As Mike was leaving the casino,

  probably to a hotel or to the military headquarters since he lost the transport to leave the city,

  Someone else was getting in the boss' room.

  "I heard your lucky cheater lost, was the mercenary that good?"

  The boss didn't take a look at who was talking when answering.

  "He had an antiPhySEC wristband and we have devices to check the status of PhySEC moves, and he won in the end, not so fair, but he was the one at disadvantage"

  "What did he ask? What did you tell him?" The man was doubtful, but the boss had no intention of answering.

  As the boss, he would be a hypocrite if he made Mike, a mercenary, play a game to earn his reward and then gave it for free to another person.

  He had to keep the game fair as Thomas taught him.

  The boss looked at the man, it was the 'gambling addict', the one the boss wanted to play the game to give Bull more chances of winning.

  If Mike were here, he could quickly (or maybe not exactly quickly) identify that person.

  Not as the gambling addict but as Chris Brown, a man wanted all around the continent.

  Sadly, the photos of his face were taken years ago, and he was good at hiding his facial features very well.

  "I see, I have to pay well for information, well... Aether is an easy-going place for that. I received my pay for the act, so bye" He left without waiting for the casino boss to answer.

  Meanwhile, the boss was not really worried. The mercenary, in his eyes, was not going rampant arresting people.

  He was professional in that and was searching for only his objective.

  "I thought if an Aetherian became a Blacklist Hunter, it would be a mess, but maybe I overthink it sometimes" He murmured.

  As relaxed and not worried as he was, he was still thinking about the answers he gave to him.

  He tried to beat around the bush but never lied.

  "Well, I am not a snitch, so I am fine"

  ...

  Meanwhile as Chris Brown was leaving the casino, he felt something was wrong.

  "Should I have paid Crane for the information?" Doubting, he continued his steps.

  He moved some streets until finally reaching a dead end in a dark alley.

  "What do you want?" He asked to the nothing.

  But received no answer.

  "I know you are following me; you are bad at this or either did it on purpose"

  When he turned back.

  There was a man in military uniform.

  It was not Mike's mercenary clothes; it was the uniform of the Aetherian army.

  "What happened in there? You took a long time to notice me, by the way"

  Chris had no intention of spreading information so easily.

  When he first arrived in Aether, he gave information for free, to later understand that most information in the underground world in Aether comes with a price.

  He knew nothing about the guy following him, but he knew from where they came.

  Aether army is way more corrupted than the international community knows.

  "Chris, poor guy, the information we search is worthless to you..."

  "I have no information; I just played a game there" He interrupted the military man.

  After a moment of silence, the man named a price.

  And for the price, Chris told him the information with the value he thought was equal to the price.

  What he didn't know, is that the information was way more valuable than he initially thought.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  ...

  "So, I'm being an idiot or they really are hiding well?"

  Mike's monologue was the only sound inside the hotel room.

  He knew that Crane wasn't telling lies.

  But still, he felt he tried to beat around the bush too much.

  Crane only allowed four questions.

  And Mike had to waste the fourth one.

  All to confirm one thing.

  There are wanted terrorists in the city, and most of them probably have been there for a long time.

  But why did the kids suddenly start disappearing just recently?

  And by the answers he got, he got the general view he was looking for.

  Sadly, it made him doubt some more.

  He got that there was something else going on.

  If his guess was right...

  "There is a good chance to arrest the man"

  There should be some power struggle in the Aetherian jungle.

  And no matter how well the guys were hiding, they should come back to light sooner or later.

  But Mike had a certain problem.

  No matter what, he could not arrest or kill those who were deep into Aether society.

  No without proof, no without taking down their organization first.

  "Let's just hope I can arrest Anthon Makarevich at least"

  With one final thought, he closed his eyes.

  But not to sleep.

  He was concentrating on his ability.

  Preparing for a plan.

  He scanned the window and found out.

  There's been more than an hour after he left the casino.

  And he found out that just recently, he was being followed.

  He went to the hotel just to let the other party find him easily.

  And as he thought, the casino had no deal with the terrorist he was looking for, they were just a third party, a neutral one.

  That was good, but also bad since he had to search for another anchor point the terrorists used to keep in Aether.

  Still, he didn't discard the casino, if Crane had that much information, the terrorist then must be using the casino as well.

  He got up from bed and, fully armed, jumped from the window.

  It was night and dark enough to hide his moves.

  His black uniform helped him to hide well.

  And with fast moves like he already knew the way beforehand,

  He climbed to the top of the building.

  In there, he had a perfect view of the surroundings despite the building not being high or the highest one around.

  With the sniper in hand, he didn't move the lock or try to check the ammo in the magazine.

  He just used the scope of the sniper to look around.

  He adjusted the zoom and saw the people following him.

  Surprised but not really shocked,

  Some had the Aetherian military uniform.

  "Looks like I found the anchor they are using... Fuck, this one is very hard to take down"

  He was used to scan everything with his ability every moment of the day.

  Even more, he was used to do so unconsciously sometimes.

  To the point he could tell from a glance a difference between a person and another without the need to look at them.

  Between the group he was looking at, was a man that somehow made him remember someone.

  But his face was different, or at least a little different from what he remembers.

  Anyway, he had no time to worry about just one person.

  The Bloody Hand reached the windows in the floor below, and in the next floor below, and finally,

  To the base floor.

  He scanned the lobby and saw how the guys went to ask something in the reception.

  The receptionist was eager to not collaborate but could do nothing in front of an Aetherian military man.

  After all, the military was a huge fish in the current corrupted Aether.

  As the people left the reception and took the elevator, some took the stairs.

  Mike quickly withdrew a little his Bloody Hand and moved it to the second-floor windows.

  He got it through the windows and reached his room.

  And as expected, the guys reached that place.

  They were directly looking for him.

  They prepared to enter, with guns prepared.

  Some guns, as expected, were antiPhySEC.

  They broke the door and left not long after.

  Clearly, since Mike was on the rooftop, not in the room.

  He was searching in the phone for all the faces again.

  The faces of wanted terrorists.

  He scrolled the list and saw a face that was familiar to him.

  Again, there was an uneasy feeling about it, so he saved the note for later and kept scrolling.

  Sadly, none one of the faces he saw was on the list.

  But the list wasn't perfect.

  Due to the time of some people being on the list and the situation in some countries,

  Some faces were barely drawn and not really a photo.

  Some others even didn't have a photo or a drawing.

  All he had was information.

  One of the draws, along with the information, was precisely pointing toward the military man who was leading the others.

  He had no proof anyway, if he wanted proof, he had to go to the military headquarters in the city and ask for the information there.

  But there were more military men in this mess, so it was hard to get what he wanted at once.

  He had to make a plan, and the step one on that plan was to follow those guys.

  Step two get every proof he could get.

  Step three...

  "Either blackmail them for the information I'm looking for... or arrest them"

  He was looking for a specific one after all, just he got information but not the one he needed the most.

  He originally planned to move to another city and keep searching, but life planned for him to make him search more in the same city.

  Lucky, because that was the place with the most information he could get.

  So with weapon in hand, he started following the terrorist.