Who is the chess master?

  For the first time, Jack felt himself being old. Sitting on the sofa, he took a photo frame from the shelf beside him.  What in the frame was two people, him and his daughter. Thinking about his daughter, he managed to remember his daughter is in another country now, working in a big company.  He hasn't and hasn't been contacted by his daughter for five years. However, time wasn't a problem earlier, he was always so busy with his own bussiness.

  He opened up several big companies, and he donated money too, but he didn't get much honour. Most merchants knew the reason, he did too, but he just couldn't stop it. He couldn't start his enterprise without kidnapping a rich man, and it was the first crime he commited. But it is worth it, he thought, as long as I reached my being-rich dream.  Committing different crimes like smuggling, kidnapping for so many years, he knew the trick not to fail. Imagine you are a chess master, then everyone who works for you is your chessman. Surely, in order to get your job done, you need sacrifice.

  But somehow his enterprise's progress now was disappointing him, and his companies were facing more and more challenges and problems. What is worse, he didn't even know who the enemy was, and his workers kept disappearing.

  This disaster began last year, when his right-hand-man was kidnapped by an unknown organization. Though he did this deception before, he was too afraid to lose his intelligent worker. He lost 50 million (ransom) and a very good man. Then everything just got worse.

  His phone beeped, a new message from his assistant.

  Emergency, it read, a strike happened outside our headquarter in America. Our enemy has successfully convinced most of our best workers to work at their company because they will be paid at a higher salary and better working condition.

  Fuck! he cursed under his breath, everything was failing him.

  Tell them, we will pay a higher salary. He sent.

  According to our current financial condition, it is somehow impossible to pay them a higher salary. Came the ruthless reply.

  He calmed himself down, and thought deeply, our enemy has successfully convinced most of our best workers to work at their company... Suddenly, the sky was clear. He immediately messaged his assistant:

 Who is behind all these? Who is our enemy?

 Very soon, his phone beeped.

  Well, I didn't want to tell you that as you must be angry after knowing it.

  Just tell me.

  Okay, our enemy is a new but large company called The New Century which owns many stores around the world. Their main source of income are selling high-tech electronic devices, mostly for communications. Yesterday they brought down Samsung and Apple and signed a contract with them. The contract provided those who work for Samsung a tremendous amount of money, but everything originally belonged to Samsung belongs to The New Century now.

  After reading it, Jack jumped. Actually jumped. He felt his bead-like sweats trickling down his face, he felt his hands trembling, and he felt his eyes blinking fast. How could I have missed it? He grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV. Every news was talking about this matter. He couldn't believe it, if he couldn't bring down Samsung and Apple, then no one could bring down them. Now, something impossible turned possible.

  No, he screamed in his head, I need to bring down that new company before I am brought down.

  He closed his eyes and thought. He would have to have a plan to completely obliterate this company.

  He picked up his phone and texted his assistant.

  Arrange a meeting with the leader of the company in the Golden Crown hotel. Tell them I want to sell them some stocks. Bring 20 assassins to lurk in a right position. When you see me go to the toilet, take those bastards out.

  About 15 minutes later, his assistant replied him, they are okay for the meeting, assassins at ready. I arrange the meeting at 3:00 p.m., is it okay?

  Jack checked his schedule and answered. Okay.
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  When he arrived at the place, he walked into the room. A man he did not know was sitting at the opposite side of the long table accompanied by two guards. He had only one guard though, but he was the best, and he was his assistant. He originally had two guards, the original-right-hand-man, but you all know what happened to him.
 
  A silent moment dragged by. He broke the silence first, greeting the man.

  Inside the hotel, 20 people were paying attention to the room's door at their secret position.

  The meeting continued smoothly, and Jack would be too happy to see a plot-twist. Who would be the winner in the future? It is me! He thought joyfully, tomorrow you will disappear from this world and I will be the king! Hahahahahahahaaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  They must be in position now, then I will just...do it. He stood up and said, "Gentlemen, may I go to washroom please?" The man looked up from the 'contract' Jack had given him and said with a broad grin, "Sure."

  Jack went to washroom and waited for the helpless scream. However, he really wanted to go to pee, so he pee. When he was washing his hands, his assistant came in. There is no screaming, how come?! He thought, then he corrected himself, maybe they are sedated. It would be fun torturing them back at his home!

  He said joyfully, " How fast!"

  His assistant replied, "We haven't got our job done."

  He stared at his assistant and thought, is he insane, if he hasn't got his job done, then why come here to talk to me.

  He said with a stern voice, "Then do it now!"

  His assistant nodded and said as if he was laughing, "Of course, sir!"

  It reminded him something, it is... it is...

  Then a million things happen very quickly.

  20 assasins walked into the washroom, each pointing a tranquillizer gun towards him, and the one leading him was...was his own assistant.

  Then his ex-assistant laughed, "Old man, you surely will be more shocked afterwards."

  But the old man's head couldn't compute what his ex-assistant said and it would be too late when he figured out its outest meaning, because he would already be sedated.

  And he was sedated.
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  He woke up in a dark room, two men sitting beside him. He tried to move, but he was tied to...something.

  He squinted. His ex-assistant and someone were sitting beside him.

  His ex-assistant clapped his hands and said gleefully, "Now, our guest is awake. Let's do some self-introduction, I am Rony Mark, the vice-president of The New Century. It is our honour to have you to listen to our stories."

  Jack barked, "I want to see your president, not vice-president."

  "Then try not to get heart attack." Rony smirked and turned his head towards the door of the room, "Let's welcome our president!"

  Handclaping was heard from outside, at least 100 people outside the room. The person came in with a mask. When the person took off the mask, it revealed a face that was horribly familiar to him.

  The president was a she.

  Jack screamed as loud as he could. He really didn't see that coming.

  It was...it was his...his own...own daughter!!!!!!!!!

  " Jack, don't panick, I am going to tell you great stories." Came his daughter reply, too sexy and too unfamiliar. She talked like a stranger, Jack thought bitterly.

  Her daughter dropped herself into Rony's hug and began her stories.

  Jack, still remember your ex-right-hand-man kidnapped-and-killed incident. Yes, it marked your downfall. He was an intelligent and alert man which made him very hard to get rid of. However you were so absent-minded and arrogant at that time, and you didn't listen to his advice. We let more and more men into your company, and one of them became your ex-assistant. Though your ex-right-hand-man was smart, but my Rony was smarter. Rony managed to kill him without being noticed. And what made me laugh was that you couldn't identify the fake one and paid a large amout of gold to him. Then, Rony was the only assistant, and all your information and daily schedules will be collected by Rony. Everyday he pretended to be your good assistant, and when we know everything of
you, our victory comes. Jack, you are too old to do bussiness, I will do it for you, don't worry.

  His daughter tapped him playfully on his forehead, which was a disgrace in his view.

  Then his daughter showed him something like a scroll. To his terror, it was a contract and it was signed by him. No way, I wouldn't have signed it.

  His daughter smiled and said, " we forged it, we have experts. So tomorrow, all your stocks and companies, the whole enterprise belonged to you will belong to me. Then I will be the one to control the whole market. Rest, Jack, then you will leave this world peacefully." Her daughter chuckled before she headed for the door.

  When his daughter was going to exit the room, he asked broken-heartedly, "Why do you do this to me?"

  " I learnt from you, and I am the chess master, not you, I control everything, men and resources." His daughter answered with a cold voice.

  So, he thought, the thing that kills me is bacause of my own motto. My death will be caused by my own motto. He laughed, laughed as a lunatic. He sinked himself too deep in his painful thoughts, and he just couldn't remember what happened next.

 

The FOUR team-- Prologue

Jones’s fingers were fast tapping the keyboards, and an image of a town in Pakistan was shown. He stood up and presented the location searched to the two generals beside him. “Terrorists from different countries will come to meet in this building according to what our intelligence agency said”—he pointed at a yellowish building—“it will be a good chance to wipe them all out at a time.”

 

  When he turned to look at his super computer, the screen has blackened out. A malfunction?, he thought, no, not CIA super computers.

 

 One of the generals noticed the black screen and asked Jones skeptically, “I choose not to believe our conversation ends when we are discussing this important matter. We need this computer to plan a perfect mission to wipe those assholes out.”

 

  Jones immediately answered, “Nope, our conversation certainly hasn’t ended. And I know we still need this computer, but I don’t know why…”

 

  Then the other general cut in, “you turn off the computer?”

 

  Jones scoffed at the general under his breath. Why let a person who don’t know basic computer workings well be general and let him talk to a computer genius like this?! “Obliviously, general, neither am I holding a remote control, nor did I press the ‘power’ button.”

 

  The general knew Jones was annoyed and said, “Mr. Jones, that was just my speculation.”

 

  Jones looked at the black screen and thought, what can cause this to happen? Then a terrible thought struck him. But that is impossible, it would have been detected, and it at least takes 5 years for a… then the super computer’s screen brightened again, as Jones’s anxiety and fear lightened. However, it wasn’t the image on the screen, those were six words and two punctuations: Warning: More Shall Come, Be Ready

 

  Then hearty laughing burst out of the speakers, making Jones and the generals jump. Then Jones remembered what his grandfather joked, “When something that is impossible comes possible, it is when cats are being toyed by rats.”

 

  His grandfather was quite right, not totally right. It was rat, not rats.   

 

Maple leaves

Hope you all enjoy this story.
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The roof, the sky, the path...everything was covered in orange and yellow. The sky was dyed orange from the sun, while a canopy of fallen maple leaves colored the roof, the path, and the world with shades of yellow and orange. This wonderful color of the sky and the ground complimented each other, creating a divine picture.

 

The only thing that tainted this wonderful picture were the ugly and gnarly trees.

 

Trees were left with their ugly naked branches. Trees were shaking off leaves that once made them beautiful. The withered leaves fell gently to the ground, where they were looking back at the trees, sad and angry and disappointed. They were the ones that had beautify the trees. But it was no use crying over bad luck after knowing that a friend had betrayed you.

 

When I was in secondary school, I met and made friend with Audrey. We had to take an exam that determined whether we could go to a good university or not in that Spring.

 

Audrey had been my friend. She was always poor academically. She was like dust compared to other classmates that always got good results. She was always looked down upon, so being her friend, I had the responsibility to help her.

 

We decided to revise together. And in order to help her improve faster, I had done so many things for her: summarizing all the main points of different subjects and writing all of them on the word document. I even printed all of them out for her while she was still playing dodge-ball and computer games with her friends.

 

I stopped her from playing computer games, because she would become addicted and not get good results. Though she did complain to me sometimes, I willed myself not to waver so easily, because I know what was important for our future.

 

Days passed, and the exam neared. Even Audrey felt the pressure and became more hard-working.

 

The exam was a nightmare to me. On the second day, I caught a cold from nowhere. It was impossible to control my running nose, my swollen eyes, and most importantly, my malfunctioning brain. The nightmare became more and more terrible as days passed.

 

When I received my report card. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was...it was...it was a D. I should at least got a B-, I had been working so hard.

 

I ran to Audrey with watering eyes. She got a B+ in average; that meant she could get to the university that I dreamed of. Audrey looked at my grade, and patted me on my back. She then turned back and walked towards her friends and clapped hands happily as they all got good results, not once did she look back at me.

 

I was dust compared to Audrey, and I went in a college that was dust compared to Audrey's university.

 

I then spent six hard years studying in order to get a good job.

 

When I finished studying, Audrey was already working in a very good company which I wanted to join. It would be easier to be accepted into the company if  there was someone inside to recommend me, so I texted Audrey. The last time I texted her again. I received no reply for four weeks.

 

Day after day, I waited, but nothing came, and when I couldn't suppress it any longer, I waited outside her company. Finally, I saw her chatting with her colleagues happily. " Audrey!" I called. She glanced at me for a moment and continued talking with her colleagues! She ignored me! Fuming, I walked in front of them and shouted at her," Audrey, why you didn't text me back? Why are you acting like a stranger to me?" She looked at me for a few seconds and told her colleagues to head back first.

 

She sat down on a bench while I stood.

 

After a while, she drawled," so, what do you want me to do for you?"

 

I gave her the form I wanted her to fill in. She glanced at it and snickered.

 

" Why should I help you?" she asked.

 

"Why should you not help me?"

 

Her sarcastic smirk dropped as she looked down, possibly thinking of a good excuse. A silent moment dragged by.

 

I was so furious at her attitude that it was impossible to stop my piercing words from bursting.

 

" Why won't you face me now? I bet you are afraid of me, no, your past; speaking of the past, I was the one who stood beside you when you were teased; I was the one who helped you with your homework; I was the one forcing you to revise so you can get high marks in that exam and join a good company now! How can you be so horrible, how can you give up on a person who tried her very best to help you!"

 

I had a feeling that my words would hurt her. However, if she wasn't friends with me, I hope the words would make her learn. If she still cared for me, even it was just a little, I hope these words could wake her up.

 

I continued with a gentler tone. " We can still be...be friends now. We can still help each other out."

 

She didn't reply and look down at her watch, she said coldly," sorry, I have to go now, or I will be late for the coming meeting." She then walked across the path, leaving me once again in the dust, speechless.

 

" HOW CAN YOU BE LIKE THIS?" Audrey didn't reply, she didn't even turn back. Perhaps the wind caught my voice and carried away, perhaps, it was just Audrey who pretended not to have heard my words.

 

Maple leaves fell on the ground around me. They were fragile, the slightest step could crush them. They lay facing the trees that were once beautiful because of them. What were they possibly feeling? Perhaps anger, sadness, or even disappointment, But whatever could they do? And like them, whatever could I have done?

 

The crackling of maple leaves beneath my feet awoke me from my journey to memory lane. Yeah, there isn't anything that can be changed, and there is no use crying over bad luck after knowing a friend had betrayed you.