Chapter 14 - I'm not asking you

Vanthof was seated in his leather chair with his legs kicked up on the table. He was enjoying his life on this island. His pay as a marine was enough to let him live day to day, but it wasn't enough to live a luxurious life.

However, when he was offered a certain percent of what the bandits took he started to feel hope in life. Once he got his first share of what they made, he knew he landed on a gold mine.

All he needed to do was ignore what was happening on the island and kept all the other marines in check. That's it!

Who wouldn't love a job like this, where you sit on your butt all day and money just comes flowing towards you.

Vanthof was already reaching his mid forties soon, but he still felt young at heart. Everything he saw a strand of grey hair, he plucked it.

He had a round belly, due to buying everything he wanted as well as not working out anymore. His stature was pretty short, he was around five feet tall.

Everything was going good for him these past few years, except now there was a big problem. Both his sources of income got cut off.

A year ago the bandits stopped sending him his percentage. He thought they reneged on their deal, so he was planning on reminding them he was a marine and he could throw them in jail.

Except when he sent someone out to deal with them, he found out they'd fled and that their leader Olf died.

He was shocked to learn about Olf's death and that it was a mute who killed him. But how could he arrest the kid for killing a bandit? That's smear his reputation.

Even without the income from the bandits, Vanthof was still living pretty good due to this deal with the pirates.

Except, he just learned that they had been destroyed.

So his mood was pretty bad right now.

Vanthof removed his legs from the desk and took a deep breath as he grabbed hold of the fork on the desk. It was from the food he had earlier.

"Wait until I get my hands on you Bob! You ruined my income!"

Vanthof stabbed the fork into the table.

His office door opened up as a soldier came in with sweat dripping down his face.

"Commander, this is bad!"

The soldier couldn't have been more than 20 years old. He was a new recruit that got assigned to this base.

"What is it?"

"It's! It's ..."

"Spit it out already!"

"It's me!"

Bob said as he walked in. Behind him Dave followed closely.

Bob looked at Vanthof and then looked at Dave.

"This is the base commander? I was expecting… something else."

Dave looked at Vanthof.

"You've really let yourself go man. When you first came here you were strong as an ox, now you look jiggly like jell-o."

Dave said as he let out a sign.

"Who the hell are you? And I'll let you know i'm still strong as an ox!"

Bob took a few steps forward until he was in front of Vanthof's desk. He sat on the edge of the desk and grabbed some papers on it. He then started to read them over.

"Hey, you can't touch those!"

"Shut it. I'm trying to see what would make a base commander such as yourself become corrupt. But from what i'm seeing, you're not much of a commander. This paper work is over a year old! How are you still in your position?"

Bob asked as he tossed the papers back on the desk. Those were reports that still weren't turned in. From the first page he read, it talked about how Vanthof was whipping the marines into shape and how good the island was. A bunch of lies!

"I'll let you know i'm well known, I do my job and I do it well! That's why i'm still in this position."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is what's going to happen, all the money you got from the bandits and pirates i'm confiscating it. After I collect all the money, and I do mean all of it, I want to collect the bounties for the Greybeard pirates. I doubt you'd have any money left to give me, so write me a note or something so I can claim the reward at another base. I am not going to carry corpses with me on the sea.

After that, then we'll begin to discuss whether I should turn you in or not."

Vanthof crossed his arms.

"What makes you think i'm going to listen to you? I'm a marine you know, you can't touch me. If you do, i'll make sure your wanted by the government. You'll be hunted down like a dog and when you finally get arrested i'll make sure to make your life miserable."

Bob snatched Vanthof up by his collar.

"I wasn't asking, i'm telling you whats going to happen. Think about what's going to happen once the marines learn of what you've been up to here. And don't say they won't, the whole island will be more than willing to give you up. You think they'll honestly believe the words of a mere base commander over an entire town?"

Bob tossed Vanthof back into his seat.

Vanthof started to sweat as he looked at the solider. His eyes were asking for help, but his mouth was sealed shut.

"What are you waiting for, get moving!"

It wasn't Bob who shouted that, it was Dave.

Vanthof was frozen in his seat as his brain was processing everything. He clearly wasn't moving fast enough for Dave, as Dave walked up to the desk grabbed the fork and stabbed it into Vanthof's hand.

Vanthof started screaming as he held his hand.

Bob looked at Dave, he was speechless.

"Dave… I said be ruthless but this…"

"Too much?"

"No, no. There might be hope for you yet!"

Dave grinned.

That was the first time he ever stabbed someone, but he felt a rush. His heart was beating fast, he felt alive!

How long has it been since he felt this feeling? Was it 5 years or 6 years ago? He couldn't even remember, but it felt good!

"You're both animals!"

Vanthof whelped in pain as he took the fork out of his hand and covered his hand with a white cloth. His body still moved as he got up from his seat and began walking towards the entrance.

"You want the money, you can have it!"

Vanthof wanted to get rid of these two as fast as possible. Bob wasn't intimidated by his words, and Dave put action before words. Vanthof had no real way to deal with them.

The fact that they were even in the building caused his spine to shiver. There was no way the soldiers let them in freely, that could only mean Bob and Dave beat them all up. That or someone was plotting against him.

Vanthof led them to the warehouse where he kept all the treasure.

There were bags of coins in the room.

"How much do you think is here?"

Bob asked Dave.

"Idk, about 50 or 60 million?"

"I guess that will work, grab it and take it to our base. We'll start working on plans about how we should use it later."

Bob said.

Dave nodded his head.

"What about him?"

"Vanty here? He has some uses. He's corrupt for one, and he'll be easily to manipulate. We should keep him as base commander, that way the government won't learn anything about us too soon. Also even if they do, they'll be searching in the wrong places."

"You do know i'm right here right…"

Vanthof said as he was listening to Bob and Dave talk.

"Yeah and? Don't forget, your corrupt we can easily replace you when we want. If you try anything then you best sleep with one eye open every night. Just listen to our commands and your life here will continue. Alright?"

Bob squeezed Vanthof's shoulder causing Vanthof to wince in pain.

Vanthof didn't reply to Bob, but Bob took his silence as an agreement.

"Good! Now follow me, I still need you to fill in that document or whatever so I can collect Greybeard's and the rest bounty."

Bob led the way and Vanthof followed him in silence. Whether he was planning something or not, was up in the air. But even if he was Bob would deal with it.

As they arrived back in Vanthof's office Bob recalled something.

"Oh yeah, you have any extra den-den mushi's? I'll need 3 of them."

"You think we have those things laying around? This is a small base, what would we need 3 of them for? We're lucky just to have 1!"

Bob rolled his eyes.

"So, do you have them or not?"

"Yeah, we have some. Great! I'll be taking those too!"

"What? That's linked to a secure channel, I can't just give them to you! What if an admiral calls?"

"Then i'll answer? I was hoping to get some that weren't already connected to each other."

"There are only 2 of those here, but thats in case of an emergency…"

Vanthof said.

Bob didn't know if this guy was scared of him or just cooperating, but he liked Vanthof's new attitude.

"Just give me those 2 for now, how do I go about getting new ones?"

"You can buy them from different towns, but they are expensive and don't function as well as the ones the marines have. If you want high quality ones, only place to get them would be from the supply base on Vile Island."

Bob listened and nodded his head.

"Guess i'll need to pay this Island a visit then."

"You're crazy, you can't just go there and waltz in like you did here. They'll have your head on a stick! You'll need to be a marine to even get access to the supply station, thats the only way you're getting in."

Bob laughed.

"What's so funny?"

Bob's bones started cracking, and his face got distorted. Vanthof didn't know what he was watching but it was creepy.

Twenty seconds later, Vanthof started at himself. Well he was looking at Bob who looked like him.

"What in the world…"

"I know right. I thought the same thing."

Even Bob's voice sounded like Vanthof's. Now all he needed was the clothes to match.

"You really need to lose weight man, look at this my shorts they shouldn't be this tight!"

As soon as Bob went to make a movement, his shorts started to rip.

"Oh no! Change back, change back!"