Chapter 27: Delivering Retribution
Shortly thereafter, gramps took off for his house with Alice and I sitting in the back. More than a few minutes driving later, we arrived at a simple yet very industrial-looking concrete three-story building surrounded by a thick alloy fence with spikes running along the top. With us reaching gramps place, the gate opened up and allowed us in. As soon as he drove into his driveway and put the car in park, he hopped out of the truck and headed inside, leaving Alice and me behind.
In the meantime, while we waited for gramps, she and I discussed what we were going to study upon our return home. Three minutes quickly passed by when the old man came speeding out of the house now wearing his old wasteland explorer getup and an NPDM slung over his shoulder.
Looking at my grandpa John, who had just got back into the driver's seat and closed the door, I inquired to make sure he understood what kind of mission we were on again. “So, gramps, what's the light machine gun for and why are you wearing your old armor and wasteland explorer getup? You know we’re only going to shake this guy down for a discount and get the miners' families paid, right?”
“One can never be too safe, even down here, grandson. This will also ensure that the bastard doesn’t act up unless he has a death wish.”
I don’t think a small-time businessman would act up in front of you when you're built like a brick shit house, but whatever, I’ll entertain it.
“…I guess so.”
My gramps, more than happy to have an excuse to throw his old gear on again no matter how unnecessary it was, got on the undercity road again and drove the bunch of us in the direction of the meeting point and the property I very much desired to make my own. Several minutes later, we arrived at our destination, so we exited the vehicle and headed for the entrance of the place.
"So how do you want to do this gramps, I don't think the guy is going to get out of his car and come over here with you kitted out in an armored suit and a 7.62 belt-fed machine gun."
"How about you use that lockpick set of yours to open up the door so we can go inside?"
"Sure I can do that."
Doing as I was asked, I pulled out my lockpicking set I carry around with me normally and crouched down in front of the lock to begin setting the pins. Within less than 15 seconds, I had all the pins set thus I stood back up, opened the door, and held it open for both Alice and my gramps to go in.
As soon as all three of us walked inside, gramps didn’t waste any time and began laying out the plan. First, he will give the guy another call and tell him we've arrived early and were waiting inside for him to arrive so we could discuss the sale of the property.
When the guy eventually shows up and waltzes through the entrance, he will grab the guy and haul him off to the dining area of the facility. And in the event he resists, he will soften him up a bit before we sit the piece of garbage down to tell him how things will play out from here.
I had no issue with what he came up with. Alice had nothing to add as well, so we settled on what he came up with and moved to the sides of the entrance to wait for him to show while the old man made the call.
“The scumbag will be here shortly.” My gramps said before moving off to the opposite side of the entrance.
After a nod from Alice and I, our group eagerly awaited the poor bastard's arrival, ready to strike the instant he came through the door. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait all that long. Five minutes is how long it took for the man to show up. Primed and ready I waited until he got close enough to the entrance to see if he had brought any company and right as he reached around a foot away from the door I didn't sense anyone else accompanying him with my perception field thus I gave my gramps the signal to nab him.
As the man was entering the building, unaware of what fate awaited him, we waited patiently for just the right moment. The very instant he stepped inside and the door was slowly beginning to close behind him, gramps sprung into action immediately bringing the scumbag to the ground and beginning to restrain him with cuffs he brought along. The poor bastard tried resisting, however he was easily overpowered by my dear ole gramps with the right side of his face pressed against the hard concrete floor of the facility.
"Best stop resisting, bud, unless you would prefer to get softened up." I suggested from the side while the moron continued to struggle fruitlessly against my gramps.
"Fuck yo-...AHHHHHHH."
"Quite stupid aren't ya, you piece of shit?" I commented with glee as he was getting his arm pressed at an awkward angle by gramps.
Taking joy in the pain that was being inflicted on the bastard, he quickly gave up his futile struggle, likely realizing that there was no point in fighting his current situation. Now that he had given up his useless struggle, he was forced to his feet at gunpoint and made to walk to the dining area of the facility.
But before I followed along, I locked the entrance door to ensure we wouldn't be disturbed by any unexpected visitors. The minute the bunch of us arrived at the intended destination, I pulled out a chair at one of the many empty tables and had the guy sit before gramps secured him to said chair tightly.
Taking a seat of my own on the opposite end of the metal table with Alice sitting to my right and my gramps standing off to the side several feet away with his NPDM light machine gun held in the guy's direction, I began speaking much to the guy's surprise, probably having to do with my current child-like appearance, though a big muscular one. "I'm sure you're wondering why you were assaulted and restrained when you were originally coming to make a deal to sell your piece of real estate, William Andrew Broward."
Receiving a mixture of a fearful and unsure nod in response from the poor guy, I continued to the next bit. "Well, if you were doing business on the up and up and weren't busy trying to offload your moleman infested mine onto an unsuspecting buyer and screwing over the families of your deceased employees, you wouldn't be in your current situation now would you?"
For the next 15 seconds, I did nothing but glare at the scumbag across from me, waiting to see if he had anything to say. At the end of that bit of time, he was sweating bullets for some odd reason or another. Definitely doesn't have anything to do with having all your dirty little secrets brought to the surface and a 7.62 machine gun aimed at him that could blast dozens of holes in him at a moment's notice.
"I don't need you to say anything I'm just going to tell you how things are going to play out from here and you will do as you are told otherwise you'll be facing financial ruin and later death for concealing the threat within that mine of yours. If that happens, I wonder how those enemies of yours will deal with your family when you are no longer around to protect them."
"I-I-I'll d-do as you say." He fearfully squeaked out.
"Here's what's going to happen. You will be selling this property at a steep 75% discount to me and you will reimburse your deceased employees' families. You got that."
He seemed like he wanted to say something or argue, but because of fear induced by gramps emitting a sort of deathly pressure; he kept mum. Ignoring his worsening condition, I started again. "Knowing your financial situation, I know you will lose quite a lot from doing those two things, but what is the loss of some money when faced with the loss of life? Am I right?"
"I-I agree I can always make more in the future." He enthusiastically answered, still fearful of his current precarious situation.
"I'm glad we see things the same way. Alright, I've brought the documents for you to sign. Once you sign those, I'll get them sent off to where they need to go, and hopefully by no later than the end of tomorrow, everything regarding the property will have been wrapped up. The only thing that will need to be taken care of is the reimbursement of the miners' families, which will be reliant upon you doing as you were told. I hope you don't try anything sly. I would hate to have to see you again."
"Th-there won't be any problems, I-I promise."
"Good. It would be unfortunate if the skeletons you've been hiding in the closet for so long saw the light of day."
The bulk of what needed to be said was said and taken care of. William Andrew Broward understood the position he was in and succumbed to all of my demands. The minute he was done signing the paperwork he needed to sign, he brought up the compensation of his own volition.
Once we settled on a satisfactory number for each family, I let the man go, although not before getting the keys for the facility and issuing another warning that life-threatening danger would be imminent if he didn't follow through with what he had to do.
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