Working Up the Ladder

Chaotic.

That was the best way to describe Gotham City.

Crime ran rampant, there was always someone being mugged, someone being beaten, someone being murdered. It was a truly dangerous place to live, but a place that was impossible to leave. However, Jacob was smart enough to recognise just how profitable a dangerous place like Gotham was.

Some of the richest men in the world were criminals and that was no more obvious than in Gotham. They controlled Gotham and the people within it, they did so with the money at their hands to buy the police and government officials. Using that influence, they made it impossible for good, hardworking people to make a life for themselves, to do something good in Gotham.

That was power that Jacob wanted for himself.

But it wouldn't be easy.

Yet there were many things that would stand in his way, try to prevent him from achieving all his goals in life. That wouldn't be the first time such a thing had happened and it had never stopped him before. If he was so easy to break, he would have been broken much sooner and he was still standing tall.

"Pick me up, same time tomorrow," Jacob said to his driver, stepping out of the car and making his way up the stairs. As soon as he entered inside his house, the door closing behind him, Jacob removed his mask and looked down at the pile of boxes placed neatly down at the side.

This home was one of the first things Jacob had bought for himself using the salary Black Mask had provided for him as one of his accountants. Moving out of the brothel and into someplace that was his own was one of the first things Jacob had been determined to do. Sure it took some time, Black Mask didn't fully trust him yet and while he had proved his worth in the robberies, being his accountant was another thing entirely.

Jacob was convinced he was not the only one, that there were multiple people who shared his job, checking and double-checking each other's work to make sure the numbers all added up. Eliminating the risk of someone stealing money from Black Mask without him noticing.

However, having worked hard for nearly a month, Jacob finally managed to start earning more than just a decent wage and having saved up a decent sum of money. Purchased a small, two-story house for himself, using the money he had earned from his scouting missions in the casinos to purchase security cameras, high-tech computer systems and other things that would come in handy for him as he prepared for the future.

Much like everything in this world, Black Mask was just another stepping stone.

Smiling at the sight, he headed down the corridor, entering the pin code to the first door on the right and entering inside. There he was greeted by a series of monitors, each of which was connected to the security cameras that he had surrounded his small property with. Rewinding the cameras and watching as the masked men opened the door and placed the boxes inside, loitering for a bit.

'No doubt considering whether to try and steal something off me.' Jacob thought amusedly, watching with a smile as one of the men tapped his partner on the shoulder before indicating to the camera. 'And decided against it. Very smart of them.'

Knowing nothing had been robbed, Jacob headed back out the door, grabbing the platform trolley in the corner of the room and rolling it out onto the corridor. There he made his way back down to the boxes and with a grunt, strained to lift one of the boxes onto its base. Just one box made him feel drained and exhausted, he having to take a moment on his knees just to recover his breath.

Not for the first time, Jacob was envious of people who weren't weak-bodied like himself. They didn't know the struggle of trying to lift a box like this when they could do it with only minor effort.

However, he went to work all the same and after piling all the boxes on the trolley, began to drag it down the corridor to the door right at the very end. Another pin code was entered and Jacob pushed open the door, dragging the trolley inside to what was clearly a workshop, a disorganised mess of workshop, but one all the same.

Numerous metal tables lined with bits of technology and all the tools necessary to complete the project he was working on.

Bringing the trolley to a stop, Jacob crouched down, pulling out a knife and cutting open the top box and revealing numerous metal pipes. Pulling out one, Jacob couldn't help the wide smile that came onto his face as he brought it over to the table.

He may have been cursed with a constitution, but in this world, nothing was certain. There were aliens with godlike powers, powerful sorcerers, Demons, Gods and Demigods. If things like them existed, then there was nothing going to stop him from surpassing them all. He just needed to work hard and put everything he had into everything he did.

Only then would he succeed.

-X- Line Break -X-

Amongst Black Masks crew, there were a number of high-ranking lieutenants. Each of them had been working for the original Black Mask, Richard Sionis, founder of the False Face Society. They were old and outdated, so set in the ways of cutting backroom business deals and answering every insult with violence.

It was one of Black Masks' biggest vulnerabilities.

However, they controlled vast amounts of his territories and well, as good as Black Mask was at keeping them in line, eliminating them was another problem entirely. They each were given control, or 'governance' as some called it, of parts of Black Masks' territories. Land and businesses that had been given to them to oversee and run before Roman Sionis even rose to power.

They had been given this authority and responsibility by Richard Sions and had gained an iron tight grip other it's ruling, enough so that even Black Mask couldn't even remove it. If he attempted to take them out as well, then all that would accomplish was turning the other lieutenants to make an alliance and that was bad news for Black Mask.

In a place such as Gotham, the weak were destroyed.

If Black Mask caused a civil war by attempting to clean house of the bad weeds, then that would be perceived as weakness. Enough so that the likes of the Falcone and Maroni families, the Triads, the Mafias and Cartels would all pounce and tear apart the False Face Society.

The thing is, while Black Mask's hands were tied, Jacob's was not.

From the beginning, he had planned carefully.

First, he killed one of Black Mask's new peddlers in a public fashion, just to earn his attention and gain a meeting.

Now it was time to begin stage two, rise up the ranks from a simple accountant and up to a much higher position of lieutenant. Sure the test Black Mask gave was unexpected, but the position of accountant was not all that surprising and was in fact, something Jacob had wanted from the beginning.

It allowed him access to the records of the False Face Societies income and expenditure. Stealing from him was impossible, Jacob wasn't the only accountant that was working from him and no doubt, just as someone was checking what Jacob submitted, he in turn was checking what someone else submitted. Ensuring that if the numbers didn't properly add up, Black Mask would know straight away.

A smart system, Jacob could admit that.

Even more so because finding out who the other accountants were was all but impossible.

Almost, but not quite.

It took time, but Jacob was able to track down the five other accountants that all checked over the books of the False Face Society. There he had a few of the guys that were taking some extra money from him, follow and track what these three were doing. Which highlighted very clearly why Black Mask couldn't simply just tweak the numbers a little and frame one of his lieutenants as a thief.

Two of them were actually on the payroll of the lieutenants.

Another was being blackmailed by them.

All things that Black Mask was clearly aware of, but allowed to happen because he had no proof. But also, as much as the lieutenants were a hassle to deal with, they were good at their jobs and wanted the False Face Society to succeed. They were just old and unable to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of Gotham. Plus, the potential damages of cleaning house were definitely not a good thing for him.

'Luckily for Black Mask, he has me on his side.' Jacob thought, standing in a line alongside a number of other masked figures as three of the older lieutenants were dragged in. That accounted for two-thirds of the older lieutenants, the rest being personally selected by Black Mask.

All of which were gathered here to watch as the two men were brought in and without so much as a word, were gunned down by Black Mask. It was a warning, three of the most powerful lieutenants in the False Face Society were killed just like that. The remainder, whether they were selected by Richard Sionis or Black Mask, all received the same warning.

They were not unexpendable.

If Black Mask deemed them a threat or a traitor, he would kill them.

There would be no second chances, no opportunity to talk.

'They would have pleaded innocent anyway, and they would be correct.' Jacob smirked beneath his mask, watching as the plastic mat was rolled up, ensuring the blood didn't spill up on the floor. 'Leaving a trail to the Red Hood Gang and Street Demonz was laughably easy.'

Now three of the lieutenants were killed, deemed to have been traitors preparing to overthrow Black Mask. Their territories are now leaderless and in need of someone to take control of it. Jacob had already been promised one of the territories after bringing this falsified evidence to his attention.

With it, Jacob would see his profits grow exponentially overnight and then he could begin to expand his projects back home to even further heights. Eventually, it was only a matter of time before everything was in place.

At that point, Gotham would see a new figure rise to prominence.