BANG

Pierre's body jolts backward as everyone watches shocked, a look of disbelief plastered on their face. 

"C'est fini."

Anastasia said calmly, her face cold and unfazed by everything she had just seen. 

"Take care of their bodies, cremate them, and send the ashes back to France." 

She nodded toward the family members to grab the corpses. Two bulky men, Frank and Willy, both in charge of the streets, walked up to the bodies and began to drag them out of the room. Several other members of the family joined in and within moments the place was cleared of corpses but sported half a dozen people whose clothes were covered in blood.

Anastasia continued speaking with the same calm and even tone. As if she hadn't just executed the three oldest members of her family.

"The last six months have been a disaster for us."

She gestured towards a large board that had been attached to the wall, formerly draped beneath a silky red cloth but now laid bare. On it was a series of pictures depicting different people, some of whom were in the family but all of whom were directly connected to it in some way.

"We've lost seven family members, not including the ones we lost today, and twenty-nine members of the organization. This is beyond unacceptable."

Anastasia seemed not to notice the strange looks on Natalia and Mikhail's faces and continued.

"We cannot allow the family to be weakened any further. It is time to make a move."

She pointed to Samuel, who has been skulking around since she started with the confession,

"You are responsible for a batch of high-quality goods coming in from Somsak's plantation. Remember to set the price at twice the street rate,"

Samuel wanted to protest but was cut short,

"For even the goods we have to supply to the Romanians."

Once again he wanted to speak up but a seething glare from Anastasia managed to shut him up.

There was silence as everyone waited for her to go on. She turned to face everyone in the room, scanning their faces to see who she'd need to deal with today.

"Frank, you take over the street supervision role from Fredrick and get those seven streets under control again. Pull back the men assigned to attack the Italians."

The bulky man nodded with a grin while the older one frowned.

"Pull ALL the men from the strike teams back into their original roles. We will be going passive until we manage to restart our revenue flow."

Anastasia turned once again to the other members of the family.

"We need to cut our losses for now and concentrate on keeping things stable. It's the only way to survive this period of financial difficulty."

She paused for a moment, looking around the room.

Most of them agreed with her statement that the finances had been tight ever since the Italians started their assault. Not to mention those who didn't agree had to keep their mouths shut since they also needed money to go against the enemy.

They all needed more money coming in. The Italian war was destroying them. But there were a few dissenters.

"What about the Italians? They would surely start attacking once we go on the passive."

One man spoke up.

"Shouldn't we send the strike team to do another attack? Or are we declaring cease-fire?"

Frank stared at the man, waiting for Anastasia to answer.

"Pull back the strike team. No questions asked. Let them assume we are signaling for a ceasefire."

Anastasia continued with a slight smirk.

"We need to give the appearance that we're backing off. That way, the Italians will believe that we can't afford to carry on any further. Hopefully, they'll leave us alone for a while."

She took another long drag from the cigarette before finishing,

"In the meantime, we'll have to negotiate with the Indonesians,"

"The Indonesians?"

A surprised question from the gathered members, but it was soon met with silence once they saw the cold look in her eyes telling them how serious she was.

Anastasia let out a soft exhale before continuing,

"The Indonesians are knee-deep in the human trafficking business, just like their rivals in the Triad. There used to be a balance between them but that was broken when the Triad started to support the Italians in their attempt at biting off a giant chunk from their business."

"And how are we supposed to get them to side with us?"

The question from a family member was met with a calm look, a slight smile, and a soft exhale, and instead of answering his question she asked her own,

"What's keeping the Indonesians from starting an all-out war with the Triad? Or even wiping out the Italians in one swift stroke?"

"Well,"

Anastasia started the explanation with a soft tone, her hand casually putting out the burnt cigarette and grabbing a new one.

"The Indonesians and Triad are both fighting for control over the human trafficking business. If they go to all-out war, it would not only be destructive and costly, but it would also hurt their revenues significantly."

There was a moment of silence as Anastasia took a drag out of her cigarette and slowly blew the smoke toward the ceiling above.

"They could never make a move like that. Not right now."

She paused, thinking about how to express the situation in the clearest way possible.

"Think about it. The Indonesians have never been happy about the idea of a rival organization operating in the smuggling business. They've only tolerated it because of the balance of power between the Triads and the Indonesians. But now the balance suddenly tilted in the Triad's favor."

She scanned the faces in the meeting, hoping to spot someone who had caught up by now but saw none.

"Now that's where the fun starts."

Anastasia was clearly amused by the situation.

"The Indonesians don't want a war. Not with anyone. There's too much money to be made in peace, you know?"

She looked around, hoping to find someone who had finally caught up with the facts or maybe someone even caught up with the correct answer. Heck, even guesswork would do. And yet, none of them spoke. Instead, they stared at her intently, waiting for the answer to be revealed. 

Finally, after an almost minute of glaring, someone spoke up. 

"... Proxy?"

Muttered Frank in an almost inaudible voice. But over the room's silence, his voice sounded loud and clear.

"Exactly."

Anastasia nodded with a grin.

"The Triad has been using the Italians as a proxy to disrupt the power balance, they are slowly but surely corroding away the Indonesian's hold over the Trafficking ring. But the question remains the same. Why haven't the Indonesians retaliated yet?"

No answers. 

"Because they don't want to pay the price of taking on a proxy. But they also know that they can't afford to let the balance of power slip any further in favor of the Triads."

Anastasia sighed, seemingly frustrated by her inability to get anyone else to draw the correct conclusions.

"That's where we come in."

She paused and took another puff from the cigarette.

"We could act as the proxy. We could tell the Indonesians that we will be their mascot, their cover against a direct confrontation with the Triad. Through us, they can wipe out the cockroaches that have been munching away at their business."

She stopped speaking for a moment before continuing,

"The pros of choosing us instead of any other faction? We don't need a piece of the pie they call Human Trafficking. Cons? We won't be lifting a damned finger, it's them that needs to do all the work."

The gathered members were now looking at her with utter confusion. As she finished explaining her plan, some of them looked at each other for a moment in disbelief, then back at her.

One of the family members was the first to speak after the silence was broken.

"That sounds like an extremely dangerous plan,"

He spoke with a skeptical expression, causing the rest of the gathered members to collectively nod as well,

"And we are sure that the Indonesians will actually see us as an acceptable proxy?"

Anastasia nodded toward him, this was a good question,

"It's simple really, unlike the others, we don't want a piece of their Human Trafficking business and we provide them with a base to operate in Roanapur along with all the intel on the Italians." 

The gathered members were now all looking at her, their expression clearly betraying their skepticism and slight worry, but also a bit of hope, with a hint of belief. 

"We provide them with our base and intel. That sounds good in theory, but how do we ensure that they don't double-cross us?"

One of the more paranoid family members spoke up in response, this question causing the members who were hopeful to lower their heads and frown slightly.

"And what is it that they gain out of double-crossing us? Sure, Roanapur IS one of the rally points for drug smuggling, and human trafficking, and the base for fifty percent of pirating in the Gulf of Thailand. But are they sure they can hold this place as well as we have?"

The gathered members seemed to collectively nod in agreement, their expressions shifting to one of understanding.

It was all making sense now,

"They won't be able to hold Roanapur,"

One of the gathered members spoke up again, her voice resonating with a sudden realization,

"Their abrupt entry into this side of the sea would send shockwaves through the rest of the underworld. Picture this: a colossal crime syndicate barges into an already saturated market. What follows? War!"

Finally, someone grasped her point,

"Yes, it would ignite an all-out war involving the Triad, the Mafia, the Romanians, and every other 'international corporation.' Whether to drive the Indonesians out of sheer spite or to prevent them from tapping into another revenue source. And counting on them settling for just the Vorovich turf? Hardly. The effort wouldn't be worth a tenth of the revenue they stand to gain, and those greedy pigs never bathe in anything that doesn't sparkle like gold."

"I see what you're saying."

Another family member finally spoke up, this time with a look of realization on his face as he grasped the point made by Anastasia.

"If we provide them with our base and intel, they can safely crush the destabilizing factor in the trafficking rings. But if they double cross and take over our territory, it is almost guaranteed that it will start a bloody and costly war with several of the other factions of the underworld."

It was at this moment that the gathered members finally saw how clever the plan truly was, and a thoughtful look appeared on the majority of their faces.