AlterOne

Chapter Twelve

Sitting in his office, Juri pored over the documents that lay upon his desk. At the sound of a knock at the door, Juri looked up from his work.

"Enter."

The door opens and Merik steps into the room. Hands in his pockets, he walked up to Juri's desk.

"What can I do for you Merik?" Juri asked.

"Oh you know, I've been doing some thinking," Merik replied.

"About what?"

"About what to do with Akko."

Juri leaned back in his chair, "Alright, let's hear it then."

"While father is listening to the seers and waiting around to see if the guy will just magically sprout wings, why don't we use him and find out exactly what we have."

"And what do you think we have?"

"Listen, the Vikaeli House controls all Syndicate operations in this city, drug trafficking, gambling, the whores, etcetera etcetera," Merik said. He removed his hands from his pocket and brought his shoulders up. "Meanwhile, what do we control?"

"Leased land and pockets of territory to maintain a Lambert presence in the city," Juri gave.

Merik pointed a finger at Juri, "Exactly right, but with a guy like Akko, we can do so much more."

"Really now, how do you figure?"

"He's a professional fighter, probably the best this city has," Merik stated. "House Vikaeli controls all of the major business, but if we used Akko, we could move into a new operation, taking over formist fighting gyms."

Juri seemed to lean back even more in his chair, a hint of skepticism present on his face. "Please explain."

Merik placed his hands on the desk and leaned forward, "All formist gyms pride themselves on their reputation and the skill of the fighters there. If Akko can defeat the top talent in a gym, that school must submit to the Syndicate and come under our control."

"I'm not too familiar with formist gyms, so tell me, why would they agree to join us, even if they are defeated?"

"Because of their honor code. If the master of a gym is defeated, the person who defeated him may take control and kick everyone out, become master of the gym himself, or destroy it if he wishes. In short, it's his to do as he pleases. We don't have to remove the master or any of that. All we want is the money that can be made from the fees we'll be charging them."

"So you want to shakedown gyms?" Juri asked. "Why didn't you just say that? Why all the extra work of involving Akko?"

"Because by doing it within the gym's rules we are not blatantly cutting into Vikaeli's operations," Merik replied.

"Anywhere we make money outside of our territory is cutting into their business," Juri said. "That's how Vikaeli would see it or anyone else for that matter."

"Juri, you're acting like I'm dense," Merik declared, his annoyance evident. "Of course, we're going to bump a percentage over to Vikaeli. I thought that went without question."

Juri clasped his hands together and considered. "We'll have to talk this over with Dux Vikaeli, but I'll back the idea."

Merik grinned, and with a nod of his head, he left the office.

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The three friends sat in the bar, drinks in their hands and contented expressions on their faces.