The Case of Jake Benjamin

Jake Benjamin, son of Graham Benjamin, was an extraordinary scientist, just like his father. 
After his father's death, he had taken over his father's company, Celestial Technologies. The company was already big, but Jake made it even bigger. He expanded business and invested more money. As a result of all his efforts, Celestial technologies was now the biggest technological firm in Nodax. 

Jake used to live in the same neighborhood as Nathan before, but after becoming one of the richest people on the planet, he bought a private island and moved there. 

After Graham's death, the COUNCIL had approached Jake at several occasions, they wanted him to work for them and they also wanted something from him which his father had left for him, his true research papers about the G.O.D.
Years after Graham had left the COUNCIL, the COUNCIL came to know that Graham and Jim's research paper was incomplete. They had discovered something else about the G.O.D but they didn't write that in their research papers and neither did they inform the COUNCIL about this, they kept it a secret. But the COUNCIL came to know that they had been cheated when one of the other scientists pointed out an irregularity in the research paper. This was the reason they had contacted Graham after so many years, but they ended up killing him when he refused to cooperate. 

But every time the COUNCIL approached him, Jake refused to work with them. 

The COUNCIL had first approached him politely, they tried to convince him by offering a lot of money. Jake didn't know anything about the COUNCIL, he thought it was just another firm trying to get him to join theirs. 

But later, when their methods of approaching him slowly changed, he realized that something was wrong. They weren't so polite anymore, they threatened and black-mailed him. He did some investigation on his own and found out about the true nature of the COUNCIL. Finding information about the COUNCIL was a very tough task, impossible for an ordinary man. But Jake, was no ordinary man, he knew some very resourceful people and had some connections with high level NCPD officers. He didn't exactly know everything about them, he just knew that their intentions weren't right. 

Few days before the weeding, the COUNCIL called him to meet one of their representatives at the Stan-Gate hotel. The COUNCIL had booked an entire floor. Jake came with full security this time, as he knew the true nature of the COUNCIL. The COUNCIL refused entry to his guards, they said that only Jake was allowed to enter the floor. Jake hesitated a bit first, but he had no other choice. He took a weapon with him, hidden under his coat. The COUNCIL knew he was carrying a weapon, but they didn't care, a single gun couldn't possibly do anything to them. 

The person waiting for him was the COUNCIL's leader. The leader didn't make much appearances and made his men handle most of the business, but since this was a delicate matter, he showed up himself. 

The leader was about 6 feet tall, and quite muscular. He wore a suit, and a mask on his face. The mask was black in colour with a red pattern on it. The pattern resembled a fire. No one knew anything about the leader, his age, his identity, his face, his name, nothing. The leader was a man of his word, he never broke any of the deals he made, and he always kept his end. But he could do anything to get what he want. He persuaded some very powerful criminals to join him, and they all worked for him with complete loyalty, they wouldn't betray him for any amount of money. The word of the leader was supreme, anyone who tried to disobey him would face severe consequences. No one knew the true motive of the leader, no one knew what he wanted with the G.O.D's power. 

The COUNCIL was involved in various crimes, bounties, trafficking, narcotics, and what not. The COUNCIL represented their cause to be noble, they wanted to liberate the people of the lower ward and yearned for true economic equality.  They were secretly funded by some other organisations who shared the same ideology. But these weren't the COUNCIL's true intentions, these weren't the leader's true motives, these were just some fake agendas to draw some support. 

Jake had no idea how truly cruel and horrifying the COUNCIL could be. His life was about to be turned upside down, but he had no idea what was coming for him. 

He went up to the floor and entered the room he had been told to.

"Mr. Jake Benjamin, it's a pleasure meeting you." Said the leader. 

"And who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm just another guy working for the COUNCIL." He didn't tell him that he was the leader of the COUNCIL. 

"Well, the people that met me before weren't wearing a mask. That means you're either a coward or someone important who cannot risk revealing his identity." 

"Yeah, it's one of those two things." 

"So, why did you call me here?"

"To discuss terms, of course."

"What terms?"

"The terms of our deal."

"I don't remember making a deal with you guys."

"The deal that we will make right now."

"And what makes you think that I'll make a deal with you. I clearly refused to do so earlier. I guess your employees didn't inform you about that."

"No, I was well informed. But I thought that talking in person might change your decision."

"I don't think so. I already told your men that I don't want to work for you. Trust me, nothing would change my decision." 

"Hear me out, would you? I have a very interesting offer for you."

"Hmph, is that so?"

"Yes, how about we pay you $5 billion, for the work you'll be doing with us, and 5 more for your father's research."

"That's definitely a good offer, but your employees already approached me with that amount, and I clearly refused."

"No no, hear me out first. I'm not done yet. We pay you 10 biggies, and on top of that we leave you and your soon to be wife alone."

"Leave us alone how?"

"Mr. Benjamin, I think you know what I'm talking about. I must say, there isn't an option for you, you either accept or you face consequences."

"Are you threatening me? You think you're so powerful? Tell you what you coward, I wouldn't accept even if you offered me a 100 billion dollars. You see, it's not about the money, it's about the self esteem. I don't work with the likes of you. And the fact that you threatened me right now made it pretty clear that your intentions aren't good. If I don't go back down in the next 15 minutes, all 50 of my security guards come bursting down the doors and kill 5-6 of your men out there, and then kill you. So threatening me right now won't work. I'll be leaving now." 

"Looks like you've made your choice."

"Don't ever send any of your men after me again, or you'll be behind the bars very soon."

"You'll regret this Mr. Benjamin. The outcome won't be good for you."

"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try." Jake said while walking out of the room.

"Have a nice wedding." The leader said while Jake was leaving . 

The leader was angry, he felt insulted. No one had ever defied him like this. He wasn't used to this kind of behaviour.  

"What do you want me to do now boss?" asked one of his underlings, Danny.

"You know what to do. Teach him a f*king lesson."

Danny understood what he had to do.  

Jake went home. He wasn't afraid but he was wondering as to what would the COUNCIL would do next. He just hoped for everything to be alright until his wedding. But unfortunately, that wasn't going to be the case.

The day of the wedding had arrived and all the preparations had been made. The wedding was held at Jake's private island, and the security was very tight. There were about 100 guards, all of them heavily armed. Jake wasn't expecting something bad to happen but he didn't want to take any chances. He hadn't invited much people, just family and close friends. 

Danny was a cyborg. He had been a mafia boss before joining the COUNCIL, but things went south and he was arrested by the police. In the process, he was severely hurt and some of his body parts were beyond repair. The COUNCIL recruited him about seven years ago when they freed some criminals from prison. They gave him new body parts and turned him into a cyborg. This gave Danny unbelievable strength. He was much stronger than before, his instincts and reflexes had been sharpened too. He became loyal to the leader because he gave him a new life, and insane power. 
Danny had planned to infiltrate the wedding and kidnap Jake, and hurt some people in the process. But he knew that it wasn't going to be easy. A couple of 100 guards were nothing for him, he could take on them easily, but it weren't the guards that worried him, It was the police. He was sure that in all the commotion, someone, somehow would definitely call the police. He was afraid that if he took too much time in completing his task, he would be busted by the cops, hence he had to do this as fast as possible. 

Around 30 of the guards were positioned outside the front gate, around 20 were inside the building, and around 3-4 were standing near the altar. Rest of the guards were patrolling along with some drones and were spread across the whole island. 

Danny devised a plan. He wore a mask on his face, the leader had told him to do so to avoid any problems. He came to the island using a special water mobile, which was very hard to get detected by the sensors and even harder to get tracked. He entered from the back of the island and used a nullifier which temporarily blocked all communications and shut down the drones. This had alerted all the guards. He then took down the patrol guards one by one and made his way to the front gate. 
He took out every guard present there. The guards couldn't do anything to him, they were powerless. This had created commotion among all the guards, they ambushed him from all the sides, leaving their positions. He took some severe damage on his back and some on his leg but he was able to wipe them all out. 
During all this, Dixon, the security head, went in and instructed everyone to move to the panic room. He locked the panic room and stayed outside.

Danny went inside but he couldn't see a single person. He saw Dixon standing near the staircase which led to the panic room. Dixon put quite a fight but Danny had the upper hand. He beat up Dixon and asked him where everyone was. Dixon didn't tell him anything no matter how much he beat him up. He knocked Dixon unconscious and went along the stair case. He found a room with a big metallic gate, but he couldn't open it. He started banging on the door. He didn't have much time, his back was hurt and the police could arrive any minute. He kept hitting the door until he broke it. 
He went inside and asked Jake to come with him. Jake resisted, so he had to use force. 
In the process, he hurt many of the other people too. Some were killed, and some were heavily injured, while some escaped. But Danny was able to extract Jake out of there. He quickly left with Jake in the water mobile and went straight to the COUNCIL's HQ. The COUNCIL's HQ were located underground, in the neighboring lower ward of Nodax, LW-11. The lower wards weren't given any name, just serial numbers.

Danny had left a pile of dead bodies behind him, but he didn't look back even once. The police arrived a few minutes after Danny had left, he made it just in time. The police were horrified by the sights they witnessed. How could someone kill all these innocent people so brutally? 
The police immediately rescued the injured but there was nothing they could do for the dead. Out of the 100 guards and the 100 guests present there, the total death toll was somewhere around 110. Tessa was amongst the dead too. The only person they found who was fully conscious was Nathan. He was crying with Tessa in his arms when the police had found him. 

 The massacre became global news. Some said that it was a terrorist attack. Some said that Jake was a gangster and that this was a Mafia war. Different news handles had different things to say, but the NCPD had their suspicions on the COUNCIL.

Three days had passed, Nathan had been discharged from the hospital. His injuries had healed till then, and the NCPD took him in for some questions...

TO BE CONTINUED IN "Thirsty for Revenge"
STAY TUNED. 

(PS: I made some edits in chapter 3, "The Wedding Massacre", which are slightly relevant here. If you don't understand certain things, I suggest reading the edited version of the chapter. Thnx!)