Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

Eight hours later.

"I hope this one doesn't end in the same disaster…" Derek muttered as he and Tristan walked down the airport to their destination.

The manager clearly didn't want to be heard. Even if Tristan's sharp ears missed his words, it was hard to miss Derek's anxiety.

"Oh, c'mon. What are the chances that two planes will crash—or emergency land—within eight hours? Two planes that both have us in them?"

Tristan's tone was intentionally joking. He snorted.

"But seriously. I think we are out of bad karma right now, Derek. You aren't suggesting we cross two states in a car, no? This would take forever."

Derek put a hand over his chest and his yet another obnoxious tie. This one had kittens playing with yarn on it.

Tristan had noticed that Derek wore it only in the most stressful of days.

"Of course not. At least by buying tickets to a regular charter plane, we will get to Los Angeles in time, Mr. Gemello."

'And hopefully will stay somewhat ahead of my assassin,' Tristan thought.

He was already lucky that his jet landed not too far from a nearby town and could drive a car to an airport; then got lucky that there were planes flying to Los Angeles with a few tickets still unsold.

Tristan and Derek couldn't arrange a flight for his entire crew on such a short notice, but Derek bought tickets for them two, so Tristan could get to his concert venue on time.

His crew would get to Los Angeles later, and in the meantime, Tristan will appear for his last concert on time. It was going to happen in a day and a half, which would give him some time to prepare, and for Derek to replace Tristan's crew with people from the GTG agency.

At least those that could be replaced on such a short notice, like the technicians and such. Tristan would have to work without backstage dancers and use only a record of the other instruments for his songs.

The concert was too hyped up to fail, anyway, by now—the plane crash did it. Tristan saw the emergency news about the crashed plane and had to hurriedly post online that he was alive and unharmed before his fans went insane with worry.

'And it's going to be the most dangerous, too, if I don't get at least some protection until then.'

***

Four hours later.

As soon as Tristan landed, curious journalists and press tried to surround him with questions. Everything from Tristan's health to what he felt during the emergency airplane landing, to whether he supported abolishment of private jets for the support of ecology.

Tristan ignored them all, and the arranged security detail soon led him to his car.

He noticed someone stalking him even before he left the airport. Tristan felt the stalker's gaze on himself, which often looked away to check at Tristan's surroundings.

This time, Tristan wasn't alarmed. He was warned about this person—he was the one who (from Hayes' phone, of course) sent text messages to Damien and Vargas to arrange some *actual* bodyguards for Tristan.

He wasn't sure they could do against the actual sniper, but it was better than nothing.

With another car quietly tailing Tristan's, he and Derek drove to Tristan's mansion.

"Have at least a few hours of good rest, Mr. Gemello," Derek said with a kind smile. He patted Tristan's arm. "I sure am going to. We both need it, after everything."

Tristan nodded.

"Yeah. As soon as I calm Nelson so he doesn't tear my door down while I'm naked under the covers."

Derek laughed at the joke, and with another pat on Tristan's shoulder, said his goodbye and left.

***

The first thing Tristan did after all the Gemello's necessities (like calming down his friend) were done, was change his identity.

As Tristan Hayes, he immediately felt much safer. However, the feeling lasted only until Tristan thought about how untrue it was. Especially if the assassin was the person Tristan suspected he was.

Tristan sneaked to his gangster mansion, intent on getting some weapons on his person, pop-star identity or no. However, when he began to settle in his personal office and organize a hunt against the assassin, he found a notification waiting for him, buried under all the others in the "moderately important" pile.

It came from his own guards. Tristan read it, then went to see his guards personally.

"Mr. Hayes!" a guard said as soon as Tristan asked to clarify this report. "Yes, we got this closed package yesterday. It was signed for you, and it's not super heavy. We wondered if it was a bomb, but we checked with a metal detector, and there's nothing like that inside… So we left it there. It's unsigned."

The guard gestured at the small table in the corner of Tristan's foyer.

Tristan frowned.

"The explosives aren't made of metal. Explosive detection devices…" he shook his head. He couldn't sense any explosives in the box, anyway. "Next time, don't bring things like that INSIDE the house. Keep them OUTSIDE until I deal with them."

He wasn't very irate, though. If there WAS an explosive, a metal detector would've noticed at least some metal in the detonation device.

Now Tristan was curious—and very apprehensive.

He went to the table and looked at the box. It was fairly large—a cardboard cube about half a meter in height. It was purely white, save for the delivery address note glued to the side.

Tristan pulled out his knife, but didn't open the box immediately. First, he just tapped at its sides. Then he leaned closer, but heard nothing from there.

There was a faint smell, though. Something organic—like a plant?

Frowning, Tristan used the knife to carefully cut the box's lid open.

Inside was a bouquet—one of the most pathetic-looking bouquets Tristan ever seen.

It was made from several wilted stems that held on them small, purple bell-shaped flowers. As if to pad everything out, a bunch of larger half-dry leaves, with thick fuzz covering them all, were attached to the bouquet. They were tied together by a black ribbon and stood in a small vase with water.

Whoever sent this bouquet must've wanted for it to reach Tristan at least somewhat alive.

Tristan saw that there was a small card lying on the inside of the box, but the bouquet was preventing him from making it out properly.

Tristan reached out to lift the bouquet from the box, then paused.

He realized he recognized these flowers! Somewhere in all his criminal knowledge was their common name—deadly nightshade!

The entire plant was extremely poisonous, especially berries. It was poisonous enough that not only eating the plant, but just touching its leaves could leave rashes on a man's skin!

Tristan recoiled from the entire bouquet.

He didn't know about the other plant, one with wide leaves, but he suspected it would be just as dangerous.

'Shit. Is this also an assassination attempt?!' Tristan thought, backing away from the box. Nearby, the guards tensed.

"Boss, is everything alright?" one of them asked.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I want someone in a hazard protection suit here. An hour ago!"

"Yes, boss!" The guard made an approximation of an army salute and went to make calls.

In the meantime, Tristan closed the box and searched for plants online.

Half an hour later, one of Tristan's drug-making chemists, wearing a hazard protection suit, entered the scene.

The hazard suit was an overkill. By this point Tristan found the second plant—it was gympie-gympie, an Australian plant that was dangerous on touch.

It stung like nettle, except a hundred times worse. Badly enough to kill or leave a person with permanent damage.

'But this still doesn't look like an actual assassination attempt. Too many things could go wrong, and too few chances that I actually die from touching any of these plants!'

Tristan's subordinate took the deadly bouquet for incineration and photographed the card from the bottom so Tristan could read it safely.

The message was brief.

[THIS WAS A WARNING]

It explained everything. It confirmed things that Tristan had already suspected.

'This is him! No Hope, or Someone You Knew—he realized that I, as Tristan Hayes, was digging under him. And he knew about the connection between Hayes and Gemello, and tried to kill Gemello as a warning! Then he sent Hayes this bouquet…'

The card was only part of the message. With the bouquet itself, the assassin said, "I know where you live and I CAN kill you even there."

But despite the terrifying nature of the message, Tristan's lips stretched into a grin.

He could've backed off like No Hope wanted, but if he didn't want to deal with him, Tristan wouldn't have started that search in the first place.

[New task: neutralize No Hope. Value: 5000.]

The legend of No Hope was going to end. And he just gave Tristan a major lead in his investigation–those flowers, one of which must've travelled from far, far away.