Chương 644: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Sixty-Three

"Clearly, all the time you need," Mr. Stone replied.

"Well, we had a little assignment," Beth said, leaning back and sipping her drink.

"We've been on a little bit of a journey the last couple weeks, trotting around and dealing with Platinum missions. We're steadily making progress to Platinum, and then we came here. We found an interesting case of people disappearing and, upon further investigation, it looks like we might have a killer on the loose. Not a psycho killer, mind you, but a person that is highly skilled and technical."

"You're looking for the assassin," Stone interrupted.

"Interesting that you say 'the' assassin and not 'an' assassin or something," Beth said, frowning at the man slightly.

"There's only one, as far as I know," Stone replied, sipping his own drink.

"And, before you ask, yes, I hired for a job. One job, mind you. I understand the…politics of such a move, but he had paperwork, and I had the money and a problem. He was fast, efficient, and, until you showed up, he was entirely untraced."

"This job wouldn't happen to be a certain gambler, would it?" Sera cut in, rattling off a name.

"Exactly him," Stone admittedly freely.

"Well, the CRA does take a bit of a dim view of assassins," Beth said with a sigh.

"I would be more include to sweep it under the rug if it was you tussling with another mobster and that spat led to a killing. Not the best, but it would possibly be something we could overlook, with your cooperation. But, a civilian?"

"Let me explain, first," Stone said calmly, holding up a hand before taking another drink.

"The man in question, not the assassin, the gambler, was not killed for his gambling debts."

"Oh, the plot thickens," Beth said, a bit of interest entering her tone.

"Pray tell, then, why was he done in?"

"Let me show you something," Mr. Stone said, and Beth nodded. Stone waved at one of his boys in the room and snapped a finger, and the young man leapt up and left, not without visibly flinching as he had to pass Blood and Sera, and then audibly flinching, as it were, as he had to squeeze by Bjorn, who occupied much of the first floor just by standing in the hallway.

"Your man their isn't an awakened beast?" Stone said conversationally as they waited.

"Titan blood," Bjorn rumbled, leading to the side and down far enough his face was just visible at the top of the doorway.

"Rare, that. Have you been to the Old Great Hall?" Stone said, addressing Bjorn with the question.

"No," Bjorn grunted.

"On the list." As the titan disappeared from the doorway, Stone looked back to Beth and said, "Not particularly talkative, is he?"

"Much like a mountain, the strong silent type," Beth replied in a light tone, the room hearing and a disgruntled grunt from the hallway.

"The Old Great Hall is in the City, right?"

"That's right," Stone said, sipping his drink.

"It's an old artifact, really, though it is a large, open building that was a meeting hall. It was built quite a few thousand years ago by giant craftsmen under the direction of a titan. It's been scanned more thoroughly than the Lost Map of Txuan at this point, and it really is just an old meeting hall, but there's a dozen rumors about how there's a secret buried there."

"People have checked," Bjorn's voice came from the hallway.

"Sometimes, my ancestor did just build buildings."

"Right he is," Stone said, and at that moment the messenger returned.

"Have a look at this." The messenger had again had to nervously squeeze by Bjorn and then pass by Sera and Blood without passing out, and he hurried over to Beth with a thin folder in his hand. He gave it to her with a small bow, which had both Stone and Beth rolling their eyes, before he retreated back to the couple couches where several of the women were entertaining the men.

Beth flipped the thin folder open and scanned through it; she wasn't some kind of miracle prodigy, but she had always been a decently fast reader, and stats certainly helped with that. There were only a dozen regular pages inside, none of them with particularly small font, and she scanned them in less than a minute before turning back to Stone.

"This is all corroborated?" she asked.

"Sometimes, our business is nasty in more ways than one," was his only answer. The documents painted an ugly picture. The gambler, one Dean Hewitt, had been a man of many vices, it seemed. Drugs, alcohol, women, petty crime, and gambling, but it was the last where his heart truly lay. Having just said that, the others were each given ample time throughout the year, and it was the third on the list that had gotten ol' Dean into trouble on more than one occasion.

The man was smart, or smart enough, rather, that he hadn't pushed the line in a way where the heat could really be brought on him. It was a sad thing that even with the current state of the universe, a lot of assaults either went unreported or unpunished. Dean had been playing in that gray area for several years, and was happy to continue to have his fun. All in all, not a picture of a very upstanding man, but nothing in the initial few pages that would have had Stone hire an assassin for him.

It was the last couple pages that were the problem, and something that pissed Beth off for more than one reason. An assault, little evidence that was handled improperly, and a botched investigation led to Dean barely feeling anything for a terrible crime. He had only spent three days in jail during the botched investigation, and the charges had been dismissed, with prejudice. There was both some physical evidence, and circumstantial evidence linking him to the crime, but he walked free.

That is, until an interesting detail came to light. The woman that had been Dean's victim, a fairly regular civilian who had hit level sixty the first time and then given up fighting to pursue a career, had connections. Specifically, the kinds of connections that got somebody like Mr. Stone interested in a person. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Stone was an old business partner of the woman's father, it turned out, and the woman had come to him with the evidence and her life savings. If justice was to be done, it would have to be through a third party, and she was willing to pay. Stone had listened to her, looked over the evidence, and decided to make the thing professional, rather than have some of his boys go kneecap Dean.

There just so happened to be a man, floating around the planet, who was said to be able to do many different dirty jobs, for the right price. A man that had flawlessly made several problems, problems walking around the various cities on two legs, just vanish. Stone was able to exchange a debt with someone else to get in contact with that man, and then buy out Dean's debt from the previously visited Mr. Strong.

"And the assassin?" Beth asked, glancing over the last two pages again.

"Half up front," Stone said.

"Twenty-four hours later, Mr. Hewitt was gone. There was an option to present…physical evidence, and the man did so. My old friend's daughter was…not happy, but satisfied. We do not, of course, still have that evidence here, if you understand?"

"I get what you're saying," Beth replied.

"The evidence is a bit weak, I understand, but this was both a business traction and a favor," Stone said.

"Truthfully, the amount Leslie paid wasn't enough to go through all this. It barely covered the debts Mr. Hewitt had wracked up, and wasn't enough to cover the assassin. The hit was, mostly, repaying a favor her father had done me some years ago, and I made that clear to her. Given the whole…situation, you understand, she was more than happy to make use of that debt to even things out."

"I see," Beth said.

"This is pretty tidy, but we did have another question."

"Sure, go ahead," Stone said, waving to one of the women, who hurried to refill his drink before returning to the other corner of the room.

"What was the name?" Beth asked Sera, cocking her head to glance over her shoulder.

"Benjamin Franks," Sera immediately said with a toothy grin. Beth didn't have to ask her, but involving her in the conversation was a not-so-subtle reminder of Beth's team being there, and having teeth, including literally.

"Don't know that name," Stone said with a shrug.

"Don't know that names of everybody that stops by one of my businesses or does something…untoward. Sorry."

"Mr. Franks isn't a customer of yours," Beth replied. At Stone's raised eyebrow, she continued, "He is, in fact, a customer of Mr. Strong."

"Strong. That little fucking weasel," was Stone's immediate response, before Beth could even continue.

"Some bad blood there?" Beth asked with a quirked brow.

"He's a little rat bastard," Stone said, though there was only a bit of heat in his voice.

"I hate that fucker's guts, but only because he does this fucking holier-than-thou kind of shit. Look, we're criminals, we run rackets, sell drugs, and bust kneecaps. If you're going to do the work, at least be honest about it. Strong likes to play this whole, 'oh, I'm just a little small-time lender. Oh, I only do a few little loans sometimes, just something for the poor saps who the banks don't want to deal with. Really, I'm a saint for helping the downtrodden.' Please, give me a fucking break.

He's in just as much shit as the rest of us, but he likes to try to pretend his pile of manure smells like roses."

"Good to know," Beth said, finishing her drink, which was surprisingly good. In one of those things that people who worked together for a time just got, Stone made a slight hand gesture, and the woman returned to fill Beth's drink, not at all being shy about giving Beth several eyefuls in the process. Again, if it had been somewhere else… then, maybe some interest.

As it was, she kept a straight face, even when Sera sent her a communicator ping asking if it was some kind of new customer service requirement to rub your tits in someone's face to hand them a drink.

"I don't know what he told you," Stone had said while the drink refilling was happening, "but he's not exactly a squeaky clean little boy. Nor is he that smooth an operator."

"Right. Strange, that Dean was one of his debtors, and Benjamin Franks another," said Beth.

"And they both got assassinated, is that the question?" Stone asked, sipping his own drink.

"No, no, Franks is alive," Beth said, leaning back.

"The problem is, Franks' best friend, one Pablo Lopez, is not very much not alive, and in a way that looks like our…mutual friend took care of it."

"Pablo Lopez," Stone said, leaning back slightly and twisting his head a bit to glance at his boys on the couches.

"Gambling debt, but not to you or Strong," one of the boys said almost immediately.

"He got in some trouble with a crew in Fort Bless. Not much more on it, but it looks like it was something about drugs. That's all we know."

"Sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll," Beth said, rolling her eyes.

"Something like that," Stone said.

"If it isn't girl troubles, it's booze or drugs. And if it isn't them, it's playing dice. So many people like to throw dice, and none of them have the skill or money for it."

"Any way to contact our mutual friend?" Beth asked.

"Normally, I'd be a real stiff ass about something like that, but you're group is, uh, I think we can make an exception," Stone said. He had started strong, but then glancing at the wolf powerhouse, the dragon princess, and the man wearing a battleship's worth of armor that was too big to even fit in the room, he stumbled just a bit.

"Don't need to do anything crazy," Beth said.

"Just want to know if you have his number or can send him a message?"

"There's a dead drop we use," Stone said, explaining one thing. Just at that moment, Val appeared in the room in a burst of lightning, causing everyone else to jump and dive for cover, at least the gangsters, except for Stone. The man was made of sterner stuff than his boys, but considering he was miles beyond them in level and overall strength, that didn't really surprise Beth. Beth's team hadn't even reacted, as they had sensed Val and had also had a message from her saying she was on the way back.

"Nothing?" Beth asked.

"Lost him," Val said with a shrug.

"You lost him?" Beth asked with a raised brow.

"Beth, dear, I'm a diplomat, socialite, and occasional speedster fighter. I am not a tracker, or an assassin myself, and can't really keep up with someone with the training and skills," Val replied, flipping her hair in a slightly haughty manner.

"Well, well, as I live and breathe, the leader of the Young Scions," said Stone.

"Oh, you know me?" Val asked, feigning slight surprise.

"Drop the act," Blood growled from her guard position by the door.

"Of course! Why, the leading hero of the galaxy, here in my humble establishment," Stone said, though his tone held a bit of jest.

"Why, what I wouldn't do for an autograph from the legend herself."

"Oh, I'm always ready to sign things," Val replied.

"Val. Seriously?" Beth said.

"Oh, come on. I can have a little fun with it sometimes," Val said.

"Right, the role you hated and bitch about all the time," Beth said, rolling her eyes again.

"Well, that is true, but hamming it up sometimes is fun," Val said, a bit defensively. Just then, one of Stone's boys, likely the only one who didn't need a fresh set of underwear after Val's entrance, brought her a little plaque and a pen. There was a space to write something on the back, and Val expertly signed her name, which she always did with a flourish.

"Well, now that that's over, I think we can head out," Beth said, standing with a sigh and setting her drink down.

"Not that I think you will, Mr. Stone, but please refrain from going anywhere off-world, or trying to hide, if that wasn't clear. I'm not all that much interested in your other businesses right now, given what we're here for, but we might need to have another chat."

"Don't worry, I'll be here," said Stone, reclining in his chair.

"If you're done?" Beth asked in a sarcastic tone, looking at Val.

"Of course," Val said. The five of them, without using Beth's Ideal or anything crazy, other than very high-tier, high-rank skills, all suddenly disappeared, not even causing a loud noise when they did so. Stone let out a deep breath, not displaying the same anger that Strong had, but it was clear from his expression, he wasn't very happy at the moment.