CHAPTER 308: CHAPTER 308 MANIPULATING PIECES

A flippant looking man with spikey yellow hair was sitting on a chair and glanced up when the doors of the room he was in opened.

The one walking through the doors had to bend his head down to avoid hitting his head against the doorway. Being a three-meter tall bahnen came with a few inconveniences.

"You’re finally back, Rook. I was beginning to think that you wouldn’t be here for the festivities we’ve been planning for quite some time."

Rook, the same man that had just failed at capturing Jasmine and Olivia, glared at his insouciant partner.

He was still furious at how things had gone down with the trap he had ordered Vandalen to set up.

Originally, he was not supposed to have gotten involved at all and only did so when it became clear that his subordinate was not going to be able to accomplish his task.

Even then, he had been forced to retreat in disgrace. With far greater losses than returns.

"Of course I’m here, Clarien. We’ve put too much time and money into this plan for me to sit it out. Even if I want to go and crush the skulls of whoever’s been messing with us, I don’t know who they are yet." Rook growled in response.

"Yes, I was hoping that you would capture the ones digging into the assets we recently purchased from Adder, but I suppose that they aren’t just a bunch of amateur sleuths looking for a story like we were led to believe."

"Adder! That f*cking snake!" Rook shouted as he sat down and slammed his fist into the table in front of him. Leaving a deep crack in the rare hard wood.

"When I see him next, I’m going to rip his spine out and see if he can still slither away afterwards."

Clarien merely sighed and rolled his eyes at his partner’s outburst.

Sure, he felt cheated too, but it was their fault for not looking into the operation that Adder had sold off to them more deeply.

The deal had been pretty good so they should have suspected something was up by how quickly he was trying to ditch the thing.

Still, the allure of easy and consistent capital coming in had been too great of bait to not bite.

"I understand your frustration, but nothing good will come out of going after that man. Plus, we have more pressing matters. Nothing can go wrong tomorrow. We’ve got too much on the line." Clarien said, his expression turning serious for a moment. Something that was quite rare for him.

"You don’t need to remind me, I know."

The competition that the Alliance police had set up to choose their knew class of small vessels had been their aim from the start.

Obtaining the best works from the top ship building corporations in the entire Dramid Alliance would see their own forces becoming much stronger and given them far greater prestige among the organization they belonged to.

Several smaller operations had already been conducted to steal some of these vessels in the past, but none of them had been successful.

Now though, Clarien and Rook planned on taking them all at once.

During a lull in their last-minute planning, Clarien brought up a topic Rook would have rather not talked about.

"It is a shame that Vandalen had to die. He was quite useful and loyal. We’re going to need to pick out someone else to replace him."

"Yes, but that hardly matters right now. We already have all of the information that we need. So, let’s focus on the matter at hand." Rook replied gruffly

"Oh, are you sure about that. I might have some juicy intel that you two will definitely want."

Hearing an unexpected voice in the room when it only should have been the two of them, Clarien and Rook turned towards the intruder with their weapons drawn and ready for a fight.

"That’s certainly an unpleasant way to greet someone that has come all this way to help you."

"Delilah, you witch! How the hell did you get in here?!" Rook shouted.

"Why, I simply walked in without anyone stopping me. I assume that you’ll be getting notified about my arrival, right about... now."

As soon as she finished speaking, Rook’s terminal received a priority transmission from the building’s security staff.

"I’m sorry sir, but an intruder has slipped in somehow. We’ve got teams combing the floors already looking for them."

"Don’t bother. Call everyone back. The intruder is already with us and is not a problem. Also, consider this the last day as the head of security here." Rook said, hanging up before the man on the other side of the call could get in another word.

"You shouldn’t blame them so harshly. They’re doing a fine job. I had to exert myself a little to get this far without being noticed."

Rook looked about ready to burst a blood vessel every time that Delilah opened her mouth.

He was already enraged because of what had happened earlier, making it easier for her to get under his skin.

"I understand that it’s fun to push Rook’s button’s every now and again but now is not really the time for such things, Delilah. I’m afraid that he might really try and rip your limbs of this time." Clarien said, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Oh my, how terrifying. I might just faint from the fright." Delilah said in an overly dramatic manner.

Understanding that she was just going to keep playing around at this rate, Clarien calmly asked her what it was she wanted. He was not going to give her the reaction that she wanted like Rook was.

"I suppose that is what my primary reason for being here is."

Walking over to the two of them, Delilah sat down at another chair around the table like it was the most natural thing in the world. As if she had not just intruded on their meeting.

For a few seconds, she fiddled around with her tablet before setting it down so that both Clarien and Rook could see what was on the screen.

"I believe that it must have been these people that recently gave you some trouble."

Displayed on her tablet were Avery and the other leading members of his team. Naturally, this meant that there were photos of Jasmine and Olivia.

"So, you already knew about this?! You and Adder must have been the ones that set this up! Those people probably work for you!" Rook screamed accusatorily.

He could typically keep his emotions in check better, but his earlier failure and having been forced to kill Vandalen had put him in an extremely bad mood.

This had given him a very short fuse, and he was unable to contain himself at the slightest provocation from Delilah.

"No, I didn’t know that they were the ones looking into the operation at the Department of Education. I’ve been keeping track of them for other reasons and only just found out about this. You see, they’ve been getting in the way of my plans as well. They are quite the prolific nuisances."

Delilah explained how Avery had recently involved himself in her plan to abduct Nianni Taador, as well as how he had gotten in the Odium Syndicate’s way, which she was using for her own ends.

"His group has also been a pain for Adder to deal with, and they even killed Iniquus not long ago. For just a bunch of mercenaries, they really have been giving all of us far too much trouble." Delilah said with a long, exaggerated sigh.

Clarien merely shrugged his shoulders and seemed disinterested in what Delilah had brought them, but Rook’s eyes were practically bloodshot as he memorized the faces of every known member of Avery’s mercenary team.

After the humiliation that he suffered today, he would not be able to calm down until he had utterly destroyed them.

Seeing his reaction, Delilah had to suppress herself from allowing an obviously sinister smile to form on her face.

Even if Clarien did not bite, Rook would drag him along since they were long time partners.

"I’m sure that you two already know a bit about Avery, seeing as how your current aim is directed at that silly little competition right now. But I figured that you might want some more details about him and his associates that I’ve dug up. Just in case."

Clarien did not look suspired that Delilah knew about their goal here, but Rook seemed a bit shocked.

They had not publicized what they were doing right now to anyone outside of their own inner circles, but people like Delilah and Adder seemed to have almost a supernatural ability to find out even the most confidential information.

After she had finished delivering what information she wanted to, Delilah took her leave.

She had already knocked over the first domino, now all that was left to wait and see how everything else would fall.

"I wonder which one of them will come out on top. Maybe I’ll even be lucky enough that they’ll take each other out." Delilah said, a skip in her step as she already started thinking about the next scheme she would be putting in motion.