Quiet Explosion—Chapter 2/5
Chapter 2 - The Kidnapping
Steve was a self made millionaire in his mid twenties, who made his money from foreign electronics sales. The Asian markets were so far advanced, many people in Britain couldn’t wait to get their hands on the goods, even if they didn’t come with guarantees and warranties. Where Steve made most of his money was in modified electronics—a mobile phone could be programmed to do just about anything these, days but it was something that only the black market could offer, especially for the type of clientele Steve was dealing with. There were small warehouses around the globe that stocked anything people wanted, he also had a group of programmers and electronic experts able to modify to demand. On his business trips he would befriend some powerful allies as he wined and dined the local mafiosa, but Steve loved to come back to Leeds. He felt he had to come back to the place where he spent his childhood, he also thought he could make a difference to the people in his hometown, he liked to think of himself as some kind of philanthropist, to give himself a feel good factor, and to bring some justification for his misdeeds. Steve had made himself quite an empire, and controlled much of what went on in Leeds, it was a case of ‘better him than someone else who didn’t give a crap’. He didn’t realise that the by-product was death and mayhem, but as the saying goes, ‘ what you can’t see can’t hurt’.