Page 83 of Dark Breaker

“That fucker,” I hiss.

“Yeah, I know, it pissed me off too,” Nicolo agrees. “Despite his injuries, Germano escaped. He was able to choke one of his captor’s with only the crook of his arm, crushing the guy’s neck. Then he ran, flagged down a taxi, and got the hell out.”

I nod. Germano was a big dude. Used to be one of our enforcers. I could see him doing all that.

Nicolo continues. “He tells me the Tunisians are planning a meeting at a warehouse. All of their members will be present. Including the Jackal, apparently.”

“And how does Germano know this?” I ask.

“He says he heard his captors talking,” Nicolo answers. “They kept mentioning a big meeting two days from now. At ‘the warehouse.’”

I rub my chin. “But we don’t know where this ‘warehouse’ is…”

“No,” Nicolo agrees. “But we can track some of the lower ranking members. If everyone is required to show, they’ll lead us right to the Jackal, and all the others. Listen, if it’s true, this is a gift. If we could surprise them in that building with out allies, we could eliminate the Tunisian threat once and for all.”

I’m still rubbing my chin uncomfortably. “Hmm. The news could be a trick. Purposely planted by the Tunisians to draw us into a trap. They could have let Germano go on purpose.”

“They could have,” Nicolo admits. “Though somehow I doubt they’d be willing to sacrifice one of their guys just to stage an escape.”

“That part may have been unintentional,” I agree. “But the rest might be fabricated.”

“Well, I’ll leave it up to you how you want to act on it,” Nicolo tells me.

I pause for a moment. “I think we’ll have to stage an attack. We’ll be careful, and deploy men to watch for any snipers. I’ll call our new allies. If all the Tunisians will be present, we’re going to need help. Regardless of whether we surprise them or not—a siege attack against pinned targets is never easy.”

“The cornered dog bites more ferociously than the dog in the open street,” Nicolo agrees.

“Exactly. I’ll get back to you.” I hang up.

I find Massimo in my contact list and give him a call.

“CiaoFabio,” Massimo says.

“Ciao,” I tell him. “I just got wind of a Tunisian meeting schedule for two days from now. All of the high-level Tunisian members will be present, including the Jackal. Assuming my information is correct, we won’t get an opportunity like this again. There will never be a better time to attack. Can I count on the support of the Morettis and Amatos?”

Massimo answers me with a question of his own. “Have you been talking to Rosa?”

I feel my brows knit in confusion. “What do you mean, of course I’ve been talking to her.”

“Earlier, she asked me if I could assassinate the Jackal,” he explains. “Did you put her up to that?”

“No, of course not,” I reply. “This is news to me. Not that I don’t want him dead. But I never told her to ask for help from you.”

“Guess she did it on her own, then,” Massimo replies.

Interesting. Rosa doesn’t seem the type to ask her brothers to kill a man. I wonder why she did it? Maybe she’s more frightened than I thought. Worried at every corner that some Tunisian will jump out and kidnap her. So scared that she doesn’t care anymore if she causes a war with them.

“About your question,” Massimo continues. “You don’t sound too sure that your information is even correct. Where did you find out about this meeting?”

I explain the details.

When I’m done Massimo doesn’t answer for a long moment. Then: “I’ll talk to Giovanni. But to be honest I don’t think he’ll want to do it. The negotiations are going well. To throw all that work away now would be a bad idea.”

“Are they really going as well as you say?” I press angrily.

In answer Massimo only says: “Good-bye, Fabio.”

I continue going about my day after the call, waiting for Massimo to call me back with news. But he doesn’t. After an hour I ping him with a text. After another hour I call him. No answer.