Lonely Thieves

Act III, Part III

Kolya's Side (April 11, 8:00 am)

As the Innocenti Bank Headquarters opened its offices for the day, two mafia grunts posing as employees walked along the street as they headed to the morning meeting.

"Damn it, it's already been a few days already," griped one grunt, a ponytail-sporting man in a striped suit. "How hard can it be to find one guy?"

"Not to mention he's taking our guys out like it's no big deal," added the other, a musclebound man with a buzz cut. "They always say the legends are exaggerated, but not with this guy."

As they continued to saunter down the street, the grunts spied two Hayasaka Security officers walking towards them as part of their patrol. Their expressions immediately became aggressive and taunting.

"Well, look who it is!" shouted the musclebound grunt as he puffed out his chest towards the Security officers. "If it ain't Hayasaka's security guards playing at police!"

One of the Hayasaka officers, an stern-looking woman, frowned as the two groups came to a standstill. "What's the matter? Trying to cause trouble again?"

"I'm just saying how I feel. You can't arrest me for saying words."

"You sure you wanna be talking like that?" The second officer, a tall man who seemed like your usual hothead. "We're the ones bothering to come out here and help you keep order in your own district."

"Hey, it ain't me who put in the call," the ponytailed grunt growled. "What're you even around here for? You bored 'cause the Overman Foundation is doing your job for you?"

"You wanna say that again?" the male officer growled. The female officer put a hand on his shoulder as if to hold him back, but her eyes were glowing with anger as well.

"What's going on here?"

The four turned around to see a man emerging from the Bank Headquarters gates. He was wearing the high-ranking uniform of a Hayasaka Security sergeant, and his countenance exuded authority and strength. The two officers immediately saluted as soon as they saw him, and even the Innocenti grunts seemed intimidated by his presence.

"Sergeant Faheem! Good morning, sir!"

"There's no time for you to be fighting is there? Get back on your patrol."

"Yes, sir!"

The two officers continued on their patrol, though they still bothered to throw the Innocenti grunts a few dirty looks as they left. The grunts grumbled, but didn't try to cause any more trouble.

"And what about you?" Faheem said to the two grunts. "Don't you have a meeting to get to?"

"Ain't no business of yours, is it?" retorted the ponytailed grunt, but they didn't try to antagonize any further than that. The two grunts walked brusquely past the officer and headed into the bank.

In the twelfth floor of a skyscraper across the street from Innocenti Bank Headquarters, Kolya watched the situation unfold through the scope of a rifle. He had been analyzing the patrol patterns of the Hayasaka Security officers as well as the movements of the various mafia members who were keeping a lookout for him. He glanced down at the map he had drawn up on a notebook he had found in the empty office building he had been hiding out in since last night.

For the most part, the map merely confirmed what he had already figured out; that it was far too risky to try and infiltrate the building, at least on his own. If the Innocenti were on their own, Kolya might have managed to break in with relatively little risk. However, the addition of Hayasaka Security allowed them to cover the blind spots well enough that they could have their grunts running around looking for him.

As a matter of fact, a number of them were scheduled to break down the door to this abandoned office building any second now. Kolya was no amateur; he was not someone that any low-ranking grunt could easily track, and the only reason these men had even got a lead on him in the first place was because he had surreptitiously offered it to them in the first place.

As if on cue, three mafia men kicked down the door, pistols in hands. Kolya had already been expecting them, and was staring at the door with rifle in hand. The moment the door flew open. Kolya took out one of the grunts with a headshot. The other two reeled with shocked long enough for him to take them out in an instant as well. He crept towards the doorway and glanced down the hallway outside. Looks like no one else came along.

Kolya headed back to where he was sitting and put away his things. He then picked up the flight pack he had hidden away from one of his hiding places in the Sunshine district. He had expected them to raid it, but they ended up missing one of his caches, which had this inside. He had taken it from an Overman Hawk during a mission, and he thought it might come in handy. It was an older model, but it should still fly fairly well.

After putting on the flight pack, Kolya took out a pistol and shot out the window, then leapt out of the building. He immediately revved up the flight pack, which stopped his fall and sent him soaring into the sky. Kolya quickly grasped the flight pack's controls and flew around the Innocenti Bank Headquarters for a few seconds before shooting off to another part of town.

There was a reason for why he was taking such attention-grabbing methods. Right now, Kolya was separated from Megumi and all the others involved in the theft of the emerald necklace. He had no idea where they were or where to even begin looking for them, and making contact with them was too risky to try.

Because of that, Kolya decided to draw the attention of the Innocenti family and keep their minds off of the theft. As long as Kolya, who at this point was also a high-priority target, kept showing up around the Sunshine district causing trouble, the Innocentis couldn't afford to ignore him. Keeping Hayasaka Security occupied was also a nice second benefit. Of course, he needed to keep himself from getting caught as well, but that was no trouble. Despite his advanced age, Kolya was more than capable of staying ahead of the mafia grunts who were beng sent to detain him.

All that would change if the Innocenti top started sending more capable men after him. Amoretto was already leading the effort to take him out, but he wasn't the sort to get his hands dirty unless he was desperate. If someone like Brunetti or Gaspari went after him, he might have a little trouble.

Kolya glanced down at the city below him. Sure enough, he'd caught the attention of several mafia members. Some of them foolishly tried to shoot him down with pistols, but they weren't able to hit him.

Kolya continued to fly north, dipping slowly below the skyscrapers so that his landing point would be obscured. After ensuring that the surroundings were clear, Kolya landed on an abandoned patch of land, with only a few civilians around to witness his descent. This was fairly close to where he had left his car, and he dashed straight for the car as soon as he landed, abandoning the flight pack the moment he touched down.

Once he got into his car, he immediately drove off. He wasn't looking to drive anywhere in particular, but he was sure that Amoretto had people watching his car. Sure enough, after a few seconds a car began following him at a distance. He couldn't tell exactly who was in the car, but he would bet that they were Innocenti men.

He drove around leisurely for a while to make sure that the car was following him, then accelerated, zooming off towards a highway exit. As expected, the car chased after him in a panic. The two cars blasted towards the Eclipse district, Kolya just barely managing to keep ahead of his pursuers.

Their chase continued once they were in the Eclipse district. Kolya continued to drive aimlessly, taking bizarre turns and detours as if he were trying to get rid of his tail. The pursuers started to get irritated, but the small roads made it difficult for them to accelerate to catch up with him.

The pursuers finally cornered him in a dead end road leading down the side of a warehouse. Using their car to block off the only exit, the pursuers stepped out of the car and slowly approached Kolya's car, which appeared to be parked. They cautiously approached with guns drawn until they realized that the car was empty. They then rushed to the car, but no one was inside. In a panic, one of the grunts pulled open the driver's side door to check the inside.

The moment he did so, he set off a trap that Kolya had set up. The car immediately filled up with smoke, blinding the group completely. As the pursuers tried to regain their bearings, Kolya emerged from his hiding spot below the car and began to take out the pursuers one by one.

Eventually, there was only one pursuer left still conscious, who Kolya disarmed and struck in the stomach quickly, sending him out of the smoke cloud. He then pinned him to the ground using his knee and held a pistol to his face.

"Why are you after me? Do you know?"

"Shut up, traitor! I'm not going to tell you a damn thing!"

Kolya grimaced. After all, that was the reasoning they gave for his execution order. Well, he didn't expect the Innocenti heads to even consider telling the low-level grunts what they were really hunting him for. That probably meant that he didn't have any information worth getting.

Still, that didn't mean there was nothing to be gained. Kolya knocked the man out with a strike with the butt of his pistol. Then, he reached into his pocket and placed a listening device in the man's jacket, similar to the one he used on Amoretto. The grunt might not have any information himself, but he might come across information by chance.

Once he was done with that, he hopped into the pursuers' car and drove off. There was not enough time to take his own car along, and this should make him a little harder to find. Besides, there were certainly benefits to switching cars, such as having an encrypted connection to the locations of the other Innocenti footsoldiers. Kolya turned on the auto-pilot as he messed around with the car's terminal. There was a lot to take care of if he wanted to truly cause the Innocenti some trouble.