Page 73 of Little Deer
“Giovanni is probably stupid enough to still try it.”
There’s a murmur of agreement.
“Did your informant say if they heard anything useful?” Papa asks.
“The only thing he could make out before he had to leave without getting caught was that Ivan promised him to find her, and something about double-crossing him by not sending soldiers. That’s all.”
“So we were right, the men Giovanni sent were his own and not Ivan’s last night,” I state, straightening. “And if they’re fighting, then whatever alliance they have is tenuous at best.”
“Who is he asking him to help him find, though? The final girl?” Alonzo muses. He glances at Zeno and Urso. “Anything on that front?”
Zeno nods, eyes red and bloodshot. Urso doesn’t look much better but he’s the one to answer. “We were finally able to get into some of the hard drives from Orlando. He has information on all the girls, most of it new and what we’ve already got for Lucy, Amara, and Sienna. The fourth girl, though, she’s gone. There’s nothing on her in the records other than her birth certificate. Any searches he did, he came up empty. It’s like she’s a ghost.”
“As in you think she’s dead or whoever Bianca snuck her out to was someone who knew how to hide her?”
“Either option means it’s going to be hard to locate her. If she did die, then Bianca wouldn’t have risked someone finding out where she was buried after all that work to try and smuggle her out. So she could be buried under another name. If she is alive and she was adopted out, whoever did it was good, and they knew how to hide her so that she couldn’t be easily found.”
“Is the fourth girl older or younger than Amara?” Lazaro asks.
“From the birth certificates, she’s younger. Two years younger,” Zeno answers tiredly.
“Amara is older than Sienna, right?” Lazaro asks, brow furrowing, and I can see the wheels turning in his head. Zeno nods. “So, Amara was the first one snuck out, right, with Sienna not long after?” Another nod. “Okay, so what if Amara was the tester, to see if they could do it? She managed to get her out, no one caught them, and then Gia’s mother did the same with her help? They got better with Lucy, it took us longer to find her,and that means that by the time this fourth girl was sent out, they probably had it down to a science, right? They knew what to do, what didn’t work, and the best way to make sure she wasn’t found. So that means she’ll probably be the hardest to find.”
“And exactly why Orlando and Ivan haven’t been able to find her,” I finish.
“With what’s going on, I’m surprised they’re trying to find her,” Aurelio remarks, eyes narrowed in thought. “There is a war, men dying on all sides, and alliances being struck. A woman at this point would only be helpful if a marriage for a much stronger alliance were to be struck. The Russians will never marry an Italian to one of their men for something like this. What do they have to gain? They would probably just kill her and then Giovanni and Orlando if they won and took over more territory.”
“Whatever their deal is, I don’t think it’s the girl. I think it’s this Chameleon group.” Dante leans forward from his seat behind his desk, elbows braced on the table. “I imagine it was Orlando that stumbled on to them somehow in his dark web searches or whatever he did, or he was hacking the Russians to see what he could find to blackmail them into working with them.”
“You think that’s how Giovanni started working with them? Blackmail them into bringing the Chameleon team? What could he have on Ivan that would make him cooperate?”
“We’re missing something,” I say, frustrated. “There’s something we’re not thinking of or considering.”
“It’s probably in the hard drives, and we’re getting through them, but Orlando was fucking paranoid and I had to call in some favors to help us get through what we have so far,” Urso sighs.
“Keep working on it,” Papa urges. “Spare no expense, Urso, Zeno. The sooner we get through that shit the better.”
On that I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t like being without information. Especially when we’re currently at a disadvantage.
“Alright, we know that Giovanni is still working with Ivan, so what do we know about Seamus, Leonardo, and Esposito?” I ask, looking at Dante expectantly. He seems to be the one with a lot of the answers for this meeting.
“I’ve been trying to get in touch with our informant in Seamus’s camp, but nothing yet. If they’re trying to keep Seamus alive, and dealing with Marco and Sinead, then he won’t want to risk anyone finding out about his connection to us. I have checked with some of our other informants over there and they said the entire situation is a fucking mess. Men are divided. Some of the Irish soldiers are siding with Marco, while the others are fighting back hard to avenge Seamus and Declan. Marco and Sinead have taken over Seamus’s home, and from my understanding, Sinead has gone on a killing rampage. She’s killed a bunch of the staff that she felt were traitors to her in some way, while she also sent men out to find where her father is hiding, and where her mother, the other siblings, and some of the grandchildren are hiding.”
“That one is fucking insane,” Nico grunts. “Marco won’t put up with her shit for long. Right now, she got him in, and if they are married, he’ll just try to kill her when he feels her use is up.”
“As long as she’s at his side, there’s going to be a divide. This isn’t an Italian taking over Irish territory, it’s an Italian being aided by one of their own.”
Nico nods. “The more they’re all fighting amongst each other, the less we have to worry about them coming after us. Marco is going to have his attention divided, which means, if he was trying to find a way in here, he’s not trying to plan a full on assault. He probably doesn’t have the men to spare.”
“We can’t let down our guard,” Aurelio cautions. “Perhaps this is all just what they want us to think.”
“Tell our informants to keep their eyes and ears open,” Nico orders Dante. “Anything, big or small, we want to know about it. Marco managed to do all this without any warning, which means he’s gotten fucking clever.”
“You think Orlando is helping him? Playing both sides like we figured?” Alessio asks tightly.
“I wouldn’t put it past him. Out of the two, Orlando is far more cunning. He’s also just bat-shit crazy. If he thinks he can come out on top, he’s going to make it work that way. I doubt Leonardo would pay him any attention, so he’s going to focus on Marco and Giovanni. One of them will come out on top in his eyes, and he just has to ride the line until then.”
“And you think he’ll try to take over?” I ask.
