Chapter 72: Captive

Upon receiving the assurance of the Minister of the Department of Investment, Chen Chen “changed his mind” and remained in Windhoek.

Very soon, it was midnight on the 28th December.

“Boss, I just spoke to them. The Namibian officials still haven’t found the culprit!” in the room, Qian Wenhuan put down the phone and exclaimed angrily, “Worthless lot!”

Chen Chen was seated on a sofa nearby, playing with his phone. He said without even making a point of turning around, “Don’t be upset, there’s a good reason they can’t find the culprit.”

“Ah?” Qian Wenhuan turned to him blankly. “What’s the reason?”

Chen Chen only smiled without explaining.

At the same time, Chen Chen’s phone rang suddenly. He picked up the phone and heard Cheng Cao’s voice coming from the other end. “Boss, the car is ready.”

“Got it,” Chen Chen replied.

Qian Wenhuan was taken aback, he just realized he had not seen Cheng Cao for an entire day. Apart from Cheng Cao, several bodyguards had gone missing for the entire day as well...

“Wenhuan, I’m going to give you two choices now.”

After hanging up the call, Chen Chen suddenly raised his head with a solemn expression.

“Boss, go ahead...”

Qian Wenhuan felt a grip in his heart. He seemed to have thought of something.

“I’m going to take you somewhere in a short bit. When we get there, you’ll see another side of the company.”

Chen Chen lowered his voice. “After you see what goes on there, you’ll have to make a choice – Join our ranks or simply refuse.

“Should you choose to join us, you’ll become more or less a little restricted. For example, you can’t just simply quit or leak confidential company information...

“Of course, you’re free to refuse to join. If you refuse, I’ll have you sent back to Switzerland.”

Chen Chen continued explaining, “I’ll assign you as Wynn’s assistant. Once he retires, you’ll take his place as the new head manager to fulfill my previous promise. Naturally, you’ll have your freedom and can quit whenever you intend to.”

“I...” Qian Wenhuan muttered.

“No need to respond yet.”

Chen Chen advised sternly, “Think of your wife and children. Once you get involved with the other side of the company, you’ll not have a chance to back out! If you plan to quit by then, I’ll make sure to buy you insurance worth ten million so that the wife and children you leave behind will never have to worry about finances for the rest of their lives!”

Qian Wenhuan suddenly fell silent.

“You have one minute to consider.” Chen Chen motioned at the mechanical watch on his left wrist.

“Boss, I’ve already made my decision.”

To Chen Chen’s surprise, Qian Wenhuan answered without so much as a thought, “I already saw something like this coming. I always knew that there was something more to the company. After all, how many companies would come all the way out to Africa to build a nuclear power plant?”

Qian Wenhuan smiled bitterly. “Besides, I can tell that you need more men. I figured I might as well bet on you. Who knows, maybe I can advance further by sticking with you?”

“You have that much confidence in me?” Chen Chen asked.

Qian Wenhuan nodded solemnly. “I can’t explain it either but I can tell that there’s limitless potential in you even though you’re younger than me. My gut is telling me that I can’t go wrong with following you...”

“Excellent.” Chen Chen smiled. “I hope you won’t regret this choice in the future.”

After that, Chen Chen turned around and left the room.

Qian Wenhuan was taken aback. He quickly followed him.

They went to the ground floor of the embassy. Qian Wenhuan saw a bodyguard by the entrance of the embassy waiting for them in a Wrangler.

“Get in,” Chen Chen said before getting into the car.

Qian Wenhuan walked around the other side of the car and got in as well.

After the engine started, the Wrangler made its way into the narrow traffic network of the city of Windhoek.

Things were more complicated than Qian Wenhuan had expected. From the moment the two of them got into the Wrangler, they rounded countless corners in the city. After about twenty minutes, they suddenly entered a deep, dark alleyway.

Before Qian Wenhuan could process what was going on, Chen Chen suddenly made him get out of the car and made his way into a rundown van.

The van was driven by another bodyguard. Qian Wenhuan glanced at the logo of the van, hmm...

It was none other than the iconic vehicle back in Mainland China – the Wuling Hongguang[1].

Qian Wenhuan had countless questions floating in his mind now but knew better than to voice them so he kept his mouth shut and followed Chen Chen’s lead.

After switching cars for three more times, the two of them finally made their way out of the city. The car was parked by a deserted factory on the outskirts of the city.

“Boss.” Outside the factory, Cheng Cao suddenly approached them, accompanied by two bodyguards.

“Any casualties?” Chen Chen immediately asked when he saw Cheng Cao.

“Yes, two of our brothers are wounded. One has a fractured sternum and the other a fractured leg, they are both hospitalized,” Cheng Cao answered, “The rest is just minor injuries.”

“All good as long as it’s not life-threatening. Where are the others?”

“Posted inside waiting for your orders. We haven’t forced a confession out of them yet.”

Chen Chen nodded and let Cheng Cao lead the way until they saw two men inside a rundown engine room in the factory.

The two men were a black man and a white man respectively. They were both strapped onto the chair. The black man was built extremely large, almost double Chen Chen’s size while the white man was on the smaller side but still looked energetic.

When they walked into the room, the white man lifted his head and inspected them with eyes like a falcon’s.

“This is them.”

Cheng Cao gave an army green-colored rifle by the door several light kicks. “This is what they used.”

Chen Chen glanced down at the rifle. As expected, it was an AWP sniper rifle manufactured by British Precision International. It was one of the most classical rifles in the industry.

“Did they spill where they come from?” Chen Chen asked.

“Tara Private Security Company, that’s all they told me.” Cheng Cao shook his head. “They were recruited by the company. They don’t know anything else apart from the company’s orders.”

Cheng Cao paused for a brief moment before asking again, “Are we going to do it the classical way?”

“Do they have mobile devices?” Chen Chen asked.

“Yes. I put them into the interference room to avoid location tracking,” as Cheng Cao spoke, he turned to the man beside him, “Lil Wang, bring me their phones.”

“Got it.” The bodyguard beside him quickly left the room.

Chen Chen, on the other hand, walked in front of the two men. He drew two cigarettes from the cigarette box on the table and passed it to them with a smile.

The two men nodded to Chen Chen at the same time as a show of their gratitude.

He stuck the cigarettes between their lips and lit them with a lighter. Before he did so, Lil Wang returned to the room running. “Boss, here are the phones you requested.”

Chen Chen took a look at them. One of the two phones was a standard old school phone while the other one was an unbranded cheap smartphone with no password setup.

“We checked them previously. Apart from several contacts, there’s nothing else in them,” Cheng Cao walked over and informed them.

“Have you called those numbers?”

“We haven’t called them yet to avoid alerting them unnecessarily.”

Chen Chen nodded and inserted the few numbers into his phone. After a brief moment, Little X replied with an “OK” emoticon.

“Alright, let’s go.” When Chen Chen saw the message, he motioned to Qian Wenhuan and Cheng Cao, then turned around and left the room.

“Uh...” Little Wang and several other bodyguards were caught off guard. They looked at the two men strapped to the chairs then exchanged glances with each other, not knowing what to do.

Cheng Cao trailed behind Chen Chen. When he noted that no sounds were coming from the room even after them leaving, he unstrapped his gun and went back in.

“Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!”

A series of dull gunshots rang across the abandoned factory.

Qian Wenhuan shot up suddenly. He kept his head low and followed Chen Chen without uttering a single word.

“This is the other side of the company.” Chen Chen suddenly sighed before raising the question again. “What’s it going to be? Are you still sticking with your previous choice?”

Qian Wenhuan nodded.

“Excellent.” Chen Chen remarked while walking. “From here on, we’re on the same ‘team’. Wouldn’t hurt to communicate with Cheng Cao more from now on since you guys are going to be the core members of the company.”

“Ok.” Qian Wenhuan agreed silently.

Except that his legs would not comply with him and continued trembling even after leaving the factory...

[1] A class of compact multi-purpose vehicle.