Page 183 of Niccolo

“Itwas –until he killed two of Aurelio’s men. One with an ax, the other with a shotgun blast to the face.”

“…oh.”

“And now the rest of them are demanding quadruple the price if we want them to continue the search.”

“It’s not my fault!”Aurelio whined.

“You sent Wagner to attack the Widow without my approval,” Fausto yelled, “so EVERYTHING since then is YOUR FUCKING FAULT!”

Though he was silent, I could practically hear Aurelio glowering on the other end of the line.

I tried to move the conversation to more practical – and less confrontational – matters.

“How big an area will they have to search?” I asked.

“Thousandsof square miles,” Fausto said with bared teeth. “And that’s if Massimo and the girl haven’t fled the area completely.”

“ It sounds like we need a professional, then. Do you know anyone who could track them through the woods?”

A lightbulb went off over Fausto’s head. “Actually, I do.”

“Who?”Aurelio asked sullenly.

“There’s a Swiss German who does this sort of thing – a bounty hunter calledder Jäger.Literally, ‘the Hunter.’ He helped out a Swiss bank we do business with. One of their employees embezzled ten million dollars and fled Switzerland; this Hunter fellow tracked him down. Apparently he freelances for the Russians and Chinese, as well.”

“Sounds expensive,” I said.

“Not as expensive as paying quadruple for a bunch of idiots to wander the forest for weeks on end.”

“I can send some of the Wagner mercenaries,”Aurelio said.

“You want to throw a bunch of Russian soldiers into a gigantic forest they’re notfamiliar with, who aren’ttrained for it and don’tspeak Italian, to track down a man who knows the area like the back of his hand?” Fausto snapped. “What the fuck are you thinking?”

“This Swiss guy probably isn’t familiar with it, either!”Aurelio snapped.

“He’s a fucking HUNTER,” Fausto snarled. “He TRACKS people. It’s what he DOES. It’s in his fucking NAME, for Christ’s sake!”

Aurelio had the good sense to stop talking.

“I’ll make some calls and see if we can hire him,” Fausto said.

“He has to take orders from me,”Aurelio demanded.

“Why – so you can fuck things up again? Stay by your phone and don’t doanythinguntil I say so!”

As soon as Fausto hung up, he looked at me, his face furious.

I thought he was going to turn his wrath my way –

But all he did was growl, “I swear to God, that little shit is going to be the death of me.”

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked.

“Yes – come up with a plan so we can use thisJägerfellow effectively if he’s available.”

“Don’t you just want him to kill Massimo?”

Fausto smirked. “If he can killallmy nephews, I’ll pay him whatever he asks.”

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