[2er RPG] The Shepherd [ENG]

Francis was hard to surprise but Logan somehow managed to achieve that. The house looked cozy. Or at least like something, normal people would call it that. His gaze captured two pictures above a cupboard in the dining room. Marcus seemed happy. And little Dylan looked just like his father did. A strange feeling build up insinde his stomach, as he reached for the face of the little boy. He stopped himself before his fingers touched the glass. Marcus was right by keeping him away. Dylan had to break the curse of this family. Unfortunately, he was already suffering from it. Right in this moment, Francis took an oath to save Marcus and bring him back home as save as possible. Even if it would cost his own life.

Francis had never been on a plain before. Too much hassle. It was easier to get around with stolen cars. And as a kid, he barely left the house.
Flying was weird. He knew the physics behind the whole process but the feelings were... unexpected. Francis caught himself looking out the window. The small, ant-like world below had somewhat of a mesmerizing effect on him. Other than that, he said nothing. Logan wasn't the type of man who talked about his problems, no matter how obvious they were. And to be honest, Francis had nothing to say. He had already spoken his mind and up until now, nothing had changed.
For a moment, he thought about the little boy who was so scared of the dark, who hid in a dark attic right beneath a window just to not scream. He remembered the fear in those beautiful, yet cursed eyes. It was the first time, Francis had thought about another person not as being a target. His father never told him, why they were looking for this boy but as soon as Francis saw those eyes, he knew. And it was the first time, he actually thought about running away. When their father punished him that night, Francis took his first ever oath. He swore to get away from his father and to find his little brother, wherever he may be. And he did. He somehow managed to get his hands on a couple of video tapes their father had made and to drop them at a location where they would be found. Someone found them, showed them to the police. And because Ackerman Sr. was detail-oriented, the tapes were clear enough to identify him. The police came, Ackerman Sr. escaped. But the police saved the poor child in that horror cellar. They freed a boy from his cage only to realize that there was no boy. There was a monster, created by a mad man. So they locked it away again. At this point, Francis knew the way of the trade. And he did what he had to do to fulfill his oath. After the news about the Ackerman Tapes died down, there was a new headline: Ackerman Jr. fled the mental hospital. He killed two doctors, three nurses and seven guards before slipping away in the night. Not his best work, but it was his first time in the real world without someone telling him what to do. He was about fourteen back then. His determination kept him out of jail. He killed everything standing in his way, no matter who. But somewhere along the way he'd lost purpose. Reality was hard to cope with. Things shifted back in line, when he finally found those eyes, even though they didn't remember him at first.
"You do know, that I love my brother, right? I know. It's hard to believe that there are feelings inside me. But I do. He saved me, you know? And he's going to save this family. I'm not much help as a person. But I can be as a tool. Use me however you see fit and I'm gonna bring him back. He has a job to do."

Logan turned his gaze over to Francis when he started talking suddenly. He almost sounded like a normal, reasonable person. Even looked like one for a second.
"I know that. All of it. That's why the first thing I did was telling Stan to contact you. And that's why we sit in this plane without killing each other." Logan looked at Francis one more second, then looked out front again. But what Marcus and his brother didn't seem to notice was that Logan wasn't the reliable, smart guy who can fix situations like this. He somehow was put in this situation a second time now and he had no idea how to manage that or what to do. They were hunting a ghost, Miller was way smarter than all of them together. He probably sent them on a stupid scavenger hunt, shooing them around all over the country, while Marcus was down there or whatever and a bomb could blow anytime. Why was this Logans part in the game, he was better doing other things.
Logan didn't say anything else until they landed - smooth, Marcus wouldn't have expected that probably. Maybe Logan should stop thinking about Marcus all the time. All this was easier being alone in a far away country with no friends.
After getting all their stuff they went to the parking lot to find the car they rented. Then they headed directly to the address Stan gave them. The last knowing address of Jeffrey Andersen, simply because Logan didn't know what else to do.

Francis was a nice little pet. He didn't speak, he didn't do much and he followed Logan without getting in his way. But he wasn't doing nothing. He watched, observed closely what the ex-soldier did and how the people around him acted. He wanted to know why Marcus liked that guy. What was so special about him. Of course, he had great genes with that jawline, those legs and his overall size but that couldn't be all of it. Francis had learned that humas don't usually act on their instincts to find the best candidate for procreation. Also, Marcus trusted this man with the life of his offspring. A little boy, Francis had sworn to protect. So what qualified Logan to take care of his nephew? He couldn't even take care of Marcus and it seemed, he had trouble taking care of himself, too.

"What are we even doing out here, little brother?", Francis asked, when they parked right outside the house of this eleged victim of this Miller person.
Within an instant he'd scanned the whole property and knew that they were being watched by an old guy across the street. He'd even seen the shotgun the man had next to his window.
"I think you should go over there and show him how to use that thing."
Francis ignored the voice of his father. He wasn't here to kill anyone. Yet.

Logan felt stared at and he didn't mean the elderly man across the street, he felt that way the whole drive here. In the plane Francis seemed to have absorbed the scenery, or maybe that was too romantic to say about Francis. He did look outside the window, though. Logan almost was glad Marcus brother said something instead of sitting next to him in the car like a statue and just... watching.
"We play Millers game. I doubt we find anything by digging through files and if this is part of Millers game, then he at least had to prepare something. Therefore this is hopefully a connection that leads us somewhere. Explanation enough?", Logan answered and wasn't sure why Francis didn't take the lead. He always thought Marcus brother was a lone wolf, against taking orders from anyone and actually hating Logan, though the latter was probably true for almost every human being.
"This guy over there may know something. He looks like the kind of person who stares out of his window very often, maybe he saw something or someone suspicious around here and I'm sure he would love to tell us about it. Let's ask. Nicely." Before searching all over the place, without actually knowing what to look for, maybe this was the easiest way. Although this man looked like the typical 'Shoot-before-asking' kinda guy, Logan decided to put on his most charming smile and walked towards his house.

Francis smiled. It was a genuine smile but he somehow managed to make it look like the grin of somekind of predator. He couldn't hide the monster living underneath his skin. But he didn't really try for that matter.
He knocked at the door of that old guy but kept awaybfrom the door in case the guy would shoot through the door. He heard the klicking of a shotgun being armed and his smile grew slightly bigger. With simple hand gestures he signaled Logan that their man was armed and ready to shoot them eight behind the door.
"You could kick in the door and crush his skull underneath your boot. Or you sneak around, enter through the backdoor and.."
Francis ignored the voice in his head. He waited patiently for whatever Logan wanted to do.

Logan looked at Francis face and asked himself if the other one knew how fucking creepy he looked. If this man wouldn't talk to them, Logan knew exactly why. But if he really absolutely resisted to talk and seemed suspicious in the slightest, Logan would let the monster loose, at least he saw it this way at the moment. He was desperate, he needed to find Marcus fast and he wasn't against scaring an old guy to get the answers he needed.
Francis knocked at the door, Logan heard the clicking of a shotgun, sounded like a Remington 870, but the times Logan could name a gun by its sound was long over. Still, if he was right, it was a standard model, also used by the British military, but also by many other military organisations, for sports and hunting. He would be overthinking all this if he saw a connection there. He stepped to the side, but the thin wall of this old house would barely help. If this guy shot directly through the wall at one of them, they sure would take damage from it. But, Logan still tried to be nice.
"Sir? I'm from a government organisation and would like to talk to you about the property across the street, I'm fine with talking through the closed door and I can show you my batch if you want.", Logan started talking and waited for a second, no answer at first.
"We just wanna know if you saw anything suspicious around here, maybe someone visiting that place?"
Logan looked over to Francis, he wasn't really up for this kinda shit, but he also couldn't just storm in there.
"You know what? I'll show you my badge at the window... just don't shoot me please." Logan pulled his badge out and pressed it against the dirty window for this guy to look at. Maybe this was just a waste of time though.

Slow. The word in Framcis' mind was slow. Showing a badge, talking, waiting. It slowed them down. If kicked in the door right now, they would get him by surprise. He would.tie him up in no time and then he would answer all the questions they had. But that wasn't how this game was played. He had to keep it together. No unnecessary violence, no killing, just like he promised Marcus.
Surprisingly enough, the door opened. A cute little chain held it almost shut. Those things were completely useless. Didn't take much to make it snap.
"What do you wanna know?", an old, grumpy guy said.
The man couldn't see Francis from his bad angle behind the door. The killer could simply extend his arm and grab the shotgun. It would be so easy...

The door opened a tiny little bit and Logan put his badge away. He looked at Francis for a short moment, without the guy noticing, just because Logan though he may shut the door again if he realized Logan wasn't alone. He didn't even want to lie to this guy, it just didn't feel right to introduce them both as a team. And Logan also couldn't tell him he had a killer friend with him, maybe it was better to keep quiet about Francis for now. Francis better didn't pull any stunt though, Logans gaze made that clear.
"As I said, I'd like to know if you saw anything suspicious around here, especially regarding that property across the street. Maybe you knew the man who lived there? Jeffrey Andersen? Any information you might have regarding him or his property could help. Maybe you saw someone you don't know lurking around here?", Logan asked again. They hadn't really got an angle to start from and maybe this really was a waste of time, all of it, even coming here in the first place.

This man was boring. Francis lost interest in him about twenty seconds in. So he left Logan to his work and scouted around the house and the neighborhood. There was no reason for Miller to send them here, except he wanted them to believe this. Without much asking around, Francis broke the flimsy lock on the backside of the former Andersen-House and checked the rooms. No one cared fo it, everthing was left behind. The dirt everywhere spoke to Francis: The house was empty for years now. Nevertheless, he checked every single room, just to be sure. And to occupy himself while Logan was doing whatever he was doing.

When the ex-soldier was finally ready to leave this boring place, Francis waited for him, leaning against the car. It almost looked like he was asleep.
"You know, I've always been the 'When in doubt, beat it out of them' kinda guy. I have a feeling that that will never change. I thought police work is fun! Running around, chasing the bad guys, wearing badass leather jackets and sunglasses."
He opened his eyes and stared at the old man in his window. There was no emotion, no flinch whatsoever in his face but the man got scared and disappeared into the depths of his house.
"Miller was here. I bet your old man didn't tell you that, did he? Probably didn't see him."
He handed Logan the letter he'd found in the cellar, pinned to the inside of the door. Logan's name was on it.

Dear Mr. Hunt,
I hereby inform you that you followed the wrong name.
The Jeffrey Andersen you should look for is anundercover agent at the FBI. That is probably the reason
why you couldn't find him properly. Go ahead, check in
with the local authorities. I'm sure you're gonna be pleased
with what it will lead to. And because I'm feeling extra
generous today, I give you another hint: Solve one problem
to find the solution for another one.
Sincerely yours,
Michael L. Miller.

Francis hopped back into the car, leaned back and closed his eyes. All of this was a nice little trip but he would love to get back to the topic of saving his brother. His patience grew thinner and thinner and at some point he wouldn't be able to stop the disenbodied voice of his father from taking over and killing everything around him. It's been so long since he actually played a game with someone...

Logan talked to that guy a while, he told him some kids ran around the house sometimes, also a car stopped by about two weeks ago in the middle of the night. Black, big, nothing much really, last numbers were 59, probably was just rented.
Francis had left a while ago now and Logan felt this conversation was useless. He politely thanked the man and left to find Francis by the car. He looked at Marcus brother and wasn't sure if he was joking or not.
"You watch too much TV...", Logan murmured. Leather jackets, sunglasses and chasing bad guys? Was he living in some CSI whatever show? The Shepherds had some of this, but most of the time it was talking to people.
"Also, I would appreciate it if you were less bitchy about all of this, if you have a better plan how to find Marcus, please elaborate." Logan started reading the letter which was again addressed to him. Playing paper chase again, huh?
He wasn't sure what Miller meant by the last part, but he couldn't think of anything better than following these bread crumbs.
Logan leaned against their rented car, while he called Stan and asked him to look into this undercover agent. But why would the local authorities be the place to go now? Well, he made some more calls. Logan understood why Francis didn't have a high opinion about all of this, but if they found something about a man who actually was in this... dungeon, they maybe could follow his footprints to where Marcus was.

Logan and Francis were lucky. A call here, a charming smile there and one or two favors and they ended up with the address of the ex-partner of the undercover agent. Logan hopped out of the car, it was late but neither he nor Francis could possibly stop their search to make a break. The ex-soldier looked around, they drove a while to a bigger city, the buildings here were dark and ugly, the street was dirty. "Well, that's a shady area...", he commented while he looked at the address again and checked the street name. They were in front of a apartment building. It had a pool, but almost no water in it. Some of the doors were broken, looked like they were kicked in at some point and no one felt the need to repair the lock. They looked for number 22, the gate at the front screeched when they opened it, some dogs started barking.
Logan took the lead up the stairs to the second floor and through the hallway. "Seems like this guy doesn't wanna be found. We knock twice, if he doesn't open up, you can kick the door in. How does that sound?" Maybe Francis got some action after all.

"Do you think that low of me? I can get in there without anybody noticing. Not even you."
It was nice of Logan to think, Francis had a plan. How in the world should he know what to do? They had the same information standard to work with. But unlike Logan, Francis knew when an afford was useless. He could keep up with the slow way of working things out but a dead end was a dead end.
While Logan was knocking on the door, being the polite police man, Francis looked around and scanned the perimeter. Andersen's ex-partner was probably an addict. Francis guessed due to a traumatic experience, leading to this man being fired from the job and Andersen being able to work undercover.
Francis saw his theories proofen when a filthy guy opened the door. He looked around before asking what the two of them wanted from him. Maybe not drugs...
"My name is Francois Dantonio and this is my colleague Logan Hunt. We've been send by the Ministry of Justice to investigate a series of missing people. You were the partner of one Jeffrey Andersen, FBI?"
The man nodded, slightly confused.
"But that's some time ago. About... six months or so. Is Jeffrey one of the victims?"
"Yes. We think, he got kidnapped during an undercover operation, possibly because of a blown cover. Do you know anything about that?"
The man sighed. He knew something. Clearly.
"It's Mr. King. I told him it's too hot. But he did it anyway. Wanted to prove something or whatever. I don't know. As soon as I heard what he's up to, I stopped asking questions. No one crossed Mr. King. At least no one survives doing it."
"Interesting. I guess you won't tell us more about this Mr. King?"
"I can't, actually. All I know is that even the mafia-families shits their pants when they have to deal with him. And judging by what he - presumably - does... they all have to deal with him. Look, if you wanna know more, ask the people in San Fran. The guy lives there and that's where Jeff went after..."
"After what?"
The guy looked at Francis. Usually, people got scared after just a second and looked away, not this guy. He had the look of a cop and he analyzed Francis. But there was fear. A lot of it.
"Do I know you from somewhere?"
"I have one of those faces. Thank you for your time. have a nice day."
Francis turned around and walked back to the car. He now knew what Miller wanted them to do.

He waited for Logan to drive down the street, before he started talking again: "Miller wants us to finish the job. He wants us to eliminate Mr. King. 'Solve one problem to find the solution for another one'. When we take down King, we find Marcus."
He smiled before leaning back and closing his eyes for a little nap.
"I've never been to San Francisco before."

The guy opened the door, very nice. But Francis started talking before Logan even had the chance to and he had slapped his own hand on his face by hearing Francis 'undercover name', if they weren't in front of a possible informant. Francois Dantonio? What the hell? Logan really wondered why this man didn't look suspicious in the slightest and he didn't even ask for a badge. Maybe Logan was paranoid, but he thought that was very weird.
They left before this guy caught on to who he was talking to and went back to the car. Still, this guy was weird.
Logan started driving again and Francis seemed to know exactly what to do.
"You are pretty fast with your assumptions. First of all, this guy gave some strangers a good chunk of information, but okay, let's leave that aside. Secondly 'Solve one problem to find the solution for another one' doesn't exactly imply we find Marcus then, maybe we just get some other task. I mean, I have no problem getting rid of a bad guy, but maybe that's not the solution to our problems. Either that isn't all, or this guy will be very hard to take down. Before Marcus gets to the arena part, he has to do at least 5 or 6 other tasks and he needs time to recover. If we assume one task per week that's over a month time. Miller will likely pressure us, we will barely have enough time to do what he wants." Logan sighed. "And do we do it though... If we keep doing what he wants we won't get anywhere." But Logan also couldn't take any risks... Marcus live was on stake.
They needed to fly to San Francisco and they also needed to find more about Mr. King. But Stans skills were needed elsewhere, it really was a micromanagement game. Logan wanted to know if this Mr. King was a random guy or if Miller had a reason to get rid of him, but they needed to find as much as they could on their own for now.
Francis seemed to just like the thought of killing a guy, he seemed carefree and it drove Logan nuts. How could he be that way when his brother was held in some creepy dungeon?

Before they could fly to SanFran they needed to sleep. At least Logan needed to sleep if they didn't wanna crash somewhere. He stopped at a small Motel near the landing field. Francis probably wouldn't run away in the middle of the night, nor did he wanna kill Logan. He got two rooms for them to spend the night.
When Logan got in his room he just fell onto the bed. His head still hurt, actually his whole body hurt. It was good he was that tired, else he couldn't have stopped thinking about Marcus. But he managed to fall asleep pretty fast.

The next morning Logan called Dylan, while he went outside to get some fresh air before they moved on. He just asked him how he was, how he liked his grandparents and what he was up to. He obviously couldn't talk much about work or about Marcus. Dylan had questions, of course, but Logan had no proper answers. But this boy was an angel, he understood why Logan couldn't talk about it and that he rather not hear any of it. Logan promised him to bring his father back, before he hung up. He kinda was torn between just doing what Miller wanted, whatever the cost and being the good guy who tried to do the right thing. That meant the least amount of casualties possible, he wasn't sure if Marcus could bear anything else.

So no nap. Francis sighed.
"This stranger, as you call him, is a former FBI agent with a drug addiction. He gave us everything we wanted just by saying and acting as if we worked for a government agency because he knew the drill. He wanted us to leave as fast as possible and without wantin to see the inside of his apartment. All of you screams military and cop, so that was easy. I thought he would wanna see a badge but hey, he was scared like a deer in headlights, so what. And the whole problem solution thing? Miller is a very honest person. He never lied to you, remember. He said there was a bomb and it was. He gave you a code to disarm it, and it was right. This man is playing games, just like I do. He sets the rules and he follows them. The thing is, we currently have about eight problems. Six bombs randomly placed in Whashington, D.C., Marcus in the trial set-up for the arena and now Mr. King in San Francisco. This explains, why Miller allowed you to use everything you got: Because you need to. Imagine playing this game with your usual team. One IT-man, a soul doctor and what? Three people who know how to hit things? You wouldn't solve one problem with that. My recommendation - and that is part of the reason why you called me, I guess - is that we play this game. For now. You see, I love playing my games and I hate it, when people don't wanna play with me. There is always a creative way of winning. The chances of winning by just straight up following the rules are slim, but it is possible. The trick is, to bend the rules or be good enough at cheating. Miller won't cheat. He made the rules, he knows exactly what he can do and what not. He won't blow up the bombs at random. He won't kill Marcus - actively. He won't interfere with this new case in San Francisco. He will lean back and watch. The only variable in this game is Marcus. He will get everything he needs to get through those trials. But if he is not smart about it or simply doesn't meet the requirements set by the Gladiator, he will die. And in that case, the bombs will go off before we can find them. All you - or better we - have to do, is concentrate on Mr. King. The faster we get this guy out of the game, the faster we get our price. If I had to guess, I would say it's the location of the arena. At least that's what I would give you."
It made sense. Miller had given them a chance to find all the bombs but not Marcus. Even if Marcus somehow survived the final fight in the arena, they still had no idea where he actually was. Miller was a brilliant game master, Francis had to give him that. He recognized a genius at work, when he saw one. Maybe, turning himself in wasn't as bad of a thing as he thought. Life got kinda boring without his games and now he had the greatest game of all time right in front of him.

Francis lay on the floor in the corner of his room. Eversince he was a kid he did that. With the wall in his back, there was no way of getting stabbed from behind. One wall to his side prevented the same thing from a different direction. He had the door and the window in sight. If someone came in through the door, they wouldn't see him, though. It may seem like the obsessive mind of a paranoia patient but really it was all just clever combat thinking.
Alone in the dark, Francis thought about his brother. He never understood why Marcus was so afraid of the dark. For him, it was comforting. Because everytime, the neon light in his room went on or light came in through the opened door, Francis had to endure yet another test of their father. Yet another thing that seperated the two brothers. One was raised in a loving home, surrounded by light. The other one was raised with hate and pain, left in the darkness. Poetic. But somehow they ended up somewhat the same. Both were accostumed to violence. But while Francis had acceptes his inner monster a long time ago, Marcus was still struggling. Marcus wanted to believe in the good while knowing that he was a monster. Could he, Francis, be the same? Could he do the same?
Maybe, he thought, we all have a monster inside. Maybe we all have the same capacity for evil as we do for good.
With that thought and a resulting idea in mind, Francis closed his eyes to give body the rest it needed to funcion. Maybe, he could be a good guy...

Logan waited by the car, thinking about what Francis said. Maybe they were gonna find Marcus if they took down that guy, maybe not. Francis always acted like he knew everything and in the next moment told Logan he was only here to hit things if he allowed him too, he drove him nuts. They couldn't be sure about what Miller was thinking and what the purpose of this task was. Logan imagined this Mr. King to be easy to find, but well secured and they only were two people. Was this an infiltrating game? Maybe Miller just wanted to see which of Logans military skills didn't get rusty. The ex-soldier felt way to safe, that was his first mistake, but maybe he was to hesitant now and Francis was right with his approach. Or maybe he was just getting in Logans head and that was the last thing he wanted.

After a while Francis came outside and they could start their journey to San Francisco. It took an four hour flight to get them to California, then an hour drive to actually get to the city. At the time they got there it was early afternoon and Logan was starving. They sat down at the first restaurant they found, Logan didn't know were to go from here anyway. After ordering he looked at Francis who hadn't said anything yet.
"Maybe we should split up after eating. Neither of us knows the city and we could cover double the ground if we go our separate ways. It sounded like gathering information about that guy won't be too hard, but how valuable the information is is another question. I could go through the official authorities, while you try to dig into these mafia businesses. Sounds good?", Logan proposed, the faster they could take out this guy, the better. Francis was bored with Logan nicely asking anyway and Logan didn't care much if Francis ruffed up some henchmen.

Francis barked as an answer.
"But just to clarify: You are okay with me to play a game with some people? I just wanna make sure that you know what that means. People could die. People probably die. And once the bodies start piling up, the police will certainly notice. I mean, I could hide the bodies pretty efficiently but as you said: I don't know the city. Meaining I can hide the bodies, not get rid of them. I could do it in a way that would get us Mr. Kings attention, though."
Francis wasn't exactly sure how to feel about this. It was somekind of a win for him to not kill anybody for this long. It would be easy to just start again but would he be able to stop? In some way he was like an addict who stopped using his favorite drug. It was hard to not do it sometimes but he managed.
"Stop complaining, boy. You're gonna love it!"
Which was the problem he was facing right now. Just a couple of bodies for good measure? One last time to save his beloved brother?

"What?!" Logan raised an eyebrow. It felt like Francis and he had two different conversations. "I was asking you to blend in, ask around, kill only if its necessary. I'm not permitting you to kill anyone who crosses you... yet. Leaving aside that I would like to keep my job, I guess you wanna keep your head, so calm down a little. Besides, we don't know anything about this city or who we are up against, a low profile would be good for now. I also want to meet up of course, to share what we found. This is not a trip to still your bloodlust, or for you to kill under government protection, we are here to safe Marcus, remember?" Logan sighed, was he able to let Francis out of sight for some hours? He feared Marcus brother was going on a killing spree in this city and Logan would be responsible. Mike wasn't too happy about Logans decisions anyway. The last time he was working with Francis, a woman died and Mike didn't like how it went down. Marcus didn't even know about it, at least if Francis didn't tell him.
Logan wasn't sure how to handle Francis and he seemed to take everything quite literally. In the end he'll cite Logan and remembered him that he allowed everything that's going to happen somehow.
"The plan is as follows, I'm gonna see if I find Andersens old FBI contact and I'll try getting information through the police and other authorities. You're going to keep a low profile for now, but do what you can to get information. I'm sure you can get enough information with just some punches of yours. Just think about if it is necessary to kill, before you do it. Do what Marcus would do, yeah? And also, don't make yourself any enemies. If we cross this guy, the whole city might be after us, including mafia and police. I can't exactly call for much backup and we don't wanna blow this before we even started. And if you really can't hold yourself, then think about what we are here to do for. You get to at least kill one guy, the honor is all yours if you want it. But we probably need to get close to him to even have a chance. This is about saving your brother, not for you to have fun."
Logan reached for his wallet to hand Francis some cash. "We'll meet back here tomorrow morning, alright? Gimme a call if you need to meet up sooner, or if you have a very good reason to show up late." Logan looked at Francis one last time, before letting go of the bills he was handing him. "If you do anything that could sabotage this operation, I'm gonna kill you. And if Marcus gets hurt because of it, I'll do even worse." Logan was serious, Marcus was the only reason Logan had the little trust he had in Francis and he still wasn't sure if he should leave him out of sight. But he also wanted to deal with this fast. Francis would probably get to kill a lot here, but for now, they needed information first.

Smiling, Francis shook his head.
"Little brother, you take everything so literally", he said, ignoring the cash, "I just wanted to know if you would like the monster around. You said no, so there won't be any bodies to get rid of. That is, of course, if the other side behaves. On the other hand, I won't be able to behave like my brother. The reasons should be obvious. But I try my best at being a good boy. That being said, why do you think, we have to kill Mr. King? Miller never said anything about that. And my dear brother probably wouldn't like us to do such a thing. Just a thought. I'm all with you, if you wanna do it."
Francis got up and let his neck crack a little - just like Marcus did all the time.
"Your IT-man said, Mr. King is the local genious of organized crime. Even the police says, he a necessary evil since he got the gang crimes unter controll. We already know where he lives."
Francis flicked a note onto the table. There was an adress on it.
"I guess this man has a couple of cops on his list so be careful who you talk to. Now, if you exuse me. I have to shake up the bush a little."
With a smile, he left the small building. Step one would be to get his hands on a dealer. From there he would just work his way up the ladder. An he needed a weapon for the real fun. A dealer would give him all he needed: Information, cash and a gun. Francis was more the knife kinda guy, but he could work with a gun. Actually, he could work with his hands but most of the time, people didn't believe him when there was no weapon in play.

Logan wanted to kick something when Francis left. He always left having the last word and he always left Logan with more questions than he had before. Francis probably didn't even know what he was talking about most of the time. Actually it was Macrus brother who first talked about eliminating King and how else should they 'solve this problem'. Bringing him to justice? To court? First of all that was probably impossible and second of all, The Shepherds existed to not do that. Of course, catching the criminal and putting him behind bars was preferably, but it wasn't always possible, like in this case.
Or were they far to quick with their assumptions? Andersen was here to take down King, that was the lead. Maybe the problem was something completely different. Also, taking him down could leave this city in chaos, but at least the FBI must have known this and they approved. Logan needed to talk to someone who knew more about that.

On the next day Logan waited for Francis. He made quite some progress, but he wasn't completely sure what to do now. He really wished Marcus were here, when he got him back, Logan would implant a tracker in his boyfriends body... And not getting him back wasn't an option.
Logan drank his coffee black, but he had no issues getting up. He didn't sleep much, he couldn't. Every lost minute was a minute more for Marcus being down there, hence he was kinda pissed Francis didn't show up yet. He was only one minute late for now, but still. Logan could only hope he didn't do anything stupid.
Logan glanced at his phone, he was kinda anxious. He awaited the next text message from Miller, it sure would come and then he would see Marcus suffering again. He knew it startled him too much, maybe he shouldn't watch it, the others could deal with it, without Logans help. That was why they were still in their office ad not here after all.

It was kinda nice to know that there wasn't anyone on his tail while he broke the fingers of a dealer. Of course, the police had no idea that the great Francis Ackerman Jr. worked for the government, but he had a jail free card now. Well, he always had that, actually... hm. Working for the government wasn't that cool at all. But he'd started the thing, so he would finish the job.
It only took two fingers to get the car, the phone, the gun, the drugs, the money and an adress out of that dealer. Boring.
"You could rip them out.", the voice of his father said.
Francis ignored him and instead broke the guy's nose, while knocking him unconscious. He already was on a hunt, no need to start another one.

The next day, he was quite proud of himself. He had managed to climb up that ladder as high as possible without actually talking to Mr. King.
Usually, he was very on point. Most of his games required a precise sense of timing. But today, he was about fifteen minutes late due to a meeting prior to the meet up with Logan. Said meeting was also the reason for Francis being in such a good mood, he actually whistled as he entered the small diner.
"I got us a date with the one and only. Well, not with Mr. King. Apparently, nobody talks to him. Most people don't even see him. He is sitting in his mansion on a hill all day long. I think, he is agoraphobic... interesting. Anyways. I secured us a meeting with his right hand man. He wants to see us. How was your day? Any word on my brother?"

Francis was in a mood that was way to good, considering their situation. As soon as Logan saw his stupidly whistling face, he sighed deeply. And Francis was 15 whole minutes late, one minute more and Logan would have gone searching for him. "Why didn't you call me? Or text?", Logans first question was, but he wasn't really hoping for an answer.
"My day, or rather night was quite good too. I think you are wrong about one thing though. Apparently Mr. King is more then one person, doesn't add up otherwise." Finally Logan could be the smart ass for a brief moment. He really was happy Francis didn't slam that information right into his face. "Or at least he has a double or something, seems to make his own decisions nevertheless." Logan looked at his phone as if it suddenly would give him something on Marcus, but it was silent since yesterday.
"No text from Miller, no new stream and Stan didn't find anything either.", Logan reported, then went back to what Francis said before.
"Okay, so tell me, what does this guy want to see us for? And what do we want from him exactly?" Logan looked at his hands for a moment and knitted his brows. "Didn't you say to me yesterday, all about me is screaming military and cop? I seriously don't know what makes you think that, but that sounds like a problem to me. What exactly is your undercover persona you fabricated since yesterday? We need to be on the same page."