1043 An Enemy is a Friend
A deal had been struck, and the briefcase of infected solutions was now in Kai's hands.
In exchange, a card with a monthly allowance and a place in a tier-2 city was given to Raven as requested, along with a disposable phone with only one number programmed inside.
Kai didn’t care if he ever saw Raven again, and he wasn’t sure if leaving this loose end would come back to bite him, but he needed to decide what to do with what he had received.
Upon his return to Slough, he called for a meeting at the Wolf’s Pool Club.
The core members were present, with Marie and Olivia even playing a game together, while others sat on the side, ordering drinks now and then.
Gary was also there, along with Bree, who was in the room. Oddly, she was constantly picking up pool balls and tossing them over to Gary, who would catch them and throw them back as if playing a game of catch. It was hard to imagine these were just ordinary balls.
Kai assumed it was part of some training they were doing, and as long as they paid attention to the meeting, he was fine with it.
"Alright, Tom!" Kai said as he patted him on the back. "Show them what you brought."
Tom was wearing a large white lab coat similar to those from NIRV. In the past, Tom had worked at NIRV, obtaining a position thanks to his father.
However, Kai had decided to set up a dedicated research lab of his own with the information Tom had learned.
They had picked up a few disgruntled former NIRV employees and were researching everything related to Altered.
One of Tom's projects was learning how to control Vlad, an Altered with an infected serum.
Placed on one of the many pool tables was a metal briefcase. With a few clicks, it opened, capturing everyone’s attention.
"Infected Altered solutions—and a whole lot of them," Bree commented.
"Did you make those?" Marie asked. "You’re not planning to use them, are you?"
Not much was known about the infected solutions; even Gary’s system couldn’t decipher them, apart from the fact that he couldn’t consume those who were infected.
"No, Tom didn’t make these. They were stolen—a delivery intended for the one and only One Gang!" Kai claimed proudly.
"The One Gang dealing with infected solutions? I guess this means we can get White Rose involved after all," Olivia said.
Gary hadn’t thought of that. If White Rose could capture Harvor, they might have a chance to deal with this without getting directly involved.
But something didn’t sit right with Gary. He didn’t want to let Harvor escape without at least getting some revenge.
"Wait, where did you even get this?" Ice asked.
"That doesn’t matter," Kai replied. "Unfortunately, just because we have these infected solutions doesn’t mean White Rose can get involved. I already called up Elijah. If anything, we’re the ones likely to get in trouble just for possessing these."
"However, what this does mean is that there’s something big enough to link the One Gang, NIRV, and the infected solutions together. If we can get our hands on evidence, it’ll finally be enough to get them involved."
"Evidence again? But how would we even get that?" Park asked. "Wouldn’t that mean we’d either have to go after the One Gang or NIRV?"
Kai snapped his fingers and pointed at Tom.
"Exactly. Through my information gathering, I found that the founder working with Harvor is Rumper Karn, one of the founders of NIRV.
"It seems that others at NIRV aren’t aware of this. So we can guess that this is happening without NIRV’s full knowledge. If we can get someone at NIRV to help us, we can get everything we need."
Everyone was deep in thought about what could be done. Attacking a NIRV base was risky—they had the Retrievers, powerful Altereds with them.
"Wait, Gary!" Marie said. "When your dad came, didn’t he say he was working with Rickle Epman? Isn’t he one of the three founders as well?"
For the first time, Bree was surprised to hear this. From what she knew, Gary was a nobody who had risen from a tier-3 town. No one knew he had connections like this.
"Right, if he worked with my father, then maybe this Rickle guy is someone we can trust… but," Gary paused for a moment, "I have no idea how to even get in contact with my father."
"It’s not like we can just walk in there," Kai added. "We don’t know who is or isn’t involved in the shady dealings. There’s even a chance your father is behind it, but I do have an option."
Kai patted Tom on the shoulder.
"We have a person here who still has family working at NIRV, and it wouldn’t be strange if he paid them a visit.
"We could ask for a meeting with Rickle, using your father’s name. I’m sure that would catch his attention."
"Wait, for Tom to go to NIRV headquarters on his own?" Gary shouted. "He can’t—what if something happens? He’s just a… he’s just a…"
"An ordinary person, I know, Gary," Tom replied. "But I want to help. Let me meet Rickle. Let me help you in a way that I can."
Gary didn’t like it—not one bit. From his father’s story, there was a great mystery surrounding this Rickle Epman. Whether he was good or bad was hard to tell, and they still had no idea about the origin of the infected solutions either.
Yet, it was the best option they had.
"Alright… meet him."
*****
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