“No, no, Rebecca, this isn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known this would happen,” Ed replied, trying to console her.
Rebecca tried to protest, but all she could was continue to cry. Ed did not let her go until she had cried herself out. Ed helped her back to her seat, where she sat down and curled up into a ball. Ed went to the nurse’s station to get her a blanket and placed it on her, causing her to fall asleep, thoroughly exhausted by the tragedy of the day. She slept in that position for some time as the rest of the city spent the night trying to make sense of what happened.
Chapter Twenty
Spreading Out
The Black Hand had limped through the last days of April and the first half of May, licking their wounds and trying to stay afloat as a viable gang. Many people had left the organization in the days following the pyrrhic victory and recruitment had been slowed to a trickle. With New York becoming increasingly hostile territory for the Black Hand, Jared had decided to start the plans for expansion, heavily modified to reflect the damage that John’s insurrection had caused.
Jared was holding a meeting with Timothy, Janice, and Julia in his apartment again. The three of them had been chosen to lead the Black Hand expansion over various parts of the country. From there they would build an organization that would rule the entire country. Jared had spent the past few weeks making sure that the cities they went to would give them a friendly reception.
Timothy was to go to Los Angeles, where she would build the Black Hand among the gangs of the city and take over the West Coast. Julia had been originally slated to go to St. Louis, but in the wake of the tornado destroying a good portion of Kansas City, Jared changed his mind and decided to send her to the damaged city. He reasoned that as the city grew back from the disaster, the Black Hand would grow with it. Janice was being sent to Miami, where she would work with the Hispanic gangs to work their way up the coast.
Jared was going to stay behind and build the Black Hand back up in New York. He had neglected to tell the remaining borough leaders about the scheme to kidnap Liam Hensen, mainly because he knew they would try to shoot it down. It was easier for him just to get them out of the city and plan the abduction without interference.
“Okay you three, I know this isn’t an ideal situation, given what that traitor fuck John did, but I’m sure you will make do,” Jared said.
“We’ll be fine,” Julia said. “I’m just glad to get out of this city. I’m sick of it right now.”
Jared knew what she meant. He had enjoyed the city immensely when he had turned it into his playground, but in the months since his brutal attack, the city had become steadily more hostile to him to the point that he hated the city as well. The only thing that was keeping him there was the prospect of his next major crime.
“Anyway, your planes are leaving soon. I want updates weekly,” Jared said.
“So, that’s it?” Julia said.
“Yes. What, do you want a hug and a kiss goodbye?” Jared said sarcastically. “You know what you need to do. Just get the fuck out of here.”
Julia look affronted, but she did not say anything as she swept out the door. Janice followed suit, leaving Timothy with Jared. “You would think she’d be used to it by now,” he said as he too left.
“I don’t give a fuck about what any of you think,” Jared said to himself. “We have a job to do and it better fucking get done.”
Later that evening, Jared was going to a bar deep in Midtown that was still friendly to the Black Hand. He had a meeting with the remnants of Ethan’s hit squad to plan the kidnapping. It had taken some time for Jared to track them down as they had been either captured or scattered when the Conspiracy had defeated and killed Ethan. Most of them had elected to stay in hiding for a while until the authorities stopped looking for them as heavily. It had not taken long; the city was content to pretend that the Black Hand had been destroyed on Staten Island and left it at that.
Jared entered the bar and saw the squad in the corner. He walked over to the bar first and said, “Send a round to that table over there.” After making sure the beer was on its way, he went to join them.
“You’re Jared?” one of the men asked.
“Yes I am,” Jared said. “I’ve gotten some drinks for you.”
The bartender brought over several steins of beer for the group. The man who had questioned him lifted his drink in acknowledgement and said, “At least you know how to treat your men right. What is it that you wanted?”
“First, what happened that night? All I’ve been told is that the Conspiracy attacked and beat you,” Jared said.
The man glowered and said, “We set up the barricade like Ethan asked. There was a line of trucks that came up and blocked the road ahead of us. Ethan advanced with a few of us to inspect the trucks because we thought that they were the Army with the gold. We didn’t realize that the Army had brought in people to clear the route ahead of them. There was only one person in the trucks and he stalled us long enough so that the rest of his people came around behind the barricade and ambushed us. The guy who distracted us killed Ethan himself. After that, we decided to leave, having lost most of the squad and Ethan at that point.”
“And you are sure it was the Conspiracy?” Jared asked.
“No, we only learned that later. We didn’t know at that time it was them, we just thought it was a forward Army unit,” the man explained.
“Well, I have a plan to flush out the Conspiracy so we can take them out,” Jared said.
The man perked up. “The Black Hand is still around?”
“As long as I am alive it will be,” Jared said defiantly.
“What did you have in mind?” the man asked.
“What’s your name?” Jared asked.
“Vincent,” the man said.
“Well Vincent, my plan is to abduct and hold Liam Hensen hostage when he is in town for the Globalist Convention,” Jared explained. “It’ll reestablish our relevance and also draw out the Conspiracy so we can attack and destroy them.”
The reaction that elicited convinced Jared that he had made the right choice. “We’re in,” Vincent said eagerly. “But, might I make a suggestion?”
“What’s that?” Jared asked suspiciously.
“Don’t attack the Conspiracy when they come to rescue Hensen,” Vincent said. “The Conspiracy is going to be a lot bigger than whoever comes for him. We should just use this plan to identify who is in this Conspiracy.”
“How does that work?” Jared said.
“Wherever we take Hensen, we rig the place up with cameras and audio recorders. We can identify whoever they send and trace them back to the Conspiracy leadership and destroy them from the top down,” Vincent explained.
Jared nodded. It was cleverer and crueler than his plan and more comprehensive. “That’s a good plan. We need to plan this as carefully as possible though. Security is going to be tight at this thing and we are understrength.”
“Oh don’t worry about the numbers,” Vincent said. “We had several candidates for the hit squad before Ethan was killed. I’ll activate them and we will be back at full strength. We’re going to need to Trojan horse this thing though.”
“I know. We weren’t going to be able to fight our way in,” Jared said.
“Do you want to be a part of the crowd, or something else?” Vincent asked.
“Security. We’ll be armed that way,” Jared said.
“Clever,” Vincent said. “When we are going to do this?”
“We need to work out the final details, but I’m planning to do this the last day of the convention when Hensen is doing his big speech at the end. The whole nation will be watching it and know we are back,” Jared explained.
“Good,” Vincent said. “Let’s say we get drunk for now, eh?”
“That’s a hell of an idea,” Jared said. “We need another round over here!”
Chapter Twenty-One
After the Storm
In the weeks following th
e storm that levelled parts of Kansas City, the people of the city could only try to pick up the pieces. The northwestern suburbs had taken the worst of the storm and because of the fighting that had been going on at the time, many more casualties had occurred than would have otherwise under normal conditions. The movement that Peter had tried to start had been gravely damaged to the point of irrelevancy. The gangs had fled the city in the wake of the storm as the National Guard had swept in to prevent lawlessness in the hardest hit areas. In a devastated city, this was a small comfort.
Rebecca had refused to leave the house in the weeks following the tornado. Most of the time she hid in her tower that she now had to herself, which reinforced her loneliness. She had spent most of her life with Anne there by her side, to laugh with, to cry with, to talk to when life was bothering her. Now she felt that she had no one to do any of those things with.
Ed and Kathleen had tried to help as best as they could. They had not admonished Rebecca for still being involved with the local Conspiracy because they knew she felt bad enough as it was without harping on that point. Though they had avoided bringing it up, Rebecca could not help but feel that they were thinking about it, which made it worse for her. Despite what Ed had told her, Rebecca still blamed herself for Anne’s death. No one was going to change her mind on that.
One hot day at the end of May, Rebecca was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. She had left the window open to let the warm air waft into the bedroom, in a manner that Anne had preferred. A wasp had flown in and was buzzing around the ceiling, but Rebecca could not be bothered to try to remove it. It was not harming her and she was too lethargic to even move.
There was a knock on her door and Rebecca barely turned her head to see Georgia walk in. Georgia had been discharged from the hospital the day after the tornado and told to rest for some time at her house to avoid stress. She had obliged, but when Rebecca had bothered to leave the room, she noticed that Georgia was starting to look restless. She was itching to get back into the fight, though there was no longer any fight to be had.
“Rebecca, there’s someone here to see you,” Georgia said.
“Who is it?” Rebecca said listlessly.
“Me,” Spencer said, walking into the room.
In the past, Rebecca would feel a flutter of excitement when she saw Spencer, but that had not been the case since the day of the storm. She sat up and said, “Hey, Spencer,” nonetheless.
“How are you?” he asked.
Rebecca sighed. “I’ve been better.”
Spencer nodded. “I know what you mean,” he said. “We lost a lot of people to that storm. I can’t pretend that I knew them as well as you know Anne, but it’s still horrible.”
“How’s the Conspiracy doing?” Rebecca asked.
“Not well. Not only did a lot of us get hurt or killed, but with the gangs fleeing the city, people no longer see a reason to fight,” Spencer explained.
“So that’s it then?” Georgia asked.
“No,” Spencer said. “The gangs are gone, but something else is moving in.”
“What do you mean?” Georgia asked.
“A few days ago, a shopkeeper near the damage zone got robbed. The next day, some guy showed up to the robbed store and extorted them for protection money,” Spencer explained.
“Are you sure the gangs didn’t do that?” Rebecca said impatiently.
“This was too clever for them,” Spencer said. “Besides, the person who demanded the protection money had an armband with a black hand pointed downwards on it.”
“Is that supposed to mean anything?” Rebecca asked.
“It’s the symbol of the Black Hand. They’re the ones who perpetrated that brutal series of attacks in New York back in January,” Spencer said grimly.
“If they’re from New York, then what are they doing here?” Rebecca demanded.
“I don’t know. Probably taking advantage of the city since it was hurt by the tornado,” Spencer suggested. “But we can’t let them get entrenched in the city if it turns out that it is the real Black Hand.”
“What are we supposed to do?” Georgia said, perking up.
“This is just a simple surveillance mission,” Spencer said. “We go out, trail this guy extorting people, and find out if he is really with the Black Hand.”
“Then what?” Rebecca asked. “Are we supposed to fight them too?”
“No, that is not the idea,” Spencer said. “If it is the Black Hand, then we just report them to the authorities and let them sort it out.”
Rebecca looked consternated, but stood up and said, “Fine. I need to get out anyway.”
Georgia quickly said, “I’m in too.”
Night had fallen over Kansas City. Spencer, Georgia, and Rebecca were in the damage zone from the tornado, surrounded by the darkness as the power had not yet been fully restored in the area. They had figured that this area would be a likely location for any meeting place for the Black Hand, as no one was around for miles. The National Guard had simply evacuated the entire area and let the recovery crews do what they could.
People had been sneaking into the damage zone almost since the tornado to escape the view of the law. Nighttime black markets had sprung up in the area and Spencer suspected that if the Black Hand was trying to get established in the city, then this would be the perfect area to work out of, away from the watchful eyes of the authorities.
Rebecca did not like this stakeout business. She only had come along because she felt that she had been stuck in the house for too long and wanted to do something constructive. Besides, if what Spencer said was true, then it would be this one operation and that was it. She could leave the Conspiracy for good and indulge her bitterness towards the organization after this was over.
“What are we looking for exactly?” Rebecca said. She was not happy that they had to be in the same area that Anne had died.
“The shopkeeper said that it was a huge Caucasian man with a shaved head,” Spencer said. “He’ll be hard to miss out here.”
Rebecca fell silent again, letting herself brood in the silence. No one talked for some time, until Georgia said, “Is that the guy?”
“Let me see,” Spencer said, looking out into the darkness. “Yeah that would be him. You can tell by the armband.”
“If you are trying to keep the Black Hand secret, why wear it?” Georgia asked.
“There’s nothing to fear from wearing it here,” Spencer explained, watching the man. “But you can create fear by wearing it.”
They watched the man as he moved away from them into the gloom. Spencer got out of the car and said, “I’ll be back. The car is too noisy.”
Rebecca got out of the car and said, “I’m coming too.”
“Fair enough,” Spencer said. “Come on and keep quiet. Pay attention to where you are going too, there’s still debris everywhere and you could get cut.”
“I’m going to stay here in case anyone tries to fuck with the car,” Georgia said.
Spencer and Rebecca left her to it and moved out into the gloom. Now that they were out of the car, Rebecca suddenly noticed how many stars were out, finding it weird given that they were in the middle of a populated area. She knew it was because the power was still out in the area, but it still struck her as strange.
They followed the man through the debris field, taking care to avoid pieces of glass and wood that were strewn about. They went deeper and deeper into the damage zone until they saw the man suddenly stop, looking around. Rebecca and Spencer hid behind a tree as the man stopped looking and said, “Julia, where the fuck are you?”
A woman’s voice called out, saying, “We’re over here, Blake.”
Blake walked a bit further away from where Rebecca and Spencer were hiding. Spencer whispered, “We may need to get a bit closer if he goes any further. I need to take pictures.”
“Is your camera silent?” Rebecca whispered back.
“Yeah don’t worry it won’t make a sound.” Spence
r replied, moving from behind the tree to get a little closer. There was a rock that he hid behind and Rebecca quickly joined him. Though she could not see them, Rebecca could hear voices from the other side of the rock.
“How much money did you extort, Blake?” Julia asked.
“Several thousand so far. People just aren’t putting up a fight because of the tornado,” Blake replied in a gravelly voice. “Their spirits are broken right now.”
“Good, that’ll make it easier for us to grow here,” Julia said.
“How much of this money is going to New York?” Blake asked. “I don’t work hard just to see all that money disappear.”
“Jared only requires a small percentage of it right now. We aren’t doing well there so there won’t be a serious operation anytime soon. We’ll be able to keep the money here and spread it out through the region as we grow,” Julia explained.
“Good,” Blake said. “Theresa, how are you tonight?”
“I’m fine,” another woman said impatiently. “What’s with the small talk?”
“There’s not much to talk about so far, we only started here last week,” Blake said airily. “There’s only so much business we can talk about.”
“I have business to talk about!” Theresa protested.
“Then by all means, talk about it,” Blake said.
“The gangs fled the city after the tornado because the National Guard came in to secure the city after the storm,” Theresa explained. “I say we bring them back to help bolster our numbers.”
“You don’t want those thugs, Julia,” Blake countered. “They lack focus and are constantly fighting each other. Last October, several gangs destroyed half of Wyandotte County just fighting over two girls.”
“I’m sure we could find someone that could get them to stop fighting and work together,” Julia countered. “Especially if we incentivized them.”
“With what?” Blake asked.
“Money, property, whatever, just something we can give them so they don’t fight each other,” Julia said. “It shouldn’t be too hard, if they were willing to give up fighting each other and abandon the city so quickly.”
Autumn (Four Seasons Book 1) Page 21