Meeting Mr. Boni

Allen picked up his pace as he noticed the men following him. There seemed to be at least five of them.

'What the heck!'

Ryan has been going in and out of this area for more than a month and nothing happened. Yet, he was found out in three days.

He made a sharp turn at the corner to shake off the followers. He went into an alley as he formed a plan in his mind.

'Where shall I go?'

As soon as he saw a junction, he turned again. Walking alone in a quiet alley would not be favorable for him in this condition. He went onto the main road as fast as he could and mixed in with the crowd. He left the territory swiftly after that and walked towards his hidden car.

Just when he touched the car door, he felt a cold metal piece at the back of his head.

"You need to follow us, Mr. Detective."

Allen silently raised his both hands in the air.

'Talk about unlucky.'

The men searched his body and took his pistol and phone. Then, put a sack on his head and dragged him along.

Allen kept counting seconds on his mind to estimate the duration. After walking for about 20 minutes, Allen realized that the men pulling him had stopped. They did not make a sound along the way and Allen also did not question them either. He knew that he would not be getting any answer from them so he decided to save his breath.

"This is the rat?"

Allen heard a man's voice from in front of him.

"Yeah, where's Mr. Boni?"

One of the men pulling Allen asked.

"Upstairs. He's been waiting for you without sleeping."

'That must be their leader,' Allen thought.

The men dragged Allen upstairs. As soon as they stopped, he heard one of the men's voice.

"We're back, Mr. Boni."

"Remove the sack," a hoarse voice coldly ordered.

It took a few seconds for Allen's eyes to get used to the light as they had been covered by the sack for quite a while.

As soon as he became adjusted to the light, he looked towards the man sitting on an armchair behind a desk. This man seemed to be in his forties. He had black, curly hair and sharp brown eyes. His bulky muscles were bulging from under his brown shirt.

From the corner of his eyes, Allen saw that there were at least ten men in the room and all of them were carrying fire-arms.

'Damn! It's not looking good at all.'

No matter how much brain-juice he squeezed out, he could not think of a way out from this situation.

"Lieutenant Rogers," the only man sitting in the room made a sound.

"I'll get straight to the point. I know you are doing your own duty but your moves these days have been very bold. Did you forget what kind of people rule this city?"

"Of course not. How dare I forget. But please try to understand my state. I'm only a government servant and I have to follow orders. I really have no intention of offending you guys at all."

Allen explained while trying his best to maintain his polite smile. His answer made Mr. Boni narrowed his eyes.

"Orders? Who wants to pick a fight with us? Huh?"

Before Allen could answered, he continued.

"You ruined our business in the university so we made an example out of a cop. But it seemed it wasn't enough at all."

Hearing Mr. Boni's words, Allen felt a surge of fury but he quickly control his mood. It was very important to be calm in this kind of condition.

"Tell me who gave you such orders," Mr. Boni roared.

Allen did not give an answer but smiled helplessly.

'Who else but my dear friend would make me walk into a tiger den?'

It was not like he enjoyed being sacked and pushed around by a group of people carrying Uzis[1].

Becoming impatient to Allen's silence, Mr. Boni said, "Well, it's not important who gave the order. We can burn down your whole department if we want to anyway. Kill him the same way as the other cop. This time, drop the corpse in front of the police station."

"Yes," the five men who brought Allen answered in unison.

Then brought Allen out of the room the same way they brought him in. Allen really did not like being covered with the sack.

"Why so cautious? Aren't you gonna kill me anyway? Haven't you ever heard that 'dead man tells no tales'?"

"Shut up!" One of the men shouted as he elbowed Allen's back.

Allen did not argue anymore as he was busy guessing the direction they were taking him. He noticed that he had been climbing down another set of stairs.

'The basement,' Allen made a speculation.

He continued counting the seconds. While he was in Mr. Boni's room, he noticed from the wall clock that they had stayed in that room for ten minutes. Now, they had left the room for about five minutes. That meant he needed to wait at least another five minutes.

The problem was he was not too sure if he would still be breathing five minutes later. He should be, right? The way they made people bleed out would take more than a few minutes for a person to die.

They pushed him down to lie down on the metal bed and tied his four limbs.

"Is the drug ready?"

"Here."

Cold sweat started to form on Allen's neck due to that conversation.

'Damn you, Ryan! Didn't you say that you won't easily let us die?'

Allen tried moving but he was too tightly bound by the bonds.

Soon, he felt a sharp pain under his fingernail. They had injected the drug.

"Can't you guys remove the sack now? It's too suffocating," Allen complained.

"Too noisy," a man said.

"Why don't you cover his mouth with something? He's gonna make more noise when we cut him," another one suggested.

"Fine," the first man removed the sack covering Allen's head.

But, before they could cover Allen's mouth with duct tape, he shouted, "the basement."

"What?!"

The man quickly covered Allen's mouth but he was a bit puzzled by the latter's action. What was the point?

Soon, that question was answered by the man removing Allen's shoes. They were planning to remove Allen's trousers so that they can observe the bleeding properly.

"Crap! There's something in his shoe. What is this?"

The man said as he held a small mechanical device in his hand.

"Go tell Mr. Boni," the man ordered the guy nearest to the door as he threw the device towards him.

"Right," the latter answered as he caught it. Then, he opened the door and quickly left.

However, the door opened again almost instantly and gunshots muffled by the silencer sounded in the room.

Although Allen could not get up to see the whole scene, he knew what had happened.

'Well, the five minutes should be up.'

Uzi[1] - a type of submachine gun