Nocte of Midnight Ravens

"Are you sure it'd be okay?"

Julian asked Shelly while they were guarding outside a building of the factory in which Allen and Ryan had been interrogating Mr. Boni.

Shelly smiled and said, "it depends on what you mean by 'okay'."

Looking at the troubled look on her junior's face, she continued.

"Don't worry too much. Cap knows what he's doing. Of course, we won't be able to go unscratched after touching a group leader of the cartel. But there's not much they can do to us either. For sure, they will try to kill us but we'd have to see if they'd be able to. They might try to pressure us by threatening our superiors but you know my family. Just watch out for yourself and you'll be fine."

Julian could only sighed. He knew that she was trying to reassure him but the fact that there'd be cartel members going after his life was not really something encouraging.

"And don't you think our Cap still has a trump card?"

Shelly's last words made Julian had some questions on his mind and realized what she said might be true.

Inside the building...

"You know that I'm never gonna talk to worthless sh*t like you. You might be quite proud that you could get a hold of me but I won't call that 'guts', I'd call the 'recklessness' and 'stupidity'."

Mr. Boni snarled.

Ryan smiled and sat down to be at his eye-level.

"I'm sure you know this building. It used to be owned by Cellox Pharmaceuticals."

"So what?"

"Do you know who's using this building right now?"

"What makes you think I'd answer you?" Mr. Boni stubbornly replied.

Ryan gestured Allen to bring something in. Allen nodded and silently left.

Seeing their silent communication, Mr. Boni scoffed.

"What? You're going to torture me? You know that it won't do you any good if you guys just touch a hair of mine."

"I know. That's why we're not the one who's gonna touch you."

Mr. Boni laughed out loud hearing Ryan's answer.

"Then who would be as stupid as you in this city to touch me?"

Ryan's smile got deeper as he said, "Mr. Boni, did it ever occur to you why we might have the information about the core members of your cartel?"

The grin on the forty year old burly man's face disappeared as a wave of suspicion passed through his eyes. Yes, how did some small memembers of police task force know about Vulture and Gaia to so much details?

"You have already seen the dagger of Gaia. Can you think of anyone who might have picked that up when Gaia died?"

Of course, Mr. Boni knew the answer. Five years ago, Moretti Cartel had disputes with them and a gang war occurred and that was where he lost her right hand woman. The cartel's force had been halved down since then and even now they were still struggling to got back their normal position.

"But why would they work with police?"

Even if they held grudges because of the gang war, they are capable enough to destroy the cartel without lending someone's hands. And they would not have waited for five years to get just a subgroup leader like him.

"Because our purposes are the same."

Mr. Boni turned back to see the owner of the cold yet powerful voice. The middle-aged man with silver hair was led by Allen through the entrance as he walked in with stable footsteps followed by his subordinates.

"Nocte? But why?"

He was quite dejected to find out that his suspicion came true.

Ryan stood up from the stool to give his place to the newcomer. The man smiled at Ryan as he softly said, "Thank you."

Ryan offered him the recording device which had already recorded the voices that come from the transceiver in Allen's shoes and the video footage from the hidden cameras they were wearing when they infiltrated the base.

"You ruined our business in the university so we made an example out of a cop. But it seemed it wasn't enough at all...."

The silver hair man called 'Nocte' listened as Mr. Boni's voice rang from the device and he checked the footage of the basement where the cartel did their experiments.

"With this, you've done your part of the deal, Captain Carlos," Nocte nodded in acknowledgement at Ryan.

Then he refocused on Mr. Boni as he sat down to answer the latter's question.

"Nocte. Right. Everyone in this city would know me as Nocte but they don't know that I have another role."

Mr. Boni who was quite arrogant before now looked like a snake whose fangs had been removed. He knew that not only him but even his boss would have to bow down in front of this person.

"We didn't know how we offended you but can you please forgive our ignorance for once. If you'd tell me what we did wrong, we will do our best to correct our mistakes."

Allen and Ryan had to admire Mr. Boni's composure. Although he lost his wits for a moment, he was able to calm himself down.

"Answer Captain Carlos' questions first and then we'll know how to deal with you."

"Of course, Mr. Nocte. Whatever you want, whatever you want."

"Please continue what you were doing, Captain Carlos."

Ryan smiled back at the mysterious manager of Anios Club. Correct. The man Mr. Boni addressed as 'Nocte' was none other than Harry Carter. Although he already knew that the club was not so simple, he would have never made the relation between its manager and the notorious second-in-command of one of the five factions of City X. Only when Mr. Carter mentioned three days ago, did he realize. His thoughts ran back to the time they discussed about the plan. He went to Anios to exchange information as he usually did almost every week.

"So, you're gonna infiltrate Moretti's Cartel?"

Mr. Carter asked him in a frown as if he was in deep thoughts.

"Yes, Mr. Carter."

"I told you to call me Harry. And if you're going to deal with the cartel, I might be able to help you."

"That would be great Harry."

Ryan found it very awkward to call this formal and polite man by his first name. That was when the manager provided him with all the information about the cartel. Ryan was quite amazed to find that they knew so much details but he knew better than to ask why they have this information.

"Thank you, Harry. This information will really come in handy. But if I may ask, ... I know that this club owner must have quite a powerful background and with this kind of information in hand, do you really need to involve us? I think you don't really enjoy being in touch with police."

Harry just smiled as he made the Scotch on the rock for Ryan.

"You must think that we could do anything in this city as long as you have power, Captain Carlos. And you might not be wrong for most of the time. But underneath the chaos, there are rules and orders of how things should be done, especially when dealing with slippery eels like Moretti's Cartel. Our clan has its own regulations and moving a hand without solid proof would be against them. So, find us that solid proof and we'll deal with the rest."

"That's fine. I won't disappoint you."

With that, Ryan downed the scotch in one go and prepared to leave. But as he reached the door, Harry's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Oh, and one thing. After you've done your part of the deal and the eels are still being disobedient, you can use my other name. Tell them that Nocte of Midnight Ravens is supporting you."