Chapter
3 – Decisive Moves
It’s been another few weeks since
our own employees turned on us. Every possible traitor who sympathizes with our
enemies has been fired or has already run for the hills. Foreign influences
continue to sow chaos, division, and the destruction and corruption of our
country, the United Chimera States. An emergency meeting is being held in a
private dining room at the Paul casino with the family heads and important friends to figure out what we should do.
“We can’t keep this president in
charge!” Joker says as he stands up and slams the table, shaking all our
drinks. “There are Vorfahren in all areas of the country within the government,
in the schools, in the businesses, everywhere! They’re in more places than you
people and your allies are! Something must be done about him!”
“Donnie, something has to be done,
or we will do something ourselves,” James Sovrano, the well-dressed don of the
Garden State, says.
Donnie Parlarono, our contact in
the Secret Intelligence Bureau or SIB, ponders the pressure from powerful
men telling him what to do. Given the severity of what’s suggested, it’s surprising
that he doesn’t outright deny it. Russell and Angelo are here today, still
dressed as honest, middle-class men, despite the power and influence they wield;
Russell still looking like a tired old man, and Angelo looking like a gentle
man who owns a restaurant and nothing more. Vito is here and looks the same as Angelo
and Vito, all three men not saying anything and simply looking at Donnie as if
pressuring him to decide simply with their gaze.
“Any thoughts, Ministro brothers?”
Donnie finally says.
Frank and John Ministro are dressed
in black, white, and red suits as if they both worked in the government, and
even though they do in one way of looking at it, given that one brother is a political
mobster, while the other is a mobster in politics.
“The VP is a decent man and should
lead the country better when he gets the message. He did serve in the Great War
after all, and a man who puts his life on the line for others will always be a
decent man in my book,” Frank Ministro says.
“My ties to Johnson are tight, and
will become tighter after what we do,” John Ministro says.
“How will it happen, though? It’s
not a simple task.”
“I already have that planned out,”
Russell says. “We know of a marine who defected to the Slav Federation, who we
can use to do the deed. If you don’t trust him to do the job, then bring one of
your men to watch him or fire another shot, and then bring him in.”
“You’re planning on hiring a man,
just to betray him?” Donnie asks.
“He’ll do it if he thinks he’s
doing it for the right reasons. Afterward, he won’t talk about who hired him
and why he did what we did.”
“Are you sure?”
“I wouldn’t do anything if I wasn’t
sure it would work out.”
Donnie is silent for a second
before saying, “You may not always approve a sentence, Russell, but when you
do, you become scarier than James over here.”
“It’s necessary to put the fear of
God into people at all times.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” Vito says.
“We should be putting the fear of
God into the Slav Federation next, those godless dogs,” Cesare says. “We should’ve
never allied with them during the war.”
“I’m already dealing with their
kind in my state, so you don’t have to worry about them from my side,” James
says with a satisfied smirk.
“My man,” Cesare says as the two
shake hands.
“Whatever it is, the past is in the
past. We made our mistake trusting the president to do what we helped him get
into office for, and soon, he’ll be nothing more than a memory. Donnie, is
there anything you need us to do to help you out on your side?”
“There is one thing. This room may
not be bugged, and there’s no one here who will betray us, but when I bring our
plan to the shooter, I want for this…let’s just say the Bureau has thin, glass
walls. People from both sides are there trying to influence it. They like
having a president in office who makes us weak, so they won’t agree with our
plan. I’ve been trying to get them fired, but haven’t managed to since both of
their ideologies aren’t classified as illegal or hateful and destructive to our
country yet, despite obviously being so.”
“We get where this is going. They’ll
get their firing notices a different way,” Marin says.
“Those people think they’re safe,
but we’ll show them otherwise,” Okazaki comments.
“We still have to make sure to
catch them off guard and do this as quietly as possible, while also making sure
that it doesn’t look like the house is being cleaned,” Angelo says.
“I agree,” Vito says. “We need to
come up with a strategy. Maybe have them fight each other since the Slav
Federation and their allies are the furthest thing from friends with the
Zeitloses Imperium, Lupa, and those who associate themselves with the Vorfahren.”
“Good thinking, but it’ll take some
time to arrange. I think I know of a way to push it along, though,” Joseph Decoro
says.
“Then let’s do it then!” James
says. “I don’t care if they’re the ones killing one another or if it’s us. Let’s
get it done. They’ve been a pain in our ass for too long.”
“I have to ask you again because of
the weight of our decision. Are you truly all okay with this? We can get into
real legal trouble if it doesn’t work out,” Donnie asks.
I say, “Men make laws, but God
decides what’s right and wrong. We do things that we know to be right despite
the consequences, so I think I speak for everyone when I say that we’re ready
to do this.”
Russell smiles and nods his head
like an approving father. Everyone else agrees and nods their heads, especially
Joker, who seems to have sobered up a bit.
“Alright then. Here’s everything we
need to do.”
“You already knew we’d go along
with this plan, didn’t you?” Russell asks.
“It’s always good to be prepared,”
Donnie says with a smirk.
Donnie lays out the profiles of the
people we need to take out and their general daily schedules, as compiled by
the SIB. We plan how we’re going to reach them, identify the right people for
the job, and set backup plans that include James Sovrano’s and Cesare’s people
to clean up whatever mess is made. With that done, we let our families in, and
Fontaine Fontalloro sings for us. We eat, dance, and drink as if what we
planned has already succeeded and we’re enjoying its fruits. Given the power,
influence, and intelligence of the people in this room, it might as well be
true.
I sing on stage with Marin, then
Cesare sings with Okazaki, and then we all sing together with our kids. The
good times of it all make me hopeful this will all work out in the end, and God
willing, it will.
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