” What do you want? ” Jathi asked Max nervously as he could not understand how his identity that had been so well protected all these years was suddenly compromised.

” I want cooperation, I’m scouting for capable subordinates and you fit the bill” Max said as he wasted no time beating around the bush and got straight to the point.

” What might the great Lord Ravan, the rising star of the Vampire world, want to co-operate on, with a criminal like me?” Jathi asked with a slightly sarcastic tone

” Oh…. You managed to find out my identity? ” Max asked while being pleasantly surprised

” Ofcourse, recently there had been many requests to dig up your information and the one on the human Max Rajput, you have helped me make a lot of money.

Although I can’t scan you, I know that the elven princess Anna can only accompany one guy with red eyes that stands 6 feet 4″ Jathi explained as he revealed his methods of deduction.

Max improved his evaluation of the thief at this moment as he appreciated his logical deduction process.

He could not scan Max, but he could scan Anna’s identity which he then superimposed with his collected information database and deduced that the man accompanying her must be Max.

” I’ll provide you with legal immunity, don’t worry about that.

Also, you shall be working from the shadows in the interest of my government.

As things stand, I’m lacking in a proper intelligence beauro and I want your existing network to supplement that gap, while also adding my own officers to make it more robust” Max said, explaining his ambitions to Jathi candidly.

” I’m flattered by the invitation, Lord Ravan, but what makes you think I want to join you?

I have enough money saved that I can retire tomorrow and live a life better than even a Lord like you can afford.

I don’t need to work on this job… ” Jathi said spreading his arms wide

” We know your identity Jathi ” Anna said casually, reminding the other party that they were the ones who held the cards in this negotiation.

” About that…. How did you discover my identity? I’ve only ever revealed it to two people and both of them are long dead.

How did you manage to learn my identity then? ” Jathi said, scratching his brain as he could not wrap his head around how this was possible.

” You will work for me Jathi, and I’ll tell you exactly why you will work for me.

1)You love attention. You put on this facade of operating as a humble bartender but in reality you keep promoting the name of the Timeless Thief, a title you are quite proud of.

2)You never sold the ring that you stole from Thor, regardless of the money offered. It was a priceless trophy for you, one that you will carry to your grave.

You are a fame chaser, for you to retire into the shadows is akin to expire.

So you may tell me that you can live an anonymous life of riches tomorrow with all the savings you have made over the years, but I know it very well that you cannot.

If you join me, I’ll treat you well and when I become vampire king one day, and mark my words, I will

You will be the man who counsels the monarch.

That will be your legacy ” Max said as he gave Jathi a psych evaluation, stunning him to silence.

” You are very ambitious, Young Lord, it’s not even been a month since you became a Lord and you are already aiming for the throne? ” Jathi said with a smile on his face

” So are you with me or not? ” Max said as he extended his hand out for Jathi to shake.

” I’ll join you, but I’ll maintain a degree of autonomy.

I’ll operate from Dombivli and want it to be included in my contract that I will be provided full security and legal immunity from all extradition requests and if I’m somehow illegally kidnapped, an army contingent of no less than 3000 troops will be deployed to bring me back.

I want an annual base salary of 60 million gold coins tax free and shall need to be paid extra for dangerous information gathering missions.

I will retain the rights to admission of all men admitted to my network of spies, so even if you want someone to be a part of my network, If I don’t find them suitable enough, I shall unilaterally refuse to admit them.

Only if all these conditions are acceptable to you, shall I join your organization ” Jathi said as he made the conditions under which he would join abundantly clear.

Max pondered about these terms as he side-counseled with Anna for a while talking about the economic viability of this and figured out that there were some specific details about the payouts of the officers under Jathi and the extent of the dangerous missions pay before they could sign an official contract, but other than that everything seemed fair.

” I accept. But, since Intelligence Bureau is a ‘ Trust ‘ related organization, I’ll need to put some limiters on you that ensures that you will not sell information harmful to the Bloodfall clan or the vampire society and ensure that you don’t betray us knowingly ” Max said as Jathi nodded he expected this much and the two men shook hands over the deal.

After signing a simple contract that gave Jathi a total of 15 days to wrap up his operations in the Goblin planet and move his network to Dombivli City to begin operations.

With this deal signed, a big headache for Max had been solved regarding the lack of a proper information network.

Had he tried to develop one from the grassroots it would have taken him many decades before it became robust and useful, but taking an entire existing framework run by Jathi he bypassed that growing period and was now sitting on a widespread network of information.

——-

/// A/N – Chapter 5/30, let’s go! ///