Chapter 404 - Kidnap

“I’ve intercepted the message coming from Qian Wenhuan’s end, just as you instructed.”

A little girl in a white dress and barefoot sat cross-legged on a sofa and said with her eyes shut, “The Human Resources department are doing as they were instructed. They are filing James Watson’s document into Beta grade confidentiality along with his associating medical records.”

“Stop him.”

Chen Chen instructed.

“Understood.”

The little girl answered swiftly. Meanwhile, in an office in the Human Resource department located in Eco Science City’s headquarter, there was a Chinese man in his mid-thirties. This charming man was the director of the department, recently relegated here from another headquarter.

Just as he was about to tap the mouse and enter the encryption confirmation password, his phone suddenly rang.

“Tunak tunak Tun… Da Da Da! Dholna, vaje tumbe val taar, Soode dil de pukar, Aaja karle ye pyar…”[1]

The Chinese man frowned and looked at his phone. He saw the display of his phone set on the table repeatedly flashing. There seemed to be something wrong with it.

His first instinct was to pick it up to inspect what the problem was. The moment he picked it up, he felt a scorching sensation burning across his palms!

“Hnghh…!”

The Chinese man dropped his phone as if he had been electrocuted. The moment his phone clapped against the ground, the display shattered all across the floor with a sudden crack!

“The h*ll?”

The Chinese man was jolted by this. He could only watch helplessly as the smashed pieces of the phone became engulfed in flame. The hungry fire slowly devoured the SAMSUNG logo etched on the back of the phone…

It was only until the phone had become completely smoldered and the awful stench of burnt plastic filled the room when the Chinese man came back to his senses. When he glanced at the computer again, he saw that the encryption had been completed.

Without paying any further attention to the encryption page, his first thought was to open a new webpage and head to QQ and posted a short update on his feed. “Just had the living crap scared out of me, I was just working and minding my business when my phone exploded…”

…

Half a day later.

“Bruno, are you sure you’re going to return to Chicago all by yourself?”

Watson Jr. expressed helplessly. “I really can’t leave here right now, if you insist on leaving, you have to head back by yourself.”

“Come on, I’m not a toddler okay?”

Bruno responded impatiently, throwing his shoulders out as he said with a bewildered expression, “Come on, I know how to take care of myself.”

“You’re a grown-up now, I hope you don’t cause any further trouble out there.”

Watson Jr. looked at his father Watson who was sleeping soundly in the other room. His voice still filled with concern as he asked, “Are you not going to wait until your grandfather wakes up to say goodbye?”

“No need, he’s not dying anytime soon anyway. Besides, this entire thing turned out to be a blessing since both you and he are going to receive the age-reversal treatment.”

Bruno commented with a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice and quickly left without much hesitation.

Immediately after turning around with his back facing his father, a coy smile appeared on Bruno’s lips. He tapped on his shoulder, the cunning smile still hanging on the corner of his lips.

When Bruno arrived on the ground floor, he immediately went to the receptionist. He produced a patient certification from his pocket and presented it to the nurse on duty. “I’m a family member of James Watson, I’d like to look up some information regarding his medical records.”

“Alright, this way please…”

The nurse at the reception took the patient certification and nodded after ensuring it was the original document. She got right up and led Bruno to an office.

There was nothing out of the ordinary inside the office, only several laptops set up across a table. The nurse opened one of the laptops and looked up one of the files on the server.

“What is this, where’s the medical record?”

Bruno asked, perplexed.

“We use digital medical records here. If you want the medical record in print, you’ll have to ask the head surgeon.”

The nurse explained, “The documents are with the head surgeon.”

“Alright then.”

Bruno shrugged at the nurse’s suggestion and seated himself in front of the laptop. He started flipping through the digital medical record while taking out his phone, appearing as if he was going to take pictures.

The nurse did not comment on Bruno’s actions, she only promptly turned around and left.

After ensuring the only witness was gone, Bruno grew bolder. He selected and opened James Watson’s medical record, then held his phone up to the screen and tapped on the capture button.

“Click!”

With an abrupt click, Bruno had recorded the first page of the medical record.

“Ehh…”

It was only after taking a picture of the first page when Bruno noticed there was a small mark printed onto his grandfather’s medical record.

It was a symmetrical pattern that reminded him of an illustration of a starry night sky. The image was printed in black and white and sparsely splattered across the section below the text on the first page of the medical record. It looked like some sort of watermark or perhaps it was some sort of pattern printed in the document background.

“Whatever, who cares.”

Although the appearance of these patterns was rather outlandish and seemed to come out of nowhere, Bruno knew he did not have time to care about minor details such as these. He selected the second page and took a picture with his phone again.

Then on to the third page and the fourth page…

The medical record was certainly extremely comprehensive. The operation report of the head surgeon alone took up more than 30 pages. By the time Bruno was done with documenting everything, twenty minutes had passed.

Bruno massaged his slightly sore wrist and pulled himself up from his seat before heading out of the office.

“Sir, have you found what you needed?”

The nurse on shift asked when she saw Bruno stepping out of the office. Bruno completely ignored the nurse’s question and sped up his pace, quickly stepping out of the nurse’s line of sight and out of the hospital.

After leaving the hospital, Bruno hurriedly signaled for a taxi as if he was being pursued by somebody. After entering the taxi, he took out his phone and sent the first few pages of James Watson’s medical records to another email.

Within half a minute, Bruno’s phone started ringing. Bruno found himself slightly surprised by this near-immediate callback and proceeded to answer it without a second thought.

“D*mn, Bruno. Are what you just showed me real? James Watson receiving treatment in Eco Science City? What’s this about some brain restoration technology in Eco Science City?” the caller spoke urgently.

“Of course, Ackerman.”

Bruno answered smugly, “How’s that, some pretty shocking news, I know. How much for this info?”

“You’re not trying to scam me, are you?”

The broker still asked in disbelief, “Bruno, you know what happens if you try to play any tricks on me.”

“I won’t try to scam you, I swear.”

Bruno explained quickly, “I know you guys won’t believe me, so I went out of my way to sneak footage of my grandfather’s operation and footage of him after recovery.”

“Oh my God, so it’s the real deal?”

The voice on the other end of the phone was growing more excited. “Bruno, I swear you must be my lucky star if this is real. I’ll offer ten thousand for the medical records and the footage. Don’t sell it to anyone else!”

“Ten thousand is nowhere near enough.”

Bruno frowned. “This isn’t your everyday local flash news. I want a hundred thousand or else I’ll look for other buyers!”

“Impossible!”

The broker exclaimed, “There’s no way this should cost me a hundred thousand, who are you trying to take advantage of here? Where’s your honor? How about this buddy, fifty thousand… How’s fifty thousand? We can meet each other halfway?”

“Sixty thousand!”

Bruno called again.

“Deal!”

The person on the other end of the phone had to grit his teeth and agree to this price.

Bruno could not help but break into a smile when he heard the magic word. “Perfect, Ackerman. We can meet tomorrow when I get back to Chicago and finish the transaction there.”

…

The taxi headed for the Walvis Bay International Airport. By the next day, a plane arriving from Namibia landed at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

After the plane had landed and everything was sorted, Bruno let out a lazy yawn and shuffled out of the plane with the rest of the passengers.

Before he could even step foot out of the airport, several men in suits and wearing sunglasses approached him and cut him off.

“Who are you guys?”

Bruno quickly wiped the drowsy, jet-lagged expression off his face and perked up in alert. “Where’s Ackerman?”

“Ackerman is waiting for you outside the airport, Mr. Bruno.”

One of the men took off his sunglasses and addressed Bruno sternly. “Please come with us.”

There was a hint of doubt in Bruno’s eyes. Before he could decide on his next move, two of the men with sunglasses had approached him from both sides. They pincered him in the middle and held some sort of hard object against his waist.

Bruno was certain that the concealed object was a gun used to threaten him.

“Hey buddies, I’ll come with you guys alright. Just don’t point that thing at me, I’m not a big fan…”

Bruno quickly yielded to them and left without the airport with his gracious escorts.

After exiting the airport, the men in black took Bruno to a black multi-purpose vehicle. When they pulled the door open, Bruno saw someone lying inside who had his arms and legs bound together with duct tape. Even this person’s mouth was muffled. This person was none other than Ackerman who was on the phone with him just yesterday.

“Oh d*mn!”

All Bruno could do was curse out loud before he was tossed into the back of the car within seconds. The engine was promptly started and the car drove out of the parking lot.

“Guys, what are you trying to do here?”

Bruno was about to break out in hysterics. He gestured wildly in the back of the car. “Is there a need to go this far just for sixty thousand?”

“Sixty thousand? Ahem, ahem…”

It was at this moment when Bruno suddenly heard bouts of coughing coming from further behind in the backseat. He turned around and saw another silver-haired old man speaking to him, “This means that you’re the one who fed the news to Ackerman yesterday?”

“What news?”

Bruno glanced at the tightly bound Ackerman right next to him.

The old man did not answer Bruno. Instead, he took out his phone and showed Bruno an online article.

Bruno quickly investigated it and saw the title of the article — [Breaking news! Racist idealist James Watson receives brain restoration surgery in Eco Science City.]

The main contents of this article were none other than the medical records stolen by Bruno.

[1] A popular Marathi song