Chapter 42: Business Talk Part Two

The floor-to-ceiling glass beneath Cashel’s feet vibrated faintly, humming as cars drove along the roads near the building.

Cashel didn’t move. He kept one hand in his pocket and the other on his mask as he stared at Lionface’s reflection in the windows.

"Meaning?" Cashel asked.

Lionface didn’t answer right away. He raised his staff and adjusted his position.

"You killed her husband and you get to finish her too."

Cashel flinched slightly.

"She’s a pig eating from three troughs," he said, glancing at Cashel. "She isn’t hiring BMM to crush a rival. She’s burying our names alongside the bodies and the disaster that follows."

Cashel made a face, tilting his head.

"But we do that..."

"Cashel, that is not the point," Lionface stated firmly before letting out a soft laugh. "She wants us to take the fallout. Veloce is competition, and they must have found out about what she was doing and wanted them gone. Since we’re already on the global blacklist, we can take the fall while she hides everything."

Cashel raised a brow and Lionface switched the staff to his other hand.

"And once the warehouse goes up in smoke, SAMD investigates a BMM terror attack, and the client disappears into the horizon with her pockets stuffed full of everything."

Lionface’s mask caught the reflection of the city lights as he spoke.

"Which brings us to the actual contract."

"Let me guess," Cashel said, a slow, humorless smile appearing on his lips. "You want me to get the proof, finish her off, and make sure her company comes down too?"

"I want her head on a plate before she sells us out," Lionface said and turned toward Cashel. "Plus ten thousand dollars worth of shares, plus a few bonuses."

"....ten?"

Cashel scratched the side of his jaw, ’I used to get more than this in my past life.’ Then he shook his head with a sigh.

Lionface didn’t break eye contact. He simply reached into the inner lining of his dress coat and pulled out a phone. After tapping across the screen, he held it out for Cashel to see.

It was a weapon.

The blade was forged from a deep black metal, while the handle was decorated in purple and gold. At the hilt sat a small, diamond-shaped blue core.

Cashel’s eyes narrowed when he saw the weapon.

Then he tilted his head again.

"The Calamity Blade," Lionface purred softly. "Recovered from a tower far in the Outlands. Cleaned, unregistered, and unaligned."

He lowered the phone slightly.

"Yours the second you finish all the tasks I give you this month, including this one."

Cashel looked at him, then back at the phone screen, then he hummed, "What does it do? and I don’t particularly use swords, so..."

Lionface chuckled softly.

"It’s a unique sword. I feel it would fit you, and it’s not a gun. You should really use more weapons."

He paused before adding, "And it can be customized as long as you bind it to your core."

A grin appeared on Cashel’s face almost immediately, before he could stop it.

"Now you’re speaking my language."

"There is a second clause." Lionface’s tone abruptly turned serious. "Once the job is done, you pack your bags. You leave the city and continue the remaining tasks before the month ends."

The grin died on Cashel’s lips, he pulled his hands from his pockets.

"What?"

"BMM is pulling out," Lionface said flatly. "I’m handing the key cards for the branches here over to a third party by the end of the week, along with hunters who don’t really have a history."

Cashel frowned.

That was definitely suspicious, but at the same time, it was a smart thing to do, especially if something dangerous was coming.

Smaller hunters and inexperienced hunters wouldn’t really be affected.

He slipped his hands back into his pockets.

"I want you to fly out with me to the new location."

"I have a life here," Cashel interrupted, his voice turning deathly cold. "A home. A wife."

"She’s a Division Commander," Lionface corrected softly. "Who spends more hours of her time going through paperwork and attending meetings than fighting. And she only got reactivated after you awakened."

"She isn’t going to uproot her career because my boss decides to move," Cashel snapped.

Lionface just let out a low chuckle.

"You still view SAMD as an army, Bishop. It isn’t an army. It’s a corporation with artillery."

He paused.

"A transfer for Division Commander Andeen, along with her entire strike unit, is already drafted. It takes one signature from the regional director. A director whose offshore gambling debts were cleared by BMM three days ago."

Cashel stared at him, his mind racing to find the catch, the trap, and the angle.

"You bought a military transfer?"

"I bought multiple options, force persuasion and then buy her over." He pointed his golden staff toward the dark horizon, where the clouds hung unnaturally low over the ocean, swirling in heavy, bruised purples. "Look out there, Cashel. What do you see?"

"Rain."

"A storm. Just like the storm Eclipse will bring once they find me and anyone important here."

He cleared his throat.

"Within sixty days, part of the city will be bought by Eclipse just to provoke us, and we’ll have no choice but to retaliate."

Cashel’s face remained blank, but some of the color drained from it as dread filled his entire body.

"What exactly do they want with BMM?"

Lionface shrugged. "I honestly don’t know, and I don’t intend to find out."

Cashel sighed. This was an issue, and he was right at the center of it. If he agreed to leave with Lionface, then what about Nathan? The other two? Amia? Sure, he barely knew them, but he liked everyone a lot.

He clenched and unclenched his fingers inside his pockets, the he asked, "Who and who are coming with you? And can I ask for help with moving some people?"

Lionface tilted his head, "What do you mean?"

"I mean I’d like to ask for some people to be moved. Andeen’s team, Nathan if possible, Amia, two female friends of mine..."

He trailed off at the last sentence.

"You, Andeen..." Lionface’s eyes gleamed behind the narrow slits of his golden mask. "And the two ghost operatives currently eating your groceries and sleeping in your spare rooms."

Cashel closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, letting out a long, heavy breath through his nose.

’Nathan, you absolute loose-lipped bastard.’

When he opened his eyes, the frustration had vanished, replaced by cold, precise calculation. The situation was like an impending Red-Zone.

That meant the current house, the small, cramped place near the local market, was dead weight anyway. The local shopkeeper he liked would be evacuated, and the streets would be locked down. If they moved now...

Eight rooms, Cashel’s mind rapidly mapped out the floor plan. A training facility, separate rooms for everyone, a master bedroom large enough for Andeen, kitchen with brand-new appliances.

The extra money suddenly looked very attractive, paired with an S-Rank weapon and fully funded relocation, it was becoming harder to refuse.

"How long do I have to pack?" Cashel asked quietly.

Lionface’s smile, visible beneath the rim of his mask, widened into a broad, white line.

"Survive tomorrow," Lionface said, tapping his staff twice against the floor. The sound echoed down the empty corridor like a gunshot.

"Level Veloce, put a hole through Shelly Jones’s forehead, and take the money." He stepped past Cashel, heading toward the private elevator. "Then we go house hunting once we get to our location."