"Huh? She's his daughter?"
The Black cop immediately felt a chill race down his spine. As he reached behind to touch his neck, he realized his entire back was soaked in cold sweat.
He looked gratefully at the white cop beside him."Thanks for the heads-up. I would've been screwed otherwise."
"Of course. We're partners if I don't have your back, who will?" the white cop replied with a light chuckle.
His name was Fox. With just three years left until retirement, the last thing he wanted was trouble. especially from someone like Tony, a notorious crime lord with a vicious reputation.
"So what do we do about that guy and the girl? If we just let them walk, Tony won't be pleased," the Black cop asked cautiously.
"Just say it was a minor accident. Bring them in for a statement, nothing more. Nobody's going to look too closely. Who knows, maybe we'll even earn a favor or some extra cash on the side," Fox replied with a sly grin.
"Alright, bro. Whatever you say we'll do it your way."
"Daddy! Watson and I were bullied on the road! Hurry up and send someone to get revenge for me!" the punk girl shouted into her phone, full of indignation. She angrily smacked Watson's hand off her arm.
"Useless. Can't even protect your own girlfriend."
"Tina, we should drop this. That guy back there? That was Tony. Messing with him is like throwing eggs at a stone," Watson said, rubbing his cheek after taking the slap, not daring to protest further.
"Hmph. No way I'm letting this go. No one has ever laid a hand on me! I don't care who he is, I'll make him regret it!" Tina's eyes were bloodshot with rage as she glared in the direction Aetheris had gone.
"Miss, the Master sent us to pick you up."
A bald man in dark sunglasses and a sharp black suit approached them.
Within minutes, a convoy of over a dozen black Cadillacs had arrived, completely surrounding the area. Two lawyers who came with the group found a couple of low-level thugs to take the fall and followed Fox and the others back to file a statement.
"Uncle Grant, didn't my dad send you to take revenge for me?" Tina asked, still fuming and refusing to move.
"Miss, the Master said to discuss things after you return. This isn't the end," the bodyguard replied evenly, his tone calm and respectful, neither arrogant nor submissive.
Maybe it was his intimidating aura, but Tina finally relented. She pouted and got into Uncle Grant's car, clearly not happy about it.
"You, kid—coming with us?"
The bald man looked over at Watson, who was holding his stomach and looking pretty miserable.
"No, thanks, Uncle Grant. Tina's car's wrecked, so I need to get it towed. You all go ahead. No need to wait for me," said the blond young man with a forced grin, waving weakly.
"Alright then. Take care."
The bald man gave a simple nod, and the line of Cadillacs turned around and disappeared down the road.
"Hello? Musk? It's done. I stirred the pot between Tony and Tony the Turd. Can we call the mission complete now?"
Once the convoy was out of sight, Watson pulled out a backup phone, an old Nokia 1110 with physical buttons.
"Not quite. Tina's side might still hesitate to go after Tony the Turd because of his strength. We need to escalate things further," came the reply.
In the New York Police Department, Chief Musk was sitting in his office, holding the exact same model of phone—a battered old Nokia 1110.
"Come on, do you even know how dangerous this is for me? Tina's a complete psycho. She's into threesomes, foursomes—you name it. Just yesterday, she tried to drag me into doing meth with her! I can't take this anymore!" Watson ranted, pacing next to the wrecked Ferrari while tugging at his blond hair.
"At first, you told me to get close to her and find out about their drug operations. I did that. Then you asked me to investigate their smuggling routes. I did that too. Now I'm supposed to pit her against Tony the Turd so we can take one of them out? I've done it! Musk, I'm a cop too! I don't want to spend the rest of my life rotting in this sewer I want to wear the real uniform, to be a real officer with honor!"
"I promise once this is done, you'll be promoted. No more sneaking around. No more sleepless nights," Musk said as he slowly spun his executive chair, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke.
"Fine. I'll trust you one last time. So, how do we pour gasoline on the fire?"
Watson slumped back into the driver's seat of the Ferrari, completely drained both from the earlier beating and the performance he had just put on.
Musk hung up, then placed the phone inside a secure safe in his office. When the heavy steel door opened, it revealed five identical phones inside, each neatly labeled.
He let out a long sigh and closed the safe.
Elsewhere, after the earlier incident, Aetheris was still driving with one hand on the wheel. He returned the call he had missed from Coulson.
"What were you saying earlier? Something happened over here, I didn't catch it."
Coulson was currently in Xalapa-Enríquez, the capital of Veracruz, Mexico. Located on the Gulf Coast, the region spans over 72,000 square kilometers with a population exceeding 10 million. It's one of the world's major port cities and a hub for global trade.
It's also the primary conduit for Mexico's narcotics, flowing to both North and South America and eventually, Europe.
"I've picked up signs of Victor operating in Xalapa. He's teamed up with a local drug lord and used tech he stole from Stark Industries to develop a batch of extremely powerful weapons," Coulson said in a hushed tone.
Xalapa was crawling with gangs, many deeply rooted in the drug trade. That alone made Coulson extra cautious.
People died in this city every day and no one even blinked.
"What do you mean 'took'? He stole that tech! It was part of my father's legacy!" Aetheris snapped, fully embracing the persona of a wronged heir, cursing fluently as he drove.
"So, what are you planning to do?"
Coulson tugged at his tie, visibly irritated by the oppressive heat.
Veracruz had a tropical savanna climate, with an annual average temperature of around 25°C.
"I'm tempted to just fly over in the Hellfire Armor and vaporize that backstabbing rat. Save you from sweating it out."
Aetheris scratched his head. Truth be told, subtlety and scheming weren't his strong suits.
Maybe it was the influence of the Hulk bloodline in his body but in his previous life, he'd at least made it into a second-tier university, so he didn't think he was completely dim-witted.
"Absolutely not. You represent the U.S. government. If you take that suit into foreign airspace, it'll be considered an invasion. They'd be well within their rights to retaliate."
(End of Chapter)
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