17 February, Warren Gong's Villa, City K

Sitting quietly in his unremarkable car, David paused considering the meeting about to happen. As they closed in on the location where they would change to another vehicle for the remaining trip to Warren Gong's villa, David signalled to all but his driver to cover their faces with masks. While Warren Gong was unimpressed with this, through his men in place it was made clear that this was the only way he would meet.

While the Gong Cartel would enable the final manoeuvres to launch the physical and electronic attack, from his men in place several senior members utterly refused to take security seriously. Based on those reports, David knew he and those with him in the public eye needed act to prevent their identity being exposed.

As the car pulled to a stop, they quickly alighted and slipped into the vehicle that would take them to their final destination. David watched as his driver quickly locked himself in the car. He was no fool, Warren Gong wanted his name, and those of his companions. While the car seemed unremarkable the amount of technology in it would aid in protecting their identity. Along with everyone else, he had put on patented paint on gloves and body suits that would limit the DNA material and fingerprints that could be gathered.

Less than five minutes later, they were being shown into a meeting room in Warren Gong's villa. While there was no one there, David was not surprised. If Warren Gong and the other senior Cartel members that they were meeting needed to believe they controlled the situation, they would accommodate them now.

Sitting quietly, David pondered the conversation he had with Robert earlier. He was right in that he was using Abigail Mo, but at the same time there was just something about her that interested him. Before he could consider the situation more, his thoughts were interrupted, by the few men that had moved here along with Warren Gong and some other senior members of the Cartel with twenty guards. It was obvious that the Gong Cartel did not trust him and had something planned.

Standing up, David said "Gentleman.."

Stepping forward Warren Gong interrupted "We told your men, you cannot hide your identity here, otherwise we will.."

Idiots, wanting to threaten him. "Do you know who I am?"

"You are in our territory, and our rules prevail.."

"You sort my men and I out, not the other way Mr Gong. We told you at the outset that certain members identity would not be disclosed, and you agreed.."

"We are changing the deal. No hidden identities and that is that."

David quietly and discreetly signalled to his men to take out the guards, and within seconds the guards were taken out by two men. "You want to try. My men are better trained that your men, and my connections are better than yours. You have two choices; keep the deal and we will cooperate with you or my men will totally destroy you." David paused and looked at his men before adding "I give then two days.."

"Boss, we can do it in a day," came the response from one his men with a quick, but evil laugh.

"Well you heard them. It does not worry me if we leave, but you need us."

David could see his words hit home. While he hated threatening a group, he needed they had to realise that he rather than them was in control, and that had gotten through.

Warren Gong paused and signalled to his men still standing to take a seat, and David followed with his men.

David, when everyone was seated said "You called this meeting, so what do you want?"

Warren Gong was shocked, everyone else he dealt with at least wanted to show him some face and engage in small talk. ".."

David hammered home the advantage he had created "Look, my time is too valuable to waste with inconsequential meetings. My reputation should tell you everything, and my subordinates who are here with you are more than capable of anything."

"Mr Devil. You should know my reputation.."

"Your reputation is sufficient that I was willing to work with you. We both have our own goals. I have no need to know what you want, and before you ask you have no need to know mine. We have agreed to cooperate to allow us to reach our goals, no more no less."

"But there are rumours about your connections to.."

"Terrorists groups." David shook his head, and sarcastically added "And I thought you were smart enough.."

"I am not that dumb. I would not have been able to win the struggles to take control here nor to grow out activities to corner the market in weapons and other forms of smuggling. I have no issues with how people we collaborate with achieve their aims normally, the information I have connects you to various Islamic extremist groups. That is a step too far for us.."

Looking around, David could see that his men had all anticipated this. The Islamic groups they had been used were useful to get to this point as quick as they had, but he hoped it would not become a problem here.

"Let me just say, their goals and our goals did not correlate. But their myopic world view was something I could exploit for my end goal. However, let me reassure you we do not take that view. But that is not the reason you called me for a meeting. Other than my identity, you want something else. Cut to the chase, as I do not have time to waste, and I will see what I can do."

"No discussions about our plans?"

"Let me reinforce what is in our agreement. It made it clear that your plans have to be disclosed, hence the presence of my chosen subordinates in your group, but as long as we do not impact on your activities you have no right to know what we are doing. For that concession we agreed to provide specialist military training to select members of your group, and access to relevant intelligence my teams gather. Do not think just because I am here you can intimidate us to renegotiate. We will not hesitate to kill who we need to get what we want."

Taking a couple of deep breaths, Warren Gong knew renegotiating to get information and better training was out of the question. While initially he was flattered that the Devil and his minions were willing to work with them, this was turning out to be a bad deal, even though it secured his position.

Closing his eyes and opening it "There was a number of reasons. Firstly, I needed to meet you in person. Fine you will not remove your masks but take it on notice that it does make us uncomfortable to deal with you as we cannot judge things fully. We will take what you are saying at face value, but take this at face value, anything that makes us doubt that we will ensure they are removed. We have intelligence from sources in the police here that the group that work closely with the military special forces, had late December a select few members including their leader a John Nang locked in their offices undertaking something. We have nothing as to what they were doing, but one of our informants is almost absolutely certain that the second in command from the base entered the room at one point in time."

David quietly thought, that confirmed the information Robert had. Maybe these people were not as stupid as they seemed.

Warren Gong, oblivious to what David was thinking, continued "But I also need a personal favour. My late nephew Richard was married to Lexi Yao at his death. His will allowed his widow to keep custody of their son Dominic while she remained his widow, but she remarried a military officer Matthew Rong and they are fighting my sister and brother-in-law for the rightful custody of my great-nephew. My sources have nothing to take them down, can you help.."

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