Roland nodded, feigning concern. “I heard about those cave-ins,” he replied. “Very sad.” He added a serious shake of his head, but Zantar kept silent. “My boss was also concerned about that issue and sent some of his engineers to investigate. Apparently, there were some pretty severe sinkholes under the village caused by excess water usage by the villagers.” He sighed as if he were concerned about the villagers. “It’s a shame, but we have several products that can lower the water usage in residential areas. I can recommend a few of them myself.”
“That’s very generous of you,” Zantar commented. “It’s my understanding that Sheik del Taran also sent some specialists to that area and discovered an illegal mine that tunneled directly underneath that village, causing the sinkhole which destroyed several homes.”
Scott shook his head. “No, that’s just not true. I know all of the mining companies that work in this region. The story about an illegal mine is just your enemy trying to create problems.”
“And here,” Zantar asked, pointing to the city on the map where Sheik Goran and Princess Calista had been kidnapped. “Do you know anything about why or how the leader of Silar and Princess Calista were kidnapped?” Zantar tilted his head as he watched the other man’s face pale. “There are rumors that their kidnapping was an effort to distract the government from illegal mining activities. Your boss wouldn’t be involved in these kinds of activities, right?”
Roland put a finger underneath the collar of his dress shirt, as if trying to loosen it. “I don’t know anything about that.”
The man lifted his hands in the air, palms out as if trying to ward off the danger he’d suddenly perceived. Apparently, Roland wasn’t as much of an idiot as Zantar had thought. “Hey, I don’t know what’s going on there. I’m just here as a representative of my company, trying to get a road usage contract in place.” He sidled over to the contract and flipped the pages. “We’re even laying out repair costs, at our expense.”
Zantar glanced down at the numbers, his eyes narrowing when he looked up at Roland. “Those aren’t the same numbers that were emailed to my assistant last night.” He waited, watching the man’s mouth open slightly, but continued before the man spouted more lies. “In fact, those numbers are exactly twenty-five percent lower than what was in the contract sent to us last night.” He shook his head. “That sounds like a bait and switch type of scam.” He lowered his voice as he said, “You’re not going to try and scam me, are you Mr. Roland?”
The idiot’s nervous swallowing could probably be heard on the audio recording. “Never!”
Zantar ignored the lack of his title. The idiot man didn’t know that he was supposed to use the title “Your Highness” or some other honorific when speaking to the ruler of Citran. It didn’t really matter, Zantar supposed. The man was going to prison for a very long time.
“Good,” Zantar replied, shifting his body slightly, then lifting his hand in the air. Roland didn’t know that the hand signal was meant to hold off the law enforcement personnel who were stationed right outside the doorway. “First of all, I’d like you to take me to this brothel you mentioned.”
Roland’s pudgy features brightened and his whole demeanor changed to one of excitement. “Shouldn’t we sign the contracts first?”
Zantar waved a hand towards the papers. “We’ll get to that. I’m very intrigued by the stories you mentioned about these women.”
Roland actually rubbed his hands together, delighted with the plan and visibly relieved that the previous illegal acts were no longer the topic of the conversation. “Let’s go. I’ll lead the way.”
“No need for that. My team will drive us.”
Twenty minutes later, they all arrived at the house in a relatively spread-out neighborhood. It looked more run-down than he’d anticipated, but Zantar didn’t bother with that. He allowed his plain-clothed guards to accompany Roland into the house while the uniformed police stealthily moved around to surround the house. Moments later, after the police revealed themselves to the owners of the establishment, panic reigned. As expected, several idiots tried to escape and were quickly handcuffed and put into custody. The brothel owner, a woman in her mid-fifties who had probably been a victim of human trafficking herself by the looks of her rough appearance, was led out in handcuffs a few moments later. Roland was next and he was trying to pull away, yelling that he was a friend of “Zantar”. That only caused his guards to handle him with less care.
His personal bodyguards drove Zantar back to the palace. “I want Roland questioned on the mining incidents. We’ll need to inform Astir and Goran of this latest development. We also need to update Nasir. Some of the line items in that contract might impact his country as well. But even better, I think Roland might finally lead us to the head of this nest of vipers that have been plaguing those border villages before they can infiltrate Nasir’s country.”