"I still can't believe it. You actually are alive!"
Sitting behind his desk, Victor continued to stare at Dante, his face pale from the earlier scare. He was a man in his early forties, one who hit the bottle one too many times. His raven hair reached down to his shoulder and seemed to look good no matter how unkempt it was. A messy stubble covered his chin, showing that it had been some time since he last shaved. Same as always, he had a blazer hanging on his shoulders and the buttons of his shirt open leaving his chest exposed.
"Did you think you could get rid of me that easily?" Dante asked with a smirk.
"What the hell, kid? Do you even know how stressed I was this last week!? You can't go dark just like that!"
This was probably the first time Dante saw the man so agitated. For all the time he had known him, Victor had always been calm and calculated, always speaking in a relaxed tone. The difference spoke of how surprised he was to see him, and Dante could already guess the reason.
"To be honest, I have been down for the last week," Dante said. "I'm mostly out of the loop so… I was hoping you would fill me in."
Victor fixed him with a stern gaze, having regained his composure.
"How about you start." He said. "Tell us, what the hell happened?"
Dante's gaze wandered down and his legs came into sight. A strange sensation crawled up from them, prompting him to close his eyes and sigh.
"Victor…" Pausing, he looked up and at the man across the desk. "I don't think it's something you would want to know."
As an info-broker, there was no story the man named Victor wouldn't want to hear. The news of what happened to Gaspard and his crew must've reached him one way or another, but the corpos were good at cleaning the messes they cause so it was unlikely that he got much. This was his chance to fill in the blanks, but, for more than one reason, Dante was reluctant to share the details of that incident.
Victor narrowed his eyes.
"Something I wouldn't want to know…" rapping the edge of his desk, he seemed to contemplate something for a while before sighing. "We… we weren't too sure you were dead. Lately, there has been some demand for info on Gaspard and his crew. I asked around and found out that most of them were dead, except one name wasn't on the list."
"Yeah," Dante thought back to what Larry told him. "I heard some rats were asking around Hollowgrid as well."
"The client went to every broker in the outer circle," Victor said. "They know that crew had a sixth member yet they couldn't find anything on him. No names, no photos. All they have is a drop of blood, but this sixth member wasn't on the police's database so there is no way to pinpoint him."
The work handled by mercenaries was rarely if ever on the legal side. Because of that, one has to learn how to hide their tracks from the law and anyone who might cause trouble.
Dante had only spent three months working with Gaspard and the gigs they took were few and far between, not to mention, they were too small to catch anyone's attention. No one paid attention to them all that time, and because of that, the effort he had put into concealing himself resulted in him being an untraceable ghost, at least for the time being.
Right now, only two people know who the sixth member of Gaspard's crew is: Boris Markov and Victor Sokolov.
"I'm guessing you missed a big payday just for me." Said Dante.
"There is only so much sleep I can lose before it's too much." Victor grimaced. "And the client isn't exactly a favorite of mine."
"Got any names?"
"Nope. All we know is that Eidolon might be involved. They're hiding it behind stacks of subsidiaries and shell companies, of course."
The higher-ups of the world's biggest megacorporation wouldn't take to the streets to look for someone; they have slaves for that kind of work. Sometimes, the job would be passed so far down the hierarchy that it becomes impossible to learn who was the first to give out the order.
Dante leaned on his elbows which he rested on his legs. He contemplated everything for a while then turned to the broker.
"I need some work." He said.
Raising an eyebrow, Victor stared at him for a second before asking. "You sure about that? It's been only a week."
"More than enough."
Victor kept his silence for a while then heaved a sigh.
"Well, suit yourself. Are you going back to being solo?"
"Not like I have a choice." Dante scoffed. "No one would take me like this."
Since he's forced to keep his involvement with Gaspard hidden, the credentials he gathered from working with a crew can no longer be used. Not that he wanted to join another one so soon. That left him with solo jobs only, and ones that are usually taken by amateurs just getting started. After three years of being a mercenary, he was now forced to start from square one.
"You can have 20% of everything, on top of your commission." Dante said.
Victor drew his lips into a thin line.
"You don't need to buy my silence." He said.
"Hey, I'm just showing my gratitude."
Money is the greatest evil in the world and one couldn't know for sure what might happen when it's involved. Dante wanted to believe that Victor and Boris wouldn't sell him out no matter what, but trust was fragile, and having a contract was always better than nothing.
"Besides," Dante smirked. "If you don't take that 20% now, you might regret it later."
That did sound like a threat at first, but looking into his eyes, Victor seemed to read between the lines.
"Alright, I got you." He said, his expression relaxing. "I think I have something for you. Get it done and we can talk about something bigger."