After maneuvering through the maze of salespeople, their customers, and just normal citizens idling around the boys found what seemed to be their informant.
He was dressed like a security guard and he sat by the entrance to the broken-down casino building. He wore dark blue shades, a black cap, and had on his hands an envelope.
Kofi who was leading the boys immediately thought that this was the one after seeing the envelope. He waved at the guy and he lowered his shades to take a better peek at them. After being satisfied with whatever he was looking for he came to them and gave them the envelope.
Joao couldn't get a better look at the guy, but as passed by them it left him feeling like he was just blindfolded. He clenched his fists and tried to shake off the unease but no matter what he tried it was only getting stronger.
After hesitating for a few seconds he decided to go and confront him. When he turned around his eyes were met with a sea of people going on about their business most of which were wearing the same attire. Meaning there were other people dressed like security guards within the crowd.
'I should be able to find him if I calm myself down,' he thought to himself to try and give his heart some insurance. Joao faced the crowd with a calm look on his face and slowed his breathing. Consequently, time slowed down to match his heartbeat. Then the events reversed and repeated, this time Joao kept his senses on high alert to pay attention to where the supposed informant was heading.
Nothing. He got nothing since he was unable to get an accurate reading on the supposed informant when they first met, Joao lost immediately when he traced him back into the crowd. Nonetheless, he still clenched his fists and thought hard on where he could've possibly hidden.
"Ha!" Joao exclaimed as his hoodie flew off his head, he shifted to see who and why. And saw Kofi taking off at full speed, Phenyo followed quickly followed behind him.
"Hey! WHAT'S WRONG?" Joao screamed.
"JUST GET OVER HERE!" Phenyo looked back and screamed.
Joao took off in pursuit, after crossing the road he saw Kofi turning to the left, so he also shifted to look. It was a security van, electrical so he wouldn't have heard it if he continued tracking that guy in all of this noise.
Kofi stopped and furiously punched a parked. Joao and Phenyo slowed down and just sated at Kofi cursing at the cars and street lights. Finally, he turned his attention to them, after a few huge breaths he showed them the envelope. Joao accepted it and took out the papers inside.
[We just want to do business with you.]
Joao tilted his head and said, 'meh.' He passed the papers to Phenyo and looked inside the envelope to look for more contents. There was nothing left, 'why did he overreact then?'
"Why are you mad? It's not like we received a threat or anything." Phenyo said as he grabbed the envelope from Joao and out the papers back in to hand to Kofi.
"Are you kidding me right now? We could've caught an enemy in our territory." Kofi grunted as he kicked the car again.
"I'm pretty sure that bringing this back would carry the same merit as catching the outsider doing business in our area," Phenyo answered
"I don't know," Joao said. 'It could've been a message left for the imposter, considering that he recognized our uniform. But then again it could also not be related to the current situation at all.' He thought
"Let's continue looking for our guy before it gets late, we have at least one more stop to make," Kofi said as he folded the envelope and placed it under the sleeve of his v-neck.
Joao looked at him and wondered why he recovered from his outburst so quickly. That is when he noticed him stuff something into his pockets. At first, he wanted to jump him and him to take it out but then he calmed himself. 'It's best to observe quietly.
The boys eventually gave up looking for this area's informant and proceeded to another one with their heads bent low. Instead of going forward, the boys made their way to the right. The second area was next to this one and the last area was behind that. Basically, they were given a small portion of the Divinity gang's territory to patrol while the others were covered by actual members of the family.
In this section despite having the same crowd situation as the previous one, the boys were able to find the informant much more quickly than they had expected. Unlike the one from the previous streets, this one came to them or rather was looking for them.
He was in the same clothing as the fake and he hurriedly threw himself against Phenyo. Kofi pulled him away and thrust his fist at him, Phenyo caught it before he could connect with the poor guy's face.
Kofi snarled at Phenyo and earned himself a toss to the side. "Why are you running?" Phenyo asked as he looked back down to the informant.
"You shouldn't be here, it is too dangerous, you're going to get yourselves killed. TURN AWAY NOW!" The middle-aged man screamed.
His statement caught Joao's attention and he jumped in with his own questions, "did you see the aggressor's face, is he old or is he in high school like us? Where are they from?"
The man looked at Joao with shock and worry, "don't you hear me? You'll due once you get back…." Out of nowhere a punch connected with the man's face knocking him down to the ground. The middle-aged man tried to get up but he was unable to keep his balance. His breathing was rapid and his body was shaking uncontrollably.
Phenyo dived to the ground and got the man from the ground, "old man. Old man! Are you okay?"