It was a shock, to the point I started to doubt the whole organization Hatta was running. Or was he really? There was a possibility of Blue still sitting behind the steering wheel. We just were too dumb to see it.
Aisha had no idea how dangerous the guy was. She probably thought she is using him, but it was another way around. Probably not just with her, but a much bigger group of people. I was sure that the whole truce proposal was a lie.
- So what kind of deal they made? - Will asked.
- They made two deals. At least that's what she thinks. One was verbal. She will help him during the trial. Spread information through the people, that he is in fact innocent, and you are the bad guy, Peter. He on other hand promised to kill the remaining guys from Blood Brothers he was in contact with. This promise is still pending since he insists he needs them for now.
- What's the second deal? To kill Peter?
- No. She wants rivalry. Between you two, so you are too busy with each other to see what's going on around you. She wants more people of power. She wants some kind of democracy where everybody is kept in check. That was the silent deal. Or maybe I should say that's something Blue was supposed to do for her anyway, just because of the situation between you two.
I sighed.
- She underestimates the guy. Fuck...
- What are they planing now? - Will continued with the questions.
- Nothing. They stay apart from each other, to avoid suspicion. You guys still have a lot of eyes and ears around. Especially on him.
- We are so deep in the ass, so I can almost see the teeth, Peter. We can't tell Hatta. We should resolve it on our own accord. We need to kill Blue, and then Aisha might have her council or whatever.
- Yeah. I agree. Time for fucking around has passed. He needs to go before it's too late. Who knows what he is doing right now.
- So, how do we do it? - Will asked.
- I don't know... Any ideas? - I, for the first time, looked at Nadia.
She slowly shook her head. Then I looked at William, and he just shrugged.
- Ok, great. The guy is not going down anytime soon then.
- What about your power. The teleporting one? You could just appear, stab him, and go - he proposed.
- First of all, I can't just go anywhere. It needs to be relatively close, and we have no idea where he is, not to mention getting in short enough distance. It won't work.
- Then let's crank it up. Some crystals and class points can fix this issue for us. We need to do something.
- I agree. We need to do something because he for sure is. We can't stay behind.
- What about Hatta? I think we should live him out of this one.
- Yeah.
- And her? - he moved his head slightly to point at Nadia.
It was stupid because she could clearly see that.
- I don't know - I said while looking at her.
She was clearly nervous but tried to look as calm as possible. I genuinely didn't know if she is with me, or with Aisha. She could easily be playing double agent right now. Even though, I really, really badly wanted her to be on our side.
- We have to trust somebody here - said Will. - It might as well be Nadia. That's the best shot we have.
- I know - was my response.
I grabbed her hand.
- Let's go.
She gave me a slight nod, and we stood up together, walked thru the door, and started heading outside. On a whim, I stopped, pulled her closer, and turned, then pushed slightly to the wall. Came closer, a lot closer, and kissed her.
You might see it as stupid, irrational maybe, but I really badly wanted to believe her every word. She was the best thing that happened to me in this new, fucked up world.
When our lips finally parted I whispered:
- This doesn't mean I forgive you. You will have to work very hard for that.
I attempted to walk away, but she grabbed my hand. Then almost jumped on me as our lips met again. There was so much passion in her like she wanted to prove to me in this way how deep is her love.
It went on for almost a minute. Then ended.
- I won't lie ever again - she said with a dead serious face and ran outside.
I took a deep breath. There was so much going on in my head, that it got me dizzy. I needed to look for support in the nearest wall. After a moment spent collecting myself, I got out of the building.
It was probably just my own mind, but the day seemed brighter. Better. People around busy with their stuff happier. I noticed this swing in my mood, but on the back of the skull, there were still worries lurking in the shadows.
I swung by the device to buy some food and sat on the piece of rubble Will previously occupied. I spend a pretty long time thinking and fighting with dried meat for every bite. We were in deep shit, all the way to our knees. We had to grab shovels and start to dig ourselves out.
Back then I had no idea how everything will unravel, and didny suspect at all the events that were about to come.
Sometimes, when you are trapped so much in your own mind, that you don't even consider your enemies having problems themselves.
Time went by, and Will showed up.
- Hatta is free and he awaits us. I got a message from one of his guys.
- Good. Let's go. Just...
- I know. I'm not dumb Peter.
- Yeah. Sorry.
And we headed to Hatta's office, underground. He kept it lighted up fairly decently, and was actually sitting on the couch, behind the table. We joined him.
- Ok. Let's review our options yet again. Aisha and Blue are working together. We have an option to find out a bit more, by asking Hailwic, because there is a chance she won't run straight back to her and tell on us. With the guy... We have no idea what he is up to, and barely any chances to find out, since Aisha might be actually putting an effort to hide his actions. Did I miss something? Oh right. Your girlfriends could be potential liars and are possibly spying on you.
- Fuck you Hatta - said Will.
- Calm down. We are not here to throw shit at each other like monkeys but to solve the problem.
- I know. I know - Hatta backed down. - I'm sorry, ok?
- I have a proposition - Will started, looked at me, then continued - We will wait for an opportunity to create a situation where we can bust both of them. By that I mean a course of events where some information we will feed Aisha will be crucial to Blue. Obviously, those would be fake informations. This will give us an advantage in the conflict with him. Maybe, possibly allow us to kick his ass for good, and also allow us to catch her redhanded.
- I want him judged in front of everybody. Not dead.
- That's something we might trouble ourselves when we have him tied up in a closed room.
- So you want to wait. He for sure is not gonna sit and wait for our move.
- We will hunt in the meantime. I'm sure your guys had a long enough vacation and should go to work already. Let's hunt as much as we can. Force him to stop us.
- I like this plan - I finally rejoined the conversation.
I noticed what Will was doing. Bulshiting hatta to get us the time necessary to prepare for the assassination.
- This I actually like. We are gonna annoy some people, but at least this puts us in an advantageous position - said Hatta.
- Not really. We can talk with Nobuo, Juan, and Boris to split the spots between ourselves. Russians and Japanese could occupy the goblin cave. You and Juan could aim for a rat's nest, and we could go to wolves. Those are all guys we can trust. And the rest, well, fuck them.
I looked at Will. He noded.
- Ok. We have a plan. Actually a pretty decent one. We could also start recruiting people. If we occupy the spots, they will have to join us eventually, or start a war. A war they would lose - Hatta sighed, upon realizing something. - I feel like am slowly turning into some dictator.
- We are all changing, Hatta. If you don't adapt, you die. Natural law.
- I agree - said Will. - Besides, after we fix the Blue problem, we can go back to being PG-13. All sunshine and rainbows.
He was displeased with all of this. Probably mostly by his own self. I knew the feeling. There was just no alternative. Allowing Blue to make this place his own playground was out of the question for me. Even if I had to become a villain.
We kept talking about the details, making sure to not give any indication that we suspected half of his men to actually work for Blue. In the middle, I realized one thing. Nadia could be feeding us with lies, and Williams actually could be a good guy.
All of this mess made my head hurt, so I eventually evacuated, taking Will with me. Talks at this point were done anyway, and feeling unwell was a decent excuse to get out before somebody's tongue would slip.
I accompanied William to his place, to discuss the strategy of our duo. The beer I left was still standing on the table, so I grabbed it, opened and sat on the couch. I took a sip, but it was warm and disgusting.
- What are we going to do with Wuxia? - Will started.
- Well... Nothing. We can't do anything with them.
- But you do realize, we are allowing people working under Blue to get stronger, right? I know this was my idea and all, but this could be a serious problem.
- We are gonna be faster than them. Let's just hunt like there is no tomorrow. We can take it, and we are splitting the score only between the two of us. Not to mention you owe me two million points.
He smiled.
- I remember, you loan shark.
- Good enough for me.
- So, we are going wolves?
- Yeah. I know it was supposed to be your spot, but we kinda have no choice.
- Ok. So let's meet tomorrow by the device.
Day ended with 1 124 341 points remaining on my account.
It was a shock, to the point I started to doubt the whole organization Hatta was running. Or was he really? There was a possibility of Blue still sitting behind the steering wheel. We just were too dumb to see it.
Aisha had no idea how dangerous the guy was. She probably thought she is using him, but it was another way around. Probably not just with her, but a much bigger group of people. I was sure that the whole truce proposal was a lie.
- So what kind of deal they made? - Will asked.
- They made two deals. At least that's what she thinks. One was verbal. She will help him during the trial. Spread information through the people, that he is in fact innocent, and you are the bad guy, Peter. He on other hand promised to kill the remaining guys from Blood Brothers he was in contact with. This promise is still pending since he insists he needs them for now.
- What's the second deal? To kill Peter?
- No. She wants rivalry. Between you two, so you are too busy with each other to see what's going on around you. She wants more people of power. She wants some kind of democracy where everybody is kept in check. That was the silent deal. Or maybe I should say that's something Blue was supposed to do for her anyway, just because of the situation between you two.
I sighed.
- She underestimates the guy. Fuck...
- What are they planing now? - Will continued with the questions.
- Nothing. They stay apart from each other, to avoid suspicion. You guys still have a lot of eyes and ears around. Especially on him.
- We are so deep in the ass, so I can almost see the teeth, Peter. We can't tell Hatta. We should resolve it on our own accord. We need to kill Blue, and then Aisha might have her council or whatever.
- Yeah. I agree. Time for fucking around has passed. He needs to go before it's too late. Who knows what he is doing right now.
- So, how do we do it? - Will asked.
- I don't know... Any ideas? - I, for the first time, looked at Nadia.
She slowly shook her head. Then I looked at William, and he just shrugged.
- Ok, great. The guy is not going down anytime soon then.
- What about your power. The teleporting one? You could just appear, stab him, and go - he proposed.
- First of all, I can't just go anywhere. It needs to be relatively close, and we have no idea where he is, not to mention getting in short enough distance. It won't work.
- Then let's crank it up. Some crystals and class points can fix this issue for us. We need to do something.
- I agree. We need to do something because he for sure is. We can't stay behind.
- What about Hatta? I think we should live him out of this one.
- Yeah.
- And her? - he moved his head slightly to point at Nadia.
It was stupid because she could clearly see that.
- I don't know - I said while looking at her.
She was clearly nervous but tried to look as calm as possible. I genuinely didn't know if she is with me, or with Aisha. She could easily be playing double agent right now. Even though, I really, really badly wanted her to be on our side.
- We have to trust somebody here - said Will. - It might as well be Nadia. That's the best shot we have.
- I know - was my response.
I grabbed her hand.
- Let's go.
She gave me a slight nod, and we stood up together, walked thru the door, and started heading outside. On a whim, I stopped, pulled her closer, and turned, then pushed slightly to the wall. Came closer, a lot closer, and kissed her.
You might see it as stupid, irrational maybe, but I really badly wanted to believe her every word. She was the best thing that happened to me in this new, fucked up world.
When our lips finally parted I whispered:
- This doesn't mean I forgive you. You will have to work very hard for that.
I attempted to walk away, but she grabbed my hand. Then almost jumped on me as our lips met again. There was so much passion in her like she wanted to prove to me in this way how deep is her love.
It went on for almost a minute. Then ended.
- I won't lie ever again - she said with a dead serious face and ran outside.
I took a deep breath. There was so much going on in my head, that it got me dizzy. I needed to look for support in the nearest wall. After a moment spent collecting myself, I got out of the building.
It was probably just my own mind, but the day seemed brighter. Better. People around busy with their stuff happier. I noticed this swing in my mood, but on the back of the skull, there were still worries lurking in the shadows.
I swung by the device to buy some food and sat on the piece of rubble Will previously occupied. I spend a pretty long time thinking and fighting with dried meat for every bite. We were in deep shit, all the way to our knees. We had to grab shovels and start to dig ourselves out.
Back then I had no idea how everything will unravel, and didny suspect at all the events that were about to come.
Sometimes, when you are trapped so much in your own mind, that you don't even consider your enemies having problems themselves.
Time went by, and Will showed up.
- Hatta is free and he awaits us. I got a message from one of his guys.
- Good. Let's go. Just...
- I know. I'm not dumb Peter.
- Yeah. Sorry.
And we headed to Hatta's office, underground. He kept it lighted up fairly decently, and was actually sitting on the couch, behind the table. We joined him.
- Ok. Let's review our options yet again. Aisha and Blue are working together. We have an option to find out a bit more, by asking Hailwic, because there is a chance she won't run straight back to her and tell on us. With the guy... We have no idea what he is up to, and barely any chances to find out, since Aisha might be actually putting an effort to hide his actions. Did I miss something? Oh right. Your girlfriends could be potential liars and are possibly spying on you.
- Fuck you Hatta - said Will.
- Calm down. We are not here to throw shit at each other like monkeys but to solve the problem.
- I know. I know - Hatta backed down. - I'm sorry, ok?
- I have a proposition - Will started, looked at me, then continued - We will wait for an opportunity to create a situation where we can bust both of them. By that I mean a course of events where some information we will feed Aisha will be crucial to Blue. Obviously, those would be fake informations. This will give us an advantage in the conflict with him. Maybe, possibly allow us to kick his ass for good, and also allow us to catch her redhanded.
- I want him judged in front of everybody. Not dead.
- That's something we might trouble ourselves when we have him tied up in a closed room.
- So you want to wait. He for sure is not gonna sit and wait for our move.
- We will hunt in the meantime. I'm sure your guys had a long enough vacation and should go to work already. Let's hunt as much as we can. Force him to stop us.
- I like this plan - I finally rejoined the conversation.
I noticed what Will was doing. Bulshiting hatta to get us the time necessary to prepare for the assassination.
- This I actually like. We are gonna annoy some people, but at least this puts us in an advantageous position - said Hatta.
- Not really. We can talk with Nobuo, Juan, and Boris to split the spots between ourselves. Russians and Japanese could occupy the goblin cave. You and Juan could aim for a rat's nest, and we could go to wolves. Those are all guys we can trust. And the rest, well, fuck them.
I looked at Will. He noded.
- Ok. We have a plan. Actually a pretty decent one. We could also start recruiting people. If we occupy the spots, they will have to join us eventually, or start a war. A war they would lose - Hatta sighed, upon realizing something. - I feel like am slowly turning into some dictator.
- We are all changing, Hatta. If you don't adapt, you die. Natural law.
- I agree - said Will. - Besides, after we fix the Blue problem, we can go back to being PG-13. All sunshine and rainbows.
He was displeased with all of this. Probably mostly by his own self. I knew the feeling. There was just no alternative. Allowing Blue to make this place his own playground was out of the question for me. Even if I had to become a villain.
We kept talking about the details, making sure to not give any indication that we suspected half of his men to actually work for Blue. In the middle, I realized one thing. Nadia could be feeding us with lies, and Williams actually could be a good guy.
All of this mess made my head hurt, so I eventually evacuated, taking Will with me. Talks at this point were done anyway, and feeling unwell was a decent excuse to get out before somebody's tongue would slip.
I accompanied William to his place, to discuss the strategy of our duo. The beer I left was still standing on the table, so I grabbed it, opened and sat on the couch. I took a sip, but it was warm and disgusting.
- What are we going to do with Wuxia? - Will started.
- Well... Nothing. We can't do anything with them.
- But you do realize, we are allowing people working under Blue to get stronger, right? I know this was my idea and all, but this could be a serious problem.
- We are gonna be faster than them. Let's just hunt like there is no tomorrow. We can take it, and we are splitting the score only between the two of us. Not to mention you owe me two million points.
He smiled.
- I remember, you loan shark.
- Good enough for me.
- So, we are going wolves?
- Yeah. I know it was supposed to be your spot, but we kinda have no choice.
- Ok. So let's meet tomorrow by the device.
Day ended with 1 124 341 points remaining on my account.
