The footage of a surveillance camera was projected into the middle of the room as Eric, Jaime, and four of the Family’s Lieutenants watched in silence.

The footage came from one of the Allen Family’s most profitable establishments. A casino. Despite not being wealthy at all, the citizens that lived in the Southern Districts enjoyed going to the casino table at the end of a tough day and blowing away their pathetic paychecks in a futile effort to acquire wealth. Of course, the only thing these citizens did was move their money from their pockets to the treasury of the Allen Family.

Casinos are always the winner.

As the video started, everything was perfectly normal. The gamblers were gambling. The winners were screaming in excitement and the losers were screaming in regret. From time to time, the enforcers of the casino would remove a few customers who had lost all their money and refused to leave. Scarcely dressed waitresses danced through the crowd, all too comfortable with the random hands that landed on their skin.

And then everything went wrong.

A dozen men in masks charged into the casino, armed with automatic sub-machine guns. No gauss weapons, but still as deadly. A few enforcers reached for their weapons in a fit of desperation, only to be gunned down mercilessly by the intruders. The intruders were clearly highly trained and prepared. Within a few seconds, almost all the security personnel that the Allen Family spent plenty of money on were down. Not a single bullet was fired from them.

As the bodies started dropping, the clients of the casino screamed in utter terror. A few headed for the door in a futile attempt to flee, only to be gunned down by the intruders before they could even make it out of the halls. When the clients finally stopped running and screaming, they were lined up one by one and forced to hand over all their credits, MIs, and other valuables to the intruders.

Finally, as the robbery was wrapping up, one of the intruders fired a string of bullets into the air before shouting at the top of his lungs.

“The boys of the West Gangs send their regards!”

With that said, the intruders quickly turned and fled the casino. Even as they left, they were moving in an organized and tactical fashion. A few weapons were always trained on the customers, and within seconds, they were gone.

The recording ended there. The audio faded away, giving the people in the room a chance to speak their opinions on what just happened.

“This is outrageous!” Jaime was the first to give voice to her thoughts even as the others were still thinking. “The West Gang knows the casino is our territory! They are provoking us! We must answer in kind!”

“It doesn’t make any sense.” One of the Lieutenants cut in. His name was Serhant. He was one of Eric’s second-in-command, and like his boss, he was a cautious and often paranoid man. “The West Gangs are known to be conservative with their work. An attack like this feels...sloppy. Even psychotic. Why would the West Gangs do this?”

“I can think of a few reasons.” Jaime rebutted. “On one hand, they want the money. We haven’t been doing so well, especially not after that butcher Lamb became the Count. They must have taken a hit as well. On the other hand, they are trying to expand their influence while embarrassing us in public. An attack like this does both.”

Serhant nodded quietly. He had to admit Jaime had a point. After all, if the Allen Family couldn’t even protect the customers inside its own establishments, then what respect did it deserve?

Eric was still silent, and another Lieutenant, the one whose report was cut off by Jaime, offered his input.

“Sir, I think Jaime is onto something. The West Gang has been doubling down on its recruiting process. They are offering more money than before to hire enforcers. It seems like they are not as content with their current situation as they want us to think.”

As all eyes were trained on him, Eric nonetheless remained in his seat, silent. All the evidence were pointing to a single narrative. The West Gang got greedy and made a move toward the Allen Family. That was it. End of story. Now, if that was really the case, then retaliation would be in order, which meant a lot of people would die.

“Father!” Jaime called out again. “Things are obvious! We must do something! Now!”

For the first time after seeing the footage, the patriarch of the Family finally spoke up.

“Tell all our establishments to be extra careful. Recall all our enforcers and have them ready for action. Send out scouts and keep an eye on the locations of the West Gang. And...reimburse those who are robbed at the casino for their loss. In fact...give them some extra credits so they can keep their mouths shut.”

“But...that’s it?” Jaime frowned as her father finished. “What about fighting back? Retaliation?”

“There is something fishy about this whole thing.” The middle-aged man replied quietly as he pushed his fingers against his forehead. “The West Gang has no reason to make a move against us, especially not at a peculiar time like this. And the fact that they just shouted out their supposed allegiance...it’s almost too obvious. Too easy.”

The man suddenly stood up from his seat and scanned Jaime and his Lieutenants.

“Someone is trying to turn us against the West Gang. I don’t know who. For all we know, it may even be the CSF. Regardless, the best thing we can do now is to wait. If we make a move against the West Gang, then we walk right into the trap of whoever is behind this.”

Jaime still had her objections, but she had no choice but to keep them to herself. The other Lieutenants looked like they had their ideas as well, but likewise, they simply obeyed Eric’s orders. The patriarch's caution had saved the Allen Family from countless dangerous situations where many others have fallen. They believed in him, and they trusted that his leadership would bring the Allen Family to victory and prosperity once again.

For a few days, nothing happened. At least not on the surface. Just as the Allen Family was about to think that the attack on the casino was a one-time thing, another attack hit.

This time, a restaurant that paid the Allen Family for protection was robbed. The entire building was burned down, along with the bodies of a squad of enforcers from the Allen Family that tried to step in and play the hero.

And then a third one. And a fourth one.

Every single time, the attackers declared themselves to be employed by the West Gang, and they made sure to leave plenty of evidence and eyewitnesses to spread the word to the rest of the Southern Districts. They wanted to strike a blow to the sense of authority and power of the Allen Family, and their plan was working.

Of course, the West Gang denied that they played a role in these attacks, but while this led a few to doubt who the true culprits behind this were, most simply saw this as a pathetic attempt to lie or an effort to troll the Allen Family.

The common enforcers and gang members didn't care about what might be going on in the shadows. All they knew was that their comrades were being slaughtered and their paychecks were under siege. They were brutes, and as brutes, all they knew was that they had to fight back.

They demanded retribution against the West Gang, and with every attack that occurred, Eric found it more and more difficult to refuse their demands.

At this point, Eric was put into a very awkward situation. An all-out war against the West Gang would be costly, dangerous, and would likely benefit the true culprits behind these attacks. Even worse, it would attract the attention of the CSF. Perhaps this would finally convince the Imperials to step in with an iron fist and burn everyone that might be involved with the gangs.

Unfortunately, he had little choice in the matter as the looting continued. He tried reinforcing the locations, but the Allen Family only had so much manpower, and they achieved little when spread across the many establishments of the Family. The attackers were elites, moving and shooting faster than some of the best enforcers the Allen Family had. A few defenders meant nothing more than a few more dead bodies.

At this point, Eric was asked by everyone, from many of the Lieutenants to his own daughter, to step in and take action. He refused all these demands with his authority, but even he knew he couldn’t do this forever.

The Family demanded blood for the losses and the humiliation, and they shall have it one way or another.

That was when some good news arrived in the form of a particularly quick-thinking hotel employee.

When a squad of intruders stormed their way into a hotel and gunned down the two defenders at the door, the hotel employees did their best to cooperate with the intruders by leading them to all the guests at the building. However, one of the employees had a plan of his own.

While working with the intruders, he found the opportunity to sneak a mini-microphone into the man’s pocket without him noticing.

It was certainly a dangerous task. The intruders have proven that they weren’t afraid of dropping bodies, and if his actions were discovered, the employee would be doomed. Luckily for him, luck was on his side, and his microphone was able to collect a lot of priceless information from the conversation between the intruders when they were in private.

The employee turned this info to Eric at the first possible chance, and when Eric heard the recording and finally realized who was truly behind all this, he rewarded the employee so much that the man would never have to work a day in his life ever again.

It turned out that his suspicions were correct and the intruders weren’t hired by the West Gang. Instead, they were working for the Reese Cartel. It appeared like after being too high-profile and almost being purged by the CSF, the Reese Cartel was severely weakened both in terms of manpower and resources. At the same time, to prevent itself from being targeted by the now more powerful Allen Family and West Gang, the Reese Cartel decided to find a way and pit them against each other. The series of attacks were ordered with this purpose in mind.

Once the Allen Family and the West Gang battled each other and exhausted their resources, the Reese Cartel would finally have a chance of re-establishing its influence in the Southern Districts.

This was a great plan, and Eric had to admit he was impressed. He always thought schemes like this were beyond the psychopaths that made up the Reese Cartel. Alas, he was proven wrong.

Either way, Eric was somewhat glad of this turn of events, for this meant he wouldn’t need to worry about another enemy in the shadows. The CSF wasn’t involved in this. ONI and other Imperial branches had nothing to do with these attacks. The West Gang hadn’t suddenly gone mad either. This was the handiwork of another criminal organization. A criminal organization that had been severely weakened and had become easy prey. Nothing more.

In other words, he was free to make a move against them. He was free...to strike.