Chapter 236 - Mastermind

The rest of the work day finished up without a hitch, leaving Laz, Benny, Eddy and Abraham waiting on the street for Madison, Steph, Angie and Julia to finish up. As the girls were leaving the building, Chad was visible escorting the ladies out. If one looked at the girls faces, they could see that while Madison seemed happy with the attention, Steph looked lackl.u.s.ter, Angie looked neutral and Julia looked like she was barely holding back the need to punch him in the face. For the most part, it seemed like she had to remind herself several times that he was her boss and she couldn't do that.

Seeing the guys waiting for the girls, Chad said a few nice words of greeting to Laz's group as well before he turned away to go inside. Although Laz wasn't trying to pay attention to him, he noticed that Chad had smirked as he turned around, obviously happy about something. In Laz's view, the guy was just a clown and he wasn't going to take him seriously. Still, though, the man gave Laz a bad feeling.

"Finally..." Julia was the first one to commit on him taking off, appreciating for the first time Laz and the other guys acting as a deterrent.

"I don't know what your problem is. Chad is a real gentleman and was just trying to be friendly," Madison commented back.

"If that's what you want to believe, I won't stop you. But when he uses you and dumps you, that's your problem and I don't want to hear about it," Julia responded back in a huff.

"Hey! Now look here..." Madison was about to fly off at her.

"Alright. Alright. That's enough for now. Ok? Let's go figure out what we are doing for the rest of the day or if we just want to relax at home, ok?" Angie said, interjecting.

"You don't think Chad is like that, do you?" Madison put Angie on the spot.

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"Alright. Enough. Let's go. Dudes a d.i.c.k and that's all there is to it," Steph commented before walking forward at a face pace. She grabbed a hold of Abraham and took off while speaking to him about something quietly.

"What's this now?" Laz didn't realize they were so close.

"No clue. But those two hung out a bit yesterday while you were... at that place and now she seems to have warmed up to him. Well, kinda..." Benny commented while looking at the two whispering and laughing to themselves.

"Kinda?" Laz asked.

"Kind of like she found a little brother and is going to take advantage of him," Eddy finished up while laughing, causing Angie and Benny to laugh a little as well. Julia was still fuming, the same as Madison, so neither of them were in the mood to laugh.

"What do you think?" Madison directed the question at Laz.

"I mean... there is something to be said for brother and sister play... I'm just not sure which one of them will end up getting stuck in the dryer...?" Laz just answered with the first thing that came to mind, not really paying attention to what he said while looking at the two. Strangely enough, it was Julia who burst out laughing first, followed by Benny and Eddy while Angie and Madison looked confused.

Even though she had no idea what he meant, Madison did realize that Laz had understood her wrong.

"I mean, what do you think about Chad?" Madison decided to be more specific.

"Spoiled rich kid who is used to getting everything he ever wanted. And once he gets it, he doesn't want it anymore," Laz replied with his honest thoughts.

"You're just jealous cause even if you're better looking than him, he's rich." Madison jumped at the chance to defend this guy she just met to Laz who she had just known for a few days.

"Correction," Laz added. "His parents are rich and he's just sponging off of them. Now if he makes some money and buys a place himself, then bravo. But until then, he's just the same as other people I've met. And none of them were good people." Laz decided he was done talking and started walking in the direction of the apartment. Seeing that Laz wasn't going to talk any more, Madison eyed the rest of the group to see if anyone was willing to talk about their new boss, only to find that they were all starting to catch up with Laz, leaving her alone.

She had no choice to but to catch up.

...

Back at the crab shack, Chad was sitting alone in the upstairs office while tapping his fingers in thought and looking at some paperwork. He had several different employee files pulled out and set aside, including every one in Laz's group.

"If I can't get enough, I will just have to add these people in. At least they are a big group who is only in contact with each other. As long as every one of them goes missing, no one will know for a while," Chad said to himself before grabbing his cell phone.

He dialed a strange number, one that didn't follow any known area and number code for the US before waiting while it rang on the other end.

Soon enough, a person picked up.

"Pure blood only!" Said the voice at the other end.

"Pure blood forever," was Chad's reply back.

"What news? And we need more bodies. You're behind on your numbers." The voice on the other end of the line was masked and distorted. It seriously could have been coming from a man or a woman. There was no way to tell.

It always freaked Chad out and today was no different.

"I'm uh... having a hard time filling master's wishes. There aren't a lot of travelers just yet and I can't just make people appear out of thin air...." Chad tried to explain.

"I'm not interested in excuses. Most of the others have been keeping up with the requirements. However you and a few others seem to be lagging behind. This is not what was agreed upon," the distorted voice responded back, obviously not caring for Chad's excuses.

"I understand. If I am unable to deliver the amount needed by the end of the month, I have found a few groups of employees from outside of town. The only problem is that it will have to be the entire group that goes or none at all. If one of them goes missing, the rest will notice," Chad explained.

"Really? Hmm. Seems you thought ahead. Still, this is good, very good. It doesn't matter the number of people, we can handle that. You just need to make sure to have the required amounts in time. After all, if we can't get what we need, we will start with the ones who signed a contract in their place." The voice displayed no emotion what so ever.

"I understand. I will send their living information as a last resort. No worries. I said I would be able to handle this without fail."

"See that it doesn't fail. As this is all for the continuation of our people, a few sacrifices are necessary for the greater good."

"For the greater good!" As soon as Chad said the required response, the other side hung up. Chad couldn't do anything but sit there for a while after setting down the phone, worry etched in his face. It was easy to make tourists disappear, but if a large group of employees from his restaurant were to go missing, a lot of questions would ensue and that wouldn't be good for business. He had originally thought that signing up for the community program would give him a buffer, but now that he had come to this point, he finally understood that it wouldn't be that easy since they all had to fill out paperwork and such due to the program.

Chad briefly entertained the thought of not handing over their information to the agent, but quickly discarded that thought. He wasn't going to go down if he couldn't find enough people the fill his quota.

Chad could only hope that business would pick up soon, otherwise, he wouldn't have a choice.

...

In an active business complex slightly outside of town, a man put down the phone and then wrote a few notes in his ledger before getting up. He walked quickly to the main office without delay.

Since the light outside the door was on, he didn't bother knocking and just stood there silently, waiting. After a hour went by, the door opened as the light went out and two young men with white hair walked out, joined by another man.

"Young master Jesse is lucky to have such a good friend as you, young master Tommy."

"Yes, truly. To be willing to come here and take on his work personally shows you are a man of character."

"I'm just doing my part. Thank you both for the hard work of leading the children in this endeavor. Please let me know if you need anything else."

"Pure blood only!" Both white haired men said in enthusiastic voices.

"Pure blood forever," Tommy replied back, seeing the two young men off. After they had vanished, Tommy's face which had been smiling before, quickly turned into one filling with mocking and hatred.

"Like I would f.u.c.k.i.n.g be here working if I had a choice. Damn son of a bitch is getting too far ahead of himself. I swear to f.u.c.k.i.n.g god he thinks he owns the world now... Get your a.s.s in here." Tommy turned around after ordering the office worker inside.

The large room was decorated lavishly, with plush sofa's, a wall sized 4k, potted plants and a large wooden desk at the center. The only things that seemed out of place was a spot in the corner where something square was covered with some white sheets, as though it was hiding something underneath. Despite this, the office worker didn't dare let his eyes stray.

"What's the final report?"

"Sir. We are still coming in under quota. Several of our contractors have mentioned that there has been a low turnout of tourists so far, thanks in part to the disconcerting rumors that had been floating around."

"We already have the media departments working on that. Although rumors are a problem, it doesn't take much to get people to change their opinions as long as they hear what we want them to hear."

"Still sir, it seems like we might have to start ramping up taking a few locals as well, unless we can get a large group to show up quickly," the office worker suggested while looking over his spreadsheets.

"A large group quickly... hmm... Actually, that should be easy enough."

"How so sir?"

"Just ask the media department to put out subtle suggestions that there might be some riots occurring due to the infestation of this city. That should lure thousands of those idiot hunters here," Tommy said with a smile.

"Sir?"

"What is it?"

"You plan to use hunters as sacrifices?"

"Why not? They are perfect in the end. Not only can we make many of them disappear, but we can also place blame on the infected which will fire them up more and cause more to come. It's a perfect cycle."

"But sir..."

"No buts. Our time is tight and that prick Jesse wants to see what's behind the curtain. Besides, Annie's 'prison' experiment has been showing very promising results for a while and I refuse to lose to that s.l.u.t. Make it happen." With the, the office worker hurried to carry out his bosses commands while Tommy sat down at his desk, eyeing the covered object in the corner.

"I swear to god I will rip his d.i.c.k off and make him eat it one day. But for now, having him lead this shit isn't bad. And being here isn't horrible either. At least I get first pick before things get themselves wasted." Tommy laughed, a harsh and grating laugh that seemed like it came from a madman, rather than from someone who was still under twenty years old. The appearance of blood red marks appeared on his face as though it was tracing a vein pattern.

Hearing Tommy's laughter throughout the room caused the object under the sheet to shift slightly and let out a painful and woe filled m.o.a.n.