As the night passed by, Mike understood what a stalker had to bear while following others.

  It was not just searching for information; it was following his objective during the night.

  Or well, actually, his current work was harder than that of a stalker.

  People don't usually go on top of buildings with a sniper following someone in the distance.

  But reality can be stranger than fiction.

  At least he had an advantage when had to descend a building, he could use his ability and scan everything beforehand.

  The same applies when he had to ascend to the top of any building.

  And most important, what was the result at the end of it?

  After some lack of sleep, he found nothing useful.

  The man and all of the military personnel had to return to headquarters.

  It was not hard for him to find the base, so he got nothing in the end.

  Barely, if it counts, he found that whatever those men were planning, they had no need to report anything or...

  "They have to report it but, to the military headquarters, or just pass the message through it... fuck, this will be hard"

  It took him some minutes to think, it was not hard to get inside the base, but still, he had no freedom once inside.

  After all, he was a special mercenary, not part of the army.

  It was too risky to spy from inside, Rose would get him out of prison whenever she wanted but he didn't want to depend on her every time.

  And he didn't want to get her into problems also.

  To get the information he was searching for was not easy.

  He thought but finally understood something.

  The city was in some sort of lock-down even before the creatures invaded.

  Strange disappearances were happening at that time.

  This was only one city, but was also a city very well known for terrorists to hide.

  "If terrorists have been hiding here since long ago, it will be impossible to get what I want. Not into the city at least, the most I can get is information, and if I want to get trusted info, I need to pay for it, my status won’t help"

  Plus, his status as a mercenary was exposed when he arrived in the city, he had to announce his status and identity to the military when he arrived.

  And not only in this city, in any other city he arrived.

  But then, how did the travels between cities happen on the side of the criminals?

  The transport is arranged by the casino owner.

  They would arrive in another city and then what? State that they left the city by illegal means?

  No, that’s when corruption and contacts come in handy for them.

  So, if you had to pay for information, and corruption also exists in those cities...

  "Wait there, motherfucker. I will have enough proof to blackmail- I mean, 'convince' you to spill the beans"

  One step at a time, he left the surroundings.

  ...

  Inside the military base, each one went to their routines after announcing their return from patrolling.

  All but one, the one leading them.

  The base was big enough to connect with the outskirts of the city.

  And the man went straight to the outskirts.

  In the dark night, a silhouette was standing in outside of the base, just at the other side of the fence.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "I told you to hide while waiting, what if someone on patrol around here sees you first?" Said the military man.

  "Reaching the first lieutenant rank here made you forget to speak like one of us? With how corrupted the army in this country is, I don’t care to be seen" answered the other man, his pronunciation somehow, was not a common one in this side of the world.

  "Hehe! You are gonna be fucked up if you think corruption works that way, is not as easy as you think-"

  He was interrupted before finishing speaking.

  "Liar, it worked that way for you. So? What about the mercenary, why was that man left behind while the others left?"

  He went right to the point, and the lieutenant answered without asking for a price.

  The price was that he was doing his work, after all, they were part of different organizations, but "friendly" organizations to each other.

  "That man, ‘M. Blood’, I don't know his rank, I don't know too much, what I know is that he is a blacklist hunter"

  "Wha...?" The man was shocked, a blacklist hunter would take time to nurture, and the Golden Corps was just recently formed.

  But the most urgent thing was that blacklist hunters were a threat to any of the criminal organizations hiding in the jungle.

  "We took care of him, or we tried, but when we reached his location, he already knew beforehand, somehow, and we got nothing”

  The darkness could hide the other man, but he was visibly shocked.

  Not only the blacklist hunter was investigating the jungle, he knew they were following him when they knew his identity.

  But there was a trick to all of it, not all the military were hiding the terrorists with smiles;

  Some people sold information, but not all of them.

  Mike presented as a blacklist hunter from the start.

  But that part of the information never reached the terrorist.

  That was the thing that gave Mike an advantage.

  Advantage enough to search for information in the first hours, without being followed by the criminals.

  Lucky for him and for the peace of the people in the jungle, there were still some people who rejected giving the information to the terrorists and big group criminals.

  ...

  The next morning, After a sleepless night.

  Mike was ready to get his mission done.

  To ask for information was easy, but to get the real answer was hard.

  One need specific people to answer, the ones on the street would know nothing, it was a matter of searching for the right people to ask his questions.

  And he knew how to find those people.

  He just needed to search for the most well-known business in the illegal world in the city.

  It took him some hours but was worth it.

  He had an easier start since he already knew one of the businesses, the casino.

  Or better said, the illegal transport, since the casino already gave him the answers.

  This time, instead of using his identity to ask around, or ask as a common civilian, he tried the Aether common method.

  Bribery.

  In front of a group at the doors of the slums in the city, he was asking his question.

  In the group, many were just guarding one person, a certain high fish in there.

  The one Mike was looking for.

  He only handed the big fish a picture he printed earlier and made the first question.

  The photo? It was the drawing from the wanted list.

  The question?

  "How much for the information of this guy?"

  As simple as that, he got an answer.

  "500"

  "Too expensive, you scared he will find out?"

  "The people who are with him are the scary ones, I can only give you this much information for free, pay or leave, don't make me lose time"

  "The army is not scary, 300"

  "You got some info at least... Is a deal, but you never got any of this from me, and we never had any conversation"

  "Pleasure doing business with you"

  Like that, he got some useful information, it was expensive, but money was not an issue.

  Slowly, after connecting the dots from each information he got from different people, he found out why it was so expensive.

  Not all people wanted a fair trade,some just wanted to rob him, but he dealt with it with his brain very quickly.

  But most importantly, since money was not his issue, he got enough proof to blackmail- I mean, 'convince' that man to give him information.

  After all, he needed the information he wanted the most, the one about Anthon Makarevich.

  He tried asking about Makarevich to the same people, but most of them had no idea about him.

  He also handed the photo of a certain someone in the list, the one who gave him some weird feeling but got absolutely no information about that man.

  That last man was either not in Aether or just in a position to not be involved in the public.

  Maybe even both, from Mike's point of view.

  Anyway, the stalking was close to its end, he now had to place the proof in front of the man and 'convince' him to give info,

  Or better said, make him spill the beans about Anthon Makarevich.

  There were ranks, importance, and even rivals between each big criminal group and terrorist organizations in Aether.

  And luckily, Anthon's organization was not really well received in Aether yet by the other organizations.

  He had to capture the man before it was too late.

  "Capture Anthon, bring him to justice or kill him, and inform about my success in the Golden Corps, sounds easy. With hope, I will do it perfectly so Rose will be happy with the result”

  He knew that Rose was not as innocent as the world may think, but he had a debt to her, or so he felt.