UNMASKED

#23

As it turned out, Adria's goons weren't completely useless when it came to information gathering.

They'd managed to get some solid leads about who the man after them was. And all they had to do was hunt down some of Fisks previous men. Particularly the ones who were closest to the top. Turned out, they weren't very keen on getting some choice bits trimmed off and were all too willing to give up some info. Very nice of them, really.

"So, what do we know about the guy?" Eli asked, swiveling from side to side in his seat. He mostly just did it because his chair happened to be particularly squeaky. Adria didn't seem to appreciate that.

Adria didn't answer, instead looking at Mikey and then glaring at Eli. Mikey seemed to get the message. Which was why there was suddenly a hand clamping down on the back of his chair. He heard the leather creak beneath Mikey's grip and looked up only to witness the power of the goon's glare.

"Killjoy," Eli muttered, but stayed still. He ignored the look on Matthew's face that told Eli he was absolutely done, but also very much resigned. That was made especially clear by the way he sighed as he turned back to look at Adria.

"Find out anything useful?" he asked.

"Just some basic info, and not much of it, unfortunately. The guy more or less wiped away a good portion of his past," Adria said, completely ignoring Eli. Which, rude. "His name's Jack Metzger, formerly Jack Muller. We think the guy might have served in the military for a while. There's some records that match him under his original name, for the most part, but it was hard enough to find that. Where he came from, we don't really know. What we do know is that he popped up a couple years ago and started taking jobs. Didn't take long for him to get a bit of fame in certain social circles."

"You mean the shady kind," Eli said. Adria gave him a look that more or less equated him to gum under her shoe.

"But why would he wait until now to try something like this?" Matthew wondered. "If he wanted to take over Fisk's, or anyone else's territory, why not do it earlier. Fisk was vulnerable enough last year."

"Huh, that's true. I mean, he didn't stay in jail for long, but still. You'd figure it'd be a good enough chance," Eli added.

"Oh, there were definitely some who attempted it, but my father still had enough power at the time. Which is actually how he got out of prison."

Which was a good point. Fisk had managed to dig himself out that time easily enough. Eli probably would have been more upset about it if he hadn't already expected it.

"I thought Fisk was still powerful enough," Matthew said, not sounding particularly pleased about that.

"Sure, financially speaking. But then you had to fuck things up by existing," Adria didn't look particularly upset about that, which was kind of funny because she somehow still sounded like she very much wished Matthew would go away. Forever.

"To be fair, he probably gets that a lot from pretty much everyone he puts in jail," Eli pointed out. Adria shot him an unimpressed look.

"The point is, my father suffered a loss of trust from those working under him. Mostly because of his inability to make you go away. Preferably for good."

"Well, that was rude of you," Eli said, looking at Matthew. He was rewarded by a look from Matthew that told him to quit it. Eli thought it was cute Matthew thought he would. "But why is he doing all this? I mean, I get he probably thinks he's a pain in the ass," Eli said, pointing at Matthew.

"Maybe that's why. Maybe he just likes pissing him off. Can't say I blame him," Adria said with a shrug. Both her and Eli turned to look at Matthew, who really just looked tired. "But we don't actually know why he's bothering beating around the bush instead of just outright killing you. Although, I'm fairly sure he just wanted you out of the way last time, which explains the trap at the docks."