NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 153: Consequences.
"Oh my fucking god…" Edward whispered as he saw the whole scene through the drone camera, and not just him but Benjamin and Linda too.
It was horrifying, it felt like it was a movie scene or some kind of training, but no, it was real and that was what terrified them even more. They saw the whole thing, the moment they started shooting up the restaurant, the moment that Matteo stepped out of the car and threw in the grenades without mercy.
It was more than they thought would happen… they just realized how powerful James's men and family are, but more importantly that his anger is something they never want to experience in their life, and it became more obvious as the drone operator zoomed out and showed the other side of the city where the coffee shop was burning down.
It looked like how in war they burned tires, it looked like a warzone as the smoke curled up in the city lights, as the sirens of dozens of firefighters and all emergency responders screamed in the city.
The pure chaos of a war, and it was just the beginning of all of it, and they knew it too, but there was nothing they could do to stop it.
"Tell him to go to Marco's house." Linda said as she turned toward Edward who was just still staring at the chaos that was playing out.
"How are we going to cover it?" He asked, now turning his head at Linda. "This is too much…" He whispered, and his expression was just someone who was lost.
And indeed he was lost, because what the actually fuck were they going to come up with to cover this whole shit? There was no way anybody would believe it even if they came up with something, the bullets, hundreds of bullets, the grenades, the dead people inside that were all fucking criminals not even talking about that everybody would notice that it was a personal attack against Marco.
An attack that was planned and perfectly executed, too perfectly that it would just bring the agency into the spotlight.
In some ways James's men were moving so perfectly that there was no way that a gangster did it, no way that someone had these trained men, because something like that never happened in the city, in the country. There were shootings, yes, hundreds of them years ago, but not even one reached this level.
Lucian was close to it, but his men too were just trained by videos and games, not like James's men who were real soldiers, experienced ones. This was too much to hide, too much to make it look like something else.
But still, the biggest problem of it all was none other than Noah and Matteo themselves and the others, because they didn't wear anything to hide their faces.
5th Street was full of cameras, not even talking about who knows how many people watched the whole thing happening from their windows, recording what the fuck happened and putting it on the internet, on the forums, and Edward was sure that their faces were 100% visible in them. Which also meant that they fucked up even more, because they were in tactical gear with grenades and machine guns…. exactly the same that military has… all the fucking clues and evidence pointed at the government.
"He did it on purpose…" Edward whispered as he looked at Linda, his face full of despair.
"What?" Benjamin asked back as he was confused at Edward.
"He wants to fuck us up…" He said again. "Full tactical gear with weapons that only the government could have, with people that move like agents, like the military… it all was his plan to get us into the middle of it, to put a spotlight on us!"
Benjamin thought about it because he knew from the beginning that something like that would happen. "I mean yeah, it's pointing at us but also puts us in a good spot, we can make up—"
"Make up what?!" Edward now raised his voice, staring at Benjamin. "How do you want to cover it, that dozens died, who knows if civilians too, it's just going to cause more outrage!" He shouted now. "It's not just about the attack but the outcome, they killed criminals in there and it just brings more shit to us. They're not just going to sit back while their leaders and bosses died… the players of the underworld died!"
There was silence because it was true. The restaurant was packed with figures of the underworld, people that even had a hand in billion-dollar business, had their connections to influential people.
"That's exactly what we wanted and what we needed." Linda said as she turned to Edward. "So don't turn into a little bitch when we are in the middle of our plans, the middle of how to finally step up!" She raised her voice and Edward just chuckled.
"Bitch?" He asked. "Our plans were against the Sinatra to slow them down, or to kill them, their connections, their men… not to fucking let Bellini go on a personal massacre to kill all his competitors, all his enemies!"
"That's exactly what they're doing." Benjamin said as he looked at Edward who was still stressed the fuck out, and ready to crash out. "You also know about Isabella's death, and that she was connected with Sinatra, that Marco too is connected with them." He looked more into his eyes. "So we need to deal with the problem at the roots. If we or James just kill off some Sinatra members, nothing's going to change, they're going to get more connections, more men, and that's it. Our country will be flooded with them. That's exactly what James is doing, he's dealing with the problem starting from the roots. Maybe yeah, he is killing off his competitors, someone who once was in alliance, but that same exact person also had a connection with Sinatra. He is a root to the problem, just like Isabella was. And who knows how many people would need to die to pull out that fucking root, to not grow again into something big." Benjamin explained as he held eye contact with Edward. "So sit the fuck back, Edward, and chill the fuck out please, because your panic is not helping us, not helping the country, not helping the civilians who want to fucking live in peace… in the peace that James and we have a deal about."
Edward stayed silent for a moment as she ast back down then turned to Benjamin and Linda.
"Peace when the city is burning down?" He asked, and there was just more silence, because it wasn't just something exaggerated.
No, because it would happen, not in the real meaning of the word, but gangsters and all kinds of players from the underworld would step up to get revenge against whoever was the person that killed their bosses, whoever had the guts to step up against them and spit into their business.
The balance of power in the country would shift, and it would leave scars long after the dust settled.
The real question was, who would survive when everything was over? Would the ones in control now remain in power, or would they be swept away by the storm they had helped create?