Instead of killing the broker, the person behind all this had delivered him directly to John Wick's doorstep. It was clear they didn't want to escalate the situation into an outright conflict. Perhaps they were wary of John Wick and the Polar Bear Gang, but the warning to leave Clarence Dobby alone was unmistakable.
What they probably didn't understand was who they were dealing with. The more mysterious they acted, the more intrigued William became. He immediately shifted his focus to Clarence Dobby and the enigmatic figure backing him.
Digging into the matter, William quickly stumbled upon something that piqued his interest.
Clarence Dobby's record was straightforward—an endless list of crimes. Anyone reading about his misdeeds would have an overwhelming urge to tear him apart and send him to the deepest pits of hell.
Among the victims of his actions, Sunday found a particularly intriguing case: a man who had vanished ten years ago—Clyde Shelton. A decade ago, Shelton had been an intelligent, inventive engineer.
By his late 20s, he had patented over a dozen engineering innovations, amassing a fortune worth several million dollars. He married a beautiful wife, had an adorable daughter, and seemed to lead an idyllic life.
But even the most beautiful life requires means to protect it.
Clyde Shelton's life took a dramatic turn when the scoundrel Clarence Dobby appeared.
In the 1990s, during America's period of rapid economic growth, construction projects were everywhere in New York. Meanwhile, the underground economy was being squeezed out by AK-toting "Polar Bears"—Russian thugs—who stormed in and disrupted everything. A prime example was the Tarasov brothers, Viggo and Abram, who had eventually come under William's control.
Many of these early Russians were ex-military and operated with reckless abandon, taking over any business they could. Casualties didn't matter to them.
As a small-time gang leader, Clarence Dobby faced not only financial struggles but also the constant threat of being wiped out by these AK-toting invaders.
In desperation, Dobby turned to the construction business, which the Russians, lacking language skills and local knowledge, couldn't easily dominate.
It was during this pivot that Dobby encountered Clyde Shelton, the engineer. After a few meetings, Dobby set his sights on Shelton's patents.
From that point on, Shelton's life unraveled.
Repeatedly attempting to extort, intimidate, and threaten Shelton, Dobby met with no success. When Shelton's company retaliated against Dobby's actions, Dobby's frustration boiled over. One night, he and five or six cronies showed up outside Shelton's home.
Leaving a few men on lookout, Dobby and his close associate, Mick, broke into Shelton's house. When Shelton refused yet again to hand over his patents, Dobby, now deranged, stabbed him in the stomach and, in front of his eyes, murdered his wife and daughter.
Fate seemed to intervene that night. Despite the knife wound to his abdomen, Shelton survived. Hours later, he regained consciousness and managed to call for help.
With Shelton's direct testimony, Clarence Dobby and his accomplice Mick were swiftly arrested.
But the outcome shattered Shelton's already broken world.
Despite Shelton's efforts to push for justice, the prosecutor, Nick Reese, prioritized his win rate over the actual case. Claiming insufficient evidence, Reese cut a deal that let Clarence Dobby walk free as a lesser offender. Meanwhile, Mick, who hadn't even actively participated in the killings, was charged as the primary offender and given a ten-year suspended death sentence.
The idea that the man who had slaughtered his family had been sentenced to a mere ten years was beyond unbearable for Shelton, whose life had gone from heavenly to hellish in a blink.
From that moment on, Shelton vanished from the lives of his colleagues, friends, and family.
For the next decade, no one knew where Shelton was or what he was doing. But for Sunday, this mystery was merely a matter of time and resources.
Armed with specific details and photos, Sunday didn't even need to hack into the CIA. England's intelligence archives were enough to reveal Shelton's activities over the past ten years.
Once Sunday pieced together the information, she reported back to William.
"Sir, Clyde Shelton, alias 'The Corkscrew.' The name implies that once he takes on a mission, it's guaranteed to be completed.
"After disappearing from New York, Shelton paid his way into a specialized training camp, where he spent three years mastering every skill related to escape and assassination. When Clarence Dobby leveraged his connections to reduce his sentence to three years, Shelton began taking contracts on the dark web.
"He's since carried out assassination contracts for the U.S. Department of Defense, the CIA, and even the British MI6. His work includes eliminating key targets and gathering intelligence. He holds sensitive information, including the identities of numerous MI6 operatives he's collaborated with. In short, he's a dangerously ruthless individual."
William skimmed through Shelton's long list of completed missions and had to admit the man had a natural talent for being either a hitman or a spy. His preference for operating in the shadows and eliminating targets without revealing himself resonated with William's own methods.
"It seems our Mr. Shelton intends to deal with Clarence Dobby himself," William mused. Then he hesitated. Dobby had secured an early release seven years ago, thanks to his connections. Given Shelton's skills and resources, he'd had ample opportunity to kill Dobby by now. So why had he waited, allowing Dobby to live relatively comfortably?
With this question in mind, William instructed Sunday to keep monitoring Shelton. He also called John Wick, advising him to drop the Dobby matter to avoid interfering with Shelton's revenge and unnecessarily provoking such a formidable adversary.
The next morning, Sunday had another update. "Sir, last night, I discovered that Rupert Mick, the accomplice sentenced to death ten years ago, is scheduled for execution today at Bilton Prison. Interestingly, Shelton hacked into the logistics company handling the lethal injection. He swapped out the drugs for a compound that will still kill Mick but in an excruciatingly painful manner.
"Oh, and the lawyer who defended Clarence Dobby ten years ago has gone missing."
"Well," William said with a smirk, "it looks like Shelton's decade of special training has given him not just the means for revenge but also the desire to inflict maximum suffering on everyone involved."
He could hardly blame the man. If William had been in Shelton's shoes, he might have done something even crazier.
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Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 336)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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