CHAPTER 8
None of this belongs to me
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CJ drove the car into an abandoned moor and parked. He got out and the other two did the same. They looked at each other in silence for a minute
"What did you want to talk about?" CJ asked coolly
"I wanted to explain, CJ" Said Joey "It was all done by Forelli not by us"
"Prove it"
"Look at us" Big Head said outraged "That scum tried to kill us!"
"What do you want?" asked CJ agreeing
"We want to join you to take Forelli down"
"I don't believe you, what about working with me who put down your casino in Venturas?"
"The theft put peace between the controlling families; it brought light upon the casino and helped things calm down."
"And what about Claude? He killed your father. I know enough about you Italians to know you'll want revenge."
"To tell you the truth I was about to kill my father myself to take over the Family"
CJ stood silent, thinking.
"Come on Carl, do it for you old friend."
CJ kept looking silently and finally said:
"You think you'll be able to work with the Triads?"
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Forelli and Briaglia were at one of Briaglia's safehouses.
"No way back" Briaglia stated closing the door
"Of course there is no way back! You aren't cowering are you?" Forelli exclaimed
"No, no!" Briaglia said quickly. "I just thought if you were sure about what you were doing"
In a bang Briaglia was sent to the floor. "DON'T QUESTION ME!" Forelli shouted with his gun pointing at Briaglia's head.
A long silence paused their conversation as Briaglia was madly thinking what to do if Forelli decided to shoot.
Ding Dong!
Both men faced the door in awe. They can't have been found so easily!
"you told me this place was safe!" Forelli hissed at Briaglia
"It is! We have been followed!"
Forelli motioned Briaglia to follow. He placed himself on the side of the door with the gun pointing at the door. Briaglia took out his gun, and opened the door carefully.
The man outside was unarmed.
"Hands up!" ordered Briaglia as Forelli pat him down to confirm he was really unarmed.
"What do you want?" Forelli asked.
"I want to join you" he said "I can give you inside information from the Enterprise."
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Machowski and Claude were sitting on the sofa while George brought drinks and CJ returned from the Burger shop with the dinner.
"…you should be careful from now on." Machowski was saying "The whole CRASH unit has arrived already and they are taking control from tomorrow morning. It won't be nice"
"The CRASH are a bunch of fools. In Los Santos we laugh at them!" CJ said as he shut the door behind him and put the burgers on the table
"This is not a joke CJ" Machowski said "In two days its Tommy's Will reading. All the people there will attract the CRASH attention.
"How dare they think of appearing at a mans Will reading, what a lack of respect-" CJ begun but stopped after hearing his name come from the television.
"Put the volume up" Machowski said who had also heard it. George put the volume up.
"Our Mysterious Hero has been revealed to be Carl Johnson of Los Santos." A woman's voice said as they saw a video of CJ in the Chinatown battle, among other things he was shows saving Woozie "With a long Criminal record from his youthful years, Mr Johnson has not doubted to redeem himself by serving the community. He has actively participated in the capture of Criminal Officer Tenpenny as well as other many criminals. He has driven Ambulances and Fire Trucks despite it not being his job. Carl Johnson is a now an established member of society with interests in Las Venturas Four Dragons casinos, Manager of Rapper Madd Dogg and other businesses in San Fierro.
A report by Clara Martin. More after the commercials,"
The Puppy fresh toilet paper ad song started and Machowski turned to CJ.
"This is bad; they have too much information on you. You may not be able to come to Tommy's will reading-"
George interrupted him. "Why were you helping that Triad Guy? I thought we were against them!"
"I was trying to ally with them!" CJ responded
"I think you were conspiring against us!"
"Why do you say that?" CJ shouted back
"Because you already are Partner of the Triads at the Casino in Venturas!"
"I... shut up!" CJ said now worldless. "You have no right to accuse me of anything!"
Meanwhile in Love Media studios Clara Martin was seeing the results of her work.
"Nice job!" said her supervisor "sentimental story always attracts attention."
After half an hour the calls from other channels making offers to buy the story started to roam the office. Clara didn't believe how much expectation she was creating. She had expected to catch some audience, to gain a good time slot; she had even expected to see her story repeated by other channels but she certainly never thought it might reach this far. A measure of how extraordinary the situation had become was the visit from Donald Love himself who had summoned her to his suite office at the top of the building to congratulate her.
"The business of news media is losing its grip" he said pacing around the room "because what we need is more stories like yours. The people have been bombed with stories of gang battles, crime, wars, disasters… but now they see a human side. The sunshine in the mist. The flower in the desert. Its fabulous!"
"Thank-you" Clara said bowing her head slightly
"I want you to interview him" Donald said quickly and motioned her to sit down. She had been standing by the door during his speech. She obeyed.
"I want an exclusive interview with that man. I want to see his friends. His family. You did a good research of his background. Now go deeper. Explore him. We want to identify with him" He said all this without a glance at her face. He preferred to look up into the stars as he shook his drink.
"Well get going then" he said, now looking exclusively at her
Clara nodded and stood up quickly and hurried to the lift. Upon reaching her desk she picked up the phone and dialled a number.
"Who are you?" said the hoarse modified voice on the other end
"Clara"
"Congratulations for the report"
"The merit is yours. You told me to do it"
"Any news?"
"I have been told to interview him"
"Good"
The mysterious speaker hung up.
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"Ninety-eight" Bradford said "ninety-nine, One hundred"
He stood up and dried himself with a towel. "Enough press-ups for the time" he thought as he sat on the chair opposite his friend Dr. Leblanc who was going through papers with interviews of the men they had arrested and other files concerning their new job.
"There is mastermind behind the mastermind" Leblanc said
"How is that possible?" Bradford asked "surely the term master mind means the master of all minds"
"Well this master is such a good master that he can place a decoy master to distract us"
"Very well then. How do you reach to this conclusion?"
"This Forelli man." He started with a lecture voice as if he were addressing a classroom "He seems a bit too bright to think that murdering the other mafia leader of his association will give him total control."
"Hmm" Bedford said. He wasn't the expert of profiling but he debated with Leblanc anyway "he is not the sort that would let other manipulate him. He has proven he wants the power"
"Very true" agreed Leblanc "this is why I think he is being controlled without knowing it.
"You are meaning to say that somebody told him to kill the other leaders with out him knowing he was being ordered to"
"Not exactly" Leblanc said "Somebody, lets call this person The Boss, manipulated the situation so that Forelli would react in a certain way. I also believe he has been controlling him for a long time, at least since the beginning of this battle with Vercetti."
"Who is it?" Bedford asked reading the expression on Leblanc's face
"Im not sure." Leblanc answered "but I believe he is one of the other mafia leaders from the council. They are near enough to know him and be able to predict reactions and they benefit from the death of the other leaders."
""The question is which one. It will be hard"
"Other than Forelli. Four survived. Out of these four, two almost die. The boss would be unlikely to risk so much. One was out of harms way all the time. The interrogations identified him as Carlo Briaglia. My bet is that Carlo Briaglia is the Boss."
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(A/N- Sorry for the big delay. I was out on holidays all time and busy with summer work. Will you leave me a review? I would like to know what you think, what you liked what you didn't like…)
