The white Volkswagen Jetta in the driveway smoothly backed into the road and sped away. The car joined the traffic, driven by a man with gray hair. Eyes on the road, driving. Soon, it picked up speed.
"Where are we going?" Silva asked him. "If the Family is compromised, I'm dead either way."
Silence.
"Gabriel, answer me."
Silence.
"Gabriel!" He shouted. The old bodyguard adjusted the mirror so he could see the young heir. He cleared his throat.
"The Family is not compromised... Not completely. The members under my department had nothing to do with this." He checked his watch. 3 PM. He shook his head. "At least, I hope not." The possibility that even the external security force was infiltrated by traitors would be the death of the both of them. "We'll be meeting Romino in Naples, take the external affairs private jet." He took a sudden right and leered at the side mirror.
Silva looked behind him to see three black Silverados. On closer inspection, he saw the family's insignia on the hoods. His pulse quickened. "They're chasing us!"
"Che du palle!" Gabriel spat. "We need to lose them. How's your shooting?"
"Good, I don't know how that translates to shooting from a moving vehicle." Gabriel hands him his Colt. He loads the gun and tests his aim. Glass explodes from behind him as bullets sing merrily past his ear. He ducked just in time.
He fires three shots at the first vehicle, missing all three. "Cazzo!"
"Keep calm. If you can't hit the driver, hit the wheels." Gabriel was calm. This was not the first drive and shoot he experienced, and he knows damn well it would not be the last.
Silva aimed, steadied his hands, then shot another 3 bullets. 1 hit the windshield on the closest car, 2 popped the wheel, causing the car to take a sudden stop, blocking the road from the other cars chasing them. He sighed, hands still shaking.
"Looks like we're being tracked." Gabriel turned the car left. "We need to circle around to Napoli. I'll notify Romino that we're entering around Benevento."
Silva nodded. He sighed and laid the gun beside him. Everything was going far too fast, and he understood what was happening, whether he liked it or not. It made things worse. The sights of Italy are beautiful, the modern world slowly melting into the ancient background, when they turned landward, history jumped out as if he was reading them from a book. None of the marvels of the ancient world could calm down his heart. It doesn't matter what he saw, because he felt that at any point it would be replaced by a gun barrel followed by eternal darkness.
As far as he remembered, Italy was his home, but aside from the homely feeling, there was nothing. Italy was just another place in the world full of places. He looks at the gun. He holds it, weighs it in his hands. It felt familiar, it felt right in his hands. That scared him, far more than the thought of his own demise, that a tool of death felt right.
"Silva." Gabriel spied him through the mirror. "Hold this."
Silva caught the shiny object Gabriel toosed at him and looked at it. It was half of a flaming tempest carved into a ruby. It was roughly smaller than his palm, and there was a clear line where the left side of the tempest was supposed to go.
"What's this?" he asked.
"The family heirloom. The mark of the boss of the Ain-Soph-Ur." The old bodyguard spoke solemnly. "The boss gave it to me to protect. It is the family's most prized possession."
"Why?"
"The boss was supposed to announce you as the next Family boss." Gabriel turned a corner. "Your older sister wasn't happy, evidently." He ran a hand through his graying hair. "We never thought she would do something so extreme. We were foolish. Perhaps we trained her far too well, and perhaps she grew too powerful behind our backs." There was a tinge of regret in his voice.
Silva was silent for a while, then, "Alissa... Why didn't you choose her? She would be much better as a boss than I am." He believed that. He hoped he did. He didn't know much about his sister, as strange as that is. Not because they did not spend time together, but with the information coming to light, it seemed that she was a different person. The sister he knew never existed.
Gabriel leered at the road, as if something there angered him. The silence in the car was palpable, and it lasted the 4 hours to Benevento. The external affairs executive broke that silence, which was so thick you can cut it with a knife.
A very old marble arch welcomed them into one of the cities where ancient structures seem alive. Silva looked out the window and gasped at the majesty of the Arch of Trajan.
"The Arc of Trajan is one of the oldest structures in Benevento that was built in hundred and fourteen to commemorate Emperor Trajan of Rome." They sped past the arch and began to make their turn into Naples. "There's an inscription on the arc that says that Trajan is 'All things to all men', which really goes to show how narcissistic the Emperors of Rome are."
"They were Gods to the people they ruled." Silva added.
Gabriel nodded. "Have you read William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?"
"Yeah." Silva hefted the gun in his hands again. "His friend never realized that the people truly loved Julius Caesar, and it eventually led to the slow downfall of Rome."
"Evidently."
Gabriel's phone rang loudly. "Yes." He pushed the speaker button.
"Master Gabriel! We have a problem!" The phone spattered out. It was a light voice but it was a rushed tone. The speaker seemed to be running, as shoes on pavement was the background sound.
"What?! What's happening? Romino?"
"We're compromised! I will not be-" Gunshots were heard, "I will not be able- able to meet you. Reilly will- shit! -Reilly will make contact with you at the airport."
"Cazzo! Romino! Where are you, we'll come and help you-" The old man shouted into the device.
"No! Lead Master Silva-" The voice stops and gives way to gunshots. "-to Reilly, she will lead you to the speed boat to the private hangar. Make sure you are NOT followed." The phone went dead.
Again, silence.
"Gabriel?"
"We need to get to Napoli Airport quickly. But we need to change cars. I know someone in Caserta." He turned to look at Silva. "Your sister evidently is very driven. That is very bad news for us." The car turned right to go to the Caserta province's capital.