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Chapter 421
Chapter 421
Chapter 421
After such a brazen slander from Isaac, even a statue would have blushed with anger. You have to be either very calm or dead in order not to react to such words. Bernard turned purple, Alexander also lost his composure, Zosimos’ eyes were clouded with bloodlust, and only Valeera narrowed her eyes rapaciously.
Many people looked at Arpha accusingly. Diego crossed his arms thoughtfully, looking askance at the culprit, while everyone else felt it necessary to express their point of view: «So that’s what the first woman who heads the clan is like? I didn’t expect anything more…» … «For the sake of profit, women do not hesitate to ignore any rules. A well-known truth.» … «Yes, but what kind of bitch does one have to be to do this?! She didn’t have enough of her own abilities to organize a great robbery, so she decided to appropriate a ready-made one from a neighbor?! How disgusting it is… I’m going to throw up!» … «Mr. Isaac, your anger is fully justified. I wouldn’t put up with it either.» … «Mr. Isaac, I would like to take this opportunity to say how much I admire your courage. None of us would even dare to think about robbing the warehouse of a family of the thirtieth rank! The whole city is still full of rumors about your feat. You made history, pushed the boundaries of the possibilities of the shadow clans, and I am glad that you are one of us!» – the head of the clan of the 7th rank respectfully said this, with the obvious intention of sucking up to the strongest one.
Despite the fact that she was under intense emotional pressure, Valeera delivered a surprisingly calm and thoughtful speech: «Clan heads, please do not jump to conclusions. Today you are acting as judges, but I do not intend to remain the only defendant, so I lay a counter charge: the Black Star clan operated on the territory of my clan. Edward and his gang nearly disrupted the operation for which I had been preparing for more than a month. They killed two of my men, almost stole my loot, tried to take me prisoner, and in addition, because of this delay, the Stalbers appeared, which caused me to lose half of the gang.»
Arpha’s words sounded extremely confident for someone who was accused by Isaac himself, but such arrogant behavior only angered those present more: «Are you serious? Do you think we will believe that some woman is capable of such a thing?!» … «Girl, you are only the head of the eighth rank clan, so give that crap to someone else!» … «I’m going to throw up from such a brazen lie!» … «How dare you?!»
Bernard looked like an over-inflated red balloon that was about to burst. Even Kyon could barely restrain the desire to strangle each of the screaming. Yes, “some” woman and the head of the clan of “some” 8th rank did what you will never dare to do! Valeera looked calm, although at these moments her heart gave out a frantic rhythm.
As soon as Diego spoke, everyone else fell silent: «He-he, this meeting is getting more interesting. You should admit that not everyone has the courage to lay a counter-charge against the head of the Black Star clan. Arpha is a very brave woman and she deserves respect even for this reason. We need such leaders of shadow clans, don’t we?» – the man asked, ironically lifting the corners of his lips, looking intently at the head of the clan of the 7th rank, who recently openly sucked up to Isaac, like a young lion cub to the leader of the pride.
The head of the 7th rank clan turned away in embarrassment, feeling humiliated.
Edward’s face twisted hideously, as if he had sniffed his socks.
The heads of the other clans did not know how to respond, apparently deciding to simply remain silent.
Valeera looked at Diego gratefully. She decided that if everything goes well, then in the future, when she leads all the shadow clans, this man will become her deputy, and maybe even get a personal date with her.
There was an oppressive atmosphere in the room. Isaac broke the silence, saying in an ominous tone: «Bitch, you have a lot of courage, but what’s the use of it? Your words are worthless here. The question is not who is to blame, but in determining the measure of your punishment.»
Valeera, who was on the opposite side of the round table, confidently parried: «The question is in determining the identity of the one who violated the rules of the shadow clans. And whoever it turns out to be, he will bear all the accompanying sanctions that correspond to the charter of the clans. Or do you disagree with this?»
Isaac silently stared at the speaker with his frightening deathly gaze. There is no doubt, the girl knows how to choose words. In such a situation, he has nothing to answer. It would be smarter to ignore what he heard.
«He-he, Arpha won one-nil.» – smiled Diego.
The head of the Black Star clan got down to business: «Twenty-one days ago, at three o’clock in the morning, a gang of my clan led by Edward, broke into the territory of the Stalbers’ warehouse in order to take out its contents. It is worth noting that the warehouse is located on Foundry Street, which, as many people remember, has been part of the territory of my clan for more than twenty years. So, when the metal was almost collected, Arpha suddenly appeared with a group of subordinates and tried to take away my grandson’s loot, but she most likely did not know who exactly was robbing the warehouse and how strong his bodyguards were. However, she managed to get away with it, because the Stalbers appeared. If my grandson hadn’t wasted his time on this bitch, he wouldn’t have had to flee, and he would not have lost half of the gang and his bodyguard, who bravely sacrificed his life for the protection of the master!»
When Isaac finished speaking, indignant accusations against Arpha fell from the heads of the clans.
«Let’s hear Arpha’s version.» – Diego finally suggested, leaning back in his chair with an interested look.
Bernard took the floor on behalf of his leader: «Twenty-one days ago, Lady Arpha and I met at a construction site not far from the designated warehouse… After discussing the details of the plan with us, Lady Arpha, using a high-quality concealment technique, single-handedly entered the warehouse territory, paralyzed all the guards with poison, turned off three protective sources out of five and gave us an order to get inside…» – the man’s carefully prepared speech flowed smoothly and without hesitation. Even despite the shark glances of the surrounding kings of the city’s underworld, the speaker’s voice never wavered, because he spoke the pure truth from beginning to end, which means he has nothing to worry about. The only thing he didn’t mention was who got the metal in the end.
When the man finished his speech, no one bombarded Isaac with accusations, as in the case of Arpha. Only Edward blushed and trembled “for some reason”.
«Well, this version sounded much more detailed than the previous one. What do you say to that, Isaac?» – Diego asked with a cunning glint in his eyes.
Edward snapped almost naturally: «Dirty LIE! The bastard has read all the details in the newspapers, and now he passes off my achievements as his own! Fuck, how ANGRY I am!»
The old man patted the guy on the shoulder reassuringly: «Calm down. Govern your temper.» – he addressed the audience. – «I didn’t see the point in describing every step. I value both your time and my own, unlike some.»
Despite Edward’s overly vivid reaction, the clan leaders accepted Isaac’s position, while they looked at Arpha and her assistant with even greater distrust.
Bernard, noticing that everything was turning against them, cleared his throat and said: «My version is more voluminous, but I agree that this does not mean its authenticity. I propose to go into the details. Edward, tell us, how did you lose your strong bodyguard during the meeting with Arpha?»
«He was killed by the Stalbers during the escape!» – the guy grimaced angrily. He said what his grandfather asked him to say, and the reason for this is simple: if the girl who is inferior to the bodyguard in development by 4 steps still could kill him, it would sound too absurd and implausible.
Bernard nodded, took out a stack of magazines from the ring, each of which he opened on a certain page, on which important paragraphs were highlighted in red, and handed them out to the heads of clans, then calmly said: «The first inconsistency looms before us. In the magazine published by the Russells themselves, there are details of the official investigation carried out by the department, where it is written in black and white that the practitioner of the royal phase had his throat cut before the appearance of the Stalbers. But why would the Russells lie? On the contrary, it would be beneficial for the Stalbers to say that they killed the royal phaser, but this did not happen.»
«You never know what these cops messed up there…» – hissed the guy, clenching his fists to a crunch.
«In this case, we are moving to the second inconsistency. The official investigation says that two practitioners were found with their heads cut off in the information center of the warehouse. What do you say to that, Edward?» – the man asked venomously, clearly wanting to drive the liar into a corner.
«Obviously, Arpha killed them!» – Edward angrily snapped, wanting to tear out the man’s heart.
«A bold statement, especially considering that the uniform on the dead was different from the one worn by the bodyguard who died “during the escape”! This is written in the fifth paragraph. Or are the Russells lying again? Why do they need it?»
Edward looked as if he was in a hopeless dead end. He was trying to invent something.
Isaac chuckled to himself: the girl had thoroughly prepared for the meeting of the clans, but he had prepared even better. The old man calmly said: «This proves nothing. The magazines write what attracts the attention of the public, that is, ordinary and uneducated citizens. It is not at all necessary that reliable information about the incident will be written there.»
The other clan heads nodded in understanding. It sounds plausible.
Bernard spread his hands, as if hammering the last nail into the lid of the paired coffin of the hated Edward and Isaac: «You can argue with that, but let’s move on to the third and biggest inconsistency. To begin with, I will ask: you managed to bring the stolen metal to the house, didn’t you? Of course! Otherwise, your list of accusations against Arpha would have expanded by one more point, but I have not heard anything like that. So, you still have the metal?»
Isaac would have been happy to blame Arpha for this, but in this case there would have been questions about the money from the sale of metal. The option of losing the loot along the way also does not work, because in this case the Stalbers would have returned the metal, and everyone would know about it.
«Do you want to see proof that we have the metal?» – the head of the clan of the first rank guessed. – «Baby, we sold it twelve days ago on the black market. We have the check.» – he took out a piece of paper with a radiant smile of a maniac capitalist. – «It should be enough for you to shut up your fucking mouth.»
The other clan heads smiled. It became obvious to them who was right and who was not.
Bernard shook his head and said confidently: «I don’t need your check. Having connections with the black market administration, it is not so difficult to forge it. Our claim is different: if you sold the metal, then where did my lady get the money from its sale?»
The grin on Isaac’s wrinkled face bloomed in all its disgusting gloating: «And what kind of money are you talking about? A couple of tens of millions? Ha-ha, everyone knows that the Stalbers suffered about half a billion in losses, and if you don’t give us at least two hundred million now as proof, you can go fuck yourself!»
Edward grinned maliciously. The other clan heads were also interested. It was about a huge amount of money, equal to approximately the annual income of an average clan!
Now Alexander, Bernard and Valeera are finally convinced why Isaac agreed with the black market to reduce the price of buying metal from the clan of the 8th rank. Instead of a reasonable 200-250 million, they wanted to buy it for a measly 50 million! Isaac had planned everything thoroughly. What a treacherous old man!