Recognizing Argo's voice, Morrow assumed there must be progress on the intelligence front.
As for Argo's somewhat peculiar opening line, he couldn't be bothered to engage with it.
His silence left the call hanging in an awkward pause.
Scratching his greasy hair, Argo had no choice but to cut to the chase to break the ice.
"Big spender, you're in serious trouble right now."
"I can see that."
At Argo's warning, Morrow glanced down at the corpse beneath him.
The journey from Yorknew to the outskirts took about an hour.
The fact that Argo had managed to gather critical intel in that time was proof of his competence.
With that thought, Morrow's gaze shifted, quickly scanning the distant road ahead.
Continuing down this path would lead to a stretch of wilderness.
His privately purchased shooting range was located in that very wilderness.
But now, it seemed the range was likely compromised, making a visit pointless.
As for his daily training sessions...
He'd have to figure something else out.
Argo was initially puzzled by how Morrow had seen the danger but quickly caught on.
"You were attacked?"
"Yeah, almost cost you an easy 2 billion."
"That's such a sha... well, I mean, if you died too quickly, not only would the money be hot in my hands, but I'd also be at risk of getting dragged into the mess."
Argo earnestly refuted Morrow's remark.
Taking on such a huge job only for the client to drop dead right after?
That would be terrible for business.
"Enough. Get to the point."
Morrow wanted to see how much Argo had uncovered.
Hearing this, Argo immediately switched to work mode.
"The ones after you are the Gambino Family and a guy named Clyde. Big spender, you've heard of the Ten Dons, right?"
"I have."
Morrow's eyes flickered slightly.
Argo continued, "Gambino is the surname of one of those Ten Dons."
"..."
Morrow was briefly surprised but quickly composed himself.
The Ten Dons: the ten supreme leaders of the global underworld, each controlling the mafia forces across the six continents. They were also the organizers of the grand Yorknew Auction held every year.
If this was the business of one of the Ten Dons...
It made sense how they could casually "issue" death certificates and why Morena had dealings with them.
Morrow recalled that, three years later during the Yorknew Auction, Chrollo would hire Illumi to assassinate the Ten Dons.
To pull it off, Illumi would even call upon the family's ancient patriarch.
And to locate the Ten Dons' meeting spot within the tight deadline, he'd have to enlist Kalluto's help, someone with a tracking ability.
From this, even accounting for the "race against time" factor, the fact that Illumi would bring out Maha, that old monster, spoke volumes about how difficult the Ten Dons were to eliminate.
A thought struck Morrow: had Kalluto already awakened his Nen ability for tracking?
With his help, finding Feitan wouldn't be hard.
Then there were Silva and Zeno of the Zoldyck Family, would they take on kidnapping contracts outside of assassinations?
And speaking of tracking...
Palm's image flashed through Morrow's mind.
The Conjuration Type Ability, Wink Blue, was also an incredibly useful tool for locating people. It's unclear what Palm's current situation is, and her master Knov remains highly vigilant about her use of the Wink Blue ability.
Even setting aside how to explain where we learned about Palm's ability, offering money alone likely wouldn't make Knov loosen his grip on the matter.
Argo's voice pulled Morrow's thoughts back.
"However, based on the information I've gathered, this wasn't orchestrated by Gambino himself, but by his son, Nolan Gambino."
The son of one of the Ten Dons...?
Morrow was momentarily stunned before hearing Argo continue:
"Nolan leveraged his father's influence to establish a business called 'Menu' in territories under the Ten Dons' protection."
"On the surface, they operate hospitals across various regions, but behind the scenes, they're involved in human trafficking."
"The so-called 'Menu' breaks down a 'person' into various tradable commodities."
"This way, buyers can select the goods they need from the Menu: organs, blood, or other human-derived materials. Some even purchase whole individuals for... experiments."
"For this kind of trade, the most crucial aspect is matching conditions. And the clients this organization deals with are far from ordinary."
Here, Argo hesitated, slowing his speech:
"Big spender... If you and Nolan have no prior conflict, then the reason his men are investigating you, or have already made a move, is likely because you've been 'matched.'"
"Is that so..."
Morrow neither confirmed nor denied it.
Initially, it was probably because some buyer needed something from him that he was forcibly added to the Menu.
But tonight's attack...
That was no longer just about fulfilling a buyer's demand. It was because his involvement in killing the transport drivers had been discovered.
Argo, unaware of this, could only assume that some part of Morrow matched a buyer's needs, hence Nolan's men targeting him.
But the real issue here was:
Gel had helped relocate those piglets. So even if Nolan investigated afterward, once he confirmed Gel hadn't deliberately targeted the transport but had stumbled upon it by chance...
Anyone with half a brain wouldn't seek revenge against the Zodiac Twelve over a single truck of piglets.
After all, someone capable of scaling such a niche business as the Menu would know when to cut losses, not risking major consequences for minor gains.
Unless the potential value of that truckload of piglets was worth relentless pursuit.
If that were the case...
Then Nolan must have first assessed Gel's connection to the incident before confidently resuming the hunt for the escaped piglets.
Morrow suspected that Gel's accidental involvement might have delayed Nolan's investigation from reaching him immediately.
Given this, once Nolan's men found the other piglets, his role in killing the two drivers would inevitably come to light.
"Argo."
"Yeah?"
"Look into something for me now."
To confirm his suspicions, Morrow needed to know the current status of the other piglets.
He tasked Argo with this.
—--
Ten minutes later.
Argo sent a video.
Morrow tapped play.
Instantly, agonized screams blared from the phone's speakers, echoing across the plains. This was footage of someone being tortured alive.
Morrow only glanced briefly before silently closing the video.
The person being tortured in the footage was one of the piglets who had been in the same transport truck as him.
Morrow's expression remained blank, but when he glanced sideways at the back of Vaughn's head, now just a corpse, his gaze turned particularly icy.