The Prince of Astoria-Chapter 73: LXXIII - The Kill List

The phone rang for nearly a minute, before someone finally picked up.

"Thank you for calling Wetwork Cleaning Services. No matter how bad it seems, we get it clean, how can I help you?" A chipper young man asked.

A gruff older man coughed, "My son—"

"Ah, I’m sorry sir," The young man cut him off, "Please refer to our email communications to place orders of the type."

The older man groaned, "I lost access to my email. It’s a long story, that’s part of the reason I’m calling. Can’t you just help me out, Isaac?"

Isaac typed on his loud mechanical keyboard for a few seconds before speaking again, "Mr. Moreau, under normal circumstances I would bring this call to a close and deactivating this number, but seeing as our company has a longstanding business relationship with you, I don’t see why I can’t assist you. I’ve just encrypted the line, talk in plain terms. What do you need from us?"

The older man let out a sigh of relief, "My sons are in trouble. My whole family is, so I’m going to require a lot of ’cleaners’ this time."

Isaac’s voice became even more cheerful. Even through the phone, it was obvious he was grinning, "That’s music to my ears! Luckily for you, we’re running a special right now, so it won’t cost you a fortune. Why don’t you tell me all your problems? I’ll be your therapist too."

The gruff man groaned, "The younger one. Last I heard, he was playing street games with Go-Go Disciples; he fancies himself some kind of lieutenant. I’ve been letting him do what he wants...I know young men need their outlet. But..."

Isaac’s voice became slightly less cheerful, "You’re worried about his safety with that new threat running around."

"Exactly. You took the words right out of my mouth. I don’t know if he’s a wannabe villain or a hitman from a rival company, but it seems like he has it out for my family...or my company."

"What about your other son?" Isaac asked.

"My other son had a run-in with that threat you’re talking bout! He told me this morning. Apparently the person who killed all of our guards at our mansion and forced us to move back into the city, burned down my son’s townhouse and threatened to do it again!"

Isaac whistled, "This guy has it out for you, sir. Now tell me, what can Isaac do for you?"

The older man’s voice transformed into a shout, "I want you to protect my sons! Or kill the guy! One or the other I don’t care which."

Isaac was silent for a long time.

"Hello?" The older man screamed into the phone, "Don’t tell me you hung u—"

"Of course I didn’t hang up, Mr. Moreau," Isaac stated matter-of-factly, "I just wanted to prepare the prices on the two options you asked for. Protecting your sons will be around five or six figures, depending on the duration. I have a hint as to who your mystery metahuman is. I can sell that to you, or I could deal with it for you, but that would cost around eight figures," Isaac let out a small chuckle, "The choice is yours, sir."

The older man mumbled several swear words to himself before responding, a hint of annoyance in his tone, "Just protect my sons. For one month. I’ll deal with that pest before then."

Isaac typed on his loud mechanical keyboard once more, "Good choice, sir. Now there is one more matter to discuss. You don’t know your youngest son’s current whereabouts, correct? In order for us to find and protect him..."

The older man’s voice transformed into a shrill scream, "I’ll pay triple the price, just get it done, you greedy thief!"

Isaac let out a mock gasp, "Thief? Come now, Elliot, you’ve worked for us for so long, you know our services are premium! Give me your new email. I’ll send the bill to you and begin the status updates."

Isaac typed out Elliot’s email address and hung up the phone.

Isaac turned around and spotted the various members of Team Wet crowding around the large hotel room.

Isaac’s eyes widened slightly, "Wow. Everyone is here for once. I think the only person we’re missing is Julian, for obvious reasons. The Kill List is now complete. We have our assignments for the month of November. Everyone knows where they’re going, right?"

Most of the members of Team Wet nodded their heads.

Isaac turned to three members huddled on the wall, "Simi, Sammi and Thalia...er...Deadman? That’s what you changed your name to, right, Thalia? Why Deadman?"

The young man pulled the laughing mask off of his face and revealed cuts near his mouth on an otherwise unblemished and pretty face, "My big brother suggested it. I kind of like it. Deadman, as in if you cross me, you’re a Deadman."

There were murmurs and sounds of approval among Team Wet.

Isaac nodded his head slowly, "I think Maxwell suits you better, but Deadman isn’t bad. And what about your big brother, Melpo? Is he changing his name too?"

Deadman shook his head, "Right now, he prefers Julian Mason. He said he misses all of you, by the way. And he said we should try to attend one of his campaign speeches."

Isaac smirked, "Right. We’ll make sure to do that. Anyway, you three are going to protect the older son, old man Elliot and his wife. They’re all holed up somewhere in Portland; he’s going to send the location soon."

Isaac turned in his chair and looked directly at Deadman, "You ready, Deadman? You’ve been out of commission for almost three months since your induction mission."

Deadman smiled, "Oh yeah, I’m ready. I have a few upgrades now, so I’ll never lose to someone like Ninjaman again."

Isaac grinned at him, "Good. Chef Tim, I already discussed your mission with you. Commander, you’re not going on a mission, I want you to do that favor for me at the INHO HQ."

Commander saluted Isaac.

"Inez and Derrick, you two are going to play a club in Cali in a few days and eliminate a celebrity who’s supposed to come there. All of our missions are discreet but that one really needs to stay under the radar. But you’ll be in your natural elements, so it should be fine."

Derrick put a thumb up, barely listening to Isaac. Inez bobbed her head vigorously to the music in her ear.

"Opportunist, you’ll stay with me here and be ready to teleport me if anybody gets in trouble. And finally, GoGo and Ms. Friendly, you two have our most dangerous and most lucrative mission. You two are going to assassinate a foreign dignitary that’ll be arriving at the Oregon Consular Corp in a week."

Ms. Friendly muttered under her breath, "I want to assassinate the idiot who contacted us for that mission. The details were so vague, and he kept trying to lowball us."

Isaac laughed, "The customer is always right, Ms. Friendly. He’s paying us a small fortune, so we’ll get it done right for him. The only reason I’m sending the two of you instead of one or the other is because I want to prepare in advance in case any heroic types want to get in our way. You two did so good destroying that farm safe house, I think you might be our new dynamic duo."

GoGo snickered and moved closer to Ms. Friendly, his mink coat sashaying with each step, "I barely did a thing. I’m sure it’ll be the same case this time."

"What about me?" A young man’s voice called out, near the back of the room.

The members of Team Wet parted and revealed a spindly young man with long dreads covering his face.

Isaac scratched his chin, "Right, Mechaboy. Sorry about that. I can’t believe I forgot about you. I have a different mission for you. We’ll—"

Ms. Friendly stared at Mechaboy, then glared at Isaac, "Why is he here, Isaac? You’re far from naïve, you know better than to let some hero listen to our plans!"

Isaac stood up from his chair and walked through the crowd of villains. He got to the opposite side of the room and put his arm around Mechaboy.

"You’re wrong, Auntie! This isn’t some hero, this is the our newest candidate to join Team Wet! I know it’s weird to have the only ranked hero in our state in our strategy meeting—"

"It’s beyond weird..." Ms. Friendly mumbled.

Isaac shot a look at her, "But I promise you, he’s with us."

Isaac stood directly in front of Mechaboy and tapped his chest, "Don’t worry about them, Mechaboy; they’ll come around. Like I said, I have a mission for you. But it’s not a hit like theirs. Since Code Talker decided to leave us, I’ll have to oversee your training."

Isaac got right into Mechaboy’s face and smiled wide, "I want you to kill Ninjaman. I’ll give you a month."