21: Smoke in the Cockpit

In the ballroom of a five-star hotel, Rick Hudson dined with his billionaire friends and business partners. A large variety of expensive wines was scattered across the large table. Every man had tried to outshine the other while placing the order. The sitting was far from over. The man of the hour, Rick Hudson, hadn’t visited the big city in years. It was only fair that he treated his pals that managed his ventures in the city with a dinner. No conversation concluded without a mention of a million or a billion dollars. Rick snickered at some of the tall tales. He had known some of them since high school. Dwight Shelton had declared bankruptcy twice in the last ten years. There was Billy Martin who had never seen the face of a million dollars. He only brokered deals between bigger fishes. There was Dominic Marshal who couldn’t help but get married every two years and usually ended up in a courthouse by the end of its first year. There was Jerry Carlyle who had gotten away with a decade of money laundering but got himself jailed for trying to bribe a cop on a red light. It was quite a laughable lot if one knew them like Rick did. There were only three or four genuine rich ones and they were the ones making least noise. Rick never liked these meetups. He just wanted it to conclude as soon as possible. It took them an hour and a half to fully catch up with each other. Dominic invited the lot upstairs to the casino. The ones with the lightest pockets were the first to jump up. Rick was trying his best to muffle his irritation. His friends caught him lacking enthusiasm and taunted him.
“What’s the matter Hudson? Afraid you gonna lose your estate?”, one of them spat and chuckled. Rick Smothered the urge to hurl the ashtray at his face. It was funny as the one making the remark was Dwight Shelton.
“You gonna bet with the money you’re not supposed to have?”, Rick fired back as he stood up. A roar of laughter made Shelton shrink with humiliation. A pat in the back from Rick made it better. The group was all smiles as they strolled to the casino.
Tables were set in advance and waiters awaited their arrival. They were welcomed like royalties. There was no one else at the tables. The entire hall had been reserved for them. Poker went on for an hour and Rick could barely stand it anymore. Ronald Mosely entered the casino. Rick was more than happy to see a friendly face. Ron looked serious and a bit anxious as he strode towards him. A thousand things sprang up in Rick’s head. Ron finally reached him.
“The men have him cornered in a restaurant. No way he is gonna escape this one”, he whispered in his ear, bending down. Rick was excited.
“Inform me when it’s done”, he whispered back and Ronald strode back out of the room, pressing his earpiece deeper. Rick’s friends detected the change in his mood but they decided to refrain from witty comments. He had the reputation of a short-tempered man and no one was willing to test him unnecessarily. They played on. For the first time in years they had seen Rick play that much. The table was full of life for thirty minutes or so. There was drinking, betting and a lot of laughing. Ronald returned to the room with a stern look on his face. Hudson awaited the news.
“He was expecting us. He shot at our men”, he whispered in Rick’s ear. Rick’s emotions shifted.
“Did you get him?”, Rick inquired, grinding his teeth.
“No but …”, Ron’s response was cut short with a loud roar from Hudson as he angrily stood up and slapped his mountain of poker chips across the table. His friends knew better than to ask or complain. He stood there for a moment with his eyes filled with rage. There was no sound around them except for his labored breathing. He strode out of the casino fuming as Ronald tried his best to keep up with his pace. It was a long and silent ride in the elevator. The two entered the car and left.
After a few long minutes of agonizing silence, Ronald pulled out his laptop and connected it to his phone. Rick’s head was too muddled to notice any of it. Ron turned the screen towards his employer and pressed play. Rick saw the camera enter a busy restaurant among other men with similar speeds. He stared at it wondering what he was looking at.
“All of our men wear cameras since the incident at the store. This footage was extracted from the one on the guy who got injured”, Ron explained.
Hudson watched more carefully. A man and a girl sat across the hall, the man’s back to the camera. One of the men fired a shot at him with his silenced pistol and missed. The bullet found the wine glass held by the girl at the table. The man at the table abruptly stood up and turned to his men with his gun aimed at them. It took him less than a second to fire two shots and all went blurry after that. There was chaos. The man with the camera went down for a moment before a couple of his team mates helped him out of there. The footage went black.
“Does it help in any way?”, Hudson asked his employee. He was desperate for results and all he had ended up with was a souvenir of his defeat.
“In a number of ways”, Ron responded dutifully. Rick Hudson as all ears. “The men were too rattled to notice anything useful but the footage tells us that he has someone he cares about in the city”, he added.
“A friend or family?”
“By the looks of the restaurant, meal and the one on one nature of the outing, seems more like a love interest to me”
“Who is she?”
“I will take me less than a day to figure that out”
Rick was impressed. He had always admired Ronald for his hard work and competence.
“If he proves to be too elusive, you know what to do”, Rick instructed.