Chapter 5 - Betrayal at Dock Seven
The Moretti organization expected Dock Seven to be lightly guarded.
We made sure it appeared that way.
Most of the floodlights remained off. Only six visible guards patrolled the shipping yard. Two trucks sat near the western gate with their engines cold.
In reality, Marco had positioned forty loyal men inside empty cargo containers and abandoned offices.
I remained in the command room overlooking the dock.
Elena stood behind me.
“You should be at the mansion,” I said.
“You have said that twelve times.”
“It remains true.”
“And I have ignored you twelve times.”
Giulia was safely hidden in a fortified room at the estate with Sarah and four guards. I had personally checked every door before leaving.
“She asked me to give you something,” Elena said.
She placed a folded drawing on the table.
It showed a badly drawn lion standing beside a little girl in a red scarf. The lion had enormous eyebrows.
Beneath it, Giulia had written four uneven words.
DON’T LET GHOSTS WIN.
I folded the paper and placed it inside my jacket.
Marco’s voice came through the radio.
“Vehicles approaching.”
Six black SUVs rolled through the eastern gate.
Men emerged carrying rifles.
At their center walked Lorenzo Moretti, a broad man in a dark overcoat. He had spent twenty years pretending to be civilized while ordering violence through disposable men.
Captain Vitale approached him alone.
“Mr. Moretti,” Vitale said. “You are early.”
“Where are the guards Aldo promised would stand down?”
“They have.”
Moretti looked around.
“Then why does this feel like a funeral?”
I pressed the radio button.
“Because it is.”
Floodlights ignited across the dock.
Cargo doors opened.
My men surrounded the Moretti soldiers from three sides.
Lorenzo stared up at the command room.
I moved toward the window in my wheelchair.
Even at a distance, he recognized me.
“Castellano!” he shouted. “Aldo said you were dying.”
“He has been wrong often lately.”
Lorenzo grabbed Vitale by the collar.
“You brought me into a trap.”
Vitale removed Lorenzo’s hand.
“I brought you to a negotiation.”
Gunfire erupted near the central warehouse.
Marco turned toward the sound.
“Aldo’s men are moving.”
Exactly as Camilla predicted.
The attack on Dock Seven had been a distraction, but we had created our own distraction inside theirs.
I spoke through the loudspeaker.
“Lorenzo Moretti, Aldo promised you three docks. He also promised Captain Ricci your northern routes.”
Lorenzo’s expression hardened.
“That is a lie.”
Marco projected copies of Aldo’s agreements onto the warehouse wall. Each contract offered the same territory to different allies.
Men around Lorenzo began murmuring.
“Aldo planned to let you weaken me,” I continued, “then expose your attack to federal investigators. You were never his partner. You were evidence he intended to trade for immunity.”
Lorenzo read the documents.
His face darkened.
“What do you want?”
“Aldo’s remaining soldiers are attacking my warehouse. Withdraw your men, and you leave alive.”
“You expect me to run?”
“I expect you to recognize when someone has used you.”
A radio crackled beside Lorenzo.
A panicked voice reported that Aldo’s loyalists had opened fire at the warehouse.
Lorenzo looked up at me.
“Give me Aldo.”
“No.”
“Then there is no deal.”
“You entered my dock armed. The fact that you are still breathing is the deal.”
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then Lorenzo raised one hand.
His men lowered their weapons.
“We are leaving,” he announced.
One of his lieutenants objected.
Lorenzo struck him across the mouth.
“I said we are leaving.”
The Moretti vehicles reversed out of Dock Seven.
Marco exhaled.
“That was easier than expected.”
“No,” Elena said. “It was too easy.”
An explosion shook the eastern side of the dock.
Glass shattered in the command room.
Elena was thrown against the table. I caught the edge of my wheelchair before it tipped.
Smoke filled the yard.
Through the haze, a second group of armed men rushed in from the waterline.
Aldo had hidden them aboard a cargo ship.
Marco shouted orders into the radio.
My men returned fire.
Elena crouched beside me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“You are bleeding.”
A shard of glass had cut my forehead.
“It is nothing.”
Another explosion struck the lower office.
The command-room door burst open.
Captain Rizzo entered with his injured arm strapped against his chest and a pistol in his other hand. He had escaped from our medical holding unit during the chaos.
Marco raised his weapon.
Rizzo fired first.
The bullet struck Marco’s vest and knocked him backward.
Rizzo aimed at me.
Elena grabbed a heavy metal lamp and swung it into his wrist.
The gun discharged into the ceiling.
Rizzo struck Elena across the face.
She fell.
Something inside me broke free.
I pushed against the arms of the wheelchair.
My legs shook violently.
“Dario, don’t!” Elena shouted.
Rizzo turned his weapon toward her.
I stood.
Pain tore through my spine, but I remained upright.
Rizzo stared in disbelief.
I took one step.
Then another.
He raised the gun.
I drove my shoulder into him.
We crashed against the table. The weapon slid across the floor.
Elena reached it first.
She pointed it at Rizzo with both hands.
“Do not move.”
Rizzo laughed breathlessly.
“You won’t shoot.”
Elena’s bruised face remained calm.
“Try me.”
Marco rose, gasping, and restrained him.
I gripped the table.
My legs began to collapse.
Elena caught me beneath one arm.
“You stood,” she whispered.
“Do not sound so surprised.”
“You walked.”
“Two steps.”
“Three.”
“Do not exaggerate.”
The fighting outside ended within minutes. Aldo’s hidden force surrendered after their commanders were captured.
Then my phone rang.
The call came from the mansion.
I answered immediately.
Sarah’s voice shook.
“Mr. Castellano, someone breached the west entrance.”
My chest tightened.
“Where is Giulia?”
Silence.
“Sarah, where is she?”
“They took her.”
Elena heard.
The gun fell from her hand.
“No.”
A second voice came over the phone.
May you like
Aldo.
“Bring Camilla and the deposit-box key to the old cathedral,” he said. “Come alone, or the child dies.”
