I walk up to the podium and I adjust my tie.

To the left of me was a hole, this hole had a casket in it, the casket was beige in color and was made out of wood. This casket was where Michaelangelo would rest until the end of time.

All the mobsters came dressed in black suits and black hats, each mobster held flowers, flowers ready to put inside the grave on top of the casket after everyone has finished with their speeches.

Every mobster from the Angelo family headquarters came in attendance, even the boss, Flavio came with his wife and twelve-year-old daughter.

I was the first person to make my speech and also the person to start off the ceremony.

“Hi, my name is Antonio Alvichi as all of you might know already, today I am here to honer my dear friend Michaelangelo, who had been shot and killed by goons of the Bambino family.”

After saying that phrase the mobsters were surely riled up, they just weren’t going crazy with the “death to the bambino’s” in respect of Michaelangelo.

“He was my childhood friend, someone I share deep memories with ever since I was born, he was a great man as well as a great friend, he always gawked at women but that was him, and I never judged him for it. Before he died he told me how he planned out his life, he said that he’d live long with multiple wives but in the end, it never happened. I swear Michaelangelo I will inflict justice in those people that have killed you, and everyone will aid me in doing so. Thank you, everyone.”

Throughout the whole, I used every muscle in my body to stop the tears from leaking out of my eyes.

For the next, maybe thirty minutes or so multiple people went up including Francesco and Luca, after all the speeches the mobsters put their flowers on top of the casket. Two of the mobsters picked up shovels and started to shovel the dirt on top of the casket until the hole was completely filled with dirt.

Now everyone knew what was going to happen next, it was time to get my……...no out revenge, this isn’t just my loss but everyone’s, a loss of a member of the family means everyone has lost something.

It was now time to plan our attack.

We were back at the mansion, we were inside a room which consisted of me, Flavio, Luca, and a couple of other old guys in the family. We at the moment we’re inside the planning room where the higher-ups of the family plan out invasions and hits to other warring families.

Usually, it’d be only the higher-ups of the family but since Michaelangelo was close to me and Francesco, Flavio gave us the pass allowing us to be present in the plan.

The planning room had a map of the city on the wall and a miniature model of the city on the round table which was surrounded with chairs.

Even though the family paid off the military to not draft me into the war, I felt as if I was in the war planning with a general due to how this room looked. This room looked more like it belonged in a military camp on enemy territory, not in an expensive mansion belonging to a crime family.

“So let us begin gentlemen.”

Flavio broke the silence and now the air had a hint of seriousness.

Flavio picked up a long stick that leaned on a bookshelf next to the map. He then hit a specific area of the map with the long wooden stick.

“We will capture this factory owned by the bambino’s, it’s between two areas that we own and if we do capture it, it’ll be a significant blow to the Bambino’s, as well as the significant gain we will get from capturing it.”

I saw the older men present in the room stroke their beards, mustaches, and for those who didn’t have any kind of facial hair stroked their chins.

“Any objections? My fellow family members?”

No one disagreed with the boss Flavio's plan. It was indeed a good plan, since the factory was between the Angelo family territory, requesting for reinforcements would be easy, and they’d arrive in no time. Choosing to take a factory would also be a good move, but there’s one thing bugging me.

I raise my hand as I brainstorm what was it that bugged me. All the older higher-ups stared at me and I wouldn’t blame them. When someone raises their hand to add something to a, what sounds like a soundproof plan would turn heads.

“Yes……... Antonio?”

Once Boss Flavio called On me I finally figured out what bugged me.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy capturing the factory.”

“Yes, of course, there are gonna be defenses but nothing that we can’t take care of.” Responded Flavio.

“There will be defenses but what kind of defenses? A factory that is between the enemy would obviously be fortified to hell, wouldn’t it? If it wasn’t then the Bambino’s have probably deemed the factory to be worthless so it might actually not benefit us at all.”

Then another man interjected.

“So what are you suggesting we do? Young boy!”

“I’m saying that we should see what’s actually in the factory! We can’t just run in blindly expecting to have an easy win, the location and the type of building lead up to these two outcomes! But we’ll never know unless we take a look.”

“That is a logical explanation.” Said another higher up.

Then the same old man that questioned me spoke up again.

“Scouting will be a risky job, if you think we can’t just take it out of their pockets then why don’t you and your friends do the scouting yourselves!”

The old man’s veins popped out revealing themselves from his tan skin, the old man breathed in and out heavily as he pulled out a chair and sat down. Once seated he said: “I’m sorry boss, I got a little out of control because of this BRAT!”

“Well then—Flavio said as he sighed—will you take on the offer Antonio?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Alright then, you have an hour to gather up a scouting squad, be back here at six pm.”

“Yes, sir!”

“You are all dismissed.”

Once Flavio dismissed the room, everyone left the planning room.

And once again as we opened the double doors we were greeted with a bunch of riled up nosey mobsters all eager to try and get picked for the scouting job. Well, I'm only going to pick the best of the best, and of course, Francesco and Luca will be on the team whether they like it or not. Looking at their faces it seems like they’ve already come into terms with being in the squad.

Now then time to survey some people.

“Hey, guys can I get three lines!”

And then I got close to Luco and Francesco and told them that they were going to help me find the best of the best, they agreed since three straight lines already formed before the two of them could ditch me.

And so we spent the hour interviewing the people present outside the mansion. There were many intriguing people here, some of the older men fought in the First World War, some of the people here have great grandpas that fought for the continental army during the revolutionary war, others had grandpas who fought in the union during the revolutionary war, and some people even had blood relations to knights of the Middle Ages.

Some guys were calm, others were loud and courageous. And in the end, it was difficult to choose who would be in the scouting squad. This scouting squad had to be kept short, a large number of people would be immobile and getting in and out safely and quickly would be difficult. But then a couple of guys came up, they looked to be in their mid-thirties with scars all over their faces and arms, and so I followed the same procedure I followed for other people.

“So why do you think you guys are up for the job?”

“We know our way inside the factory, we used to work there when we were young and when before it was taken by the Bambinos. If we're going inside to see what kind of forces the Bambinos put there knowing the place inside out and knowing secret places we can enter without being found out would be very helpful.”

That is true, in order to find out what's inside the factory we have to get in without being spotted, these guys would really help in that.

I signal Francesco and Luca closer to me to discuss what we were going to do with these guys.

“I think we should take them.” Luca whispered.

“Yeah, I think so too.” Agreed Francesco.

“Well, then it's settled! You guys will be apart of our scouting squad!”

There were only five guys so the squad was still mobile and to top it all off know we know knew the ins and outs of the whole factory which will prove to be a great asset.

“Hey, Luca what time is it?”

He raised his arm close to his eyes and said.

“About one-thirty.”

Since it was one-thirty it meant we had five hours and thirty more minutes to scout inside the factory and report back to Flavio. Well, there shouldn't be any problems once we get there since we have people who know the layout, well hopefully nothing happens but random things happen in this world so if anything happens out of nowhere I won't be surprised.

“Alright men, we're heading out!”

The scouting squad had a total of eight members, so we needed two four-man vehicles. I, Luca and Francesco got in the same car as well as one of the five middle-aged men in the squad.

“We should park somewhere near the back of the factory, since behind the factory are apartment buildings. There should be a door and the door will most likely be guarded by maybe one or two people since they would be guarding outside in an alleyway. Take out the one or two guards outside and get in through the door which doesn't have a lock. When we passed that door it leads to a corridor with a bunch of offices, in that corridor if you look above there should be a vent, we will steal a chair and everyone will get inside the vent, the vent should be large enough for everyone even for Luca. When we are in the vents there are certain points where the bottom of the vet will have a grate where we can observe what's happening inside the factory from above, It should be too dark and too high up for people to notice us so we should be able to spy on them without being caught.”

The middle-aged man gave a large explanation about how we were going to do this, I made sure to remember the most important bits like where to park and about the vent, and before I knew it, we were in the area of the factory so around thirty minutes must have passed giving us about four hours to do this.

I parked on the side of the street next to the sidewalk and in front of the alleyway Like the old man predicted there was someone guarding the back door but he didn't seem to care that we parked near. The guard had his Tommy gun on the floor leaning on the factory as he was just relaxing having a smoke.

We all got out of the car at about the same time, I went behind the car and opened the trunk, what we brought with us were a rope, some tape, and cloth rags.

I look at Luca and I tilt my head towards the smoking guard. He got the message and walked into the alleyway. I took the rope, tape, and cloth rags and walked into the alleyway where the guard was lying on the floor unconscious. I stuffed the rags in his mouth and taped it shut. Then I tied some rope around his wrists and his ankles. Not a lot of people drive on this street and it should be dark enough to where it should be difficult to spot the guard out, no sunlight came through as the tall factory building and apartment buildings blocked sunlight from hitting the alleyway.

And just as the middle-aged man said the door had no lock, just a doorknob.

Phase one complete now we moved onto phase two of the plan, getting into the vents.