"Now then, the person on the phone said something about you having one of the soldiers still alive?" Corrado asked, drawing his pistol.
"Where is he?" he asked, not dropping his flippant tone.
"Actually Corrado..." Brown began before he was cut off by the oily mafioso. Meanwhile, the big man had already carried Nico's corpse out of the plane and laid him on the ground surprisingly gently for such a big man. He started digging a grave.
"Brown, come now. You know that if we leave that soldier alive. If you don't have the testicoli to do it then I will." Corrado said. Brown glared at the man and looked at his group to see what they thought.
James frowned. He´d expected something like this. Mobsters had a tendency to use violence as their first and only resort, and Corrado appeared to be no expection."I'm definitely against shooting an unarmed, restrained man, even if they are a thug supporting a fascist regime. And if you are afraid of retribution from the government, I think in the current situation shooting him will do absolutely nothing to prevent that."
"M Mmh" Mei Kang hummed, raising an eyebrow upon seeing the flippant behaviour of the mafioso. So much for the courteous rogue. She gently smiled. I wanted to keep my fangs hidden, but I cannot let a man killed on a whim like this one. We already have our share of looters and marauders in this team.
Her hands gently reached for Corrado's gun arm...at first touching him, and then clamping his wrist, tendons and nerves alike with a steely martial artist grip. If she had done it correctly, Corrado would feel pain and not be able to exert any kind of strength to grip the gun anymore.
"Let us not be that hasty. Surely a fine man like you, mister Corrado, could figure something out to not stain further this house with gunshots and blood." She added, her smile being in absolute dissonance with how much force she was exerting.
"Look, it is not a matter of -GAGARARR!" screamed Corrado as he was cut off by Mei's martial arts grip.
"Brown! Tell this whore to release me or I'll..." Corrado began but was then put off by Brown's calm smile.
"Or you'll what? Not help us, Corrado? I don't think that's very likely considering what you and your boss owe me. Why don't you head over to the car and calm down for a bit." Brown advised. Corrado grunted and stormed over to the vehicle.
"They're difficult people to work with but I guarantee they'll have our back should fighting go down. They owe me that at least. Now that Corrado's out of earshot, what should we do about the soldier upstairs?" Brown asked his loyal group.
"The most pragmatic option would be kill him. We could keep him prisoner, but that would be a significant burden and one I don't think our mob allies will approve of. We could also release him, but God only knows what he'll be able to report to his bosses. I say we kill him.", Spades told his companions in a dissonantly nonchalant manner.
edited 23rd Feb '15 1:28:06 PM by deadpool616
"What the hell is up with you and murdering people?" James was getting increasingly disturbed by Jack. He seemed to be far too nonchalant about the use of violence. After a moment's pause, James continued. " As for our "guest", I say we leave him be. He doesn't know what we are planning and he's tied up and out of our way. If we take care of the phone, he won't have much else choice but to hoof it to Assisi if he wants to warn them. And that is assuming he actually gets free. And Assisi was 40 minutes away by car, right?"
edited 23rd Feb '15 1:11:48 PM by Brassmoon
Brown mulled over what each member of his group told him.
"Giving him as a gift would be like giving a balloon to a porcupine. I'll do it if you all really want to but..."
"No need Mister Brown! I can see your point. He is yours to do with as you want. My apologies for my insolence." said Corrado suddenly after he had snuck back up from the car with a wide grin on his face.
"Are we ready to go?" the mafioso asked the group.
Mei Kang scoffed. "Must you be all kill happy all the time?" The doctor muttered. "Why reap one more life for what he might have known, when you can use him to fool the enemy with false leads? Or, if you don't esteem it to make a worthwhile distraction there are ways like mind-addling poisons or breaking both his hands and mouth to ensure it does not talk."
She paused. "But I suppose that's beyond your ability to think, shovelhead." The woman smirked. "I say we let him escape. He'll tell the rest of the fascists our great plan to infiltrate Naples." She winked at Doctor Brown.
"And how do you suppose we do that? Should he get the lucky break of hearing the english speakers inexplicably switch to italian to discuss their plans? Perhaps the highly skilled and experienced Mississippi Brown should make the amuetur mistake of leaving behind a sensitive document about his plans that the blackshirt hopefully will find and hopefully understand to be a sensitive document." Spades was becoming annoyed with Mouse.
edited 26th Feb '15 5:42:47 PM by deadpool616
"He's a peon. A minion. A thug. Surely he doesn't think things very through, or else he would not be mere hired muscle for the fascist regime, Shovelhead." Mei Kang answered back, rolling her eyes. Just like you. She added mentally. "We could let Corrado do it. After all, it wouldn't be too weird to lose his wits upon the sight of a Blackshirt and blurt Naples as accident."
edited 27th Feb '15 1:05:55 AM by AtomicNut
"This plan is sure to work. I'm sure when this man was recruited, given a gun, and told to go enforce the law, the Italian government was looking for those key job skills of idiocy and the inability to make good judgement. Even if your plan, which hinges on the assumption that a person you don't know is an idiot, works and he does report this to his superiors, what happens when they ask 'How do you know this?' and aren't stupid enough to fall for this painfully obvious trick."
edited 27th Feb '15 5:10:36 AM by deadpool616
Mei Kang sighed. "You really want to kill someone don't you, Shovelhead? These guys have the markings of fanatics. And fanatics aren't very good at the whole judgement thing. These people aren't cops. That is why they won't question much, and instead jump to a chance to earn brownie points or redeem theirselves."
She put a hand on her hip. "But if you think killing is the only solution, go ahead. Stain your hands, bask in their blood. An eye for an eye. But don't complain when people gives you the cold shoulder. We're treasure hunters. Not assasins." And as if on cue, the doctor gave her back to the annoying college man, positioning herself next to James.
edited 27th Feb '15 5:07:06 AM by AtomicNut
For the first time that day, Spades stopped smiling. "I don't want to kill him. I don't want to kill our unarmed, defenseless prisoner, but the fact is that we can't risk him telling his superiors any information. In a perfect world, we could use him to deceive the Italians or keep him prisoner, but we can't afford the risk or burden and if you're afraid to get your hands dirty, then you are in the wrong line of work."
Spades took his sidearm out and looked to the rest of the group. "Does anyone else have a problem with what I'm about to do? I won't if the group votes not to, but it's our best option, even if it's not a good one."
"As I told you, you needn't to kill him to prevent him from talking at all. Merely breaking his jaw and both hands will achieve the same, and by the time he recovers, we will be back in America. But oh, you were so busy defending your male ego you didn't even notice I had suggested that too, Shovelhead. So stop talking about killing being the best option. Save your ammo for the real trouble." Mei Kang spat once, tired of Spades posturing.
edited 27th Feb '15 5:41:35 AM by AtomicNut
"Enough you two!" Brown chided the two arguing, giving each a dirty look.
"Since we can't arrive at a conclusion, I'll compromise. I'll make sure the soldier can't tell anyone anything but I won't kill him." Mississippi explained. He turned to Corrado.
"Would your don be willing to keep this soldier prisoner for a week or so? Just enough for us to find what we need to find in Italy before we get out of here." Brown asked the mafioso. Corrado gave a small wince but quickly turned it into an oily smile. Meanwhile, the bigger of the mafiosos had just about finished burying all of the bodies. If one looked, they would see that he had placed a makeshift cross made of two sticks on Mr. Lucas' grave.
"I'm sure he would be more than willing, Mr. Brown" Corrado said, somewhat reluctantly.
"Now, is this option okay with everyone?" Brown asked the group.
"I'm okay with that. They'll probably realize that the blackshirts are not reporting sooner or later, but a missing grunt will probably cause some confusion when they do start searching for them."
James had stayed at the sidelines when the argument between Mei and Spades had erupted, especially once Spades started waving his pistol around. He glanced at Spades. James realized that lot of the apparent nonchalance was a front. He'd seen similar things back home. There were plenty of guys that pretended to be a lot tougher and vicious than they were. They usually ended up in an early grave. He certainly hoped Spades would wise up soon.
When the timeskip happened, I posted what James did during the skip in the discussion thread. I never did hear back about that.
edited 27th Feb '15 2:31:51 PM by Brassmoon
With the issue of what to do about the soldier decided and all the graves dug, Corrado and his big friend (whose name was Vito incidentally) loaded up their car and helped the group prepare the Blackshirt's truck. Vito added a gag in addition to the soldier's bonds and loaded him into the Mafia's car at Corrado's insistence. This caused Brown to insist that he accompany Corrado in their car to ensure any "accidents" didn't occur. Vito sat in the passenger seat of the Blackshirt truck in one of the Blackshirt's uniforms. It was up to the group to decide who went in what vehicle and who wanted to drive the truck.
However they decided to go, Corrado's car would lead them to Assisi without incident.
For all of forty five minutes until a Blackshirt patrol car pulled over behind them from a clearing. The driver leaned out the window and motioned for the group to pull over.
Corrado's Car
"Damn it Corrado! I thought you said nothing would happen!" Brown complained to the mafioso, drawing his gun. Corrado, however, kept up his cool.
"Not to worry signor. The don has some of these patrol cars paid off. If these guys aren't bribed, we can lie our way out of here. We'll be fine." Corrado said reassuringly but he cast a worried glance to the tied up Blackshirt in the back of the car.
Italian Truck
Vito just grunted at the truck but did not make a move.

Kitchen - Past?
Pierre used the phone.
Kitchen
Remembering Brown's advice, Pierre said nothing. Instead, he smiled and shrugged at the Italians.
edited 16th Feb '15 1:50:19 PM by nman