While Finn and Doflamingo occupied their corner, Marco sat alone in a different one.
Gran Tesoro had invited the major pirate crews to the opening, which was both diplomatically appropriate and commercially sensible. Whitebeard had attended the ceremony itself but hadn't come to the cocktail party. This was predictable. A man of Newgate's stature arriving at a gathering like this would freeze the room. No one would approach him, no one would speak naturally near him, and the entire event would become about managing his presence rather than conducting the business it was designed for.
So Marco had come instead. He was visible enough to represent the crew's attendance but not so overwhelming that his presence became a problem. If someone wanted to speak with Whitebeard about something, they could approach Marco first. It was practical.
It was also boring.
Marco had been trying to catch Doflamingo's attention for the past hour. The Heavenly Yaksha had information about Teach that Marco needed. Teach had been missing for months, last seen heading toward Alabasta with Doflamingo's assistance, and then vanishing entirely from contact. The crew had been quietly searching, but quietly wasn't producing results.
The problem was that Admiral Finn had grabbed Doflamingo almost immediately after the party started, pulled him into a corner, and kept him there. They'd been talking for long enough that Marco had stopped trying to make eye contact and had resigned himself to waiting.
He was drinking wine he didn't particularly like and considering leaving when a shadow fell across his table.
The figure was tall. Close to five meters. Even in a room full of people whose bodies had been shaped by Devil Fruits, combat, and genetics into configurations that didn't resemble normal humans, this one stood out.
Marco didn't look up immediately. This was Gran Tesoro. The neutral zone provisions were absolute. Anyone who started something here would be disrespecting every faction present simultaneously, and no one was that careless. He took another sip of wine, then raised his eyes.
"Don't block my sun," he said.
"It's just the lights," the figure replied.
Charlotte Katakuri. Big Mom's eldest son and the Totto Land pirates' second-in-command.
Marco's expression shifted from bored to mildly irritated. "What do you want?"
"An invitation." Katakuri's voice was calm, without inflection. "My mother would like to meet with your captain. Here's the location."
He dropped a folded note on the table. Marco didn't pick it up immediately.
"Whitebeard doesn't take meetings on short notice," Marco said.
"Kaido will be there as well."
Marco looked up properly this time.
Katakuri met his eyes without expression. The statement had done what it was supposed to do: reframe the invitation from a bilateral discussion into something considerably more significant. If both Big Mom and Kaido wanted to meet with Whitebeard, and they were willing to do it on neutral ground where none of them had territorial advantage, the subject was worth Newgate's time.
Marco picked up the note. "I'll pass it along."
Katakuri nodded once and left without further conversation. He didn't linger at the party. He'd come to deliver a message, the message was delivered, and there was no value in staying. Several other people had already left for similar reasons. The party was a venue for conducting business efficiently, not for socializing.
Marco watched him go, then looked back at Finn and Doflamingo, still talking in their corner. He was annoyed to see them still occupied. He'd wanted to ask Doflamingo about Teach before leaving, but that clearly wasn't happening tonight.
He stood up and walked out.
Newgate needed to hear about this invitation immediately.
Across the room, in one of the private booths that ringed the main floor, Smoker took a long drink from his glass, set it down, and returned his cigar to his mouth. He exhaled smoke toward the ceiling.
"The pirates are making a move," he said.
Queen Stussy sat across from him. This wasn't surprising to anyone watching. Smoker and Stussy's partnership was well-known. The Amway Group, Gran Tesoro, the various economic ventures that had made Smoker wealthy enough to occupy a quarter of the New World: all of it had been built with Stussy's coordination. That she was here, at the opening of the city they'd spent years planning, was entirely expected.
What was less widely acknowledged, but understood by everyone present who operated at a certain level, was that Queen Stussy's Pleasure Street operation was backed by World Government resources and that she was considerably more connected to Mary Geoise than her public position suggested. This was the kind of secret that stopped being secret once you reached a certain tier of influence. People knew. They simply didn't say it, because saying it would require acknowledging it, and acknowledging it would create awkwardness that served no one's interests.
Stussy had been watching Finn with an expression of mild annoyance for the past twenty minutes. When Smoker spoke, she pulled her attention back to him.
"I noticed," she said.
"Whitebeard came to the opening. Kaido came. Charlotte Linlin came in person." Smoker tapped ash from his cigar. "You think they're here to give us face?"
"If they had the opportunity, they'd kill you," Stussy said. "Face has nothing to do with it."
"Exactly." Smoker smiled slightly. "So when all three of them show up at the same event, in the same city, at the same time, it's not coincidence. They're here to meet."
Stussy nodded. "Gran Tesoro is the only place they could do it. None of them trust each other enough to meet on anyone's home territory. Kaido and Linlin still have their alliance, but even they wouldn't meet on Wano or Whole Cake Island if Whitebeard was supposed to attend. This is the only neutral ground that works."
"Which means they're planning something," Smoker said.
"Obviously." Stussy lit a cigarette of her own. "But that's your Marine's problem to solve. What I want to know is what Dragon was discussing with Morgans."
Smoker had noticed that conversation as well. Dragon and the Big News president had been talking for some time, and whatever privacy measures they'd used had been effective enough that neither he nor Stussy had picked up any details.
"The Admiral will get the information," Smoker said. "That's his domain. I'm focused on making sure Gran Tesoro stays operational and profitable." He paused. "Dragon's supposed to be your partner, isn't he? Through the Amway Group?"
Stussy glared at him. "Don't say things like that where people can hear you."
"We're in a privacy booth."
"Still."
Smoker let it drop. He drank, smoked, and changed direction. "You'll be confirmed as CP Director when you get back?"
"That's the plan." Stussy's mood improved visibly. "The Gran Tesoro opening is the final piece. Once this is over, I'll have the achievement Mary Geoise needs to make the promotion official."
"Congratulations."
"Thank you." She smiled slightly. "I couldn't have done it without you and Finn. And Kong, and Sengoku. The entire conspiracy, really."
Smoker nodded. Then, carefully: "Did Finn say when he's planning to move?"
Stussy's expression shifted immediately. "How should I know?"
"You came here together," Smoker said. "I'm not blind."
"Ask him yourself," Stussy said, with the particular sharpness of someone who had been asked a question they didn't want to answer and had decided to be annoyed about it rather than evasive.
Smoker raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Fine. I'll ask him directly when I get the chance."
He would. The question mattered.
Smoker had been a pirate for thirteen years. Thirteen years of maintaining a cover, building a reputation, occupying territory, managing a crew, conducting operations that looked like piracy from the outside but served Marine strategic interests from the inside. Three years after three years, the saying went, and Smoker had done four cycles of three years and then some.
It had been necessary. He understood that. The Amway Group, the economic independence that was enabling the entire Marine separation from Mary Geoise, his position as a Yonko-level figure who could coordinate with Whitebeard and negotiate with the other major powers: all of it required the pirate cover to be maintained.
But thirteen years was a long time.
If you don't close the net soon, Smoker thought, I'm actually going to become Pirate King. And at that point, what's the extraction plan?
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