Chapter 17: “Investigation”
The truth will make them free
When the children finished asking me questions I told them stories about my travels, life in the great black forest, and some stories from when he worked as a guide, finally late at night the children went to sleep, "I will be watching in a place hidden from view, do not worry and go to rest", I said to Mrs. Edena, "please be very careful young Lif", she said goodbye as I went out to the courtyard, as Mrs. Edena was constantly harassed, the safest thing was that they would try to do something to the orphanage during the night, things like small fires or theft of some objects to cause fear, no matter what world one is in or the differences that may exist at the cultural level, organized criminals always follow the same pattern.
There may be some slight variations but they are always arranged similarly, in the lowest stratum are the thugs, they do the dirty work, they are disposable and very numerous, then there are the middle managers, as they are large organizations, the heads of criminal groups cannot control everything, for that reason they always have people who are in charge of handling minor thugs and are in charge of keeping a part of the territory guarded, sometimes they act out of genuine loyalty to their bosses, other times out of fear, and finally in the upper echelon are the bosses.
Depending on the type of organization it can be one or more people, sometimes they are all from the same family, sometimes something similar to a board of directors of a company, some will try to keep a low profile and pass as honorable members of society, acting as traders, they prefer to stay out of trouble and are more likely to seek a negotiated solution to difficult situations, others, on the other hand, will show off their power and influence, they tend to be arrogant and think that they can achieve everything the way they want, of this type they are the most difficult to deal with since in their arrogance they will not hesitate to use any possible means to achieve their ends.
A common mistake that is often made is to think that by eliminating the head of a criminal organization he will disappear, only a power vacuum is created that will be quickly filled by the next person with the most power and influence in the organization, for that reason, it is convenient to have a person within the criminal organization to take control, that can be influenced and manipulated, that way that "pawn" can achieve a change under the guise that nothing has really changed, this is the most appropriate solution to Mrs. Edena's problem.
The first thing will be to gather information, low-level thugs are good sources of information about their organizations if it turns out that they are at war or are enemies of another group even better; while I watched from the dark ceiling I prepared some appliqués of black fabric to place on my clothes, I would cover myself from head to toe loosely, that would give me a more exotic appearance similar to that of a ninja and would make it difficult for them to identify me by any specific characteristic, also carefully check my weapons, potions, poisons, I would use only what is fair and necessary, I would try not to leave any possible trace.
After a few hours of boring surveillance the special guests finally appeared, I spotted five shadows moving suspiciously, twisting around the surroundings, when they finally seemed satisfied they tried to enter the backyard of the orphanage, they seemed to be thugs of the lowest level, they acted in a very careless manner and they did not appear to be strong fighters, well anyway soon we would see how skillful they are, I slowly came down from the ceiling directly behind their back intending to surprise them.
"I can help you gentlemen", I said confidently, "who the hell are you?", asked the one who seemed to be the leader of the thugs, "Oh I'm just the janitor, you don't have to worry about me, I just came to pick up the trash", I mockingly replied, "you joked with the wrong people, let him learn his lesson!", shouted the chief and four men rushed towards me, their movements were totally those of amateurs, they didn't even seem like people used to fighting, well they had probably only been teasing people weaker than them until now.
These guys didn't even pose a threat to a rookie adventurer, I sent the first two to the ground quickly with fierce blows to the jaw which scared the remaining two, before they could ration I leaped up at them and hit them in their stomachs, both men violently expelled its contents and gasped, now only the boss of the thugs remained, "do you know who we work for? This won't stay like this!", shouted the boss of the thugs, I took him by the arm and reduced him with a judo key.
"Ah sorry I'm new in town, it would be better if you told me everything from the beginning", I mockingly replied, "You're crazy! They're going to tear you and everyone in this crappy orphanage to pieces!", the thug leader yelled painfully, "wrong answer", I replied and with a loud "CRAK" I dislocated the arm of the man who almost fainted from the pain, "seriously, only that can you take? Then we can't have fun tonight", I replied maliciously, while the man and his thugs looked at me in terror.
After that little show of force, everyone happily told me everything I needed to know, the criminal "Boss" who controlled the city's underworld was known as Vinicius, apparently, he was quite hated, even among his men, but he had several trusted thugs who were ex-mercenaries and ex-adventurers, it was even rumored that the strongest of his men was a former knight, it certainly seems problematic, from what I was told the negotiation path will not be viable, only by moving the boss and his trusted men out of the way could a way out of this problematic situation be found, his trusted men called themselves "the five Dukes" and throughout their organization, they referred to Vinicius as "Emperor", "what I was missing, a criminal with a megalomania complex", I said in a whisper.
Apparently, Vinicius lived in his fortress mansion located in the North quadrant and was known for his extravagant parties, while its Dukes controlled various illicit businesses around the city, from various brothels in the red light district, gambling, scams, illegal merchandise sales, extortion, stolen goods reduction, sale of illegal drugs and alcohol, each Duke was in charge of controlling one of those illicit businesses and protecting it against the competition, since the other criminal groups did not have people comparable to the five Dukes, they were at a great disadvantage and were greatly despised, but since they have great hostility to Vinicius, I could use that to my advantage.
For the moment I convinced these thugs to keep their mouths shut, they will tell their immediate boss that they scared Mrs. Edena and that she will give in, pay everything they ask of her when they send someone to collect the extortion money I will ambush him and go to the next phase, after kicking out the thugs I went back to the orphanage, in the morning I told Mrs. Edena about my plan, I told him that he had nothing to worry about, he only had to pretend that he had given in to extortion, I would take care of solving everything.
A full day passed and nothing happened, as I had told Mrs. Edena that she had nothing to worry about since I would take care of everything, she managed to convince the other people who worked with her to return to the orphanage, so she was quite animated as they introduced me to the people who helped her, young Amy was the daughter of a craftsman, a very cheerful girl who liked to take care of children, young Didi was a friend of hers and they were always together, she was also very good at taking care of children and Mr. Filip was a former soldier who had been crippled, he still managed to help with cleaning, repairing furniture and other things, as a promise to a deceased colleague I had sworn to help the orphans, I had told Mrs. Edena beforehand to only introduce myself as an acquaintance of hers.
It was almost nightfall when Mrs. Edena dismissed Miss Amy, Didi, and Mr. Filip, then almost as if waiting for a signal three sinister-looking men approached the orphanage, had already detected their presence a few minutes before, they had been guarding the orphanage, probably waiting for Mrs. Edena to be left alone, with the element of surprise on my side, I had already agreed with Mrs. Edena the role to play, she just had to act scared and give them money, after that everything would be in my hands.
The men were quick, they arrived, they faced Mrs. Edena, they took the money and left, I was observing everything from a roof across the street, the men began to move rapidly through the alleys, in this situation I was deeply grateful for all the training as a hunter that my mother gave me, the men only moved through the alleys and in a very cautious way, after following them for several minutes it finally seems that they had reached their destination.
Its base appeared to be a weathered-looking building with several men acting as guards positioned around it, the men entering inside after greeting the guards.