The days passed uneventful and excruciatingly for Steven. It’s been more than four days since the incident with Drew.

He had tried his best to live as he would normally, going to gym in the morning and coming back home to have breakfast, chatting with Lena daily and keeping up with the progress on the restaurant handover and also Marcus’ case.

He had also taken the superbike out for a ride yesterday, with an intention to clear his mind, and had succeeded.

After the ride, he finally stopped seeing the faces of the two men that he had killed accidentally and he had stopped beating himself up for his past action.

The unknown race between Richard’s men and the FBI were still ongoing, and Steven hopes that the FBI would make their move fast. But he can only wait and hope.

***

The next morning, he had just finished breakfast when his phone started ringing.

He looked at the screen and saw that it was an unknown number. He frowned slightly, wondering who it could be. He contemplated for a moment between picking the call and not doing so, before finally deciding to pick the call.

"Mr. Craig," a calm male voice said immediately after he picked the call.

"Speaking," Steven said.

"You don’t know me," the man said. "But I think you can probably guess why I’m calling."

Steven said nothing. He walked to the window and looked out at the morning city.

"The building in Fourth Ward," the man said. "The men Drew Mercer had with him. That was my crew."

The line was quiet for a moment.

"I’m listening," Steven said.

"Good," the man said. "Then I’ll keep this short. I’m not calling to threaten you and I’m not calling to continue what Drew started. That was his business, not mine. He hired my crew for a job, the job went sideways, and now Drew is dead and I have two men who aren’t coming home and seven more who are going to be recovering for a long time." A brief pause. "That’s a problem I need to resolve."

"What kind of resolution are you looking for?" Steven asked.

"A financial one," the man said, without hesitation. "Two point five million. That covers the families of the men we lost, medical and ongoing care for the injured, and something for the disruption to my operation. It’s a clean number and it’s not negotiable, but it’s also not designed to be impossible. I looked into you before making this call. I know you can manage it."

Steven leaned against the window frame. Outside, a car moved slowly through the quiet residential street below.

"And in return?" he asked.

"In return, this conversation never happened," the man said. "The men who were in that building don’t know your name through me or anyone connected to me. What they may have heard from Drew’s side before the job, I can’t speak to. But from my end, you’re nobody. We took a contract that went wrong, we absorbed the loss, and we move on. That’s all this is."

"And the men who were injured," Steven said. "The ones who were conscious when I left. What they know —"

"Is being handled," the man said, cutting him off cleanly. "That’s my concern, not yours. What I’m offering you is a clean exit from the part of this that involves me. What you do about the rest of it is your own business."

Steven moved away from the window and sat down on the sofa.

"You said you looked into me," he said.

"I did."

"Then you know what I’m dealing with on the other side of this."

"Richard Mercer," the man said. "Yes. I’m aware of who Drew’s father is and what that means. That’s another reason I’m making this call rather than doing something else. Whatever Richard is building toward, I have no interest in being adjacent to it. Drew hired us privately and off the books. There’s no connection between my operation and the Mercer family and I intend to keep it that way. This call is partly about the money and partly about making sure that line stays clean."

"You want me to keep your name out of it," Steven said.

"I want mutual discretion," the man said. "You don’t know who I am. I don’t know who you are. Two point five million settles the account and we both walk away from Fourth Ward permanently."

Steven thought about it. The number was significant but not unreasonable given what he was being offered in return. A closed account, one fewer variable in a situation that already had too many, and a professional operator with real capability who had just told him clearly that he had no interest in escalating further.

The alternative was leaving this thread open and unpredictable, which was considerably worse than the cost of closing it.

"Two point five," Steven said. "Send me account details. It’ll be in before the end of today."

"Appreciated," the man said. "Mr. Craig."

"Yes."

"For what it’s worth," the man said, "what happened in that building — I’ve been in this business for a long time. I’ve never lost men to a single unarmed civilian before. Whatever you are, you’re not what Drew thought you were."

"No," Steven said simply. "I’m not."

"Good luck with the other thing," the man said.

The call ended and Steven waited for the the account details. And immediately after he got it, he called Hargreaves.

"Mr. Craig," he said. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Hargreaves. I just received a call from an unknown number," Steven said. "It was the man who ran the crew Drew hired for Fourth Ward."

There was a brief silence on Hargreaves’s end, as he absorbed that.

"Go ahead," he said.

Steven walked him through the call. The man’s opening, the financial resolution he was proposing, the mutual discretion arrangement, his confirmation that the crew had no connection to Richard Mercer and wanted to keep it that way. He gave it in the same order it had happened, without editorialising.

When he finished, Hargreaves was quiet for a moment.

"Two point five million for silence and a closed account," Hargreaves said. "And he’s asking for nothing else."

"Nothing else," Steven confirmed. "He was straightforward about it. Professional. He made clear that whatever Richard is doing is separate from his business and he wants no part of it."

"His framing is credible," Hargreaves said. "A private crew hired off the books by Drew, with no Vega connection, would have every reason to want clean separation from what’s coming on the Richard side. The last thing an operation like that needs is to be caught in the radius of a federal investigation." He paused. "The number is significant but it’s not disproportionate given what he lost and what he’s offering in return."

"That was my read," Steven said.

"He sent account details?"

"Yes. I have them."

"Good," Hargreaves said. "Before anything moves, I’d like to run the number he called from and the account details through our investigative team. See what we can surface about who he is and whether what he’s told you holds up. If his operation is what he says it is — private, disconnected from the Vega network, motivated purely by the financial loss — then the arrangement is clean. But I’d rather confirm that before two and a half million leaves your account."

"That’s exactly what I was going to ask," Steven said. "Can you move on it today?"

"I’ll have the team on it within the hour," Hargreaves said. "Phone number, account details, anything attached to either. If there’s anything worth knowing, we’ll find it." He paused briefly. "What are you thinking about the payment itself? Are you inclined to settle it?"

"Yes," Steven said. "Assuming the investigation comes back clean, I’m sending the money. Closing this thread is worth considerably more than two and a half million. One fewer variable, one fewer unpredictable party with capability and motivation. The alternative is leaving it open and hoping he stays quiet on his own, which isn’t something I’m willing to bet on."

"And if the investigation turns up something that changes the picture?" Hargreaves asked.

"Then we deal with that when we see it," Steven said. "But my expectation is that it comes back consistent with what he told me. The call had the feel of someone who had already made their decision and wasn’t interested in complications."

"Agreed," Hargreaves said. "I’ll have something for you before the end of the day. Once you have the results, the decision on the payment is yours."

"That works," Steven said.

"Is there anything else this morning?"

"Nothing else," Steven said. "Thank you, Hargreaves."

"Of course, Mr. Craig. I’ll be in touch."