Never Judge

Chapter 916

Ian quickly shifted the conversation back on track, speaking about how they plan to corner Lucius Ting and to isolate him from his allies. 

"The most important part is that we continue to investigate the Rajas while they are under the illusion that we know nothing." Cedric told the people in the room as he finally spoke.

They all nodded, understanding how important their mission was to not only take down Lucius Ting, but to get rid of the Rajas once and for all.

"They cannot see that I am working on this, that's why any and all communications will be done in private, behind closed doors." Cedric instructed as he observed their reactions. 

He and the others had already planned on how they would divide the group.

They needed people to look into the affairs of those that were part of the Rajas. They may be inconsequential, but Cedric prefered to be prepared rather than to underestimate their opponents.

"Cedric." Miguel suddenly said as he raised a hand. 

Cedric looked at his friend and allowed him to speak.

"I just got word, Julia has woken up." Miguel announced, prompting Cedric to explain how Lucius Ting was actually married and had been searching for his wife and son.

"Where is the boy?" One of the gang leaders asked.

"He has been adopted and we've been closely monitoring him." Ian said, as he answered the man. "There are very few people that know where he is. Not even his mother is aware of his location."

"Do you plan on using this woman, Lucius Ting's wife, as bait to get to him?" A general questioned. 

"We will see." Cedric replied. "We don't know yet how her physical and mental condition is. She was kidnapped and held captive for months by people that wanted Lucius Ting dead."

"So why don't we give Lucius to them or just let them take him, it would be one problem out of our hair." The general asked.

Cedric smiled and nodded. The man's question made sense, why not let someone else handle the dirty work.

"At first we had no plans of involving any of you." Cedric told the people gathered in the room. "The initial plan was to crush him here, get our revenge, protect our people, and send him off to those that asked us to find him. This plan changed when we discovered that other parties were involved."

"The Rajas." Andres Rocci said with a sigh. 

"If they were not involved we would have him out of the country in a week or two, but since he has new powerful backers, it complicates things." Cedric told them. 

"We are lucky that this information got to us before things could get worse." Ray said as he looked around the table. "If our people had not found out that the Rajas were involved they might have gotten their end goal."

"Which is?" Damien Park asked.

"We don't know yet." Ian said as he responded to his friend. "All we know is that they have no intention of truly supporting Lucius Ting. He is there as a distraction, and we will pretend to play into their trap."

Everyone was silent as they took in the new piece of information that Cedric and the others had just given them. 

They knew the weight of allowing the Rajas back into power, it would be dangerous not only for them, but it would also plunge the country into darkness once more. The Rajas cared about no one but themselves and only desired to make themselves richer.

They didn't care about keeping a balance, they allowed for anarchy to rule the streets.

"The Rajas are known to be elitists." Cedric continued to explain. "They will not allow someone like Lucius Ting into their ranks unless he has a use for them."

"Cedric, there is an update." Seth said as he looked up from his phone. It seemed that he was communicating with his spies while they were in the meeting.

"What is it?" Cedric asked.

"Lucius Ting somehow got wind that a Julia Tiu is currently in the country." Seth said. "Who is Julia Tiu and why is he using every resource to find her?"

Cedric frowned at the news that Lucius had found out that Julia had come home. Things would have been much better if they had time to plan and lay things out properly, but those were not the cards they were dealt.

He knew things rarely fell in their favor from the start, they had already gotten lucky that they were able to hide Julia for this long.

"Julia, is his wife." Cedric announced. "She is also a good friend of my wife. We rescued her in exchange for delivering Lucius Ting to the people who want him in Spain."

"So what's the plan?" Damien Park asked. "I'm sure you had something already planned just in case he found out about her before you were ready."

Cedric nodded, confirming the fact that  there was already a plan in place.

"It isn't ideal, but we did prepare for this scenario." Cedric said as he glanced at Ian. His friend would play a big part since he couldn't exactly fly out to Kashmere to speak to Julia.

"Julia will need to give us permission first." Ian explained. "She is collateral damage in all of this. She ran to escape Lucius Ting, then in her heartbreak she thought that she could find love with him once more. She is a victim and we need to know if she is willing to help."

"It's for the sake of the country for crying out loud? Can't she be a little bit more considerate?" One of the generals was furious at Ian's words. To him it was the country over one person's feelings. 

Cedric understood his frustrations, but he didn't want to lose Julia because they had pushed her to hard into doing something she wasn't ready to do.

"General!" Katerina said loudly from where she sat, making everyone turn their attention to her.

"Yes, Miss Sebastian?" The general said as he stiffened in his seat. It was clear that his man feared and somewhat respected the young woman that had spoken.

"Yes, the fate of the entire country rests on her shoulders, but shouldn't she be afforded the chance to ready herself?" Katerina asked. "If she decides not to help us because we pushed her too hard, who will shoulder the blame? You? Of course not."

The General was quite embarrassed when Katerina raised her voice and glared at him. He knew she was right.

"Yes, you will suffer, but the person the blame will land on will be Cedric and my father. So I suggest you think before you speak." Katerina said as she scolded the older man.

"Yes, ma'am." The General replied as he kept his head hung low after Katerina had reprimanded him.

Cedric sighed and shook his head. He didn't want them fighting amongst themselves. He didn't want this general to go home thinking that Cedric and the others would throw him away the moment they were done using his resources. 

What Katerina had said and done was the right thing, there was no other way to let the general understand the situation, but Cedric knew he needed to get the general's trust and confidence back.

"General Mariano." Cedric said in a strong voice as he recalled the man's name from previous conversations and briefings in preparation for today. 

The general was shocked that Cedric knew his name, compared to a lot of people in the room he was quite insignificant.

He was at a loss for words and simply nodded when called.

"Please do not take this the wrong way." Cedric said calmly as he tried to communicate his sincerity in his words. "While I completely agree with Katerina, I also understand where you are coming from."

The general remained silent as he continued to stare at Cedric.

"We understand that you were thinking of what would benefit the greater population over this one person, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is, as a matter of fact, a noble thought." As Cedric said these words he glanced at Katerina as he tried to gauge her reaction. 

To his surprise, she gave him a smile and a nod of encouragement. She understood why he needed to say these things.

"Thank you, Mr. Reyes." The general said as he gave Cedric a small smile.

"I'm sorry if my words were too harsh, General Mariano." Katerina said in an apologetic tone. "But, please understand that we need to see the bigger picture."

"I understand, ma'am." The general said, much happier than earlier. 

"We should get the ball rolling." Ian declared as he tried to remind Cedric to end the meeting.

"Yes, yes." Cedric said with a nod. "You still have flight to catch."

"Just lend me your plane." Ian teased as he gathered his things.

Cedric knew that from that moment onwards things were going to be much more dangerous. He could only hope that the winds would blow in their favor and that they would be able to finally get rid of Lucius Ting.

He also couldn't help but worry about the involvement of the Rajas. They still didn't know the full extent of their resources, so they were very dangerous. He was just glad that they had enough people on their side to go after the Rajas.

"Your wife will want to go." Miguel told Cedric after everyone had left the room.

"Unfortunately our best chance is if I let her go and speak to her friend.." Cedric said with a frown as he agreed to let Adrianna be in harm's way.