"Now then. Let's talk business."
Wolfram gestured toward a second folding table set up near the truck, where a battered metal case sat waiting, already unlocked. "Everything's here. Full specs he had memorized, sketched out over the last few hours to prove he wasn't bluffing about being able to build the thing from scratch."
Re-Destro approached without hurry, lifting the top page from inside the case and studying it beneath the distant floodlight. It was filled with all sorts of technical phrasings and designs, annotated in a hurried writing style.
"It's enough for your people to confirm this isn't a waste of your evening." Rikiya hummed in acknowledgement. He didn't understand half of what he was looking at. After all, despite running a support company, support gear wasn't his field, and he'd never pretended otherwise. But the confidence in the handwriting told him enough.
"Impressive," Re-Destro murmured, setting the page back down. "You work quickly, Mr. Wolfram."
"I don't get paid to do otherwise chap." Wolfram lit a fresh cigar. "Doctor's cooperative enough, once he understood the alternative wasn't pleasant."
His gaze settled on Sam. Unlike the doctor who despite looking disheveled but was in complete condition, poor Sam had been roughed up quite a lot. Two broken fingers and a whole lot of screams was enough to make David's will cave for his old partner. How ironic the same man he was saving was the reason they were in this mess in the first place. "Give him a proper lab, proper materials, six to eight weeks and he'll have something functional. Maybe less, if you can get your hands on the same tier of components I-Island uses."
"That can certainly be arranged." Re-Destro closed the case with a soft click. "Detnerat's manufacturing division has relationships with several overseas suppliers who ask very few questions."
Provided the invoices were generous enough.
"Good." Wolfram exhaled a slow ribbon of smoke. "Then here's where we stand. You front the facility and materials. I'll handle the security and keep the doctor secured and cooperative. No paper trail, and we both walk away richer than we started."
This was the deal they had discussed. Once the device was built and tested, the profits would be split fifty-fifty. Yotsubashi and Detnerat would get first production rights for whatever black-market support gear they ran through Detnerat's back channels. Wolfram on the other hand, would get his cut in liquid assets.
"A mutually beneficial arrangement indeed." Re-Destro said.
Wolfram's grin didn't waver. If things played out well, this would truly be one of the best jobs he had ever pulled. With an insider in hand who had made things so much easier, nobody would be able to trace this back to either of them. Better yet, Japan was currently drowning in villain attacks, missing heroes, and a Commission too broke to investigate its own shoelaces.
Outsiders wanting to investigate would face problems and restrictions, while the Japanese government itself was too swamped to free up much manpower to investigate.
The stars practically aligned for such perfect conditions.
"Wouldn't have brought you the package otherwise." Wolfram tapped ash from the cigar's end. "Speaking of which — before we go any further, corporate. I like you well enough, but I didn't get into this line of work by trusting handshakes." He nodded toward one of his men, who produced a slim data drive from an inner jacket pocket and held it up, deliberately, for Re-Destro to see. "Insurance. Everything. Your face, your voice, dates, locations, the whole conversation we had setting this up two weeks ago. It's sitting somewhere very safe, with instructions to surface automatically if I don't check in on schedule. You understand."
"A precaution huh?" Re-Destro smiled at the drive before him. "Quite the precaution. And of course I don't mind. In fact, I'd have thought less of you if you hadn't arranged one."
"Figured you'd get it." Wolfram tucked the drive back into his man's jacket with a satisfied nod. "No offense meant. Men in my line of work who don't plan for betrayal don't stay in the line of work very long."
"None taken." Re-Destro folded his hands behind his back, glancing briefly toward the two bound men in their folding chairs. David's face pale and furious, Samuel's eyes darting frantically between every armed figure in the clearing as though hoping one of them might suddenly decide to let him go. "Though I confess, I'm curious. That insurance of yours. Who's holding it?"
"Wouldn't be much insurance if I told you that, now would it."
"No," Re-Destro agreed. "I suppose it wouldn't." He paused, falling into deep thought. "If I had to guess, it's Renner, isn't it? He's been with you the longest if I recall. The one you trust to hold something that important."
Wolfram's easy smile disappeared. "...How do you know that name."
"I don't, really." Re-Destro's tone hadn't changed at all. "I was remembering something i was once told. The fewer partners one has... the fewer problems one encounters."
Wolfram's expression hardened.
"...Meaning?"
Re-Destro turned his attention to David.
"Dr. Shield."
The scientist flinched.
"My name is Rikiya Yotsubashi."
David swallowed. "What do you want?"
Re-Destro looked at him almost sympathetically.
"Your cooperation."
"I refuse."
"I expected you would." He smiled gently.
"Fortunately, that isn't tonight's discussion."
He turned back toward Wolfram. "Tonight's discussion concerns something else."
"Thank you for confirming it."
The three mercenaries behind Wolfram shifted uneasily, weapons rising a fraction from where they'd hung relaxed at their sides only a moment ago.
"What game are you playing," Wolfram said, the cigar forgotten between his fingers.
"No game." Re-Destro's smile finally disappeared.
"I simply find myself asking, why I should share?"
The smile disappeared from Wolfram's face.
"What?"
"You have already completed the difficult portion by acquiring the doctor's itinerary and intercepting his arrival in Japan." Re-Destro raised his hand and spoke as though discussing quarterly earnings.
"So tell me, Mr. Wolfram. What purpose do you still serve?"
The yard fell silent. The only sound was the whistle of the howling wind.
Then... Wolfram laughed.
"Hahaha! You're funny."
He took the cigar from his mouth and sneered.
"Real funny. You think because you've got money you can play games with me?"
"I think nothing of the sort."
Wolfram didn't waste another breath. The moment the word "sort" left Re-Destro's mouth, the mercenary leader slammed his palm flat against the rusted iron surface of the transport truck.
The heavy steel panels of the truck groaned violently before tearing apart, reforming in a fraction of a second into dozens of jagged, lance-like iron spikes. In an instant, the barrage shot forward through the air, aiming straight for Re-Destro's chest and head.
Wolfram wasn't interested in posturing. He knew a death trap when he smelled one, and he intended to pin the arrogant CEO to the concrete before he could even blink.
In response to the incoming attacks, Re-Destro didn't even flinch, much less raise his hands from behind his back.
BOOM!
A towering, crystalline wall of glacial ice erupted from the edge of the pier, shooting straight out of the dark harbor waters where one of Geten's ice-coated gauntlets had already been submerged. The jagged iron lances struck the massive ice barrier with deafening force, shattering into harmless scrap metal.
The temperature instantly dropped to a chilling degree. Re-Destro stood completely unbothered in his immaculate suit.
"A tragic display. To possess a Meta Ability of such utility, only to degrade it into a tool for extortion and paper currency... You are utterly unworthy of the gift you were born with, Mr. Wolfram."
Wolfram sneered. "Save the philosophical bullshit for your stockholders, suit. You really think you've won? You had no intention of going through with the deal from the very start, did you?"
Wolfram raised his hand, a disdainful smile spreading across his face despite the failed attack. "I don't know where the hell you get off being this confident. You think this ice kid makes you invincible? The second I walk out of here, or the second my heart stops, that drive goes live. Not only is Detnerat finished, you'll be exposed to the entire world. The Japanese commission will tear your precious company apart piece by piece."
Re-Destro shook his head, releasing a pitying sigh. "How remarkably narrow-minded."
He calmly reached into his inner suit pocket and pulled out an unlabelled smartphone. Without taking his eyes off Wolfram, he tapped the screen once, put it on speaker, and held it casually in his palm.
The line rang twice.
Click.
"I trust everything is proceeding smoothly, Leader?" The respectful voice echoed across the dockyard.
Wolfram froze. "...Renner?"
There was a brief pause. "Good evening, Mr. Wolfram." The voice remained perfectly composed. "I had wondered how long it would take before you realized."
The color drained from Wolfram's face. "Renner, what the hell is this?! What the hell are you talking about?"
"I am talking to the man who will usher in the liberation of our true nature, Wolfram," Renner replied flatly. "The encrypted drive you gave me was wiped twenty minutes ago. The secondary relays have been dismantled. There is no broadcast coming. All Meta Abilities should be released."
Wolfram's eyes widened in sheer horror. "You... you bastard! I brought you into my crew! I trusted you with everything!"
"I apologize."
Renner sounded almost sincere. "For your closure, I believe we did bond to an extent in the years we've worked together. But my assignment concluded the moment Doctor Shield reached our custody. This is the last time we will work on the same side. Goodbye."
The line went dead. Redestro placed the phone back in his pocket with a smirk. "I believe everyone else on your other end has been dealt with as well. So you see Mr. Wolfram?"
Rikiya extended his hand. "The Meta Liberation Army has been recruiting for long before I was even born, in places far quieter and far more useful than street-level villain gangs. Sometimes that means placing people in circles like yours long before we ever have a use for them. Your Renner has been one of ours for considerably longer than he's been one of yours. You trusted him because you thought he was bound by the same pathetic greed that drives you,"
He said with another sigh. "Your so-called insurance plan had no insurance to begin with."
Wolfram's eyes darkened. "Kill him."