Pretending to Be an Untouchable Crime Boss
Chapter 250 250: Human.

Now, the silence was heavier than before… as the hierarchy seemed to be broken, the hierarchy that chained them together… but to be true, there was never hierarchy.

Linda might be a high ranking politician and the agency is under her oversight, but in reality, there is no oversight. The agency is a different kind of branch of the whole map for the exact reason to not get influenced by politicians, by sides… the only thing needed to matter is the protection of the homeland.

And now they were literally yelling and calling each other bitches… using a language that even if a five second clip would leak out, it would fuck up the whole department, the whole hierarchy more… yeah, and they were doing it over and over again.

They were doing everything but protecting the country.

Benjamin is obsessed over James like a fanboy while Linda herself is too kind of skeptical after she said she wants to run for presidency… they both only look at their own benefit in the whole situation. The greediness is taking over them, not looking at the bigger picture of what they should have been doing.

Working together and making a better place to live at… and the ones that knew what to do were Stephen and Thomas. Those two who actually were doing their job while Benjamin was going after chasing James and Linda were just all over the place.

"The real question is how he got into Macari." Stephen said. "He needs fake ID, and passport as well as clearance, like his family got, but if he gets caught it would be obvious it was with the help of our government and it would just cause more trouble to us."

"I thought about the same." Thomas spoke. "But I highly doubt he would get caught, who knows how many connections he has even abroad, but what is worrying me is what he is going to do in those 3 weeks." He looked up. "If we do our plan without him then it literally means nothing."

"Secret channels, we can send the information to him." Benjamin's voice came from the phone. "We give him a laptop with access and there it is, he can speak with us, look at the plans as well. He can give us his opinion on the matters, and secondly we don't need to wait for him, we can start busting down politicians and after that the gangsters, until then we only aim at those who had no hand in drugs or any underworld business, only fraud and stealing, manipulation."

It made sense, no need to rush things in a way that would just cause more trouble… maybe that was their problem, looking too much into the future… into a future that can collapse within seconds.

"Agree, we should do it that way. In three weeks, we can achieve a lot, start the resurrection of the government system, while at the same time dig deeper into bigger players, get all the information and little details we can, even send out agents for spying to make the story more believable, even making small mistakes to seem more human. We can build up something great if James works with us."

"And he has no other choice but to work with us." Thomas said. "Let's be real, if he turns against us, he falls too. The only way to save the family is to work with us and that's it, no other way." He leaned back. "We already merged into one fucking big mafia family."

Silence again, but this time everybody knew that what Thomas said was the right definition of what's happening right now and what they have become.

A mafia family that operates the government and they didn't even really notice it, or more likely didn't care about it at all.

"One day..." Linda suddenly started speaking, but something was off about her voice. "...we're all going to die. Maybe it'll be an execution when all this shit comes out. Maybe a quiet assassination. Maybe a car crash. Or if we're lucky we'll live long enough to die of old age." She looked at them, her eyes flickering with something between sorrow and hope. "But when I die, I want to go knowing that at least one thing I did... wasn't corruption, fraud, or the mess we're drowning in. I want something on my record that isn't just evil… something good... something that even if it's small stands taller than all the bad." She gave a tired, almost broken smile. "I just want at least one person to remember me for something decent. Just one. Because that matters, doesn't it?" She looked at them again. "Let's die knowing we tried, because that's what life's about, even if our names end up on the list of criminals… we tried… didn't we?"

Everything she'd said… it hit too close to home.

It was the truth about them, about their lives. They weren't heroes, the heroes who people celebrated outside… they are barely even shadows of who they used to be or perhaps, shadows of who they should've been.

But maybe… just maybe, this was their time to bloom from this rotten system they lived for years, this system that lived off the public suffering and despair. To bloom through the cracks, to prove there was still something human in them… to prove to themselves that they could be more than criminals with fading names.

"You're right." Thomas finally broke the silence.. "We're probably already dead, not on paper yet, but inside." He looked at her. "But hearing you say that…" He paused, shaking his head. "Fuck, Linda it was emotional." He chuckled, but it was coming from deep down, nothing funny about it… but sometimes all you can do is laugh.

"You want someone to remember you for something good?" Stephen spoke as he leaned back and looked at the ceiling like it could give him the answer. "Then maybe we better give them something to remember, something worth the blood on our hands." He looked at her. "I don't know if we'll make it out alive, or if anyone will ever speak our names without disgust. But I'll remember. I'll remember you." He pointed at Linda, then to Thomas."For you and for you too, Benjamin, I will remember everyone… even for this moment, for all this bullshit, because at least we are trying…" He stopped as something changed in his expression. "... but in the end, I think one name will overshadow all of us and all we can do is leave behind the little pieces of ourselves and pray that someone, somewhere, sees those pieces for what they were… humans."

A silence fell again as no words came from either of them. Stephen's words had struck a place in them deep, a place of them that still wanted to believe redemption was possible.

For a few minutes, they weren't leaders, not criminals, not manipulators. They were just people, flawed, broken, and desperately trying to hold on to the last thread of their humanity.