Seeing a familiar face, John Wick allowed a slight smile to appear. "Hello, Charon. Is Winston in?"
"Of course. Unless there's something special going on, the manager is always here at the hotel."
Charon spoke as he operated the keyboard, and after a moment, he pulled out a key. "I booked you into your old room. That's okay, right?"
"Th-thank you."
Although John Wick had retired, after the battle an hour ago, he realized he had no other place to go besides England.
He took a hotel gold coin from his pocket and handed it over, then nodded at Charon, who responded with a smile. "The manager is currently on the top floor."
"Thanks."
While riding the elevator, John Wick asked Sunday again, "You really can't find where Iosef is?"
"Sorry, Mr. Wick. I've searched Viggo Tarasov's entire territory and scanned ninety percent of New York's surveillance cameras but haven't found any trace of Iosef. It's likely he's no longer in New York, or someone advised Viggo Tarasov to deliberately avoid surveillance."
Of course, Sunday knew what William had done, but without William's orders, he couldn't tell John Wick.
"Alright, looks like I'll have to ask Winston for help."
When he arrived at the top floor, John Wick handed over his weapons before finally meeting Winston in the rooftop garden.
"John Wick?"
Winston, who had been reading, glanced over with his eyes, then smiled and took off his glasses upon seeing John Wick. He pointed to the seat opposite him.
"How many years has it been since we last met?"
"Thank you," John Wick said politely as he pulled out the chair and sat down, calmly answering, "It should be seven years."
After speaking, he glanced around the rooftop garden nostalgically. "It was right here that Mr. Devonshire instantly guessed I wanted to retire, and then I really did retire."
"Alright, alright, don't mention that little bastard," Winston interrupted him. It had been more than two years since he last saw William. "Tell me, what brings you here? Trouble?"
"I..." John hesitated for a moment before explaining the shooting incident that had taken place near his home.
"No problem. I'll take care of it for you," Winston said after thinking for a moment. He pulled out his phone and made a call.
He didn't say much before hanging up, placing his phone back on the table and waiting silently.
About ten minutes later, the phone rang again. Winston answered, then quickly smiled at John Wick. "Relax, it's handled. Someone voluntarily stepped up and claimed responsibility for the incident."
John Wick blinked in surprise and instinctively tapped his ear, where Sunday's voice soon came through, "Sorry, Mr. Wick. Certain special agencies recommend that you best not know about this matter."
Seeing John Wick covering his ear, Winston realized he was talking to Sunday. He knew well that two combat robots disguised as armored knights were standing outside his suite.
And the organization that stepped forward to take the blame could only be S.H.I.E.L.D.
Upon learning that John Wick was associated with William, Nick Fury had even classified the incident involving ordinary werewolves as a Level 9 secret.
"Alright, anything else?"
Seeing Winston putting his glasses back on and returning to his book, John Wick hesitated for a long time before finally asking, "I'd like to ask for your help finding Iosef Tarasov."
"Business or personal?"
Winston asked without looking up, "If it's business, you should ask Sunday. If it's personal..."
He paused and reminded him, "You've already retired. If you use the Continental Hotel's intelligence services again, it will mean you're officially back. Are you sure you want that?"
"This..."
After thinking about it, John Wick said, "Can I ask for your help as a friend?"
"Friend?" Winston looked up with a grin. "We're friends?"
"Of course," John Wick nodded firmly. "Just our mutual connection to Mr. Devonshire makes us friends."
Winston theatrically picked up his phone and pretended to dial. Sunday's voice immediately came through, "Mr. Winston, Iosef disappeared seventy-six minutes ago at Tarasov's headquarters nightclub. As for who did it, sorry, you don't have the clearance."
Putting down the phone, Winston was stunned for a few seconds. In his heart, he suspected that William had arranged for someone to abduct Iosef.
With that suspicion, Winston gave up on trying to locate Iosef using the hotel's intelligence network.
After all, for him, William was family, and John Wick was just an outsider. Shaking his head, Winston said,
"Sorry, for now we can't pinpoint Iosef's exact location. We only know he entered Viggo's nightclub headquarters and never came out."
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"Thank you."
John Wick had already braced himself when Sunday couldn't find Iosef. After saying goodbye to Winston, he suddenly added,
"Iosef killed the dog that Helen gave me before she passed away. So, this is personal."
"Understood," Winston nodded knowingly, then turned his attention back to his book.
"Thank you."
Back in his hotel room, John Wick lay on the large bed, silently reflecting on where things had gone wrong.
Meanwhile, across town, Viggo Tarasov, realizing his son was missing, was smashing up his office with a baseball bat in a crazed frenzy.
After venting his rage for over ten minutes, Viggo finally calmed down somewhat. The only person he could think of capable of abducting his son was John Wick.
Adding to his fury, the news had already reached him that out of the sixteen werewolves he sent on the mission, only one survived. His hatred and fear of John Wick grew to the point of obsession.
"Put out a bounty across New York's underworld: ten gold coins and one million dollars for John Wick's head."
"Understood, boss," replied a middle-aged subordinate wearing glasses. "And what about explaining Randall's death to the Snow Wolf clan?"
"Explain it honestly. I paid them to work for me. As long as we didn't betray Randall and the others, what can the Snow Wolf clan do? Besides, we still have a survivor—let him report back."
"Understood, boss," the subordinate nodded after a moment's thought. The survivor had been the one to call in the report.
"But John Wick is holed up in the Continental Hotel. If he doesn't come out, what should we do?"
Without hesitation, Viggo ordered, "Tell the assassins: anyone who dares to kill John Wick inside the Continental Hotel will get double the bounty."
"Y-yes, boss."
Soon, a bounty offering one million dollars appeared throughout New York's underworld. Everyone who saw John Wick's photo had dollar signs in their eyes.
Even the assassins within the Continental Hotel were now focused entirely on the 17th floor, where the street-facing suite was located.
If not for the Continental Hotel's strict rule that anyone who killed inside the hotel would be hunted down by every assassin in the world affiliated with the hotel, John Wick would already have been riddled with bullets.
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