There I was, revolver in hand and aimed the man I had swore to bring down eventually. He had ruined my father's career, corrupted the police force and hurt the people of Naples for over 30 years. Ducked and dodged every charge the government threw at him.
Not today, he was going down today. I was either going to kill him or he was going to surrender and be arrested. I was hoping he'd draw a weapon and give me more of a reason to kill him. The slimeball mobster before me was Carmine Stefano. A sleazy, arrogant mafioso from Sicily who took the mainland by storm. Especially here in Naples.
"Why do you do this, Viktor?" He asked me, his stare barely leaving my gun for long. "You do know that my men are going to find you and kill you, right? You can't run." Carmine said to me, "I'm going to beat every charge."
I knew somewhere in me that this was true, he had every judge in Italy in his pocket. But there had been too much bloodshed over the days for the people, the government, to let the case go. Too much blood on my hands, on Carmine's hands and on the hands of the nations mafias.
"You're right." I said to him, "Maybe I should just kill you." As I began to press down on the trigger I could feel my head begin to burn.
The pain only got worse and worse, my ear drum felt like it had exploded and soon I was losing my balance. I fell over easily, my body slamming against the ground, but I felt nothing. No impact. Just the burning, the warmth of blood on my face and the coldness of the hard wood floor of Carmine's office.
It didn't take long for me, on my last breathes, to figure out that I had been shot. My mind raced as I thought back on what had led me to this moment. The series of bad choices that had ended my life. A life that was truly flashing before my eyes.
It began on December 21st or maybe the 22nd, we had just took down some Stefano family mooks, a group of Russian gangsters and Triads from the east in a drug bust that would cripple their organizations just days before.
Several high ranking members of each organization, some willing to snitch in exchange for lighter sentences or protection. This was all in conjunction with Interpol, the American CIA, Hong Kong police and the FBI. This was going to be the biggest bust in Europe, Asia and America in recent history.
I sat on my sofa drowning myself in booze and American cartoons. Bugs Bunny was my favorite. Him and that duck tended to make me laugh even when I felt the most down or stressed. My cellphone rang loudly, I would be a liar if I said it hadn't scared me a little bit before I realized what it was and answered.
"Vetrano speaking." I said to the man, woman, or thing on the other end of the line. "Bad news." It was my partner, Ezio, he had been working undercover for several years. He had grown up with me, but unlike me his father wasn't a cop.
His father was muscle for Stefano, ended up killed by dirty cops on a rival mobster's payroll as a way to get back at Stefano. My family took Ezio in. We did everything together. We were brothers. We joined the military together, we fought together, we left pieces of ourselves in Afghanisan together.
I put on the uniform and decided to become the face of what we were doing while he decided to cripple Stefano from the inside. We were going to change the country, eliminate the Mafia and the gangs. We fought a war on two fronts, one on my side of the law and one their side.
"What? What's the problem?" I asked Ezio. Whenever Ezio called me with bad news it was always understated by the word 'bad'. "Remember the gangsters you busted?" He asked me, "The Russians and the Chinese will be going down in their respective countries." Ezio told me, "The Stefano goons will be getting off thanks to corrupt cops and corrupt judges."
I don't know why but Ezio's words sent me into a rage. The blood in me was literally coming to a boil.
Maybe it was the fact that we had spent more than a year building this case, shaking snitches, busting small drug and gambling operations, doing everything in our power to get to this point in time where we could put these scumbags behind bars and finally push over the domino that would start the chain reaction we were hoping for.
It took maybe a three phone calls and some extra money tossed as politicians and cops just to undermine the whole operation and put those men back on the streets and send us back to square one.
"I spoke to the lieutenant. We won't be pursuing the case for now, I'll be remaining undercover with Stefano getting what I can but it'll be kept quiet in case we have any moles." Ezio told me, "Why are you telling me this?" I asked him.
"You're one of the only people he wants to know. I can't let you know who else is in on it, Viktor, but just know that there are still a few good cops left." He was wrong, very wrong. We were going to find that out in just a few days.
"And Viktor?" Ezio asked, "Yeah?" I answered, "Try to have a merry Christmas. Even with all this going on." Ezio told me.
His words barely making me laugh, but I forced one out just for him. "I'll try. I'll do what I can." I told Ezio, "Merry Christmas." With those words I hung up the phone, quickly taking the time to dial another number.
"Hello? Lieutenant, it's Vetrano. I know, I know, Ezio told me already. I have a favor to ask you. Can I be fired?" I asked the Lieutenant, "Crazy, I know, but I think it's time I gave up the cop life for a life of crime. I'll be in to... turn in my badge today."
It was the start of a crazy few days which I thought would be routine. The risk of death and torture if I was outed as an undercover cop was routine to me at this point.
It wasn't my first time grabbing the bull by the horns. People knew me. Not as Viktor Vetrano the police officer, but they knew the face and the man who was Viktor Vetrano the ex-soldier.
I'm sure you don't need to ask what would go wrong, I started my story with the bullet that was bringing it to an end.