A few minutes later, the girl was pushed out the door with a blank expression and her clothes in disarray.
She wanted to curse, but held back when she felt the two big Japanese bills in her hand.
After putting the money into her purse, she touched her back. Hm… it was a little cold!
D*mn that guy, did he have some sort of weird fetish? He actually didn’t let her look for more clothes to wear. She was angry, but could only tell herself that it was summer anyway, and it was cooler if she wore less.
Trying her best to ignore the chill, the girl pulled down the hem of her skirt and scurried off.
A few minutes later, the door opened, and Luke walked out. He went to the hotel basement, got into Tanaka’s car and went back to his place.
When night fell, he left the house and drove to the onsen in the mountains of Otaru.
He parked the car in the staff area and walked around to the side of the building. He swiped his employee ID and opened the door.
At the end of the hallway, a young man in uniform who was on duty looked up and immediately bowed respectfully. “Chief, you’re here so early? Thank you for your hard work.”
Luke put on a nonchalant expression and grinned. “Alright, Sato, I’m American; there’s no need for that.”
The young man on duty, however, remained respectful. “Yes, Chief.”
Seeing that Tanaka was about to leave, however, he immediately changed the subject. “Chief, was the store I recommended to your liking?”
Luke was stumped for a moment and didn’t understand what store he was referring to.
But he had broken through the 60 threshold, and as his mind raced, he instantly recalled the store which this Sato had recommended to Tanaka.
The smile on his face was much more sincere as he patted the young man’s shoulder. “Not bad, but it wasn’t hot enough.”
As if it wasn’t the right time to talk about it, he stopped and looked at his watch before saying, “Hm, you can come with me next time.”
Then, he walked inside, leaving behind a cheerful Sato.
The girl who had been with Tanaka in the afternoon was from the store recommended by Sato.
Sato knew that Kouji Tanaka liked to fool around, which was why he had deliberately tried to curry favor with him this way.
Now that the deputy chief had said he would take him along next time, he was naturally happy.
Compared with the other senior members of Hydra, Kouji Tanaka’s identity was a little interesting.
As a mixed-blood, he had Asian-looking features, which made the local members feel closer to him, while they only had pure dread of the other senior members.
This was something that Hydra couldn’t change.
Tanaka was also very capable, and he inadvertently became the representative of the local Japanese branch and one of the three deputy chiefs with the highest position apart from the branch chief.
It was also the reason why Luke had targeted the guy.
If he were an ordinary Hydra small fry, he would have to suck up to a bunch of superiors when he came in. He wasn’t in the mood to do that.
What, Tanaka also had to suck up to the branch chief? That was impossible.
After Tanaka met with the branch chief, Chris, Luke would become the boss of this branch.
When that moment came, he could split up the people here and eliminate them one by one.
As long as external problems were turned into internal problems, it would be very easy to clean up these Hydra members neatly.
This was Luke’s real skill.
…
Two quiet days later, after Deputy Chief Kouji Tanaka met with Chief Chris Morgan, he received a new assignment and was about to leave for America.
It was said that he would be gone for a month. The mission was very important, and the content was classified.
Many people came to congratulate Deputy Chief Tanaka.
Tanaka calmly accepted their congratulations and then quietly disappeared, leaving nothing behind but hearsay.
In the branch chief’s office, Luke enjoyed his cup of authentic Blue Mountain coffee.
This was from the personal stash of Chief Chris.
Naturally, it was all Luke’s now.
Standing at the office window on the top floor of the onsen hotel, he sipped his coffee and looked out at the cool valley scenery under the summer sun as he thought about the information he had obtained from Chris.
This branch was still under the control of a certain Hydra “head” in America. It didn’t act on its own, but followed instructions.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been able to go into hiding so quickly.
But this American “head” was even more well-hidden. Even Chris didn’t know his exact identity.
Chris had the faint suspicion that the man was in D.C.. It was very likely that he was from the Department of Defense, or was someone in the White House.
Luke wasn’t very interested in this.
Things had only just settled down in America.
Unless necessary, he wouldn’t touch any government officials for the time being.
After all, from the moment the clown had started to move, he had killed more than 100 state-level bigwigs in the past six months.
If it wasn’t for the fact that these people were suspected of having ties to Hydra, the American government would have mobilized the entire country for a thorough investigation.
If the other party offered themselves up of their own accord, however, Luke didn’t mind switching aliases and making them mysteriously disappear.
He also had another lead.
This branch had received an order from the top to provide funding and resources to a small secret research institute, including even living test subjects.
Also, it was a lot of people, about 50 to 100 of them a month.
The secret research institute had been set up a year ago, and so far, almost 1,000 people had been sent in.
As a righteous person, Luke hated people who didn’t care about human life the most.
Thus, he planned to purge the research institute first, before he slowly took care of this branch.
As the chief in charge now, he was naturally a man of his word
While he was pondering how to sneak into the research institute that night and destroy it, Chris’s phone rang.
Luke picked up the call. “What is it? The head of the Yashida family wants to meet at 7pm tonight? Mm, very well.”
He hung up and pondered.
Chris was in contact with the family because of the secret research institute.
It was said that the head of the family, who was 87 years old, was in poor health and seeking treatment.
The secret research institute had gotten Chris to contact the Yashida family and claim that there was a way to treat Shiro Yashida.
Chris introduced the people from the research institute to the family, and both parties had a meeting, but nothing happened.
Chris didn’t know the details of the meeting.
The secret research institute had a special status and was part of the American division. Chris couldn’t help but be left out of the talk.
The research institute had no intention of exposing itself either.
It had used Chris’s name all along in the discussion with the Yashida family.
The Yashida family didn’t know that this branch chief was just a mouthpiece.
So, they called Chris for a second meeting.
The research institute had indicated that if Chris succeeded in this matter, it would work more closely with the branch.
