Chapter 427 - Danger and trouble (21)

11 May, JL International Mall, City F

"Lexi? Thank goodness no. Even with my limited field medical knowledge this woman has a slim chance to survive. She has been crushed by that planted for hours. The fact that we have freed her give her the best chance she would ever have."

Joseph paused and looked over towards where David and Matthew were. He quietly said, "I will stay here until the medics get here, but the sooner we find Lexi the sooner he will settle down."

"He needs to. I am surprised that Head Honcho is allowing him anywhere near this. Apparently, they had a huge argument on Thursday night. On the flight here he expressed that he was concerned about how he would handle this emotionally."

"Reality, if it were either of our wives, I suspect we would handle it worse than he is. In everything I have observed he has only allowed those emotions to come across a couple of times. If he did not let those emotions to come to the surface occasionally, we would be criticising him for that. The Boss has been so stressed since we arrived on site. The police focus has been on a criminal prosecution of those involved. They have wanted to deny that this was a terrorist incident but have accepted until it is ruled out that it will be deemed to be one."

"True, we had that with the incident when the boss was shot, but at least we had someone that logically to deal with to smooth that situation over."

"Ben, if we are honest, we know that this will have been done by a suicide bomber, not a set explosion. The boss is not that stupid that when we came in for a quick look, he did not reach that conclusion himself. The police ide of gathering evidence is useless because nothing will exist at least near the explosion site to convict the mastermind. Added to those issues, the boss has been having to act on behalf of the owners of the Mall. We both tend to forget that when it boils down to it he is the second master of the Rong Family, owners of JL International. That has put him in the position until an executive director arrives from the company headquarters he has to act on behalf of the company itself, because the police wanted to argue as private property we had no right to be involved unless the owner agrees."

"I forgot that," responded Ben. "He has never, in the time we have been friends, played on that status to us. He has made it clear time and time again when superiors in the past wanted to demean him for his family background that his only desire was to be a soldier and serve the country."

"True. I remember one occasion him say, that he was no different to any other soldier who joined, in that he wanted to serve." came Joseph's response. After a brief pause, he added "Now go. The quicker you get searching further, the better chance we have to locate Lexi and calm the boss down."

Ben nodded and said "That will reduce one of the stresses that the boss has. Hopefully, his brother sends someone from the company to take that stress from him."

Taking Joseph's direction, Ben wandered away from Joseph. Thinking, Ben realised how much the boss had on his plate. Utter worry about his wife, dealing with antagonistic local police, a terrorism investigation, a rescues mission and dealing with matters for the family company. If it were him, he would not have coped. The boss was, just having his emotions break through occasionally.

Watching carefully, Ben could see soldiers assisting people up, and escorting them out towards medical assistance. Most of the people here were more in different states of shock with what happened. There were a few that had injuries, because someone had seemed to fall on them or they hit, with the shockwave a wall or something solid.

Moving off towards the shattered glass lift area, Ben could see an unconscious woman on the ground. While there were people around her, there was just something that made him pause and move closer. As he approached, he could hear a couple of voices say "Rich b*tch. She deserves to get whatever she gets."

"True. Only problem is I hate unconscious bodies but taking a rich b*tch like her would be something that I could get over that. Doing a rich b*tch, karma for all of them treating us like dirt. We better look around to find a few more, because I do not believe this one will satisfy us all."

Ben quietly drew his sidearm. Regardless of who this was, these criminals deserved no fair treatment. Observing carefully, while there was ten, thugs only, he knew he would be able to take them all. He pondered the situation, and quietly replaced his sidearm, re-securing it in its holster. Carefully and quietly he sent a quick morse message on his comms equipment regarding his location and the problem before switching it off.

Quietly, without being noticed by the thug Ben moved closer to them, keeping a careful eye on what they were doing. Despite all their words, they seemed not to be moving towards the woman they were surrounding. All he could see was a pair of red soled high heels and the ankles of the woman. 

He thought about the shoes, and the comments the men made, and he drew the conclusion that the woman must be wearing a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes. He recalled having been shown a few pairs of them to identify key features. From looking at the CCTV footage that Joseph made available to them on the flight, he recalled seeing in those few frames of the woman they believed, based on all evidence was Lexi, was wearing a pair of them.

Sizing up the situation, Ben decided he needed to move and came up saying "Gentleman, move away of face the consequences."

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