The right hand man tilted his head slightly while Bloodstain answered the question himself.

"Zu Li."

That answer immediately shut down further arguments.

"The moment West dies inside my base, Dragon Fang will come knocking."

He tapped his fingers against the desk as he continued. "And unlike some people, I have no interest in picking a fight with that woman."

The right-hand man reluctantly nodded.

Bloodstain stood and walked toward the large window overlooking the compound.

"However..." his eyes darkened. "Running his gang into the ground is a different matter entirely."

The right-hand man smiled slightly while Bloodstain continued.

"Double the manpower following..."

"All transport routes."

"Every shipment."

"Every vehicle."

"Every warehouse."

The man frowned. "Isn’t that excessive?"

Bloodstain looked over his shoulder. "We underestimated them once."

His expression hardened as he added. "We won’t make that mistake again."

The right-hand man finally nodded. "I’ll get it done."

•••

•••

Back at Shadow Reapers headquarters, Aria had transformed one of the conference rooms into a temporary intelligence center.

Documents covered the table, maps filled several screens and personnel reports were stacked into neat folders.

West sat at the head of the table while Aria stood beside a large digital display.

Jax leaned against the wall nearby, Nina sat quietly reviewing information and Vanya moved in and out delivering additional reports.

Aria took a breath before beginning.

"Iron Vultures currently has four hundred and thirty-two awakened members."

The display changed, showing gang statistics.

"They’re ranked eighty-ninth in the city."

Another screen appeared displaying financial records, a few territories, known warehouses, business fronts, number of ruins cleared and estimated income.

West studied it carefully and for the first time, he was seeing the complete picture.

Iron Vultures wasn’t simply larger than Shadow Reapers, they were vastly larger.

Shadow Reapers had barely crossed into double-digit membership while Iron Vultures had hundreds.

Their resources dwarfed what Shadow Reapers currently possessed and yet, West wasn’t worried.

Because one truth remained... the bigger gang had more to lose.

The city currently had one hundred and forty-four registered gangs and the top one hundred were considered established organizations while the ones below hundred were considered street level.

Shadow Reapers had climbed rapidly but they still had a long way to go.

Jax crossed his arms. "Now that you’ve gone and confronted them directly..."

He looked toward West.

"...wouldn’t that just make them more cautious?"

West smiled. "Exactly."

Jax blinked in confusion. "That’s... good?"

"Very."

West leaned back in his chair. "The moment I walked into that office, Bloodstain started thinking defensively."

He pointed toward the map. "He’s expecting retaliation."

Nina slowly nodded in understanding. "Which means, he’ll reinforce everything."

"Correct," West stood and approached the display.

His finger moved across several locations.

"More guards."

"More patrols."

"More escorts."

"More surveillance..."

Jax scratched his head. "That sounds bad for us."

West shook his head. "No."

A grin slowly appeared as he added. "That’s exactly what I want."

The others looked confused while West continued. "When people prepare for an attack, they focus resources toward the places they think are vulnerable."

Understanding slowly appeared on Aria’s face as West pointed toward several highlighted locations.

"Transport routes."

"Warehouses."

"Convoys."

"Business fronts."

"He’ll reinforce all of those."

Jax’s eyes widened slightly. "Oh."

West nodded. "Which means manpower gets diverted."

Now even Nina was smiling slightly.

West folded his arms. "The more resources he dedicates toward defending expected targets..."

He tapped a final location on the map. "...the weaker he becomes elsewhere."

The display zoomed in at Iron Vultures Headquarters.

Jax immediately burst out laughing. "No way."

West smiled. "Yes way."

For several moments everyone stared at the image of the massive Iron Vultures compound.

Aria shook her head. "You walked into his office just to make him focus on the wrong thing."

West shrugged. "Partly."

Jax grinned. "Damn."

West’s smile widened. "The truck wasn’t the real objective anymore."

"Now the real objective, is to acquire way more than what was lost."

•••

•••

For the next several days, everything unfolded exactly the way Bloodstain wanted.

Transport trucks were no longer moving around with a handful of escorts. Convoys that previously had three or four awakened guards now had ten.

Warehouses received double security rotations, business fronts had additional personnel stationed nearby and known transport routes were constantly monitored.

Even some of their hidden storage facilities had received reinforcements.

If Shadow Reapers intended to retaliate, then Bloodstain was determined to make them bleed for it.

The first three days passed peacefully and nothing happened.

There was no sabotage, ambushes, mysterious accidents, stolen shipments or dead members.

By the fifth day, some of the gang members were starting to relax...

By the seventh day, many had already concluded that Shadow Reapers had backed down.

Even Bloodstain himself was beginning to wonder if perhaps West had simply realized how large the gap between their organizations truly was.

After all, Iron Vultures had more than four hundred awakened members while Shadow Reapers barely had a fraction of that.

"Maybe the kid had finally understood reality."

Even so, Bloodstain wasn’t foolish enough to completely lower his guard.

"Maintain current security."

That was the standing order and nobody argued.

The problem was that maintaining such heightened security was expensive.

Personnel were being stretched thin and people were working longer shifts.

Operations that usually required ten members now had twenty.

Everything was costing more money but Bloodstain viewed it as a necessary expense.

It was better to be safe than sorry.

...

On the tenth day, Bloodstain was seated in his office reviewing reports.

The massive desk before him was covered in paperwork and most of it was the usual.

Territory disputes, resource acquisitions, debt collections and several ruin reports.

He was halfway through reading one report when the office door burst open.

A young awakened practically stumbled into the room with a pale and sweaty face.

Bloodstain immediately frowned. "What?"

The man swallowed nervously. "Boss... we have a problem."

Bloodstain hated hearing those words especially lately.

His mood immediately worsened. "What problem?"

"It’s the logistics department."

Bloodstain rose from his chair. "Explain."

The man shook his head. "You need to see it yourself."