"Put your hands on your head?" A man said, clearly unsure of who he was looking at.

  Bagel, not one to have hands, glared. The man had the audacity to point a weapon at him. Not only that, he didn't even summon one of his cards. Why would he point something at bagel but not summon a card?

  But then he realized that he wasn't actually appointing his weapon at Bagel. It was and Gladys that the man thought was a threat. Well that was good. Bagel was used to being misunderstood. He thrived in the space between what people thought and what people assumed. It was a good place to be until you ended up on the wrong side of a weapon.

  Gladys complied with the man's order. Bagel, not known for having hands, just stood by.

  "Sir, we're not here representing the city or at least I'm not."

  The man closed his left eye and raised the shotgun up to his right eye. "You're going to have to say that again. You're from the city?"

  "We are not from the city. We're actually from midtown east. We saw that somebody bought up this area and wanted to see what was going on. But it looks like you're not part of La Noche. Now can I put my hands down?"

  "You're not part of La Noche either?"

  The shotgun was lowering but far slower than it looked like Gladys wanted it to go. It was at least considerate of them.

  "We're not part of La Noche. I represent the interests of..." She dipped her head towards Bagel. "One Mr. Bagel here. He is a benefactor of the city and is responsible for the Turtle Bay neighborhood as well as several blocks north and south of there."

  Bagel didn't like to sudden attention that he got from the man. The man swiveled to give him his full attention.

  "Who brings a cat to a gun fight?"

  "Who talks like that? We just arrived?" Bagel said. "We live in a society!"

  "Sorry, Gato I wasn't thinking. These squirrels got me all tied up in knots. They're demanding payment for their services rendered. I ain't got nothing but grief from them."

  Bagel paws to take that in. The relationship between him and the pigeons was something completely separate than the relationship with him and whoever this man was. But they had a separate thing going.

  He hadn't considered how The squirrels might looked to other people. If this man was so paranoid right now, what could they have done?

  "I'm sorry. Grief?" Gladys said.

  "Yeah they come by for protection money almost everyday. They don't doing that to you?"

  "We came all the way down by 45th Street. I'm not sure that they're going to want to harass us, especially when we're trying to work at a deal with them."

  The shotgun was fully down and out of view by now. For a moment it looked like he was going to try to pick it back up but luckily he didn't. By then the situation has begun to feel a tiny amount less tense.

  "Are you working on a deal with La Noche?" The man said.

  Gladys adjusted her glasses. "How about let's talk to each other first and then maybe we can work something out?"

  "I'm open to discussion ese. Gato?"

  Bagel meowed. "Let's chat."

  It took them a few minutes to get settled in. By the time they were ready to talk, they go ahead and learn that the man's name was Anthony and that he'd gotten a mantle card in a dungeon dive that had given him the ability to buy his place.

  "So you're just going to try to buy up all these buildings around here?" Bagel said. "Do you have a plan?"

  "I don't think I have enough credits to buy more than two buildings. I'm going to need some help with that. But we'll see how that goes."

  Bagel took a second to look at the interface. According to what he was seeing, the buildings around them were roughly a thousand each. Some of them were in the 5000 credit range and it would have been interesting if he had bought it here.

  Due to the spot they bought being a gas station, apparently Anthony has only spent 200 credits on it.

  There was nothing above it. So many places in New York City had an extended skyscraper or building of 10 or more stories. The buildings next door were far taller, hence more expensive.

  "If you start buying up land alongside 1st avenue we could potentially eventually meet you there. Part of what we're worried about La Noche doing is going from the East River to the Hudson River. If you could stop them from doing that..."

  Anthony had a glint in his eye. "If I just have to buy some more stuff in a certain line then I'm all for it. And you're just going to buy up first avenue all the way up here?"

  Bagel shrugged. He'd looked at the price. Buying up all that real estate was less expensive than buying a building but he wasn't going to be able to do much with it. Now if he was buying it to prevent other people from crossing over it that would be a different thing. The squirrels would notice.

  "They will be able to tell if I do that. Not that I don't want to."

  "Tell you what, Gato If you can help me buy some of these buildings, I won't but up first avenue. You can tell La Noche that we worked out something. In fact, you don't even have to tell them. They don't have to know anything about our deal if you don't want to."

  Not telling the pigeons was going to be one of the better ideas that they'd come up with. It was easy to say that they would not tell squirrels or the pigeons, but the pigeons has had easy access to the system. The squirrels didn't even have access yet unless he was mistaken.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  He took a moment to his in her face again and checked. "Oh no."

  "What is it?" Gladys said.

  "The squirrels are making a move."

  It was clear that they figured out what they were doing and they nominated somebody to take over buying up land. And 5-minute. They'd bought up several blocks on the North and Northwest side of Central Park. It was just as he had guessed.

  They were making their move now and Bagel was of the opinion that perhaps this wasn't going to be as long of a battle as he initially thought it was going to be. They'd come out of the game strong and in a position to start moving either way.

  "They bought up series of blocks by the northwestern corner of Central Park. I don't know what they're doing but I would not have started that way."

  Anthony took a moment to check his system. "That's absolutely right. They had to have known what they were doing. I don't know why they waited till right now."

  Bagel had an inkling of why they'd waited. He also had an inkling of why they started but he couldn't confirm. If they've been talking to the pigeons then they could see the map through one of their deck bearers.

  Bagel shook himself. "It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. The pigeons and squirrels are probably working together."

  "I guess this is it huh?" Gladys said. "Are we going to have to get in bed with the city?"

  "It seems like that. And we're going to have to work with our new friend here."

  Bagel took a moment and bought up several blocks of real estate leading up first avenue. He was halfway to 96th street before he realized that he was out of credits. He would have to take some time and replenish himself when he got back to the bodega.

  He was absolutely certain that he would have even more there when he arrived.

  "So about that, help buying up these buildings around here. Do you think that we could make that a today thing?" Anthony said. "I see what you just did there. You're a feisty one, Gato, I like it."

  Bagel enjoyed difficult problems. This was not so much difficult as it was something that he just had to take care of. He felt so much better now that he had the time to react. Either the squirrels had just spent their nut on that or they were not saving for retirement anymore.

  Either way, he wasn't going to chase them. That was beneath his station.

  "I'm going to need a lot more credits. Gladys? I think it's time that we show La Noche who's really in charge here."

  Gladys gave him a predatory smile that didn't reach her eyes.

  ---

  "What do you mean all of 1st avenue?" Ashley said. "Say that one more time."

  Kate raised an eyebrow. "Our crazy neighbor just bought up all of 1st avenue. All the way up to when it ends. I did not know that you could do that but basically no mobs are going to spawn there anymore."

  Ashley held out her tablet with the official information of the last person to sign up. She had been wondering what it meant that he'd come from all the way up by 96th Street to join the Turtle Bay adventurers guild. It was then that she understood. "Bagels out there sending us people. That beautiful handsome boy. I ought to get him some bak lava for his trouble."

  "So you're telling me he didn't run any of this by you? And this is all news to you and...?"

  Ashley, you've her girlfriend the most withering stare she could imagine. It didn't have much of an effect despite the fact that she definitely did it the best that she could. Perhaps it was that her girlfriend was taller than her, and Ashley had to look up to Kate. That couldn't be it though. Ashley was the dominant one, they had even agreed on it!

  "I don't have a special understanding of Bagel. Just because I knew them before doesn't mean that that gives me any special insight. I know you before the system arrived and I thought you were a jerk."

  "Hey."

  "You're still a jerk but now you're my jerk," Ashley said.

  Kate scoffed. "I should really hope so. I worked really hard to become a special jerk to you. Oh and Gladys texted me that we're about to get a bunch of special missions. So call up the reserves I think."

  Ashley eyed her suspiciously. " If I didn't know better, I'd say that you were in League with our neighbor. But I know you're going to tell me what's going on. So eventually I'm going to have a handle on this. How about we just cut the shit and tell me how many people you think Bagel is going to ask for?"

  "Easily three or four squads. I could see him asking for more of course but you know I'm not trying to be confident. So anything I have here. When the cat says he wants stuff I'm going to get him stuff. Looks like he's trying to clear out more buildings faster. I think that's a great idea."

  Kate's phone beeped. Ashley nodded for her to check it. "Six teams."

  "Six fucking teams what the fuck is he talking about?"

  "Well we can ask him when they come back from the Spanish Harlem."

  Ashley gritted her teeth. "Why the fuck are they going to Spanish Harlem?"

  Kate shrugged and Ashley knew that she was going to have a lot of words with Bagel tonight. She looked over to see Liz shrugging, as was typical.