The Castle On The Hill

Epilogue

Epilogue.

In a certain Italian restaurant in Seattle.

"Don- there is call for you."

"Hmm?" A short and skinny man in his early fifties lifted his head. No one would imagine looking at his short stature and innocent face that he was the leader of the Amato family. He spoke in a distinctly thin voice,

"Who is it?"

"It's Consigliere Edin." The tall man who held the phone replied.

"I wondered when he would contact me. I haven't seen him around these past few months. Ok, give me-" he took the phone and pressed it against his ears,

"Ciao, mio amico! Come stai?"

He started the conversation with a smile but his face became bitter by the second. He then forcefully smiled,

"Is that so? Then it's wonderful news. But I have something I need to take care here. It'll take me about a week.

Ok, I'll meet you there in a week. Stammi bene!"

He threw the phone on the sofa in anger after he cut the line,

"That bastard Edin! Not only does he want to get out, He want his sister out too!"

The Capo who gave Don the phone attempted to calm him down,

"Calm down Don. He called because he obtained the whole amount you set for him, right? Isn't it a good thing?"

Don shook his head,

"You don't understand. Just think- I set an impossible amount of money for him to pay if he were to quit. It's not even a year and he somehow managed to obtain that amount. Now think, what he could achieve if he worked for me another five or ten years!"

But the Capo didn't agree,

"Wasn't he the Consigliere when the previous Don went down? Are you sure you want him in our family again?"

"He warned us about the traitor but the Previous Don didn't listen. And so, he paid the price."

The Capo became silent after hearing that. He held a resentment toward Edin because he got away when the previous Don couldn't but now that he heard that Edin had warned the previous Don of the traitor, then it was the Don's fault.

The current Don sighed. He then turned to his Capo Bastone who was sitting beside him and spoke in a sinister voice,

"If we can't have him, then no one else can. Understand?"

The Capo Bastone was seriously surprised,

"You are telling me to break the family code?"

The Don met his subordinate's gaze,

"The previous Don adhered to the code. Look where it got him."

The underboss couldn't refute. He stayed silent.

The Don looked around the room but no one made a sound. He then opened his mouth,

"It's decided then." He turned to the capo,

"Sergio- get me a drink. I'm feeling thirsty after all that talking."

"Yes Don."

***

"Argh...My leg is killing me!"

"Idiot! That's why I said to sit behind with me."

"The Plane was too small! Why couldn't we charter a bigger plane- maybe a jet?"

"Stop dreaming and help me take our luggage off."

"Coming." But Arthur showed no sign of moving. He continued to massage his legs.

Summer sighed. She moved her head around. The plane they were on landed on a remote field in California. She could also see the bodies of the mountains some distance away. The field was quite big and flat so she understood why planes use this field as a runaway.

What she didn't understand was how Jones convinced her to come here. True- she was getting bored of normal assignments but still to come here, just Jones's say so, on his so-called confidential mission without the support of FBI and not knowing anything- just what the hell was she thinking? Jones said he would tell them everything when they got here- so, where was he? She scanned the field but didn't spot anyone.

"What are you looking for?" Arthur's voice came from the side.

Summer turned and saw Arthur was standing beside her. She gave the bag she was holding to him and spoke,

"Who else? Jones! If he doesn't come to pick us up with a car- we have to walk to the nearest town on foot, carrying all our luggage."

"Oh...Don't worry, he'll come." Arthur put down the bag. Then he started to take out their luggage from the plane's cargo hold.

Summer wished she could share Arthur's optimism. But standing around moping wouldn't do anything so she also started taking out the luggage.

As soon as the last bag hit the ground, they heard a sound of a vehicle. Summer and Arthur both lifted their head and saw a jeep coming towards them. It took the jeep a couple of minutes to reach them. The jeep stopped beside them and its front door opened. They had no trouble recognizing the silhouette that came down.

Arthur turned to Summer and smiled,

"See- What did I tell you?"

Jones walked up to them and spoke in a somber tone,

"Quickly load up the luggage into the jeep. We have a lot of work to do."

"What work? We still don't know why we are here!" Summer looked at Jones face and met his eyes.

Jones returned her glare with a calm gaze and replied,

"Don't worry. I'll tell you everything on the way."

END

[END OF BOOK I. The story will continue in BOOK II]