Is this destiny?

In the main base of the Army of Chaos…

After a few hours in a meeting, they analyzed profiles of the people who belong to the Council (which Eve prepared) and came up with the proposal of strategies to deal with them.

Due to Emma's involvement with Charlie, Sarah and Aiden previously did an extensive background check on all prominent figures from the Smith family. That is why they already knew a lot about Jarred, but they were not aware of his dealings with the other six members of the Council, so that required more digging.

"If they are planning to use the Army of Chaos, they will see that we are not easy to bully.", Sarah said with a malicious glint in her eyes. She was irked that they thought she is a pushover, and that they wasted her time, and what got her the most upset was that they were looking down on her Army of Chaos.

Every member of the Army of Chaos is loyal to Sarah and she sees them as family. Sarah's people believe in her and Sarah will not allow some Albert or Rance or anyone else to abuse that trust for their own wicket schemes.

"I want us to find weak spots for each of the Council member, so that we can strike them swiftly with minimal risk, if the need arises.", Sarah instructed. "As for Albert and Rance… the two of them made clear that they are hostile. I want to give them a few jabs to teach them that they should stay in their lane."

"Are you sure that they will not retaliate?.", Aiden asked Sarah. "They are proud and stubborn. Both of them ignored Jarred's direct warnings, and they acted against the intentions of several other people in that meeting. I don't think they will take our provocation without fighting back."

"And that will be a perfect excuse for us to go all out. If things get heated, Ellie and Jasper can help us with Albert, while Angelo will assist us with Rance in Africa.", Sarah said and saw that everyone tensed at her words, and even Aaron on the video conference frowned. She had to assure them... "We are not starting a war. I'm only planning for contingencies."

"If you are not talking about a war, what are those jabs you mentioned?", Noah asked.

"We can cause damage without leaving traces.", Sarah said matter-of-factly. "It would not be the first time for us to strike an enemy while making them think it was someone else's doing."

Aiden nodded in agreement. He remembered that they caused confusion between Voronins and Lebedevs when the Army of Chaos was still too weak to confront them openly.

"Continue…", Aiden urged Sarah.

Sarah was happy that Aiden understood. The two of them are able to guess each other's thoughts and because of that, they never spend a lot of time on planning.

"Albert does not have a lot of people under his command, but he has an extensive network of contacts. However, all that is very fragile as his influence is directly linked to his reputation."

"I have a few good candidates for a smear campaign. I will share it with everyone and we can come up with a plan from where to start.", Aiden chimed in and Sarah smiled at his words. They are definitely on the same wavelength.

"Rance is a different case.", Sarah said. "He has a lot of mercenaries and farmers in his territory are looking at him like he is some savior."

"If we expose that he is exploiting them while selling them empty dreams, farmers might stop supporting him and that will be a huge blow.", Oni said.

Nala nodded in agreement, but… "Rance is there for many years and those farmers are brainwashed. Even if we show them evidence, they will never believe outsiders."

"What if we don't come as outsiders?", Michael asked, making everyone look at him. "We can use our miners to sway the public. They are our people who live there and are familiar with locals. We can pick a few points that are easy to prove, and our people will spread the word. It will take time, but we don't need Rance's people to leave his side. We will spread a seed of doubt and let it grow. Rance will notice that the mood changed and that might be enough to intimidate him into obedience…"

While Michael spoke about his idea, Noah checked the time and fidgeted. At this rate, he won't be on time to pick up Chloe. Noah never walked out of a meeting early and he was unsure what to do. Eventually, he decided to speak up. "We are nearly done, right? Is it OK if I leave now?"

Sarah's lips lifted into a smirk. It's Friday evening, and Noah never thought about anything other than work. This can mean only one thing… "A date?"

Noah exhaled heavily. He knew that Sarah will find out, if she doesn't know it already, so there was no point in lying. "I hope so."

Aiden smiled, and others had confused expressions. They didn't know that Noah had a date. Well, the date itself was not a big deal, but the way Sarah asked, and the way Noah responded, told them that this was important.

Before anyone could say anything, Sarah urged Noah to leave. "Go on, go on… it's not nice to make a lady wait."

Sarah saw that Noah hesitated and she understood that he was conflicted about leaving the meeting early. Noah was always dependable, the first to come and the last one to leave, and this was a different experience for him. Sarah was happy to see that Noah would think about Chloe at this time. It was definitely a move in the right direction and Sarah already imagined that Chloe will accompany Noah to their Christmas party that year.

"Don't worry about this.", Sarah assured Noah. "We are done anyway. By tomorrow morning, expect to see an email in your inbox from Nala with your tasks and timelines…"

~ Los Angeles, the Cliffside Villa ~

Sarah and Aiden went to freshen up before dinner.

In the master bedroom…

"How come you didn't invite Konstantin and Stella to the meeting?", Aiden asked Sarah.

"You noticed?"

Aiden made a face. "What do you take me for? I heard those Council members loud and clear mentioning in the same breath the Army of Chaos and the Lebedev family, yet you decided to use only the Army of Chaos."

Sarah was amused by Aiden's defensive behavior. "Sorry, love. I was not surprised that you noticed, but that you noticed AND were holding in this question until now."

Aiden looked at Sarah skeptically. He didn't believe her explanation, but he decided not to bicker. She is pregnant and can explode into an argument at the slightest provocation.

"I was confident that you have your reasons for avoiding bringing Lebedevs into this plan.", Aiden said.

"Just for the planning part.", Sarah clarified. "I suspect that Lebedevs are connected with the Council and until I clarify my doubts I want them to stay out of this. I didn't mention this in front of others because the opinion of Lebedevs is low as-is, and this will only make things worse."

"You think that Lebedevs have connections with the Council? What makes you think that?"

Sarah smiled mysteriously and took Aiden's hand into hers. "Let me show you…"

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