Chapter 341: Despicable Perezes
Victoria calmly began tapping the paper with the tip of her perfect nails. Saya looked at the sheets of paper. Her hands had become completely sweaty from the panic. She slowly reached out her arm. Her entire body was trembling as she grabbed the documents. Her eyes quickly scanned the lines, but she understood absolutely nothing of the technical and legal terms. Her eyebrows furrowed.
"What... what are these papers?" Saya asked in a very hesitant voice. "I don’t understand what’s written here."
Victoria sat perfectly straight, her face completely calm and cold as ice. She stared at her without blinking.
"It’s actually very simple, you dirty rat," Victoria answered in a flat voice. "These are the hotel fees. Here is the full invoice for your stay."
Saya froze on the spot. Her blood seemed to freeze in her veins. Her eyes locked onto the astronomical amount written at the very bottom of the page. She turned completely white under her makeup. Her body went rigid, and when she started speaking again, her voice had become completely empty, without any emotion.
"The bill... the bill is in my name," Saya said in a mechanical tone. "Everything is written in my name. Why is it written in my name?"
Victoria gave a small nod to confirm. A slight smirk appeared on her lips.
"Obviously," Victoria replied. "You’re the one occupying this luxury room, filthy little rat. It’s completely normal that the bill is for you."
It was a terrible debt game sequence, exactly like what the Baby-Boom had lived through. Victoria had chosen this luxury hotel on purpose for her plan. The room fees were monstrous, and the hotel charged the price for every single day spent here.
Saya understood that she was in deep shit up to her neck. She didn’t have a single cent left in her pocket. Her fingers clenched on the sheets of paper, slightly crumpling them.
Victoria slowly leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.
"You can’t pay this amount, we’re clear on that, right?" Victoria asked with a cruel smile. "So look at me. I’m being nice. I personally commit to settling this hotel bill for you."
Saya wasn’t smiling at all. She slowly lowered her head, staring at the carpet, her eyes dark. She could feel the trap closing in on her.
"What’s the catch?" Saya asked in a dull voice. "What’s the trap behind all this?"
Victoria let out a short, dry laugh and raised an eyebrow.
"A little less stupid than expected," Victoria said in a mocking tone. "Look at the very last document you’re holding in your hands. That’s another contract. This paper states that for every single cent I pay to the hotel for you, you will have an equivalent debt toward me. In short, what you owed the hotel, you now owe to me, Victoria. It’s very simple."
Saya’s head started swaying gently from left to right. Her completely empty eyes went from the documents to the coffee table, then from the coffee table back to the documents.
Her entire body seemed to collapse. She had just realized she was at the bottom of the darkest abyss. She knew she was simply fucked.
Victoria leaned back against the sofa again, savoring her exasperation.
"You’re fucked, Saya," Victoria confirmed. "Completely fucked. But the second option I’m offering you is the only one where you keep a roof over your head and medical care for your parasite. And don’t make that face, you’re not completely trapped. You just have to gather the money and pay me to erase your debt. It’s only 92,000 credits per night. Plus everything I’ll have to spend on you afterward."
Victoria lowered her icy gaze toward Saya’s stomach.
"Speaking of which... do you really intend to raise this bastard and increase your debt to me even more, or should we plan the most obvious option right away?"
Saya bit her lower lip. Her right hand tightly clenched against her belly, as if to protect it from the cruelty of the woman in front of her who had finally overcome her disgust.
Her eyes filled with tears of rage. Victoria simply shrugged with indifference, taking her luxury pen out of her jacket.
"Anyway, you’ll think about it later," Victoria added in a dry tone. "Make your decision quickly, I want to know the exact schedule of my employees. Now take this pen and sign the contract."
Saya let out a strange, almost tired little laugh. She lifted her head and looked Victoria straight in the eyes. Her pupils were completely empty, devoid of the slightest spark of hope.
"Wouldn’t it be much better to just kill me right here?" Saya asked in a lifeless voice.
Victoria remained silent for a few seconds. She simply offered her a smile.
"But you’re already dead, little rat," Victoria murmured in a soft and terrifying voice. "And just as I wisely promised you... here is your hell. And know that this is only the entrance. I have a fantastic fate reserved for you."
A sad and resigned smile appeared on Saya’s lips. She understood that she had no way out. She lowered her guard, took the pen Victoria held out to her, and signed her name at the bottom of the contract, selling her humanity and her future to the Director.
Meanwhile, Hector was calmly handling the last financial details of his structure in the large office of the Spires villa. Sitting behind his wide desk, he scrolled through a digital tablet while Monique, standing right next to him, kept her arms crossed.
"We should dump this batch immediately, Sir," Monique suggested, frowning slightly. "It’s losing value every day."
Hector slid his index finger across the screen, his face remaining completely marble.
"No. Be patient. If we wait for the right moment on the market, we can easily double its price with our buyers. Let the products stagnate a little longer, but don’t sell them."
Suddenly, Hector’s private phone started vibrating heavily on the desk, breaking the silence of the room. He glanced at the flashing screen.
"Excuse me," he said, raising one finger.
He picked up. On the other end of the line was Jinzo. The rat’s voice rang out, overflowing with undisguised joy and a triumphant tone.
"Hello, Mr. Hector! I hope I’m not disturbing you!" Jinzo greeted, almost out of breath from excitement.
Hector briefly closed his eyes. Just from the sound of his voice, he already felt this was going to be either very long or very boring. Still, as a good Underground manager, he forced himself to play the good boss, slightly softening his tone to hide his exasperation.
"Good evening rather, I believe, my friend," Hector answered in a polite and calm voice. "To what do I owe the privilege of being disturbed at such a late hour? Is everything going well on the field?"
Jinzo let out a small nervous laugh, a high-pitched snicker that crackled through the speaker. Feeling he was holding something huge, he decided to play the super important guy. Instead of spitting out the information right away, he wanted to drag things out to give himself more value.
"Oh, you know, Mr. Hector, it all depends on what we call ’going well,’" Jinzo began in a mysterious tone, deliberately slowing the pace of his words. "Sometimes things move in the shadows without anyone noticing. Is Monique with you, by any chance?"
Hector didn’t answer right away. His fingers left the digital tablet. He suddenly changed position in his armchair, straightening up on his elbows. He placed his hand on his face and began vigorously massaging his sinuses with his thumb and index finger.
Ah, the things one had to put up with...
Monique, attentive to her boss’s body language, frowned. She took three quick steps to approach the large desk, her eyes fixed on the phone, her body tense with curiosity and irritation.
"Monique is right here, Jinzo, I put you on speaker," Hector said, forcing himself to keep a smooth voice despite his fingers squeezing the bridge of his nose harder and harder. "Get to the point."
"Perfect, perfect!" Jinzo chuckled on the other end of the line. "It’s better that she listens too, because... Well, I’m not criticizing, but... I often say it’s better to be on the field than doing office politics and waiting around, you know... Except for you, of course!"
"The facts, Jinzo, the facts," Hector sighed.
Jinzo swallowed.
"Tell me, Mr. Hector... Are you still monitoring Blacklist’s external contacts? Especially those hanging around the captain?"
Monique let out a clearly audible sigh of exasperation, crossing her arms. She shot Hector a dark look, shaking her head from left to right.
Hector, for his part, stopped massaging his sinuses. He placed his hand flat on the table, his fingers nervously tapping the polished wood in a dry, regular rhythm. His eyes had narrowed, fixed on the device.
"Jinzo, my night is very short," Hector sighed. "We’re handling serious business here. If you have information, give it immediately. Stop beating around the bush."
On the other end of the line, Jinzo swallowed hard again. He realized he had pushed the fake suspense a little too far. He took a quick deep breath and finally dropped his bomb:
"Boss, you won’t believe your ears," Jinzo cooed on the other end of the line. "I discovered something while observing Blacklist. A secret that no one else but me could have dug up. Nash thinks he’s hiding his game well, but... I found out that Saya Vance, Nash’s ex who was supposed to hate him with all her heart after what happened, is actually back in very intimate contact with him. And that’s not all. I learned from a reliable source that Nash just entrusted her with a very special mission: he wants her to investigate and infiltrate the luxury massage parlors of the Spires!"
The shock was instantaneous in the office. Hector completely stopped the movement of his fingers on his sinuses. Monique opened her eyes wide, her body tensing up sharply.
Their faces changed radically. Behind those massage parlors hid an entirely different story, perhaps the most problematic one for Apex.
Hector resumed his benevolent boss posture, softening his tone to put the rat at ease.
"That’s some very curious information, my friend," Hector said in a sweet and encouraging voice. "Are you absolutely certain of what you’re saying regarding this Saya Vance?"
"One hundred percent sure, Mr. Hector!" Jinzo exclaimed, his voice trembling with excessive confidence. "She told me herself, she was looking for advice on how to get into the Spires parlors without raising suspicion! Nash is sending her there, it’s a certainty!"
Monique intervened, leaning her head toward the mic, her face marked by doubt.
"Are you certain she wasn’t just playing with you, Jinzo?" Monique asked. "Sir, Nash may be young, but he’s not stupid enough to let his intentions leak so easily to an unstable girl."
"No, no, Monique, I swear!" Jinzo insisted, feeling himself grow wings. "She actually manipulated him, she’s good at that. And I also think that if we catch her at the entrance, we could easily..."
Hector no longer had time to listen to him babble. With a sharp and precise flick of his index finger, he pressed the red button on his tablet and hung up brutally right in the middle of his hopes of fishing for compliments.
Everything else no longer mattered. Jinzo had just touched a taboo with his finger.
Silence settled in the room. Hector’s face had hardened, his eyes fixed on an invisible point on the table. Monique, for her part, crossed her arms over her chest, her fingers nervously clenching against her suit. She took a slow breath before breaking the heavy silence.
"What does this mean? Does he know?" she murmured. "How could he have known?"
Hector slowly straightened up in his leather armchair. He let out a stifled laugh.
"No, he doesn’t know anything concrete," he analyzed in a low, muffled voice. "He’s advancing completely in the dark, Monique. If he had the slightest certainty about what those parlors really hide, he wouldn’t send an amateur spy to test the ground. He’s looking for a lead to save Baby-Boom, he’s scratching at the door hoping someone will open it."
Monique could no longer stay still. Her anxious and negative temperament took over again. She started pacing back and forth on the luxury carpet, her heels clicking nervously on the parquet. She suddenly stopped, turning toward Hector with a gesture of exasperation.
"But if he sets his eyes over there, Sir... if he discovers what’s going on behind the window of those establishments... Wouldn’t it be time to definitively clip Victoria’s wings? She’s becoming far too troublesome with her Blacklist."
Hector watched her agitate, remaining calm incarnate. His face showed no panic. He leaned back comfortably, crossing his hands.
"The Midnight Rest should have served as a warning to her," Hector answered in a calm but icy tone. "But everything in its time, Monique. Today, with what this chained rat just brought us, I can state it with certainty: behind Victoria hides Nash. He’s the one pulling the strings of this team now. So if you want Victoria to fall, it’s him you have to take down first."
Hector paused. His eyes narrowed slightly as he sank into his thoughts, weighing every option. His fingers began gently tapping his own biceps in a thoughtful and regular rhythm.
"I’ve spent entire months looking for an angle of attack," he resumed in an even lower voice, almost a whisper. "Months trying to get the slightest reliable information on Nash’s movements, on his way of thinking, on his weaknesses... He was elusive. And now he’s offering us his routine on a silver platter. I’m not going to miss this chance. Since we know Saya is coming for him, we’re going to let her enter our parlors. We’re going to use her to anticipate every one of Nash’s movements and destroy him at the most optimal moment."
Hector slowly uncrossed his arms. He stood up, adjusted the flaps of his suit jacket, then began walking slowly toward the large bay window of the office. He stopped in front of the glass, observing the artificial and distant lights of the Spires shining in the black night.
After a long silence, he slowly turned around to plant his steel eyes into Monique’s.
"Contact Harlan immediately," Hector ordered.