North American detective: From scoundrel to god among men

Chapter 51 Mr. Winston

Continental Hotel, New York.

Titus and his companion walked through a secret passage in the lobby to a thick, dark green curtain. A guard lifted the curtain, revealing a retro-style covered walkway elevator behind it. The elevator had a brass frame with carved details, and the inner railings were made of fine walnut wood. A frosted glass chandelier with a sunset hue hung from the top. Stepping inside felt like stepping back into the last century.

The guard activated the round metal dial for selecting the floor, the double brass doors closed silently, and the elevator slowly descended, smoothly entering a dangerous yet elegant underground world.

As the gears stopped turning, the double doors slowly opened, and Titus stepped out of the elevator, walked through the dilapidated passageway that resembled an abandoned building, and pushed open a carved wooden door.

An underground bar comes into view, with wine-red curtains covering the walls and dark green light spreading across the floor like ripples on the water. A carpet is laid out and a burning fireplace is placed, giving people a sense of eternity and mystery.

A song drifted from the stage deep inside the bar, like a songstress from the depths of hell singing a corrupting melody:

"Ah ah ah ah"

"Cacciatore (fine wine and delicious food)"

John walked deeper into the bar, with Titus following closely behind. They stopped at a round table.

"La da da da da"

"La da da da da"

"Limousines (Luxury Cars and Villas)"

Behind the round table sat a well-dressed man in a suit, with an Ascot tie tied around his shirt collar and his hair meticulously styled, exuding the air of a powerful figure.

He was looking down at the newspaper at that moment. Because of his age, he was wearing reading glasses, and like most fathers, the lenses were tilted slightly below the bridge of his nose.

Two shadows fell on the round table, and the approaching footsteps made the man look up.

"John Wick..."

"Winston Scott."

Winston picked up a half-glass of dry martini made with London dry gin, with a green olive in the glass.

He greeted John, then looked at Titus and nodded slightly.

"John, as far as I know, it's usually you who hits others, not the other way around."

Winston is the owner of the Continental Hotel in New York. People who usually hire him are looking to kill someone.

John shook his head and said:

"I'm looking for someone, Joseph Tarasov."

Winston did not answer his question, but instead slowly asked:

"You're back again?"

John paused for a moment, then stubbornly said:

"Just... passing by."

Winston nodded, put down his glass, and said:

"You can't kill people in mainland hotels, so I can't provide you with information."

Winston is a competent mediator; he doesn't break the rules or favor either side.

Furthermore, killing is strictly prohibited in the Mainland Hotel. It is the only safe zone in the assassin world, and anyone who violates the rules and kills someone here will be expelled from the hotel.

Removing someone from the list means wiping them out. The hotel will offer a global bounty. He doesn't even need to specifically assign assassins; the hidden assassins around the world can take your life.

If you do this, you will become the enemy of the entire world, seeing enemies everywhere!

John remained concise:

"This is a personal grudge."

Winston was surprised by this, as he had initially thought it was just a routine task for John.

But now it seems this is no ordinary matter; some unlucky fellow has angered this killing god! You must know that this guy once accomplished the feat of killing three people with a pencil!

"Mr. Winston, the world never stops moving forward; we should be more flexible."

Titus took a gold coin from John's pocket and placed it on the glass round table.

"One gold coin for one service—would you refuse the Grand Warehouse Hotel's offer?"

Winston paused, looking at Titus with surprise, but did not accept the gold coins, for this was no ordinary matter.

As the manager of the Continental Hotel in New York, accepting this gold coin would mean that the hotel might sell anyone's information in the future.

This will lead to a decline in the hotel's credibility, and assassins will no longer dare to stay at the hotel. In the long run, this will be detrimental to hotel management. Although it is not a major problem, it should not be underestimated.

This is completely different from hiring a killer.

The two models—employers paying hotel hitmen to kill someone, or finding a hitman through the hotel as an intermediary (such as having Winston, the manager, recommend a hitman)—are completely different and fundamentally different in nature.

Hiring a killer simply means ordering an assassin to hunt down someone; the hotel will still not provide any information, at most acting as an intermediary.

In general, the mainland hotel acts as an intermediary between the employer and the hitman, providing services without openly favoring anyone. However, if you violate the hotel's rules, the consequences will be different.

Therefore, Titus's move was tantamount to challenging the hotel's authority.

Moreover, they stood right in front of him, the manager, and used his rules to slap him in the face.

Winston could turn a blind eye to John's probing, as an old friend, and he was happy to show leniency in matters where there was room for maneuver.

If John had been an assassin back then, Winston might have reluctantly agreed to this harmless gesture after a few drinks.

But now, Winston knew that John had already retired from public life for many years.

In this cold and cruel world of assassins, retiring alive is practically a pipe dream; the only way for assassins to retire is through death.

But how did John retire?

He requested to retire from his job from his former employer, Vigo Tarasov, who did not object but agreed.

But John was given an impossible task: to kill all the top leaders of the rival gang!

This is an unspoken rule; Vigo didn't actually ask John to kill everyone on the other side, but rather subtly told John, "I disagree with your request."

But something unexpected happened:

John did it; he slaughtered the entire enemy family in one night, and from then on, the name "Nightmare" resounded throughout the entire underground assassin world...

Winston did not get angry at Titus's probing, but smiled slightly.

He tapped his fingers lightly on the round table and said gently:

"Mr. Jack Vizra, you may not understand, this is not in accordance with the rules."

"Rules are everything on the high platform; rules are the only thing that can distinguish us from beasts."

That old bastard, he's implying I'm a beast... Titus thought.

"What if I offered you a price you couldn't refuse?"

As he spoke, Titus reached into John Wick's suit pocket again, where Wick was trying to breathe on it.

He took out three gold coins and then laid them out one by one on the glass table.

As is well known, in the world of underground assassins, one gold coin corresponds to one service, and if the mission is difficult, the gold coin will be doubled.

Gold coins also have their own currency conversion system, which is simple and straightforward: one gold coin is equal to one million US dollars.

The four gold coins laid out on Titus's table are worth four million US dollars!