Call of Revenge: Hitman in the City

Ch-7: Drug Deal?

The client finally seemed to understand that she wasn't in any immediate danger, and once she had calmed down a little, she spoke up.

"The man I want you to kill… he is known to the world as the owner of a car wash. But his real identity is that of a heinous drug dealer."

She began to narrate her story, not knowing that Jack himself had a connection to the man she hated.

"Robert Wendell and his gang forced my brother into taking drugs, even though he was just in high school. He tried to hide it at first, but we eventually found out about his addiction when he started to steal money from home. At that point, my parents had no choice but to send him to rehab, as CPS was also involved in the matter."

Although she had said all of this in a calm and detached tone, Jack could sense her voice starting to choke up. But she gulped hard, and continued;

"But their network was so powerful that he… somehow ran into some drug dealers even inside the rehab center. Tyler…" she blinked back tears while continuing, "Tyler ended up overdosing one night, and he was found dead in his room the next morning."

"My family was devastated that their teenage son was brutally snatched away from them before they even got to see him graduate high school. In their grief and desperation, they called and reported it to the police. But…"

The client sighed, trying to hide her vulnerabilities and save whatever dignity she might have left.

"On the day of my brother's funeral, a group of rowdy and burly men showed up at our door, threatening to tear the house apart and leave them in a state it would be hard to recover from. They told my family that they should consider their trash son lucky that he died, or he would be lying in a ditch somewhere because of all the money he owed them."

"I couldn't bear to see them in this state, while my brother was buried six feet under the ground and these bloody henchmen were acting like nothing had happened at all! I was desperate to do something, anything that would stop that drug dealing demon from escaping without any consequences."

"And is this your idea of consequences?" Jack asked, his one eyebrow raised in amusement.

She said somewhat defensively,

"Yes, if my brother doesn't get to live, then neither should he! I got to know about the dark web from somewhere, so I took out my college tuition and decided to hire someone, hoping that I will finally give that son of a bitch the death he deserves. So tell me, will you help me?"

Jack had been hearing everything patiently, and although he didn't want to admit it, he felt a trace of sympathy for her, probably because felt some sense of solidarity for being wronged by the same vile person.

But he tried to dismiss all other thoughts, and focused on the task at hand. Leaving aside everything else, this was still a professional transaction.

"Whichever person you want me to kill, I will make sure he never sees the light of day again. But I need some time and funds to do some background research and make arrangements, so I will need a payment of $20,000 upfront."

The client just blinked in response, saying,

"Oh! Just… wait a second."

Saying this, she pulled out a wad of cash from the bag she had slung across her torso, and handed it to Jack with an unassuming look.

Jack took the stack of notes, but asked;

"Did you withdraw it from your personal account?"

"Yeah." She nodded casually, and then asked, "So, does this mean our deal is final?"

Jack half- snorted out of disbelief, how could someone be so naive!

But on seeing the questioning look in her eyes, he felt compelled to nod in response,

"Yeah, the deal is final. I'll send you any updates through the same website."

As he turned around and made his way out of the abandoned car park, he shook his head out of the absurdity of this situation.

So this mighty client who was offering a hundred thousand dollars, was just an innocent girl who didn't even know that the money she had withdrawn from her personal account could be traced back to her! Or even the fact that she shouldn't be carrying so much cash in person…

He headed straight to the hospital; now that he had the cash, he wanted to settle his mother's bills so that her treatment could continue. Still, the conversation with that client was weighing on his mind the whole time.

The shrill ringing tone of his phone pulled his attention from his thoughts; but a frown automatically made its way to his face on seeing the caller ID on the screen.

Nevertheless, he picked up the call with some doubts clouding his mind.

"Hello?"

"Master! Is it really you?!" The voice of his old subordinate, code named Blue Jay, rang in his ears after what felt like ages.

"Of course! You called me, so who else would it be?"

He asked light-heartedly, even though he had understood the meaning behind this question.

On the other side, Blue Jay sighed with relief.

"Oh, Master! I can't tell you how happy I am, to hear your voice at last. I just saw that your identity as "Scavenger" had been reactivated and the last update was from a few hours ago. So I took it as a distress signal, and thought you were in some kind of trouble!"

Jack just smiled, thinking that indeed, he had been in a tight spot– but it didn't feel right to ask anyone for help until and unless he was out of all his options. And somehow, Blue Jay had ended up reaching out to him out of the blue!

He wanted to reassure him, but before Jack could even say the first word of his sentence, he was interrupted.

"Master, I have already transferred $1 Million to your account, but please let me know if you need any more."

Hearing this, Jack released a breath that he didn't even know he was holding till now. Not only would this amount be sufficient in paying the hospital bills for his mother, but he would also save it and use it for his daughters' private school tuition.

And maybe, he would even be able to contest for their custody…

As the flower of hope bloomed in Jack's heart once again, he couldn't help but feel a surge of gratitude. Back when he had left this world, thinking that it was the final time, his trusty subordinate had also deactivated his links to this network.

*****