Chapter 144: Chapter 144
Adam ended the call with Darien and lowered the phone.
He stayed sitting on the bed.
The money side had moved better than he expected. Five billion meant Adam could move where people listened only to numbers.
But money did not solve every problem.
That thought came as soon as the call ended.
Adam’s fingers slowly tightened around the phone.
’Rovan is gone.’ Adam thought.
Rovan had been dirty and afraid, but he had still been useful. Because he was inside the police department, Adam could make small official things move.
Now that line was cut.
If Adam wanted someone hit from the outside, he only had Gonda and Bruno left.
Both were useful, but both were dangerous in their own way.
Gonda had men and fear around his name. If Adam needed pressure on roads or gangs, Gonda could still move. But Gonda did not trust the unknown organization Adam had created, and Adam did not trust him either.
Gonda had already tried to move against him once.
’He can be used,’ Adam thought. ’But he cannot be trusted with a new front.’
Then there was Bruno.
Bruno could arrange street-level work. He could move goods and find people. He was also building a small network because Adam had told him to do it.
But Bruno could not do everything.
There was another problem too.
Bruno had already touched Aster Core’s side before. Senju had seen him. Kenji and Kiri knew that some underworld pressure had reached their office. If danger came to Bruno, Adam did not want this new asset near that old line.
He needed a separate front, one that did not lead back to his old network.
Adam stood up and walked to the table.
There was a notebook lying there. He opened it and took out a pen.
He had options.
His future memories had given him names.
He wrote the first name: Alden Croft.
In the future, Alden would become a psychopath whose murders terrified several cities. He would be hard to catch, and the reports about him would run for weeks.
Adam knew where Alden was right now.
That was the tempting part.
If Adam moved early, he could reach him before the world knew his name. But the more Adam thought about it, the worse the idea became.
Alden was not a loyal man waiting for direction. If Adam failed to control him even once, Alden could turn toward him.
Adam crossed the name out.
’No.’ Adam thought. ’I cannot control someone like that.’
He wrote the second name: Rish Vale.
Rish was a businessman whose company was losing money. Within two years, it would collapse completely.
At first, Rish looked like a safe choice.
If Adam saved his company, Rish might listen. If Adam gave him money, he might even obey for some time.
But that was the problem.
He would obey because of need.
Not because of loyalty.
Fear could make a man move. Money could make a man bend. But none of that meant Rish would do every ugly job for him.
Adam looked at the name for a few seconds.
Then he drew a line through it too.
That left the third name. Adam wrote it slowly: Leo Harrow.
His pen stopped after the name.
Leo was in prison right now.
He had tried to kill a high-ranking police officer. The officer had survived, but only because Leo’s preparation had been incomplete. One small mistake had exposed him before the job was finished.
Because of that, Leo had been caught.
He had already been in prison for almost two years. If nothing changed, he would stay there for a long time.
But in Adam’s previous life, something had changed.
Some businessman had gotten Leo out.
After that, Leo had appeared again in the news for something much bigger. He had killed a politician in front of many people and had been caught again.
Later, even when the case became famous, Leo did not give the name of the person behind him. He kept silent until the end.
He had been sentenced to death, but the name of the person who freed him and paid him never came out.
That was why Adam remembered him.
Leo had already proved one thing in the future.
He could keep his mouth shut.
’If someone else can get him out in the future,’ Adam thought, ’then I can do it too.’
The question was how.
His first option was Gonda.
Gonda had reach in the underworld. He might find a prison contact. But using him would put Leo under Gonda’s shadow before Adam even met him.
That was unacceptable.
His second option was Bruno.
Bruno was easier to push, and he would not ask too many questions if Adam scared him enough. But Bruno’s side already had too many threads connected to old work.
He would only become another branch of the same risky network.
Adam did not want that.
He tapped the pen once against the notebook.
There was a third option.
Senju.
Adam stayed quiet after the thought came.
Senju was not an underworld person. That was both good and bad. She could not make a man disappear from a van. But she could handle the formal side far better than Gonda or Bruno.
More than that, Adam trusted her.
Not blindly, but more than the others.
If this had to start from somewhere, Senju was the safest hand he had.
Adam picked up his phone again and called her.
At Aster Core, Senju was still in the office when her phone started ringing.
She looked at the screen and saw wil’s name.
Her expression changed at once.
She stood from her chair and walked away from the main room. Kenji and Kiri were busy with their own work, so no one stopped her.
Senju entered a small side room and closed the door behind her.
Only then did she answer.
"Adam," she said in a low voice. "Is everything all right?"
Adam heard the concern in her voice.
He did not waste time.
"I have work for you," he said.
Senju became serious at once.
"Tell me," she said. "What is it?"
Adam looked down at the notebook.
His eyes stayed on Leo Harrow’s name.
"Actually," Adam said, "I need to get a man out of prison."
