Whisper Wind

Prologue

Elias looked out the window behind his desk at the incoming torrent of rain. The New York harbor was lit up with the dull work of the deckhands, who were docking ships, and casting others off. Every one of them looked like an ant, busily working to please their queen. Many of them worked for Elias. The trade routes from New York, were not necessarily the largest in the world, however it did provide a small part of his incredulous income.

From a young age Elias learned how to manipulate others to get what he wanted. From the days he was a child at school. If someone was sitting in his swing, he would invent an elaborate story to remove them. Every time someone fell to one of his schemes he gained a larger sense of pride in his abilities, as if he were a lioness, who just added to her large kill-count.

Elias laughed at the people below, and how silly they were to accept the meager wage he paid them to do their job. Someone knocked on the door. Elias mashed his finger down on the speaker button he had on his chair.

"What now?" he demanded. There was a crackling noise when he removed his finger.

"Sir, it…. It seems we have a small umm….. problem." The voice on the other side of the speaker sounded frightened and shaky. A wisp of the mans full voice.

"Well what is it?" Elias spat.

"Th… Th…" and the man behind the door needed to say no more. Theodore Wilson, the largest thorn in Elias' side since he had started his business dealings. Every day Theodore tried to sabotage one thing or another, to impede the progress of Elias, but to no avail. Elias was a hydra of business, and a monger of power. If you ruin one of his many companies, two more sprouted in its place, ready to make twice the income of the prior one.

Nonetheless Elias slammed his fist on the table, denting the oaken surface, and causing the contents of todays work to shuffle and become disorganized. "What about him?"

Elias heard a small thunk, and the knob of his door slowly creaking. Elias had left it unlocked, because he had no reason to fear anyone breaking and entering his office, he felt the safest there from the wiles of people who wanted him dead. Many times people had tried to break into his home, and several were successful, but Elias always thought ahead. He prepared for people to break into his home. He prepared for people to try to kill him while he travelled. He never prepared for someone to be ballsy enough to break into his office though. For the first time in his life, Elias felt fear, that he wouldn't be able to stop the assassin.

"I've been waiting for you." Elias said with his back turned to the door. He didn't have to look to know that Theodore could hear him. Elias remained calm and collected while speaking, commanding the presence of anyone listening.

"So now your business has expanded to psychic readings?" Theodore mocked Elias.

"No, but I know who is in my buildings at all times. If I didn't I would be a horrible businessman." Theodore laughed a bit, another taunt to anger Elias.

"Do you know why I'm here Elias? Why I continue to hurt your business, and undermine your true nature?" Elias knew very well why Theodore did this. From a very young age Elias had gained an enemy in Theodore. Someone who's power of thought vastly outweighed his own. Elias couldn't have someone like that in his midst though, so he continued to attempt to remove him from the situation, at one point Elias thought of resorting to murder, but knew the risks far outweighed the benefits. Though try as he might, Elias couldn't think of anything that could beat this man.

"Of course. You're here to kill me and take over my company, and 'save' the measly people you call family. Though that's not going to happen today, or tomorrow, or any other day that you breathe." Theodore may have been far more intelligent than Elias, but he was lacking a key component that would have saved him a lot of time, and that was money. While Elias couldn't physically abuse Theodore, because of their very public, relationship, he could monetarily abuse him. Something Elias loved to do more than anything was make someone wallow with the other poor saps who tread the streets of New York, or any other state for that matter. Elias reached for the button on the left side of his chair, which would send the alarm out through the whole company, but Theodore grabbed his hand before he could hit the button.

"No, I'm not here to kill you. If I killed you I wouldn't have a purpose in my life, I would feel empty. I'm here to ruin you, to make you understand what it's like to live like I have my whole life. I will unveil every one of your deepest darkest secrets, show the public exactly how many skeletons you have in your closet, and who they were before you ruined them." Elias did not deny this. He ruined many people on his way to power, taking them from their families, leaving them to rot in their own psyche. He knew that he was a cruel man, and accepted that he was a cruel man. He knew that he would feel no love from anyone, but he wasn't to upset about that, he never cared much for love, but rather worked on fear.

"Theodore, can I call you Theo? It's a lot easier than saying your whole name, a ridiculous one at that." Elias looked up at him and grinned, his white teeth glinting from the light of the moon. Yet Theodore remained unmoved by his demeanor, "it seems that you and I have differences." Theodore snorted in humor. "Be that as it may, I don't see why we can't be friends here. I have a business, you are in need of money, I think…"

"It's no thanks to you that I need money. I will never be your friend, or your acquaintance, or your ally. I hate you, with every fiber in my body, I hate you. I hate what you do, I hate how you treat people, like they were garbage." Theodore let out the most common signs of rage, and Elias felt powerful, drawing on the pain he was causing.

"I treat people the way they deserve to be treated, they're all puppets in the grand scheme of things, as are you, and the two large men behind you." Theodore hadn't noticed Elias' two personal bodyguards enter the room. The larger of the two smacked Theodore in the back of the head with the butt of his gun, and Theodore crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

"Deport him." Elias meant to send him off with the next boat leaving harbor. A weekly trip to a small island off the coast of New York was due to leave in fifteen minutes.