25: The Venomous Arrow

The establishment of Bjorn Services Inc. bustled with deafening fire alarms and rabid red lights. Rick Hudson emerged from the building with a wide and sinister grin as he was escorted to his car, surrounded by his army of armed assassins, disguised as bodyguards. The mercenaries were just doing their job trying to shield him from any incoming projectile but Hudson knew that he was not the one in danger. He was requested to move quickly by a guard. Hudson decided to ignore it and the guard knew better than to try again. Rick was daydreaming the endless possible courses of action in front of him after the incident at Bjorn. He had cornered his target. It was just a matter of how and when for him now. He casually walked to his limo as his men scrambled all around him and he entered. Moments later, Ronald arrived at the scene from inside the building, clutching his handgun in one hand and barking orders on a radio with the other. He jogged to the limo and accompanied Hudson. The convoy sped out of the compound as soon as it was ready to do so, leaving a huge cloud of dust in the air.

The night took minutes to reach its full strength. The roads that were to be treaded on by the convoy were heavily and brightly lit. After a while of daydreaming the positives of the visit, Rick realized one and probably the only downside. He had lost the element of surprise. But there were still enough branches in his reach to shake anything loose. He remembered the man who had suffered a bullet wound to get a fix on Sophie’s face. That had pointed Hudson’s men to Bjorn Inc.
“Gift your injured guy a car from me”, Hudson ordered Ron and he noted it down. He was happy at that show of determination. He marinated in the thought for a while before falling silent.
“Ron? What is the likelihood of our contact in that company to go rogue on us?”, Rick Hudson politely and softly inquired. Among Ronald’s brilliant set of resources and skills, was having eyes and ears everywhere. All he needed was some sort of dirt on a person and he would pounce on him like a vulture.
“None Sir! Our contact has a lot to lose”, Ronald dutifully responded. Hudson nodded and got lost in his thoughts again. He was in deep thought for a while until he realized something.
“Didn’t your contact specifically told us that none of the employees of that department was absent?”, Rick Hudson inquired, more focused than before. Ronald went over his conversation with the contact in his head and responded, “Yes Sir! They all should have been there but the girl managed to elude us”. Ron was disappointed and also a bit embarrassed by the failure. He wasn’t accustomed to them. “Give me a day Sir! And I will get to the bottom of this!”, he demanded. Rick still stared into blank space and put his hand up to calm his employee down. He didn’t care a bit about the contact’s loyalty or the failure of the visit. To him, the visit had been successful. He was just thinking over the little things hidden in plain sight that didn’t make any sense.
“Did you spot a vacant desk at the corner?”, Rick Hudson softly asked and his employee was still confused why that vacant desk was so significant.
“Yes. It must be where the girl was seated before she legged it”, Ron responded. His employer was disappointed that his trusted right hand, who was sharp enough to catch every small detail in a scene, had missed such a substantial hint.

“As far as I recall, the Team leader has a separate office”, Hudson spoke mockingly. It took Ronald a moment to realize what he meant.
“You think…?”, Ronald asked wild eyed. Hudson offered a slow and disappointed nod in response.
“When your men’s attempt at abducting her was foiled by him, we should have assumed that the two were keeping close to each other”, Hudson explained. “Them working in the same company, just seemed too elementary to me”, he added. Ronald grunted at the realization. Hudson stared out of the limo and realized that they were passing through the most colorful region of the city. The huge screens bombarding psychedelic advertisements on the passing crowd, announced their arrival at the Times Square. Several groups of tourists took selfies and a bunch of youtubers shot vlogs on the colorful streets. Hudson remembered the first time him and his family had visited the place. His son had been ecstatic and his wife had captured every inch and second of it in photos. He longed to spend similar blissful days with his family. He remembered the reason he was doing all this. He was after the person who had deprived him of that pleasure. The psychedelic display couldn’t keep Hudson from work for long.

“Kill her! He will surrender to his emotions and do something stupid”, Hudson ordered and Ron nodded in affirmation. He contemplated the different subtle ways to get rid of her. He wondered if an old-fashioned road accident would suffice. He reminded himself the reason why she has to die. He realized that the death must look like a murder or at least look suspicious to draw his target’s attention. There was a message that he needed to convey.

The convoy finally reached the hotel and the door of the limo was opened from the outside by a bodyguard. The guards were at ease. Rick Hudson stepped out of the vehicle and strolled to the hotel entrance. Ronald followed him closely. Ronald’s cell phone rang as soon as he entered the building and yanked him out of his murderous thoughts. He checked the screen for the name and his emotions shifted. The caller didn’t reach out to him unless it was of utmost importance. Ron knew to handle it with care and stayed behind the group of guards escorting Hudson. He accepted the call and greeted the caller. Hudson stopped for a second and looked back at his employee. He found him whispering into his phone which was what Ron did all the time. Hudson decided to ignore it. Ronald was requested to do something that he thought was unwise. He tried to respectfully argue but had to cave in eventually. He hesitantly agreed and hung up.