Gary and Kai had just left the main office after their talk with Ashen, having learned what was going on and all the problems the Howlers were dealing with. Gary had seen Kai fall to his knees.
He looked straight ahead, staring at the hallway that led to only the elevators as he proclaimed he had no idea what to do.
It was the first time, the first time Gary had seen Kai like this.
"Kai, you've always been strong, always doing everything for the gang behind the scenes and have never been able to rest.
"As things have gotten bigger, you continued to take on that burden each time. It must have been getting to you, but we never saw it. And now with everything being attacked at once, you don't even know where to start."
Walking over, Gary placed his hand on his shoulder.
"The answer is simple," Gary said with a smile. "We just need to find out who's behind this and pay them back ten times more. We don't have to worry about anything else."
Gary's simple view allowed for a light to be seen inside Kai's mind because it really was that simple.
He had thought about how to protect the many things the Howlers had come to earn. He was wondering what the best solution would be.
But if they got rid of the one causing all of the problems, then they would be okay.
"Think, I'm sure you can find out a way to find out who was behind this, right? And then I'll be the one to take them out."
Letting out a big breath, Kai started to think. With the level of power they had now, who would be willing to be their enemy?
He had already narrowed it down to one of the Kings. It couldn't be the other Alpha; they would have sent a werewolf to deal with Midwak. It would have been a much more powerful message. Out of the others, it was unlikely to be the Dark Guild. They were a good customer of theirs, having purchased many of their solutions.
Other than that, there was still quite a list for them to go through.
Heading back to Slough, Kai's phone continued to vibrate. He had been getting messages non-stop asking about what they should do.
For now, he would ignore them all and ask Harry, the head of Cardenez Electronics, to deal with it all.
He was one of the more trusted allies they worked with and had a good head on his shoulders. He trusted him to make the best financial decisions with the current situation at hand.
Meanwhile, Kai's brain needed to be used and focused on something else.
When in Slough, he and Gary went downstairs to his office where he had pulled out a large whiteboard and a red marker and started to write a number of things down.
“From what we know, there are four major powerhouses that currently control the state of this country, and nearly every other country is set up the same way,” Kai explained as he drew four words and circled them.
“You have White Rose, which is funded by the local governments all over the world. Although they are a force that claims to be against Altered, they mostly remain neutral unless serious problems occur. They wouldn't touch those like the Kings unless they had a good reason to.
“I also spoke to Elijah, and he confirms they have no involvement in any of this. The next are the Altered Hunters. They are against Altered as a whole in general, but they would either make a move against small gangs or try something big against one of the Kings, not us, a tier 2 gang,” Kai continued to explain, crossing both of them out.
“Then we go to NIRV. Although they are not a gang per se, they have the retrievers. Contracts with those connected to all sorts of gangs out there, and those in the AFC. They even categorize their retriever groups via classes, going all the way up to triple SSS, which includes the Kings. You could say they have the most power.”
“But can they really utilize them all?” Gary replied. “For instance, if they ever tried to use a retriever group with one of the Kings to attack another city, would they even accept?”
“Exactly,” Kai replied. “They are aware of this as well. They are somewhat like a bridge that connects all the gangs together. Actually, almost like a spider web with them in the center. But if they ever find out a reason for eliminating one of these gangs, I can imagine it will be very easy for them to cut one of the threads off and force all the others to go after them.
“After all, the reason why the Kings don’t attack each other is because there would be great loss on their side, and then they would go after each other.”
NIRV, White Rose, and the Altered Hunters. It was clear where Kai was going with this; it had to be one of the Kings that were messing with them.
“There are five tier 1 cities in this country, meaning there are five Kings in total. First, the Dark Guild, who run the auction houses. They are on the best terms with nearly all the gangs due to their black market houses they run; we see how good the relationship is between them due to the auctions, so we can rule them out.
“So with that, we have our suspects, but we have to know why one of them would target us? There’s the Bree Gang. They are more of a family rather than a gang and a large one at that.
“They have members of their family running gangs all over the planet. So they aren’t just large here but all over the place as well. They do have the power to do this to us, but I honestly can’t see why they would. Or any reason for them to, unless they are just testing the waters.
“Then we have the Lupus group,” Kai explained. “I didn’t tell you this before, but if I’m honest with you, this is my guess as to who the other Alpha and Pack are.”
Gary’s heart thudded when he heard this; it was the first time Kai had mentioned such a thing.
“Why do you think that?” Gary asked.
“Because of the other options. The other two, the leaders are public and well-known. We have Havor Ego, from the One Clan. Havor isn’t just the leader and a King, but is also the number one ranked AFC fighter out there.
“Then finally, we have Sin Ignis. The most brutal of the Kings, who does whatever he wishes, and also the closest to Slough.”
Looking at the list, there were three possibilities.
The One Clan, led by Havor Ego
The Phoenix Gang led by Sin Ignis
Or the Bree Family with gangs all over the world.
One of these three was their enemy, and Gary didn’t know who he would have preferred.