Chapter 136: Chapter 136
For a second, Bruno did not answer.
Then his voice came through, careful and confused.
"Sir, I do not understand."
Adam leaned back in his chair.
"You do not need to understand everything," he said. "Listen carefully."
Bruno became quiet at once.
Adam continued, "Use money if you have to. Use people if you have to. That body must reach Mira Verma."
The name meant nothing to Bruno. He only kept listening. Mira Verma was Eshan Verma’s sister, and she had been searching for her brother for a long time.
Adam gave him the police station name next.
"She comes to East Market Police Station again and again," Adam said. "Do not go near her yourself. Do not let your name appear anywhere."
"Understood, sir," Bruno said slowly.
"There must be at least one buffer between you and her," Adam said. "If you need two, use two. If you need to pay someone, pay them. But the body and the evidence must reach her."
Bruno swallowed on the other side.
This order was not hard because of the work itself. Bruno could move bodies. He could move people. He could pay a man to carry a message and pay another man to forget who gave it. The hard part was the target.
This was not a gang warning. It was a dead man being pushed back into the world.
Adam’s voice became colder.
"All the evidence," he said. "Photos, records, anything that points to what happened. Do not create fake lies. Do not add nonsense. Give her what already exists."
"Yes, sir."
"After that, help the story reach the media."
Bruno was silent again.
Adam knew why. This was not a normal underworld job. This was not selling gold or moving stolen goods. This was taking an old buried crime and pushing it into the public eye.
"If you need money to keep the report moving, use money," Adam said. "If one outlet is scared, use another. If a copy needs to reach more than one place, make that happen. Your face should not appear anywhere."
"Should we push it through the small papers first?" Bruno asked.
"Use whoever will move fast," Adam said. "The only thing that matters is that it reaches people."
Bruno answered quickly this time.
"It will be done, sir."
But inside, Bruno could not understand the shape of the order.
The people above him had touched companies. They had touched politicians. Now they were touching an old murder case. Bruno did not know how far their hand reached or how many people were already marked by them.
That thought made him more careful.
"I will handle it," Bruno said.
Adam ended the call.
He looked at the phone for a few seconds after the screen went dark.
’I am carrying too much tension.’ Adam thought. ’You can carry some too.’
He did not say the name aloud. He did not need to. After that, Adam stood up and prepared for college.
He washed his face and changed his clothes. Before leaving, he checked himself once in the mirror. He looked tired, but not broken. That was enough.
Soon, he left the hostel.
The college road felt strange after so many days of moving through other problems. Students were walking in groups, and some laughed near the gate. A few looked at Adam when he passed, but he did not stop for anyone.
He could feel the old college world trying to pull him back in. The normal noise of students should have felt simple. Instead, it felt like another place where John could stand at any corner and smile.
He was walking ahead when he heard a voice behind him.
He knew that voice.
Adam slowed and turned.
John and Monica were coming from the same direction.
For a moment, Adam’s eyes went to John.
The old fear did not rise the way it used to.
It was still there somewhere, but Adam was learning to stand near John without letting his body shout the truth. He could not run every time John appeared. If he wanted to fight him, he had to breathe around him like nothing was wrong.
Before John could say anything, Monica hurried forward.
She stopped right in front of Adam.
"Where were you all these days?" she asked.
Her voice was sharper than usual.
She looked as if she had been holding the question for too long. That was very Monica. If something sat in her mind, it did not stay quiet there.
Adam looked at her face and smiled.
"I was out of college for so many days," he said. "I think I got used to not coming here. I forgot college was still a thing."
Monica stared at him.
She did not laugh.
"What kind of stupid joke is that?" she asked.
Adam’s smile stayed, but he did not answer at once.
Behind her, John watched both of them.
His face stayed calm.
Inside, his thoughts were not calm at all.
’Things are slipping from my hand.’ John thought.
Monica had run to Adam before even speaking properly to him. That small thing bothered John more than he wanted to admit.
Still, there was one thing that satisfied him.
His father had moved.
Aster Core was already under pressure. Government agencies were looking at it. The company could delay for a while, but John trusted his father more than he trusted anyone else.
’Father will handle it.’ John thought. ’It may take time, but Aster Core will fall.’
That thought helped him stay relaxed.
But Monica was still a problem.
She was getting closer to Adam.
John had seen enough to understand that. He did not like it. He did not want Monica standing beside Adam, talking to him like this, worrying about him like this.
John’s eyes stayed on Adam.
’Looks like I need to start Adam’s bullying again.’ John thought.
He knows what to do now to get Adam expelled from college again, and in this he will be helped by the three boys who used to bully Adam earlier.
