Previously in Faceless, Cuiabá achieved Série A survival.

Natasha

Cuiabá, Brazil

"If I loved you any less, I would have stayed"

The words came out of the metallic mask in a muffled manner, but Natasha Sibiski instantly deduced who sat in front of her. The voice belonged to Ángel Bastardo, although everybody else in the room only knew him as The Faceless: the protagonist of an increasingly popular urban legend circulating the continent. The rumours spoke of a dead body that washed up on the riverbank of Manaus: a corpse, nameless, faceless, that had floated down the river, shunned by The Shinigami. It was thus that the legend of The Faceless began: Faceless who rose from the dead and walked among the living; Faceless who went on to manage teams along the Atlantic coast, resurrecting many a football club from relative obscurity, before finding notable success in Brazil's Serie A, with Cuiabá. It was around this time that Natasha began to suspect who the masked wanderer was. Seeing him on a televised match made her leave Ruslan Chepiga in Gibraltar and head back immediately to the Americas.

"If I loved you any less, I would have stayed", The Faceless’ words echoed in Natasha’s mind. He continued:

"I was no father to you, Isabella Bastardo. That’s your real name. I left you with your Russian mother, a sister to Ruslan Chepiga. We watched over you in our different ways: Father and Uncle. I am sorry".

Natasha was unravelling her ancestry, along with the rest of the room's occupants, which contained various carers of the masked man. He was sick: her father. Now a dying man, he was nothing like the Ángel Bastardo she once knew.

An uncle too: Ruslan Chepiga. She digested the news of being both a Bastardo and a Chepiga, and it all strangely made sense to her now. The payment for her law degrees which no single working mother could ever afford, the protection she was always given from Hugo Ojeda, and the care provided by some of the most ruthless men in the world.

"Come with me. Come with me back to Ruslan and we will take revenge against Hugo Ojeda", she implored. The emotions were welling inside her, but no sooner did they rise than they were pushed aside in favour of stillness of mind. Was it her Russian coldness or her newfound Argentine fibre? Natasha could not tell…but she held her emotions in check regardless.

The mask facing her shook from side-to-side. "No. Only complete forgiveness from my people can end my suffering. YOU are my people, Isabella. I seek no revenge. Simply forgiveness and a merciful end. Please end the waning magic that is barely keeping me alive".

A male carer in white robes passed a blade to Natasha. His eyes gestured to her as they travelled from the blade’s edge to The Faceless' body, making sure she understood. The blade's hilt featured the plains of the savannah and depicted a bear and a lion chasing several bats and snakes into a jungle. Natasha contemplated the meaning it might have held for its creator, who had carved the intricate design.

Approaching Bastardo, she pulled back the blade before piercing it through his torso in one swift motion. “I’m sorry this happened to you, and I forgive everything”, she said, withdrawing the blade with surprising ease. It was as if no tissue or bones existed, and no sooner had the blade been withdrawn than the room was bathed in white light: a light so bright that Natasha had to turn her head away from Bastardo’s body and shield her eyes with her free hand. One or two seconds passed before the light quickly dimmed, and everything in the room could be seen again. That is, everything except the body, for only a mask and a set of robes remained on the chair that had seated Ángel Bastardo.

Hugo

Barranquilla, Colombia

Hugo Ojeda sat at his desk bemused as the bats took flight in the day, squealing past the high-rise apartment in central Barranquilla. Thousands upon thousands of the nocturnal winged mammals scaled up the building, just centimetres away from the tower’s glass façade, causing several people on the floors above and below to cry out in panic. The bats who had now risen above the Barranquilla skyline veered towards the sun, blocking it out temporarily as the sky turned black. It only lasted one or two seconds, but long enough for Hugo to ponder if something terrifying had happened elsewhere.

His left hand turned to his pills, whilst the right hand quickly reached for his whiskey.

Ángel

River Negro

As the blade entered his body, he was instantly transported back to the River Negro and was looking at the faces of The Shinigami once again. Their eyes burned a bright purple under the night sky. But unlike the first time, The Shinigami reached out for him now, as the Negro's current carried him closer towards their reach. With his bloodline secured through Natasha, the heir to his empire, there was no reason for the Shaman's magic to continue keeping him alive.

The Shinigami had him now, and this was the end.

Notes from the Editor

From Uruguay to Brazil, and all the bits in between, my La Plata series has come to an end. I set out in 2019 to have a creative arc that spanned three editions of Football Manager (FM20-FM22)…and I never would have predicted the World would have changed so much during this three-year-period. But I suppose the one constant has been the ability to release creatively with words, and I thank readers for the odd message or email throughout this period; telling me they have enjoyed the story etc. It’s been really appreciated. I also have to thank Arun and Chris, who have been a constant soundboard of ideas and have offered to sense check some [probably most] of the pieces that I write. Thank you guys, you are amazing.

But CreativeFM from me will be paused. I have not shut all the doors in the story, whilst Hugo Ojeda and Natasha (now Isabella) remain ‘alive’, but Ángel Bastardo is finally put to rest. But boy, did we have fun right? I am delighted I was able to set Hugo Ojeda up to be the heir to the empire in FM20, only for Operation Isabella to really be about the character that arrives a year later in FM21 cycle. Everything has been deliberate, most things foreshadowed and lots of unreliable narration to keep readers on their…thumbs.

I hope, if you have read this far, you have enjoyed it as much as I had fun writing it.

Thank you,

Tony / FM Grasshopper