Plan of Attack

The assassin move forward down the street, walking at a steady pace as he didn't bother paying attention to any of his surroundings. He wasn't afraid of anyone jumping him. Firstly, he was in Mammon territory and Simon would have told his boys not to attack his newest recruit. Secondly, if anyone was stupid enough to try they'd soon face someone with years of military experience combined with a body that had been designed to kill and assassinate his enemies. There was a reason that he was known among the underworld.

They called him: Hissori.

Hissori moved in to the lone building, making his way past the guards as they saw his face and knew that he had been summoned by Simon to meet the boss personally. IT was the middle of the night but Simon had been fuming when Hissori received his phone call. Hissori had heard about the attack on Typhon. It had been widely successful overall, but Hissori had already heard the reports about how Corry and his forces were driven back by Charon and the Crimson Scar. Simon was likely growing impatient with all of this, and Hissori had a feeling that the boss was still going to be pissed when he walked in.

"You called?" Hissori asked casually as he entered the room and saw Simon sitting at a desk.

Simon looked up from his desk; he had had his head in his hands before Hissori had entered, and he nodded when Hissori entered, gesturing to one of the seats around the table. "Good, you're here." He said.
"Finally." Another voice added; it was a smooth, baritone voice. Sitting on the far side of the table was a well-built, handsome man with short black hair and piercing, icy blue eyes. He sat with a smirk on his lips and a cigar between his fingers.
"I don't pay you for your sarcasm, Alistair." Simon snapped at him. "Can it."
Alistair shrugged and took a drawl from his cigar. Simon turned back to Hissori. "Sit down... We've got quite a bit to discuss..."

Hissori moved forward and sat down, not even turning his head in Simon's direction despite the man's jab at him. IT was a small one, and the man didn't seem worth acknowledging regardless. Hissori kept his eyes on the only man that mattered in the room, and that was Simon. Hissori always kept his eyes on the biggest target in the room, it had been a big part of his career to topple regimes and war criminals. After years of that work, you learned that cutting off fingers and toes of the giant didn't make a difference.

Beasts were only killed by removing the head.

"I'm all ears boss, what are you thinking after your recent attack on Typhon. I heard it was quite bloody" Hissori said in a fact-bearing voice. He was against the attack and felt that he should just assassinate Charon. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't a bit happy to hear that Corry and some of his mercenaries took a bit of a beating.

Simon cracked his neck, visibly frustrated. "Well, it could have gone much worse. We severely injured the Crimson Scar, so he's going to be out of the game for quite a while, and we've taken a bite out of their ranks, and branded one of their favorite hangouts as an easy target, crushing morale. That said..." He let out a sigh. "Corry's taken a bit of a beating, and we lost a helluva lot more men than we anticipated. That's a lot of money that just evaporated into the aether."
"Not to mention, y'know, loss of men is bad in it of itself." Alistair added with a slight shrug. Simon stared daggers at him, and Alistair shrugged, a "What did I do?" look in his eyes as he took another drawl.
"On top of that, we're dealing with shit on the home front. We've got men disappearing in the streets, only blood stains left behind. Not sure if it's related to Charon or not, but this is just about as bad as the East Diamond Ripper plaguing us a few months back." Simon ran a hand through his chocolate brown hair.
"Tell him about the EDM." Alistair added, his tone more serious now.
Simon groaned, clearly reminded of something he'd been wanting to forget. "Yeah... I got a call from the East Diamond Mafia, one of the lieutenants. They've taken notice of this war, and they're putting pressure on us ending it, lest they intervene. And I ain't gonna be dealing with THAT on top of everything else..."

Hissori sat quietly, listening to the noise that came from both Simon and Alistair. Hissori hated to be a butt about this, but he knew that this kind of open war was messy. For low level gun runners they were making bank, but to all the civilized gangs in only meant more noise and harder runs in their turf. War always made people nervous, even if someone like the EDM couldn't be harmed by it. They needed to end this and they needed to end it quickly.

"Charon has proven to be more annoying than you anticipated. You didn't think that after losing Father he'd be this hard to take out...obviously you weren't correct about that" Hissori remarked as he removed one of his knives and casually threw it in the air only to catch it on the way down. "You thought he was pissed before? I killed Mute, and he sent us a very clear message after that. He was pissed..."

"And now, you attacked one of his favorite spots, hurt his new second-in-command, and injured him as well along with killing a bunch of his boys. Whatever you hoped to accomplish tonight, there's going to be a reckoning for it. You thought what he did to the bar was bad? I can guarantee that whatever Charon does to you next, it's going to be far worse"

Simon stared down Hissori for a moment. "You think I don't know this? I've waged my fair share of gang wars in the past. I'm well aware that he's going to try and step shit up after this. I pay you a small fortune to bury bullets in skulls and knives in throats, not lecture me on how to fight my wars." He snapped.
Alistair's eyebrows shot upwards beneath his bangs. He turned his head away and took a long drawl on his cigar; he may have enjoyed pushing people's buttons every once in a while, but even he knew not to antagonize trained fighters to this degree.
Simon continued. "Besides, that's why I'm bringing you two in tonight. You two are the best men I have on my payroll right now for delivering potent messages. You've already sent one in killing his right-hand man, now we need you to send another."

"No messages" Hissori cuts Simon off before he can continue. "You want this to end, it ends with only one thing. Charon needs to die, and I'm the man to get that done for you. I put a bullet in Mute's head, and that mask of Charon's won't save him from me either" Hissori stated as he stared right at Simon. "You hired me for a reason, this is what I can do for you. Give me a few days time to sneak in to Typhon's territory and track Charon's movements. As soon as I'm ready to strike, I'll make sure that with one bullet or two, the boatman will head to Hell himself"

Hissori just kept his gaze on Simon, making it clear that his offer was a good one. He would end this war before Charon had a chance to gather his men again and launch their bloody counter attack.

Simon leaned towards Hissori. "You think killing Charon will end this war between Mammon and Typhon?" He laughed. "No. This war started out between Mammon and the Red Diamonds. Father's death didn't end the war. It kept going. We kill Charon, the Crimson Scar takes up the mantle. We kill him, someone else takes his place. They kill me, and my right hand man takes over the gang. No, to end this war, we need them to fucking surrender. A clean kill won't do that; no, we need to scare Charon, and we need to scare him FAST."
"Yes, let's scare the man who's power is literally fear. What could go wrong?" Alistair asked sarcastically. "What precisely do you propose?"
Simon's bloodshot eyes darted from one mercenary to the next. It was times like this he missed when his gang was more of a family and less of a company. "We show him that we could kill him at any moment, but are generous enough to let him live. You'd be surprised how often people surrender unconditionally simply to sleep well at night." He pointed at Hissori. "You; I want you bloody his sheets while he sleeps. You've seen The Godfather, yeah? There's a scene where they cut the head off this guy's prize horse and stuff it in the bed while he sleeps. I want you to do something like that; dog head, head of one of his grunts, I don't care, just illustrate that we can get to where he sleeps and get out without anyone fucking noticing. Alright?" He turned to Alistair next. "You; show him he's not safe with his men. He's probably walking around with an escort at all times these days. Do what you do and prove that they can't save him when shit hits the fan."

This was a horrible idea. Sending messages wouldn't get through to a guy like Charon. Hissori had killed Mute, his second in command and it hadn't even slowed Charon down. The man was going through bodies at an alarming rate and it was only going to get worse. Blood in his sheets wouldn't scare Charon, if anything it would only force him to upgrade his security.

But hey, Hissori wasn't paid to strategize. He was paid to do as he was told and that was it. But perhaps...he could do a bit of work on his own soon. "Yeah I've seen the movie, I'll make sure to use a lot of blood and brain to get the job done. Anything else once I've seen to that?"

Alistair nodded once given his task with a sly smile on his face; he always enjoyed his power, enjoyed getting into the heads of his victims. There was something empowering about learning about the inner workings of one's mind, a sentiment he was sure his newest victim could sympathize with. He exhaled a large smoke ring, and said nothing.
Simon turned back to Hissori. "Yes, I want you start knocking out more of his men. Find places to hide out in his territory, start laying down some sniper fire. Keep changing positions, make it so they're convinced no street is safe from them. We terrify the ranks enough, they'll start putting pressure on him for us. Once those fears start, Alistair here can stoke the flames a bit more, possibly start a mutiny." Alistair grinned, showing off his perfect teeth, and waved nonchalantly at Hissori.

It had been about a week since Simon gave the orders to Alistair and Hissori to go and terrorize Charon's group. Things had been quiet since the attack, and that only made Hissori nervous. He was speaking with Simon when it finally happened.

"Sir!" one of Simon's men said as he moved in to the room with a box in his hand. It was a cardboard box that appeared to be damped and stained at the bottom. "Another one of our men were attacked, we found this box by his body" the man said as he set it down. The first thing that Simon and Hissori would see was that atop the box was a DVD with the words "watch me first" on it.

Hissori glanced over to Simon, wondering how he'd want to proceed. This sort of a message was exactly how Charon liked to operate.

Simon stared at the DVD for a moment before gently placing it back in the box. He looked to his man who had entered the room and nodded. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Go and make sure no one else is missing, and tell Alexander to get a bit of a speech going, bring morale up. Got it?" The man nodded and left the room. Simon paused for a moment before looking back and forth from Hissori to Alistair. "Don't you two have jobs to be doing?" He asked coldly. "I'm not paying either of you to sit around. Hissori, blood. Alistair, message. MOVE IT." He snapped at them; he wasn't fond of Charon's little "gifts", but he knew he had to play Charon's game. It was going to be designed to terrify him, but anytime his enemies show their hand, he was going to peek.
Alistair smiled, shrugged, and began moving out. "Come on, Hissy. Let's leave the boss alone with his thoughts. Sooner begun, the sooner paid." He flashed a dazzling smile and left the room.

Hissori just moved off with Alistair. He had a bad feeling about this. Charon had been quiet for too long. What was he sending now of all things? The last message they had received from him had been rather clear. The man was on the war path, and Simon was the target. Still, Hissori just did as he was told and left, still wondering what exactly Charon's message would say.

Simon eventually pushed the DVD in to the machine. It didn't take long for it to start. Screams were heard on scream as Simon would witness one of his boys being pushed head first in to a wood chipper. Blood and chunks were being sprayed on to a pile of debris, even when the screams stopped the horrifying imagery of what became of his man would settle with Simon. The camera soon moved out to show Charon was sitting on a stump, sharpening his knife absently.

"Ya know Simon, there was a time when I thought we could make peace. After Father died I gained control. I was able to do anything I wanted, choose my allies, my enemies...why should you and I hate each other just because of Father? I was prepared to bury the hatchet...and then you killed my friend. Mute" Charon said as his eye looked towards the camera. "And in that moment everything changed. You were dead to me as it was, I was just waiting for time to get the best of you....and THEN you attacked my boys and massacred them" Charon exclaimed as his grip on the knife tightened. "You crossed lines Simon, lines that I tried very hard not to cross, until now" Charon said before waving his hand.

A figured was suddenly pushed on screen, as Simon's wife entered the camera. She was crying, and she wore the same dress that she had been wearing last night when Simon saw her last. "See, this is what happened when you insult people Simon. You took away my best friend, and now I have to respond in kind" Charon said before giving a laugh. "By the way the horse head was a nice touch. The Godfather....but you see I like movies too", Charon began before leaning towards the camera, "Ever seen Se7en?" he asked before laughing and turning the knife on Simon's wife. She screamed, and the camera went black.

The box remained on Simon's desk...waiting to be opened.

Simon buried his head in his hands, trying to recompose himself. This... this was hell. He had gone to war with other gang leaders, but this? This was some cartel shit. He hadn't seen this measure of brutality since his dealings with some of those drug lord circus freaks down south. His eyes lifted slowly to the box. What the hell is this guy? He thought to himself. He needed to know if Charon was bluffing or not. He needed to. So, fearfully, gently, he moved his hand forward and opened the box...

Simon was met with a face, but it was the face of another one of his grunts. Didn't even know the name of the man, and Charon had left his eyes open just to freak Simon out more. Inside the man's mouth was another DVD on it. This time it had "Haha" written on it.

When Simon put it in, he was greeted with a laughing Charon. "Boy I would have LOVED to see the look on your face just now. I wonder if you're crying, probably not but I would have killed to see you just now" he said coldly before turning the camera to show Simon's wife was bound and gagged. "See Simon, I don't want to kill your wife. I know that she has nothing to do with our events. However, it's going to cost you to get her back. I killed one of your accountants when I attacked that bar you boys liked to hang out at, but not before I got some information out of him about how much money you honestly possess"

"So I don't see any reason to waste any time" Charon continued. "I want a quarter of all of your money, you'll transfer it to the account number that's at the bottom of the box in your possession. There is no time limit, but for every day you fail to deliver you'll get more and more deliveries from me. You can get your wife back that way, but I have a feeling you're not going to recognize her if you do that" Charon said coldly before moving towards the camera. "And after I have my money and you have your wife, I suggest that you ready yourself. I'm coming for you, you and all your boys. This isn't a takeover Simon, this will be annihilation" Charon said sternly before the tape ended.

Simon slumped in his seat. Charon was a sick bastard, but not a very smart one. Simon wasn't about to part with his money, even if he knew his wife would suffer for it. Forking over that much money would surely lose him the war; it would be more money in Charon's pocket for weapons and mercs, and much less for Simon to do the same. And Charon was going to "annihilate" him? When his forces were half the size and had pocket change in comparison? Let him come, and let him die. Hell, if Simon buckled down on his men and had them march, they could stamp out Typhon before the end of the week. There would be a lot of death, but even if Charon didn't die and Simon's wife not saved, there would be no way in hell Charon would be able to retaliate or recover anytime in the next century. He cracked his knuckles. "Fine, spook. You want this war to go by quick? Fine. Let's play hardball..."