CHAPTER 63:
FIRST CATALYST
SNAKE SLOWLY passed through the broken gates of the factory. As the next leader of Raiders and young master of the family, he had a huge amount of deals concerning the company and all - so he recognized the building as one of their belongings. As such, he has already seen the blueprints of it a while ago when upper ranks were talking about plans for it.
Hence, he knew where he should go.
It was one of his good traits, he had incredibly high photographic memory, so much that he could remember an entire book down to last details just fear reading it twice or trice.
"For what reasons would this place be marked on that piece of paper. What or a who has been hidden in here?" he mused to himself as he continued to go deeper inside.
He could connect some things, though they were nothing but guesses, and came to conclusion that this might be the place where the girl in that picture might be. If Nikolas heard his thought that were actually truth he's been looking for, he might be so flabbergasted that he'd spit blood.
Snake originally had no idea that Nikolas was actually LOOKING FOR that girl, so he came to conclusion that Nikolas was hiding her here for some reason and that in itself was a great weapon to him. After all, why would Nik hide someone here for no reason?
Could it be that he impregnated her or something?
Many ideas went through his head which only made him speed up as he arrived at the entrance of the building. Without hesitation, he entered as he started exploring around.
In less than few minutes, he had already been through half the factory. It was incredibly big and complicated building, after all.
"Just what are your intentions, Nikolas?" he breathed a long sigh as he was just about to turn around and look in the opposite way when he heard some voices talking.
"So what are we supposed to do now, you King of thugs?" it was a feminine voice that spoke and it was of course, no other than Alice.
"It's not thugs, but underworld. Why are you shaming my profession and making us look like some lawless kids who have no better idea than terrorize people?" another voice spoke and Snake hid his presence before slowly getting closer to the source of those voices. Kids?
Why were there kids here?
"What the hell, you do realize that that is precisely what mafia is, don't you?"
"I'm actually quite amazed that you have so much useless knowledge despite your ability to bring disaster and ignorance accumulated from living in isolation from the outside world, so I can't properly find anything to counter you with," Wolf honestly replied. He probably could fight against her argument, but he was seriously surprised that she knew about mafia despite her innocent mind. Let's not forget that just a few days ago when he invited her to join him, she actually thought that he was doing a fair business, and was eager to work hard for the brighter future.
"I know someone who is a complete stinky browney that is working with mafia, so I assume that all people from mafia are just like him," she shrugged her shoulders as his jaw dropped.
Stinky browney! The fuck, that's just ordinary shit.
And what did she mean by knowing someone from mafia? What kind of environment did she grow up in?
"Whatever, not all people are like that," he began to protest when she interrupted him.
"But it's the majority that gives off that feeling and it's always majority that influences the prestige of one group, isn't it?" she asked and be closed his mouth.
She seemed like a completely different person than the one he meet days ago no? No wait, she was completely different than yesterday. What the fuck happened while he was sleeping? Was the influence of Italian Noble so great that it turned her personality 360 degrees just by being in her presence in just few minutes?
"Rabbit, you're kinda different today or it's just my imagination?" he asked, his fever has, for better or worse, after all that regret retreated and he was no longer bound to the bed 24/7.
"Auntie paid me a visit today, so I'm different in that sense," she silently mused, more to herself than to him, but he heard her nonetheless.
"What?" he loudly exclaimed, firmly believing that it was an actual auntie that came to see her. Of course, with his limited knowledge, not to mention intercourse with women, it would actually be weird if he knew what was she talking about.
"What the hell, how did she find you?" he asked and Alice, who thought that he actually knew what she was talking about, only grew confused by his words.
What did he mean by that 'how did it find me'? Doesn't he know how that thing works? Weird, men are weird.
But unlike Wolf who was a teenager with limited knowledge, Snake who was listening everything from the shadows didn't know what to think seeing as he actually knew what was she talking about. He threw a glance at the two and frowned, there were obviously two boys alone in there, and no woman, yet the seemingly younger one was talking about female stuff. As he wasn't idiot, he quickly realized what was all this about as he threw another glance at the younger boy.
That one was woman. With really deep voice like a boy, but there was no mistaking it. He slowly took the picture of the girl on the photo and compared it to the person in front of him.
Since Alice wasn't sitting with her back turned to him and despite only seeing her from profile, she'd turn her head towards his direction from time to time. Adding his abnormal sight and memory, he clearly saw through her facade.
It way the same person.
'Of what importance is this girl to Nikolas to hide her identity? She even changed her gender just to hide,' he thought, but decided to keep on listening as pointless as their conversation was.
"Uh, forget about it. I don't want to talk," she finally finished the awkward conversation before changing the topic, "Anyway, we were talking about backer. What are we going to do about it?"
"Ah right, thanks to someone letting the Italian Noble slip through our fingers, we will have to look for someone else now," Wolf replied and as if he detected the treasure, Snake immediately turned his gaze to him instead. They were talking about Nikolas. Backer? Backer for what?
"But how convenient would it actually be if we had rich brainless people going around willing to support someone in shabby business that would most likely destroy their reputation if their connection would to be known to the world?" Alice replied, twisting the knife in Wolf's wound with an evil smile on her face.
"Don't remind me," he groaned as he turned his gaze from her.
"Let's not mention that not only are we into shabby business, we only have two people and self-proclamation that we're into mafia," she added and Wolf felt that someone just stuck him with double combo giving him instakill.
His patience was so growing thinner and thinner with every time she opened her mouth.
Snake, who could finally see what way all this about, could only grow colder as the grin on his face intensified. If the situation was already like that, it would only make everything easier.
For him, that is.
"Shut up, don't remind me. We'll find some more members and even if I don't want to do so, it seems like we can only start off by working for someone else," and that one was the worst thing to start off with in the world of mafia. It was no different than cutting off your own future because working for someone means doing job despite not wanting to, risking your life for no apparent reason other than being ordered by someone, and doing even more than your supposed to for much, much less rewards seeing as most would be taken away by others. You'd simply be at the bottom with no authority to do a single shit, and to Wolf it would be no chance of reaching the top.
He was just a teenager after all, his dream was to stand at the top without really understanding the dangers of the world he was in. So that's why...
"I see, if you really need help that much, that I'm willing to help you two," a voice interrupted their little conversation as Snake finally moved from the shadows and came on front of the duo. Wolf immediately stood up with suspicious gaze as he glanced at the knife that was withing his reach.
"Don't worry, I do not bear any I'll intentions towards you two. I just happened to overhear your problems and decided to help since I've got a lot of free time. My name is Snake, Raiders' Snake," he added with a smile that didn't seem neither imposing nor evil, hiding his true self too well for blinded Wolf who lost rationality after learning of his identity.
...he didn't think twice before agreeing to whatever conditions Snake had to help him reach the top.