His breathing became shallow and fast. He accelerated slightly and pushed through some traffic. He turned into a residential road that led toward a newer part of the city. The black car disappeared from his mirror for a moment. He used that window. He saw a stretch of road ahead with low bushes on the right side near the fence of a gated estate. He made a quick decision.
He slowed down, pulled over to the right, grabbed the bag from the passenger seat, and got out fast. He pushed the bag deep into the low bush near the fence. He looked for something to use as a marker, then pressed two large stones together near the spot, forming a small V shape. Then he jumped back into the car and drove off fast.
He drove hard for several minutes, weaving through back roads. Then, without warning, the black car appeared again from a side street and pulled directly in front of him, blocking the road. Two more men appeared from behind. They were masked. They moved toward his car fast with guns raised. Remy had no time to reverse. They were on him in seconds.
They pulled him out of the car. One pressed a gun to his side and demanded the bag. Remy said there was no bag. He said he had dropped it at the signing location. Another man hit him hard across the shoulder and told him to get on the ground. He went down. They searched the car. They opened the boot. They checked under the seats.
They checked the back seats. They found nothing. The man with the gun stood over Remy lying face down on the road, and the tension stretched for a very long time. Then one of them said something in a low voice that Remy could not hear clearly. There was a short argument between them. Then the leader told Remy not to move for ten minutes or he would be followed.
They got back in the black car, reversed hard down the street, and disappeared. Remy lay on the road for thirty more seconds just breathing. Then he got up slowly. His hands were shaking. His shoulder, where he had been hit, was throbbing with pain. He got back in his car and sat for a moment with his hands gripping the wheel.
Then he drove back quickly toward the estate. He found the road. He drove slowly, looking at the right side of the fence. He found the two stones he had pressed together in a V shape. He got out of the car and pushed into the low bush. He looked around the spot carefully. He got on his knees and pressed his hands into the leaves and dry soil. The bag was not there.
He searched wider. Left side, right side, farther in. Nothing. The bag was gone. Remy stood up and looked around the empty road. His face was completely blank. Not angry yet, just blank. He could not process what had happened. He walked back to his car and sat down. He stared at the steering wheel. The bag with the contract payment was gone.
The money was gone. The documents were gone. The men who had robbed him had not even found the bag, which meant someone else had taken it. Someone had come along that road between the time he hid the bag and the time he came back. Someone had found it and taken it, and now it was gone.
He sat in that car for over an hour without starting the engine. When Remy finally got home, he sat alone in his study. He did not tell his wife what had happened. He did not call anyone in his company. He sat with the weight of it alone. The contract firm would come looking for assurance that the money had been received and deposited.
He had signed papers confirming receipt. He was now responsible for that money. If it could not be recovered, the consequences would be severe. His reputation, his company, the contract itself, everything was now hanging in the balance. He pressed his fingers against his forehead and sat in the dark study for a very long time trying to think of what to do next.
The next morning, Remy sent one of his most trusted workers to the area near the estate quietly to ask around. He did not tell the worker what was missing or why. He only said to check whether anyone had seen anything unusual near the bush by the fence on that road. The worker came back and said a few residents had seen a man with a scrap cart in the area on the morning in question. A hawker.
Nobody knew his name. Nobody knew where he came from. The information was thin. Remy sat with it. A scrap hawker, someone with a cart who probably took the bag without knowing what was inside, or who knew exactly what was inside. He could not tell which one it was yet. Remy began sending men quietly to scrap dealers in the area, asking whether anyone had come in recently with a large bag or with a lot of unusual cash. Nothing came back.
He had people checking pawn shops and informal money exchange spots. Nothing. Days passed with no news. Remy kept his normal schedule at the office. He answered calls. He attended meetings. He signed papers. But underneath all of it, he was burning. He could not sleep properly. He could not eat full meals. He kept his phone close at all times, waiting for any piece of information that would help him find the bag or the person who took it.
Then on the morning when Dami arrived at the company building, he walked up to the security post at the entrance wearing his faded clean shirt and holding the envelope. One of the two guards at the gate looked at him with obvious suspicion. A young man with worn shoes and a careful look on his face arriving without a vehicle, without an appointment, and without a company name tag.
The guard told him flatly that visitors needed appointments and that he should leave. Dami did not argue. He reached into the envelope carefully and pulled out one of the official documents from the bag. He held it out toward the guard and said he needed to see whoever this company belonged to. It was urgent. The guard took the document and looked at it. His expression changed slightly.
He told Dami to stay where he was and went inside. He walked quickly through the ground floor and took the stairs to the upper office area. When he knocked on the door of the office administrator and handed the document to her, she looked at it. Her eyes moved fast across the page and then she stood up quickly.
She walked down the corridor and knocked on the heavy door at the end. The voice inside said, “Come in.” She entered and placed the document on the desk in front of Remy. Remy looked down at it. He was perfectly still for three full seconds. Then he stood up fast and walked past her without a word.
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