Page 251 of Niccolo

He looked at me in surprise.

I’d been thinking about Zollner ever since I got back from Taormina.

Even though I hated Niccolo right now, I couldn’t bear the thought of him dying.

If Massimo led an assault, he and several of his brothers would probably get killed.

That was bad enough –

But one of them might be Niccolo.

I couldn’t live with that.

And if I could save two or three brothers by sacrificing a single one, it was a good trade.

At least in game theory.

I tried telling myself that I was seeing things clearly – dispassionately.

It didn’t matter.

Niccolo would never forgive me for what I was about to suggest. I knew that.

But I was willing for him to hate me forever if I could spare him the deaths of multiple brothers –

Because I knew that losing them all would destroy him.

“I’ve changed my mind,” I said. “I think we should kill Massimo and be done with it. And leave the girl alone. Don’t touch her.”

“What?!” Fausto exclaimed. “Kidnapping her and leaving him alive wasyourplan!”

“I know, but I thought about it some more, and I changed my mind.”

“Fuck that,”Aurelio snapped.

He’d originally resisted my ideas – but once he found out Fausto was putting him in charge, he was all in.

“I’ve already scoped it out, and it’s perfect. The church is built like a fortress, and the bell tower will make a perfect sniper’s nest. It’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel. We’ll fucking wipe them out.”

“IF everything goes perfectly,” I said. “What happens if it doesn’t?”

“I have my Wagner guys, and Friedrich is probably the best sniper in the world.”

“Modesty prevents me from saying such things – but yes, it is true.”Zollner sounded like a grinning child soaking up praise.

“He’ll probably end up killing every single one of them single-handedly!”

“For a reasonable fee, of course,”Zollner added.

“We can END this in 24 hours,”Aurelio snapped.

I knew that in order to torpedo the plan, I only had to convince Fausto.

But to do that, I had to make my argument fucking airtight –

So I came out guns blazing.

“We keep underestimating them, over and over. They wiped out the Turk, even though he hit them with a surprise attack. Mezzasalma was the goddamn boogeyman, and theystillkilled him.

---