Chapter 62: The Shadow War Part One
Sunny, Geraldine and Chelsea looked at the screen. A man who looked like legit frightening "This is Francisco Bonaparta" Pierce introduced a man with a bushy looking mustache and messy brown hair. He had a scar below his right eye. Gruff wouldn't be the right word to describe this person. Gruff usually meant someone who looked unkempt and dressed to look somewhat intimidating. This person looked like he wouldn't hesitate to ring a neck or two if given the chance. "Born in Venice to a poor family, got into a fair share of trouble as a teenager. Arrested for taking part in a robbery that went awry when one of them shot a teller in the head. Two of his accomplices were shot when the police showed up.
Bonaparta was arrested but he managed to make a deal. Did only four years of a thirty year sentence" Pierce flipped the screen "Got out with good behavior. Don't know how but he managed to take up being a contract killer. He's done his fair share of hits from mafia rivals, judges, attorneys to businessmen and on a few occasions political dissidents". Sunny looked at him. Cold as steel she thought.
"Where'd he learn his trade? Couldn't learn that in prison" Sunny wondered "Some people think he might have learned it from an ex Italian Special Forces commando but it's believed that he learned it from this man" he brings up the next picture "Tommaso Manini". An old blurry photo, most likely from the seventies, appeared. The image next to that one was of an old man. Beyond past his prime he looked like he's seen his fair share of fights.
"Back then Manini was part of the Red Brigades in mid seventy six. He's committed his fair share of acts of terror. Nineteen seventy seven detonated a small bomb at the home of a wealthy banker, kills him. Twice again that year he was suspected of using homemade incendiary devices to kill the members of the State Prosecutor's office. Into the eighties Manini and several accomplices took part in a dozen kidnappings, held some for money and they usually were returned in one piece. However..." Pierce trails off
"Something happened, didn't it?" Chelsea deduced. "Apparently him and his colleagues had a small disagreement about what to do with a wealthy engineering student. One thing led to another and the kid was shot dead while trying to escape. They had a falling out. This was the summer of eight four, September of that year Italian police got a tip of the hideout where his colleagues were hiding out. The police got into a shootout with them. Every one of his crew were killed.
Geraldine raised her hand "He wasn't there? Kinda weird that he escaped.
"Funny you asked about that, he was the one who tipped off the police to them" "For real? He snitched on them?" Geraldine was amazed by the melodrama of a backstab "Manini did fifteen years for those things. He was out in eight years though. They claimed he was 'reformed'; yeah right Pierce sarcastically quips.
Manini was arrested barely five years ago. He's since died. However Bonaparta was always in contact with him. The last of one of their conversations was that Bonaparta had taken a job in Los Santos.
"Who's the target?" Sunny inquired "From everything I've gathered, we managed to deduce that the target was Emilio Mendoza, originally of the Lobos de Sinaloa Cartel" a picture turned up of a young man in his late twenty's showed "He turned states evidence against his boss for a lighter sentence" "Was?" Sunny looked at him.
"Bonaparta got to him, shot him dead" Pierce showed a bloody picture of Mendoza with several bullet wounds "Holy fuck" Sunny looked at the sheer violence of that situation.
"He has a new target now" he pulls up the picture of a senatorial candidate "Henry Bratton is currently running for a position on the senate, one of his promises is to try and stop drug trafficking into the state, and cracking down on the local drug gangs. Typical pencil neck wanting to impress people with ideas of bullshit.
From everything that was gathered Bratton is the target. Apparently that very cartel that Mendoza was working with wants Bratton dead too. You three are going to terminate Bonaparta before he gets to Bratton".
"Do this as discreetly as possible, last thing anyone wants is this turning into the O-Kay Coral".
Sunny raised her hand "How exactly do we find this prick? I'm not trying to sound skeptical but we can't exactly be in the crowd, he might try to run for it if he see's us. "Which is why you're going to be on the ground. Winslow will spot and Mitchell will snipe. He's going to be in disguise so be on the look out for anyone suspicious. Bratton is going to be holding a rally at the Saint Brigid Baptist Church in an hour in Paleto Bay".
...
"Real cliché with that hat" Chelsea makes fun of Sunny's one sided attempt at a disguise of a simple baseball cap.
"Well it's better than looking like a rent-a-cop security guard" she shoots back "How do we know what this motherfucker looks like?" Geraldine prepped the spotting scope "I don't know. we'll have to see something that might be a give away. Anything that might lure him out" Sunny looped the holster over her arm "We can't just randomly shoot every person we see", she loads a clip into her forty five "If I see the prick, then take the shot. Put him down".
Chelsea loaded the M40 rifle (something that she really shoot) "Alright. Locked; loaded; ready".
Sunny put on a leather jacket. She adjusts her hat. "Okay, all set".
She walked through the crowd of onlookers,
All this for some douche bag politician she thought Pierce better thank us for saving this ass wipe.
"You there?" Chelsea radios "Not yet, all these damn people are in the way. You in position?" "Just about, waiting on your end". The crowd made it difficult to get through. Finding an assassin in this mess was like trying to find a needle in a stack full of needles.
Sunny herself never dealt with assassins. Though it wouldn't be the first time that she had done her fair share of disposal work.
Be it rivals. Enemies. Rats. And people who just needed to be erased off the face of the world.
The crowd got somewhat louder as Bratton was taking the stage "Shit, the guys going up on stage" she radioed "Keep an eye out"
"How we supposed spot this fool, if we don't know what he looks like? Shit he could disguise himself like as an old lady for we all know" Geraldine looked through the spotting scope "There are plenty of old ladies here, pretty sure they would be speaking Italian and have a mustache to add to boot" Sunny muses back.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the future leader of this great country, Henry Bratton!". The crowd starts to clap loudly. "Shit" the claps drowned out Sunny's curse "Keep an eye out" she orders. Geraldine and Chelsea peered through their scopes but couldn't find Bonaparta "Next time he gives us a target, make sure he tells how the fucker is going to strike".
Sunny could care less of the speech that was being given. Politics bored the hell out of her. Nothing but the usual bullshit of grandstanding. Promises of cleaning up the system and reforming what needs to be reformed. Free European style healthcare. Phony smiles with a handshake with nothing changing and the loudmouths on podcasts giving them praises were like they turned water into wine and wine into whiskey. Sycophants the whole lot of them. Everything about them were faker than a pair of fake boobs. Their smugness and phony outrage about every little thing from feelings to not enough veganism in restaurants would make anyone despise them for the sake of despising them.
She went around the equipment area. Something catches her eye.
A crate that wasn't properly locked. Sunny carefully opened it. Her eyes looked at the bloodied body of a camera operator. "Well, I have an inkling what disguise he's wearing" "Have you found out what this prick looks like?" Chelsea inquired "Well there's dead camera operator here"
"Well there are plenty of dicks with cameras, that's not really a whole lot to go on" Chelsea tells her "That's all we're going to get. Just be on the look out". Sunny quickly sealed the crate, last thing she wanted was to cause a panic.
The speech was almost done "Shit".
Sunny went into the crowd. Her eyes moved all around Where are you?
Then her eyes someone Who...?
Someone stationed on the camera tower. She couldn't see from where she was but the cameraman turned his whole face. The one thing she remembered from Bonaparta's mugshot; a scar below the right eye.
"I found him, I think" she radios the sniper team "Is it him or not?" Chelsea asked "He's on top of the camera tower, he's the cameraman". Geraldine looked through the spotter's scope. She spots the camera tower "I see him". Chelsea peered through the scope "I see him, can't see the rifle though.
"He's probably concealed it as the camera" Sunny guessed "If he's the target..." Chelsea rotated the dials on the scope to line up the dots on the target "He is the target" Sunny's tone acts as the go ahead's "Are the sights lined up?"
A moment of silence.
"Target locked, on your your; you have to say mark".
"Why? Just shoot the fucker" she tells Chelsea "Just say it".
"Ugh. Mark".
The bullet goes through Bonaparta's skull and through the camera, which causes it to exploded. Bits of skull, blood, brains and camera fly onto crowd members. They panic. Screams are heard. Bodyguards hurry to remove the asset from danger. "He's down. Time to get out. Meet around the abandoned gas station" Sunny ordered.
Within a number of minutes to an hour the press would call this an assassination attempt on a patriot trying to fix up the country with blah blah blah.
...
"Is it done?" Pierce asked "Yeah it's done" Sunny tells him through the phone.
"Hope saving this prick was worth it. His speech gave me a headache"
"Well it was in the interest of National Security. Honestly it should have been anyone but him. If this jag off gets into office then the people around him may just do the deed themselves" he grimly remarked.
"Until next time" the call ends.
Sunny looked at Geraldine and Chelsea talking amongst themselves. "Alright secret agent man is pleased" she put her phone away "To bad that politic wasn't the target, it would have been more interesting" Chelsea remarked "Shit man then everybody in the goddamn world would be lookin' for us" Geraldine spat out her gum.
"Last thing I want to do is time in a federal prison. No freedom in those places" Sunny looked the time "It's nearly five. I think we got plenty of time for drinks somewhere".
"There's a place not far from here. Pretty decent drinks" Chelsea suggests "Well let's drink till we can't feel anything" Sunny turned towards the passenger "You spoke my fuckin' language" Geraldine followed suit "Hey wait for me" Chelsea followed them to her car.
Politics were a dirtier game than spy work and even war. All three were just glad that the deed was done.
There would be a day were politics weren't going to be needed. That day won't come any time soon but it would be considered by those who couldn't stand those who ramble about wanting to do it for the greater good.
Chapter 63 is coming soon. Rate and Review.