Book 2: Chapter Seventy-Eight - The Rescue Mission

Book 2: Chapter Seventy-Eight - The Rescue Mission
“Nice to meet you here, Carlos! Let’s catch up! I have a good proposition for you. Get inside my car!” said Luigi, as he stopped a few feet away from him. 

“Why don’t you get into my car instead?” said Carlos, still on high alert. “Ask your men to step back,” Luigi asked his men to stay in the car while he followed Carlos into his. 

Carlos climbed into his car, but he was on high alert in case Luigi’s men attacked him. There was no trusting Luigi and his men. 

“So, how have you been, Carlos? I heard you’ve been searching for your cousin?” asked Luigi with a crooked grin. Carlos wanted to smash his crooked face into a pulp, but he took a deep breath to calm himself down. 

“Yes, I am. Let’s come to the point, Luigi. What do you want from me? Why are you tailing me?” he demanded, not in the least perturbed by Luigi’s awareness of his motive. 

“I can help you rescue Matteo if you help me kill Don.” His request didn’t surprise him at all. 

“How can I believe you?” he asked instead. 

“You have to take a chance.” 

“Why do you want to help Matteo? After all, it was you who destroyed his life.” 

“Matteo is mentally ill and my revenge is done. I want to finish Di Salvo now. If you help me, I shall help you in return. Tell me where Don is now?” asked Luigi impatiently.

“Catania.” 

“Can you find out his latest schedule?” asked Luigi excitedly. 

“Hang on. I’ll ask a friend.” He messaged Aldo to ask Giuseppe about Don’s latest schedule. 

“How do you not know about it yourself?” asked Carlos with a taunting laugh. 

“He hides well. Even the cops can’t sniff him out.”

Carlos’s phone buzzed with a message from Aldo.

Don will travel to Tunisia tomorrow night to receive a consignment of heroin.

Carlos smiled as a plan formed in his head. 

“Don will go to his headquarters in Tunisia tomorrow night to receive a heroin consignment.” Luigi’s eyes glittered with interest. 

“Good. I’ll attack his headquarters at the stroke of midnight. You can take advantage of the chaos and rescue Matteo, but if you involve the cops, I will seek your family out for my revenge.” Carlos thought for a minute. It was the opportunity he had been looking for. Yes, he would rescue Matteo, but he would kill or get these two criminals arrested. They wouldn’t be roaming free after midnight tomorrow! He had to plan this well! 

“Deal. I’ll sneak in with a few of my friends and rescue Matteo.” Luigi nodded and alighted from his car. Carlos watched him go straight towards his car and drive away. It was strange to see him keep his side of the deal. Now he would have to find out about Don’s headquarters in Tunisia first. 

It was evening by the time he reached home. The eager, worried faces of his family and friends greeted him the moment he stepped into his house in Santo Spirito. 

“We were about to call the cops. What took you so long?” asked Brandon agitatedly. His wife Rosetta too rushed forward to hug him with relief. 

“You could have called me Carlos. I was so scared.”

“You have no reason to be scared. I just went to visit an old friend to gather information about Matteo.” Rosetta released him and smiled at her hero. 

“Did you find out anything about Matteo?” asked Nikolas. 

“Yes. I’ve found out everything about him.” He updated them on the details he found out about Matteo and they listened to him intently. 

“Guess who was tailing me on my way back?” he asked and they shrugged. 

“Who?” asked Genelia. 

“Luigi Caffarelli.” They all gaped at him in shock. 

“What did he want?” asked Donovan, his right-hand man and friend. 

“He wants to help us find Matteo in return for information on Don’s whereabouts.” He explained about the deal he made with the criminal. 

“I would suggest we involve the DIA or the Arma dei Carabinieri to wipe out both mafia gangs at one go. We won’t get a better opportunity than this, Carlos,” said Brandon. 

“What about Matteo? What if they harm him once they see the cops with us?” asked Brooklyn agitatedly. 

“Don’t worry. We will save Matteo first, before attacking them. But don’t tell Amelia about this. It will be a top-secret mission,” said Carlos, and Brooklyn nodded. 

“Donovan, I want you to go to Hammam Al Agzaz, Tunisia, Africa right away. Find out where Don’s headquarters are located. He goes by the nickname Padrino there.” 

“Sure, bro. I’ll locate it and update you. When are you planning to join me?” asked Donovan, getting up to plan his trip. 

“I’ll talk to Uncle Giorgio first and arrange for police backup,” said Carlos. 

“I’ll accompany you,” said Nikolas determinedly. 

“So will I,” said Brandon. Ryan was feverish and was resting in his room, or else he, too, would have been impatient to go. 

“No, I will go alone. This is a very dangerous mission,” said Carlos. 

“No. We won’t let you go alone, Carlos. We will go there together. Let Uncle Giorgio follow us with his team,” said Nikolas. Carlos and the men went to meet his uncle at his house next door. They discussed and planned their next step while Donovan left for Tunisia. 

“Don’t take the law in your hands, Carlos. Let us do our duty. We will attack the headquarters,” said his uncle.

“They’ll kill Matteo if they see you, Uncle Giorgio. Let me rescue him first. You can attack afterward. I’ll send you a signal,” said Carlos.

No one informed Amelia yet. They didn’t want to stress her unnecessarily, since no one knew how successful they would be. It was a dangerous mission and chances were almost nil of their success. Luigi and Di Salvo were deadly criminals who have been successfully bluffing the authorities for the last five years. 

At Carlos’s house, everyone was under stress. The men left for Tunisia after Donovan messaged them the address of Di Salvo’s headquarters. He had procured a rough sketch of the layout of the place. Carlos forwarded both the address and layout to his uncle before leaving for Tunisia. Nikolas insisted on taking his private jet for a faster escape from the place. 

“Why are we going so early when Luigi would attack at the stroke of midnight?” asked Brandon, looking puzzled. 

“Luigi never sticks to his schedule. He cannot be trusted. He might attack earlier or later. We have to be ready at all costs. This is a rare opportunity and we cannot afford to miss it,” said Carlos who knew the former underboss well. He knew Luigi since the time he and Rafael used to work under Di Salvo. 

“Does your uncle know about this?” asked Nikolas worriedly. 

“Yes. They’ll reach the place by evening.” 

In four hours they reached the airport at Tunis. Donovan was waiting to take them to the town of Hammam Al Agzaz. 

“I think Luigi’s men arrived by ferry a few hours ago,” informed Donovan. Carlos smiled and gave the others a knowing look. He was right about Luigi. He planned to attack early to trick him and make him unsuccessful in his mission to save Matteo. Only he didn’t know it was impossible to trick Carlos. 

“Where are they hiding? We have to shadow them every second to know when they will strike,” said Carlos agitatedly. 

“Don’t worry. I have traced them to a small motel in the suburbs. I have appointed three men to keep watch over them,” said Donovan proudly. 

“That’s good, but expect them to do the same on us. We shouldn’t give away the fact that we’ve involved the cops,” said Carlos. 

They put up at a house diagonally opposite Di Salvo’s mansion and kept a constant watch on the happenings. The house looked eerily deserted, with no one seen either entering or leaving the place. Had Don vacated it? The whole day, there was no news of the enemy. Neither did Di Salvo arrive nor did Luigi attack the place. It had Carlos wonder if the information he received was right or wrong. 

He had no information about his uncle’s arrival, too. Suddenly, it seemed their plans had completely failed. 

“It’s past midnight, Carlos. Neither did Di Salvo arrive, nor did Luigi attack him. What do we do? Was it a hoax?” asked Donovan. 

“I’ll ask Aldo. Hang on.” 

He messaged Aldo and received a reply after five minutes. 

The consignment is delayed by three hours. Don is at the port. He’ll return to the house directly from there.

Carlos forwarded the message to his uncle and smiled at his friends. “It’s delayed by three hours.” It was impossible to while away the time when there was so much to be done. It was almost 3 o’clock in the morning when they heard tyres on the gravel outside. Donovan peered out and smiled at them.

“Don is here.” 

“Pick up your weapon, Donovan. You and I will go five minutes after Luigi's attack."

"Once we rescue Matteo, I’ll send a signal. It could be a missed call or a message. Nikolas, check with Uncle Giorgio. If we don’t message or come out with Matteo in fifteen minutes, Uncle Giorgio and his team will sneak in. You stay ready to leave the place once I can get Matteo. Don’t come in. This is too risky.” 

“Done,” said Nikolas. Carlos and Donovan picked up their weapons and stood at attention by the door, waiting for Luigi’s attack. Nikolas messaged Uncle Giorgio about Don’s arrival and their plans.

"I think Luigi is here, Carlos!" said Donovan, peering outside.