The blind servant is a trillionaire

Chapter 7

The safehouse was quiet. The street kids were finally asleep on their old mattresses.

Griffin sat on a broken wooden chair in the corner of the room. He held a small roll of medical tape. He tightly wrapped the tape around his bruised chest. He hissed sharply in pain. His ribs were definitely fractured.

He put on a clean black t-shirt. He needed time to heal, but time was a luxury he did not possess. Malakai was destroying the city looking for him.

Griffin pulled his encrypted terminal from his pocket.

He had to strike back immediately. But he could not walk the streets. The bounty on the blind masseur made his current face a walking target. He needed to shed the disguise completely.

He reached up to his eyes and carefully pinched the milky white contact lenses. He pulled them out and dropped them into a small glass of water.

His real eyes were a striking, piercing dark brown. They looked sharp and incredibly dangerous. He looked like a completely different person.

He pulled the small fake hearing aid out of his ear and crushed it under his boot.

Then he sent a secure message to a trusted contact in the upper city.

‘I need a new skin.’ He typed quickly. ‘I need it in one hour.’

He waited for ten minutes. Finally, the terminal buzzed.

A location coordinate appeared on the screen. It was an upscale tailor shop in the financial district.

Griffin left the safehouse quietly. He told Nico to keep the heavy doors locked and barred until he returned.

He moved through the shadows of the city. He avoided the main streets. He did not use his white cane. He walked with perfect balance and silent, deadly purpose. Without the blind disguise, he moved like a trained predator.

He reached the back door of the tailor shop and knocked once.

The door opened. A tall woman with short black hair and sharp glasses stood in the doorway. This was Kira. She was the best forger and logistics expert on the black market. She owed the Oracle her life.

"Come inside." Kira said quickly. She locked the heavy metal door behind him.

The shop was dark and filled with expensive fabrics.

"You look terrible." Kira observed. She looked at his bruised face. She opened a small medical kit on the table. "You have a million dollar bounty on your head. Half the city is looking for a blind man."

"I am not blind anymore." Griffin said coldly. "I need a high end suit. I need a fake corporate identity. And I need makeup to cover these bruises."

Kira nodded immediately. She did not ask questions. She worked fast.

She applied thick, professional stage makeup to his face. The dark purple bruises on his cheek and jaw disappeared completely. He looked flawless and wealthy.

She handed him a tailored, dark charcoal suit made of expensive Italian silk.

Griffin put the suit on. It fit his athletic frame perfectly. It hid the thick layers of medical tape around his ribs. He looked in the tall mirror. He did not look like a masseur from the slums. He looked like a ruthless, untouchable billionaire.

"Your new name is Arthur Cross." Kira handed him a sleek leather wallet. "You are a venture capitalist from London. You specialize in high risk acquisitions. Your digital footprint is completely solid. I created bank records showing you have four billion dollars in liquid capital."

"Perfect." Griffin placed the wallet in his inner jacket pocket.

"Where are you going tonight?" Kira asked. She looked deeply worried.

"Malakai is hosting his annual charity gala at the Grand Hotel tonight." Griffin adjusted his silk tie in the mirror. "He is trying to save his public image after his casino burned down. He is desperate for cash to rebuild."

"You are walking directly into the viper nest." Kira warned him. "Malakai will have a hundred armed guards at that gala. If he recognizes you, you will not walk out alive."

"He is looking for a broken, blind servant." Griffin said smoothly. He turned away from the mirror. "He is not looking for Arthur Cross."

Griffin left the tailor shop through the front door. A sleek black luxury car was waiting for him at the curb. Kira had arranged everything perfectly.

He got into the back seat. The driver took him to the Grand Hotel.

The hotel was a massive skyscraper covered in bright golden lights. The red carpet was rolled out in front of the main entrance. Wealthy elites stepped out of expensive limousines. News reporters flashed heavy cameras.

Griffin stepped out of his car. He buttoned his suit jacket. He walked with absolute confidence. He kept his back perfectly straight despite the sharp pain in his chest.

He walked past the heavy security guards at the front door. They checked his fake invitation. The machine beeped green. They waved him inside respectfully.

He walked into the massive grand ballroom.

The room was filled with soft classical music and the smell of expensive champagne. Crystal chandeliers hung from the high ceiling. Hundreds of billionaires stood in small circles, laughing and drinking.

Griffin grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter, he scanned the massive room with his sharp, dark eyes.

He spotted his target immediately.

Malakai stood near the center of the room wearing a dark suit. His right arm was wrapped in a thick white cast and resting in a sling. The elevator doors had shattered his bones perfectly.

Malakai looked angry and exhausted. The other billionaires were keeping their distance from him. Nobody wanted to be associated with a man who just lost his flagship casino to a public bombing.

Griffin took a slow sip of his champagne.

He did not hide in the corners. He did not act like a servant.

He walked directly across the crowded ballroom and walked straight toward Malakai.