An Assassin in the Republic of Padokea [04]

-- (Emitter) --

It had been four weeks since the hunters had met Tak in Yorkshin City and only a week since they had made the exchange to obtain the list of Dimecci Family items. Daven Nightshot was on a commercial flight bound for the Republic of Padokea accompanied by Monique, Tak and three companions named Annie, Conrad Conrado and Scotch.

Daven stretched his legs and leaned his head back and then pulled his laptop out from under his seat, they were about to land, less than 30 minutes into the flight so it seemed like a good time to go over the plan he had arranged with his companions. After a quick glance at the seats where Monique and Conrad were sitting, he nodded his head indicating that they should enter the appropriate chat room.

When the Emitter entered the specified chat room he found Tak and Annie's users there. At those moments, Monique was asking for access to the plane's Wifi network, within a few minutes Monique, Conrad and Scotch joined the chat on the Deep web.

"I was getting impatient already, well, time to get in on the action."

- You may wonder why I've gathered you here - Daven wrote in the secret chat. - Nah, no jokes, we will soon enter the Republic of Padokea and we must be clear on the course of action as soon as we land in Dentora, so let's go over the plan.

» The Dimecci family resides in the city of Hakone, however, it is too risky for Tak to take a direct flight there, he could easily be discovered, so we will land in Dentora, the capital. From there, Tak, Annie and Conrad will take a vehicle to Hakone, the three will be in the Full House Casino gathering as much information as possible about the youngest of the Dimecci, Carlo Dimecci, Conrad will pose as security personnel, your mission is to enable as much as possible to the other two. Annie will be inside as a player, with your charms and your Manipulator abilities you will certainly manage to catch a big fish, Tak from the outside, you are free to use your skills as discreetly as possible.

» Monique will go to the National Institute of Ancient History in Padokea, with the hunter's license you are guaranteed access to restricted areas and information with which you can easily verify if the boffins there tried to hinder the auction of the ceremonial costume of the ancient civilization of the Tanbóh Kingdom or if they have any record of its provenance or even existence, if there is no useful information the next thing will be to search the airport of Dentora, if the search is fruitless, search in free zones.

Daven paused before continuing to write the instructions, in this case, the instructions for Scotch, after all, of those present in phase 1 of the mission, he was the only one who had no knowledge of the existence of the Nen. Both Annie and Conrad had knowledge of aura management, however, Conrad had not awakened the Nen yet, Monique preferred to train him with the traditional method of pure meditation, so his current skills were more physical than anything else.

- Scotch. - Daven continued writing. - your mission at this stage is one of the most important, we need you to divert Dimecci's attention as much as possible, you are the only one of us who is already inside the organization and that is why we hired you.

"A simple gardener, but it doesn't take more than that."

Scotch wasn't sitting next to any of the other members of the chat room, still, before hiring him, Monique made sure she was contacting the right person, in this case, an insider who wouldn't sell them out for enough money. While few people could afford to pay more than the hefty sum they were offering the gardener, the Dimecci's boss was one of them.

- Walls have ears, but the servants have tongues - Monique wrote in the group chat along with several words of praise for the gardener.- Mr. Scotch, few people can know what goes on inside their house more than you, and those people probably share that sensitive information with you. If anyone comes to have any suspicions you tell us through this very channel, in the meantime you are our most valuable inside informant and the reason why none of your masters will come to any harm.

Scotch nodded, the economic factor was the main reason why the middle-aged guy had decided to participate in an act of corruption against his employer, rarely does the opportunity to receive the salary of a lifetime in a period of six months or a couple of years, even so, the humble worker ended up agreeing for the promise that no information he leaked would directly threaten the health and / or welfare of any of his employers.

- For my part - Daven continued writing - After landing and disembarking I will go to meet a contact I got through the Hunter Network who will sell me information on the Dimecci Family suppliers, that way it will be easier to identify where they got the ceremonial dress from, if we can get an alternate lead to the ancient civilization then the efforts will shift from the Dimecci Family to whoever sold the dress to them, still, all the agreed remunerations will be paid. This concludes Phase 1: Obtain the Ceremonial Costume. The details of Phase 2: Find the Ruins. They will be shared to the necessary members shortly before the plan is put into action. 

- Of course, that does not include you, Mr. Scotch - Monique added. - By then your participation in the plan will be over and you will receive the promised money.

All members of Phase 1 of the plan nodded in acknowledgement of their respective roles. Tak was nervous, but at the same time somewhat excited about what was happening. In a way it was reliving the events that led him to be pursued by the law and the mafia, the nature of the mission was no different from that of that occasion; once again he was to rob the Dimecci Family but somehow this smaller group felt more prepared and independent, he had not ceased to be a thief, he had simply become the weakest link in a group of more experienced thieves. Hunters they called themselves.

As soon as everyone confirmed that they understood how the plan was to be executed, as well as the communication channels, key codes for certain situations and various other minor extras, Daven Nightshot closed the chat channel as well as his laptop only to find that they were only a few minutes away from landing at Dentora Capital. After a while, the plane began the passenger disembarkation process where they, being flying first class were naturally disembarked with priority.

Only Tak, Conrad Conrado and Annie exchanged glances and a few words as they picked up their luggage, the rest of the staff had express orders to act as strangers during their stay in Padokea except for private spaces where they could talk to each other about the mission or various topics unrelated to obtaining the suit owned by the mafia family.The trio eventually took a bus to Hakone, Monique rented a vehicle to get around the city easily, Scotch called a cab, which he paid for with money Daven had provided him to get from the airport to a location where he was to be picked up by his employers and Daven Nightshot was just leaving the airport on foot with a light luggage that barely fit his laptop and two changes of light clothes.

After a few minutes of walking, the hunter turned his head to make sure he was far enough away from the airport, pulled out his cell phone and checked to make sure he had a signal in the area.

"You better answer it, fatso, I hope you're not busy playing video games or something."

Daven called the same number, as he walked back to the airport, about four times until finally someone answered the call from the other end.

- I thought you wouldn't answer. - Not a good time to call now, I'm playing Balgars Door and I'm about to be the first to get an unusual achievement.

- Not a good time? Not even if...

- Wait a minute!

Daven put his fingers between his eyebrows as he tilted his head in despair.

- Milluki! - Daven shouted. - I have the target with me!

A long pause followed the words of the hunter who was already about to send the whole deal to hell.

- Did you do it, did you kill him? - Milluki asked in a serious tone, after completing the hidden event in the game.

- Not yet, but it will take me a few hours to do it, I even brought him closer to Mount Kukuroo for you, Milluki Zoldyck.

- Oh yeah? Well... I don't really care much how you did it as long as you keep your end of the bargain and kill the target.

- Same here. - Daven replied with a yawn.

- Yeah, yeah, I know the deal, you kill the guy who messed with the mob for me, and I give you access to the Dimecci Family's communication networks - Milluki replied condescendingly.

- I'll say. You're pretty good with that spyware and computer stuff. You should be a computer hunter. - Daven said. - I don't think so.

It's cool to be here at Zoldyck Manor with mom and dad, I don't know why Kill and Kalluto yearn so longingly for the outside world.

"Kill and Kalluto... how many siblings are they?"

- Okay, you know how the modus operandi is, send me photo evidence of mission accomplished, give me the coordinates of the corpse and I'll give you access to the Dimecci's communications network.

- We've been operating together for so long and you've rarely been interested in my methods, probably never, Milluki, aren't you at all curious how the people you subcontract do things?

- If I ever have genuine interest I will ask you, now let me get on with my game and don't take too long to complete the assignment, my client will start asking questions if I don't confirm the completion of the mission and Papa and Illumi-chi will get very upset if we start losing the client's trust.

The hunter eventually returned to the local cab station where he took a cab bound for Hakone, more specifically the Full House Casino. The guy in the cab initially looked reluctant to travel from town until Daven had to flaunt his hunter's license, at which point the cab driver understood that he was dealing with a premium client, who would probably give him fair money or more, if he treated that man in the back of the vehicle right.

"Milluki Zoldyck, the subject is someone you can do business with, unlike his older brother, his personality is more manageable, he is not obsessed with control, but he has a strong desire for material things he considers valuable. His main virtue I would say is the great computer and black-market knowledge he possesses; those two circumstances are what I need and are what pushed me to hire someone as my ally to assassinate him."

"Technically, he is not indispensable to the plan, I tried to justify it in many possible ways so as not to have to do it, but the truth is that of all those we managed to gather, he is the one who has the worst potential of the whole team. I don't know if Monique is going to forgive me for murdering someone who has really been with us for nothing, I'm sure she will understand, but I doubt she will forgive me... No, she won't understand, she is my apprentice, it's only been about three years since she passed the hunter exam, so she doesn't know much about how our world works.... If I show her such a selfish act as killing who is my partner to be one step closer to my goal she will lose all trust in her master, she will lose all her trust in me and she will lose all her trust in the hunters and the association".

The taxi driver managed to muster confidence and sketch a question towards the hunter but Daven had his attention focused on other more important matters.

"Murdering a partner would be practically telling her that she is also a means to an end, that she is not my student but simply a tool I can dispose of at my convenience, truth be told, she is not worth losing... but an opportunity like the one Milluki gave me comes along very rarely in life. If she manages to accept that I killed the boy, we'll go a long way toward what we're both looking for."

"But she doesn't have to learn the details of his death, I can just attack him with nen, and get in and out quickly during the confusion. Still, it's too risky, I sent two people with him... Maybe that part I didn't think very well, no, it's not time to doubt the plan, it wasn't possible to send someone alone to a different position, besides it was going to be useless for one of them to go with Monique, the information would be given only to the hunter, and none of the 3 in the casino is a professional hunter... yet."

"Why am I involving non-professional hunters in this?

"Why did you have to mess with the Family...?"

- We've arrived, Mr. Hunter - Said the cab driver who had kept quiet all the way after not getting answers multiple times - It would be 120,000 jennys.

Daven came back to himself and gave the cab driver a cold stare, he pulled out 3 $50,000 jennys bills, handed them to him and left the car not before verifying that he had his license still with him. The Hunter adjusted his black blazer and rubbed his hand multiple times on the back of his neck, he always made sure to keep his blond hair short and well-kept to avoid leaving evidence at a scene, it's not like he needed it due to the fact that the hunter license legally protected him from almost any homicide he caused, but it was already more of an acquired habit because of the stealth required.

He scanned well the street where he was, it was an avenue with prominent sidewalks on both sides, full of bars, the occasional fancy restaurant, and several hotels, which stood out about four blocks from where he was standing the Royal Flush Hotel, and in front of that hotel, the Full House Casino. Daven took a hat out of his luggage and put it on as he made his way to the hotel to avoid being recognized by Tak in case, he was too close to the casino.

- Good afternoon, sir! - said the person in the lobby. - How can I help you?

- My room key is broken, could you please change it for me? - said Daven as he took out of his luggage an electronic key to the Royal Flush Hotel with the number 2701 written on it.

- Yes sir, with pleasure, could you please give me the name under which you are registered in the apartment?

- Nightshot, Daven.

The guy at the front desk took the electronic key from Nightshot, Daven to cancel it and issue a new one, but not before verifying with the photo registered in the system that the apartment on the 27th floor corresponded to the person in front of him, then handed him the new key with a smile rehearsed to exhaustion.

- Thank you very much. - Daven said and then walked calmly to the elevator.

Daven entered the room and hung his hat on the coat rack in the hallway. He quickly made his way to the bathroom and rinsed his face repeatedly going into a loop of washing his face and checking for traces of dirt and fatigue in the huge bathroom mirror. After more than a quarter of an hour, the owner of the apartment left the bathroom and sat on a chair on the balcony.

The sunset came as he waited for Milluki's target to arrive, no, his target, until eventually the rush hour of the casino operated by the Dimecci's arrived, it was then that he saw Annie enter the casino as instructed, later in the evening he saw Conrad Conrado enter as a rookie security guard along with 5 other individuals and eventually in the flow of people on the main avenue of the pink zone he saw Tak hanging around one of the surrounding bars with a group of guys and girls looking for a place to hang out.

Daven inhaled deeply before pointing 5 fingers at his supposed partner in the mission, with his [Point & Shoot] skill he could emit a beam of aura from the fingers of the left hand, the more fingers are pointing towards the target the more powerful the attack would be, however, for every finger pointing at the enemy it would take half a minute longer to fire the blast.

"I couldn't reveal all my tricks to you, Tak, there could always be a situation where I had to use them."

Two and a half minutes had already passed, and the hunter was ready to make use of his [Hatsu].

"I'm sorry, Moni, I don't know if it's the right thing to do, but it's the thing I must do."

The next few seconds felt eternal to Daven, but they were just that, seconds. The instant Daven launched his [Point & Shoot] a blast of aura pierced completely through the chest of his target who fell limp immediately to the asphalt. A man had fallen dead with a hole in his chest much larger than the one caused by a bullet without anyone knowing the reason, and that was when the stampede was made. 

The streets were flooded with people entering the nearest buildings.

People falling to the ground to minimize the chances of a stray bullet.

People running aimlessly.

People rushing at other people.

People fleeing in panic to alternate streets.

People standing still trying to help the fallen.

The commotion was such that the casino security force moved inside to contain the people trying to enter the casino, an action quickly imitated by the security force at the Royal Flush Hotel, unaware that the perpetrator of the crime was there.

Daven pointed a left index finger once more towards the ground and used [Point & Shoot] to mobilize the fearful crowd back towards the area of the murder so that what he was about to do would go more unnoticed. The Hunter used [Ko] on his legs to propel himself down and fall without any damage, in quick succession, he ran taking long and fast steps towards the corpse that was his former companion, grabbed it and jumped towards the windows of a nearby bar, crossed the bar with even more speed and jumped towards the roof of a relatively nearby residential area which allowed him to make his escape from the heights.

When he finally reached an area slightly away from the previous commotion, he left the body on the ground and pulled out one of his disposable cell phones.

- Check the photo I sent you, Milluki, right there you can check the coordinates through the photo's metadata.

- Mch, isn't it simpler if you just send me the exact location of the target? - replied the second son of the Zoldyck family reluctantly.

- Exactly. Don't you think it's funnier that way, computer genius?

- I'll be the one who judges that. - replied Milluki Zoldyck in a slightly defiant voice before hanging up.

Daven found himself thus himself a bit furious at the abrupt termination of the call, still, he decided to check the chat on the Deep web with Milluki and there he found the access to the Dimecci Family communications network and some indications of good espionage practices as a gift from Milluki, Daven Nightshot couldn't not sketch a smile, he decided to return the favor to Milluki and facilitate the search for the body by leaving the disposable cell phone on by his side and quickly departed back to the hotel before they noticed his absence while checking the integrity of the guests.

"I hope I didn't cause too much confusion outside the casino, well...Annie probably couldn't do much today, let's see how Annie and Tak manage now that Conrad is gone."

"Sorry, Moni, you didn't get to say goodbye to your apprentice. I hope this doesn't mark goodbye to mine."