Chapter 385: 385 Chapter The Role of the Gangs_1
Old Town district, domain of the Skull Gang, the gang’s headquarters.
"Sir, regarding your question, we still have a few words to say..." The middle-aged man sitting on the sofa tried to maintain his composure as he stared across the coffee table at the guest on the opposite couch, "First of all, we are also victims; we were deceived by those people too."
As the leader of the Skull Gang, and effectively the boss, he didn’t need to speak to anyone in such a humble tone on his own turf.
But he had to be respectful to this unexpected visitor, as the guest had the ability to effortlessly take his head.
Sitting opposite him was a young man wearing a cloak and a mask, and on the tea table lay the identity documents used by Meiruki’s servant in the black market.
The visitor who suddenly came to the Skull Gang’s territory was none other than the second generation Filthblood Reaper, who had helped them solve the "traitor" Borbo a few months earlier.
Of course, this time the legendary assassin was still being impersonated by Aiden.
Although he felt that he wouldn’t get much information, Aiden still donned a disguise to try and make contact with the Skull Gang; after all, it was an undeniable fact that they had been hired by the royal secret police.
The youngster they caught while posing as Flandre to make a deal, as expected, turned out to be just an ordinary Skull Gang thug, and after stabbing them in the back to the prosecutor’s office, the Skull Gang immediately turned the few who were responsible for bribing Flandre into scapegoats, making it look like the act of an individual Skull Gang junior.
After using the identity of the second generation Filthblood Reaper to meet with the head of the Skull Gang, Aiden frightened them with the nonsense that the person who hired them had a grudge against Meiruki, and the Skull Gang’s boss immediately started to earnestly defend himself—he certainly didn’t want to risk his head for a mere transaction.
Aiden crossed his legs casually on the couch, continuing to press the other side with questions, "You’re not philanthropists; you helped them because they must have paid you. I guess the money they paid you would be even more if they could trust you with the bribe money? And you still dare to call yourselves victims?"
"Actually, we only received a down payment, and they cut off contact with us after things went south; we never got the actual commission. And the down payments were given in two checks..." The boss of the Skull Gang frowned slightly in displeasure, "The second check we received can’t be cashed out anymore, and we lost a good number of people over this. There was hardly any profit in it. Plus, imagine if we knew they had trouble with you, how would we dare to take on the job?"
Can’t cash out the check—that was something Aiden knew about.
After capturing the go-between, the check used to bribe Flandre fell into his hands. Once he handed it over to the prosecutor’s office and they investigated, it was discovered the check had bounced because the account of the issuer at the bank had its funds suddenly transferred away, leaving insufficient balance for the bank to honor the amount, making it a so-called bad check.
In other words, after the bribery attempt failed, the secret police immediately moved the money out of the account, minimizing their own losses.
The prosecutor’s office is now targeting the check’s issuing account, but Aiden knows this line of inquiry will lead nowhere; if the account could lead to any clues, the secret police wouldn’t have comfortably used it to bribe in the first place.
The fact that they could act so swiftly showed that, although the secret police had hired local gangsters to do the front-stage work, they had been closely monitoring the progress from behind the scenes all along.
Of course, Aiden didn’t believe that the gang didn’t make any money from this transaction, but at the moment he had no interest in entangling with a small-time gang too much.
"Being the head of a gang, you should be a bit more savvy in doing business, didn’t you verify their background?" Aiden asked.
"They claimed to be a gang from the southern part of the Empire, saying they were here in the Free State to execute the daughter of a high-ranking official who had betrayed the organization... I reckon it was mostly about silencing someone. The guys who came to do business all had southern Empire accents, man, I was fooled as well," the leader of the Skull Gang said with a face full of regret.
A few agents specifically responsible for espionage in foreign countries, disguising their local accents was probably not a difficult task. With the acting skills of professional spies, fooling a gang was more than manageable.
But trusting their identities was one thing; regarding them as trustworthy was another. If a gang were that easily convinced by their trading partners, they would have been wiped out in this kind of world long ago.
"It doesn’t seem like you were fooled by them, rather you only acknowledged their money," Aiden continued to inquire, "Sounds like you negotiated the business deal with them in person?"
"Well..." the leader of the Skull gang hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded, "That’s right, the gang has to bribe the public officials, even if not targeting any high-ranking officers, it has to go through me."
"Since you came out to talk in person, the person they sent must have had some significance, right?"
"They claimed to be the second in command of the gang, personally supervising the battle."
"What did he look like?" Aiden asked.
"Not very tall, slightly chubby, with small eyes, round nose..."
Aiden thought for a moment; this description was clearly different from what Sera had told him. It made sense, after all, being involved with the local gang only, there was no need for the highest official to show up personally. This guy was probably at most the rank of a squad leader of an operational team.
He still had not caught concrete evidence of Earl Hofman’s personal involvement. Of course, he did not expect to catch the secret police chief red-handed. In fact, he only needed to catch one secret policeman, which would be enough—using the power of the Wordless Code, he could force them to spill all their secrets.
"You wouldn’t have just taken the money and naively fully trusted them, right? Did you investigate them at all?" Aiden continued to ask.
A gang, when facing an unfamiliar trading partner, should always maintain at least a slight level of vigilance.
Of course, it was unrealistic for a city gang to dig out the details of a group of elite national spies, but at least they were the local snakes here. They had several times the manpower than their opponents; surely there ought to be some clues.
"We did track a few of them staying in a hotel in the lower town area, but we didn’t dare to eavesdrop inside, as those people were quite vigilant. Besides that, during the negotiations, we actually secretly took photos of them..." the boss recalled as he spoke.
"Which hotel?" Aiden asked.
"The one on Bauhinia Street, the name is also Bauhinia Hotel."
"Good, give me a copy of those photos," Aiden unapologetically reached out his hand to ask for them, "Don’t worry, as long as you cooperate, I won’t trouble you."
This was already a very useful clue. Knowing the appearance of a few of them, he could utilize the police’s power to conduct a secret citywide search.
As for whether he could find something at the hotel, that would be a matter of luck.
