Chapter 12 – The Tactical Genius Makes Her Move

• Leo
• My first impression of the underground base of the Agnello mafia was 'spine-chilling'. It has a dark ambiance wherever I go, whichever hallway I turn to, or whatever room I enter.
• My hasty steps turned to a quiet hallway, a route I'm sure is to the supply room. I've already mapped out the entire base for the entire week I've been here. A few moments later, I stopped in front of a locked door.
• I pulled out my ID and was about to go in when I heard approaching footsteps.
• "Hey!"
• Ugh, how unlucky. I slowly turned to the owner of the voice. My eyes went to the color of his ID—gray—an upper officer. I immediately recognized his face once I realized he was an upper officer, a rank only a handful of people have. Rico Brown.
• His eyes also went to my ID and frowned at the color—brown—I was an errand girl.
• "Who ordered you to the firearms supply room?"
• I slightly bowed at him, recognizing the huge gap of our ranks, and muttered, "A superior asked me to check the inventory, sir."
• "Which superior?"
• I didn't skip a beat with my answer. "Mikhail, sir, a hacker from the intelligence squad."
• "Can you confirm the order from this 'Mikhail' right now?" He folded his arms over his chest, still suspicious.
• I obliged, pulling out my phone and dialing Mikhail. Rico waited as I fiddled with the phone. A few moments later, it started ringing and Mikhail picked up after three rings.
• [Hello?]
• "Hi, Sir Mikhail," I greeted, glancing at Rico. I put the phone on the loudspeaker. "Sir Rico would like confirmation about your order of checking the inventory of the firearms supply room."
• [Oh, yes. I did ask you to do that.]
• I saw Rico nod beside me. I muttered a quick thank you to Mikhail and ended the call. Not long after, Rico walked away and I entered the supply room.
• As I closed the door behind me, I pulled out my phone and texted the number I rang earlier.
• 'Thanks for the save, Jaguar.'
• He replied immediately, 'No problem.'
• Mikhail from the intelligence squad did not order me anything.
• I grinned and looked around the room. I listed down all the firearms in every crate, every dangerous weapon I could see. Agnello mafia is the top rival of the Rios mafia in the underground business, especially weapons trading. On the surface, the Agnellos are owners of the Grand Mien casino, also a competitor of the Basil Hawks casino of the Rios mafia. They're also co-owners with the Rios and other powerful names in numerous businesses and projects, both legal and illegal.
• I am yet to meet the heads of the Agnello organization, but I heard they're a couple with a front of benevolence, their cunning and dangerous character hiding underneath a kind face—Christiano and Granellia Agnello, called commonly as Chris and Ellie, as well as their two children.
• Their dark, evil underground base shows the truth of the Agnellos.
• "The ship for the trade with that French mafia will arrive in the Long Beach port in an hour. We'll be taking their gunpowder in exchange for the six containers of firearms. We need to finish the trade in four hours, so we have to hurry. Got it?" Our supervisor briefed us on the big trade we'll be involved in later, three days after I sneaked in to see which firearms we'll be trading in the supply room. Our group was tasked to take the gunpowder from the ship and replace them with firearms.
• I wore the mafia's uniform, a black skin-tight coveralls with a cap and a waist-band of weapons, as well as black combat boots. Since this was one of those high-profile trades, we were also told to wear masks to hide our identity.
• I'm feeling giddy. It's been a long time since I busted high-profile trade deals.
• We arrived at the port a few minutes before the container ship docked and three men in corporate wear greeted us in the dock. The top officer that mandated this trade was Sir Rico, who was also in corporate wear. He and the French men from the ship talked for a while in the distance.
• Not a moment longer, Rico followed them into the ship to probably confirm the contents of the container. The rest of us patiently waited for the signal to start carrying the crates in the container. Until...
• Everything happened so fast and I was too pumped up to miss a thing. I followed the quick turn of events. After Rico checked the first container, an explosion went off on one of the containers. Everyone was too shocked to move. They then used that advantage to set off more bombs on the other containers. They blew up consecutively.
• I hid my grin.
• "B-Bombs?!"
• "We've been discovered! Cancel the trade!"
• "Fuck!"
• When the Agnello people finally recovered, they divided into groups—like the organized division that they are. One group went to look for the bombers, another went to save as much gunpowder as they can before the ship sinks, and the last went to support Sir Rico. I came with the group that is to look for the bombers.
• We climbed the ship and scouted the area, while I climbed directly to the cockpit. I was greeted by a pile of unconscious sailors on a corner. My mouth gaped.
• "How...grotesque!" I exclaimed, frowning at Jaguar. He was in front of the control table with his arms crossed. He wore a suit similar to the French men but he had on his shades and a longer coat. "You could've drugged them and leave them on their seats, you know."
• "Things didn't exactly go as I planned," was his simple reply. "Have you checked if your superior is still alive?"
• "Oh, I haven't. He probably still is. He has a bulletproof vest."
• He cocked his right eyebrow. "Will that vest protects his head from exploding with the bomb?"
• I placed my hands on my waist. "Good point," I replied and grinned. "Anyway, here's my report."
• I unbuttoned the first three buttons from my coveralls as he looked to the other side. Pulling out a folded paper, I handed it to him with a smirk. "What a gentleman," I teased. "It's not like you haven't seen everything yet."
• "Shut your mouth."
• I chuckled. "I thought you liked it wide open."
• He frowned.
• In the midst of all the explosions and exchanging gunfire, police sirens rang across the pier. The local police are here. I have to escape and leave Jaguar to wrap this all up.
• I turned around without a word when we heard the sirens. I fixed my coveralls as I went for the door. It was perfect timing that my two-way radio announced our escape plan.
• [All units, withdraw. The deal is blown. Our orders are to escape and avoid the police. Use D-410 route through W 4th street.]
• The order was repeated a few more times. As I jumped off the ship and joined the others inside the vehicles, I never turned back to see how bad the damage was—or if he was still looking at me. Our relationship is different when we're at work and when we're off-duty. We remain professional because a slight distraction can ruin our entire mission. And missions of agents of our caliber aren't to be treated lightly.
• "Did anyone find the bomber, at least?"
• We all shook our heads. We had just gotten back to the Agnello's base. None of the mafia men was caught due to the organized escape plan and quick response. Sir Rico also survived, although with heavy injuries from barely avoiding the bombs. I should've sabotaged the rescue task earlier and left him, if not for our unit captain insisting we save him. He's a top official and should the police get a hold of him, it'll be really troublesome for us.
• My moves were still limited.
• I needed more time.
• Besides, the main mission is not to bring down the Agnello mafia, just investigate the Rios mafia through here and strengthen their connection so the Agnellos can suffer greatly when the Rios mafia crumbles. Our main objective is to shake up the underworld society by bringing down one of its most prominent figures.