"Judges, lawyers and politicians have a license to steal. We don't need one." ~ Carlo Gambino.
The next day I began stealing dust.
That hot tip Lil Miss Malachite had given Roman as a gesture of good faith was first up on my list. I hardly had enough time to call Cardin and the rest of my crew to get the thing set up. Thankfully all the important details for the heist had already been worked out by Neo and Roman so I just needed to follow their lead.
The whole thing went down like clockwork. The SDC shipment had arrived in a company warehouse to await pick up from some company trucks. My crew and I intercepted the trucks before they could arrive at the warehouse, Neo used her semblance to make it seem like there was an obstruction on the road, the trucks stopped and the rest of us held the drivers and workers at gunpoint. There weren't any knights inside since the trucks were empty.
We tied them up and left them for somebody else to find after we pilfered their paperwork and everything else. Neo drove the truck while I bullshitted the bozos at the warehouse to make it seem like I was the guy who was meant to pick up the dust.
The thing I learned about pencil pushers that day is that if you dot your Is and cross your Ts and have everything signed in triplicate, then they will hand over damn near anything to a thief. Neo used her semblance to disguise the company ID card I had stolen and looked like an average SDC worker the entire time. No one suspected anything.
They handed us the dust. A few phoney signatures and some small talk and those chumps working for the SDC loaded the trucks up for us. It was brilliant, we had to deal with a couple of security drones they sent with us but one stop later and we picked up a fresh face. This guy they called Buttons was able to disable the drones with a few quick hacks. The mafia has much better tech support than you might think. And after that we just had to drive over to one of Roman's many warehouses to offload everything.
Looking inside that place and seeing just how much dust Roman had been stealing was amazing. It was stacked to the ceiling. One wrong move and the whole place would have been a fucking mushroom cloud.
"You stole all of this?" I asked Neo in wonderment as we offloaded the trucks, gazing at all the canisters and crates that filled the shelves of the warehouse. Neo only gave me a smug little grin in response.
We ditched the trucks just outside the city limits. We poured gas into the cabs and lit them up to burn. Because this wasn't just about getting the dust, this was about sending the SDC a message. They were paying a price here.
The morning after that little caper I finally called Ozpin to give him the news.
"Mr. Arc… I was beginning to worry about you," he said the minute he picked up my call. It had been a while since I had last spoken to him. Not since that dust robbery he had me do against Junior's wishes that cost me an inch off my pinky.
"Good to hear from you too sir," I told him. "Guess who just stole over a million lien worth of dust right out from under the SDC's nose?"
"Really?" Ozpin asked me. "After I didn't hear from you and that truck robbery I was worried that something went wrong."
"It did," I explained to him. "Apparently some of Roman's guys had already nabbed the truck and we ended up stealing it right out from under him. He found out."
"Oh my… did Junior find out?" Ozpin asked, actually sounding a little shocked that the plan had gone sideways.
"He did, and he was angry, but Roman was also impressed with my work," I explained to him, skipping over the details of my punishment and the beating O-Ushi had given me for being too bold. I was still sore that Ozpin's harebrained idea had led to that so I avoided talking about cutting off the tip of my pinky finger. "And now because of that little stunt Roman and Junior are going to be in the dust business together, and I'm going to be heading it."
Ozpin didn't speak for a long moment. "You're serious aren't you?" He asked me.
"Have I ever pulled your leg during one of these calls?" I asked him, a little annoyed at the disbelief in his voice. "Junior's superior Lil Miss Malachite is pulling the strings of various Mistrali clans and it has allowed her to create a pretty effective information web. She's feeding Roman intel on all the best dust scores and where they're vulnerable, and I'm going to be the guy running information between the two of them and I'm personally going to help Roman steal the best stuff."
"Amazing," Ozpin praised. "Do you know who they're selling the dust to? Do you know why?"
"Slow down sir! I just got the damn job the other night and yesterday all I did was help that Neopolitan girl steal several truckloads of dust. It's not like Roman just decided to tell me all the secrets of his operation." I told him.
"Yes… it's good work nonetheless Mr. Arc," he said with some regret in his voice. My recent accomplishments were never enough for him.
"I can tell you whatever intel Lil Miss is providing to Roman," I explained to him. "Just use my tips wisely, if every little tip that gets passed my way turns sour then Lil Miss and Roman are going to suspect something."
"There's little need for me to make a move stopping this little racket," Ozpin explained to me. "Enough dust has been stolen already and I doubt interrupting the occasional heist would make much of any real difference. The most important part Mr. Arc is that you learn who the dust is for precisely and more importantly why it is so important."
"I'll keep my ear to the ground," I promised him.
"Very good Mr. Arc, your goal is almost within sight. I have never been more confident that you will prevail in this mission." He assured me before hanging up.
I was starting to doubt that even if Roman had given me the ins and outs of his operation in a book and signed by him would that be the end of this. I was in so deep and I had no doubt that Ozpin was going to use my position for all it was worth. That was why I didn't tell him that I was now an official recruit to the Torchwick family, that I had a chance and being made and becoming a real mobster for Roman. I was afraid of what he would want me to do if he knew.
But with my report of Ozpin made and with the relevant information given to him I again hid the scroll and dressed so I could start my day and begin my true work for Roman.
So you're probably wondering how the Torchwick crime family managed to pull off what is probably the biggest crime spree in the history of this city. Well the key was the unions. Almost every line of work in this city has a union, trucking, dockwork, film making, construction, they all have various unions. And those unions happily have their strings pulled by the mafia. Because the mob brings them money and influence and when necessary muscle.
Mulo Trucking, the union that Pudgy Paul ran. They had been shipping the SDC's dust and would steal it right out from under them. Naturally the Schnee Dust Company wasn't thrilled about losing one in every ten trucks and hiring union run security at inflated prices.
So now the SDC was being reminded what refusing to do business with the unions got you. If anything breaking the union contracts just gave Roman the power to tell his boys to go all in stealing from the SCD. Now using their own trucks the SDC was losing four out of every ten shipments, it was a bad business decision.
And having more of their trucks getting hijacked was the least of their problems. Their trucks were constantly getting vandalized, the scabs they brought to drive the trucks instead of the union guys often found themselves getting into "accidents" and the eye of the media was on them as the union ran picket lines and made it very clear how they felt about the Schnee Dust Company.
You don't fuck with the unions in Vale. Because if you do then Roman and his family is going to make your business a living hell. Almost everyone in this town knows that it's better to just put up with the high prices and shenanigans of the unions than risk the wrath of the Valean mafia. It wasn't that different from how Junior ran protection in Little Mistral, if you did your business with the unions then business would be smooth with a few speed bumps.
And almost all the union leaders belonged to the mob, they were usually Capo's like Paulie. Anyone that wants to do business in Vale is better off getting on their good side and saying there. And it became a regular part of my job to meet with them and see that they were pulling their weight in the dust operation.
My days began usually with some kind of meeting with Junior or Lil Miss to get some information that they wanted to give Roman on a particularly big shipment or security details or some other tidbit that they wanted me to give them. Sometimes they would have the information stored on an encrypted scroll or flash drive but most of the time I was supposed to be delivering the information to Roman from word of mouth. Then when I gave the information to Roman he'd tell me which of the family's associates and Caporegimes he wanted to know.
At first Roman or Neo introduced me to everyone, I got reacquainted with Paulie and officially met "Tricky" Tony and many other big players within the family. Knowing what Roman's orders where they'd arrange for someone to nab the dust. Meeting these Caporegimes and associates was what I spent most of my day doing. Sometimes they wanted to have their meeting over a meal and I would end up having these kinds of meetings three or four times a day. I ate a lot, multiple lunches and dinners in a single day, exercising became a necessity just to make sure that my tailored suits still fit.
And occasionally I'd be called in to assist on the robberies themselves and recruit my crew to help me with the heists. Roman it turned out to be a bit of a micromanager when it came to stealing the dust, the hottest scores he always insisted he handle personally.
Just a few nights into the new job I was joining him on a warehouse raid. I was sitting next to him in the truck as Neo drove the big rig past the security fences. The gate let her through with the help of a fake ID, one scan and we were in.
I was looking down at a white grimm mask he had given me and the rest of my crew to wear during the operation. "Why do you want me to wear this?" I asked him as Neo drove past rows upon rows of storage houses.
"You don't want to be recognized, do you?" Roman asked me, as if I didn't understand the purpose of wearing a mask during a job like this.
"I get that, just… why a grimm mask? I have a ski mask that'll cover my whole head," I explained to him.
"Yeah but the White Fang doesn't wear ski masks," Roman chuckled deviously.
"I'm not in the White Fang, I'm not even a faunus" I said, stupidly stating the obvious.
"Anyone we witness isn't going to know that," Roman laughed. "Trust me on a dark night like tonight no one is going to be looking to see if you got spots or anything."
It now made sense why the media was putting so much attention on the White Fang for robbing the dust. Roman was having a lot of his robberies done with these masks being worn and no one was really questioning if there was a faunus behind the mask or not. But as I later would learn that was only the tip of the iceberg. I slipped the mask on and pointed to the lane marked thirty. "The warehouse is down there, Lil Miss assured me the special shipment was being held there in warehouse thirty six."
Roman grinned. "Did she figure out why it's so special?"
"I don't exactly know what it is but they went through the trouble to keep it secret so I imagine that it must be pretty damn good." I explained, looking down at the shotgun I had between my legs loaded with buckshot for the Atlesian Knights that were supposed to be guarding the warehouses, I had a shell caddy on my belt with extra shells including beanbags and other nonlethal rounds in case we encountered more than just drones.
Neo stopped the truck and opened the door. "Neo is going to take care of security," he explained to me as she used her semblance to disguise herself as a pretty black haired worker in a uniform. She flashed me a wink before closing the door. I slid over and took the driver seat pushing on the gas so we could get to the target warehouse.
We stopped out in front of warehouse thirty six. "Wait for a moment, let Neo do her work," Roman instructed me, pulling out a gold pocket watch and checking the time as I lit myself a cigarette and did what he instructed and just kept the vehicle parked.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" I asked, blowing a cloud of smoke out of the cracked window.
"Go ahead, you're supposed to be learning a thing or two from me, aren't you?" He told me, watching the second hand on his gold watch ticking away.
"Why are you here with us?" I asked him. "I thought the point of being the boss was that you had people like me and my crew to do the heavy lifting like this."
Roman chuckled and gave me a sly grin. "And get old and fat while you and your friends have all the fun?" He asked me.
"I didn't mean it like that sir," I said to him, putting my hands up.
"I know you didn't. But I spent years becoming one of the top thieves in this city and I see no point in letting that edge of mine dull. Besides I wouldn't get rid of the thrill of the steal staying behind a desk." He explained, snapping the pocket watch closed. "It's time!" he said grabbing his cane and opening the door.
I followed him out with my shotgun and rapped my knuckles against the back of the truck several times to signal my crew that it was showtime. The back door opened up and Cardin stepped out wearing his grim mask with his mace in hand moving to the door of the warehouse. The rest of my crew followed having donned their white masks as well. Cardin paused looking at the electronic lock and card reader on it.
"Don't be shy!" Roman told Cardin. "Neo should have disabled the alarms so don't bother being polite with that door!"
Cardin nodded to him and smashed his mace against the lock, shattering it and forcing the steel door open with his foot.
"Excellent," Roman said casually strolling inside. "Remember boys, only courteous thieves bother with picking locks," he instructed as he followed behind with a couple flashlights shining in the warehouse.
A black AK-130 rounded a corner to spot us, it raised it's mechanical gun arms to fire upon us but we had all raised our weapons. I fired a couple of blasts from my 12 gauge while the rest of my crew drew the handguns I had ordered them to carry and squeezed off several shows.
The automaton was stunned, twitching and sparking from our shots only to be blasted apart by Roman who raised his cane and fired off some kind of explosive shell that left it scrapped. I had figured his cane or Melodic Cudgel as I learned he called it, was a weapon of some kind but I never guessed it packed that much fire power. "Shit," I cursed, impressed with his handiwork.
"Don't stand around and gawk, there's doubtlessly more of them boys. Get to work!" He ordered us and we did just that. I moved forward and spotted two more of the drones and proceeded to fire away.
The first one went down in a hail of buckshot but I only managed to hurt the second before my shotgun went dry. I dropped the empty weapon to hang on it's sling as I reached into my jacket to retrieve the short saber I had recently purchased from Kaiu.
It wasn't Crocea Mors but with my blade training courtesy of Russel and Dove I had gotten pretty good with it. It was even a mecha shift weapon, able to fold itself into a short concealable dagger with a knuckle guard. I drew the weapon and let it extend into it's full length as I ducked beneath a burst of gunfire from the drone and ran the straight blade right through it. It sparked and sputtered as I withdrew the blade and delivered a cut that severed a steel arm before decapitating the lifeless machine.
Those fencing instructions from Russel and Dove really were making a load of difference.
A second drone rounded a corner and raised it's gun arms to fire at me and I prepared to charge it, only for Cardin to leap out and smash his mace into the robot. "Coming your way boss," Cardin told me.
I sidestepped the lumbering drone and slashed it open to spark harmlessly on the floor. I gave Cardin a nod and sheathed the blade so I could reload my shotgun. We moved together through the rest of the warehouse with Cardin out in front. If one of the security drones popped out he'd smash it with his mace so I could execute it with my shotgun. We managed to finish cleaning the first warehouse in a few minutes.
"Get that garage door open back the truck up!" Roman ordered, looking remarkable casual despite the fact that we were still in the middle of a heist and our gunshots probably drew some form of attention. I moved to the end of the warehouse and forced the lock open before operating the door controls so Russel could back the truck up so we could begin loading the dust.
I heard a beeping and turned to see that Roman was at work with a forklift, a pallet of dust crates already loaded up. I almost laughed, Roman was Don of the Valean Mafia and I was watching him drive a forklift with one of his cigars smoking between his teeth. It was hardly what I had imagined when I was told that I was going to work for him.
"Keep guard for more drones," Roman ordered me as Drove helped load the rest of the dust.
"Will do sir!" I told him with a little salute. I moved out to the warehouse with Cardin and scanned the alleys between them for more trouble. I spotted a little flying drone patrolling above us and I shot it down like it was a clay pigeon.
I never saw the huntsman coming.
A steel chain wrapped around my ankle and I flew straight up. It's length was draped over a light fixture as a man dressed in an SDC uniform descended from the roof of the warehouse. A long blade was in his hand while his other held the chain that had snared around my ankle. Thankfully I had kept hold of my shotgun.
"Jaune!" Cardin exclaimed looking at the swordsman and raising his mace only for a swarm of tiny flying droves to dive bomb him. Little arcs of lighting shot out and zapped him from little dust dispensers.
It hurt Cardin just enough to throw him off his game for the swordsman to close the distance and deliver several swift sword strikes and retreat. I was still left dangling as he had anchored the other end of the chain to the ground. With my arms free I raised the shotgun and fired upon the little aerial drones blasting them into scrap metal as I hung upside down.
The swordsman tried attacking Cardin as he recovered and he managed to deflect a sword blow with his mace and actually fight back as I kept loading fresh shells into my shotgun and downing the little drones as they buzzed around trying to zap Cardin.
A burst of gunfire stuck me and my aura and I turned to see a huntress atop another warehouse. The little drones circled her as she leveled a rifle to shoot me again. I slid another shell into my shogun and blasted the chain apart to fall fifteen feet onto the concrete narrowly avoiding her fire.
Russel jumped out of the truck and raised shortwings to fire at the newcomer. She sprinted across the roofs firing back at him as fed the special bean bag rounds into my shotgun, raising it to the swordsman as he fought Cardin and blasting him with a mix of electric and gravity dust right into his turned back.
The rounds caught his attention and slowed him enough for Cardin to get a solid swing in. His red aura flared from the strike and he withdrew to see me already feeding more dust shells into my gun.
He raised his left hand and a chain shot out to grapple my weapon pulling it from my hands. His blade cleaved the gun in two to scatter over the ground. I cursed as he swung the chain in my direction while I grabbed my short saber and extended the blade. I dodged several swings of his chain and closed in for a thrust. It was practically a perfect fencer's lunge and thrust, as the tip of my sword came into contact with him only blocked by his aura.
He recovered and moved to slash and I parried his attacks going on the defensive. A number of his attacks managed to slip through my defense and whittle at my aura, but with my bladework having been improved I at least was able to keep him from controlling the situation long enough for Cardin to recover and deliver a swing that forced him to retreat. He swung his chain at me and the end entangled my blade and I found myself wrestling for control of my sword.
From the shadows a black hook shot out and caught the huntsman in the ankle tripping him. He fell down face forward and Cardin was ready with Executioner swinging the huge mace up into his face.
The swordsman's aura crumbled into specks of light as it went out and he was left sprawling on the concrete. I looked up to the edge of the roofs to see that Russel had managed to scramble up to pursue the huntress but was currently struggling as her rifle had shifted into a spear while her drones continued to attack and harass him. Russel's agility was serving him but he was still outmatched.
I drew my little .38 snub-nose and fired at the little drones to help him. Cardin did the same with his .45, helping me destroy the remaining small drones. I watched as the huntress dodged a slash from Russel's daggers and struck him with the blunt end of her short spear. Russel faltered and almost slipped off the edge. From the other end of the slanted roof Neo leapt and delivered a kick to the unsuspecting huntress knocking her off of the roof. Neo deployed her parasol to float gracefully down as Cardin was ready to knock the winded huntress against the warehouse wall with his mace. The mighty blow dented the wall behind her and shattered her aura.
The swordsman was already scrambling up and running away, leaving his comrade behind as she tried to catch her breath looking fearfully at us. "What should we do?" I asked Roman, keeping my blade and my revolver out just in case.
"Leave them be," Roman said with a wave of his hand. "No one wants to die for the SDC."
I nodded and motioned to the woman to go. She scrambled away and I released a breath, I was happy that the fighting wouldn't continue needlessly.
"It's all loaded up Mr. Torchwick," Sky reported to him from inside the warehouse.
"Excellent," Roman said, looking at Neo who was walking back to the truck.
She looked back at him and moved her hands in a few gestures. Apparently she did know how to speak in sign language. I pondered learning it myself since we were working together now.
"No stay in the back in case we get pulled over," Roman told her, "keep your scroll ready in case we run into any funny business, make the back appear empty if I signal you."
She nodded and moved to the back of the truck with the rest of my crew closing it up while Roman and I got back into the cab. I started the engine and we drove away with a good haul.
"Did you see what was so special about this haul? It had to be something good if they got a huntsmen and a huntress to guard it." I asked Roman. Nothing about Lil Miss's report had mentioned anything about guards with aura or specialized drones. But even her information wasn't a hundred percent reliable, after all she didn't know about me being Ozpin's spy.
"I think these might have something to do with it," Roman said, producing a glittering uncut crystal from his sleeve. "These crystals are rather rare, and the shipment was mostly specialty dust ammunition and a few dispensing grenades and other munitions. My guess is that this particular shipment was probably on special order by some huntsmen or private military."
"I see, so those clients aren't going to be too happy about having their shipment delayed," I mused, trying to imagine just how bad the Schnee Dust Company had to be looking right now. "Maybe I should try buying stocks in the SDC's competitors," I mused. I didn't know jack shit about the stock market but I knew enough to know that anyone else selling dust was probably looking good right about now.
Roman laughed, "Why didn't I think about that?" he said looking at the various dust gems he had personally taken. "I'm sure those stock brokers already thought about it and took advantage. That's a whole new level of thievery Gent, stealing with paperwork."
"It was just a thought, I'm not exactly familiar with that kind of racket," I explained to him.
"You weren't familiar with any kind of racket," Roman reminded me. "But you learned fast."
I shrugged, "I had good teachers."
"And now you're learning from the best. Speaking of which Gentleman, what are you planning to do with all the money? You told Junior that the first little robbery was to get some quick cash for a legal business. Any plans for that?" He asked me as he pulled a cigar from his jacket and clipped the end.
That had been a lie, an excuse to Junior to avoid the truth about Ozpin pushing me into that shitshow. I honestly hadn't thought about it much since. I had figured that the little excuse had been considered forgotten along with the rest of the incident. "It was a silly idea," I told him, trying to deflect the question, "you'd just laugh if I told you."
Roman lit his cigar with his lighter and took a long first puff off the stogie. "Hey I used to be a young guy with big dreams myself, I won't laugh Gent."
I took a bit of a pause that made it seem like I was considering telling him or not. In actuality I was just trying to think of something on the fly. "I was thinking of opening up a nightclub," I told him saying the first thing that came to my mind.
"A nightclub?" He said blowing out a thick cloud of smoke. "I see that Junior really has been rubbing off on you."
I shrugged. "I don't know if I'd want a club exactly like what Junior's got. But like I said it was a silly idea. I don't know the first thing about running a nightclub."
Roman chuckled. "Gent you don't need to know jack shit, you just need to hire people that do know what to do and hand them the reigns."
"Really?" I asked him, thinking it couldn't be that easy.
"More or less, that and have someone with a clean record to own the place on paper," he explained. "It's easier to hide your taxes if everyone thinks the money is going to someone else, When my father opened a casino back in Mountain Glenn, he was officially listed as the "Food and Beverage Director" but believe me he ran and owned the place while some real estate broker had his name on all the paperwork."
That was the first time I had ever heard Roman talk about his father "Lucky" Luca. That man was a legend in this business and hearing Roman talk about him, as someone that knew him probably more than anyone alive was fascinating. "Too bad that casino went to the grimm," I said, regretful that the city had become a monster infested wasteland.
Roman nodded. "Yeah it's a crying shame, if that city was still standing then things would be very very different," he explained to me with a hard look in his eyes. "That city would have become the jewel of this country."
"Really?" I asked him, thinking it was only an arrogant boast at the time.
"You have no idea," he said with a shake of his head. "But it hardly matters now. But I might be able to talk to some people about that club."
I nodded and left it at that. I knew that the mafia was very big in the development of Mountain Glenn but how Roman talked about it it seemed like they owned the city. I didn't want to pry but I had so many questions for him. From what Sara and Akito had mentioned while I was getting my ink Roman had been training to be a huntsmen while his father Luca had been building his criminal empire in Mountain Glenn.
How did someone like him end back up into this life of crime when he wanted to be a huntsman? I figured that there was no way he could be like me, falling into this business for Ozpin's schemes.
I would come to learn the truth behind all of it later as I fell further and further down into this life and into the arms of the Torchwick Family.