Release That Succubus



Zach wrecked his brains out thinking of a possible solution to the problems but after a full ten hours he had come up with exactly nothing. Hopelessness engulfed him no matter where he turned to.

As a result, he did the only thing he hadn't tried yet.

He asked for help. Ever since the Diana was kidnapped, Zach had been relying on himself to get Diana back. But so far, he had only met with disappointment. 

Therefore, he believed that it was time to change his perspective. Maybe someone else could help him see things that had been eluding him so far.

...

Marico had been Hogan's rival for a long time. There was no one who knew Hogan and his scheming brain more than Marico in the whole Byzantium city, probably the whole world even.

Therefore, Zach believed that he was the person to turn to in such dire circumstances. Believing that Marico might give him insight into Hogan's methods, Zach called on him and asked him to help come up with a strategy that might work against the Hunter family.

Even though Marico felt that he was far from qualified to tell Zach what to do considering how the latter had to help him out of so many situations since his arrival in Byzantium city, he still offered his help since there truly was no one else who knew Hogan like he did.

Both of them were smart people so Marico didn't just offer his opinion. Instead, he asked Zach, "Hogan is extremely cunning and calculative. He wouldn't do anything unless he has made thorough preparations and is sure that the outcome will be in his favor or at least believes it to be so. Put yourself in his shoes and think about what your next step will be. The best way to understand your enemy is to put yourself in their place and predict what they want the most."

Zach had been thinking of the conflict between him and the Hunter family from his own point of view so far. He had failed to take into account the motives of the Hunter family unless they had something to do with Diana or himself.

Therefore, he took Marico's advice to heart and pondered on it a bit.

If Zach had to state the most obvious objectives of the Hunter family he would definitely say, 'keeping their position as the first family in Byzantium city and to keep the Windsor family from encroaching onto that position'.

Hiring pirates to kill off Zach and kidnapping Diana when he failed to pull of Zach's murder, were probably both intended to weaken the Windsor family's support since Hogan was afraid of offending Zach and Windsor family at the same time.

Now that he had ended up offending Zach by kidnapping Diana, Hogan was probably looking to destroy the Smith family as the survival of Hunter family would depend on it because the only thing keeping Zach from attacking the Hunter family with all his strength was Diana's safety.

As such, Hogan's goals had probably changed a bit. The highest on his priority list was probably the destruction of the Smith family followed by the destruction of the sugar industry chain. While the former would enable the Hunter family to operate without any fear of retaliation and revenge, the latter would enable the Hunter family to keep their position at the top.

Even the demands made by Hogan in return for Diana's release were the same. The first condition was for Zach and his forces to leave Greenland which was akin to asking him to leave his seat of power and the second was to stop the production and distribution of sugar immediately.

So, Zach answered Marico's question with his insights into the matter.

Marico couldn't help but nod appreciatively at Zach's inference and his sharp mindedness.

"That's right. There is nothing more important to Hogan than retaining the position of his family. You can say that he is paranoid and obsessive about it. And that is what makes him so dangerous."

Marico had a solemn look on his face as he narrated Hogan's mode of operation to Zach in detail.

Zach already knew that Hogan was a cunning leader, so he didn't think Marico's words were very different from his own thoughts.

"Don't think that just because the difference between the two families is too great, Hogan would keep out of your way. His obsession wouldn't let him do that. He is bound to attack in a manner that you wouldn't be able to predict and in a location that would be the critical link of the entire Smith family. Remember, when a cunning person like Hogan goes into full attack mode, you won't be able to see it coming no matter what."

Although Zach respected Marico for his experience of dealing with the bastard for decades, he couldn't bring himself to believe all the words that came rolling off Marico's tongue. They seemed more like legends than the truth or his own verbalized fears.

Hogan might be cunning, but Zach didn't believe that he was capable of launching an all-out attack on him without Zach knowing about it considering that he had the system to back him up in case of any threatening situation. There was video monitoring with the help of drones and the danger alert that the system issued every time someone entered his range bearing ill intent towards him.

But Zach didn't reject Marico's kind words of advice outright. He only nodded to indicate his understanding of the things he had told him and that he would keep Marico's insights in mind while coming up with a strategy to save his home and Diana at the same time.

Just as Marico was about to say something else to Zach, they were both interrupted by Violet who seemed quite out of character this time as she rushed into the room where the two were having the serious discussion out of earshot.

It appeared to be an emergency considering that the calm and graceful Violet was acting like the impulsive Clara all of a sudden.

"This...this just arrived at the hands of a messenger." Violet stuttered as she spoke as she seemed to be quite out of breath. It appeared that she had rushed here in quite a hurry without caring about herself. It could only be an emergency since that was the case.

Violet pushed a letter towards Zach with urgency in her gaze as if she wanted Zach to read it as soon as possible.

Zach wondered what the contents of the letter could be at first, but then it dawned on him as to who could be the sender of this letter, to send Violet into such a frenzy.

"What is it?" Zach grabbed a hold of the letter as he inquired from Violet about the contents of the letter as if he did not plan to read the letter himself.

"Hurry up and read it...it's from the Hunter family. They have proposed an exchange." Violet was slightly excited because she knew that Zach had wanted to do the same thing ever since he made the plan to capture Nelson with the help of Jack. Only now, she was slightly worried because the initiative was now out of his hands because the enemy had made the proposal first. She couldn't help but doubt that something might be wrong.

Zach's eyes trembled as he listened to her talk about the exchange. As if to confirm her words, he took the letter out of its gilded envelope that was practically shouting 'wealth' and bore the sigil and seal of the Hunter family.

As Violet had already told him, the letter did indeed ask for an exchange of hostages from each side. While he would have to hand over Nelson Hunter, the Hunter family would hand over his wife Diana in return for their scion.

Moreover, the location chosen for the exchange to take place peacefully was a forest to the east of the distant suburbs of Byzantium city. The location was not only outside of the city but away from the population as well. This was good for both the families as they wanted to keep this a secret between them.

However, the only thing that frustrated the hell out of him was the timing chosen by the Hunter family.

The letter mentioned that the exchange would take place in the forest outside the suburbs after a period of three days.

Before Zach could delve too deep into thought to consider the proposal of exchange seriously, Marico's voice sounded in his ear like a wake-up call that broke him out of his reverie.

"Don't assume that it is going to be that easy even if it looks easy. It would definitely be fraught with danger considering that the originator of the request is Hogan. He is a man who can do anything as long as he can attain more power and influence. How can someone like him do something that would not only bring him no benefit but would also undermine his authority? Not to mention, the Hunter family has already invested too much into this venture to extort benefits out of you. Knowing Hogan, it is possible that he might even throw his son into the fiery pit to secure the standing of the Hunter family which is his life's work."

Although Zach wanted to believe that Hogan was doing this to save his son, he couldn't help but agree with Marico's words. There was no way of knowing how the thought process of lunatics like Hogan worked.