Save My Family

    Li Tian wants more answers but the old fortune teller puts the phone in her pocket and angrily replies , “I gave you all that you need to find the woman. You only have yourself to blame if you don’t find her in time to prevent the catastrophe and death of your child. Stop badgering me.” Li Tian’s phone rings and as he looks down at the phone the old woman disappears.

   Li Tian growls into the phone, “What do you mean the security cameras at the train station show no trace of Song Sara?”

   “Boss, we checked every one, from the ticket counters all the way to the platforms.”

   “Dammit! She obviously was there! She purchased a ticket to Hirachi City!”

   Tang Qiang is in the security room of the train station looking at the monitors. “I examined all the footage, are you sure she took a train?”

   Li Tian hangs up, “Useless!” What if the little girl  has a  drink and the aphrodisiac acts up again? Without me.. Li Tian’s face is darker than the bottom of a pot as he walks towards his car. 

  He takes out a cigarette and after he lights it he makes another call, “Any movement from that bastard Cadieux?”

 “No. He entered his villa and hasn’t come out.”

 “Did you tap into his phone?”

  Yang James pushes up his gold framed glasses and hesitates, “ Fu wasn’t able because Cadieux’s security is too tight. All his lines are encrypted.”

“So fucking what! You should be able to break through..fucking hell! What do I pay you idiots for! I need to find the woman!”

 Kang Mingshun has an idea. “Boss, I think it would be easier to find out from her friend, Han Bi. I’m sure she will contact her..she is her closest friend.”

 Li Tian nods and instructs Yang James, “Han Bi…see what you can find out from her. Song Sara won’t want her friend to worry so she will tell her what is going on.” 

 “Will do.” Yang James hangs up and he looks at the computer displaying a picture of Song Sara entering a train headed to Bashu City. He deletes the file. I fucking hope you never locate that little bitch! She is fucking with your head. I have never seen you this distracted!

  Once inside of the black Bentley Li Tian lights the cigarette he has been playing with between his fingers. “Go to the warehouse.”

  Kang Mingshun drives back to the outskirts of Catang City. When they arrive at their destination he pulls into the parking lot of a large warehouse. Li Tian reaches under the seat and removes a gun case. Watching Li Tian take long strides to the entrance of the building, Kang Mingshun pities the men they caught last night, another time they might escape with their lives but probably not today. 

  Li Tian approaches one of his men, “Did they say who put them up to the hijacking?”

  The man shakes his head, “Neither one would say. I prevented one of the men from swallowing a death pill.”

  “What did the pill look like? That might give us a clue to the mastermind.”

   He points to a black pill on a wooden table, “It has no markings.”

  Li Tian uses his pen to turn it over, “Hmm..I have seen this before but I can’t place it. Do they have any tattoos?”

  “No.”

  “Independent contractors.”

  He takes long strides over to where the two men are tied up. “I am not in a good mood today. I will give you one chance to die quickly. Tell me who is behind the hijacking and you get a bullet to the head.” He presses the gun to the shorter man’s bloody temple, “Fuck around…we strip your skin off until all that is left is…well…use your imagination.” 

 The two men stare at each other and the older of the two squirms in his seat, “We don’t know who hired us. I told that man there.” He nods in Tang Qiang’s direction. “Everything was done anonymously.”

  Li Tian takes a dagger out his pocket and with an emotionless expression stabs the man in his thigh. The man squeals in pain and tears roll down his cheeks, “Just kill me! I don’t know.”

  “Weren’t you listening, you only can end this quickly by giving me the name.”

  The man’s younger brother’s eyes redden and his voice is trembling, “Bastard! You fucking bastard!”

  Li Tian puts the dagger on the young man’s ear, “I would cut off your tongue for your insolence but you need to speak so an ear will do.”

  The man’s bloody ear drops onto the concrete floor and he screams while his whole body twitches in excruciating pain. “FUCK! FUCK! KILL ME! KILL ME!” He struggles to loosen the ropes around his wrist so he can get the pill from his sock. 

  Li Tian bends down his voice is low and threatening, “I really think you do know… but won’t say.”

  “He has my brother’s wife and two kids! If I say they die!”

  “How do you know he didn’t kill them already? How do you know I won’t kill them?”

  “If I tell you, will you save them? Kill me quickly?”

 “I said I will kill you quickly.”

 “Will you save his family?”

  “Why would I do that? Sounds troublesome. I will say I will kill the man who hired you.”

   The man clutching his bloody thigh grits his teeth in pain. “You have to promise me to save my family. My twins are only two years old and my wife…she is pregnant.”

  Li Tian suddenly thinks about Sara then looks at the man’s distressed expression. What would do if someone had Sara in their hands. He shakes his head, haha…what am I thinking that would never happen I am too smart. These two men are idiots.

  The man’s brother sees the hesitation on Li Tian’s face and says, “Please save my sister in law and the children. Ye had no choice.”

  “There is always a choice and you two made the wrong one stealing my shit!”

  He looks at his brother then spits out, “You are a billionaire what is one arms shipment compared to four lives! He forced me. A gangster came to my brother’s small trucking company and showed us a video of his pregnant wife and children tied up. His wife begged him to save them while the little ones kept crying, Daddy..Daddy..”

  “If we die, they live and get the insurance money and the company. If we tell you the man’s name he will kill them.”

  “So torture… then death I guess is your choice.  Your pathetic pleading for your  family won’t change my mind. I could give a rat’s ass about what happens to them.”

  The man missing an ear closes his eyes then opens them. He clenches his jaw and his voice is tinged with hate, “If you don’t save my brother’s  family, I curse your woman…your children to die a miserable death at the hands of your enemies.”

  Li Tian’s ink black eyes narrow dangerously and he is filled with rage. He grips the gun in his hand tighter then hits the man in the head with a great deal of force to vent his anger.  “You dare curse me!” He thinks about the strange fortune teller..her ominous prediction and he kicks the chair. The chair falls to the ground and the man has a strange smile on his face that Li Tian can’t see. Every man worries about his family…

   Kang Mingshun is standing next to Li Tian and notices his unusual hesitation. Is the Boss sweating? Could it be he is thinking of what the fortune teller told him? “Boss…maybe…”

  “SHUT UP!”

  Li Tian grabs the man still attached to the chair and flips him back up and orders, “Take back the curse.”

  The man laughs, “What has been said can’t be unsaid. ” He spits out a mouthful of blood. ” HA! I curse you again!”

  Li Tian feels a chill down his spine then punches him in the face. The other man is sobbing as he begs, “It was me that dragged him into this mess. Beat me.”

  Li Tian sneers, “Don’t worry until one of you spits out the name of the bastard who hired you both of you will be beaten!”

  He paces in front of the two men, “Tell me his goddamn name!”

  Li Tian’s phone rings and he steps away. He sounds anxious, “Did you find Song Sara?”

 “No. She hasn’t contacted Han Bi. It is like the woman disappeared into thin air.”

 “Keep looking.”

  The man who has his head lowered watching the blood oozing from his leg perks up his ears. He raises his head and as Li Tian walks towards him he excitedly says, “I can help you find the woman! My wife..my wife is good friends with Song Sara! Save my wife and she can contact her!”

   Li Tian stares at him with an incredulous expression, “Why should I believe you. You are grasping at straws to save your family. Is there such a coincidence? I doubt it.”

   The man continues, “No..no..listen to me…it’s true! We live in the same small town as her grandmother. We are neighbors. My wife and Song Sara have known each other since they were young. When Song Sara visits her grandmother she always stops by to visit. She is godmother to my eldest son! She was at our house last month for Little Ye’s birthday. He rambles, “She baked him a special cake…a delicious chocolate cake.” He sees the thoughtful expression on Li Tian’s face and his fingers grip the chair he is tied to as he pleads, “Please save my wife… she can help you find Song Sara.”

  Li Tian lights a cigarette, she baked a cake…sounds like he does really know the little girl. He stares at the two bloodied men, if Song Sara knew I was torturing her good friend’s husband  and let her friend die…how would she find out? Pfft! I am worrying about nothing. 

  He plays with the gun in his hand and blows out a puff of smoke, “There is another problem, since you know who I am and you know Song Sara…you need to die. If you reveal the mastermind’s name I can rescue your wife and family but can’t take the chance of you revealing my identity as an Underworld boss.”

  The man says, “I knew I would die when you captured us. I only want my family to live.”

  Li Tian is conflicted, Song Sara wouldn’t want me to kill these two pathetic men if she is godmother to his fucking kid! Fuck! He angrily puts the gun to the man’s temple with his finger on the trigger then abruptly removes the gun firing a bullet into the wall.

   “Name. I will find your family.”

   The man looks at his brother then says, “ I overheard the gangster on the phone…”

When Li Tian hears the name he starts laughing and crushes the cigarette under the sole of his leather shoe ..hahaha.. the old man really wants to die!