No one really grows up thinking they will be blackmailing powerful people for a living but Zach always had a thing for criminal investigation. His favourite TV show was CSI which inspired him to pursue a career in criminology. He was a brilliant student and graduated top of his class.
After graduating, he started working with the government but that was short-lived since he didn’t feel like he was doing enough with his knowledge. He quit his job after 6 months and started a private practice which helped clients carry out all kinds of investigations. From cheating spouses to mysterious deaths, he did them all.
One day, he got a call from someone who needed his help. He thought it was business as usual and accepted to meet the lady.
“Meet me at the Nairobi Golf Club in an hour.” She said then hung up.
When he got there, he was met by a well-dressed, middle-aged white woman. They exchanged a few pleasantries before she led the way to a private room in the club.
He sat on a leather couch and she sat on the chair next to it.
“What will you drink?” She asked.
“A glass of juice, please.”
“Oh please, you’ll need something stronger.”
He laughed and then changed his order to a glass of whiskey. While she made the order, Zach removed his notepad from his bag and prepared to take notes about the meeting.
“I want something very simple from you.” She started before being interrupted by a waiter.
After the waiter left, she continued.
“I want my husband’s nude pictures.” She said without hesitation.
“I don’t really specialize in that,” Zach said.
“I’ll pay you Ksh 500,000.”
The money caught his attention. Even though he was making decent money from being a private investigator, he had never received such an amount for a single job, let alone for something as simple as getting nude pictures.
He sipped his drink as he thought about the woman’s proposal. It was against his principles but the money was enticing.
“I’ll do it. However, I don’t want to be named in anything to do with this.” He finally said.
“Of course. I just want the pictures and I’ll never contact you again.”
The woman paid him the full amount a few hours after their meeting and Zach got to work immediately. As he suspected, it was pretty easy to track down the man and find out who he was sleeping with.
The side chick was more than willing to take the nude pictures after getting a small payment and in less than a week, Zach delivered the pictures to the lady.
“Thank you very much.” She said and he handed the brown envelope to her.
Zach still didn’t know why the woman desperately wanted her husband’s nudes but a headline on social media connected the dots. The woman was the wife of a rich businessman and his nudes had been plastered all over social media.
No one knew that his wife was behind it except Zach. He suspected that she wanted revenge on her husband for cheating on her.
************************************************
Though he made good money from that job, such clients didn’t come often. So, Zach decided to take matters into his own hands. He thought blackmailing the men by himself would make him just as much if not more money.
He befriended someone who worked as a blogger and the two became a force to be reckoned with. Chris would research their potential targets to find something that they could blackmail them on and Zach would do the rest.
At first, they started slowly and targeted rich businessmen who could easily give in to their blackmail schemes.
“He’s agreed to pay,” Chris informed him after spending a week blackmailing a prominent business with information about his illegitimate daughter.
“Awesome. The drinks are on you tonight.” Zach answered excitedly.
Soon enough, they gained the courage to go after the big boys. From politicians to drug barons, Zach didn’t spare or fear anyone. Blackmailing had now become his full-time job and he was confident about his abilities.
“I’m not sure about this one. A drug dealer is something else. I don’t want to turn up dead in a forest.” Chris said nervously.
“Relax. I’ve kept us safe all this time, haven’t I? Just be careful and don’t give any personal information.”
Their latest target was a drug baron who had been a nightmare to policemen in the country. No one knew his/her identity but it took Zach a few days to figure out who it was.
“Her street name is Dirty Diana.” Chris briefed him.
“Her?”
“Yes. She’s a woman but don’t let that fool you. She is one of the deadliest criminals. I think we need to call the police.”
“The police won’t do anything. She’s too powerful. We need to contact one of her mules.” Zach suggested.
Reluctantly, Chris followed his instructions and sent a message to one of Diana’s mules. They got a response almost immediately.
“How did you get this number?” He asked.
“That’s none of your business. We want Ksh 10 million or we will expose your identity.” Zach responded.
After several days of silence, he messaged Zach back.
“Where do I send the money to?” He asked.
Zach sent the offshore bank account and within a few minutes, he received a credit alert.
“I hope to never hear from you ever again.” Zach joked in a text message.
After successfully blackmailing one of the biggest drug dealers in the country, Chris fully trusted Zach’s plan and did everything he asked. The duo continued to swim in money and managed to fly under the radar, remaining undetected for years.
They bought houses, invested their money and led normal lives. They even got married at flamboyant weddings. Their wives thought that Zach made money as a private investigator and Chris was a son of a rich man hence why they had a lot of money.
However, after blackmailing several powerful figures, they attracted very powerful enemies who wouldn’t stop at anything to reveal their identity. The duo was always one mistake away from blowing their cover.
***************************
It wasn’t an easy thing for such a powerful man to admit that he was a target of blackmail. However, they had milked him dry and he was on the verge of selling his prestigious hotel just to make the blackmailers go away. His last resort was to turn to the public. Jimmie approached a popular online news outlet and shared his story.
“They have been harassing me for two years now. Every time I have to make a phone payment of millions to keep them from airing my dirty linen all over the internet. I’m tired, I’m broke and my wife is divorcing me. So what do I have to lose anymore? I want you to hear from the horse’s mouth. Before I ventured into politics, I did some questionable things to make money. I ran a brothel.” He revealed.
Even the host couldn’t hide the shock.
Meanwhile, Zach, Chris and their wives were away on holiday when Chris saw the video circulating online.
“This idiot!!” He yelled, nearly throwing his phone in the pool.
His anger drew the attention of Zach who went to check out what was happening.
“Relax, you’re going to worry the girls.” He said in a low tone.
“Look at this.” He said showing him the video.
He watched the 30-minute interview in silence without any reaction. Then, the part that made Chris react came on.
“I’m working with Sam, one of the best investigators in the country, to get to the bottom of this rampant blackmailing.”
Sam was no stranger to Zach or Chris. He was the only person who had come close to finding out who they really were.
“Sam,” Chris whispered.
“I know.”
“Do you think…”
Zach interrupted him. “I’ll deal with it. We need to get to work right away. One last job and we’re out.”
Zach always promised that he was going to stop after the last job. After all, they had made enough money from years of blackmailing powerful men to retire comfortably. However, he loved the thrill of outsmarting his targets and getting away with it.
“You always say that.”
“This is serious. We can’t have Sam on our necks again. We need to take him down.”
“You mean you want to blackmail Sam?”
“Yes.”
“You’re out of your mind.”
“I know.”
“I can’t help you with that, Zach.”
“Just do your job and I’ll do the rest.”
Zach had a thing about him that made everybody follow his every command. He wasn’t physically or verbally intimidating. He just had a way of persuading people. It was hard to say no to him.
After a minute of silence, Chris agreed to work with him.
“This is the last time.”
The pair made up an excuse to return to the country before their holiday was over.
“You’re a workaholic.” Zach’s wife complained.
“This money isn’t going to make itself.” He joked.
***************************************************
As soon as they landed, Zach and Chris headed to their secret base to start working. However, things were off to a bad start. Chris couldn’t find anything about Sam. It’s like the man didn’t exist despite being a well-known investigator. It was a trick that Zach was too familiar with but hoped that his target wasn’t.
“Blackmailing this guy is almost impossible. He knows everything we know.” Chris commented.
“Keep digging. Everyone slips up in some way.”
Then, Zach received a call at their base. The phone had never rung before. There was no way anyone could call back since they changed the number multiple times in a week.
“Hello.” A distorted voice said on the other end.
Zach stayed quiet and then hung up after a few seconds.
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know. When did you buy another line?”
“Today.”
“Then how would anyone even know this number? We haven’t called anyone with it.”
“It’s him.”
“Listen, if you want to leave, just leave.”
Chris didn’t waste any time. He packed his belongings in a small bag and left. Zach was now a one-man show and things were getting harder than he expected. From the anonymous caller to dead ends, he couldn’t seem to catch a break. He had also been away from his home for nearly a month now and there was no way his wife could reach him.
“I need to get him.” He kept repeating as he browsed the deepest corners of the internet.
Still, his efforts bore no fruits and he was ready to give up. As he lay in his bed, he remembered his training days and the lore about an ex-CIA Kenyan intelligence agent who had taken down some of the deadliest criminals in the country. He was an enigma just like Sam and Zach had a feeling they could be the same person.
He went back to the internet and found that indeed, there was a Kenyan-born CIA agent but his name wasn’t Sam.
“He could have changed his name.” He said to himself.
Zach decided to follow his gut since it had never failed and investigated the ex-CIA agent. He found very few details about him but he got the most important thing – his number.
“Hello.” He said in a distorted voice after someone answered the phone.
“Hello? Hello? Who is this? Hello?” The person on the other line answered and he knew immediately that it couldn’t be the infamous Sam.
It took a lot of reflection but Zach finally admitted that he had hit a dead end and started to pack his belongings. However, it was too late. As he left the base, he was bundled into a black van. He was then blindfolded, gagged and tied up before he could even say anything.
It turned out that he did call the right number but unlike him, Sam spoke to him which made him lower his guard and stay on the call long enough for him to track the call. It took a mere 30 minutes for Sam to get to his location.
“Please don’t kill me,” Zach begged immediately after they removed his gag.
“Relax. I’m not going to kill you but I need you to do something.”
“Anything you want.”
“Where are the millions you got after blackmailing Francis?”
“He’s lying. He only paid me Ksh 2 million. He must be having other financial troubles and blamed it on me.”
They went back and forth as Sam tried to get Zach to confess to getting more than Ksh 100 million from the politician. After some time, he realized that he was telling the truth. Francis had lied to him and he wasn’t getting any money from him either.
“He’s completely broke but I can show you how to make money. If we partner up, we can be a force to reckon with.” Zach said.
Like always, no one could say no to Zach, not even Sam.
“You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. A man like you should be living like a king not running errands for broke politicians like Francis.”
“Okay. I’m in.” He finally replied.
Together, they made more money than Zach ever did with his former partner, Chris, and Sam ever saw in his life.
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This story first appeared as He Made Millions From Blackmailing Powerful Men Part 1 – When One Spots An Opportunity One Must Take It and He Made Millions From Blackmailing Powerful Men Part 2 – The Hunter Becomes The Prey
