Page 74 of Rising from the Ashes

“Well, since you’re legally alive again and have taken over your fathers’ estates and assets, I had a proposition for you,” Drake replies, looking around the table, “For all of us.”

I arch my eyebrow in his direction. The last few weeks have been quiet on the streets of Edinburgh minus a few small street gangs starting fights between each other over territorial boundaries. Until recently, when we got wind of a new player in town trying to start pushing a newer drug called “tranq,” an opioid-sedative mixture of Fentanyl, Ketamine, and Xylazine. Whoever this new pusher is, he is testing his batches on the homeless and prostitutes.

As Drake speaks, CiCi pulls up pictures of his victims. Mostly women, but all of them have been injected straight into the veins based on the puncture wounds in their arms. Their mouths are duct taped and their faces look contorted as if it was causing them excruciating pain as it wreaked havoc on their bodies, their neck veins protruding.Some of the victims even had blood pouring from their eyes or ears.

Looking away from the pictures, my stomach churns. “How are we just now finding out about him? What else do we know?” I ask, swallowing down the knot in my throat.

Daniil speaks up, “His street name is the Silencer. We don’t know who or which organization he is associated with, but his drug has taken over the smaller boroughs in Manhattan. It’s a fucking disease.”

I glance over at Shado to see him nervously wringing his hands together. “So, now this Silencer is in Edinburgh, expanding his enterprise?”

Drake nods. “It wouldn’t be a hard objective to get the Raventown street gangs on board. If this drug takes hold, we will have another epidemic on our hands.”

“So let’s take him down. Find out where he is, who he’s working with. One man can’t be in multiple cities at one time.”

“I agree with you. Daniil is working on Manhattan, although he has just been promoted to Pakhan of his brigade so he will be working from a different angle. We will try to gather more information and history on him before he wreaks more havoc here.” He nods to Julian. “You will take Boston.”

Confused, I whip my head in his direction. “What, you’re no longer a ghost either?”

He shakes his head and shrugs, “Vanguard soldier sounded cooler than being a ghost.”

“A Vanguard what?” I’m getting whiplash as I look between him and Drake.

“That’s another reason I called you all here. We are a force to be reckoned with. With our newly acquired assets between your father and Shado with Demassi, I wanted to start our own organization.”

“The Vanguard soldiers? That sounds dumb,” I snort, trying to stifle a laugh.

Drake looks at me seriously. “No. The Vanguard 7. Soldiers seeking the truth to protect.”

I think back to the conversation we had at dinner many nights ago. His mother named the company originally. The number seven signifies being a seeker of truth and signifies the Greek deity Athena, the goddess of war and protector of the cities.

He’s honoring his mother.

Looking around the table at the five of us, I notice there are two empty chairs.

“We’re a little short on soldiers, there Cap’n.” I tease.

Drake winks at me. “I have that covered. You will meet them soon.”

Finally, after sitting there listening, Shado breaks his silence.

“Let’s save the city again.”

To be continued…