471 Kidnapping (1/2)
Randy Blake was kind of addicted to cigars lately. After lunch every day, Blake would get himself a cup of coffee, light a cigar, and sit quietly in the lounge, enjoying a moment of leisure.
Blake, after all, was the training center's Number Two, so few people would disturb him except Dai Li.
Dai Li came into the lounge, holding an extra-large tea cup with Chinese big-leaf tea in it. Dai Li had developed this habit in the Chinese domestic training team, where many coaches got a large tea cup with a handful of big tea leaves and enjoyed it the whole afternoon.
”Hi Dai Li, I heard you saw Derrickson. What did he want?” Blake puffed at his cigar and went on, ”That guy didn't say what he wanted, just that he wanted to see you. I don't think he just came here to promote products, right?”
”He didn't come here to promote products, but to give me money. Really generous. He put a seven-digit check in front of me,” said Dai Li with a smile.
”Did he come for training? A seven-digit check? Our training fee is not cheap, but it's not that expensive! What position does a pharmaceutical representative have within the company, exactly? Is he from a super-rich family?” Blake asked several questions in succession.
”He wasn't here for training. He wasn't some rich guy. He came here to buy something,” said Dai Li.
”What can we sell him? The most advanced training equipment here is not worth that kind of money. Maybe he wants to buy the whole stadium? That's what real estate agents do. But this guy is just the pharmaceutical company's representative,” Blake said with curiosity.
Dai Li put down his large tea cup and said unwillingly, ”He wants to buy a drug.”
”Drug? We don't have anything like that. I guess Derrickson must have something wrong with his mind,” said Blake.
”He firmly believes that we have a new drug.” Dai Li shrugged his shoulders. ”I explained to him many times that we have never used illicit drugs here, but he just didn't believe me. At last, I really had no more to explain to him, so I sent him away. He seemed to be indignant when he went out.”
”This guy isn't a journalist, pretending to be someone else and trying to trick you into something, is he?” Blake sat up straight and looked serious. He continued to say, ”You didn't say any words that might be used against you, right? If he was indeed a journalist, he probably taped your conversation secretly.”
Dai Li recalled the details of their conversation, then shook his head. ”I don't think there should be any problem. My response was not perfect, but I didn't say anything against myself.”
”That's good.” Blake gave a heavy sigh. ”To be honest, I would also have suspected you of doping the athletes if I hadn't seen you train them with my own eyes.”
”Is it because of Aylwin's successful comeback?” asked Dai Li.
”Aylwin is just one of them. All three of them, along with Alexander and Ford, are back to their peak performance. And a little while ago, after being trained by you, Kevin Taylor even performed better than when he was young,” answered Blake.
”Taylor was different. Coach Ayres also did a lot,” Dai Li said modestly.
”Ayres was only be responsible for technical guidance and developing tactics, but you took care of the physical training.” Blake took a heavy puff on his cigar and went on. ”However, it also reminds me that we should be careful in case other people try to do something bad for us. I'll tell the security company later to install more surveillance cameras in our training center.”
...
Blecher entered his company with a black suitcase.
His secretary said at once, ”Boss, a Mr. Leon said he had an appointment with you and now is waiting for you in the reception room.”
”Yes, I did. I'll head there right now.” Blecher walked towards the reception room, but he turned back halfway and said to the secretary, ”From now on, nobody can enter my reception room without my permission.”
”Yes, boss.” The secretary suddenly thought of something and asked with his voice lowered, ”Boss, one more thing. What about the man we caught last night?”
”Didn't you lock him up?” Blecher frowned and asked.
”Yes, in the storeroom, but we can't keep him in that way all the time! Should we turn him over to the police?” asked the secretary.
”If we needed to do so, we would have done it last night. Why it would have to wait until now? When we caught him, we didn't send him to the police but locked him up privately. That's false imprisonment. Therefore, we can't turn him over to the police,” said Blecher coldly. ”Just wait. I'll tell you what to do later.”
With these words he entered the reception room with the black suitcase.
On the sofa in the reception room sat a man with black hair, who looked very fierce. The long scar on his face made everyone look away from him.
”Long time no see, Leon,” Blecher greeted him.
Leon didn't make any kind of response but asked directly, ”Have you got the money?”
”It's all here. Count it.” Blecher placed the black suitcase in front of Leon and opened it. Inside were piles of cash.
Seeing the stacks of bills in it, Leon's eyes were burning. He took out an ultraviolet fluorescence detector and began to test the authenticity of the money.
”Don't worry. It's all real. By the way, the fact that you never accept check or transfer of account is really inconvenient for me. I need to make an appointment at the bank in advance to get cash, and then I need to walk around with so much money,” Blecher complained.