Two: The Headquarter

He opened his eyes to everything white. He was lying on a white floor surrounded by white walls. He moved his head, and the world spun. He was strapped into a white jacket, the kind they use for mental patients in a mental institution.

“Shit,” he murmured and sat up.

The room was soundproof. The floors and walls were cushioned; they were soft against his skin. He could see a square mirror on the right side of the room—a double mirror. He could guess where they could see him, but he couldn’t see who was on the other side.

The white light hurt his vision. Nothing in that room indicated where he was or what time of day it was. He struggled to free himself from the jacket, but it was no use.

“Get me off this thing!!” he screamed, knowing someone was listening.

A small black box was hung high in one corner of the room, and a tiny red light turned on when he screamed. Not long after, the white door opened, and Tony walked into the room with a chair.

He put the chair in front of Diego and sat facing him. “I’m glad you’re awake ... I had to sedate you ... I hope you understand.”

Diego glared at him. He had let his guard down by trusting him, and now he was strapped in a jacket like a madman.

“Are you ready to talk?” Tony asked.

“Where’s Ariana? I’m not talking until I know where she is.”

Tony took a tablet from his jacket and tapped on it to look for something. He showed the tablet to Diego.

“She’s here ... she’s safe ...”

It was live footage from another room. Ariana was sitting on a bed in a small room that looked like a holding cell.

“You locked her in a cell?”

“It’s only temporary ... everyone is still on edge with the news; we need her cooperation; we will move her to a more comfortable room once we get everything under control.”

Diego hung his head low. The world inside was moving in slow motion. “How long was I out? What time is it?”

Tony checked his watch: “Approximately eight hours. Time is of no importance here. You are at Interpol’s special headquarters. We have permission to use their facility for this mission before we can make a deal and send you back to Lancaster.”

Diego scoffed, “Lancaster ... what makes you so sure I will cut a deal with the lot of you?”

“Because Ariana has agreed to make a deal with us.”

Diego jolted to his feet. “You bastard! That’s a lie!”

“Calm down ... they’re watching and listening; you will be put down again if you are not willing to discuss this peacefully.”

“So this is coerced participation, then? That’s not a deal ... you’re forcing us to cooperate with whatever the hell your mission is ... fuck your mission!”

Tony raised both palms. “Diego, calm down. Please sit down and listen to what I have to say.”

He wanted to pull the chair off his ass and smash the mirror on the wall. How could he have let his guard down and landed himself in that position? And put Ariana in a compromised state with him. But he knew at that point he had no choice but to listen to what Tony had to say. So he sat on the floor and swallowed his anger.

“As I said ... we have been investigating these families for 10 years. Our main objective is to shut down all their underground operations that have developed exponentially throughout the years ... they have to be stopped ... these illegal operations are devastating a lot of people, and they are getting richer and more dangerous from it ... soon they will be unstoppable, and we can’t have that.”

Diego stared at him blankly. “What does that have to do with Ariana and me?”

“We can’t process them legally ... that will take too long ... they are untouchable by the law; they are too powerful for legal procedures. We’ve tried that path so many times, and none of them worked ... they have to destroy themselves from within.”

He was listening.

“We have agents working undercover within the family’s close circles; we have penetrated their network quite significantly ... they’ve been doing it for 7 years ... we need you to go in there with them and execute the mission once and for all.”

“You want me to kill them?”

Tony waited to reply. “It won’t be that easy. It has to be done smoothly, or you will blow everyone’s cover. It will take some time. You have to earn their trust before we can follow through on the plans, but yes... that’s the endgame. Every one of those mob bosses must die so we can destroy their network and underbosses in the midst of chaos.”

“And Armand?” Diego asked.

“He’s the key to everything. We need him alive until the mission is fully executed. He is currently at the top of the food chain. They all want the position, but according to their law, they have to obey the hierarchy rules ... Armand is the decision-maker now; if we can control him ... we can control the entire network.”

Diego laughed lightly, “You think you can control that psycho motherfucker? He’s crazy ... no one can persuade him to do anything ... he has a mind of his own.”

Tony fell silent. Diego glanced at him and immediately realized why they were in that room.

“No!” he shouted. “No! You fucking bastard!! Leave her out of this!” Diego lunged at Tony, but he stood up.

Diego fell forward with the chair. “No! You can’t send her back there. They’ll kill her!”

“She already agreed,” Tony said.

Tony’s last sentence sent him into hysteria. He was kicking and screaming at the thought of Ariana going back to the hell they had fought so hard to get away from.

Three people in medical uniforms entered through the door and pulled Diego away from Tony. They stabbed him with a needle, the same one he had injected before in the alleyway.

“We still have so many things to talk about ... when you’ve calmed down,” was the last thing Tony said to him before his vision was blurry again.