Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

Chapter 201 Problems just keep piling up

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.

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"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."

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."

"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.