Ron Donaldo: Rise Of The Apex Don

Chapter 17

The morning sun rose over the city of Oakhaven. It was a beautiful, bright morning. The dark rain clouds from the night before were completely gone. The sky was a clear, perfect blue. 

Marcus Thorne sat in the back of his long, black limousine. He held a cup of hot, expensive coffee. He wore a brand-new suit made of dark gray Italian wool. His silk tie was perfectly straight. He looked out the tinted window at the busy city streets. He smiled. 

He felt very good. He felt safe. 

Marcus picked up his daily newspaper from the leather seat. He looked at the front page. He was looking for a very specific story. He expected to see a massive, terrible headline: DIRTY BOMB EXPLODES IN BLACKWOOD FOREST. RON DONALDO WANTED.

He searched the pages. Page one. Page two. Page three. 

Nothing. 

There was no news about a bomb. There was no news about a destroyed convoy. There was no news about a dead ex-convict. 

Marcus frowned slightly. His smile faded. He took his phone from his pocket and called the Blackwater Shield commander. The phone rang and rang. No one answered. 

"Maybe they are cleaning up the mess," Marcus whispered to himself. He took a sip of his coffee. "Yes. That is it. The Director's men are cleaning up. Ron Donaldo is dead. The problem is finally gone."

The limousine pulled up to the front doors of the Sterling Tech tower. The tower was ninety floors of shining glass and steel. It was the tallest, most beautiful building in the city. It was Marcus’s castle. 

He stepped out of the car. The cool morning air felt fresh. Two security guards opened the heavy glass doors for him. They bowed their heads. 

"Good morning, Mr. Thorne," the first guard said. 

"It is a very good morning," Marcus replied. He walked into the massive, shiny lobby. His expensive leather shoes clicked loudly on the bright marble floor. 

Marcus rode the private elevator up to the 90th floor. The elevator music was soft and calming. When the doors opened, he walked straight to the main boardroom. 

He pushed the heavy oak doors open. 

He expected to see his Board of Directors drinking coffee and talking happily about their new profits. Instead, the room was completely silent. The air felt heavy, cold, and full of fear. 

Ten people sat around the long mahogany table. They were all staring at Marcus. Their faces were pale. Some of them were sweating. Theresa Sterling sat near the end of the table. She looked terrible. Her makeup was a mess. She was biting her fingernails. 

Mr. Henderson, the fat man with the red face, stood up quickly. His chair scraped loudly against the floor. 

"Marcus!" Henderson yelled. His voice was shaking. "Where have you been? Your phone was turned off!"

"I was enjoying my morning drive," Marcus said calmly. He walked to the head of the table. He put his coffee down. "Why are you shouting, Henderson? What is the problem?"

A man named David stood up. David was the Head of Operations. He was in charge of the huge Sterling Tech factories. David looked like he was going to throw up. He held a thick stack of papers in his shaking hands. 

"Mr. Thorne," David said. His voice was very quiet. "The factory lines... they stopped."

Marcus stopped moving. He looked at David. "What do you mean, they stopped? Did a machine break? Fix it."

"No, Sir," David swallowed hard. "The machines did not break. The workers are standing there doing nothing. The assembly lines are completely empty. We had to shut off the power at six o'clock this morning."

"Why?" Marcus demanded. His face started to turn red. "We have the big government inspection at noon today! We have to show them one thousand finished Sterling Core engines! If we do not have the engines, they will cancel the contract! We will lose two billion dollars!"

"I know, Sir!" David cried. "But we cannot build the engines. We have no materials."

"That is impossible!" Marcus shouted. He slammed his hand flat on the shiny wooden table. SMACK. "The Sea Dragon arrived last night! Two hundred tons of pure lithium! I sent Blackwater Shield to bring it to the factory! The trucks should have arrived at four o'clock in the morning!"

David’s hands shook worse. He placed three glossy photographs on the table and pushed them toward Marcus. 

"The trucks never made it to the factory, Mr. Thorne," David whispered. 

Marcus picked up the photographs. His eyes went wide. His heart began to beat very fast in his chest. 

The first picture showed Highway 9. The Blackwater SUVs were smashed and flipped upside down in the mud. The front windows were shattered. 

The second picture showed the Blackwater soldiers. They were sitting on the wet road. Their hands were tied behind their backs with plastic zip-ties. They looked beaten and broken. 

The third picture showed the heavy gray armored trucks. The heavy steel locks on the back doors were broken into pieces. The doors were wide open. The inside of the trucks was completely empty. 

There was no lithium. 

"Where is it?" Marcus breathed. The air in his lungs felt very hot. "Where is the metal?"

"It was stolen, Sir," David said softly. "The police found the guards this morning. The guards said an army of men in black armor attacked them. They were led by a giant man with one eye. They took the lithium and vanished into the dark."

"And the third truck?" Marcus asked quietly. His hands were shaking now. "What about the third truck?"

David looked confused. "The third truck was found completely destroyed. It was driven off a cliff into the old rock quarry. It exploded into a million pieces. The police do not know why."