Salem, Sicily. This unfortunately named town is where, years ago during the height of the Cold War, it all began. Dont believe that psychologist story, thats what the mafia wants you to think. Here is where the mafia is truly headquartered. The business model here is simple. Locate small towns which are not large enough to field law enforcement resistance, kill of enough of the population that the Mafiosi outnumber the survivors, then put the locals and mafia to work turning the town into a smuggling hub and a black market gathering the commerce to move on to the next town. Since the selected towns are without exception small, central authorities seldom care (and if they do, a 10% cut of the revenue, or a bloodier method, usually shuts them up). The model is brutal, but effective and while approximately 50% of targeted towns throw out the mafia before the mission is complete, captured towns usually stay permanently under control, covering for the failed efforts. Thus, the mafia is slowly on its way to WORLD DOMINATION.
A hot summer day ended in the mafia HQ. Even the nearby Mediterranean did not stop the blistering heat, but now a cool breeze picked up from the sea. Leo the Spaceman stood at his post. Theoretically a law enforcement officer, his practical purpose was to prevent rival mafia organizations from sneaking into the town and killing the godfather or getting important information. He received his nickname name due to a tendency to daydream and a degree in astronomy (making him Dr. Leo), neither of which helped him on guard duty. Fortunately, the Sicilian mafia was unambiguously stronger than their rivals and he had little to worry about.
Several men in clocks (the kind worn by hitmen) approached with a cart of what appeared to be smuggled produce.
Halt, display your identifications and mission. Dr. Leo spoke in a distracted tone.
Our identifications are perfectly in order sir the taller of the cloaked men said, as he appeared to dig in his purse.
Suddenly, when the hapless guard was distracted, the tall man whipped out a gun. The sound of the bullet upset the eerie calm of the evening, but no one heard it, for every scum in the town where either asleep, away, or in the nightclub that the local town hall had been converted to, busy with
important matters. The clocked men where investigators, sent by the government of Italy, which had finally figured out that there might be something fishy with the disappearance of half a towns population people 60 years ago.
At midnight, when a load of smuggled goods arrived and found the guard dead, the news was spread. Something was happening. The mafia where about to get a taste of their own medicine....