WEAKNESS

"ARGHHH!!!"

A year. A whole year it took me, to deadlift a hundred kilos of weights. Compared to those gods in the gym, a hundred kilos may not look much. To a seven year old, I felt like I just lifted the world.

Training my strength was not all I've been doing this past year. I learn everything about the underground network. Studied every loopholes the government utilized to legalize their web of crimes. Familiarize myself with the distribution and the network of crimes. I gotta say, I am thankful that God made me a child again. My brain is indeed a sponge, soaking up knowledge in an instant.

As for me, I buffed myself up. Not just physically too. I know who am I. What kind of a person I am. I had shed all of that. The weak, frail, absent minded kid that I am had to go. I had to be cool headed, calm, quickwitted. I had to be cunning, cruel, slick. I had to be the bad guy. The bad guy that chose to do good things. Occasionally.

But first, I need to cool my body in my swimming spot.

"Yo Sammy. You swolled up!" I met with the guys just got back from their deliveries.

"I thought you went with Ricky? Did he stayed in town?"

"Oh no. We met with Uncle Lawyer on the way. Ricky wanted to ride with him. Maybe he wanted to test drive his car."

"Ricky? The Jimny? He 's too big for that car."

"Hahaha yeah I know. Who knows. Maybe he wanted to confirm the size or something."

"Hehe alright. If Ricky ask, I'm on the hill alright."

"Okay boss Sammy."

Because my body was already heated up from the workouts, the usually chilly water felt ice cold to the touch. I submerged my entire body in the water, held my breath for a while, letting my body temperature acclimatized themselves to the water. I came to the surface six minutes later, and took my usual spots between the right angled rocks.

My gaze, as per usual, was on the horizon. The sky was its usual beautiful blue, with blobs of clouds scattered all over the canvas, providing shade for my eyes, and the Earth. It was a soothing view. My chaotic mind took a rest, and for a while I felt the bliss of silence in my head.

If only it stayed that way. Just for a bit.

It didn't. Chaos returned in my head a few minutes later.

You made things worse

quiet.

Your dad's dead, because of you. Again!

Quiet!

Your mom left, because you don't made enough money!

Shut up!

Ricky, Arthur, everyone will die, because you are weak!

SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!

"ARGHHHHH!!!"

"Yo, chill. I'm too young for a heart attack."

I looked to my left. Arthur and Ricky was there. Ricky had a concerned look. Arthur just gave me his usual sarcastic smirk. "Cehh, you're almost 50. It's due."

"Whoa, hurtful. I'm only 43."

"Are you okay, Sammy?" Ricky asked me, clearly worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just...tired from the weights I guess."

"Oh, okay then. You should, I don't know, rest day or something."

"I will Ricky. I planned to. Thanks anyway."

"Okay buddy. You'd tell me if anything's wrong, right?"

"Of course Ricky."

"Please stop this brotherly love, or I'm gonna puke." Arthur said. "On that note, you got anything to eat?"

"Of course," I pointed to the farm, "The entire land is edible. Go ahead, take your pick."

"Cehh, you should be preparing these for me. I'm the guest you know."

"Yeah, yeah. Geez, should go to Rose if you wanted to order."

"Why should I? I could eat for free here. Now, get out of that water and get me something to eat."

Ricky laughed at me and Arthur's banter. "I'll cook you something, come on." Ricky turned to me. "You wanted anything, Sammy?"

"Steak. Lots of it."

###

I don't know what it is exactly. Maybe it's because of the intense workout. Maybe I'm just hungry. But Ricky's french dip REALLY hit the spot. Maybe Rose taught him to cook or something.

I gotta say, I was initially disappointed. I wanted steak. Ricky said I ate steak so many times already, so he said he'll fix me something. I thought a sandwich ain't gonna cut it. I was wrong. I may have finished the whole pot.

"So, why do you call me to come here?" Arthur said, munching on the last bit of coleslaw on his plate.

"We're gonna stop the government's plan of building the Villainland."

Villainland is what we called the casino project they wanted to build on the farm. It got other name, but we called it that to make things easier.

I stated it so matter-of-factly that both were too shocked to even say anything. For a few seconds.

"Y-you gonna fight the government?" Ricky said, while still in shock.

"Yes I am. The government, the mayor, even my mom if I have to."

"But that's crazy." He turned to Arthur. "Tell him, man. Tell him how crazy it is."

Arthur took out three cans of Coke in the fridge. He gave each of us one, then popped it open and took a sip. Then, he turned to me, and blankly said, "It's crazy."

"Seriously? That's all you're gonna say? The plan's nuts. You can't even charge the mayor for his crimes. How you're gonna stop the government, huh?"

"I dunno. And I know it's crazy. But the kid's been down there for a year. He must've had something good. Otherwise he wouldn't call me."

Ricky turned to me and said nothing. His look, however, demanded further explanation.

"Yeah okay, I will explain. Listen to what I have to say first, then make your own judgement, okay?"

"Okay. So start talking."

"Not now Ricky. Let's finish up our meals, clean up, then we'll go downstairs so I could properly show you everything. Okay?"

"Fine. Then eat up quickly. Gosh, you eat a lot."

"Geez, okay grandma."

###

"Dude, what's that smell?"

"It's a basement Ricky. It's gonna smell like that."

"No dude, this…is more potent. This is a year's worth of sweat, man."

I relented, because it did smell bad. Working out in the basement, you need good ventilation. This one did not have that. I opted for the next best thing. Fragrance disinfectant spray. I sprayed the entire room with it.

"There. Better?"

"It's not worse, for now."

"Just go and sit down in front of the boards."

Arthur and Ricky scanned the boards filled with cut up articles, pictures, and pins and red yarns connecting the dots. It was funny seeing them getting more confused the more the tried to understand the board.

"Sit down you overgrown adults, and I'll explain everything, okay?"

I can hear the disgruntled noises as they say on the couch in front of the board.

"So," Ricky said, "start talking."

"Uuu, someone's a little feisty."

Ricky threw a small pillow at me. "Okay, okay. I'll explain now. Geez."

"So, let's begin with this one. " I dragged the board titled 'Villainland' to the centre.

"Villainland can be viewed from two perspective. The criminal organization point of view, and the government point of view."

I flipped the board.

"From the criminal point of view, they needed a secure place of...commerce. A safe place to buy and sell, a financial institution that are ready to clean their ill gotten gains, even a place to lay low if the heat got too high."

"That's what Villainland is?" Ricky asked.

"Yes, as Arthur's friend insinuated, Villainland will be their safe haven. They can easily moved their goods to and from the country, they can shop for guns and equipments as they please, their men can be moved at a moment's notice. They won't need to hide their money in the ground like Escobar tried to do. They can just put it in the bank like any other businesses. Nobody can investigate because the investigators will be on their side, namely the government. For a peace of the action of course."

"Hmmm, yeah. I can see that." Arthur nodded. "Basically, they wanted to build a Vatican City for evil dudes."

"Precisely. They'd have their own shadow government, i.e. the mayor. They'd have their own officials mediating any issues. A gated community full of people nobody wanted as their neighbours."

Ricky was about to raise his right hand to ask something, but remembered that he was not in school so he stopped. "But, what about on the government's side. Did they really build this Villainland just for the money?"

I turned to Arthur, since he's the one who discovered it. "Well, Arthur?"

Arthur smiled. "Money is a good enough motive, but not this time. The government is aiming for something bigger."

"What is it?" I can see Ricky was too excited to know. It was so funny to watch. I would be too. In fact I was when I first heard it from Arthur.

Arthur began with a question. "Okay, first, do you know about why the Italian mob existed?"

"I don't know. Money?"

"Oh no. The mob is not that crass. The mob, was first established, to protect the community from the tyranny of the government. With the mob controlling from behind the scene, the government will be powerless to act. They won't dare steal the people's money, because the mob is keeping a close watch on the fund. The mob ensures that the government is actually doing their job, and not steal the money. The mob control the people, and resulted in the mob controlling the government."

"Wow, I never thought of it like that. Okay, that's cool. And what about it?"

"Well. Supposed that another organization, a third party, took control of the mob. What happened then?"

Ricky looked at me for answer. I just nodded. I didn't know what to say actually, I just nodded. I knew the answer to Arthur's question, I just didn't know what to say to Ricky. I just nodded, encouraging Ricky to answer.

"They'd...control the government?"

"Very good. Yes, they would control the government of that particular area." Ricky beamed with pure delight upon Arthur's acknowledging his answer, even I'm touched.

"Thus we came to the subject at hand. Our government. Our government wanted to be that third party. Let's take the yakuza for example. If the government can get a hold of an agreeable yakuza. Supported them, placed them to be an integral part of the community. What do you think will happen?"

"They'd...control the government?" Ricky repeated his answer.

"Hehe, not quite yet. The yakuza will be trusted by the people. The people would rally behind the yakuza. The government, upon seeing the influence of that faction of the yakuza, would want to curry favour to the yakuza for things such as votes and businesses. Which will in turn lead them to own the entire nation. And since our government is the one in control well, they got an entire nation."

Ricky turned to me. "And you wanted to fight against that?"

"Hahaha." I laughed at that. It was a serious question, but I don't know. Something about the question and the serious atmosphere, just tickle my bone.

"Stop laughing man. This is serious. You could get hurt."

"Fine, fine. I will tell you my plan of action. And I'm not planning to fight the government. I'm attacking a key point of Villainland."

"What?" Ricky asked. Even Arthur leaned in.

"The products."

"Products? You mean the drugs? You wanted to destroy the drugs?"

"No, no. not destroy them. Legalized them."

"What?" Both Ricky and Arthur said at the same time. I could not help but smile as I explained what I intended to do.