The Voss Coin Read online

  The Voss Coin

  Copyright © 2019 by A.B. Alexander

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  To Alexander, my father and best friend, who passed away on 24th June 2018. You will always be with me.

  Contents

  Solace

  Kamikaze

  The Yakuza

  Mind Games

  Heart of A Lion

  Utsukushii & the Dragon

  In Search of Nirvana

  The Plan

  The Hour of Reckoning

  The Stake

  The Dark Side

  The Vote

  The Visitor

  The House of Love

  Revelations

  The Launch

  Rules of the Game

  Life Matters

  Mai Money

  Action & Reaction

  The Call

  The Devil’s Redemption

  Senseless

  Walker’s Case

  To the Beginning

  Miami

  Survival Instincts

  Agent Walker

  Cruising

  Down Under

  Et Decem

  Gorky Park

  Vengeance

  Satoshi

  1

  Solace

  Guilt gnawed at Kevin as he entered the bedroom. Their financial bubble and happy family were going to change forever. There were many things he had to come clean about with Lucy, but this was not the time. Their lives were in danger, and his number-one priority was to protect his family and ensure that Lucy knew as little information as possible. If she didn’t know anything, then the chances of her being compromised were slim. He switched on the TV and dropped onto the bed, exhausted. He expected to fall asleep within seconds, but he was disturbed by the breaking news. All the channels were displaying the same headline, “Voss Coin to replace the USD within 2 years.”

  Lucy stirred in the bed and twisted toward him. “Your job is destroying our lives. You hardly spend any time at home or with the children. I can’t take this anymore!” She was fed up and bored. She had dedicated the last few years to raising their twin boys, now both six, while he obsessed with his high-flying executive job.

  Kevin Voss stared at her blankly. He knew she was right, but it was too late. It was no longer about the career he’d dreamed of or the endless money and social power that he craved. He was a maverick programmer forced to transcend any man-made boundaries, and there was no turning back. He coded the Voss Coin, which was generating over $1 trillion in cryptocurrency trading volume, a ticking financial atomic bomb.

  BOOM!

  Millions, if not billions, of people would feel the ripple effect. An inevitable financial apocalypse. The consequences were coming; they always do. The chickens weren’t coming home to roost, they were going to roost everywhere. He gently put his arms around her, his chest pressing against her firm, ripe breasts, her rapid heartbeat pounding against his torso.

  Damn it. She’s mad this time.

  “Baby, I need you to trust me on this. I’m finishing this project, and it’s over,” he reassured her. He had genuinely meant to keep his promise but this time he was lying to her, it would never be possible. She swiveled her back toward him without saying another word.

  Kevin met Lucy while working as a senior business analyst and developer at Intelias, a New York–based international communications company. She was the new company intern, an affectionate sexy young blonde with curves in all the right places. At the time she was dating an Australian pilot named Steven, but his flight schedule was putting a strain on their relationship. It didn’t help either that Kevin was exactly her type, tall, reasonably athletic, with a clean, groomed presence and a keen sense of fashion. He was naturally suave, not your typical Silicon Valley geek. She was eager to get to know him. They enjoyed a fun office chemistry, often meeting for drinks before heading home. In the evenings, the flirting and sexual tension would step up a gear, but she never allowed it to go any further. Their friendship blossomed, but the boundaries never blurred. After four years with Steven, she cared for him deeply and didn’t want to hurt him. However, his flight schedule grew tighter, alienating him further from home, and she eventually found herself spending most evenings in Kevin’s company.

  One cold autumn night, they enjoyed a cozy evening at the Oyster Bar, a hip high-end restaurant located across the street from the office. Intoxicated and engrossed in each other’s company, they lost track of time. The world revolved around them.

  Kevin suddenly glanced at his Rolex. “Can’t believe the time, it’s already ten thirty. Isn’t Steve waiting for you at home?”

  She blushed. “No, he’s away on a flight to London.”

  He smiled cheekily and invited her for a drink in his 5th Avenue apartment in the Olympic Tower. She felt blissful pangs of excitement, childhood butterflies, their relationship facing an irresistible new dawn.

  “Good Evening, Mr. Voss and the lovely lady,” said the building’s old-timer doorman, Devon, as they passed security. Kevin’s apartment was located on the 40th floor with stunning views of Central Park, the floor-to-ceiling windows illuminated by the New York city skyline. It had an ultra-modern ambience with sophisticated design touches. It was in good taste, she felt, just like his appearance. Her high heels clanked on the marble floor as they entered the lounge. She wore a black strapless McQueen dress with YSL stilettos that revealed her perfectly manicured red toenails and shapely, arched feet. He poured them a glass of a full-bodied Bordeaux, and they reclined into his Babylon sofa.

  “Cheers, Lucy. To our future.” He smiled and gazed into her eyes. His green eyes were illuminated by passion and exuberance for life.

  She couldn’t resist him, their lips gravitating, drawn by a soulful connection. He kissed her passionately, running his hands along her thighs, stroking them gently. He seductively moved both his index and middle fingers below her dress. She felt so warm and moist. “Kevin, I want you so badly inside me,” she cooed with pleasure. He slowly unzipped her dress, letting it fall to the floor. He bent down and slipped off her shoes, massaging her satiny feet, running his tongue along her warm, sensitive toes. He gradually moved up toward her inner thighs, her naked body quivering with excitement. Contorting in pleasure, he penetrated her. He whispered in her ear, “I love you, Lus.”

  He was not the romantic type. He had never told any of his many lovers those words. He believed they were hollow, and his father’s classic joke rang true for him: “How do you know when you’re in love, Kevin boy?”

  “When she whispers in your ear you’re IN, LOVE!”

  This time it was different. It felt absolutely right. Their friendship and suppressed desires manifested into mind-blowing sex.

  A few days later, Steven returned from London and she ended their relationship. For months Steven had suspected she was fixated on Kevin. It was particularly obvious whenever she discussed work. Each time she mentioned him, her eyes gleamed with overzealous enthusiasm, and she never failed to detail his brilliance and ingenuity. A few months earlier, she had invited Kevin to his birthday party at their suburban home. Once he arrived, Steven noticed a chemistry between them that was impossible to ignore. A thick cloud of tangible infatuation, even if they were on opposite sides of the room.

  His best friend, Jamie, couldn’t ignore it either. “Kevin, I suggest you lay off Steve’s girl. It doesn’t look good,” he said aggressively.

  Suddenly a beer glass flew from Lucy’s outstretched arm, narrowly missing Steven and sh
attering to bits on the tiled floor. She screamed out in anger, “What the fuck are you doing, Jamie? Steven, did you ask him to do this? You wish you had half the brain this guy has!”

  Without saying a word, Steven stormed out of the party, heading straight for his grabber-blue Mustang. She ran after him.

  “Steven, wait. I’m sorry.”

  He punched the windshield in full force. “Fuck you, Lucy, for doing this to me!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. He knew then his relationship was over. She was plagued by guilt for hurting him and tried her best to patch things up in the weeks leading up to his flight to London. She didn’t want to end it this way, but it was inevitable. Their relationship had been in the gutter for a long time.

  The night at Kevin’s apartment was the turning point, and over the coming weeks they could barely keep their hands off each other—indulging in adventurous sex in the office, using the emergency staircase during lunch breaks or the car park. Then Lucy became pregnant with the twins, and the rest was history. They married, she moved in and quit her job to raise the boys. Lately, she was increasingly impatient with his total and utter commitment to work. She was married more to his career than to him. Whenever they did have some brief quality time, his mind was somewhere else, embedded in some deep code. He was all about coding and decoding. When they first met, she felt that she’d decoded his heart. That was all that mattered to her. But the recent emotional and physical toll exerted on him was no longer worth it. She needed more, both emotionally and spiritually. She was certain that he felt the same and was sick of their superficial lifestyle. They were like actors in a permanent theater. There was more to life than indulging in a decadent lifestyle, and she was prepared to give it all up to save their marriage. For too long she had been flowing with her daily life, in a trance-like state, without ever stopping to appreciate what was really important. Ever since the sudden death of her mother last year, in a tragic car accident, she finally understood how to appreciate time with her loved ones.

  Kevin slipped off the satiny bedsheet and approached the wall-to-wall window. He stared down onto bustling and sleepless Midtown Manhattan. Little did they know about the shit storm that was coming. There were no good guys he could turn to for help, the authorities were clueless regarding the potential financial meltdown. The Voss Coin appreciation was reshaping the financial markets. For the first time in history, central banks worldwide were preparing to implement the cryptocurrency into the financial system proper. A harmonious fusion between the way digital and physical money moved around. Since Satoshi Nakomoto launched Bitcoin in January 2009, there had been one clear leader in the cryptocurrency world. However, the Voss Coin trading volumes had swiftly picked up and taken over. International regulators and top financial institutions all agreed that the Voss Coin was the future.

  He slipped back into bed and closed his eyes, easing the tension absorbing his mind. He remained awake, restless, unable to fathom how he’d been handpicked as the scapegoat for the upcoming crisis. He was either going to be brutally tortured or killed. He finally fell asleep finding solace in the latter.

  2

  Kamikaze

  Three years earlier the nightmare had begun. It would change not only his life but the world as he knew it. He had recently been promoted to CTO, and his career was on a sharp upward trajectory.

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Voss, John would like to see you in his office,” said John’s personal assistant, Meghan, sounding enthusiastic like always.

  John Lukach had been the CEO of Intelias ever since they had gone public in 2005. He was looking forward to his retirement at the end of the year. He considered Kevin their leading employee and a technological genius. On more than one occasion he’d recommended him to the board as his possible replacement. When Kevin stepped into his office, John cut straight to the point. “Kevin, I just got a call from Tokyo. You need to fly over right away.” John didn’t typically show much emotion, but this seemed pretty urgent. He continued, “We have a security breach and some of our servers have been compromised. We can’t afford to risk our cloud security. I need you to oversee the job.” John poured them each a glass of fifty-year-old Macallan and walked over to the edge of his floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Wall Street. He was a tall but heavily built man with silver-grey hair. He wore a dark Zegna bespoke suit with a white shirt and maroon tie. He always exhumed confidence and old-school elegance. The gold Patek Nautilus watch on his wrist shimmered in unison with the crystal whiskey glass. “If the media gets even a sniff that we’ve got a problem, it’ll be a slaughterhouse down there and both our jobs will be on the line.” John didn’t beat around the bush, this was as top priority as it gets. Kevin had just returned from their offices in India, and this was his first day back at work in New York after being away from home for over a month. His relationship with Lucy was passionate and loving, but he was spending far too much time away. The twins were barely three years old, at the peak of their energetic toddler phase, and they needed his attention. He knew that Lucy was going to flip out, but his choice was simple. He had worked too hard to get to this position; his family would have to wait.

  Something didn’t feel right when he boarded the American Airlines flight to Tokyo that evening. He placed it down to tiredness and the desperate longing for his family. “Welcome back to American Airlines, Mr. Voss. Your seat is 6A on the right.”

  “Thanks, Jenny, feel like I’m doing more miles than your pilots.” He winked at her. He knew all the airline’s stewardesses personally after years of long-haul flights, and they rewarded him with VIP treatment every time. The company’s private jet was almost constantly occupied for visits of different dignitaries or social events. It didn’t matter to him anyway as he settled down in his seat and followed his usual long-haul pre-flight routine. He washed down two Ambiens with scotch and reclined the seat all the way down. “Jenny, wake me up twenty minutes before landing,” he instructed her. He took little notice around him besides the fact that the first-class cabin was almost empty. Must be the dipping economy. With prices around $8,000 for long-haul flights, this made sense to him. He rested his head on the pillow and let the cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills wash over him. He thought about Lucy and the boys going about their daily lives. They were becoming a distant memory. He felt the vibration of the engines starting up and passed out before take-off.

  He was shaken awake by the plane’s violent shudder and a blaring announcement. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We’re encountering some turbulence while we fly over the North Pacific. Please remain in your seat and keep your seat belt on.” Kevin felt groggy, he would normally sleep through any announcements or turbulence.

  It must’ve been some crazy turbulence.

  He tightened his seat belt and looked around the dark cabin. It was illuminated by a faint orange LED light and completely empty. Suddenly he noticed a striking brunette stepping out of the restroom. She strode elegantly down the aisle toward his seat, wearing a silky purple nightgown and slippers. He could faintly discern that she was of Japanese origin. Once she got closer, he could clearly make out her facial features. She had ferocious tiger-like eyes, perched above smooth prominent cheekbones and succulent reddish lips. His seat was in half recline and he couldn’t help but gawk at her beauty. She alluringly walked the final few steps and paused, towering above him. She bent down slowly and whispered in his ear, “I’m your gift for tonight, Mr. Voss. Just lean back and enjoy.” She untied her silk gown, revealing a perky pair of silicon breasts and perfectly clean-shaven pussy. She unzipped his pants, eagerly sucking his cock from the top to the base. Frozen and groggy from his cocktail, he couldn’t believe what was happening. He tried to frantically undo his seat belt and get up, but it wouldn’t budge. He looked around the flight cabin; there was not a soul in sight. She straddled him and instantly he felt a warm tingling sensation as her pussy lips devoured his penis. He couldn’t hold it back, at any moment he was going to explode insid
e her.

  Scrrrrrrrchhhh, he jumped up in his seat as the plane’s wheels screeched against the tarmac. He nervously surveyed the first-class cabin, only noticing an elderly couple toward the rear. The Japanese brunette was nowhere to be seen. “What the fuck just happened?” he mouthed to himself, shocked.

  Could I have been dreaming? That was bloody unreal. Could the Ambien have played mind games on me?

  It had never happened to him before, and he’d followed his usual pre-flight ritual. An announcement pinged over the speaker. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Narita International Airport. The ground temperature is a pleasant 22 degrees Celsius. The current local time is 06:00. We hope that you’ve had a pleasant flight and hope to see you again soon. Thank you for flying with our oneworld alliance network and American Airlines. We wish you a pleasant stay or a safe onward journey.” He recognized Jenny’s distinct British accent over the loudspeaker.

  Why the hell did Jenny not wake me up like usual?

  He quickly gathered his carry-on in a flap and headed for the exit. He passed Jenny on the way out. “Good to see you again, Jenny. Did you happen to notice a Japanese brunette in our cabin?” He needed answers ASAP.

  “No, Mr. Voss, just an elderly couple in row 10. The rest of the first-class cabin was empty. By the way, my apologies for not waking you up. It completely skipped my mind.”

  That’s fucking strange, isn’t it? Bearing in mind that I was the only passenger you had to attend too.

  He continued to press her. “How come the cabin was so empty, never seen that before?” She scanned the passenger list and responded, “Well, you’re right, it’s pretty rare. Actually, the cabin was fully booked by a Japanese corporate, but they were a no-show at the last minute. Have a nice stay in Tokyo, Mr. Voss.” She cheerfully turned to another passenger. “Thank you for flying American Airlines. Enjoy your stay.”

  He cautiously stepped off the plane and vowed to never touch Ambien again. It had fucked up his perception of reality and screwed with his moral compass.