Takeover || (Completed)

Conflict

Luke returned to the Palace the week after the battle had ended. He was surprised to notice that the Palace hadn't been burned down yet and was still standing after the many chemical airstrikes launched by the US. Everyone was still at their desks when Luke walked into the conference room, violently tapping away at their keyboards once again. He walked up to one of them and looked over their shoulder. They were writing attack strategies for Portugal and Germany. It seemed to be roughly the same as the Spanish invasion plan but instead of mainly attacking from the land they would attack mainly from the sea, as Portugal was mainly surrounded by sea. It would be like attacking through a bottleneck if they took the land.

The attack on Portugal would not happen for a few more months as they established a stable economy and rebuilt their military. Luke, out of boredom one day, was looking through his closet when he found his suitcase that he had brought from Tristan da Cunha. He opened it up and wasn't surprised by what he saw. Clothes, his laptop, a small foam ball and three pairs of sneakers. However, what he wasn't expecting to find was a plethora of A4 paper at the bottom of the suitcase that was attached to each other by a paperclip. I never put this here, thought Luke as he picked it up and looked at it. It was titled The Memoirs of Daniel Ross. He opened it to read the first page.

To Lucas Michael Ross (or any other person reading this),

If you're reading this then I am almost definitely dead. I just want to apologise for what I have done to you while I was alive. I could give reason to my actions but you would probably get bored after a while. But, I want to tell you the truth in this letter. I originally recruited you for the assassination of the Mayor so that you would have to come with me to Tristan.

There really was no Mayor of Avignon. I asked one of my buddies from construction to do it. The mayor of Avignon was nothing but a dummy and the driver knew he was going to crash and braced for impact, which is why he survived. I also wanted to let Niki know that you were going to bomb her, although she already knew about it when I did tell her.

The bombing was also a ploy. The police never really knew about our involvement in the bombing or the car crash. I made that up so that you would have an incentive to join me on the crusade of sorts. Your intelligence was and always will be a great asset to this family.

I tipped Niki off about our plan to launch bioweapons in France and gave her the exact location of where we would be, which allowed her to stage an ambush on you and I. When you had noticed something was up, I lied and said nothing was wrong for a reason. That gratuitous murder session was just a move to get everybody's attention.

Finally, I wanted you to read that diary insert. I purposely got heavily drunk so that you wouldn't suspect me of playing a trick. When you read it, you would have a reason to kill me. The plan was always for you to take over. With your actions against me, you would demonstrate to the people closest to you that you were ruthless and not to be messed with.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel T. Ross

Luke closed the pamphlet. He's been planning this all along, thought Luke as he stared at the front page, he's been pulling the strings this entire time and I was nothing but a puppet. Luke couldn't believe it. His brother had gotten him to kill dozens of people and commit hundreds of sins just so that he could take charge of Daniel's plan. In a way, it was a sort of flattery but Luke was still annoyed. He went to read the next page, which appeared to be his will.

To Lucas Michael Ross,

I leave all my earthly possessions to you as well as the meaning of life. It's 42. All my money is in a bank account. You will find the debit card and bank details in another section of your suitcase.