The Empire's Descent (First Draft)

Chapter 63: Vecchi Amici

LUCA'S POV

"So, what's the big idea with you calling us here, Giordano?", Carisi broke the silence and took a drag of his cigar.

We were sat in a red room with strippers hanging off other strippers who were hanging on poles on a stage far from us. A deadlocked game of Tempt Fate sat before us at the round table.

"I have things to tell you," I peered at the Cube of Chance and hoped it gave me a peripeteia card for the major, risky play I am about to make to sweep the board.

The Cube balanced and revealed a Charge card, greenlighting my storm of Carisi's Castle of Cards and Marco's Fortress of Fortitude, half of the Ancient realm strongholds, and major suppliers of Jin to my Kingdom of Knowbles.

"What the h-e-two-sticks am I seeing right now?!", Vittorio exclaimed.

"What the fuck?", I looked at him weird.

"Fucking curse, the fuck?", Carisi agreed.

"Do what you want... but that was weird," Marco inserted.

"I have toddler sextuplets that repeat everything, okay?!", Vittorio defended indignantly.

"Do you see them here?", I asked Marco and he and Carisi looked beneath the table and under their feet.

"No/Nope," they chirped after a thorough search.

"Ha. Ha.", he deadpanned as we laughed at him.

"Alright, alright, I need to fuckin' know what's going down, man," Carisi sobered.

I pulled the customized cigar from my suit's breastpocket and devilgorgon lighter. Tilting the circumcized tip of the cigar downward, I lit it and the blue flame meeting happy crystal tear, officially named, Halonite, released a thick, refreshing ice-blue smoke.

Vittorio gasped, drew out two atomized gas masks from his suit's breastpocket and placed one on his face before placing one on Carisi. Meanwhile, Marco took deep breaths of the Halonite smoke with ease.

"So, we all knew aliens existed," I prefaced my reveal with classified information we all already knew.

"Duh, the Family has had that info from '51," Carisi interjected.

"Well, what the Family kept was the knowledge of Vampires from everyone under the Caporegime," I paused for reactions.

"Fucking hell! What are you on, Chicago!", Carisi disrespectfully calls me by my Boot Camp derogatory name. I felt my eye twitch, but I let it go.

"I'm saying, the hegemonic class of our organization withheld key information about the world you live in," I reworded.

"Okay, you know what, screw you! You're fuckin' one of them if that shit is true. Stop jerkin' me around and give it to me straight, man. Why the fuck is the man responsible for Mediatóre's capture meeting Mediatóre for a friendly board game in the Elysian coastal city, Bondisi?", he inquired forcefully.

I looked away from the Cube of Chance as the screen said: "Fortis Cadere, Cedere Non Potest!", "The Brave May Fall, But Never Yield". I have to try, and try something incredible.

"I'm telling you the only truth you've probably ever heard from me," I looked him dead in the eyes. His eyes were equally intense even if his expression was hidden behind a mask.

"Okay, let's say we believe you, tell us everything," Vittorio cut in, a red dot lit up on his mask as he spoke. He slowly took a seat at the table and turned to Carisi, gesturing for him to be seated.

"I swear, if you screw me like last time, I'll fuckin' take you to the hell you think you crept from!", Carisi seethed, a similar red dot lit up on his mask as he spoke.