The National Guard’s presence in the city still deterred Jared from having the borough leaders come to him. He wanted to talk to them though, so he went to the Black Hand headquarters where the gold had been stored so he could use the conference screen in there. He walked all the way there from the park and passed through the restaurant with barely a second glance at the slow business within.
Jared made his way quickly through the storage room and into the atrium of the Black Hand’s secret base. Juanita was still missing, having not been seen by anyone in the organization since the day of the attack. Jared pushed that concern from his mind; there was another problem that he wanted to address first.
The borough leaders had been notified by text that there was to be an immediate meeting, so when Jared turned on the screen. Four of the borough leaders were there already; only John was missing. Jared barked at the other leaders, “Where’s John?”
“We didn’t exactly get a lot of warning, Jared,” Julia protested. “I’m sure he’s on his way.”
No sooner had she said that when John did appear on the screen. “What the hell is this about, Jared? I was in the middle of a meeting with my subordinates.”
“Cut the tone, John, we have a problem.” Jared said impatiently.
John raised his eyebrows, but remained silent. Jared continued to speak, “Have any of you heard of a group calling themselves the Conspiracy?”
Three of the borough leaders looked confused, but Julia and Ethan looked surprised. “Where have you heard that name?” Ethan asked.
“Some asshole,” Jared said dismissively. “What do you know?”
“There have been some rumblings of these people who think they can take us on,” Ethan said. “I’m not worried about it.”
“I’m with Ethan on this one,” Julia said. “They aren’t a problem.”
“My source knew who we were. He knew what the Black Hand was,” Jared explained. “People aren’t supposed to know who the fuck we are!”
“It was bound to get out eventually,” John said. “There hasn’t been any mention of this in the media has there?”
“Not to my knowledge,” Julia said. “It’s unlikely that this private group will do anything. Task Force NYC couldn’t do anything.”
“They aren’t coming back, though,” Jared said. “Not since that leader of theirs was taken out. A group without any government oversight could cause damage.”
“We are too far spread out to…” Ethan said.
“Are we forgetting that I’m the one in charge here!” Jared stormed. “If I say I want this fucking group stopped, then it damn well better be fucking stopped! It’s not like any of you have anything better to do right now!”
“We’re planning to move out of the city!” Julia protested.
“We can’t take that anywhere right now!” Jared roared back. “I’m not going to take over the fucking country when I have problems at home! Deal with this shit!”
Jared ended the call and stormed out of the room. The manager of the restaurant, who was in truth a part of the Black Hand, was showing a new secretary around the atrium and was telling her now to go into any of the rooms without express permission and supervision.
The woman looked startled to see Jared come storming out of one of the rooms. Jared ignored her though, storming out of the atrium and out onto the street. He did not know where he wanted to go, but he found that his feet seemed to be carrying him to the park. It seemed that his subconscious knew where to go to try to calm down even if he did not know it himself.
It was getting late in the afternoon when he finally arrived back at the park. He let himself walk over the familiar paths, fuming and cursing under his breath. The park was as empty as ever, until he arrived at the southern end of the park where he had been told of the Conspiracy.
The man was still sitting there, even though it had been hours since Jared had left the first time. Seeing him brought Jared’s rage to a boiling point again and he stormed towards him. The man barely looked up as he noticed Jared draw closer, but he did say, “What brings you back?”
“The Conspiracy. Where do they meet?” Jared demanded.
The man, perhaps sensing danger, decided to be coy. “I don’t know. I’m not involved in it. I just know people who are interested. I told you I want peace. I don’t want to be involved in any fighting.”
“Who are your contacts then?!” Jared spat furiously.
“I don’t think I should tell you,” the man said.
Jared was rapidly losing his patience. He pulled out his handgun and pointed it at the man and said, “I think you should reconsider your course of action.”
“Death. The ultimate peace,” the man sighed. “You’d give me a gift, boy.”
Being taunted like that, though it was exactly what the man was trying to do, sent Jared into a ballistic rage. He shot the man at point blank rage and could have sworn that he saw a smile on his face as he keeled over on the bench. Jared grabbed his legs and dragged him to the nearby Pond and unceremoniously dumped his body into the water.
“Didn’t like what he had to hear?” a familiar voice said behind him.
Jared turned to see Ethan and said, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I like to look at my handiwork sometimes,” Ethan said, waving at the destroyed park. “It makes me feel accomplished.”
Jared caustically asked, “Shouldn’t you be working on the Conspiracy problem?”
“I’ve already delegated that task,” Ethan said airily. “I wouldn’t worry about that Jared. If the Fed couldn’t do anything about us, then there’s no way this group would be able to stop up either.”
“I never take anything for granted, Ethan,” Jared said venomously.
“I know you don’t. That’s why you are in charge and not somebody else. But this is different. We’ve been here established for years. We’re in charge of the city right now, no matter what the city government likes to pretend. There’s no way some upstart group of riled up people with no money, no allies, and no weapons are going to be able to do anything,” Ethan said.
“I’m not worried about men and material bullshit,” Jared said. “I’m worried about the psychological value.”
“Whatever actually is out there, we’ll crush them before they can get a propaganda victory,” Ethan said. “Then you can rule the country.”
“For your sake, that better be true,” Jared said, glowering.
Chapter Eleven
A Helping Hand
Early March was setting into New York City and the weather was beginning to become consistently warmer. Though it would still be awhile before the city began to turn green, it still was nice to be able to stay outside without freezing.
For his part, Greg Carlton had not been going outside much. Task Force NYC had been formally shut down by President Hoch following the Central Park and Federal Reserve attacks, not to mention the assassination of Emma Drexel. Without the need to go to his job, Greg was content to receive his government pension while plotting to do the job that the task force had failed in.
In the month since officially founding the Conspiracy, Greg had been delighted to see it grow from his very local group to an organization with branches in two boroughs. If the rumors were true, then his group’s reach stretched beyond the city and had shoots growing in all part of the country. He did not seek to exert control over these copycat groups, however. Greg was content to run his own local branch and let these other groups deal with their own local problems as they saw fit.
For all of their expansion, however, the Conspiracy had not gotten any closer to cracking open the Black Hand. Spearheaded by Eric, they had infiltrated the terrorist group in two boroughs, but still had not advanced far enough to identify the borough leaders or the overall commander. Complicating matters was the fact that the Black Hand was not up to much these days with the National Guard sill in town following the massive attacks from five weeks prior.
The Conspiracy was
to hold an in-person meeting for the first time later that day. The main group of people that had been there at the beginning were going to be there. They were doing it in broad daylight at Greg’s apartment, a central location that would not take too much time to get to since they still could not be out after dark.
Greg was excited to host the meeting. He had not had people over to his apartment since before Veronica had gone missing. He had stocked the fridge with soda and alcohol, along with getting a healthy supply of snacks since it would be taking place in the middle of the afternoon. At that point, he was just waiting for his guests to arrive, passing the time by going over notes and memos that various people in the Conspiracy had sent him over the past month.
One thing that Greg had been searching for news of was related to the disappearance of Veronica. There had not been much time to spare to the investigation as much of his time and effort was going to the Conspiracy itself, but when he had a minute or two, he was trying to find out what had happened to his fiancée. Nothing solid had been turned up yet, though Greg reasoned that by getting deeper into the Black Hand’s inner machinations, more could be revealed.
To that end, Greg hoped that the meeting would produce some fruit in that regard. There was suddenly a knock on the door, startling Greg. He opened the door to see Ashley there by herself. “Oh hello,” Greg said. “You’re the first one here, Ashley.”
Ashley looked surprised and said, “I thought the others would be here by now. I live pretty far away.”
“They’ll be here soon enough, I’m sure,” Greg said. “Come on in.”
Ashley entered the apartment and sat down on the couch. Greg felt awkward so he decided to do something that he had not done with someone in a long time: make small talk.
“How have you been?” Greg asked.
“I’ve been fine,” Ashley said wearily. “I’m just tired of the curfew. I can’t do anything anymore.”
“What did you used to do?” Greg prompted.
“Well when I wasn’t wasting my time at work I would be out in the city at night,” Ashley said. “I went out clubbing to relax.”
Greg did not reply, letting Ashley continue. “I knew that it was a waste of time, but it was the only way I was comfortable meeting new people. I never made any friends there, but I could at least pretend.”
“And now?” Greg asked.
“Now I stay at home by myself all night and drink myself into a bored stupor,” Ashley said. “At least, when I’m not spreading the word of the Conspiracy online.”
“Is that all you do?”
“Yep,” Ashley said glumly. “The city has been shut down. And my social life with it.”
“Do you want to go out to lunch sometime?”
Ashley looked shocked and said, “Huh?”
Greg had asked it suddenly, not really thinking about what he was about to ask before he had actually done it. Now that he had already asked the question, he realized that there was no turning back and continued, “I think it would be nice for you to get out again is all.”
Ashley looked at him shrewdly for a long moment before saying, “Sure, I could be up for that.”
Greg smiled and said, “Thanks. I’m, uh, free anytime these days.”
“I am too,” Ashley said. “We could go out whenever you wanted to.”
There was another knock on the door and Greg turned to go open it, saying on the way over, “I’ll talk to you later about when we can go out.”
Greg opened the door to see everyone else had arrived. He welcomed them in and let them get comfortable. After a few minutes of everyone getting settled, Greg spoke up.
“I’m glad you all could make it out here,” he said. “I know it is not easy these days with the travel restrictions in the curfew.”
“I can’t believe it’s been over a month since we’ve had one of these,” Bob said. “Remember? It was the night the attack started.”
Greg remembered it well. “That won’t happen again this time. We can work in peace today.”
“Good,” Christine said.
“Well, not as much as you all would like,” Eric said darkly.
“What, why?” Greg asked.
Eric sighed and said, “The Black Hand knows that the Conspiracy exists.”
Greg was not prepared for this pronouncement. The relaxed mood in the room suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a tense atmosphere. “How much do they know?” Bob asked.
“Almost nothing other than that we exist,” Eric said, turning to face him. “We were asked by our commanders if we had any information and to look out for anyone with the Conspiracy so we could turn them over.”
“Is that all?” Greg asked.
“Yep,” Eric said. “Although I was able to find out who runs the Black Hand in Queens. It’s a woman named Julia Turner. Anyone know her?”
Nobody spoke up, which led Greg to say, “At least we actually have a name now. We can work from there. Is there anything higher up than that?”
“No. There’s still no word on who the leader is,” Eric said darkly.
“We’re getting closer though,” Christine said. “I’ve got a name as well in Midtown. Someone by the name of Ethan Rush. He’s the one that attacked the park.”
Greg looked thoughtful as he said, “This Rush person must’ve attacked the park to distract the authorities away from the Federal Reserve.”
“From what I’ve been told from someone who was a part of the attack on Central Park, they did not expect the cops to break the way they did,” Christine explained. “It turned into a rout.”
“Who’s your source?” Bob asked.
“Someone in an elite squad of Black Hand soldiers,” Christine replied. “He, uh, felt guilty after what they did. Something I took advantage of when I was looking for information.”
“So, we have two of the borough leaders,” Bob said, looking at Greg. “There’s still a lot more to this puzzle though.”
“I don’t think this is going fast enough,” Greg muttered.
“I don’t know what you expect there,” Charles said, speaking up for the first time. “The Black Hand is built deep into this city. There’s only so much we can do right now.”
“How’s recruitment going then?” Greg asked.
“It’s going well,” Bob said. “Ashley is the main reason why though.”
Ashley blushed a little as she said, “Thank you. I try.”
“You’ve done well,” Bob said. “She’s given us an enormous leg up online. We’ve heard of groups inspired by the Conspiracy crop up all over the country. Here in the city, we’ve gotten a couple hundred people to join outright and it is spreading from there.”
“What exactly are you telling them we’re doing to stop the Black Hand, Bob?” Eric asked sternly.
“They seem to understand that it’ll be a brutal fight,” Bob said. “They understand the stakes.”
“Good,” Greg said. “I know we can’t do anything soon, but they need to be prepared for what might come.”
“They will be,” Bob reassured him. “There is a man that’s shown interest named Zach Gates that used to be in the military. He says he can help recruits become fighters should the need arise.”
“I think it will,” Greg muttered. “The question is when.”
“It’ll be better to ambush the Black Hand when they are going to execute an attack, but the problem is we don’t have anything going on right now. Other than a vague, hand wavy order to handle the Conspiracy,” Eric explained.
“That won’t lead to any pitched battles as long as we stay one step ahead of them,” Charles said calmly.
“I think we need to be more than one step ahead of these pricks,” Christine said darkly. “Meaning no offense, Eric.”
“I don’t care, they’re bastards,” Eric said. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Are we going to plan anything specific today?” Christine asked.
“Not unless the Black Hand was going to do something
specific, but that didn’t come up today. Damn it,” Greg added. “I suggest we get into the alcohol instead.”
“Now you’re talking!” Eric said excitedly.
“You’re too young!” Ashley said.
“Oh please, I’m living undercover in the most dangerous gang in the country, I need this,” Eric said impatiently. “I’m pretty sure having a beer isn’t on the same wavelength as robbing the Federal Reserve.”
Ashley could not raise any objections to that and allowed Eric to break into the alcohol. The others followed suit and the meeting began to loosen up as the various factions of the Conspiracy talked to each other about their own plans while Greg listened to them all and shot ideas around.
After a while, Greg realized that it was suddenly becoming late and he said, “Look, I like that you all came over, but you can’t stay the night here.”
Bob looked at his watch and said, “Oh shit, it is getting close to curfew. Let’s go ahead and head out, everyone.”
The others followed him out the door. “Who drove?”
“Oh we all took the subway, Greg, we didn’t drive,” Bob explained. “Don’t worry about the drinking.”
Greg nodded as they all filed out, with Ashley trailing them all. “I’ll call you, Greg,” she added on the way out, trying to hide that her cheeks had turned slightly red.
Greg smiled and saw her out. Once she was out the door, Greg got to cleaning up the apartment. It may have been some years since he had lived with Veronica, but her house training had still rubbed off on him. He felt it would be an insult to her if he suddenly spurned her teachings, even after all of these years.
As he finished, he sat down in his recliner and idly turned on an NCAA basketball game. Greg was not paying much attention to the game, but instead thinking about what he had asked Ashley. It had come out of the blue and he had not even thought about asking her out before that exact moment. As such, he had not considered how he felt about Veronica still.
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