Clara just dropped the press release on my desk and I can't hide my joy. A huge smirk on my face. All the specialized press had a picture of me front page. Christopher Harlow. The CEO of the year. I look down over the pictures. "Looking good" I mumbled to myself. My green eyes enjoying the look of my muscular body, my short brown hair and chiseled jaw. Looking sharp in that dark blue suit, tight enough to let people imagine the sculpted muscle under the fabrics. "A way to please our women customers sir" the marketing told me when we took the pictures. Remembering it I sighed and put the press down on my wooden desk.
At the age of 26 I had it all. Self-made man with a huge appetite in business, I've been successfully buying companies and selling them, in and out, gathering more and more resources. I stood up and looked upon New York from my office. High in this skyscraper, my eyes wandering all over the huge megalopolis before catching up my reflection in the window.
"I don't have it all yet..."
I spoke out loud and sighed, annoyed, the press might be writing that I am the CEO of the year but I knew the truth. I'm just a pawn. Somewhere, there, some older families are controlling this fantasy. I've met some of them during my young career. Dirty old creeps with fancy and clearly inhuman tastes who sit on the top of the world, treating anybody who is not part of their world like a piece of trash. We are nothing but slave to them...
I'm no slave...
Since I discovered what really lies behind the money and power, I've focused myself on a single purpose, taking down what I've started to call "The Elite". Slowly, I tried to enter the inner circle with diplomacy. Offering my help even. But each time, I was treated like a tool. I'm nothing for them. At least they think I'm just a young idealist. And so, since a few months, I've decided to go with a more offensive behavior.
Slowly, I started to focus on one family which seems weak. I've searched for months before finding them. Kean Corporation. Hold by the youngest child of this family, a woman called Louise Kean. Kean Corp is working on building houses and stuff like that. They even work on my own skyscraper. And they worked well... but nobody seems to have ever seen Ms. Kean herself. One true woman of The Elite, always sending her own agents. By a subtle and skilful work, I've started to buy one by one the little company hold by Ms. Kean, slowly killing her control over this world. And this thought made me smile...
She is younger than me, and she haven't even try to resist or fight back. No reaction at all. I do think half of her companies are now mine. And today I've a big meeting with my contact within The Elite. Today I've hoped they will finally induct me as part of their little society. And then...
I'll take them down.
Clara my secretary signaled me that the limo was waiting for me outside, and so I left without a word. The car already waiting for me. "And fast" I ordered the driver without even looking at him, my eyes locked on my smartphone as the car started to move.
But something felt odd. Like... Was I getting sick? The world felt spinning a bit too fast. I looked up to noticed that the glass between me and the driver was closed shut. I tried to open the car windows but the control appeared to be locked. My heart beating faster. "What the hell is going on?" I shouted to the driver who didn't even flinched at my hateful roar. I punched the windows, tried to kick but nothing moved. And the world kept spinning faster around me. I'm sweating, panting and unable to prevent myself to collapsed in the car, unconscious...
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"Fuck... my head..." I mumbled, a powerful headache waking me up. I blinked my eyes a few times but the world is black around me. It took me a few seconds to feel the cold on my naked skin, the pain in my arms and shoulders and the feeling of something on my head...
I took a minute, wiggling on the spot, before realizing what was happening.
I'm naked. That's for sure. My arms are bound together high in the air and I'm standing somewhere. I can move my legs but I can't feel anything except the cold floor under my feet. And I've something over my head. It's loose, so I suppose it's a bag or something like that.
I'm terrified at first but then I realized that must be some sort of intimidation play by The Elite. Maybe the little Ms Kean is a bit more pissed than I thought but I'm not really surprised in the end. The only thing that bother me is...
I know The Elite methods. You annoy them : you get killed. If you are well known they make it look like a proper accident. I remember that thing when I was a kid, Lady Diana, former princess, who passed away in a car accident in France. I discovered only a couple of years backs that this was their decision. But this? I don't get it. My face have been on many TV and newspapers the last couple of days, people know me by now. Kidnap me and make me disappear like this?
For sure, they have a plan. And judging by how they handle stuff, I'm not going to die here. So I wait, patiently.
The silence of the room is broke by the sounds of a heavy door right behind me, quickly followed by the sounds of footsteps. I grinned under the hood before receiving a strong punch in the guts, cutting my breathing for a second.
"What the hell are you doing?" I groaned after the hit. But my protest was welcomed with the chuckles of at least two guys, another strike hitting me right above the groin and a second punch found my jaw. This felt like a gratuitous assault, they didn't even ask question or anything, they are just... torturing me for the sake of it.
"I know you can't kill me and punching me won't change my stance." I tried to protest, showing my will and understanding of the situation to my captors. I thought at this moment that it would make them stops. But instead, I felt a strong hand catching me by throat and effortlessly holding me up in the air. I gasped, trying to find some air. But instead I felt the whiskey smelly breath of one guy through the hood.
"Shut up and take it like a man while you can." he said with a clear sparkle of sadism in his voice before letting me fall down and receiving me with a knee between my legs.
