88 A Swift Assassination

Graham had just gone out to the street stall to buy a newspaper for today. He bought De Telegraaf, as usual, and was now on the way to Don's Pancake House to get his breakfast. He had also asked Luuk to meet him there because he had just woken up when Graham visited. His plan today was to help Luuk to get the contract scroll for a Jeweller.

He entered the small homey diner with the newspaper held under his armpit. His brown trench coat was concealing his revolver that was securely placed in the holster. Valentine had placed Concealment on it on top of the anti-divination, so its presence shouldn't be detected as long as he was in the area of effect.

"Morning, Graham!" greeted Mirjam warmly as he walked into the diner.

"Morning, Mirjam. Happy as usual, eh?" he replied.

Mirjam kept smiling warmly at her customer, and it looked really genuine; not the fake corporate smile people in service usually had.

"Is Luuk not with you today? You're usually together nowadays,"

"No, but he'll come over later. He just woke up," replied Graham casually.

"I see. I'm jealous of you two. I wish I had someone who is close to me like Luuk is close to you," said Mirjam which Graham was not sure if serious or just joking.

"Our relationship is strictly business only, so we're not that close," replied Graham matter-of-factly.

"But still. I'm too busy working that all my friends left me," she shrugged, "I'm still waiting for the man you said would come to my life. I hope he is a rich man so I don't have to work anymore and can have time to socialize," she said wistfully.

"At least you have the customers here. They all love you," said Graham.

"True. Who wouldn't?" said Mirjam jokingly.

"Are you going to take my order or not?" said Graham, changing the topic.

Mirjam's proud smile disappeared and turned into a frown.

"You're no fun. What are you getting today?" she said sulkily.

"Give me the usual, thank you very much," Graham smiled wide to cheer up Mirjam.

Mirjam wrote down his usual order quickly and then left his table to relay the order to the chef. Left alone, Graham picked up the newspaper to read about what happened last night. He was curious about what the press would say about both the accident that he incited and the ghoul attack.

'A deadly accident claimed one victim. A traffic accident happened on Sunday, 15 September 1968 EH on Raadhuislaan. The private motor carriage, driven by the victim, Bram Wilford, lost control and hit a light pole, killing the driver instantly. There was no collateral damage and the Police are still investigating the cause of the accident. Witnesses said that Mr. Wilford suddenly sped and lost control near the curve. One of the tires of the motor carriage that he was driving was found several meters from the crash. It was believed that the loose tire was the cause of the loss of control, but the Police haven't stated the possibility of a foul play yet.'

"So that's reassuring since it means they cannot get a definite proof about our involvement," said Graham with interest.

'Brutal murder took the lives of two people. A brutal murder happened on Sunday, 15 September 1968 EH on Tuinstraat North late at night. The bodies of a man and a woman were found by a local resident who directly called the Police. The conditions of the bodies were different from the recent serial murder case, which led the Police to believe it was done by a different perpetrator. The Police haven't decided on a suspect yet, since they said a more thorough investigation will need to be conducted. The bodies are now in the Police morgue awaiting identification.'

"Hmm... that's what they come up with. I'm sure they already know a ghoul did it, and probably even the person behind it,"

Graham had always held the Police in high regard, especially since becoming a Contractbound. He realized that before becoming one, he had never encountered any supernatural incidents, which was most likely thanks to the Police. Although now he had to be wary of them as well because of what Pain said they would do to stray Contractbounds.

'Federal Republic to take a drastic measure if still met with silence. The Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Krefeld said on Sunday morning that they would take a drastic measure if the Unions of Labinsk Socialist Republics remains silent over the shooting down of their passenger flight. It had been more than two weeks since the incident happened, yet the officials of the Unions still didn't want to say anything on the topic.'

Graham paused after reading the paragraph and took a deep breath before sighing.

"I hope there won't be another war. Why do you think they even shot down a passenger flight, Val? Now I don't feel safe to travel abroad," he complained and then added, "Maybe I can try to divine the reason for the shooting down, although I'm not sure it will work since it happened too far away from here,"

He put off the divination attempt for now and continued reading the newspaper in his hands.

'Unknown disease emerged in Long Empire. On Saturday, a hospital in the empire received tens of patients with a disease that has yet to be identified. The patients said they started getting sick after eating traditional food containing raw meat, but experts still cannot identify which meat was the cause because the dish contains various different kinds of meat. The patients show symptoms like coughing, sneezing, high fever, and mild to severe breathing impediments, and right now are quarantined in a separate zone in the hospital for fear of contagion.'

Graham put down the newspaper and got slightly depressed. All of the news that he had read was bad. He didn't realize that Mirjam at some point had delivered him the food he ordered because he was too engrossed in reading the news. She must have decided not to bother him because he looked very serious.

"So a threat of war and the possibility of a new global pandemic? I'm highly positive that Contractbounds are behind them. If we can, let's find an ally with abilities related to medicines," he said while bringing a spoonful of a pancake to his mouth.

Not long after he started eating, Luuk came and quickly sat at Graham's table, and called for Mirjam to order his own food.

"Hey, Luuk. You're finally here," greeted Mirjam warmly.

"Yeah. Can I get bacon pancakes please and an espresso," requested Luuk.

"Anything else?" asked Mirjam still smiling.

"No, that's all, thanks," replied Luuk also with a smile. It was hard to resist smiling when looking at Mirjam's friendly smile.

She left the table to process his order and Luuk quickly looked at the newspaper on the table and then turned to Graham.

"What does it say?"

"Read it yourself," replied Graham shortly.

"I've read too many books and now can't read anymore. Just tell me the main points," said Luuk insistingly.

"The main point is, you need to read it yourself," responded Graham, still not budging.

Luuk gave up and picked up the newspaper lying on the table. He held it with both hands and started reading the news one by one quickly. His expression got worse with every piece of news that he was reading and put down the newspaper right away once he was done.

"This world is getting more dangerous," said Luuk with a heavy tone.

Graham looked at him in the eyes and put on a serious expression.

"But wait, there's more. Remember the ghoul from last night? There will be more of them and this city will be overrun by them unless we do something," he said with a serious tone that matched his expression.

"For real??!" he exclaimed in disbelief and attracted the attention of nearby customers. He then lowered his voice and asked, "Does it have to be us?"

"Well, of course not. We're not some kind of heroes. We just need to prepare so we can help prevent it from happening. I'll somehow let the Police know about this," replied Graham casually and then added, "That is also why I'm helping you get your second contract scroll. We need to get stronger as soon as possible,"

"What about Jacco? Should we help him get stronger too?" asked Luuk. His voice was still anxious from hearing the shocking news. He knew Graham wouldn't lie about it and if they failed to prevent it, the city they knew of would be gone.

"I will also help him, but not for free. I still need money. But contacting him is very inconvenient," said Graham.

He continued eating and said again, "Anyhow, let's quickly finish our breakfast and get going,"

Luuk waited not long for his food to come and he quickly finished it while discussing the plan for the assassination with Graham. Luuk had chosen the suspicious-looking man as his target because it would be the easiest for him to tell his conscience that he was only doing what he had to do. Graham finished his food before Luuk, so he did divination about the target while the other was eating and watching.

"It seems that our target is in the outskirt of the city," said Graham.

"Is he foraging?" asked Luuk.

"Probably. Let's go,"

Graham and Luuk got up, and after paying, the left the diner to stop a public motor carriage. Luuk's target was currently on the outside of the Sloten ring, in the periphery of the forest just outside the city. Unlike the dangerous Oostelijk Bos, this one was relatively safe and people often went there to gather mushrooms or hunt rabbits, with a permit.

The two of them got into a public motor carriage and went towards the direction of Oosteinde, where they then went to the eastern Sloten ring and stopped there. After paying the driver, Graham looked around to find any sign of the target.

The eastern Sloten ring was rather busy at that hour, with a lot of motor carriages driving by. The forest on the outer side of the ring road looked peaceful, but he couldn't see any animals. If they wanted to find their target, they probably had to go deeper. Graham took out his lighter and started concentrating.

'Where is the location of the Jeweller near here?'

After he asked the question, an image appeared in the flame which showed an aerial view of his surroundings. There was a red dot coming from the forest which indicated the target. The red dot was moving slowly deeper into it. After that, the image disappeared and Graham put out the fire.

"Let's go," said Graham.

With the location of their target known, they started moving right away. Graham and Luuk crossed the street below on the pedestrian overpass and quickly entered the forest once they were on the other side. They walked swiftly but cautiously in order not to alert their target.

There was no one else in the forest at that moment besides the two of them and the target. They couldn't see a lot of animals either besides the occasional squirrels. There were still birds chirping, but their sounds came from a distance. It reminded Graham of his encounter with Leyaks, where the surrounding area was dead, except, this time was not as bad.

It didn't take long for them to see their target strolling casually into the forest while looking around his feet for something. Since the target was a Jeweller, Graham and Luuk came to the conclusion that he was currently gathering herbs. The man was still far ahead of them and didn't seem to have noticed the two stalkers. He kept both of his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie and kept on exploring.

Graham gestured at Luuk and both of them quickly dashed towards the unsuspecting man. Luuk, the faster of the two, got to close to the man first. The man noticed the two's presence and quickly turned around and took out a hunting knife from under his hoodie. The knife had a small red gemstone embedded and emitted a strange aura. Before the man could attack him, Luuk quickly chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare your intention to attack me mine!"

He made a swiping motion with his right hand and the man stopped in his track in confusion. He seemed to have forgotten what he wanted to do. Before he had the chance to realize what was going on, Graham, who was now in range, put control over him.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to stay still!"

Graham's voice pierced the wind and sounded ethereal to the man's ears. Once the Order was issued, the man was now unable to move even though he tried very hard to lift his foot. Every part of his body seemed to have frozen in place. Luuk let go of the stolen intention in his hand and the man appeared to suddenly have the strong urge to attack him, but he still couldn't move.

Graham looked at Luuk and said seriously, "Do it as planned,"

"I'm sorry," Luuk whispered.

Luuk went closer to the man and took out his own knife. He gathered the courage and stabbed the frozen man in the heart without daring to look at him. He didn't want to see the man's expression when the life was snuffed out from him, especially since it was he who caused it. He held the knife with both hands and it sank deep into the man's chest, piercing his heart. Before the man's blood had any chance of splashing into Luuk, he had moved away very quickly.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare all of the man's valuable items mine!"

As the man was dying, five objects in his possession disappeared and appeared in Luuk's right hand. After that, the man quickly burst into flames and turned into ashes with his death. On the ground below, a brown contract scroll was left lying down and from the ashes, a small round object began to form. It looked like a gemstone of the color of blood. The assassination had been completed quickly without any difficulty.

Luuk gave the man's belongings to Graham and picked up the contract scroll and the small gemstone. He now had the scroll and the sacrificial material, so he just needed to wait for the right time tonight to conduct the ritual. As for the man's belongings, they would split them equally after assessing the value.

"How do you feel?" asked Graham with concern while holding on the five items Luuk had given him.

"Not great," he answered shortly with a heavy tone. His expression didn't look too good.

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