Chapter 7: The Outsiders.

Vic never noticed the one person who walked into the Vodka Lounge at that moment from the back entrance. Then again, he wouldn’t have believed his eyes even if he did.

The shadowy figure made its way straight towards the empty room at the back. This was where he was supposed to meet the other two. The plan was already in motion, and he was taking a big enough risk walking alone in this part of town.

“You’re late.” So, the others were already here. “And you’re sloppy. Someone could have seen you in the club.” A second person spoke up, this voice not as harsh as the first, but even more commanding, the obvious leader.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine even if someone opens their mouth about it. I do have a question though, what’s he doing here? I thought you said you were gonna take care of him.” The new arrival spoke up, pointing towards the bar.

“I’m working on it. He’s just a slightly sticker situation than I imagined. Maybe he can turn out to be useful for us. After all, he is trusted by both sides. We could play our cards right and use him to our advantage.” The leader again. A voice which was commanding and soothing at the same time.

“I don’t want him involved in this. It’s bad enough that we had to involve his partner into it, but that couldn’t be avoided. We need him to be alive till the plan is done. He’s no use to us dead and he’s no use to us right now either.” The new arrival had to point it out, to be honest, he didn’t want either of them dead, but it was unavoidable. He might as well try and save the one he can.

“I said; I’m taking care of it.” That put an end to the conversation.

“So what’s the situation? Do we proceed as planned?” The rough voice spoke up again, the obvious brawns of the organization.

“Keep everything on schedule; I want the goon squad taken care of by the day after. Make sure its flashy, make it obvious. None of them breathing by the time the cops get there.”

“I’ll make sure of it. I just hope they don’t live up to their reputation.” A sense of fear? From the brawns? Ironic.

“You would know best, you’ve worked with them long enough.”

“Yea, which is what, makes me think twice about it. The hand that feeds them is going to end up choking them. Fate can be a cruel bitch eh?”

“I don’t care about fate; I want the news as soon as it’s done. You know what else to do once they’re dead.” Of course he knew, they had planned this for the last year.

“I wont let anything happen, you just make sure your part doesn’t come up with any lose ends, that’s the one part where it could all fall to pieces.” Temper, temper.

“I haven’t spent the last year acting like a pawn to have it all fall down around me. Make sure you don’t do anything stupid.” The voice set the leader apart. Something about the calmness of it, and the brutal yet unique scent of revenge on it.

“My part has no loopholes. The Italian goes down within the week. As soon as the goon squad is taken care of. No one will know a thing and everything is going to stick to the plan.” The third person had it all planned out. He had had it all planned out for the last month.

“What do you expect Vadim’s reaction is going to be? When he finds out about the goon squad?” Questions like this, made him nothing more than the brawns. The other two could have done better without him, but his position with the Russians was useful.

“He will react exactly like I said; all we need to do is to give the Italians the final push which will send the both of them charging towards each other. Vadim has enough firepower on his side, and even without the firepower, the Italians can put a big enough dent in his side. Besides, if all goes as planned, Vadim won’t be alive to see the end anyway. Once we take care of the Italian and the goon squad all we have to do is sit back and enjoy the show. Once it’s done, we clean up the mess and rise out of the wreckage.”

“Will those two get in the way?” The new comer pointed to the bar again. He still had his reservations.

“I’ll make sure they don’t. Besides, they’re already occupied, before they figure out what’s going on, it will be too late. On your insistence they’re still alive, but I can’t promise once the wheels are in motion. They will probably end up as collateral.” The leader never even flinched.

“And Dogtown will be ours.”