Mafia Kings: Roberto: Chapter 95

We strolled into the lobby like it was just an ordinary day.

I did my best to play it cool –

Not at all like a man with a gun and plastic explosives.

The receptionist looked up, saw Mei-ling, and smiled.

Mei-ling came into the office every single day to drop off the payments from De Sade. The receptionist usually buzzed her in without a word.

Mei-ling had told me the same thing would happen if we were lucky.

We weren’t lucky.

The woman was just about to let Mei-ling in when her gaze darted over to me –

And her eyes widened.

I’d been escorted out the previous day by Han and half a dozen thugs.

If she had seen that, no doubt my face would have been burned into her memory.

I got ready to pull out the gun if necessary –

But Mei-ling started speaking Cantonese.

She’d told me beforehand what she would say:

Mr. Rosolini has decided to accept the terms Mr. Lau offered him yesterday. I’m here to broker the deal.

The woman looked confused, but she was just a receptionist, not privy to the inner workings of the company.

Plus, she knew and trusted Mei-ling…

So she buzzed us on through.

We walked through the door at a normal pace.

“Good job,” I muttered under my breath.

“Thank Lau,” she murmured back. “He’s the one who told everybody I’m a loyal employee.”

We continued down the hall until we reached a beige office with an open door.

Mei-ling had told me it belonged to a man named Gongsun, Lau’s chief accountant.

There was an entire department on the 69th floor devoted to accounting, but Lau kept Gongsun close because he handled all the firm’s illegal transactions.

As we’d planned, I kept behind Mei-ling, trying to stay hidden behind her.

When we walked into the room, a fat, middle-aged man with thinning hair and dark circles under his eyes was clicking away on his keyboard.

I shut the door behind us so none of the workers outside the office would see anything.

If Gongsun looked up, he only saw Mei-ling because he spoke Cantonese in a bored voice.

Mei-ling replied, then ended with a question I’d told her to ask:

Are the crypto accounts open on your computer?

Gongsun sounded confused, but he must have answered in the affirmative –

Because Mei-ling said, “Do it.”

I quickly stepped out from behind her, my gun aimed at the man’s head.

“Get away from the computer,” I ordered.

I knew he understood me. Mei-ling had said he was fluent in English.

Gongsun’s eyes stared at the gun in shock –

And then, stupidly, he glanced back at the screen and reached for the mouse.

Rather than shoot him and announce our presence, I settled for pistol-whipping him.

One blow across the face sent him reeling to the ground.

“Try anything,” I snarled as I pointed the gun at him, “and I’ll kill you.”

He cowered on the floor with his hands over his head.

“Keep the door closed,” I said to Mei-ling as I sat in Gongsun’s office chair.

I peered at the monitor and clicked through open browser tabs until I found what I was looking for.

I immediately recognized the layout for Kryptexa, one of the largest international crypto trading platforms. I had an account myself.

Gongsun had kept his Kryptexa account page in English, thank God.

I checked the screen for the amount of crypto in the account –

And froze in shock.

Total assets were listed as 4167 Bitcoin.

Over 250 million dollars US.

Either Gongsun was a moron to keep that much crypto in one place…

Or this was merely what flowed in and out daily.

If that was the case, the Syndicate was a multi-billion-dollar operation –

And a much bigger organized crime front than I had realized.

Whatever the case, my bad luck had turned around in an instant.

I quickly navigated to the Transfer screen and entered the 36-digit address for one of my own crypto accounts.

Then, in the ‘Total Amount To Transfer’ box, I entered 4165 Bitcoins, which left two Bitcoins for transfer fees.

The screen prompted me for a two-factor authentication code, which make it harder for hackers to steal your money. The codes were generated by special apps on a cell phone and refreshed every 60 seconds.

Luckily for me, Gongsun had left his cell phone on his desk.

I looked for the app used by Kryptexa –

Ah, there it is.

Seconds later, I typed the authentication code into Kryptexa and the transfer was cleared to go.

I hit the ‘Send’ button –

And it was done.

My crypto account would receive $250 million of Bitcoin within the next 30 minutes.

I had just stolen a quarter of a billion dollars from Lau…

And there was nothing he could do to get it back.

“Are we good?” Mei-ling asked.

“Very good,” I said. “Get behind the desk.”

As she ran over to me, I pulled the detonator from my suit jacket, gripped the levered handle tightly in my left hand, and turned the key.

The green light came on.

My suitcase was by the door…

And now the C4 inside it was armed.

“Please don’t let go of that until you absolutely have to,” Mei-ling moaned.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” I replied in an amused voice.

Then I picked up the revolver in my right hand.

Gongsun whimpered on the floor.

“Do we need him anymore?” Mei-ling asked.

“No.”

Mei-ling prodded him with her toe and said something in Cantonese.

Gongsun whimpered and got up slowly.

“Go tell Mr. Lau that Roberto Rosolini wants to see him immediately,” I ordered.

Gongsun stared at me –

Waited an instant longer to see if I was fucking with him –

And then ran into the hallway screaming in Cantonese.

Whatever he said, all the cubicle dwellers ran screaming from their desks, too.

I placed the gun on the desk where I could reach it if needed.

I made sure the detonator was firmly gripped in my left hand…

Then I looked at Mei-ling. “You might want to get behind the desk… just in case.”

We both knew it wouldn’t do anything to shield her from the explosion –

But it might stop a few stray bullets.

She kissed me. “Good luck.”

Then she crouched behind the desk for cover.

I turned to face the open door.

I didn’t have to wait long.