“You want us to believe you're about to make a 180 turnaround and live a straight life? I’m not that gullible, Luca.” Jared sat back and watched him intently.
“I want a chance at a normal life.”
“Which you can have,” Jared snapped. “For the valuable intel you’ll be providing, you’ll be offered immunity from prosecution and put in a witness protection program. You don’t need to disappear, Luca.”
“As long as I do it according to the rules of the program. No, I want to be in control of my own destiny— live my life the way I choose to. You got that at a young age. Why can’t I succeed too?”
“Two very good reasons. Number one, you chose your destiny a long time ago. You are living the life you chose to live. Now that you want out and hope to survive, you’ll have to testify against your father and his associates in a court of law as a condition of being a candidate for the witness protection program. For someone who has chosen this life you know better than anyone else that the only way to leave it is in a pine box especially when you turn state’s evidence by admitting your guilt. Secondly, Marco corrupted you. You are a mirror of your father— equally criminally minded and cruel.” Brock refused to budge. “It’s beside the point. Either you turn state’s evidence and go into the WITSEC program or live the rest of your life on the run because we will never stop hunting you. Better the devil you know than the one you don’t.”
“Not until you agree to my condition. So, what is it to be, Commander?”
Jared glanced at Jordan who regarded Luca with an expressionless face. Her eyes glimmered and sparked. He didn’t trust his brother and it was evident that she was onto him. Whatever he intended, she already had insight into how his devious mind was working. Armed with that knowledge, he would know how to counteract and prepare well in advance. It was worth taking the chance if it meant they could put an end to ISIS’ current reign of terror— stopping them on the other hand would take a lot more than cutting off the current head that fed their radical, fundamentalist, political ideology.
“We’ll help you but it has to happen within the next couple of days. I’m not prepared to take a chance of another bomb blowing up.”
“Follow me.” They trailed after Luca into the basement.
“Well, now this is a surprise,” Tanner mumbled as they stepped into technology heaven. Screens covered one entire wall with two men manning the operation.
“I am always one step ahead of my father. It’s something all of you should remember,” Luca smirked. “Brown, bring up the files we discussed this morning. Did you make copies like I asked?”
“Yes, sir.” The young man handed two memory sticks over while his gray-haired companion opened folders to flash on the various screens.
They stood amazed as Luca ran them through various video clips and recordings, photos and documentation firmly cementing the Five Families as the criminals they were. Most importantly, it set up Marco as the associate to ISIS, Abu Mohammed al-Hashisi al-Lurayshi, and Ali Mohammed Fadhil.
“Not to discount this plethora of information but I’d like to authenticate everything before we leave.” Jordan tapped her fingers on the desk as she stared at the various clips.
Luca laughed. “I suppose I should be offended. Please,” he gestured to Brown, “be my guest. Brown, let the lady have your chair.”
Jordan immediately did a brief check to ensure that all the information and recordings were authentic and not fake.
“Satisfied?” Luca’s smile could only be described as Cheshire-like when she eventually finished.
“For now, but we will do proper due diligence later.” She swung around. “But that doesn’t give us Abu and Fadhil. Where are they?”
“There is a meeting already in the pipeline with them at the cabin we own on western slope of San Bruno Mountain just outside Brisbane.” He looked at Jared. “Check the folder marked Project X. It lists all the sites they still intend to bomb, who the bombers are and the methods to be used. The next one is scheduled four days from today. The meeting isn’t going to put a stop to that, so you better—”
The sound of a dull thud reflected briefly off the velvet flocked walls as Jared connected with a straight right at the end of his reach to ring Luca’s bell and drive his chin floorward. The lightning quick punch wobbled his legs. Not yet finished unloading, Jared drove forward with a hand pinched around Luca's throat and slammed him up against a wall.
“You fucking knew about the other two bombs and you kept your mouth shut? You’re as guilty as the rest of them, you piece of shit!”
“What the fuck was I supposed to do?” Luca didn’t struggle. “If I tried to stop them, they would’ve known something was up. There was no—”
“You could’ve fucking warned me! Had we known; we might’ve been able to prevent all those deaths. Children, Luca! Do you have any idea how many were killed in that blast? I should choke the life out of you right here. I think I will. It’s your turn to die, little brother.”
“Wait! Even if I had told you, there was no way for you to stop it. They had Vietnam-era Daisy cutters that were bought on the Black Market from munition supplies we used in Iraq. ISIS has millions from the Iraqi oil terminals they seized. They’ve been stockpiling aerial weapons systems for years.”
“How the hell did they deliver a bomb that caused so much destruction over such a wide area?” Jordan punched in a command on the computer. She pointed at the images on the screen. “Look at that, Boneiro. We’re talking about three blocks of destruction.”
“They bought a civilian version of the C-130 transport. Anyone can buy them on the open market. The pilots were Iraqi Air Force mercenaries who joined up with Al Baghdadi after the Bush Administration disbanded the Iraqi army. They were trained by Russian pilots.
“Bullshit!” Brock countered. Russian pilots? Where the fuck…”
“The Russians were flying North Korean Migs against us in the Korean War. They trained North Vietnamese pilots during the Vietnam War. Now, the Russians are paying bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. forces in Afghanistan. It doesn’t take a leap of imagination to think they can train a team of Iraqi mercenaries to pilot a C-130 armed with a Daisy Cutter. What better way to stay hidden and at the same time cause chaos and massive destruction by using a proxy force? It’s genius. The 9/11 hijackers trained at flight schools right here in the U.S.! So, how hard is it, if you’ve got millions of dollars, to buy a military plane, buy the biggest bomb on the black market and train mercenaries to fly and drop that payload on an American city? Do you think the leaders of ISIS are stupid?” Luca shook his head at Brock. “You think, with your money and technical marvels that you’re invincible. Right? I mean, that’s pure arrogance. With all our military might, we got our asses kicked in Vietnam by those little, brown rice farmers who had been throwing occupiers out for a thousand years. Don’t you guys read history? It’s all there. All recorded.”
Luca shrugged. “I knew they planned to bomb the Federal building but as you’ll see on that schedule, they changed the time frames on the attacks, I suppose to ensure we couldn’t stop them either.” Luca's expression turned glum. He had been against the power Marco and the other leaders had given to Abu and Fadhil. It had the direct effect of disarming his own scheme of starting a coup against his father.
“The meeting I mentioned is scheduled for tomorrow with The Commission leaders. They want an explanation from Abu and Fadhil. No one is happy about them deviating from the agreed schedule.”