Chapter 24: Chapter 24 : Boss Desmond

Earlier…

Sitting behind his wooden desk, Tucker Raymond’s face twisted in displeasure as his eyes moved over last month’s income report. The longer he looked, the greater his ire grew.

Unable to bear it a second longer, his eyes shifted to a drawer. He pulled on it to reveal a cigar stash. The pleasant woody scent entered his nostrils, improving his mood. However, his mood quickly dipped when he realized only five were left. The hand that was moving toward it stopped in place.

‘Fuck!’

Tucker’s fist slammed down on the desk. Shoving the cigar drawer back into the desk, he opened an adjacent drawer and retrieved a cigarette and lighter. Soon, a fog of cheap smoke filled the office.

“Fuck, I‘m sick of this shit. This village, this backwards country, all of it. I can’t take it anymore.”

Tucker killed the cigarette in the ashtray and got up. Heading to the large window, he opened it and allowed the cool air to rush into the room. Eyeing Lagner from his third-story view, his face scrunched up.

“How far I’ve fucking fallen, damn.”

To Lagner, Tucker Raymond went by Boss Desmond, the head of the Red Star. To understand the ‘why’ behind this incongruity, a brief journey to the past had to be taken.

Birthed on the harsh streets of Eshon to a common prostitute, Tucker had a perilous upbringing, filled with hardships and strife. However, unlike others who were devoured in this environment, he was like a fish in water. Even without any psionic powers, he quickly became the one doing the devouring. His cold and ruthless nature allowed him to shine in this setting.

He established a gang, the Blue Pearl, and using his cunning and ruthless tactics, had it thrive.

Under his leadership, the Blue Pearl wasn’t picky with what methods it used to carry out its goals, regardless of their brutality or underhandedness.

This allowed it to climb the rungs of success rapidly. It grew bigger and became more successful as time passed. As the head of this gang, Tucker lived a most lavish lifestyle. Things were going well, but after a steep climb, things began levelling off.

While other Blue Pearl members were content with the heights they reached, Tucker wasn’t. He wanted more, much more. Greed had overtaken his thinking. This led to his decision to expand into one of the most profitable while simultaneously riskiest business ventures…human trafficking.

In Inis, this was the taboo of the taboo. The ‘True King’ Bellus had decreed that all humans were his subjects, and all subjects were equal. Still, there were many in this business; Tucker wanted to join their ranks. There was a lot of money to be made after all, and the nation of Kebria was the perfect place to establish this enterprise.

Tucker lost no sleep over it. To him, it wasn’t any different than the brothels he ran. And so, he went through with it.

The result was…

Terrible!

It had taken merely three days for things to go belly up. The Psionic Association had somehow caught wind of the Blue Pearl’s intent and operation. With overwhelming force and precision, the Hunters systematically destroyed the Blue Pearl.

It was only through great luck and the advice of a trusted subordinate, that Tucker and a few others managed to escape the Pillar factions’ net. After doing so, they decided to lay low. They journeyed eastward as discreetly as possible, eventually landing in Lagner some six months ago.

The seven surviving Blue Pearl gangsters took great pains to disguise themselves. Not only changing their names, but also their appearance and other identity markers.

Tucker became Boss Desmond. He put on some weight, burned the right side of his face, added a five-pointed red star tattoo on his neck, and added a scar on his left cheek. All this was done for the sake of staying out of the Pillar factions' extensive radar.

The Red Star’s subdued actions in Lagner were a product of this concern. They wanted to keep a low profile and not ruffle any feathers. This was why, despite the many beatings, they made sure not to kill anybody or go overboard.

This had worked so far. The Pillar factions were none the wiser. But, while it was safe, it wasn’t very profitable. And this was getting to Tucker.

‘I can’t live like this anymore. Money, we need more money. At the rate we’re going, I’ll be stuck in this shithole forever.’

Ideas began swirling through his mind. ‘We’ve been assessing their strength for a while now…it's about time we devour those gangs in Ganur- hmm, what is it now?’

Tucker's brows furrowed as his mind was suddenly telepathically linked to.

[What is it,] he asked coldly.

[Sorry for disturbing you Boss Desmond, Jeremy wants to speak to you. Should I let him i-]

[Let him in.]

[Y-Yes sir.]

‘Jeremy, perfect. Just the person I needed to talk to.’

It wasn’t that Tucker hadn’t had any ideas to make money. Rather, at every idea he proposed, Jeremy would be there to oppose it, saying it was too risky or that his instincts were telling him it was too dangerous.

‘Those instincts of his must be broken, damn near everything sets it off. The Kebria situation spooked him, that must be it. The world isn’t as dangerous as he makes it out to be. And without risk, we can’t achieve anything.’

As this thought came to an end, the door behind him creaked open.

“Boss Desmond.”

“Boss Desmond.”

Hearing the second address, Tucker’s eyebrows raised. He turned around and confirmed the additional person. Seeing the pale expression on Turner’s face, Tucker instantly understood the nature of the visit, at least partially.

“Trouble?”

“Yes and no,” Jeremy replied after a pause.

Tucker squinted. “Explain.” He plopped on his chair and retrieved a cigarette.

Jeremy waited until the first puff was blown before beginning. A five-minute-long explanation ensued.

“I see, your ‘yes and no’ now makes sense.” Inhaling, Tucker’s icy gaze shifted to Turner, who had become white as a sheet. “Turner, you know what you’ve done wrong, yes?"

“Y-Yes, Boss Desmond, I’ve learned from my mistakes. I’ll never do it again.”

“I see. Then leave, I have to talk to Jeremy alone.”

Turner’s face bloomed with relief. Not wanting to stay a second longer, he exited at a brisk pace.

Seeing the door fully shut, Tucker’s voice travelled through the local telepathic network.

[Charlie, I’ll let you have your fun. Don’t go overboard. He’s trash, but he's valuable trash.]

You are reading story The Silver Path at novel35.com

[Haha, of course of course.]

Settling Turner’s punishment, Tucker focused on Jeremy.

“The kid who popped out of nowhere, who is he exactly?”

“I believe it's her son.”

“Her son, she had one?”

“Yes, she was known to be caring for someone all this time. I imagine this youth to be that person.”

“Well, regardless. As long as he fills our pockets, I don’t care who he is. One gold, that’s already a fifth of our monthly income,” he flicked at the report dismissively as he said. “And four gold to come, great. Even if he fails to deliver, we'll benefit in the end. It's a win-win situation. You settled things well…hmm, Jeremy, is there a problem?”

Noticing the tense expression on his fellow Red Star member’s face, Tucker felt a sense of deja vu, the unpleasant kind. His expression twisted. “Don’t tell me… your instincts are going off again.”

“Yes, and loudly.”

Tucker rolled his eyes.

“Boss, I’m serious on this one. He’s bad news. We should avoid that family like the plague. If he gets the money, we can accept it, but if he fails, we should just write it off.”

“Huh, have you gone insane?" Tucker nearly jolted up at the unbelievable words he was hearing.

“No, I’m dead serious," Jeremy insisted strongly. "The ringing, it's bad. As bad as it was in Kebria, maybe even worse.”

The quick back and forth was brought to an end as these words sounded. Tucker's partly opened mouth closed.

‘I knew it, Kebria rattled him. How could two Rank 3 Telekinetics compare to the danger we felt back then, ah, it's a shame. He was always on the mark too.'

Tucker shook his head, his face showing disappointment. Pulling open a draw, he retrieved one of the cigars. Placing it on the table, he had it roll Jeremy's way.

“Take it. You need to unwind a bit.”

“But-”

Tucker squinted, silencing Jeremy in an instant. Relaxing his expression, he tapped the table with his meaty fingers. Getting the message, Jeremy approached and picked up the cigar.

“You’ve lost your touch since Kebria, you've been seeing more and more shadows where there are none. Let’s talk tomorrow when you’re more clear-headed. I’ll hear what you have to say then.”

Jeremy's lips pursed, but in the end, he remained silent. Nodding, he headed out.

Alone again, Tucker shook his head. 'A pity.'

***

An hour later…

‘Haa, have I really lost it?’

At the edge of his bed, and bathed in a sweet and woody smog, Jeremy was in the midst of doubt.

‘It's true that it's been going off way too many times recently. Haa, I don’t know.’ He shook his head at the thought before bringing the half-smoked cigar to his lips and inhaling. The deep inhale caused his mind to wander off deeper and deeper into a daze.

Intuition.

It was essentially a natural superpower that everyone possessed that functioned as a pseudo less reliable form of precognition. How reliable it was varied from person to person, and depended on both their innate ability and life experience.

Jeremy had a sharp intuition from birth. There was nothing magical about this, it was simply a biological advantage. It ultimately boiled down to the fact that his mind was better tuned to absorb, retain and process information ‘in the background’.

The instinctive alarm bells that went off were a product of reasoning done and conclusions made in the depths of his subconscious. To understand this phenomenon better, let’s take a look at why his bells rang for Hana and Rei.

Hana first.

Just as he consciously suspected, her ‘Fawkes’ surname had caused the bells to start ringing. The ‘Bloodline of Fire’ produced many talents…and just as many radicals. He couldn’t be sure whether Hana was a true descendant of this line but he didn’t want to take any chances.

However, this reason could only cause the bells to hum lightly, not clamour as they did. The reason for the clamour came from a certain conversation he had overheard between Sophia and another villager. And 'overheard', as in his subconscious mind managed to absorb it. At the time, he was dead drunk, body slumped over a bar table moving in and out of consciousness.

The conversation was about Hana, a frequent topic in Lagner. The younger male villager was trying to get any intelligence on her that might improve his odds of success. Sophia didn’t bite, or rather she couldn’t. She spoke to Hana the most, but she was far from being on close terms with her.

However, she did end up telling an interesting story about when Hana first arrived at Lagner. That she hadn’t arrived alone, that a very powerful Telekinetic had been present at the time and helped Hana set up things. When the other villager inquired about how powerful this Telekinetic was, Sophia responded with this:

I can’t say for sure. Their aura was immense. I have no frame of reference, but they're a Rank 7 at the very least…

These words managed to slip into Jeremy's subconscious, which lead to his strong aversion to Hana.

The initial alarm bells that went off for Rei, was very much related to this. A powerful psionic, at least Rank 7, and close to Hana. These terms were what he was working with. When he first laid eyes on Rei, an unknown, his mind made the leap that Rei was the powerful person from Sophia's story.

But with Rei’s Psi emission, this notion was shattered. Still, the alarm bells remained loud in his ears. Even without any misunderstanding, there was no denying the aura of dangerousness Rei exuded. His bearing, manner, and words, combined with the immature Ruler's Words' mental signal made for a killer combination.

It was clear from his aura, that to oppose him was a mistake…and one that could only be made once.

When he heard Turner’s explanation, the alarm bells that were dying down became vigorous again. Shifting from hot to cold, suddenly changing personalities, and radiating a dangerous aura…in this world, this description would bring up one name above all, and that name was…

‘...Dimitri Drazan.’

The mere mention of the name caused his body to tense up. To residents of this world, this was a natural reaction.

‘Is that kid really one of his vessels?’ He sighed. ‘Maybe I’ve really lost it. In Kebria alone, how many people did I think were vessels, a few dozen? There’s thousands of vessels scattered around the world, there’s no way I would sense that many in one nation. Haa, maybe I do need to unwind. Some sleep will do me good.’

After finishing off the cigar, Jeremy popped a vial and downed the greenish liquid. Soon, he was deep in slumber.

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