Chapter 104: A Toast To Victories And Defeat

Dmitri calmly leaned back on the elevator’s metallic wall, as he allowed himself to get lost in thoughts.Not once had he expected the monster that held his leash to be barely half his age. He expected some kind of old toad who had seen enough of life to have this much control and to be this cunning.

It made him wonder, what kind of life exactly has the kid lived that shaped him up like this?

Though, the kid’s recent move made no sense to Dmitri. What exactly was his goal in revealing his identity to the enemy?

Him remaining anonymous was his biggest advantage, so why would he just give that up?

Shaking his head, Dmitri muttered, "not my problem, I just have to complete this and get it over with."

The last task given to him by Ethan definitely didn’t sit well with him but this wasn’t about him anymore... It now involved his family and he’d do anything for them, even if it involved taking someone else’s life.

The elevator soon let out a ding and Dmitri walked out, heading to Nathaniel’s personal office.

Nathaniel’s bodyguards were nowhere to be seen which was a decision that didn’t make sense in his situation but Dmitri didn’t mind, this would only make his job easier....or so he thought.

Knocking on the door once, Dmitri soon heard a confirmation for him to enter and he did.

Instead of behind his monitor, Nathaniel was standing by the wall to ceiling glass window, hands folded behind his back as he looked at the city below him.

Inside the office was a sofa and what looked like a coffee table and on it was a bottle of whiskey with two glasses beside it.

Dmitri’s hand stayed on the door’s handle a bit longer than necessary, almost as if reevaluating but with a sigh, he closed the door behind him and walked forward a bit before stopping and waiting for Nathaniel to turn back.

It took a while, but Nathaniel eventually turned to Dmitri and said with a small smile, "have a seat."

Dmitri frowned at his employer’s mood. Given his situation with the leaks and public outrage right now, you’d think he wouldn’t be concerned with showing a smile right now.

But without question, Dmitri calmly took a seat on one of the sofas and Nathaniel took the one directly in front of him.

Without saying anything, Nathaniel poured the whiskey into both glasses before handing one to Dmitri and picking the other up.

Dmitri accepted the glass without comment, before putting it down on the table.

The amber liquid swirled as he tilted it slightly, catching the faint gleam of the evening light. Nathaniel leaned back into the sofa, crossing one leg over the other, his posture far too relaxed for a man whose empire was burning down around him.

"To victories yet to come," Nathaniel said, raising his glass.

Dmitri lifted his own, though his voice was flat. "To victories."

They drank in silence for a while before Dmitri asked, "is this the only reason why you called me here?"

Nathaniel put his glass down before looking directly into Dmitri’s eyes as he said, "not really, but I figured it has been a while since we shared a glass, so why not?"

"Wouldn’t it be more effective to allow me to complete the tasks you gave?" Dmitri commented, "after all, the heat on the Langely’s hasn’t died down yet and you quickly need something to distract the public for a while."

"Exactly," Nathaniel nodded, "and the distraction is already in place, we just have to be patient till morning arrives."

Besides," he added, "now that OmniTech’s—" Nathaniel paused, his lips curling into something between a smirk and a sneer, "or should I say Ethan Carter’s identity is known to me, the kid’s nothing more than a rat trying to play cat."

Dmitri’s fingers drummed lightly on the side of his glass. So he bought it, he thought.

Hook, line, and sinker. Out loud, he only gave a small grunt, neither confirming nor denying.

Nathaniel was too confident for his own good and that was what would cause his downfall.

Taking another sip of whiskey, Dmitri made sure to only drink in controlled amounts, why?

Well, the results would soon speak for themselves.

"After all this, I might just need a really long vacation," Nathaniel muttered visibly tired, "maybe have fun with some senator’s daughter in some back water country...or maybe even Ethan’s cute little COO."

Dmitri said nothing in response, only calmly observing Nathaniel as he spoke. Strangely, the more Nathaniel spoke, the more tired he seemed.

~Yawn

"That’s strange," he muttered after the yawn, "I didn’t remember being this tired."

His eyes got heavier by the second and no matter how much he forced them to stay open, he could keep them like that.

Slowly, he lifted his head to look at Dmitri, only to find a calm face looking at him as he slipped to sleep and that’s when he realized, his drink was spiked.

But how? And Why?

He had ordered for the drink to be brought in even before Dmitri walked in and he, Nathaniel, had been the one to pour them drinks so how was it possible that his had been spiked?

He wanted to ask how and for what but he was only falling asleep faster and the last thing he heard before darkness took him was Dmitri saying, "I apologize for this."

And then, nothing but darkness as he fell into the sweet embrace of slumber.

Dmitri’s face was calm as he looked at the sleeping Nathaniel before he lifted his tongue and took out a small white sponge.

One that had absorbed all the spiked whiskey he had drunk.

This had all been setup a few hours earlier and Nathaniel, in all his cocky ness had seen none of it coming.

Though, he wasn’t to be entirely blamed, after all, you couldn’t prepare for anything when you saw yourself as untouchable.

---------

A few hours back.

Dmitri calmly pull the phone away from his ears before grudgingly looking at his tablet.

The image of a Chibi avatar smiling in satisfaction as it looked directly at Dmitri, was displayed.

"Well done," The avatar said with a smile on its face, "now just one more job for you and you’ll never hear from me again."

"And what’s that?" Dmitri asked with a frown on his face.

It hadn’t been that long since he tortured John for double crossing Ethan, yet, he was the one about to double Crossing him right now... The irony.

"Oh, it’s not much," The avatar answered, "all you have to do is bring me Nathaniel Langley alive."

Dmitri’s frown deepened. "Alive? You want me to kidnap him? You want him alive?"

"Exactly," The avatar’s tiny hand clapped in satisfaction. "Take him, bring him to the coordinates I’ve sent and I’ll finally disappear from you and your family’s life, sounds good?"

Dmitri rubbed his temple. This kid really was crazy, because which same person would ever think of kidnapping Nathaniel Langley, THE Nathaniel Langley.

But that’s when he remembered, this was no ordinary kid, he was the same kid that had calmly orchestrated every single thing that was currently happening to the Langely’s right now, all by himself.

"You do know that it would be almost impossible to complete this task right?" he asked, because he had to ask, though he already knew the answer.

The avatar said nothing at first, as if calmly calculating something but it chuckled and looked at Dmitri before saying, "I’ll handle everything else, you just worry about bringing him to me, understood?"

Dmitri just simply nodded before the call ended, he looked at his tablet’s screen for a while before sighing, "maybe after this I should just quit."

Besides, he has earned enough to not worry about working for a really long while. He can’t keep putting his family in danger because of money.

______

A couple of minutes before after Nathaniel had ordered for a bottle of whiskey to be brought to his office.

The server slowly arranged the bottle on a tray with two glasses before she moved back for a napkin to place on it.

With her back turned, she didn’t notice the figure that was slowly approaching her until it was too late.

Her mouth was suddenly covered with a white chloroformed napkin and she didn’t have the chance to struggle before she completely went cold.

The person dragged her knocked out body to one of the stores that had a pantry in them before taking off her uniform and switching them with theirs.

A second later, a girl with short hair walked out in the uniform of the previous server with a frown on her face.

"Why the hell am I the one chosen to do this again?" She muttered in dissatisfaction as she walked to the tray and took out something from her pockets and emptying it in the whiskey.

"Because you lost a game of rock, paper scissors to Nico, Silk." A voice came from the other end through her ear piece.

"Bullshit," Silk cursed, "that game was fu/*cking rigged."

"Just because you lost doesn’t mean it’s rigged," Bypass muttered.

"Shut up, Keyboard Jesus." Silk said as she took the tray and slowly walked to the elevator.

"Guys, focus!" Tag’s voice cut them off, "Silk, hurry up and get back to base, were supposed to be dead right now and it wouldn’t do us any good if someone recognizes you."

At this point, the Vigilants were more of OmniTech’s field operators than hackers but they didn’t mind anymore since their promised pay was pretty unbelievable.

"Fine," Silk muttered, "I don’t to be here any longer either."

The elevator let out a ding and she walked out, towards the office door, knocking a few times she was let in, and without any words, pointed towards the small coffee table.

Silk noticed a wine cellar with many expensive drinks on it, which made it weird that he had ordered another drink but it wasn’t her place to ask.

She just put down the tray, arranged the whiskey bottle and two glasses neatly and walked out, closing the door behind her.

"Done," she muttered in a tone that sounded like a whisper.

"Good job," Nico and Spectra praised.

"Oh! what was he doing?" Zero’s overactive voice came through, "was he scary? We’re you nervous? Did he notice?"

"I don’t think he did," Silk responded, "after all, he was just standing by the window and looking through it like an idiot."

The Zero to chuckle, "that’s funny."

"Enough," Tag’s voice came through, "Silk, handoff point is the laundry chute two corridors down. Drop the uniform there, switch back, and head to the van. Bypass, kill the nearest security cam loop for thirty seconds."

"Already done," Bypass replied flatly. "Cameras in that section are showing yesterday’s cleaning cycle. No one will see her."

The plan unfolded like clockwork. Silk turned the corner, found the chute, and quietly went inside.

Within seconds, she was peeling the borrowed uniform off, grimacing as she tossed it in the bag.

"Seriously though," Silk muttered, pulling her own hoodie back on and adjusting the panda plushie strapped to her backpack, "next time someone else does the dress-up job. I’m not built for this."

"You’re built for greed," Bypass stated. "Think of the payday, Silk. That should ease the pain."

"Shut up!" She muttered

Juno’s voice finally came in, slow and lazy, like he’d just woken up. "...you guys are being too loud. Did Silk finish?"

"Yes," Tag said, "good job everyone."