Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 471: Candy

Chapter 471: Candy

Computer access granted.

The first thing Kazi clicked on were the messages on Facebook. Kazi’s eyes scanned and read everything in an instant. Group chats and private chats opened and closed rapidly. Click, click, click!

"Oh. Huh. This is..."

An appointment. No, not an appointment, a...date. An arranged date. Last week, Pavvo had told a good friend about it. His parents supposedly arranged it and...

"She’s coming at three o’clock....in five minutes."

Ding-dong!

Crud. She was already here. He checked the second monitor, the one that hosted the security cameras and he let out the biggest sigh in the world. A young woman in a white veil had already gone through the gate. Forget five minutes, he had one. Kazi sprung into action without another thought.

One minute...

Thirty seconds...

She was walking through the living room...

Ten seconds...

Five...

Two...

"Hello?"

Zero.

No knocks. Not yet.

"Helllooo?"

Light, gentle knocks ensued. It was at this point that the door swung open and the lady was greeted by a smile.

"Hello there, Madame! I am Pavvo de blah! Nice to meet—Bonjour as they say in the land of romantisme."

The woman was exceptionally pretty. Long eyelashes, a round face, a length of black hair that was brushed to perfected smoothness, and a smile with dimples. A smile that faded as she experienced seven shades of emotions from his eccentric greeting.

’Wow. She’s like a princess in a fairy tail story.’ Kazi found himself genuinely smiling. ’This...might be kinda fun!’

"B-Bonjour?" No kiss or hug as was customary in France. Kazi bypassed it with a theatrical bow. The noble-born lady did a curtsy in turn. "Pauline Lannes de Montebello. It is a lovely pleasure to meet you."

"Let us speak in our natively loved language too," Kazi proclaimed, having already switched from English to French halfway in. "Let us walk. This place here is, ah, too limited to men and women of our stature. Come, follow me."

He gestured to the open door and she obediently went out. Kazi closed the door behind him and double-confirmed that it was locked. Behind the couch were the unconscious bodies of the security guard and the real Pavvo. His customized white parade mask and gloves were gone, stolen by Kazi. Above all else, in order to make this disguise work, he had to hide his complexion. Pavvo was a white French noble and Kazi was a brown Bangladeshi ex-slave.

’Heh, but I’m much more good-looking.’

He spoke fast and eccentric on purpose. He covered his wrist with gloves. His neck was hidden by a custom hoodie he pulled over, courtesy of his suit. Kazi Hossain was a man that prepared for anything and everything. A hoodie compartment was expected—and quite badass.

"Hm..." Pauline awaited outside, hands linked behind her. The veil on her obscured her expression.

He walked, and she followed. He stopped to look at a painting, so did she. "Might I ask the reason for this veil?"

"It’s Valentine’s Day and I thought I would surprise you for our first meeting."

"I prefer to see a lady’s full beauty."

"You wear a mask."

"I prefer not to see my own beauty. It is...too vast."

Pauline laughed, only to slap a hand over her mouth. "Ahem. Apologies, Sir."

Ha?

"Do I look like a monster? You may laugh in my presence."

"Giggle, don’t laugh is what they say you say," Pauline said.

’What the hell kind of rumours surround this guy...?’

"Rumours are rumours, my lady. They are but what others perceive us. For example, this painting." Kazi gestured with the back of his hand. "Still Life with Candlestick. It was stolen some years ago, if you may recall."

"Oh! The one worth twenty million?"

"Thirty million now," Kazi corrected with arrogance.

"Didn’t the thief say he destroyed it?"

"It appears not. He was quite fickle about it."

"About priceless art?"

"The world is fleeting, you see. Our wants, our needs, our likes, our dislikes. Everything is so, so fleeting. The only exception is our souls. Our conscience. With our senses, through the perception of others, we may think we’ve changed. But you can never tell, can you? Because at the end of it all, it is still you. It is always just you and you alone."

A deep breath and a jolly tone.

"In this case, he wanted money. The art and the effort it took to accomplish it...any sort of pride was discarded."

He turned and eyed her. Pauline seemed to understand what he was seeing and met his gaze head-on.

"I would like to see your face," Pauline said bluntly. "May I?"

"If you prove your real self to be greater than what lays on your flesh, then I shall take off this mask."

Pauline smiled and started walking on your own. "Let us drink then, hm?"

Shit.

In the next minute, Kazi was in the living room holding a glass of wine in his hands. Dammit, dammit, dammit! Not only that but the guard that was roaming the house was eyeing him suspiciously. Luck graced Kazi in two regards: one, Pavvo was eccentric so a hoodie wasn’t too out of character for him; two, Kazi and Pavvo had the same tall, muscled build.

The home guard never saw Kazi or his suit. He didn’t know there had been another that came up here, or if he did, he didn’t know he wore a light-blue suit. Kazi further added fire with his voice. It was a pitch perfect imitation of Pavvo. No flaws at all. And yet...more charismatic. More charming.

Pauline drank wine with her legs crossed. She showed wealth with her make-up and her clothes: a beige midi dress with a white silk overshirt and expensive white mary jane shoes pointed at him. She was humming and eyeing him, lips pressed to the wine glass. She drank. She watched.

"Something wrong?" Kazi twirled the glass in his hand.

"Do you deal meth?"

Pavvo de Seat—did he deal in meth.

"I do indeed."

Absolutely. For a woman like Pauline whose family was in the inner circle of the wealthiest people in France, the answer came immediately and without hesitation. She knew.

Siiip. Pauline cocked her head. "Can I try some?"

"Your mother would murder me if I did."

"You’ve never met my mother."

"I know of her."

Her left thumb twitched and she smiled. Kazi grasped the first layer of this woman: her mother had forced this meeting.

"And I prefer not to be responsible for a first-timer," Kazi said. "How old are you again? Ah, wait, apologies. Never ask a lady her age, yes?"

"Such a gentleman," Pauline said with a growing smile. The veil made it almost creepy. "You should drink your wine."

"...."

Kazi was principled. Pork, wine, alcohol—even in a risky situation like this, he stuck to his guns. "I told you, I will only slip this mask off once you bare yourself to me."

She gave him a judgemental look. The innuendo was not lost on her and he could not tell if she liked it. A long pause was filled up by her drinking.

’My goal here isn’t you, Pauline Lannes de Montebello, although coincidentally, there is a small connection. Pavvo over here is known to sell meth. Even the wine you are drinking right now has crystal meth. It’s a special concoction that Pavvo has been selling to the Middle East. The elite eat it up. The servants and slaves suffer.’

Kazi’s goal was to catch Pavvo, find evidence, indict him and everyone who was in cohorts with him. An operation of this scale could not be accomplished by one or two men—nor could they be anonymous. Special trade routes needed to be established through the air or ship. Since there were no waters to traverse, it had to be via land.

Right? Wrong.

Pavvo and his cohorts were cautious. First, they sent their experimental meth flown over to Portugal, where they then had them shipped on boat to Canada and finally back to the Middle East. Kazi deduced they picked Qatar. The connections between Qatar and France were growing warmer by the year. The Qataris were more than willing for some bulks of drugs in their countries if it meant more friendship with the European superpowers.

"Pauline," Kazi called out with a smile behind his mask, "how does your mother feel about me?"

"I wouldn’t know, I don’t talk to her."

"What, did she message you on Facebook to come?"

"Exactly—she said she would deactivate my credit cards."

"Luckily for you, you’re with me so it’s a blessing in disguise." Kazi peeked out the window. Parked in his driveway was a long black limo. He smirked. "How about we take this outside, hm?" He got up and waved a finger at the home guard. "Come with me."

"Are you sure, sir? You informed me here to stay at all costs..."

"Do you not see who is with us today? An honoured guest, the honoured daughter of the Montebellos." Kazi’s inflections matched Pavvo’s flawlessly. He was all casual and fast, his gesturing matching his gentle hurry. "The others are still here. They will watch in your place."

The home guard nodded without another word. Pavvo was the employer and his logic made sense.

’I need to gain complete access to this place. By estimation, Pavvo and the security guard I left upstairs should wake up in three hours. By three hours...’ Kazi held the door to the outside world open for Pauline. ’I must get rid of her.’