Master of Lust-Chapter 322 - -

Chapter - 322

The village of Gstaad was a playground for people who thought money was something you used to keep score, not something you spent. The streets were lined with Rolex shops, Prada boutiques, and banks that didn’t have names, just numbers.

Rick, Sharon, and Nadia sat in a private booth at Le Chalet, a restaurant that looked rustic but cost more than a kidney transplant. A bubbling pot of cheese fondue sat in the center of the table.

They were out of their catering disguises. Rick was back in his midnight-blue suit, looking every inch the wealthy playboy. Sharon was in a sleek, backless dress that concealed a ceramic knife strapped to her thigh. Nadia was in a business suit, looking like a high-end broker.

On the table, pulsing with a faint, invisible frequency, sat the Black Market Beacon.

"It’s active," Rick said, dipping a piece of bread into the cheese. "It’s pinging the local dark net. Message: ’High-Value Intel on Warner Operations. For Sale. Immediate Delivery.’"

"You think Valerius is here?" Sharon asked, scanning the room. She was tense. The restaurant was filled with Russians, Saudis, and Tech Moguls. Any one of them could be a killer.

"He’s here," Nadia said, looking at her tablet under the table. "The signal just got a handshake. Someone nearby is verifying the encryption key on the fake drive."

A waiter approached the table. He was tall, blonde, and moved with a grace that was too precise for a server.

"Monsieur," the waiter said, placing a bottle of wine on the table that they hadn’t ordered. It was a Chateau Margaux, 1995. "Compliments of the gentleman in the private room."

Rick looked where the waiter indicated. A heavy oak door at the back of the restaurant stood slightly ajar.

"Showtime," Rick said. He stood up, buttoning his jacket. "Nadia, bring the laptop. Sharon, enjoy the cheese. Watch my back."

"I always do," she muttered, her hand drifting to her thigh.

Rick and Nadia walked to the back room. The waiter opened the door for them.

Inside, the room was dimly lit. A fire roared in the hearth. Seated at the head of a long table was a man who looked like he had been carved out of granite. He was bald, with a scar running through his left eyebrow. He wore a suit that was tailored to hide a massive, muscular frame.

He wasn’t Valerius. He was a proxy.

"You have the drive?" the man asked. His accent was Eastern European. Heavy. Dangerous.

"Hello to you too," Rick said, sitting down opposite him. Nadia placed the black laptop case on the table. "I’m Rick. This is my associate. And you are?"

"I am the buyer," the man said. "The name is Kovac. Let me see it."

Rick nodded to Nadia. She opened the case, revealing the laptop. She spun it around. "Encrypted files. Croft Logistics. Off-shore accounts. Bribes. And the blueprints to the Warner Chateau’s thermal exhaust ports. It’s the keys to the kingdom."

Kovac looked at the laptop. He didn’t touch it. He looked at Rick.

"Silas Warner is a powerful man," Kovac said slowly. "Stealing from him is... suicidal. Selling his secrets in his own backyard? That is insane."

"High risk, high reward," Rick said, leaning back. "We want five million. Bearer bonds or crypto."

Kovac smiled. It was a cold, ugly thing. "Five million. A fair price."

He reached into his jacket.

Rick’s Terrifying Presence flared. The passive radar screamed. Hostile Intent.

"Get down!" Rick yelled, kicking the heavy table.

It flipped, crashing onto its side just as Kovac pulled a silenced machine pistol from his jacket and opened fire.

PFFT-PFFT-PFFT!

Bullets chewed into the heavy oak of the table. Rick and Nadia were behind it, scrambling for cover.

"It’s a trap!" Nadia screamed. "He’s not buying! He’s cleaning up!"

"Valerius doesn’t pay for what he can take!" Kovac roared, vaulting over the table.

Rick didn’t have a gun. He had the inventory, but drawing a heavy weapon here would bring the police and the Warner Guard. He needed to be subtle. Or at least, improvised.

He grabbed the fondue pot from a serving cart—still bubbling hot—and hurled it. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Kovac swatted it aside, the ceramic shattering, hot cheese splattering his expensive suit. He didn’t flinch. He raised the gun at Rick’s head.

Rick activated Predator’s Focus.

Time slowed. He saw the finger tightening on the trigger. He saw the waiter—who was actually a guard—drawing a knife at the door. He saw Sharon bursting into the room, a ceramic knife in her hand.

Rick needed a weapon. He checked his Inventory.

[Item: Quantum Marker (x5)]

[Item: Monofilament Tripwire]

[Item: Variety Pack Poisons]

Wait. The Tripwire.

Rick reached into the air and pulled out the spool of monofilament wire. It was thin, nearly invisible, and sharp enough to cut bone.

3 Seconds...

Rick lunged low, sliding under Kovac’s aim. He wrapped the wire around the legs of the heavy oak chair Kovac had been sitting in.

2 Seconds...

He rolled, pulling the wire taut across the path between Kovac and the door.

1 Second...

Rick stood up, holding the spool.

Time snapped back.

Kovac fired, the bullet grazing Rick’s shoulder, ruining the new suit. "Die!"

Rick yanked the wire.

Kovac stepped forward to finish the job. His shin hit the invisible, razor-sharp monofilament.

It didn’t just trip him. It sliced.

Kovac screamed as the wire bit deep into his leg, cutting through fabric and flesh to the bone. He pitched forward, crashing face-first into the stone hearth of the fireplace. His gun skittered across the floor.

Sharon was on the waiter-guard. It was a brutal, short fight. The guard lunged with a knife; Sharon parried, stepped inside his guard, and drove her ceramic blade into his thigh, then his shoulder. He went down.

Rick walked over to Kovac, who was trying to crawl toward his gun, blood pooling around his leg.

Rick stepped on Kovac’s hand. Crunch.

"Bad business etiquette," Rick said, looking down at him. "We had a deal."

"Valerius... will... kill you..." Kovac wheezed.

"Where is he?" Rick demanded, applying pressure.

"He... he is at the safe house. The... the Observatory. Up the mountain."

"The Observatory," Rick repeated. "Good."

He knelt. He pulled out one of the small, metallic discs from his inventory. The Quantum Marker.

"I’m going to let you live, Kovac," Rick said. "Because I need you to deliver a message."

He slapped the marker onto the back of Kovac’s neck. It adhered instantly, burrowing a tiny microneedle into the skin. It was invisible to the naked eye.

"You go back to Valerius," Rick whispered. "You tell him you failed. You tell him we got away. And you tell him the price just went up to ten million."

"Why..." Kovac gasped. "Why let me go?"

"Because," Rick smiled, a cold, terrifying expression. "I want you to lead me to him."

He stood up. "Sharon, Nadia. Grab the laptop. We’re leaving."

They exited through the kitchen, slipping out the back door just as the restaurant staff began to scream.

In the alley, the cold mountain air hit them.

"You tagged him?" Sharon asked, wiping blood from her knife.

"Quantum Marker," Rick confirmed. "I can track him anywhere on the planet. And more importantly..." He pulled up the item description in his mind.

[Item: Quantum Marker]

[Feature: Teleportation Anchor. User can warp to the marker’s location. Cooldown: 24 Hours. Cost: 50% Stamina.]

"...I can pay him a visit whenever I want."

Rick looked up at the mountain looming above them. Somewhere up there was an Observatory. Somewhere up there was Valerius. And somewhere up there was the Warner Chateau.

"We have the entry vector for the Chateau (Vancroft)," Rick said, planning the long game. "And now we have the location of the rival faction. We’re going to play them against each other."

"How?" Nadia asked.

"Valerius wants to destroy Silas. Silas wants to destroy us. We’re going to let Valerius think he’s buying the weapon to kill Silas," Rick tapped the laptop case. "But really, we’re giving him a virus that will shut down the Chateau’s external sensors."

"And then?" Sharon asked.

"And then," Rick said, "while they’re fighting each other... we walk in through the front door, serve the appetizers, and steal the ’older thing’ Johnson told us about."

He checked the System Quest.

[Quest: The Winter Conclave]

[Time Remaining: 13 Days, 18 Hours.]

[New Sub-Quest: The Enemy of My Enemy.]

[Objective: Infiltrate Valerius’s Stronghold.]

Rick buttoned his ruined jacket. "Let’s go. I need another new suit. And Kovac is bleeding on my shoes."

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