To Lay a Battle Plan [Amel]

[Samir Sorge]

March, 8th, 1960
0934

Samir, dressed in a neutral colored suit with a red tie, politely knocked on the capo’s door. There was a small frown on his face, he had a rough plan on how to instruct Berraby to move but he still had questions on the girl’s intuition in knowing when to release the explosion when it would be most effective.

He was dressed as impeccably as always, showered and perfumed with sandalwood, his tidy appearance belying his anxiety. He hoped whatever deal Allen had brokered with the Liberatores was sane and safe. He didn’t trust those bilge rats to buy good wine, much less behave fairly at a sit-down. He glowered This time they had better at least put out decent wine. He sniffed in disgust recalling the sour, young grape slop they had served last time, another subtle insult he was sure had gone over the capo’s head.

You had better have at least assured some protection from being slaughtered on sight, Samir was a brave man to have even taken this position. This could very well be a trap to assassinate high ranking Innocenzos over a simple land-grab. There was always that possibility of execution every time there was a meeting. He felt he had every right to be paranoid.

[Amel Allen]

Amel was sitting at a large oak desk in the middle of the room, the blueprints of the Dai Baffoni restaurant laid out in front of him. There were errant papers everywhere, notes scrawled across the materials in front of him, the handwriting barely legible in most parts as they were obviously hurried thoughts and observations on the state of the building and of their enemy. Escape routes were clearly marked, however.

He nervously tapped his pencil against a pad of paper, his foot tapping the floor before he dropped it to grab the cup of coffee that was next to the diagram and took a long sip. He had already asked Cerise to contact their pilot and inform him that they would be leaving shortly, as well as to tell the rest of the team of their travel plans. The first group would be leaving immediately for the negotiations while he had a team standing by to evacuate the rest of the house during the time that they would hopefully be getting Panas back and dropping their Trojan horse off in the home of the Liberatores.

Placing the cup back on the table, he coughed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before glancing at the clock. There was still four hours before they’d have to leave to go to the airport, four hours since he’d spoken with the capo, and thirty four hours since he’d slept last. If I go to bed now, that would be a good nap before we leave…fuck it, I’ll sleep on the plane.

He shivered and pulled his button up sweater around himself a bit tighter as he walked to the door after hearing someone knock. After so many hours of no sleep and living off of coffee, he was just as disheveled as one might imagine, so seeing Samir looking so proper made him bit his lip in embarrassment.

“Please excuse my state, Sorge. I haven’t been to bed yet,” he said, waving the taller man through the door. “Please, come in so we can discuss things. Do you want anything to drink? Cerise will be happy to get you something.”

[Samir Sorge]

Yes, because I have never seen you looking disheveled before, Samir thought with an eye roll at the apology, Allen must have been unaware he always looked untidy to the Tunisian. Well the capo wasn’t being paid to look presentable at least. He simply shook his head and raised his hand at the offer of a beverage. He pulled up a chair, obviously eager to get down to business.

“I spoke with Berraby last night, she’s eager but inexperienced Allen. I’ve order the rabbit to be re-designed with a pull string that will be the detonator of the bomb. I told her to wait until she was in the presence of high ranking or a very large group of Liberatores. I told her to not wait longer than three days however to pull the trigger, lest eventually one of them will catch on or someone else will accidentally pull that trigger,” he sighed at this rather precarious state of affairs. They could only really hope the girl use her weapon at the best possible moment. He looked at his capo sternly when he brought up a new subject however.

“So how was the Liberatore capo? Was he…accommodating?” Samir nudged, he needed to know what kind of man they were dealing with here. If he was lucky based on personality Samir could predict some of the moves he order to be made. Not that this kidnapping wasn’t a good indicator he was probably even more bold than most of the others.

[Amel Allen]

The blonde noticed the man’s expression as he rolled his eyes, but aside from a small narrowing of his own he gave no indication that it bothered him in any way. He had just been trying to be polite, but if his companion had no use for niceties he was okay with that too.

Amel nodded as he sat down across from the Tunisian man, keeping eye contact the whole time as he mindlessly ran a hand through his hair to fix it a little bit. It seemed as though Samir had thought of everything and had given them enough time in case they needed more time to get everyone moved from the house. “Thank you for speaking to her and getting the explosives ordered. I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to order these things in Italy. It would be far more of a hassle to arrange a black market deal. I’m assuming you have it also setup so that there is a delay in the ignition so she has a chance to escape? That way if someone else comes across it and pulls the trigger, if it doesn’t go off right away they might dismiss it as being safe.”

He cleared his throat and sat back in his chair, rubbing his tired eyes. “He has allowed us to each have one armed member present at this meeting with their weapon of choice, and I had to negotiate just to arrange that; at first he told me that we were to be completely unarmed and insinuated that they would have weapons. He’s definitely the person that Ines had mentioned, however; the German sharpshooter. He made certain to load his gun while we were speaking for intimidation purposes.”

[Samir Sorge]

“That delay will only be ten minutes Allen,” Samir sighed, I hope her little legs can run. He rubbed the back of his neck at the capo’s description. Do they all need to be so over the top?

“Excellent, he sounds as arrogant and psychotic as the rest of them,” Samir muttered as he adjusted his tie, he narrowed his eyes. “So he’ll be the kind who goes for the throat, no niceties, just business. Well that’s fine, it may make things easier. At least they won’t be serving that tart wine again.”

He paused as he considered the nature of their protection against such a man. A German sharpshooter? Samir couldn’t help but to bristle as a distant memory and old tales from his homeland came back to him.

“Is he perhaps a veteran? That may explain the skill and the arrogance if he is,” Samir opined. And no doubt suffering from some nervous disorder from the warn then, if we’re lucky.

[Amel Allen]

Amel nodded, his lips quirking upwards in a slight grin. It was a necessary evil, but ten minutes was a perfect amount of time. Long enough to put people’s minds at ease that there was nothing amiss, but also long enough to get away from the blast if she was smart about it. The capo leaned forward on the table, holding up his head with a hand as he surveyed the blueprints of the meeting space again. If only we knew how large their compound is. Perhaps I’ll have Ines look into it once she’s done with that maid.

He looked back up at Samir as he mentioned being a veteran and shook his head. “No, he didn’t sound old enough,” he said quietly. “He could just have a young sounding voice, but it’s more likely that he was a child of a veteran or perhaps trained by one. If that is the case, he’s probably well versed in the techniques that go along with his heritage. He sounded fierce, prepared, smart.” He’ll be a worthy opponent, no doubt.

Sighing, he rubbed his eyes and cleared his throat. “I don’t trust him to stick to his own rules. He required that we only have one person armed, but I believe there to be a good chance that he will have two or perhaps more of his own people armed. He insinuated that he would be checking us all for weapons. I’ll have Adrienne also insist on checking each of the others, hopefully without any improper comments on their…state.” He flinched as he could already see an image of his ex-rival in his head groping the others insisting that the area between the penis and testicles needed to be checked extra carefully.

[Samir Sorge]

"Well, they are a race of self righteous bastards," Samir sniffed in response to Allen's speculating on the origins of the rival capo. His eyes darkened in a memory of what his uncle claimed his father had called his mother when he decided a native wife would not be becoming for a German colonel. Schwarze frau. Germans, they lied and deceived and felt utterly justified in doing so. No Samir would not even think of trusting this man.

His mind came to a pause when Allen mentioned Adrienne would be their body guard, he stared for a few seconds, and then sighed resignedly.

"Allen I do ask you speak with her first, and to keep in mind to not lose her temper if this German makes a crude remark to her, or any of them," he said dryly, which could be an expected intimidation tactic. The only thing she's good for is an actual fight really.

"To keep in mind we will all be in the same unpleasant position," he added, wincing at the thought of this German capo laying his hands on his clean suit. He made a note to wear one he was not fond of tonight.

[Amel Allen]

Amel shivered and pulled his sweater tighter around his shoulders, keeping his eyes on Samir as he vented his frustrations. The simple act made him suddenly feel dizzy and lightheaded as the lack of sleep was finally starting to catch up with him. He knew that it was only a matter of time before he would just pass out. The last time that he’d gone this long without rest or drugs, all the while being this stressed, he’d collapsed in the kitchen. Thankfully Cerise had been there with him and had hauled him back to his room before anyone noticed.

“Don’t worry, I will speak with her,” he answered, yawning and rubbing his eyes again. “If given instruction, she is a capable fighter. She’s just…dangerous when left to her own devices.” He glanced up at the clock. There was no getting around it; he needed at least four hours of sleep if he didn’t want to be embarrassing himself in front of the Liberatores.

“Excuse me, Sorge, I’m crashing. I can’t stay awake any longer.” Amel reached over the pressed the button that would alert Cerise in her room that she was needed. The other members might have mocked him for having his personal assistant, but he didn’t care what they all thought. The girl had proven herself to be an asset, especially during times like this when work still needed to be done and he had pushed himself past his limits as he often did.

“I’ll have to speak to her when I wake up, but rest assured it will get done. Everything else seems to be in order, and I trust your judgment in doing all the talking tonight. Be ready to leave in six hours, the pilot will be ready then. Is there anything else that we needed to discuss before then?"