Chapter 30 The Flowers of the Garden

The plane landed at an airport on the outskirts of Monrovia; it was still a dirt runway, still in a desolate countryside.

It wasn't possible to divide the bounty on the plane, but once they got off and had signal again, they could immediately find out whether the task was completely finished or not.

The result wouldn't disappoint. In the public task list, Gray Horace's mission had already disappeared, meaning the Dark Web had acknowledged the target was dead.

The reward of one million dollars in Bitcoin was already in hand.

Luca took a deep breath; his right hand held his mobile phone while his left hand swung through the air as if smashing a wall a dozen times—though without a cheer, his joy was exploding.

After a long while, Luca forcibly suppressed his excitement and whispered to Gao Yi, "Back to the hotel, to split the money!"

"Why not just do it here?"

Splitting the money at the hotel—what if three or five big guys were hiding in there, ready to shoot Gao Yi as soon as he entered the door?

Gao Yi didn't want to be expendable, nor did he want to be swallowed up by others after the deed was done.

The one thing the underworld didn't lack was scum; you play the villain first, then the gentleman. First, get the money in hand, then even if Luca killed him, he couldn't take the Bitcoin away, which naturally would minimize any thoughts he had of double-crossing.

Luca didn't say much else, he immediately responded, "Fine, let's split the money here."

Luca had two mobile phones, holding one in each hand, he looked at the one in his left, entered several digits with his right, and continued tinkering back and forth.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm calculating how much you owe me, the expenses I've advanced for you, divided cost of meals..."

Gao Yi was taken aback, then dismissively said, "Stop calculating!"

Luca looked at Gao Yi; Gao Yi waved his hand and continued, "Give me three hundred thousand. Two hundred thousand will definitely settle what I owe you, and the extra is my way of thanking you for saving my life."

"Uh..."

Luca was taken aback by Gao Yi's words and paused for a while before he lowered his head and continued to crunch numbers.

"The total is one hundred fifty-three thousand and thirty-six dollars. I'll give you three hundred forty-six thousand nine hundred sixty-four dollars."

"I told you, give me two hundred thousand..."

Ignoring Gao Yi, Luca kept working with his calculator, saying, "The price of Bitcoin today is 2830 dollars; I should give you one hundred and forty point six Bitcoins."

After some operations, Luca said to Gao Yi, "We're even now, huh, Bitcoin's price has risen quite a lot."

Luca was very stingy, extremely stingy, but he didn't take the extra forty thousand dollars that Gao Yi was willing to give.

Gao Yi, puzzled, asked, "You... why don't you want my money?"

"Cooperation is cooperation, the amount should be just right. The money you owe me can't be less, but I don't want what I shouldn't have. I said the moment the deal is done, the distribution shares are set. I can't break the rules, nor can I change my principles."

Luca spoke with gravity, and after finishing, his expression suddenly changed, and he smiled, "Now that I've paid you what you deserved, if you want to thank me, you can give me something else..."

Gao Yi was taken aback, hesitated for a moment, but eventually said, "Wishful thinking."

Luca waved his hand in dissatisfaction, then took a breath and said, "Alright, now the mission is completed, the money is split, so then... we should go our separate ways here."

Mission completed, time to part ways.

Luca did not dare to stick with Gao Yi—this Gao Yi had anticipated, but he didn't expect Luca to be so straightforward.

Gao Yi spread his hands and asked, "Collaborate in the future?"

"Better not, you really scare me."

Luca looked helpless, laughed bitterly and said, "Your style is too frightening, but most importantly, you killed a person from the Andic Group, and I have the same trouble."

"What trouble can you talk about now?"

"Have you heard of the Garden?"

"No."

Luca spoke softly, "The Garden was formed in Paris in 1848, established by King Louis Philippe I to assassinate those who opposed him. The director was called Gardener, and although Louis Philippe I soon went into exile in the UK, the Garden continued to exist, secretly continuing until now."

Old Europe, where organizations bear ancient histories, and assassin organizations are no exception.

Luca seemed to drift into memories and said gently, "Then, within the Garden, there have always been four flowers: Tulip, Rose, Lily of the Valley, and Iris—four famous assassins, and later a codename that represented honor and achievement."

"Which one did you follow?"

"Tulip."

Luca didn't hold back, he shook his head with a sense of helplessness, "The Garden is empty now, there's only the Gardener, no flowers, because the Garden and the Andic Group went to war and then, the Andic Group eradicated all flowers of the Garden. I was lucky, I hadn't officially joined the Garden yet, I had just joined Tulip's team."

Gao Yi understood; he nodded, "No wonder you're afraid of the Andic Group."

Luca sighed and said, "After Tulip died, I hid for a while, and when I discovered the Andic Group wasn't after me, I dared to come out. Using Tulip's unused Dark Web account, I started being a middleman, took a few tasks, made some money, but now, I can't continue to take on tasks with you. Your way of completing tasks is too unique, too fast, and if you continue in this line, you'll definitely draw the Andic Group's attention."

Gao Yi smiled, "So, being too dazzling isn't good either."

Luca spread his hands and asked, "What are your plans next?"

"I want to go home."

"Can you go back? Do you have a passport? Even if you get a new passport, how will you explain traveling from Thailand to Africa? If you go back to Thailand for a new passport, have you considered that what you did in Tachileik might be discovered by China?"

Luca smiled softly and said, "You can't go back. You're born for this line of work, and even if you do try to return, you'll have to come back out, because you can't live an ordinary life. You're destined for adventure."

Gao Yi nodded and laughed, "So, I'm just thinking about it for now. I have a lot of things to do; I have money now, the first thing is to find a place to practice my gun skills..."

"Don't tell me your plans, don't tell anyone your plans. Now, I'm going to help you out, I can be your referee to register a Dark Web account, then you can operate on your own."

Gao Yi smiled, "You seem to know what I want to do, okay, you recommend and I register."

Luca made no move, hesitated for a moment and then suddenly said, "I'll give you one more piece of advice. Originally, I wasn't planning to suggest anything, but you chose to upload the evidence straight after completing the task, I think you're trustworthy. So, I want to offer you an additional path."

"What path?"

"The correct path of an assassin."

Luca took a breath and said, "You're very strong, truly remarkable. The Garden is short-staffed and they would definitely want to train you, to accept you, and you could become the most beautiful flower in the Garden. You need support, people to help you stand against Andic. If you're willing to join the Garden, your future path will be much easier."

Gao Yi thought for a moment and laughed, "Let's just register for now, we'll discuss the Garden later."

Luca shrugged, "Let me know when you change your mind. For now open the Dark Web, I'll help you register an account. Have you thought of your username, what do you want to be called?"