LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 31 – Tony’s Cooperation
*Fwooooooosh…*
The night wind howls across the sleepless city of Metropolis.
A man is dangling by a rope tied on a skyscraper’s roof, right by the protruding steel pole, and another figure in all black stood nearby. It’s Tony Gallo and Matthias as Wraith.
“Urgh… W-What syndicate? I don’t kno-know what you’re talking about.” Said Tony Gallo as he heaves and gasps for air. Being so high in the air with only a piece of rope to support his whole body made him panicky. He doesn’t have acrophobia, but he still can’t help being terrified with this situation.
Matthias took out a folder from his black coat, and opened it. Inside was several papers and documents, which he then read.
“Hmmm, look at these; evidences of embezzlement, smuggling, drug dealings, and so on and so on, and then ooooh… contracts with some of the United States’ notorious crime syndicates…”
Hearing all the words from this man in black, Tony panics even more. He’s swinging his arms to reach for the documents in the man in black’s hands, but he can’t reach them.
“HOW! H-How did you get those-”
“-Why so nervous, Mr. Gallo.”
Matthias puts the documents and papers back to the folder, and then pocketed the folder back in his coat.
All the evidences in Matthias’ hand were the result of his extensive research on Tony Gallo’s corruption. Matthias has been targeting Tony since the last four weeks after fully boosting his intelligence and extensively searching for some local criminal organization.
Matthias found out about Tony Gallo’s suspicious movement from several news sites, and then he began his research on him, infiltrating his mansion within the rich neighborhood several blocks away from the casino in order to collect evidences of his supposed corruption.
After that, he has been planning to use him for his missions, especially considering Tony Gallo has several connections that would be extremely beneficial for Matthias.
“Imagine if I give all these evidences to the local authorities… the police force will be happy to have their hands on you.”
Tony could imagine this man in black who wears a black faceless mask to be smiling wide, ear to ear. But, he’s not going to simply let him.
“Heh, I DARE you to do it; I got myself some reliable connections from within the police force, maybe I’ll just be imprisoned for around six hours before finally got released again.” Said Tony as he forces himself to smile victoriously to appear tough.
“I see…”
Matthias had his hand bellow his chin, looking as if he’s thinking. Seeing this, Tony thought he had bluffed his way out…
“…Well then, what if I put this on all the medias around the United States. Better yet, perhaps I can make it as if you ratted on all of your corrupt friends in the force and other places.” Said Matthias as he pulled out a stack of dossiers from his coat. The dossiers were of Tony Gallo’s accomplices, informants, and the like. Not only that, it’s complete with several photos that seems like they could be used as evidences.
Witnessing this, Tony panics a lot more.
“Wait! Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait. Okay-okay, I get it, I’ll cooperate.” Tony pleaded in desperation.
He doesn’t want to know what sort of repercussions would befall to him should the information of his corruption and crime be revealed publicly. Worse yet, to have several of his accomplices ratted out using his name… he’ll be ripped apart soon after.
“Then, for starters… tell me everything about the criminal syndicate you’ve been collaborating with.”
Tony listened to this shadowy figure’s deep, growly, and intimidating voice with a shiver, and answered.
“*Heave*, uhhhh, well… I-uhh-have been collaborating with some local syndicates around Metropolis. I’ll tell you where.”
Tony Gallo told Matthias the places where the criminal syndicate are hiding in Metropolis. But Matthias still feels like these criminal organizations are being led by an even greater group.
“These organizations seem like they are controlled by a mastermind. Do you know who or what controls them?”
“I-I don’t know! Well, I know that they operate under something bigger, but I only know as much as you!”
“Then tell me something I’ve yet to know; what’s the name of this criminal syndicate, where are they based at, who’s their leader. You should know these considering you’re someone who helped financing their movement here in Metropolis.”
“I-I don’t! See, these people I’ve been associating with never told me much about their organization. I only worked with them without knowing more because they’ve helped me grow my casino! I never knew more than necessary… except the fact that most of their high ranks have snake tattoos on them *heave*.”
“Snake tattoos, huh? Well, go on…”
“I don’t know more… uhhhh, I think they have a base somewhere in the Atlantic City… *heave*, one of them kinda slipped out and mentioned that they need to return to Casino Town *heave*.”
Matthias contemplate on this piece of information. He’s not planning to go anywhere outside Metropolis yet, but he needs to plan more if he wants to grow stronger.
“*Heave* That’s all I know, P-please let me down *heave*, I feel like vomiting…”
“Before I do that, tell me more about the black market auction. I found out that you’ve been invited to some sort of artifact auctioning.”
“*Heave* Dammit, I know less about that. *Heave* I only got the invitation to join the auction…*heave* I plan to buy myself some of those artifacts for my own collections. Now PLEASE get me down! *Heave* I-I’m starting to get dizzy.”
“… Can someone outside the invited guests enter the auction?”
“*Heave* Haah, yeah, but only if the invited guests introduced it to them. *Heave* Th-The invited ones can bring one friend… *heave* and they will have to pay the entry fee.”
“I see… Then, I want you to invite someone into the auction. The name will be ‘Remy LeBeau’.”
“*Heave* Wh-What?… Ahhh, I see now… *heave* so he’s also one of your people, huh? Tell me, who are you people. What are you planning, hmmm? Are you another criminal syndicate trying to get rid of some competitions? *heave*.”
Hearing Tony Gallo’s misunderstanding, Matthias can’t help but smile a bit.
‘Heh, I’ve yet to create my own fake organization, but he already thought that I’m working with a greater group… Well then, I think it’s time for me to slowly build my fake organization.’
“Mr. Gallo, it would be better if you don’t ask such questions, else I or another of ours will have to destroy you.”
Tony gulps as he hears the threat, and nods as he understood what the words meant.
Matthias pulled the rope back on the cold surface of the roof. He untied Tony as the latter heaves and puffs for air, relieved that he’s no longer upside down.
“Well then, Mr. Tony Gallo, I hope you can cooperate with Us if you wished to ensure your safety.”
*gulp*, Tony nods. He sees this man in black approaching the end of the roof, seemingly looking like he’s about to jump off the building roof… before he looks back at him for one last time.
“One more thing, Mr. Gallo. If possible, I want ‘Remy LeBeau’ to work in your establishment too. Don’t worry though, he’ll help you gain profit. I mean, he’s meant to be the luckiest person ever lived. He’s bound to make you luckier.”
And then *Swooosh*, this man in black suddenly jumps, and then he turned into black mists mid-air.
Tony was left alone on top of some unknown tall building. “Fuck… how do I get back…”
… … …
Matthias returned to his safe-house, entered his secret room, and starts accessing his computer. After his encounter with Tony Gallo, he starts to fix his plan to proceed.
“Atlantic City… Casino Town… Snake Tattoos… I have some vague information regarding this info. I should re-plan more.”
Matthias had at first want to find out the locations of the local syndicates in order to destroy them under the name of his fake organization, all to gain his relevancy to the world.
He also planned to ruin Tony Gallo’s establishment… but it seems his cooperation is needed.
“Heheh, I can use his casino to work my Remy persona and gain more luck stats, and increase my own personal secret budgets.”
This plan of having him work in Tony’s casino under the name of Remy LeBeau was spontaneous. He figured he could use his casino to increase his stats and personal funds along the way.
“I’ve planted at least three bugs on him to monitor his movements. If he betrays me, I can just set those bugs to detonate.”
With all that, Matthias finished his future plannings.
“Well, for the next task, let’s go for that black market artifact auction… This is DC Universe; there’s bound to be some powerful yet unknown artifact scattered around the globe.”