6 The Attack
It was lunchtime at St. George's Academy - Rafael sat at a table together with Gary and Eugene. Beside the three were Jiena, her friends and Casey- their new friend. As they started eating, Allisson and her friends passed by and glared at their former friend.
"Just look at the poor girl, Being friends with a bunch of losers," says Allison.
"She's also a loser like them," one of Allison's friends added.
"At least I'm not a dumb blonde," Casey answered back.
"Well, I'm not a gold digger like you," Allison answered back, prompting Jiena to hold Casey's hand.
"Look you dumb bitch, if you want to pick a fight, let's meet each other outside the campus?" Jiena challenged Allison, "I haven't landed a punch since I returned from Bosnia."
Casey was stunned by Jiena's challenge, while Allison's face turned pale and walked out of the cafeteria out of fear.
"Don't let those idiots bully you," Jiena told Casey, laying her eyes on the latter's lunch which was just a plain fried fish and rice "Can we exchange lunch? I haven't eaten that for so long."
"It's a poor man's lunch," said Casey.
"You can take mine," Jiena offered her lunch box.
Casey was hesitant, taking a glimpse of the Kobe beef, quinoa and salad inside Jiena's lunchbox. "Jiena, these foods are so expensive."
"We wanted to eat dried fish and egg," Rafael said, "But our housekeeper told us that Dad bought home two pounds of Kobe beef from a restaurant."
"It's not a rich man's lunch," Jiena explained "its leftovers."
"I am still stunned by your habits," Casey murmured, eating Jiena's lunch. Secretly, she felt that heaven came down on her, upon tasting the softness of the beef that melts in her mouth and the freshness of the salad that brings her to the mountains.
"Rafael, you were with Kanna after the fashion show, so what happened?" Eugene asked when Jiena grabbed Rafael's hand and rushed outside the canteen together with Kyoko and Bianca.
Rafael was so surprised that he brushed off Jiena's hand, scratching his head and wondered what was going on.
"I forgot to tell you. We are going to the senate because Dad is taking his oath as Senator," said Jiena as the service vehicle was waiting for them to get inside.
"Oh well, let's go," Kyoko told her siblings as they went inside the car and speedily left for the Congressional Hill.
----
The Marino siblings arrived at the Congressional hill and went inside the senate chamber. The Senate President stood behind the rostrum while Karl and Riko sat at the gallery, waiting for the Marino patriarch's name to be called.
"Sorry we're late," Jiena kissed Karl and Riko's cheek, a gesture followed by the rest of the siblings.
"You're just in time," Riko responded, staring at the digital clock of the senate and gazed at the whole chamber. "This building is majestic."
The senate chamber is located at the left side of the newly built Congressional Capitol, it is a seven hundred square meter hall and two stories high; the chamber has a modern look and can fill up one thousand people, in the main chamber, the eighty-one senators sit at individual desks arranged on a tiered semicircular platform facing a raised rostrum. A visitor's gallery overlooks the chamber on four sides.
"At this moment we would like to call Mr. Karl Marino, the Mayor of Sierra de Oro, to the rostrum," the Senate President announced to which the Marino couple obliged.
As they stood in the rostrum, the senate president asked Karl to raise his right hand and take his oath of office with Riko and the children behind him. After taking the oath of office, he shook the hands of the senate president.
"Congratulations" Riko said, kissing her husband's cheeks and followed by their children, Karl responded by flashing a beaming smile at them, a smile of triumph and disappointment. Triumph in the sense that he has lifted himself from being a mayor of a metropolis to become a federal senator.
When the former senator of the Northern Mindanao passed away, the governor was weary of who will he be appointed to the position. Out of the five candidates, Karl Marino's name stood out because of his experience as an informal diplomatic attaché and his experience in working in countries where armed conflicts are prevalent. Though he doesn't want to leave the city he had nurtured through the years, Karl had no choice but to accept the position to balance the power of the executive branch against the legislative department.
Upon going out of the chamber, Karl walked side-by-side with Riko and the children, giving the surroundings an aura of a mafia and pure toughness. As they pass through the hallway, Ben Aquino, the former senate president passed by in front of them.
"Senator Marino, it's good to see you," Senator Aquino greeted Karl when he noticed the lady beside him. "And who might be this pretty lady?"
"She is Riko, my wife," Karl trying to hold his laughter after hearing the word 'pretty lady'.
"It's an honor to meet you Mister Senate President" Riko greeted the Senate President, slightly bowing her head as a sign of respect.
"It's also an honor to meet the wife of a legend," the Senate President shook Riko's hand.
"She came home from Japan just a few months ago, she was an actress and now the president of a talent agency in Tokyo," Karl explained when another group of senators flocked to meet and greet his wife.
"You sure are lucky Senator Marino, you have an exquisite wife," Senator Sereno, Karl trying to hold his laughter again.
"I thought Senator Richard has the beautiful wife in the senate, how could you keep a secret like this Senator Marino," Senator Ocampo remarked.
"Mrs. Marino, you are so lucky that you married someone like Senator Marino" Senator Lopez said, prompting Riko to beam a sarcastic look at her husband who kept on holding his laughter.
"She is, she is lucky, I guess," Karl told the senators before they left for lunch.
Still, at the Senate. The Marinos went out of the building after Karl was sworn in as the new Senator representing his home region. The couple stood in front of the magnificent facade of the building while waiting for their vehicle to fetch them.
"I'm so happy that you'll be staying here in the capital for good," Riko leans her head on Karl's shoulders.
"They didn't couldn't find any qualified candidates except me," Karl was busy looking for an item in his bag.
"We can now be hands-on parents to our children," says Riko, holding Karl's hand.
As they waited for their vehicle, two sedans parked five meters away from the couple, Karl's eagle eyes noticed five men approaching them. Sensing danger and urgency, he took out his pistol, prompting the assailants to open fire at them.
"Get inside!" Karl yelled, exchanging gunshots with the assassins as the Marino siblings scrambled to get inside the building to take cover.
"What should we do?" Riko stood in front of her shaken children. As Karl was rolling his sleeve, Riko was stunned at the same time skeptical about the device that her husband was wearing, she took something from her bag to which Karl was perplexed.
"You bought that Walther with you?" Karl asked.
"Just in case I get pissed off," Riko returned fire at the assassins.
"Get the kids out of here and go to Azalea," Karl instructed as Riko and the kids ran into the fire exit as pandemonium broke out of the senate building.
"Mom, who are those assassins?" Kyoko asked as they continue running at the streets trying to evade the assassins.
"Your father's 'best friends'," Riko and the kids hastily went inside the vehicle and hurriedly went to the Azalea estates, taking shelter at one antechamber of the mansion.
"Are you all right?" Riko sat down at one chair, exhausted and stressed out, glancing at her children who were traumatized by the incident. "All of you shouldn't have witnessed that horrible thing."
Bianca, unable to hold her tears as Kyoko and Jiena embraced her, Rafael stood near the window, trying to get a hold of himself, trying to be as solid as a rock for his siblings.
------
It was seven in the evening when Karl arrived together with a handful of additional security personnel. Rafael was taking a stroll with Bianca in the garden. The Azalea mansion is part of a larger Magnolia estate. The mansion has five rooms with bathrooms, a large pool, three living rooms, two dining area, a large kitchen, a large pool, with an overlooking view of the bay. The security around the mansion was heavy that even a petty thief will be shot in an instant. The siblings returned to the living room where Riko and the kids were drinking tea.
"I - I haven't been here since the former don was alive," Riko remarked, "Her beauty never faded."
"I owned this place, he gave this to me," said Karl, staring at the garden, "You've always wanted this mansion."
"This is where I found out I was pregnant with Rina, the Azaleas were still here," says Riko.
"That's why you named her Azalea Rina," Karl guessed as the garden has a field full of Azaleas.
The mansion was part of a two acre, Pewter estates, the estate was large that it had five houses, the Azalea which is temporarily occupied by Karl and his family, the estate is under the control of both Innovare and the mysterious Penthouse Seven Corporation.
The Marinos were at the living room; the kids were still in a state of trauma, and Riko was wrapping shaken Bianca around her arms, while Karl glanced at the window.
"Why don't you go back to being a warlord?" Jiena asked.
"And for what? To be questioned again by the government?" Karl loaded bullets in his pistol.
"Jiena is right, we should get some escort guards," Riko agreed with her step-daughter
"Just go to sleep, I will think of it tonight," Karl dispersed his wife and children to bed. On that same night, as he stood at the balcony, staring at the moon, Rafael also stood beside his father.
"Dad, I - I thought this conflict has ended," Rafael stuttered.
"I'm being pulled back by demons," Karl replied when he heard noises down the balcony. Suddenly bullet flew towards them, prompting him to shove his son inside the mansion and taking out his sub-machine gun and fired back.
"Go take a shelter!" Karl yelled at his son as he continued to exchange fire at the assassins, holding them off until the police arrive.
The exchange of fire stopped, getting an opportunity, Karl leaped from the balcony and took out his hidden blade and slit the neck of one assassin, he took out his Walther PPK pistol and opened fire at the woods, after which he threw the assassin's lifeless body in the cliff.
The police arrived later and arrested one assassin. The assassin was made to kneel in front of the Marino patriarch.
"Oh.... Ben Boga in the house," Karl grabbing the assassin's head by the hair.
"You know him, senator?" the Chief of Police asked.
"One of North Faction's dreaded hit man," Karl took out his pistol and pointed at Ben Boga's temple, "Now, who ordered you to take a hit on me?"
"You know who ordered me!" Ben Boga replied, trying to let loose of the handcuffs.
"Which Northern Boss?" Karl, striking his pistol at Ben Boga's head "Look, I can release you if you tell me who hired you to kill me and my wife, I'm no longer a ruthless murderer."
As Ben Boga was about to spill the beans, shots rang out, hitting him in the head and causing pandemonium and confusion around the garden. Police started shooting at the deep forest, trying to find an answer on who killed the assassin.
Riko ran and stood behind her husband as the confusion continued to howl the police and Karl's men.
"Whoever did this really knows what he's in to," Karl grinning his teeth in frustration
"Isn't it time to convene your army?" asked the police chief.
"I have already left that world when I said I will change, but the more I go far, the more the try to sniff the hell out me," Karl places his pistol in the Hollister.
"This is already a sign that you must return and wipe them out," Riko suggested.
"You want me to return to being a demon when I have innocent kids in the house?" Karl argued, taking out a flask of whiskey.
"We can send the kids to Tokyo," Riko suggested again, when they noticed that the children were standing near the living room, visibly shaken by the attack.
"Dad, we don't want to go there!" Jiena anxiously exclaimed.
"No one is leaving, you, Rafael, Kyoko and Bianca will stay with me, and the rest will go with your Mom," Karl straightforwardly answered.
"Why me?" Riko asked, visibly surprised by her husband's decision.
"Unless you want me to go there personally," Karl smirked, "You know what I mean."
"I'll go, it would be stressful for a pregnant woman to stay here," Riko volunteered, taking the children into their rooms to put them to sleep while Karl and the rest of the Police force that helped him continued a hunt pursuit operation.
