From the outside, the deli looked like a regular joint. Blue-and-white awning, faded pictures of sub specials taped to the window, rust on the door hinge. But inside, behind the counter and a cooler full of fake brand soda, it was one of Ade's quiet spots.
No cameras. No regulars. Just a stool by the freezer and a blind owner named Nico who didn't ask questions.
Ade sat there with a meatball sub, barely touched. The paper was soaked with sauce, untouched chips sat next to a sweating bottle of Coke. He kept checking the burner phone in his jacket.
Three missed calls. One from Dino, two from a number he didn't recognize. He didn't answer. He was watching.
Across the street, two guys had stood by a busted payphone for twenty minutes. Too long. One was faking a call, the other smoked half a pack and paced like he was rehearsing an argument.
This wasn't paranoia. This was proof.
Ade stood and nodded to Nico, dropped a fifty on the counter, and slipped out the side door. He took an alley, then another, walked two blocks before calling Renzo.
"You check the logs on GhostLine?"
Renzo didn't ask how he knew to ask. "Yeah. Someone cloned a node last week. Traced it to Yonkers, then it went dark."
"Someone's watching."
"Everyone's watching. You're just the only one acting like it."
That was enough for now. Ade walked another five blocks, caught a cab, and looped back to the Boxcar. He needed noise. People. The comfort of moving shadows.
Jason was running a cash game in the back. Dino sat watching, half-invested, eating sunflower seeds out of a plastic deli tub. Benny joked about Martino's daughter getting braces with his parlay loss money.
Ade didn't sit. He paced behind the players like smoke, just close enough to be felt. Jason gave him a nod. No words.
Someone brought up Atlantic City.
"Place is dead," Matt Bevilaqua said. "Casinos are ghosts."
"Ghosts with pensions," Eugene muttered.
Laughter broke tension. Not enough. Ade leaned in toward Dino.
"Anyone ask about me lately?"
Dino didn't blink. "Why?"
"Just answer."
"Couple guys. Low-level. Curious. Carlo's pushing rumors again."
Ade nodded. It lined up. Carlo didn't like losing ground. And Ade was expanding. Quietly, but enough to draw whispers.
"Let him talk. He runs outta breath before he finishes a sentence."
"What's the move, then?"
Ade looked past him, toward the street through the blinds.
"We go quiet for a bit. Then we show up where they don't expect."
That weekend, Adriana's studio played host to a low-key industry mixer. Some indie producers, a few shady label reps, and one guy from a radio station in Philly who kept pushing business cards like they were scratch tickets.
Cassie performed two songs. Ade stood in the back, arms crossed, not as a bodyguard, not as a fan. Just watching.
The first song landed. Light applause. The second one—rougher, stripped down—got silence. The good kind.
Afterward, she walked over, eyes still catching stage light.
"What'd you think?"
"The second song? That's the one."
"It's not clean yet."
"Good. Clean doesn't sell. Pain does."
She looked at him like she wanted to ask more. Didn't.
Adriana came by with two glasses of white wine.
"You still playing chess in your head?"
"No. I started playing poker."
"That's worse."
"Depends how many cards you hold."
Adriana laughed. "I don't know what you're planning, but stay alive long enough to see her album finished."
Ade raised his glass. "That's the plan."
Two days later, the post office fire made the papers. A back page story. Arson suspected. No suspects. Ade read it while eating eggs in a diner near Passaic.
"You see this?" he asked Renzo.
Renzo nodded. "Nothing traced back. We're clean."
"Still doesn't feel like a win."
"That's 'cause it ain't. Just slowed someone else down."
Ade folded the paper. He was starting to feel the difference between surviving and building. One was adrenaline. The other was pressure.
Snapshot – Week Twelve
Mob Etiquette: 20
Charisma: 20
Street Smarts: 17
Reputation: 27
Manipulation: 21
Combat Awareness: 11
Traits Gained:
Controlled Silence (Enhanced ability to draw info through stillness)
Flash Response (Improved reactions during ambush or surprise)
Strategic Isolation (Stronger impact when reappearing after lying low)
Ventures:
GhostLine (46%) – compromised once, now partially rerouted
The Boxcar (35%) – backroom games pulling steady flow
Studio Project (Second track in production)
Surveillance Avoidance: Active