Chapter 407: When Everything Goes Wrong, Go Right

[FROLO]

"I have known Sergei for years. I have worked around him, competed with him, fought with him, and unfortunately loved someone he eventually took from me.

"And after yesterday, giving him the dignity of a title would be insulting to the families who lost their children because of him," Aleksandr said, making Sierra raise a brow.

That was not what she had expected, but then this segment had to continue, no?

"So you feel entitled to call him Sergei because of yesterday, or is this something that is happening because you know him on a personal level?" Sierra challenged.

"I didn’t say entitled," Aleksandr said, correcting her.

"I meant I am familiar with the man. There is a difference," Alek added.

"Does that familiarity make you better suited to deal with him?" one of the politicians asked.

"I think it makes me one of the few people who understands what we are dealing with."

"You understand Sergei Moskowsky?" another chirped in, like this was the most insane thing they were hearing. The man had just blown families to bits with yesterday’s operation. Was there more to understand if not to eliminate the man?

"I understand the man behind the reputation. How he thinks and what provokes him. More importantly, I understand what protects him," Alek said like he had been around Sergei his entire life. Which was true, but they didn’t need to know that now, or did they?

"What protects him?" Sierra asked, her eyes on the man who had once been annihilated in an interview with Sergei a few years ago.

From any standpoint, it felt like Alek was back because he wanted to reclaim something, but would it matter at the moment when the man in question had done the impossible?

"Fear," the senator didn’t even think about it.

Around him, the studio personnel, even those behind the cameras, stared in silence, unsure of what to think of that.

This was a former senator. A man who had been bested and was known by many to have had simple fights with Sergei over the years because of permits and whatnot. It was not as easy as he was making it, and gods, was it unsettling.

Perhaps because the subject was Sergei Moskowsky.

"People think Sergei’s power comes from the men surrounding him," Aleksandr continued as if that was not a trap he was falling into. He had been given a chance, and he was using it to dig himself a deeper grave.

Then again, Aleksandr was Aleksandr.

He was not being Daniil here.

This was his chance to change the narrative the city had of Sergei, and if he had to put on his best politician act, then he would do it.

So damn well.

"It doesn’t. The men surrounding him are dangerous, yes, but Sergei himself is the center of that empire. He spent decades making the city believe that challenging him is impossible," Alek said like that was the only thing that mattered.

The perception that he was going to change.

The things he wanted the city to think of the devil of Frolo.

It was dangerous; would he succeed, though?

"And yesterday we watched what happened when the government challenged him," Sierra said, making Alek breathe slowly, his expression darkening as he had just remembered it all.

Then again, he had ordered the chaos that had triggered it all. Would he ever feel responsible for an ounce of it?

"That is exactly why I accepted this task," Alek said, making the government officials stare at each other. This was not an easy responsibility.

They knew it.

They understood it so well, and to see the confidence on Aleksandr was more than just unnerving. Because if this man made one wrong decision, Frolo would pay the price for it all.

"You keep saying that as though this is a military assignment you were born to handle. You are a former senator," a current official pointed out the obvious.

"Yes. And I am also a citizen who has spent years studying the Moskowskys," Aleksandr replied, risking sounding obsessive. But what child of Frolo wasn’t obsessed with Sergei Moskowsky at the moment anyway, right?

Still, the senator continued:

"I know their structure and how they operate. I was part of their board of directors, remember? And I know that sending another ordinary government task force after Sergei without understanding him will only create another massacre."

"Then what makes you different? Are you saying you can negotiate with him?" Sierra asked, folding her hands before her even as the panel let out murmurs at that.

"I am saying that I will do whatever is possible to ensure it never happens again. Arrests or even evidence that will need preservation for the case to move forward. I’ll ensure it works.

"If the government needs to dismantle Sergei’s organizations, I will help them do it," Alek said a little too confidently and a little excitedly at the last bit.

Almost like it was his greatest dream, and he wasn’t shy about showing it to everyone because finally someone needed to stop Sergei, or at least that was what he was working with right now.

"What if none of that works?"

"Then Frolo needs to be prepared and stop assuming that because Sergei has been able to intimidate everyone for decades, that means the state has to remain intimidated forever," the senator said, staring directly into the camera that was closest to him.

"That sounds like a very different approach from the one we saw yesterday," one of the politicians said.

"Because yesterday was not supposed to happen."

"Explain that," Sierra prodded the confident senator.

"The Moskowskys were surrendering, then someone fired at Katya Romanov, changing everything," he began, stating what everyone knew, even as silence spanned across the studio another time.

"So who do you blame?"

"I blame whoever decided that shooting at an unarmed omega in the middle of a surrender was an acceptable strategy," the senator said.

It was impossible to even tell that it was done on his orders, that he had seen to the genesis of the bloodbath that had cost so many lives, including that of Governor Morozov.

"You are suggesting the government deliberately targeted Katya Romanov?"

"I am saying that someone fired at him. Whoever gave that order needs to answer for it."