ARTICLE 5

It had been a week since Daniel had established Rome. Romes base of operations was an abandoned cement factory two hours away from the city of Aines. It was all made of concrete so the only thing Daniel did was to convert some of the space into offices , shooting ranges ,a gym , training simulators and a lounge area.

He then sorrounded the building with high voltage electric fences security cameras with heat sensors and night vision. There were also four guard towers with heavy machine guns mounted on them.

Machine guns were also mounted on different areas onthe top of the building.

Inside the building every where was tiled black, the armory was protected by a 30 inch steel vault, the hallways were lined up with cameras leaving no blind spots.

As for the operatives that Colonel Abrams sent, at one look one could see that these guys were the cream of the crop. The Colonel had sent thirty combat operatives of which five were certified snipers , ten combat engineers and five pilots.

The combat operatives were divided into teams of three making up ten combat teams in total. Each team were to train together and practically do everything together so as to understand each other and to be able to work well with each other.

There were no aircraft available yet except for a few drones that had been purchased in the beginning, so that was what the only vehicle that they could operate at the moment.

The engineers on the other hand had nothing to do than to sit around doing nothing at least for now.

Mike was relieved of his duties as Daniels head of security and was asked to help organize Rome until someone else was appointed to take over.

All expenses and finances were all done through KNEIF incorporated. KNEIF now had two companies under it; KNEIF textiles and Rome. For now the only source of income for KNEIF incorporated was their shares in Balerion cigars. Balerion cigars had stabilized at §10 billion monthly minus operational costs earning KNEIF incorporated twenty percent which was § 2 billion monthly plus the extra 5 billion he already had.

It was February already so KNEIF incorporated was worth at least §9 billion, enough to fund Rome for a while.

The campaign efforts on the other hand were going really well, Catherine was very passionate in her campaigns and people were drawn to her due to her relatability.

Councilman Anas on the other hand never believed that someone would run against him in this election so both him and his team were unprepared for the rigorous and extensive campaign strategy . Also they couldn't even counter the policies that she was trying to implement. Several kidnapping attempts orchestrated by Anas against Catherine and her son were thwarted and immediately after the attempt several photos appeared anonymously in several newspapers showing Councilman Anas in compromising positions and in compromising places. It was at that moment that Anas knew that he had lost, those images even without any context painted him in a worse light than he was already viewed and he needed a way to fix this problem. In light of this he made his way to the office of the regional party leader to beg for assistance.

There were many political parties in Syldavia but the two major parties were the People's Congress and the Democratic party.

Anas belonged to the Democratic party, so were the other councilmen in Aines. In other words Aines was a Democrat city.

Phillip Madu was the regional chairman of the Democratic party in Aines city , he had also been the councilman in charge of Sol' before he retired from active politics.

Right now Madu was looking at Anas who was grovelling , begging him for assistance. The sight of a grown man on his knees begging made him feel disgusted that he almost threw up. He felt disappointed with Anas for growing complacent, thinking that because no one had challanged his position that it was really his.

" Look Anas, I don't care about anything you do for entertainment but the party can't handle any scandal right now. So this is what you're going to do, hold a press conference and tell them that you are resigning to further spend time with your family or something , pretend like the photos don't exist , go quietly and maybe the party won't drop you . Perhaps you might run again in four years."

Anas was devastated that he was asked to step down but it seemed to be the only plausible way to weather the storm. He could've decided to go against the party's wishes but that would mean that his political career was relatively over.

The next day Anas held a press conference and did as he was told and resigned from his position and the election making Catherine Graham the defacto councilwoman of the Sol' district.

The political climate of Aines had just took a drastic change , for the first time in decades the Democratic party lost its grip on a district and Catherine ended up being the first female councilwoman in Aines.

Daniel was with Mike when he got the news of the unexpected win. The first thing he did was to call Catherine and congratulate her on her win . He never really thought that councilman Anas was going to drop out of the election so early. It actually made things much easier for him and helped him save resources . This was that the first step in achieving his goal.

"Alright Mike you know what to do right , use the new guys let's see how capable they are "

Daniel was never going to forgive Anas for making an attempt on his life so he had tasked Mike with eliminating Anas and his Aide.

Anas was being helped into his car by his aide after drowning himself in alcohol to mask his sorrow. He never expected what would happen next , a shabby looking van parked beside his car and of course no one paid any attention to it but then suddenly two men jumped out of the van and rushed towards them the first one stabbed the aide multiple times in the chest while the other slit the former councilman's throat . It all happened in the matter of seconds and two people lay in the parking lot at beside their car doors open and bleeding out on the concrete. This would be one of those many crimes that would remain unsolved . The media would label it a crime caused by one of the many of Anas disgruntled constituents.