Chapter 121
"You don't want to do that."
Damien called, loud enough to reach the angry Mr Colton. Yet, Mr Colton didn't call off the bouncer hurrying towards Damien. Damien knew that it was the matter of time before the angry looking fellow get to him.
"I'm sure you are wise enough not to harm someone who could prove useful to you."
When Damien made the end of that speech, the bouncer had gotten to him, reached out his thick arm to throttle Damien.
"Albert. Let him go."
Mr Colton called at the bouncer who seemed to have something else in mind. Damien could tell that if Mr Colton had delayed another second, Albert would probably be having the best moment of his life. Of course beating him to pulp?
"Drag him here."
Mr Colton added. Albert who was very eager to do his work, dragged Damien so effortlessly. Damien pretended to struggle,
"Why are you so rough?"
Damien protested.
He glared at Albert who pretended to want to hit him. Damien flinched at the body movement. Damien heard some of Steven's men laugh at him.
"This bastard has nothing but mouth. If you have left him to me, Mr Colton. Not even his ghost would be able to stay a second to say goodbye." "Who told you that you could speak out of turn?"
Steven, noticing Mr Colton's disapproval with the henchman who had spoken, had lashed out.
Mr Colton looked away from the lot of them to Damien who seemed to be back to his old self already.
"Let's hope for the sake of you life that you know what you are talking about."
Damien chuckled wryly at the man.
"Do you want me to pluck all your teeth. Then we'll see how cute your handsome face would look without teeth." "Let him be, Albert. He could come in handy."
"You have no calm, bruh. Why are you so restless?"
That was Damien to Albert. Damien knew that he didn't have time for this, so he wouldn't want to drag things out.
"Enough of that! Get to the point already or I'll be forced to put a fucking bullet through your head."
Not only Mr Colton's voice changed but his eyes too. They had grown red.
NO MORE JOKES, DAMIEN.
Damien cautioned himself. He nodded then took two steps forward. Albert wanted to interfere but Mr Colton glared him down.
Damien was beginning to admire the professional side of the short and round man. It was quite charming. But he had a feeling that the man's character would be rotten. A disgusting contrast to his outward ---
"I overheard you talking about red gold."
Steven suddenly lunged at Damien and fisted his cloth, pulling him closer.
"Who do you work for? Are you a spy? How dare you overhear what ---"
"You'll scare the poor boy away, Steven. You would make him forget what he has to say."
Damien's eyes went from Steven to Mr Colton. Suddenly, Damien pretended to be scared, acting what Mr Colton had said.
"Ignore him. He has a Mafia blood. He is used to violence. Talk to me and ignore him."
Mr Colton helped Damien off Steven's rough grasp. The man straightened Damien's cloth then placed his soft, neat palm on Damien's shoulder.
HE MUST BE FILTHY RICH.
Damien opined.
"Hope you haven't forgotten what you have to say?"
Mr Colton asked. Damien shivered, pretending to be in shock.
"Allow me to do this."
Damien breathed in two to three times, shutting the doors of his eyes. Then he opened them again.
"My mother told me to do this whenever I am nervous... it would help calm my nerves and remind me of things the shock made me forget." Mr Colton nodded.
"Forgive me for being rude to you earlier. I wasn't in my right mind."
"I don't want to remind you to get straight to the point."
Damien found it interesting how easy it was for Mr Colton to switch characters. At a point he's being calm and loving, but then at the blink of an eye he's hostile and restless.
Damien would love to take a guess on whose father he might be amongst the girls. He had a name in mind but then remembered that some of the girls were becoming strangers... bringing up characters that he'd never seen them exhibited before.
He dumped the guesses and got on what he needed to do.
"Not really dwelling on things that have to do with education. Education sucks. I mean..."
He took another route of discourse.
"I'm skilled at determining what precious stone is the best. So, on my life, I can tell you if the gold, the red gold is actually authentic."
"How can you tell... you don't even look like a proper adult. You look 18 or something."
"I'm 19... will turn twenty soon. Come September."
"How dare you interrupt boss?"
One of Steven's henchmen was ready to have Damien's throat. Damien couldn't tell how many times he had watched his life flash through his eyes in just few minutes.
All the people there were just Panthers ready to tear on a prey. That was what he could see. And he wasn't seeing wrongly.
"Steven, let's hear him out."
"How can we, Mr Colton? What if he's playing some sort of game?"
Mr Colton's eyes suddenly changed,
"Why are you so eager to send the poor boy away, Steven? Could it be... do you have a card up your sleeve? Are you scared that the boy would really find out that you have fake gold?"
"No, never, Mr Colton. I could never be so brazen. If I have fake gold I wouldn't dare come to you... I know those who I could --"
"You know, Red gold is very scarce..."
Damien had cut Steven short. Again. Steven was very mad. Damien could tell, but he didn't care. After all, Mr Colton was interested in what he had to say. He continued,
"...unlike the usual and common yellowish gold that everyone knows... it's hid away in very distant places. So, getting one at this period... this urban period... there must be an expert to prove its authenticity."
"How can you even test it? With your tongue, teeth or wide and uncouth mouth? Huh? You don't even have a machine."
Steven looked away from Damien to Mr Colton.
"It's really sad that you still don't trust me, Mr Colton. After several businesses we've done. But what's the point of dwelling on that? If you really want to test the gold, choose one of the best testers across the country and we will go there right away. Instead of trusting a dumb stranger who claims to know all."
Observing and noting the sudden change in Mr Colton's face, Damien realized that things weren't going well for him.
"I have a machine. Across that alley."
Damien raised his voice.
"Really? You do?"
He seemed to had gotten back the interest of Mr Colton.
"I wouldn't make a joke in such a serious moment."
"This psycho."
Mr Colton chuckled wryly. Damien couldn't tell whether that was a good sign or bad one.
"Steven, didn't you say that the gold is across the alley?"
Steven nodded reluctantly. Damien still couldn't tell why Steven was so much against him.
DOES HE HAVE AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE?
AFTER ALL, HE ALSO SHOULD BE EAGER TO TEST THE GOLD BROUGHT TO HIM BY THAT CUNNY MAN.
Damien could go on and on with those thoughts but he didn't have the luxury of time. Not at that moment.
"Then let's go at once."
Steven wanted to argue again,
"I don't want to hear it, Steven. We should go now. I don't know why I should have to remind you that I have a board meeting soon."
To Damien, Mr Colton said,
"Lead the way. And pray that you don't lose your head today."
Damien said nothing as he led the way out of the restaurant. His mind was already occupied with something else. He needed to find a
moment to himself. He knew he
couldn't do that when those
watchful eyes were creeping all over
him.
Not long after, they got to where the truck was and the henchmen guarding the truck bowed.
"Give me just few seconds to go get the machine."
"Ten seconds."
Damien hurried away till he found a place which was quiet. He flipped the system window out and tapped on the store icon.
"Where can I find a device that scans gold..."
He wasn't sure yet, he kept scrolling through the myriad of things he was yet to buy.
"Oh this."
His finger hovered over a device called,
NETHER SCANNING DEVC.
He clicked on the three dots at the top right corner of the device and the detail popped up.
SCANS ALL THINGS, RANGING FROM THE NETHER ONES TO THINGS RELATED TO THEM.
"What the fuck is thisher shit!
Why should I care what it means? As
for
far as Ram concerned, it says that it scans everything. That should do
me
én.kikistories.com
He exchanged about five thousand experience points to get the device. He brought the device out of the system store.
"Two fucking seconds more!!!"
He heard someone calling.
"No shit."
He hurried out and back to the waiting group.
"What the fuck is that? It doesn't even look like a machine. What could you possibly do with that round black tablet?!"
"Where is the gold? Why isn't it outside yet?"
Damien paid no attention to the talkative Steven.
"Watch your mouth little one."
Albert snapped at Damien. Damien wasn't seeing any of them, not anymore. He wanted to see the statues so badly.
"Bring them out..."
Mr Colton called.
"Mr Col--"
"Now!!!"
He cut Steven short and the henchmen got to work. They brought out the statues from the truck.
Damien walked to the statues and placed the pointy part of the device on the arm of a statue and it beeped. He showed the green light to Mr Colton,
"Here... the green light means it's great and in perfect shape. You could make more than fortune out of it."
He turned and walked to the next statue, as if their feedbacks meant nothing to him.
He scanned that too and it beeped green. Mr Colton nodded after Damien showed it to him.
"Really, Mr Colton? You believe him? What if that thing is just some random device that beeped whenever it touches some random things?"
Damien walked to Steven,Property © NôvelDrama.Org.
"If I may, Mr Steven. Shall I also scan you?"
"What's this bastard talking about? Do you want me to slap you to death?"
Steven was very pissed off at how collected Damien looked. It pissed him off real good.
"What do you have to lose, Steven? After all, if he's wrong you'll be right."
Even without Steven's permission, Damien conducted the scanning test and at the end of the day sighed.
"I don't know how you'll take this Mr Steven."
"Speak you retard!"
"In two days' time, you would suffer from arthritis which would leave you grounded for about two months."
Steven suddenly bursted out crackling and cackling. When he found his voice,
"This boy must really be nuts.
et
Arthritis he said. For your information turd, I was with my doctor yesterday who took a sean
and told me that I'm whole
To Mr Colton, Steven said,
as hail!"
"Now you see where trusting this stranger has brought ---"
"Answer your call, Mr Steven."
Damien called Steven's attention to his buzzing phone. Mr Steven had been so carried away that he didn't notice his phone ringing.
"Oh... what a great timing. It's my doctor."
Steven was so excited.
"In short, I'll put it on speaker."
He answered the call,
"Hey doc, I was just going to ---"
"Mr Steven, I'm so sorry..."
The voice which came over the speaker poured a bowl of water on Steven's burning glee.
"Sorry? w-what d-do you mean?"
He stuttered.
"The test from yesterday was wrong. I'm so sorry. You have to come to the hospital right away."
"Why... what are you talking about?"
Steven was getting all mad.
"In probably three days' time, you would be hit by an extreme pangs of arthritis. I can't tell why such thing would happen to an agile ---"
"Fuck! Fuck! I'll skin you alive!!"
Steven hurled his phone away in rage.
"I have to go, Mr Colton."
He was also restless as he turned to leave.
"I'll wire the money to your account. You take care of yourself."
Mr Colton promised.
Steven didn't even wait, he hurried to his car and got on. He drove off with his henchmen, leaving the truck behind.
Mr Colton turned to Damien...