Alexei Drabonasti came from a small Ukrainian village in Northern Saskatchewan.  He worked hard on the farm, but even harder at school.  His grades were the highest in the Province and near the end of high school he was offered a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford.  He went and took International Trade and met an enchanting girl, Nadja Van de Kinder.  She was beautiful and intelligent and the daughter of a South African diamond merchant.  Once they met they were inseparable.  They both graduated and with some seed money from Nadja's father they started an import/export company based in Hong Kong.  Times went well for them and soon they could fill a whole container with their own goods on far too a regular basis.  At this point Alexei started to pursue getting his own containers while Nadja was doing her own expansion ... their son.  Tarek was born in Hong Kong as a Canadian citizen and spent most of his youth with a group of young debutantes.  He lived life on the wild side in one of the world's most exciting cities, but always kept his activities discrete and his grades high.  At 17 he left Hong Kong to go to the London School of Economics where he excelled at International Trade and Logistics.  Tarek followed that undergraduate degree with an M.B.A. from Harvard.  He then moved to the West Coast and started a branch office in Los Angeles.   By this time his parents had moved to London and fuelled with money from Nadja's inheritance of her father's stake in the diamond cartel.  Tarek balanced a Hollywood lifestyle with overseas business and wicked play.  It was at a rather esoteric party that he met an Egyptian man who hinted at more than he told.  Tarek immediately put this man on his top 10 autodialing list.  Tarek spent more time talking with this stranger and soon was neglecting both business and pleasure.  He never got a name from the stranger although he talked at length with him about many strange things, but he did get an address.  He drove his MacLaren F-1 to the location he was given.  For the first time in his life he was nervous ... he had no idea what to expect other than the vague description the Egyptian had given him.  Tarek entered the Court and started to talk with many of it's inhabitants.  He found that after the first visit, his nervousness was replaced with a feeling of belonging which had eluded him the rest of his life.  He searched for the right suitor, but unknown to him someone was already watching him.  After a few weeks of talks and kind words, Tarek was taken aside by a regal man and his radiant consort.  The man was quite blunt and asked what Tarek sought.  Tarek looked at the couple and knew who they were and what they represented and responded, "Tools to make sure that order is kept the way it should be."  A small talk took place and a date set.  On that fateful night Cameron Smith and his wife Artemis, embraced Tarek into the Smith family.  Since his adoption into the Smith line he has stepped up his Asian trade effort.  At this point Tarek has taken the family Container Lease business far beyond what assets he has.  Is Tarek getting help from his new family or is he reacquainting himself with his old high school friends ...  ?!?