Carl raised an eyebrow as he read through the latest messages in the chat group.
To be honest, the group's speculations were already pretty close to the truth.
Of course Carl knew what kind of relationship Tsukasa Kadoya had with Natsumi Tachibana.
After all, they were the male and female leads of Kamen Rider Decade. Naturally, their bond was special.
Ahem... she'll just have to deal with it.
Just as the others in the group had guessed,
Carl also figured that Tsukasa had gone to visit Natsumi.
It made perfect sense.
After exchanging a few words, Carl went quiet and switched into lurker mode.
Mm, sipping wine while quietly scrolling through the chat was surprisingly satisfying.
Around 5:00 PM, Erika finally woke up.
Carl exited the chat group and closed the interface.
Once Erika had washed up and changed, the two of them headed out for dinner.
Carl didn't have anything urgent on his agenda, but Erika,
She had clearly used up a ton of energy.
Her physical abilities were already above average, yet even she needed to replenish properly.
And since it was already after five, it was just about dinner time.
Inside a high-end French restaurant.
Carl and Erika sat together at a wall-side table in the main dining hall.
Even though they were in the common area, the ambiance was exquisitely quiet.
There was almost no idle chatter, only the soft, elegant melodies of a live violin.
The restaurant had fewer than ten occupied tables. Most of the seats were empty.
But every guest wore a look of calm contentment.
This was, after all, a Michelin three-star establishment.
Not the kind of place you could get into with money alone, you needed a reservation well in advance.
The restaurant's owner had business ties to the Osbourne Group.
And as a shareholder in the Osbourne Group, Carl didn't need a reservation at all.
Outside the restaurant.
A figure cloaked in shadows stood across the street, quietly observing Carl through a sleek, compact pair of binoculars.
She had long, flowing red hair, and wore a snug, form-fitting tactical suit.
Her figure was striking, curvy and lethal, though she was a bit on the petite side.
Also known as the infamous Black Widow of the Homeland... Security Bureau.
Her current mission: investigate the death of Obadiah Stane.
Technically, this sort of case wasn't even in the Bureau's jurisdiction.
And truth be told, Natasha herself didn't understand why the assignment had landed on her desk.
But she didn't question it.
As one of the Bureau's elite agents, Natasha had been trained from day one:
Don't ask. Just execute.
Her job was to finish the mission.
The reason she had been brought in this time,
Was that Obadiah Stane's identity was highly sensitive.
He had been a key executive at Stark Industries.
His death was bound to cause massive ripples.
Someone had leaned on Nick Fury, hard.
While the Homeland... Security Bureau wasn't technically a government agency,
It did answer to the Security Council.
And unfortunately, certain Council members had deep political ties to the U.S.
Nick Fury, for his part, wasn't all that bothered.
To him, it was just another routine operation.
And he had Natasha Romanoff on the case, the Bureau's best agent.
After just a few hours of combing through internal databases and intel reports,
Black Widow had already reconstructed most of Obadiah Stane's final itinerary.
And sure enough, she found several... anomalies.
There was intel linking Obadiah directly to Tony Stark.
Apparently, Obadiah had been in contact with shady Middle Eastern clients.
Coincidentally, Tony Stark had just gone missing... over there.
The implications were obvious.
Natasha filed a preliminary report with Nick Fury.
There was today's incident.
Obadiah's actions earlier that day were closely tied to his death.
According to intelligence:
That morning, Obadiah and his son Zach had attended a social gathering.
At that party, they were seen laughing and chatting with none other than the Kingpin, the criminal overlord of New York.
Clearly, the three had been plotting something.
Later, Zach got into a heated argument with a young billionaire.
And was promptly knocked out cold.
Obadiah and Kingpin rushed to the scene...
And then, something completely bizarre happened.
Just moments before, Kingpin had been collaborating with Obadiah. Latest content published on novel fire.net
He suddenly ordered his men to brutally beat the father and son.
And not just a slap on the wrist, they shattered their legs.
How do you go from cheerful banter to shattered kneecaps in the blink of an eye?
Only a lunatic like the Kingpin could pull that off.
And yet, even that wasn't the strangest part.
There might still be some twisted logic behind the sudden violence,
But what happened next defied all sense.
Kingpin actually bowed to the same young billionaire who'd taken out Zach.
That alone raised massive red flags.
The intel wasn't even hard to gather.
Plenty of people had witnessed the incident.
The hotel had full surveillance.
Even if the Bureau hadn't intervened, any half-decent hacker could've pieced it together.
Obadiah was found dead.
Multiple gunshot wounds.
Zach had vanished without a trace.
That was the full summary Natasha had gathered so far.
From the looks of it,
There were two main suspects.
First: Kingpin, the underground emperor.
He had personally ordered an attack on Obadiah and his son.
Clearly, he wasn't afraid of targeting a major industrialist.
Killing Obadiah wouldn't be out of the question.
A young billionaire, adopted by a wealthy tycoon more than two decades ago.
Today, he held shares in multiple high-profile companies.
He was rich. Handsome. Enigmatic.
Natasha quickly pulled up his profile.
The guy had multiple girlfriends.
From the outside, Kingpin looked like the more obvious suspect.
Carl had no criminal record.
(And yes... dating several women wasn't a crime.)
He'd even made charitable donations in the past.
Kingpin's behavior at the party was just too suspicious.
Carl might not have more money than the Kingpin, but...
The man had shown unusual respect toward him.
A moment ago, Kingpin was all smiles with Obadiah.
Next thing you know, he loses it over Carl and turns violent?
Something didn't add up.
That's why Natasha had decided:
Carl Smith would be the first to investigate.
Kingpin was still on the list, of course.
But going after him would be... a much bigger headache.
For now, Carl was the more accessible lead.
Natasha Romanoff (muttering):
"A man who dates multiple women at once… might be a weak spot I can exploit."
Especially someone like Carl, clearly the type to fall for a pretty face.
That made him the easiest kind of mark.
"The only issue is, I don't know when he'll be alone."
"Well... guess I'll just head in and take a look."
With that, Black Widow straightened her suit,
And strolled gracefully toward the entrance of the restaurant where Carl and Erika were dining.
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