldn't have given us our departure schedule if we weren't interested in participating in this match."

"I want to come," Abdul said earnestly. "My good name will be recovered." He clenched his fists again tightly.

Behind Abdul, Alena raised her hand. "Me too," she said confidently.

The old man glanced in the other direction. He is the oldest among the others. "When I was young, I was the greatest, but when I got old, they didn't want me anymore. I was considered a germ and trash in the CDA circles. I will prove to them I will win this match. They will be surprised when I have a lot of money," promised the old man.

Samuel looked at him pitifully. It's not that old man's fault if he is the old man now; it's a natural process, but those damn CDA clowns have branded this old man the scum of society! He is not the trash of society, but the CDA! They are the absolute scum of humanity! Samuel growled in his heart.

Alena turned her body to understand what the old man was going through. "Me too. They just branded me as the wrong person because of my father's fault. I deliberately intended to restore my father's good name by working there, but what I got was not that they changed and became able to understand my situation and my family, but the depraved deeds that I always find it there." Alena's face immediately changed; tension filled her whole body, her eyes narrowed as if she was looking at something that made her hurt.

Alena is a detective who was expelled from the CDA company because her father was a traitor in the CDA. His father was accused of leaking secrets to his client's enemies. Therefore the CDA was humiliated, and the client lost a lot of money.

Since then, Alena's presence has been considered bad luck by the CDA company, and one day, she was expelled from the company for no apparent reason.

"Why did you apply and work here?" asked Alena's boss; the man walked towards Alena. That night she worked late into the night. Alena saw her superior's lips licking his own out of the corner of her eye. Alena's heart was beating fast; her boss often abused Alena and insulted her in front of other employees.

"I love this job, and I will serve the company."

His boss's name was Mr. Shen. "You know, but the company doesn't want someone like you, why don't you devote yourself to me? I promise to be loyal to you."

Mr. Shen is a man who is forty-five years old; he has been married three times and has ten children. The man looked at Alena with hungry eyes. "Why don't you just resign and be my wife."

Alena could not stand Mr. He always looked down at her. "Mr. Shen, I thought you would discuss work. If you have nothing else to talk about, why not just get out of here. I still have a lot of work to do, and I must finish it right now."

Mr. Shen was not someone who likes to be rejected, so he immediately pushed Alena so that the woman's back was against the chair and licked Alena's smooth lips and neck. "Insolent! Let me go! Get your filthy mouth off me! Damn man!" Alena pushed the man so hard that he fell and hit his head on the floor.

The man groaned, and in his pain, the man got up and immediately slapped Alena on the cheek many times. "Insolent woman! Cheap w***e! Damn woman! Your father is just a loser who got kicked out of the company! You ignorant child! Why do you work in this place! Shouldn't children of parents like your father work in this place? You don't even deserve to be a prostitute in this place! Damn woman!" Mr. shoulder Shen shook, the eyes of the woman in front of him were closed, and she was bleeding profusely. His hand was about to slap Alena again, he was panting, his shoulders were shaking, he was furious, his emotions were overflowing, but suddenly fear overtook Mr. Shen.

This woman is dead...

That useless woman is dead. She had died by his hands. Now, what should I do? She died in my place. If this matter is discussed further, then he will be imprisoned.

This can't happen!