I reviewed the inventory report for our new small warehouse; twelve boxes of opioids, a box of weapons along a small number of animals. The only thing we could take advantage of would be the box of weapons, although I still needed to train the group on how to use them.

“This is sad” A simple, biting comment from Koemi that summed up our situation.

“This makes one point clear, we need new products” sighed Antonio ‘We could keep doing what we were doing, We were doing well, and now with a base we could make the full profit’.

“Not without leaving the place, it will draw attention to where our products come from and add up to one plus one” Eliza's tone was all that was needed to hint at how idiotic she found the idea.

“How much do we keep from our piracy days?” I spoke wanting to change the subject; I didn't want to deal with another argument, they could become annoying.

“Fifty liters of liquor, thirteen cases of tobacco, and another two cases of medicine” Eliza said as she checked her notebook.

“Let's sell as much as possible, don't look for fair prices, as long as you get half their value it will be profit, we need solvency and set up a real payment system. We can't use I could no longer rely on the loyalty of the group without assuring them a salary.”

“I know someone who might be able to help,” Eliza said, sharing the thought of who was speaking.

“you can't be serious” Antonio growled ”No, no, they know you'll kill me, please boss, we have more contacts..” His insistence continued, as he was ignored by everyone else in the room.

“Excuse me, a man claims to have a message for you boss” Johann's voice, sounded from behind the door. He was a simple man who had decided to stay away from the group's decisions, so we decided to trust him with security.

“Let him through” Antonio said with a little excitement.

A man of slim build, tall stature, and a characteristic tattoo of three tears in his eyes, a characteristic shared by certain members of a surrounding gang.

“Tell me what brings the Preman group to the doors of my little business” We didn't come blindly to this place, gathering data on criminal gangs was easy once you knew how criminal organizations operated in the underworld.

They were not unlike legal businesses, divided by sectors and markets, with monopolies and most importantly, connected; each large organization delegated small sectors to small gangs to do the dirty work. That was the Preman group.

“Haji Darip claims his drug shipment” His authoritative voice set a slight tension in the room.

“What shipment, do you recall any shipment that the great Haji has asked us for, Eliza?” I asked as calmly as possible as my friends stood up and began to prepare for the worst.

“We haven't contacted anyone yet” Eliza's reliable reply.

“Sorry mate, I think you're wrong, we don't have any drug shipments belonging to the big Haji.”

She wasn't entirely lying. The fact that this business was still standing was a miracle, he had no records or accounting other than some lost collection accounts.

“Don't you dare lie you dirty beggar, I saw the boxes on the way” he uttered as he was followed by a knock on our table by one of his companions.

“Ahh you mean my shipment of drugs, it is not yet from the great Haji but it can be for a very good price.”

“The shipment already belongs to him, Roney's rat was tasked to simply store it while those in charge of distributing the goods arrived. So why don't you return the shipment and save yourselves from being fumigated and go back through the sewer where you dirty rats came from” he demanded, as he pounded on our table.

It only took a few seconds before our giant Johann walked through the door after hearing the commotion and easily subdued our guest, where pitifully one arm had to be broken.

“You're not understanding you fucking idiot, it's our fucking cargo now as well as anything that was in the fucking building” I raised my voice, understanding that seemed to be the way I could understand ‘But I'm a businessman I can sell the whole of it for a modest price, I like to make people happy so I'll just ask little Haji for half’.

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“I'll let him know,” said the Preman, sounding more than a little apprehensive.

“Fantastic, I love it when we speak the same language, but just to make sure you get the message” I nodded to Johann and without needing words he knew to break his remaining arm.

“Thank you, Johann, please bring out our guest.”

Satisfied with the overall success of the progress of the renovations and the commissioning of the routes, I spent the rest of the night fine-tuning my plans. Early in the morning, before the sun had begun to palm the skies, interrupting my chores with two knocks that signaled urgent news.

“Yes?”

“Chief, it seems Antonio is fighting with foreign forces.”

“I want to see him please.” Eliza was a telepathic mutant, with the common characteristics of one, but with some differences that characterized her, such as projecting her mind into a location, and getting a vision as if her body was there.

Immediately, my vision began to change and I saw Antonio standing at the entrance to the building, which I immediately recognized as Harbor Bay. He was stepping out onto the field himself, his hands lit up like plasma lamps as he overloaded and concentrated on his hands preparing for his favorite way of fighting.

There were twenty intruding figures, all belonging to the same gang, by his trademark red bandana tied around his wrist. Although tempted to secure another team to deal with them, I was interested to observe what Antonio would do.

Antonio suddenly began to charge as fast as he could, he was aware that he had very little time before they reacted and any shot would hit him and quickly subdue him. But fortunately, he was not short of options.

Antonio charged at him at breakneck speeds and threw continuous explosions into the terrain to create clouds of dust. While they were powerful blasts, the power of the explosion depended on the concentration and energy overload he was putting in.

There was a limit to the amount of energy he could safely put into an explosion, and that limit was quite small. Fortunately, while his bomb was weak, it was still enough to take down most ordinary humans.

The second barrage struck directly at them despite the lack of visibility.

Eliza must have been sharing their locations.

When she reached their location, she followed up by hitting each of the intruders with microbursts directly into their bodies. It wasn't long before they were all on the ground, hopefully some alive.

“Please send Koemi to secure all our admirers, we will not reveal our letters yet” With the orders given, Eliza redirected her abilities to contact Koemi, shifting my gaze back to the documents.

It was only after the explosions sounded, that I knew Antonio had sensed possible threats, which could only mean two things; they had mutants among their ranks or they had high-caliber weapons. I underestimated the level of connections these small-time hoods would have.

“Koemi moves into the area. Antonio moved personally, but assures us there is no danger.”

“What do you think our next move should be?”.

“We underestimated their power and preparations” said Eliza, while with her particular gesture of rolling a lock of her hair as she thinks ”We should move carefully, sow discord among them, and analyze the weakest to take over their operations.”

“That's a very good idea.”

“But not the one you have in mind apparently” he said with a discouraged tone.

“They are not fools, they monitor our every move, and even though we averted their eyes today. They know that a team of heavily armed men went in and then never came out again” I replied. I expected a lot from Eliza, she was a girl with a privileged mind that with her skills would make her a suitable and necessary leader.

“They will be even more aware of any action we take” she replied, demonstrating her quick analysis.

“Exactly, which is why we will take a more direct approach.”

Antonio walked through the door, dragging two people with him.

“You didn't leave anymore alive?” He asked, frowning.

“Was I supposed to?” Antonio replied, reinforcing his opinion on the matter by spitting at one of the corpses.

“It would have been nice, but it doesn't matter,” He straightened the stack of papers in front of him and continued to examine them. “Question anything useful they know.”

“Do you know who hired them?” asked Antonio.

“Yes, they are Raman Ragha's men, he leads a group of mercenaries, apparently he is also the one in charge of mutant abduction” A cold air filled the room.

“He lost men, I'll go and we can take care of him” Koemi said her blood lust still throbbing in the room, not before Antonio stopped her with a hand on her arm ‘Wait for the boss's order’ as if those words were a bucket of cold water, the room regained its usual temperature.

“Koemi, I didn't accept you to get a cold-blooded killer”.

“...I'm sorry Maleït” said Koemi, after a tacit agreement from me, he set off to leave the room.

As I watched the exit of a despondent

As I watched the departure of a dejected and melancholy girl, a characteristic tingle moved through my thoughts.

Koemi stopped her gait as they exited the office through the back door “I'll see to it that I won't disappoint you again boss” she pronounced in a serious voice, as she turned and looked me in the eye.

“I hope so, you can go.”

The motivated and animated sound of his footsteps echoed around the room until the door closed.

“Eliza I didn't trust you with my mind for this.”

“Sorry boss, I don't understand what you mean” Her innocent and manipulative response, only denoted how much she knew of my favoritism towards her.

It could be hypocritical to demand restrained behavior from my peers after cutting down a dozen people, but this would be our path to the big leagues and it was no longer an option to leave a trail of blood as a legacy would not be how we would live.

It wasn't long before dawn, so Eliza moved on to her morning chores, while I was left again with the silence to plot our next steps.