Hollywood Zenith

" It's nothing; I was just admiring the flower garden. It looks lovely in the night." Samuel said with a smile.

After the dinner, Enrique invited him outside to talk. It was very late, but he had a few things to tell him; Samuel readily accepted as he, too, wanted to ask him a few things. They sat around a large table with Daniel and Mateo and a few empty chairs.

" Well, you are right. It's a clear sky tonight, which is quite rare due to constant pollution." Daniel added.

" I heard you had some difficulties lately with the police? If you need help, you can directly ask me." Enrique changed the subject.

" You mean with the chief of police, Mason? I will be fine. My team is currently working on it, but I appreciate your kind gesture." Samuel replied confidently.

" Don't take them lightly. If he is personally coming after you, he must have something substantial that would at least stick in court." Mateo reminded him. 

" That's right, they would not push you if they didn't have a solid case against you. You must factor in your influential background; no one could come after you." Daniel agreed.

" I was worried about that, but I met him earlier and could say he didn't seem like a bad guy to me. He was respectable and cordial and handled Liliana's case impartially, well, almost impartially." Samuel chuckled.

" Good, but such people are often two-faced and will stab you in the back if they get a chance to be alert at all times. If anything goes wrong, we can provide protection here." Enrique fully supported him. Given the circumstances, he knew it was unlikely, but he couldn't rule it out entirely.

" I will keep it in mind. I also wanted to ask about some people, mainly Istanbul and Antonio. Have you heard of them?"

" Those punks?" Mateo exclaimed.

" Punks?"

" Well, one can be considered as such, but the other is a little straight. They were children of rival gang lords."

" Hmm. Are they powerful?" Samuel asked.

" Yes, Antonio's family is very famous and practically runs the underground scene in this city. His family, the Resnick, came from Russia when organized crimes were prevalent in the city. Now, they are mostly hidden in the shadows while legalizing most of their business, but the roots are still there." Mateo informed him.

" What about the other one?"

" Istanbul is just a rich second generation flaunting his wealth on cars and women. He is known for partying hard, and the money mostly comes from his family's real estate business. Both usually hang together and are known to be constant troublemakers in this city."

" I see, it's interesting." Samuel rubbed his chin, thinking about his next move.

" Did they bother you? Don't tell me they were behind what happened in the Carlton Hotel?" Enrique grabbed the chair, arms in anger. He knew their father personally, but he would not let them go scotch free if they were the culprits!I think you should take a look at

" No, nothing like that..." He then explained how Glenn Bailey was left hanging dry when they learned about him, and it made for a good joke.

Enrique and Mateo took some time to inform him about the workings of LA gangs and other powerful forces residing in the city. Samuel remembered everything; it would definitely be helpful in the future.

He was building his own pseudo-organization; drawing out several inspirations from the established ones was nice. He would not be involved in anything illegal, but they needed to protect themselves and find a self-sustaining solution.

He couldn't always fund such endeavours as there were many things he wanted to do with that money. The sooner they started functioning by themselves, the better it would be.

" While we are on this topic, kid, I wanted to ask you about our neighbours. I have seen few of them, but I don't know what to make of them?" Mateo asked directly.

" They hardly interacted with us, but I can say whenever they did, they were always respectable and helped our people if they got into any trouble," Daniel added. 

They asked him about Zero and his men, who were building the eighty-ninth Street gang. Samuel looked toward his side for a few seconds before facing them again.

He might not have trusted them enough earlier, but now he felt it was time. Sooner or later, he had to tell them about Zero's existence and his extensive spy network. 

" You must have heard that I was in critical condition after being shot almost a decade ago?" Samuel paused, and they nodded.

It was not well known as the Rothschild family suppressed the news, but many people heard about it from rumours; many conspiracy theories surrounded the incident because people present at the event saw the amount of blood and his state.

How could anyone survive that? There was still a fringe of people who believed he died that day and was replaced by someone else. They were not entirely wrong; if not for Apollo, he would have died, but that's unimportant.

" I was not the intended target, but..." He began to tell them how everything connected and how he learned about the House of Medici.

" Within that family, there is a separate branch which has vowed to serve the head of the family. They were in thousands, and some of the best spies in the world, but most of them perished after the family's fall by my hands." He paused.

" I was never a fan of butchering the innocent, so I offered them a simple choice. Serve me or get sent to an unknown black site to live out the rest of their life. Few were beyond saving, so we dealt with the usual way."

" My god.."

" Are you serious?" Daniel and Mateo were dumbfounded. It was a world they never even imagined; most people in their lifetime would live in ignorance, not knowing the actual cogs of society!

" Excluding the ones that left to protect their exile lord, I have about a hundred elite assassins from the House of Medici. Their leader, Zero, is responsible for restoring the organization."

" No wonder they keep sneaking around everywhere, but can they be trusted?" Enrique posed the obvious question. A chained feral dog was just as dangerous as the free one; it just needed to get a little closer.

Samuel smiled a little because he heard such concerns before, but he offered them a thing they couldn't refuse. A thing so desirable to them, they would agree to his any condition!