Chapter 043

"You piece of shit." Vladmir Ranskahov scorned as he looked at the man in front of him. "Do you really think I will let you go like this?"

Blood trickled down from his face as he glared at the man in front of him with all the hatred he could amass.

"Desperate men sometimes say stuff that doesn't make sense."

The man said, his face devoid of any emotions. He was wearing a white suit jacket and his head was bald, giving him a funny look especially with all the body mass. But people close to him, including Vladmir, knew that all that mass was actually muscle.

"You are the same kind of person, Vladmir."

He finished his sentence with a rather sharp look.

"You killed my brother! I can never forgive you." Vladmir spit out, rage surging through him. "We had a deal, Fisk! I trusted you, you motherfucker!"

"You should very well know that in our line nobody can be fully trusted." A man besides Kingpin spoke.

Vladmir glanced at him, scoffing at the sight. He was James Wesley, Kingpin's right hand man and someone Vladmir hated.

"But I still thought you will fulfil what you have said." Vladmir said. "What about the others? Do they agree with you? Or everyone was just using us from the start."

"There were some disagreements but I handled them. Gao is worried due to how it all ended. But I will handle it." Kingpin said, not hiding anything as for him, Vladmir was already dead. "You don't have to worry about it, Vladmir."

Vladmir laughed, putting a hand to his face. Just this motion was enough to cause him a lot of pain but he was numb at this point.

He hadn't died even after being shot 6 times at different places. He could still go on for a few more minutes.

"What about the vigilantes? Daredevil and that… wolf guy. How are you gonna deal with them going forward?" Vladmir smirked, trying to at least cause a ripple in Kingpin's expression. "You are not the type to like uncertainties."

"I will deal with them." He said, but the tone in his voice betrayed him. "One way or another, they are going down."

"Those guys… they aren't the type to do down. They are like you in a way. Trying to make a difference and people like you are not the ones they can be dealt with. Either you will get destroyed or they will."

"You don't have to bother with it."

Kingpin said but Vladmir just laughed.

"You are scared. It's so clear." He stared at Kingpin. "I heard about how you were paranoid since the Harlem incident. You are scared these vigilantes will stop you from achieving your desire."

Kingpin didn't say anything. He just waited and his right hand man followed his silence. Vladmir leaned against the wall, looking at both the people he hated the most in the world.

"You know Fisk, people like you and me. We start at the bottom and try to reach the top by any means. Some do it for pleasure and some just have wild, crazy ambitions like you." He coughed up some blood as he talked, but didn't stop. "In the end, we all go down the same way. Losing everything in just one bullet–"

A gun shot rang out as he was in the middle of his frantic monologue. Kingpin looked up to see James Wesley holding up a gun.

"I'm sorry, Sir." He lowered his gun. "He was speaking more than he can afford."

"It's fine." Kingpin shook his head. "It would have been more violent if I had moved. You did the right thing, giving him a merciful death."

He turned his head to look at Vladmir's limp body. Blood was slowly flowing out on the floor and Kingpin could only sigh seeing this.

He still remembered the first time he had met Vladmir and his brother, Anatoly. Although hot headed, both of them had potential and it was a regret that he wasn't able to take full advantage of that potential.

Anatoly had ended up ruining his first date with his lover and for that, Kingpin had killed him in a bout of rage.

He didn't feel remorse about it and simply felt like he had done the right thing. But it has caused serious damage to his organisation.

It will take quite a while before they can secure another route to sell the steel serpent heroin. 

In the end, a lot has taken to clean the mess.

"Inform the others and kill all the remaining members of the Russian gang. We don't need them running around like rats. I will inform the other members of Vladmir's death."

Kingpin spoke, his voice one of disappointment.

"I understand." Wesley nodded, then hesitated a bit before asking. "But what about the vigilantes? Although Vladmir was an idiot, those vigilantes have been causing trouble for us for a long time."

"We will deal with them." 

Kingpin walked down the stairs of the abandoned building they were in and Wesley followed him in silence. As they reached downstairs, he spoke.

"I will talk with Gao. That woman wanted to test out her weapons for a long time. Those vigilantes would be the right target."

"Are you sure about that, Sir?" Wesley asked, thinking of one of the five fingers of Hand, Madame Gao. That woman was not someone he trusted.

"Why?"

"The Hand can very well turn out like the Russians. They have crazy ambitions and New York is just the start of it."

"I know that very well." Kingpin looked at him. "But they have the power that I covet. Even if we are powerful, it's hard to say what we can do about… zombies."

"Do you mean?" He asked as they came outside.

Wesley stared at him expecting a reply but Kingpin shook his head. He raised his head to look at the night sky. 

"Times are changing. We now have to deal with monsters, a guy with a wolf and even a billionaire with robotic armour. Thinking of all that, those zombies are way better to deal with. You know what I call this age, Wesley?"

"What?"

"It's the age of monsters and miracles and I want to stand above all that."