Redistributive Justice: Chapter 3 – Dirty Work for a Cleaner World

Chapter 3 – Dirty Work for a Cleaner World

I can’t wait for this election to be over with. Our Hydra Roundtable keeps indirectly attacking the Paradox Collective, and they keep indirectly attacking us. They go after Catholic churches, poor houses, and have gangs of migrants attacking our people, while we keep stealing from their banks, research facilities, and underground cult hangouts. These are just a few examples of the attacks that both groups use on one another, with some being minor fights between groups to larger robberies or destruction of the other’s goods and money. Vincenzo keeps calling in favors from people in power that he knows, and they keep calling in favors from their people in the media and in power, who slander Vincenzo and try to get him out of the presidential race.

The liberal candidate and his cabinet, Vincenzo is up against, are the Malefic, the heads of the Paradox Collective. I wish this were simpler, and that I could just kill them since they’re always out in the public spotlight, but since that would make their cause look better and the information we’ve gathered suggests they have others to take their place, I have to hold back and just do what I can. According to polling data, Vincenzo is sure to win; however, the Paradox Collective has people in high places like we do and can skew the election in their favor. It’s all so irritating to deal with. God, please help the right person to win, and don’t give our country to the cultists who want to ruin it for their own gain.

Sitting in a Hydra Roundtable hideout, my friends and I go over the latest task set for us by the Campione brothers. This time, our friend on the inside of the Secret Intelligence Bureau, or SIB, Donnie Parlarono, has informed us of Paradox Collective agents in the SIB who he can’t get rid of and needs us to take a more forceful approach to the matter. We’re also supposed to hack into a hidden server in the SIB that Donnie can’t get into and thinks it’s one that holds secret communications between the Paradox Collective and the Malefic.

“Are we seriously raiding the SIB?” Kelly asks.

“Guest passes can only get us so far, and going there in masks will only start trouble, so we might as well go all the way,” I say.

“It’s what our friend, Donnie, suggests anyway,” Al adds.

“I’m not complaining. Just saying. Do you think we can attack the tax agency across the street too?”

“That’s not part of our objectives. Vincenzo’s friends, probably more Israelis, already have the situation there under control,” Suzuki says.

“Ah, man! Those people deserve a beating more than the SIB, but I’ll take what I can get.”

“Alright, so the plan is, go in with our modified masks, juggernaut armor, eliminate our targets, use non-lethal rounds on non-targets, and download the server data. Easy enough?” I ask. My friends agree. “Let’s get this done.”

Getting into the armored SWAT van provided to us, we put on our masks, make sure we have everything, armor up, and head out. We put on our police lights to clear traffic as we speed to the SIB building. Once it’s in sight, Suzuki further puts the pedal to the floor and rams through the front entrance, injuring a few of the workers. Immediately, we run out of the SWAT van and arm ourselves with our special light machine guns, ones that have two drum mags and two triggers; the right one fires lethal bullets, while the other fires non-lethal rounds. We start firing non-lethal rounds at the guards inside the building and go to the part that Donnie said had all the agents of the Paradox Collective.

Pushing our way to it, we find our targets trying to escape and gun them down. With them dead, we take their access cards and use them to get into their secret server room. Kelly and Al get to accessing the server’s contents while Suzuki and I cover them as the cops and SWAT arrive to back up the SIB agents. Our non-lethal rounds can pierce through the armor of the heavily armored units, but some of them, dressed up in juggernaut armor like us, take several more bullets, mixed with lethal rounds, to take down.

“You almost done in there, Cappuccino and Rosebud? It’s getting a little too hot in here,” I ask.

“Almost! We’re just getting a lot of info, some of which from the SIB’s founding,” Al says.

“Our foe has been around since then, so it makes sense that they’d have their claws in this agency,” Suzuki says.

“You could say that again, Byakko. You have no idea how dirty their hands are according to this info. Oh, no.” Kelly says.

“What is it?” I ask.

“We have to get to our boss now! They’re going to get to him like how they got to the sixteenth president!”

“Understood!”

Kelly and Al leave the server room, blow it up, and join us in pushing back the cops.

“They must be getting desperate to go after them,” Al says.

“They’re going to blame an liberal extremist, who the SIB is actually responsible for hiring. Afterward, they’re going to kill him,” Kelly explains.

“Just like with the assassin who killed the president, the mafia got into office? These people are so predictable and less than trash,” Suzuki says.

“They’ll be dealt with soon. Let’s just focus on getting out of here,” I say.

I hit my radio a few times to signal our helicopter, and by the time we get to the roof, a news helicopter arrives and takes us away. We tell the pilot to head straight for Vincenzo’s rally and radio over to our allies what we discovered.

“The Snake Knight is about to be beheaded! Keep an eye on the secrets!” I say.

By the time we get to the rally, my friends and I have taken off our armor and masks. We hit the ground sprinting toward the rally and see Vincenzo talking on the stage.

“My family, Great War veterans, and neighbors and I helped get a good man elected while the election was being rigged by the city’s very own police force and corrupt mayor. That’s how you know that I am doing nothing to rig this election, so don’t listen to those liars in the media, those people over there who want to wrongfully discredit me so they can have control of you,” Vincenzo says, much to the crowd’s delight and agreement.

Everything seems to go in slow motion as I catch sight of a sniper dressed in an SIB officer’s uniform lying down on a shack. The sniper takes his shot at Vincenzo, and the sniper is shot at the same time by an SIB sniper on another shack roof and is killed. Looking at Vincenzo, I see him slightly turn his head and duck behind his podium. Time resumes back to normal, and now Vincenzo is taking cover; his SIB guards are finally covering him, and the crowd erupts into a panic. Nevertheless, Vincenzo stands tall above his guards and raises his fist in the air, while chanting something with the Chimaera States flag behind him. The crowd starts saying, “Fight, fight, fight!” as Vincenzo continues his brave performance, even as he bleeds, his guards try to keep him down, and get him into the ambulance. He’s then driven away with a police escort and his family members, both blood-related and criminal, following close behind.

The four of us are able to join Vincenzo in his hospital room when he tells his security that we’re business associates. When we’re let in, I apologize for learning about the attempt on his life too late, and consider myself a failure because of it.

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” Vincenzo asks.

“Yes, but-” I say as Vincenzo raises his finger.

“If God wanted me to die, then I would’ve died no matter what you’ve done or failed to do. You and your team did well, Ace. Turn on the news. Donnie should be giving his report on what happened.”

Donnie Parlarono appears on the hospital’s TV and explains that the attack on the SIB was known about. He told his colleagues that far-left anti-authority extremists would attack the building, but his warnings fell on deaf ears. The TV then shows the people we killed as Donnie explains that they were not on the SIB’s official list of agents and were double agents whom his friends thankfully killed during the raid. He then brings up the attempted assassination of Vincenzo, saying that the shooter and the sniper who shot him were both infiltrators, and that the one who is still alive is being held for intensive questioning. He goes on to explain that the SIB will look into the shadowy organization associated with these people, ensure that an attack on the SIB and its infiltration will never happen again, and make the public safe from any secret syndicates.

“Despite what Donnie said, we should go after those who planned your assassination. No one takes a shot at my brother without getting shot in return. No one!” Cesare says.

“Why should we when they’ve handed us the presidency? All we need to do is ensure they don’t steal it from us,” Vincenzo says.

Cesare turns to Vincenzo’s wife, Marin, and she agrees with her husband. Meanwhile, Cesare’s wife, Okazaki, can’t help but agree even though she also agrees with Cesare.

“Damn it. Damn it! This is why I hate politics! I can’t stand it!” Cesare says as he storms out of the room, followed by his wife and kids.

“Vincenzo…” I say.

“Leave him alone. He just has to blow off some steam. He won’t do anything rash. Go back home and enjoy your payment. We’ll be defending more than attacking in the coming days,” Vincenzo says.

My friends and I leave the hospital room and try to enjoy a nice dinner out in the city.

“You sure we shouldn’t be doing anything? I like chaos as the next revolutionary, but something like this is beyond wrong,” Kelly says.

“It’s what the boss said. Cesare said exactly how I feel, but we can’t do anything about it,” Al says.

“We joined a group of rogues. When did we ever play entirely by the rules?”

“We joined an orderly, virtuous group of rogues,” Suzuki specifies. “Break the code of conduct or chain of command, and your way of life or life itself is forfeit.”

“Ace?”

“I agree with Cesare’s wife, Okazaki. Something should be done, but we have to lay off for now and reap the rewards of our enemy’s mistake,” I say.

“Shit, and here I thought I escaped all the political violence and nonsense when I left the Slav Federation.”

Suzuki, Al, and I try to console Kelly and to enjoy our dinner together and pray and hope for the best for the future of our country.