Chapter 42 The True Harvest

The next day, evening.

A car was driving on the road toward the Bronx.

Downey, who was driving, tried to roll down the window to air out the heavy smell of cigarette smoke in the car, but Old Left sternly stopped him. "Do you fucking want to blow me to death with the wind? Roll it up."

Downey silently rolled up the window and asked, "Where are we going now? Are we going to play cards again?"

"No, there's a mission today. I was called in to do a job."

"What kind of job?" Downey became interested.

"Sonny asked for me."

Old Left did not know the exact details either. "In our line of work, when someone requests you, you have to follow orders and go do the job, understand? Working for someone, risking your life for someone, you have no condition to refuse. Even if it means taking a bullet, and usually in such cases, your best friend is the one who fires the gun."

The last scenario represented a formal execution by the family, targeting those who broke the rules and harmed the family's interests.

The Mafia executed people without any warning. Perhaps one day you received an assignment, went somewhere, and only upon entering did you realize that place was the grave arranged for you.

The most absurd part was that the person pulling the trigger was usually your closest friend.

Taking advantage of your lack of preparation, a single bullet would hit the back of your head.

"I've taught you to work steadily, follow the rules, and work hard to make money," Old Left said earnestly. "If you don't commit offenses, you won't have to worry about your best friend shooting you."

Downey felt that Old Left was a bit naive and overly straightforward... Following the rules for a lifetime and loyally serving the family, weren't you still just a foot soldier in the end?

He nodded and said, "I understand."

***

The night in the Bronx was quiet, occasionally punctuated by the sound of sirens and a few gunshots.

A group of Mafia robbers gathered in Little Italy and arrived outside an apartment building.

There were simply too many drug dens in New York. After Luca and Leon destroyed a good number of them together, a whole bunch of new ones had popped up again.

This operation involved a total of five people. Aside from Luca and Jimmy, the others were Old Left, Downey, and Black Sonny.

The target was one of the French gang's dens, a distributor for Frank.

Those bastards had gone too far, diluting high-purity Blue Magic down to just a few percent purity and still selling it under the banner of Blue Magic.

This was a serious infringement on Frank's product copyright!

However, Downey knew nothing about any of this. To this day, he still had no idea why he was brought here—sometimes Mafia tasks were handled with excessive secrecy, and a newcomer like him who had just joined recently didn't even have much right to know.

Downey looked around and saw only Jimmy and Black Sonny, but Pigeon was nowhere in sight.

Did Pigeon not participate?

"Follow me."

Jimmy called out, then pressed his palm against Downey's chest to stop him from getting out of the car. "You stay outside and keep a lookout for us."

Downey: "???"

Shit! Let me have a bit of a sense of participation, will you? If I don't go in, how am I supposed to gather criminal evidence against you guys!

I don't even fucking know what you're planning to do!

Downey: "I can help."

Jimmy refused: "Do you have an objection? Adding one more person like you is completely useless."

Downey: "......"

Black Sonny and Old Left were also slightly stunned, not expecting this temporary change in arrangement.

Old Left persuaded, "Downey, just stay outside, and leave the rest to us."

Black Sonny directly gave Downey a shove and threatened, "Get back in the car and don't make trouble!"

Downey felt helpless inside and resigned himself to fate. "Alright, alright, I'll stay outside. You guys be careful."

***

When Black Sonny and Old Left entered the house, they finally saw Luca and three gang members squatting in a corner with their heads in their hands.

Luca was pointing a gun at the three men. Seeing everyone arrive, he raised his eyelids, pointed at the bricks of wrapped drugs stacked on the table along with a large amount of cash, and instructed, "Take everything!"

Old Left and Black Sonny looked shocked. So much? They were going to make a fortune!

It felt as though they hadn't done anything at all, just followed Luca here to pick up free money!

"Old Pigeon! I regret why I didn't have you baptize me back then!"

Old Left excitedly grabbed a sack to pack the goods. "No... later when I have a grandson, I'll have him make you his godfather."

You better live long enough to see your grandson's birth with the help of an undercover cop... Luca silently watched the three of them pack things up, occasionally scolding the drug dealers to keep them quiet.

The money and drugs on the table were quickly swept clean by the three men.

Although these stacks of bills looked impressive, in reality, it wasn't that much.

They were mostly twenty- and ten-dollar denominations—these funds basically came from street deals, mostly small bills, with very few people pulling out a hundred-dollar bill.

Before leaving, Luca stopped Old Left and Black Sonny, pointed at the three people in the corner, and spat out a few words:

"Kill them."

As Luca's voice fell, Jimmy had already seamlessly moved toward the door, blocking the exit.

The expressions of Old Left and Black Sonny shifted slightly.

They realized instantly that if they didn't kill these three men, neither of them would be leaving this place on their feet tonight.

The previously excited atmosphere inside the room suddenly dropped a few degrees.

Black Sonny nodded in silence and, without another word, drew his gun first.

One of the gang members screamed in terror, "You've already robbed our stuff, what else do you want? Spare us!"

"Shut up!"

Bang!

One went down.

The gunshot made Old Left's body twitch slightly. He gave Luca a complex look, but the latter merely smiled and shoved the gun into Old Left's hand.

"Old Left, back then my dad said you were a crack shot, that every single bullet could hit an enemy. Is it really that impressive?"

"......"

You fool, your dad was lying to you. Your dad and I weren't actually that close, don't believe everything you hear!

"Pigeon, I haven't killed anyone in many years." Old Left held the gun with a hesitant expression.

"These Frenchmen don't deserve the sympathy of Sicilians. Don't forget how our ancestors were massacred by the French back then."

"......"

Old Left fell silent again. He knew this had little to do with a century-old blood feud, but rather that Luca wanted to drag them deeper into the mud.

Fortunately, Downey didn't come in. That kid was too green and probably couldn't bring himself to do this...

Closing his eyes and quickly opening them again, Old Left nodded. "Then I'll try out the power of your gun."

He raised his gun to shoot, joining Sonny in eliminating the rest of the men.

The long-suppressed urge to kill boiled within the old man's body. Old Left handed the gun back to Luca. "It feels like going back to the good old days of robbing with your dad. I must have been around your age back then."

Luca gently patted Old Left's arm. "Your marksmanship is indeed as formidable as my dad said!"

Old Left chuckled sheepishly. "When I was young, I was the number one hitman in the family."

[Bond: Friends]

Corpses littered the floor. Luca picked up the bag containing the drugs and shoved it into Black Sonny's arms. "This is yours."

Black Sonny grinned. "Pigeon, you've got guts!"

"You did well too."

[Bond: Familiar]

***

[You and Mafia members have killed three heinous drug dealers, you have defended the peace of the community...]

[Obtained Skill Points +5]

[Obtained Skill Fragment +1]

[Remaining Skill Fragments: 40]

The process of dividing the spoils was relatively pleasant.

After the final tally, there was over two hundred thousand in cash, and a relatively large quantity of drugs—probably around ten to twenty kilograms, though they were all garbage goods.

They were diluted too heavily, so the amount of high-purity Blue Magic was not particularly large.

All the cash was taken by Luca and Jimmy, while the drugs were taken by Black Sonny and the others. With the Bonanno family's drug distribution channels, even if New York wasn't easy to sell in, they could handle it elsewhere.

With the goods gathered, Luca called out, "Let's pull back!"

He and Jimmy took the cash and left by another route, while Old Left and Black Sonny returned the way they came, climbed into the car, and vanished into the night.

At a high vantage point in the shadows, Leon also put away his sniper rifle.

***

Old Left and the two others returned to a self-built house in Brooklyn with a large bag, heading straight for the basement to calculate their earnings.

"Old Pigeon is decisive, no trouble at all, it was just like going out to pick up money." Old Left looked at the pile of white wealth, filled with emotion.

"Pick up money?" Black Sonny snorted coldly. "Don't forget Old Pigeon took all the cash! He didn't leave a single penny for us! And we still have to figure out how to offload these goods ourselves!"

"We'll still make a lot," Old Left shrugged. "These drugs will never struggle to find a buyer."

Hearing this, Sonny smiled as well.

Goods meant money, right? He helped kill people and helped sell the goods; shouldn't he make money for that?

Downey, standing off to the side, was completely bewildered and still hadn't figured out what had actually happened.

—They went inside for a bit, and came out with a bag of drugs? Just like that?

Downey felt a bit depressed; this sense of participation was far too low!

The group cleared all the drugs out of the bag, and right at that moment, Downey noticed a yellow file folder inside one of the bags.

Downey looked at it in confusion and unwrapped it. "What is this?"

Old Left looked up and glanced over. "Take a look? It should be for money; it was on the table earlier, and I packed it in together."

Downey pulled it out to take a look, only to find it was a dense, highly detailed dossier documenting information big and small about the drug lord Frank and his drug empire, even outlining his drug transportation routes and major distributors!

Downey was utterly shocked!

What the fuck? A massive haul!

This was the real treasure. With this intelligence, they could directly wipe out all of Frank's dens!

Downey's expression of astonishment caught the attention of the other two men. Sonny strode over and snatched the file away. "What are you looking at?"

Sonny fixed his eyes on the information regarding Frank, and his expression turned equally astonished.

Blue Magic belonged to this black bastard Frank?

He wasn't an undercover cop; his first reaction wasn't to notify the feds, but to notify the family, using this intelligence to strike at Frank's drug empire and reclaim the market that once belonged to the Bonanno family.

With this intelligence, if the family went to war with Frank, they would hold the absolute initiative.

Old Left leaned over as well, took a look, and looked dumbfounded. "Frank has a supermodel girlfriend? He even has an estate! This bastard really knows how to enjoy life."

Sonny retorted unhappily, "Is that the point? Even the drug smuggling routes are written down this clearly here. We can just pick a route and go rob them! Understand? Right now, Frank is like a stripped naked chick in front of us, ready to be fucked; we know all his secrets!"

Old Left remained skeptical: "Who knows if what's written here is real or fake?"

Sonny calmed down: "Won't we know if we try it out?"

Downey asked in confusion: "Where did you guys find this thing?"

Old Left spread his hands: "Those French guys' stuff, I don't know much about them... Such a thick stack, I thought it was packed with money at the time."

"French guys?" Downey was still a bit dazed.

"A bunch of French drug dealers," Old Left said casually.

Sonny pointed at a spot: "There's French here too... What kind of bullshit is this? Can't read a single word."

"Let me see it again."

Downey volunteered, took the intelligence back from Sonny's hands, and hurriedly memorized the relevant information... If he couldn't memorize it all this time, he would find a chance to photograph it next time.

This intelligence had to be passed on!