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- bit. ly/ 291mT3a (delete the spaces)

Chapter 14: Partners in crime

"I have managed to get my hands on some useful files over the last forty-eight hours, and I have condensed it all to give you the best overview."

Spy pressed a button on his remote and the large monitor of the conference room lit up. A face could be seen.

"This is Lelio Gabriele da Montefeltro. He was born in Italy and graduated later in an Australian high school in Brisbane. His family had significant connections with Australian companies, although I could not find any more useful information on this. He and Mundy first met in school and both joined the Australian Army. Later, they both transferred to the British Army."

Another button was pressed. The next slide showed a collection of pictures, including symbols, weaponry equipment, and some written information.

"Lelio made it into the famous SAS, an elite special force within the British Army. Mundy, however, had decided to take assassination contracts after his service time. And we all know that his job as a Sniper on the RED team was one of these contracts."

The BLU Scout raised his hand. "Uhm, didn't Snipes tell you that he shot his stalker while they still were in school?"

Medic switched between the enemy runner and his own teammate. Or actually, the runner-s-, since his own team's Scout sat right next to the BLU. Medic had been really surprised to find out that the Scouts were actually brothers, but Spy apparently had already known that. Of course he did, he was a spy after all.

"Good question, lad! I remember that too!" Demoman nodded in agreement.

"Indeed it is." Spy turned back to the monitor and pressed a button again. The monitor got a bit brighter as it showed some scanned white files. "This is the medical report I could get my hands on. And I can assure you, my contact man had been quite nervous about it."

The masked man grabbed a pointer and indicated a specific line on the projected files.

"Mundy couldn't possibly have known that his stalker was alive. He had not been treated in a normal hospital. This is a report from a doctor who is not officially registered at any hospice, at least not under that name. Also, the fact that he survived at all could be still called a miracle."

The monitor flickered again and showed an x-ray of a skull.

"You see this indentation above the eye socket, oui?" He pointed at said spot. "The bullet surely hit him. But by heaven's luck, it hit him at a specific angle combined with the right rotation deviation, that it lost its energy drilling sideways into the skull. It got stuck instead of going through the brain."

Spy let out a heavy sigh. "This man survived by pure, dumb luck. A one in a million chance."

"Meine Güte!" Medic adjusted his glasses. "I really want to have a look at that medical report!"

Spy waved him off before the doctor could continue. "Later, doctor. I'm not finished yet."

But Demoman interrupted them. "So, that guy just got back to his bloody feet and started te' follow Sniper again?"

"Holy shit." Both Scouts commented in unison.

Spy stared at them and waited until their argumentation silenced itself. He still took another moment to pause and looked at each of them to be sure that he had the full attention back.

"He did. Montefeltro had been in a coma for a few months, but once he woke up, he immediately started to follow Mundy again. He joined every group, every association and organisation our Sniper had been in. But he stayed in his shadow, made sure to that he remained unseen. I'm not quite sure why he did that, after all what happened here."

Spy took another deep breath in as he switched the picture on the monitor once again.

"He also had been absent for a few years. Lelio had gone back to Italy a few times and had stopped to follow Mundy by then. The reasons are still unclear to me, but I have man in Sicily who I tried to contact. I have no response yet, but I hope I get it soon. He could get us information that may be even more important."

The button was to be pressed one last time. Spy showed them three maps.

"Let's get to the now, shall we?" The Frenchman pointed at the first map. "Italy, as you can see. I searched for the family name and got some information on property owned by them. Two houses are associated with ' da Montefeltro', one in Tuscany and one in Calabria, which is, as you can see, close to Sicily."

He moved his pointer stick to the next map. "Colombia, a residence is owned under the same name and the last-" He moved to the last map. "- Is Cuba."

"Colombia and Cuba?" Their team's Scout asked in confusion.

"Who would want to live there?" The BLU asked further.

Spy laid the pointer on the table. "Because of the same reasons the family had this connections to Australia. I'm making an assumption here, because I have yet to prove it but-"

Spy paused to take another look at his new formed group. "His family may be connected to the Italian Mafia."

A few looks were exchanged, but not even the Scouts said anything. Spy took the chance to continue immediately and switched back to an image of the younger Italian.

"At the time Mundy's stalker transferred to their school in Brisbane, the organized crime in the urban regions of Australia had increased drastically. Drug trafficking, money laundering, murder and even political corruption. And it was led by an foreign crime group. I compared some of the data and a lot of these connect back to Colombia, as well Italy, of course. I haven't found connections to Cuba yet, but I'm sure I will find some soon."

"And how does this help us?" The BLU raised his hand again.

"If this Montefeltro had gone back to Italy often, he surely is involved in his family business. Mafias generate and live on through blood connections." Medic explained to them.

Spy nodded agreeing while pointing at the doctor to highlight what he had said. "And that could lead us back to him. If it is true, that Montefeltro is part of a Mafia complex, then we finally have some predictable movements from him. Without this, we would have to search for the needle in a haystack, even with the four properties that associate with his name. But if he works in an organisation, he surely has to do actions that are trackable. I will try to collect not only underground information, but police files as well."

"Ha! The day we blow his brain out, we would do the law a favour too, I guess." The BLU nudged his brother.

"Friggin unbelievable!" The RED Scout added.

"That's all intel I can give by now, but I will surely keep my ears open for anything that I can get. As I said, I still wait for a response from my Italian contact."

The monitor went black and Spy got into his chair, rubbing his temple. Medic decided to seat himself next to him.

"This is already very much, Spy. And that in so little time! You really outdid yourself!" Medic tried to lift up his mood.

The Scouts gave him a thumbs up as well and Demoman gave him a cheer. The little group had kept to themselves about the rescue plan. Spy only had invited the people who already had come to him to support everything that he might try to get Sniper back. Because in the end, Spy couldn't hold his cold mask. He had his own kind of break down, resulting in isolating himself from the rest of the team for a whole day.

"So, ceasefire is over tomorrow and I don't think our team will stretch that much further." The BLU got up. "Your doc's place got repaired too, right?"

Medic nodded with a sigh. "Yes, diese Idioten... they repaired the infirmary, but left everything dirty! How am I supposed to work like that? I still have to clean everything!" The German let out a grunt. "Dummköpfe..."

"Did the Administrator respond to your report yet? About all the explosives down there?" The RED Scout asked while pointing at the ground.

"Nah, your side?" His brother asked back but the RED Scout also shrugged.

"They did actually! There is no signal that can make them 'boom' anymore, so they just removed the stuff and transported them to storage or something. Bloody hell, at least they don't waste it!" Demoman stepped in.

"Can I have your attention for another minute, oui?" Spy cleared his throat and waited for the rest to face him again. "Good."

The brothers dragged themselves with their chairs a bit closer to the table head where Spy sat and Demoman seated himself next to the German.

Spy folded his hands and took another quick around. "I probably repeat myself, but it is very important. Keep this discreet. If the Administrator, Miss Pauling or any person of the higher authorities find out that we plan to ditch our work here, then we may be in trouble. Keep everything as normal as possible, until we can make our first move."

"Yeah, how's that gonna work anyway? I mean, are we just gonna pack our stuff and go run for it?"

The RED Scout's question was accompanied by his brother's shoulder shrug and Spy raised a brow.

"Non, it won't be that simple. We need to find their location first. Then we must find out how we could come as close as possible to them. As you all should still remember, this Montefeltro is excessive in planning ahead, so we have to be sure that he doesn't see us coming."

Spy wanted to grab his cigarette case, but was immediately held back by their Medic who gave him a rather scolding look. Spy just commented on that with a frown, but let him be.

"As well-, " The Frenchman tried to start again with a sigh. "The breakout itself. I have no information on the buildings and properties itself yet. They could be bases for their crime organisations or strongholds made for the family's safety. Monitored and guarded. And even if we can get in there and break Mundy free, then we still have to get rid of his stalker. In best case, forever."

A gun was formed with the Spy's hand and showed a visual presentation of shooting someone in the head.

"And please-, Scout." Spy nearly shouted at the already arguing brothers."If I make orders, please follow them. I don't do them out of fun, but for our all safety. We don't have respawn outside the facility, remember that."

The Scouts stopped in mid-fight and quickly nodded.

"Don't ye worry, lad. I think we all know how to work in a team, don't we?" Demoman playfully but strongly nudged the Medic, so that his glasses nearly fell off.

Spy massaged his temple again and fished for some keys in his inner jacket, giving them his team's Scout right after. "Scout, open the underground for your brother, he has already been missing for an hour on his side. Make sure that you stay unseen, you understand?"

"No problem!" The runners got up and left the room, the RED one playing with the keys.

Spy let out a heavy breath. Two days had passed since Sniper got kidnapped by a man who could do the worst things to him. His team's Medic had already offered him medical help to get better sleep, but Spy had to refuse. He wanted to remain with a clear mind, even it meant that he had to go through nightmares every night.

"Ach ehm Spy..." Medic carefully tipped on his shoulder as Demoman left the conference room as well. "I would really recommend to take some sleeping pills. Just the simple ones, they won't affect much of -"

"Non." Spy refused him with a gesture. "I appreciate your help, doctor. But this is not the help I need right now."

"Oh it sure is! We all had very little sleep in the last days, but you haven't slept at all the last two days!"

"Doctor, I-"

"Nein! Listen, I know you haven't. I see your face and can exactly tell you how many hours it's been since your last rest!" Medic's voice got more strict with every word. "You always say that you don't want to drug yourself, so that you have a clear mind. But do you think sleep deprivation is better? Auf keinen Fall!"

Spy let out another sigh as the German forced some pills into the Frenchman's hands. But these hands clenched and let the pills audible crack.

"Spy..."

"I said, I don't need them." That were his final words and he attempted to leave the room.

Medic shook his head. "Dummkpof..."

Screams. A terrible distorted face grinning at him. A long empty hallway. Screams again. Another face, just barely lit by the sun, calm and slightly smiling. Suddenly, he lost the ground under his feet and he fell. He looked up and saw the other man sliding away, as if someone were dragging him by his feet.

"Laurie!"

Spy jerked out of his bed, panting, wheezing. A sudden cold shower came over his back which was already wet from his sweat. The Frenchman let himself fall back on his bed again, still breathing heavily. He clenched at his chest and squeezed his eyes shut, as his heart began to flutter. Trying to control his breaths, he waited for the shock to pass, to leave his body. And after his heart rate began to normalise again, he took a quick look over to his nightstand clock.

"Not even midnight yet...merde." Spy murmured.

Next to the clock laid the crushed remains of Medics sleeping pills and he stared at them, but in the end he just slightly shook his head. He wouldn't take them. He didn't want to have dreamless nights. Because even they were nearly all nightmares... He dreamed not only of terrible things, but also of moments he would like to relive again. His mind pushed every memory he had of Mundy in the foreground and blocked out everything else. At least for the night. And the pills would take that from him.

If he couldn't sleep, then he could atleast do something useful, Spy thought. And with that he got back up and into his smoking room, where he had stored the collected files in between some old books. A rather obvious hiding spot a spy wouldn't choose, but that was the point in it. No one would search there if they were to search for it.

But before he would get his hands back to work, he lit the embers again, and gave the already burned out furnace some new fire. A light and heat source for the working man. After the last blow of air to be sure that the fire was strong enough to keep itself for a while, Spy got up again to grab his files, and seated himself on one of his armchairs right after. No wine this time, he had refused to drink since Sniper was gone, but he surely would light himself a cigarette.

The files of the organized crime in Australia were in his hands now and he read them over and over again as he tried to find a useful hint, a connection between them and Montefeltro's family.

But his search was to be interrupted after just an half an hour, as someone knocked on his door. Spy didn't answer, and played the 'I am not here' game. But his unwanted visitor came in anyway.

"The light can be seen under the door, you know." Medic stepped to his side. "You are still working on the case?"

Spy didn't answer, but rather ignored his doctor. The second armchair was moved closer to him as the German seated himself on it.

"You are doing the same mistake, do you realize that?"

Spy raised a brow. "Mistake?"

"Ja. Sniper didn't wanted to talk with us about what happened to him. Do you remember that time we had to get Heavy to finally get him out of his camper?"

"Oui, that was only two days ago."

"Three." Medic corrected him. "Do you want me to force you into my medical assistance? I can call Heavy again, if you want!"

"Are you threatening me?" Spy's voice got lower and annoyed. "If so, you should leave- now."

But the German just sighed and adjusted his glasses with his injured hand. "Nein, Spy. I just want to help you. But you always try to ignore the problem!"

"The problem is, that we have little time and few possibilities to make this plan happen. And I put everything I have on it!" Spy yelled back at him.

His teammate froze for a moment, but also gave Spy a worried look. "And we all try to support you." Medic spoke more silent and tried to stay calm. To his relief, Spy seemed to react to that and calmed down as well.

"Do you have any idea what people like Montefeltro do to their victims once they have them?" The voice of the Frenchman was now very quiet as well. "That what he did to you, that was just a glimpse to it. Stalkers tend to be narcissistic, they want their victims to serve them, to circle their lives around them. And they will force them to do so. Even worse, if they have interest in-"

"You don't need to explain this to me." Medic interrupted him fast, as he saw that Spy's face changed to the worse with each word he spoke. There was anger, there was sadness, grief and there was fear. Medic knew how to read emotions, even from a person who could keep a straight face pretty well. So he carefully placed his hand on his teammate's shoulder and tried to express understanding for him as best he could.

"Why don't you want to sleep, Spy?"

Spy was not prepared for this question, but took a sharp breath in and decided not to answer at all.

"He won't go away. As soon as you wake up-"

"Don't." Spy waved him off without looking at him.

Medic let out a sigh. "It won't take long and you won't be able to concentrate anymore. You will get hallucinations and if you can withstand a possible collapse, you could die from a heart attack after a few more days." He quickly repeated what he already had told the Frenchman a few times.

"Bitte, Spy." Another attempt, Medic got more and more desperate to help his friend. "I don't want to attack you with a needle full of narcotics, but I'm going to be out of choices!"

A few seconds passed before the masked man would react to that. "Fine."

And with that he opened his hand and Medic immediately pulled out some new sleeping pills to give them to him. They exchanged glances and Medic made sure to his teammate that he would not go until he saw how he would swallow those pills. So Spy finally did.

"Drink some water soon, if possible." The German quickly added after Spy had done that and got up to leave the room.

Spy however, rubbed his eyes first and looked at the files on his lap.

"I'm sure you will find something after you had your rest." The Doctor still stood in the door. "So get to bed soon. Tomorrow will be time enough." With that, Medic finally left him alone.

Spy looked at his hands, where the pills had been, for a while before he finally put the files back in between his books. The fire was rather small, so he just let it be to go out by itself and made his way to his own room. A dreamless night awaited him.

"A message? From?" Spy took a quick sip from his tea as Engineer passed him on his way to the fridge.

"Yeah, arrived after midnight. But I don't know if I can pronounce the name right. Ucci-?"

"Uccellatore ?" Spy already placed his teacup on the kitchen counter, ready to go.

"Heck, I think so. What is it about? The subject was not in English, something French?"

"I may tell you later about this, now if you excuse me."

Spy quickly waved the Texan goodbye and made his way to the monitoring room. Before he would open the message from the inbox, he already prepared the printer and made sure that the room was locked. He opened the mail and found his mood a bit uplifted as he saw that it was written in Italian. His Sicilian contact finally responded.

He quickly browsed through the text and furrowed his brows. And the last words had him gritting his teeth. He quickly deleted the mail and got up to leave the room and as he paced through the dining hall, he discreetly waved Medic a sign to meet him later.

Of course in his smoking room, he already sat in his armchair, his heads side supported by his hand. As the German entered the room he immediately screwed up his face as he noticed his teammate's mood.

"Herr Spy? You wanted to talk to me?" Medic carefully asked.

"Oui, have a seat." Spy quickly pointed to the chair on his left.

The German lost no time and sat down fast, hands on his lap, ready to listen to his teammate's concern. Spy let out a heavy breath.

"My contact from Sicily..." He started.

"Oh, he answered? Could he give you some useful information?" Medic suggested by the Frenchman's mood that it was bad news, but still maybe useful news.

"Non, he is dead."

That let the doctors face and excitement drop. "Oh.."

"The person who sent the mail, threatened me to stay out of their business. My contact was a fairly high ranked associate from the Sicilian Mafia. I can't believe that they killed him for that."

Spy buried his face in his hands and let out a depressing sound.

"This either means, that he made a terrible mistake while getting the information I asked for, which I doubt, or, that the loyalty towards the person I asked about is greater than to him. Which would mean that Mundy's stalker has a very high position in the Mafia's family and is possibly befriended with the Sicilian Mafia as well. Either way, in the end this all at least proves that he definitely has to do with the Italian organized crime."

He supported his chin on his hands while speaking, but also gestured a lot to make his frustration visible. Medic gave him a bit more time to maybe add something, but as he seemed to be finished he felt the urge to speak out a thought.

"In other words. We can't get the information you wished for. Not on the easy way."

Spy nodded slowly, as far as his hand on his chin allowed that.

"Oui. And that it indicates the high family position makes the whole plan more complicated. The founding families of Mafia are the most loyally treated and obviously the most guarded. We may have to get into the Mafia in undercover for years to just get the chance to even see one of them."

Spy buried his face again. "I sadly know very well how these organisations work. I was contracted by a Spanish one a few times." He let out a heavy sigh. "This is going to be horrifyingly difficult."

This new information was surely hard to swallow and Medic tried his best to keep a straight face. "Should I inform the others as well, or-?"

"Non, wait a bit." Spy waved him off. "I still wait for some responses from the Italian police, or well, my man who will bring me the police's files. If I get them and can get some new information out of it, I will call everybody in again."

Medic nodded slowly, but also rubbed his left hand's knuckles. "Spy, you do all this...and we. We all want to help. You just need to tell us what we can do for you. The 'Spy-stuff' is, of course, your thing. But we can surely do something as well."

This made the Frenchman brood for a moment, as he took a longer breath in and leaned back into his armchair. Another moment passed and Medic still rubbed his knuckles.

"You could all try to train yourself. I'm not saying that you aren't good at what you are doing, but everyone needs a wider spread of skills. If Montefeltro uses bombs against us in the future, but our Demoman can't get his hands on then, but let's say- our Scout – it would be helpful if that young man had a bit more knowledge about what to do."

Spy exchanged a look with the doctor. "What we know is, that this Italian is well trained in martial arts, as well in the usage of all kinds of weaponry and gear. He was in a special forces after all. So every person in this operation needs to be ready to fight him on his very own. We must be able to defend ourselves and be able to properly counter-attack."

Medic nodded quickly. This was surely a start. "I will tell Scout to get his brother over tonight and I will Demoman to prepare a little lesson for us. Bombs seems to be his thing, he tried to blow up things here twice after all. So I think starting with the knowledge of our demolition expert will be the best."

Medic quickly left his chair and stepped in front of his teammate. "I can assure you, that Demoman will be thrilled to besten that Scheißkerl. You can count on him."

A faint smile was the reward for that statement and Spy got up as well. "I will think of some good self-defense training. I may have not been in an army, but I surely have knowledge about mixed martial arts. I will teach you all as well."

A handshake was exchanged, as well some determined looks.

"We can do this, Spy. This is not over."

"Not until I say it is over."