Chapter:30 Planning

Day Two of the ceasefire dawned with an air of uneasy calm over Roanapur as the Vorovich Cartel's forces withdrew and subsequently, the Italians pulled back as well. The subsequent restoration of order in both their territory had caused a pile of bodies to gather in all the workshops of Roanapur's professional cleaners.

The killing reached such a high number that the police had to butt in and arrest all the remaining roaches for the two factions. By dawn, the streets were back under their control.

Anastasia, however, wasn't one to rely on fragile peace, she stood in her dimly lit office, newly established on the topmost floor of Dorm One. She surveyed the map hanging on the office wall, and on it were pins and stickers that marked all the territories, key locations, routes, and the major operations of all the 'businesses' in the city.

Her gaze kept on returning to an anchor sticker stuck to one particular corner on the south side of the city which symbolized the ship, laden with a combination of explosives and narcotics, along with fifty top-quality products.

She was not alone in the room, beside her were the newly recruited members of the family sitting or standing around the place. Natalya was standing next to the window, Mikhail was sitting on the sofa, Diego was smoking, and Ming was sitting on a stool next to a rack full of records and books.

Amina entered the room, now clad in fresh clothes. She was also wearing a double-shoulder pistol holster, for two IWI Jericho 941s. The first one she was summoned with, the second was found in the arsenal, mixed with the 1911s.

Anastasia nodded at them before announcing,

"I have a good reason to believe the Italians have a shipment of narcotics and explosives on board the ship Mari Profondi, that's due to leave the harbor within the next few days."

She pointed at a small stack of papers,

"Thanks to Amina,"

A nod towards the woman in question,

"We know that they are transporting 100kg of low-grade C4s, discarded goods from the military, and nearly 300kg of cocaine purchased from the Triad. This extra stuff is being loaded in with fifty women who are the Italian's ticket to a promotion in the Trafficking Ring."

Amina flashed a small smirk towards Anastasia before taking a seat in the office, her eyes glancing toward the map hanging on the wall before returning to Anastasia's face.

"So, what's the plan, Boss?"

Her tone was matter-of-fact, with a slight tinge of excitement mixed within. She was genuinely curious to hear what plan Anastasia had in mind for this operation, which had quickly become a personal mission to her after being the one to gather all the info about the contents of this ship.

Diego raised an eyebrow and blew out the smoke from the cigarette he was smoking.

"So the ship has C4 and cocaine on it, with fifty trafficking victims being transported at the same time? Sounds like a goldmine to me."

Diego took one more puff from his cigarette as he spoke, his tone sounding more interested in the action rather than money.

"Seems like it's too good of an opportunity to miss out on, Boss. If the ship's leaving in a few days, we can't lose time."

A smile suddenly crossed Anastasia's face as she took a few moments to think about the plan she had in mind for the operation.

"Well, it's simple. The Italians' ship is carrying everything we need and want, so a simple pirate-style boarding of the Mari Profondi and its subsequent looting and sinking will do just fine."

Taking a few moments to think about how exactly she wanted to execute her plan, Anastasia's face shifted back into a more neutral expression.

"We're gonna need as many men as we can get for this."

She turned to Mikhail,

"What about your comrades from the Soviet Army?"

He chuckled before looking at his watch,

"The thirty we convinced yesterday are already on board a ship making its way to Koh Kood. They should be... arrive in less than 45 hours."

Natalya chimed in,

"And we managed to contract the rest of our former company and some comrades. Mikhail convinced about One hundred and thirty-six former VDVs and another thirty-four from the Spetsnaz to join your crew. But they need a couple of weeks to shake off the rust on their skills."

"Perfect. Let's get the first batch of soldiers ready and used to this city, then we will think about shipping back the rest of them."

Anastasia nodded once more, her expression shifting to that of one of satisfaction.

"I'd say that we're close to having everything we need to carry out this op. The only thing left now is to find some men to do the dirty work."

Anastasia looked around the room once again as she spoke, her eyes landing on Ming.

"If we're gonna be looting a whole ship full of cocaine, I say we also make use of your skills in getting that product back here."

The Chinese nodded his head before asking,

"What about your boats? What do you have?"

Anastasia thought back to the few ships the Vorovich had acquired in Roanapur,

"We have about 6 PBR Mark IIs, unarmed, we bought them from an arms dealer. It was a sweet deal and we made sure all of them were operational, they'll do just fine for this operation,"

Anastasia said as she thought about the issue, her expression shifting back to one of satisfaction as her thoughts started to form a plan.

"With our available resources, the Mari Profondi should be ours with little issue. We need to focus our efforts on the aftermaths."

As she spoke, Anastasia's gaze shifted towards the map on the wall, studying it carefully for a few moments.

"The explosives. The cocaine. The women."

She repeated the list while lighting a cigarette,

"Those are all products. Valuable product for the market of Roanapur."

Another drag later,

"But the problem is the women. We can't sell them, at least not without starting a war with the Triad and most of them are bloody Americans." 

She stopped speaking and the rest of the occupants in the room also started to think,

"Well, we could also go to Thailand and sell the women over there...or we can use them for the brothel, they don't gotta be working the streets."

Amina spoke up after listening to Anastasia thinking quietly for a few moments, her tone sounding slightly irritated at the way Anastasia was thinking about the human cargo.

"But what if they're not willing to work for us?"

Natalya asked from her place next to the window.

"There's no choice then. Those women will have to be... disposed of."

Without missing a beat, Diego spoke up the answer to the questions that Natalya raised for them.

Anastasia shook her head,

"Nah, those are Americans. Pretty sure that if we kill them, the CIA would be so far up our asses... you don't want to know how far up."

"Ah yeah, forgot how pissy that lot can be."

Diego's tone had a sarcastic and mocking tone to it as he spoke, while Amina shook her head in agreement with Anastasia.

"Well then, so if we can't sell them and we can't kill them, what are we supposed to do with them, huh?"

Amina shrugged her shoulders as she asked this question as if she didn't know the answer herself.

"We can't just set them free, that's for sure."

Anastasia groaned,

The office was quiet for several minutes before she spoke up,

"Alright, alright, I may have an idea. Why don't we just contact the CIA first? We can return most of the women in exchange for connections there. As for the rest of them, I don't think the CIA would be interested in them and we can use them as...workers for us, instead of selling them? They'd be pretty good and cheap options, especially to work as strippers or prostitutes..."

Diego nodded along with her, 

"Hmmm, that's not a bad idea, actually...the CIA might be willing to work with us if we give them back their women. As for the ones they don't want...we can get them to work for us as prostitutes."

But he was soon interrupted by someone, it was Mikhail. He hadn't spoken for quite some time,

"Let's decide how to deal with the cargo after we acquire it. For now, let's discuss the aftermath of the attack."

Anastasia agreed with him as he continued, 

"Once we take out their shipment, the Italians are bound to raise a ruckus once they lose their cargo ship. And without proof that we don't have their goods, they'll probably assume that we stole it, which will result in some nasty situations for us if we aren't careful..."

Diego nodded in agreement with Mikhail, while Amina's expression was one of exasperation and annoyance,

"The Italians are going to raise hell over this, the moment they figure out it was us that took their goods. Well... they will hate you more than ever and even our relationship with the Triad would worsen."

Suddenly, Mikhail spoke up,

"Why don't we just tell them to go suck a cock, we ain't their little lapdogs. Let's see them try to do something about it. They've been walking all over the place for years, so I say it's about time we give these 'big time' gangsters the finger for once."

For once everyone agreed with his proposal, even the Chinese.

"Well, now that's dealt with."

Just as Anastasia was about to round it up, Mikhail spoke up again,

"Wait, that mysterious arms dealer you were talking about."

She stopped,

"Well, what about him? What do you wanna know?"

Mikhail simply shrugged his shoulders and spoke up in a hesitant voice,

"It's your armory... well... it's not really up to standards for our new team so I was wondering if we can get some stuff from him."

Anastasia had a thoughtful look on her face, she thought about it for a while before answering,

"Hmm, sure. What do ya need?"