Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

Well, that call was a break until Tristan heard what Vargas had to say.

"Greetings, boss. It's about our Sea Devil. I think Damien got himself into something unpleasant. Nobody can reach him, although he was supposed to meet with our trade partners an hour ago. His second-in-command went instead, but he told me before that that he hadn't heard from Damien since last night."

Tristan frowned, building a timeline in his head. It was late afternoon by now, so not enough to declare someone missing in police terms.

However, missing obligations without a warning was a serious offense in an organization like Tristan's—or a serious reason for worrying.

Your next journey awaits at empire

"The meeting with the trade partners went without further problems, though, right, Vargas?"

"Yes. Thankfully…"

"And you have no idea where Damien might be, but you ordered a search, because of course you did."

"Yes… If this is his misconduct, or if Damien appears later by himself, you will decide how many lashes he's due, boss."

"So, did you call me just to inform me of this?" Tristan asked, suppressing a sigh.

"Well," Vargas paused. "Call it a hunch, I suppose. I heard about the task you gave Kevin, and I remembered something Damien shared when we got drunk at his birthday party."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Which was a few weeks before the Operation Claw, as far as Tristan could recall. He was invited, but left quickly—the party was too informal for a boss to mingle with subordinates without long-lasting awkwardness. Even with Tristan's people-skills.

"He will curse me if he knows I told you, though, but I think it's relevant," Vargas continued. "Damien has a brother who's also a celebrity of some kind. I don't know details, but he made it big, apparently? If he got sick like all those other celebs, Damien could've gone to… do something."

Tristan's eyes widened.

'A famous brother, huh? Sounds very familiar.'

"Did he sound like he was close to his brother?"

"Oh, no, they didn't see each other for years. But Damien sounded unhappy as hell about it. Anyway, I thought Damien might've gone to his brother, but I didn't want to give this information to my search team without your approval. It's too sensitive."

Tristan nodded thoughtfully, although Vargas couldn't see it. Civilian relatives could be easily used to harm other people, and if Damien's brother made a famous career, then Damien's existence alone could harm him.

It made perfect sense for them to keep each other's existence secret even if (or especially if) they loved each other.

Sharing this information with more people might make Damien do something vengeful to the person responsible. And Damien's levels of daring, he might, just might, go even against Tristan.

"Yes, you did well to ask first, Vargas. Don't share this information. I'm going to do my own search, through more private ways. Call me again if you find Damien by yourself."

Tristan heard an almost inaudible sigh of relief on the other side of the call.

"I will, boss. If that's all, I won't take more of your time."

"This is."

With these words, Tristan ended the call and rubbed his face.

'I can't believe I have to catch my underbosses at this time, too. I'm still busy… Ah, fuck, my brain is cooking anyway. This sickness makes me feel like I have a jellyfish inside my skull instead of gray matter.'

At least this problem could be solved by a couple of calls if Tristan was lucky enough.

He still had Asher Ilom's contacts, which included those of him and his personal assistant-slash-secretary.

First, Tristan switched his identity again. As Gemello, he called Asher first.

His phone was off.

Next, Tristan called Asher's secretary.

Ring… ring… ring…

The seconds steadily ticked past. Half a minute had passed. Tristan waited with mounting tension.

"Hello, this is Walters speaking. If you want to reach Mr. Ilom, then he's unavailable at the moment, but I will pass your offer at the nearest opportunity, sir. I mean, Mr. Gemello. I apologize—it's been a long day."

Tristan raised his eyebrows.

"Really? Is that because Mr. Ilom got sick, too? He didn't say anything on the matter publically."

"This is a private matter, Mr. Gemello, and I'm not free to discuss it," Walters snapped back.

Tristan knew already that he was right. The revelation was interesting.

He thought Asher wasn't famous enough to be affected, considering how much he disliked being in the public eye… But then, he wasn't following his movie-making lately.

His last project, in which Tristan took a small part himself by convincing the lead actress to take the role, must have been well in the middle of the shooting by now. Were the raw shots that promising already?

"Mr. Walters, but I really need to reach Mr. Ilom. In person, preferably. It's about his brother," Tristan said smoothly.

"A brother?" Walter's skepticism was audible. "Mr. Ilom doesn't have a brother."

'Oh, so even his secretary doesn't know? Interesting.'

"Sorry, I misspoke. I meant Swallow. Ms. Swallow. It's very important and very urgent and if I don't get the address of Mr. Ilom's hospital RIGHT NOW, his movie won't have her as a lead actress anymore."

Tristan said the threat like the words were wrought from lead and put together with other absolute facts of the world, like "two plus two equals four" and "the sun rises from the East".

So the secretary had to choose whether to doom Ilom's movie and suffer Ilom's wrath, or give up the information and suffer Ilom's wrath, but probably less of it.

Walters still hesitated for a moment.

"He will never forgive you for Ms. Swallow," Tristan added. "He will destroy your life. And I will help, because I had already helped Mr. Ilom in the past. I only want to help now, too."

"…Alright. Write it down, Mr. Gemello."

Tristan didn't need to—it was the same hospital Nelson was admitted to. Asher valued his privacy a lot.

'Damn, I could've walked past his door and didn't notice. Although there were a lot of doors and several floors, so this doesn't mean much.'

The path was clear. Tristan began moving.