9Ks Dilemma
Mary managed to connect with her daughter over the phone after her sixth try and informed her about how her little brother won $35,000 in a scratch-off lottery, after giving her an earful for ignoring her call. It turns out she had kept her mobile in silent mode, as she planned to focus on starting her webtoon tonight, gaining confidence from the new friends she made in the webtoon course.
While the family talked about Ace's luck, he was busy listening to what Dame Wasp had to report about Mike.
Starting with the incriminating evidence on his phone, there were videos and photos of him doing drugs at the parties and in the privacy of his home. The parties were mostly thrown by his elder brother, a captain in the 9Ks. Hence, the parties were wild, with prostitutes, guns, and all kinds of drugs. The videos all involved how Mike tried to gain his elder brother's attention by doing all kinds of stupid stuff that he believed would gain him respect in his brother's and the gang's eyes.
Just when Ace was starting to think Mike had no chance growing up under the care of such a brother, Dame Wasp brought up obscene videos and photos of school girls and women from their neighborhood. They were either taken without their knowledge or consent. In some of them, Mike could be found abusing them. Ace realized, even without his brother, Mike was destined to grow up to be a scum.
Still, Ace grew more appreciative of his family for teaching him about the values and morals that would help him to lead a life without many regrets. No Ivy League education could teach him that. Their teachings were priceless. This did not mean he would grow up to be a carbon copy of his parents, they have given him enough freedom to make his mistakes and learn from them. This allowed him to form his set of values and principles.
Ace had enough evidence to put Mike in jail for life. However, he did not plan to do that as his plans for Mike were more grand. He wanted Mike to feel the desperation he felt when he had forced him to do things Ace would like to forget. This was why he did not ask Dame Wasp to assassinate him with her laser braid back at the gas station.
Aside from the evidence on Mike's phone, Dame Wasp used the contacts and IMs on it to track down most of the important members of the 9Ks. However, unlike Mike, they were all smart enough to use burner phones. Hence Dame Wasp did not gain much on them.
Done reporting on Mike's smartphone, Dame Wasp continued to report on what she learned by eavesdropping on Mike in real-time.
Turns out, the reason why Mike and the 9Ks gang members were in this town was because of the forest fire and thunderstorm that affected their neighborhood this morning. Apparently, their stash house was a remote cabin in the hills. It contained all the drugs they needed to distribute this month along with the money they had amassed so far. Because of the forest fire, fearing the worst they had no choice but to move all the drugs and cash to a new safe house, a remote farmhouse 10 miles south of the town.
However, because the neighborhood was crawling with CIB and Cops, they had to temporarily hide the drugs and cash in the vehicles of the cops that were on their payroll. In the evening, when the high alert was lifted, they loaded the drugs and money in their trucks and made it to the town at this hour. Resulting in the fateful encounter between Mike and Ace.
'Rose, keep tracking Mike's phone, I want the exact location of their safe house, and inform me when they reach it. Also, how much money and drugs are they carrying on them?' Ace instructed and asked how much money the 9Ks had amassed by peddling drugs in their neighborhood.
'Yes, Master. I will inform you when they reach the safe house,' Dame Wasp affirmed and answered, 'Master, they have nearly two million in cash and 60 kgs of unsold coke. From what I have gathered, eighty percent of whatever they make goes to their drug supplier. That is to say, Coke they have is a loan. They need to sell it for a profit and pay the retail price to the supplier.'
'All that money just from our neighborhood?' Ace exclaimed in surprise.
'No, master. It is from the entire district. That coke would last them another month,' Dame Wasp seemed to have gotten the hang of the 9Ks drug operation.
'Did you find out who their supplier is?' Ace was only interested in the 9Ks supplier because he wanted to know how serious the repercussions would be if for some reason the 9Ks were to lose all their money and drugs.
'Yes, Master. The supplier is a prominent cartel from down south. They are transporting the coke into the state in the form of carbonated drinks and beer since the border patrol doesn't bother them much when they see the big MNC logo. With all of the big beverage companies having their factories down there, it makes it easier for them to hide their drugs in their product and send it to the states,' Dame Wasp reported briefly surprising Ace.
'You got all that by hacking into Mike's phone?' Ace did not believe Mike had access to such sensitive information. Even if he was the brother of one of the 9k's captains this kind of information was above his rank.
'Mike's phone was only a gateway into their world. If you give me some more time I will be able to gather detailed information on their coke operations, base of operations, their money laundering operations, and their offshore bank accounts. Tech in this world is not very challenging,' Dame Wasp boasted to her master.
'Wow, you are amazing, Rose. But don't go poking the hornet's nest just because you can. Even if you are confident that you can get away with it let us be humble,' Ace praised Dame Wasp while warning her not to do unnecessary things that might potentially leak their existence.
But Ace could not help but ponder that if he let go of his caution, with Dame Wasp's cybernetic capabilities he could become a billionaire overnight. If not for his age restriction forcing him to get his parent or guardian's consent for everything, Ace would have thought of a legal way to make use of Dame Wasp's ability to make himself a billionaire.