Chapter 101 Third Party

Chapter 101 Third Party

Luca's Pov

The location was a property Sienna had used for sensitive conversations before. A building in the northwest of the city. 
Mateo was already inside when I arrived. Gio had brought him at eight. I came at nine, after the Dr Voss conversation, after the listening device briefing, after the morning had already been longer than most complete days.
He was sitting at the table. He looked like someone who had not slept.
I sat across from him.
"Tell me about Ferraro," I said.
Mateo looked at his hands. "He approached me in the southern city," he said. "Four months ago. He told me he had been watching the organization restructure. He told me he admired what you were building."
"He told you what you wanted to hear," I said.
"Yes." Mateo met my eyes. "He said he had information about threats to the house. That if I gave him the security layout he could help neutralize them before they materialized."
"And the second time he asked you for something," I said.
"Access codes," Mateo said. "For the camera system."
I held his gaze. "You gave him the access codes."
"Yes."
"Those codes were used to disable two cameras the night the shooters came," I said.
"I know that now." His voice was flat. Not defensive. "He told me it was for a reconnaissance run. That he was mapping possible approach vectors so he could position people to intercept."
"You believed that."
"I wanted to believe it." He pressed his hands flat on the table. "I knew it was probably not true. I told myself it was probably fine."
"You told yourself what was comfortable," I said.
"Yes," he said. "I did."
The room was quiet for a moment. Outside on the street someone walked past the window. Ordinary morning sounds.
"The man who died in the hallway," I said. "He used your name."
Mateo closed his eyes briefly. "Ferraro," he said. "He told one of them to say it. So that if anyone survived to hear it, your last impression of me would be that."
"Did you know he planned to do that," I said.
"No." His eyes opened. "I did not know the operation was happening until you called me afterward. He cut contact the night before without telling me why."
"Because he did not need you anymore," I said.
"Yes," Mateo said.
I looked at him across the table. My brother. Thirty years of shared history. Two years of increasingly bad decisions, a man who kept trying to protect me through methods that consistently made things worse.
"Who is Ferraro working for," I said.
"He told me he was independent," Mateo said.
"He is not independent," I said. "He has military-grade jamming equipment. He has a network that can coordinate a four-person operation. He has contacts inside security contracting firms." I held Mateo's gaze. "Someone is funding him."
"I did not ask," Mateo said.
"No," I said. "You did not ask."
He looked at the table. "I am sorry," he said. "I know that does not close the gap. I know what I did cost you."
"You gave them the layout of the house," I said. "The house Elena and I are building together. The place we are trying to make ordinary." I leaned forward. "Two people came through the kitchen window. She dealt with one of them. 
A twenty-eight-year-old woman who should be worrying about seed catalogues dealt with a shooter in her kitchen because you gave a man you did not trust the security codes."
Mateo held my gaze and did not look away from it. "Yes," he said. "That is what happened."
"Why," I said. "Not the tactical explanation. The real one."
He was quiet for a long moment. "Because I wanted to be useful," he said. "Because I have been on the outside of what you are building for months. Because every time I try to find a way back in I make it worse." He looked at the window. "Ferraro offered me a role. Something I could do that felt like it mattered."
"He offered you relevance," I said.
"Yes," Mateo said. "That is what it was."
I sat with that for a moment. The particular loneliness of a man who had spent thirty years inside something and had been moved to its edge.
"The alliance he mentioned," I said. "Ferraro told Gio during the security review that you had formed a new alliance. What does that mean."
Mateo looked at me. Something shifted in his expression. "He told you that."
"Yes," I said. "What alliance."
"It is not what he is implying," Mateo said. "I met with two of the northern family representatives three weeks ago.
On my own, without telling you. I was trying to gather intelligence about the controller's position through legitimate family channels."
"You met with family representatives without telling me," I said.
"Yes," he said.
"After the probation terms explicitly prohibited independent contact with anyone in the network," I said.
"Yes," he said.
"Mateo," I said.
"I know," he said.
"That is the third time," I said.
He held my gaze. "I know."
"Three separate instances of making independent decisions that compromised the organization," I said. "Each one with a justification. Each one causing damage."
"Yes," he said.
I stood up. I walked to the window. The street outside was doing what streets did. I stood there for a moment with my back to him.
"Luca," he said.
"Do not apologize again," I said. "I have heard it. I believe it, it does not change what I have to do."
"I know," he said quietly.
I turned around. "You are going somewhere outside the city," I said.
“ A location where Ferraro cannot reach you while we close the chain on him. You stay there until I tell you otherwise."

"For how long," he said.

"Until it is safe to resolve this properly," I said. "After that we have a different conversation. About what the future looks like."

"Is there a future," he said.

I held his gaze. "You are my brother," I said. "That has not changed. But the future requires you to stop making decisions alone. Every time. Not occasionally. Every time."

"Yes," he said.

"Gio will take you today," I said. "Pack what you need."

I left the building.

The drive back to the main location took twenty minutes. I spent it thinking about Ferraro and who was funding him. The military-grade equipment pointed toward the controller. 
The coordination of the house attack pointed toward the controller but something about the scale felt different from her previous methods. She had always worked small and precise. The four-person attack had been larger than her usual calibration.

Someone else was involved.

I needed to talk to Carlo. I needed to talk to Dr. Voss about the listening devices. I needed to call Elena and tell her about Mateo.

I called Elena first.

She answered on the second ring. "How did it go," she said.

"He gave them the codes," I said. "Genuinely believing Ferraro was on our side. Genuinely wrong."

"Where is he now," she said.

"Gio is moving him to a safe location today," I said. "Out of the city."

"Are you all right," she said.

"Yes," I said. "I am coming to the office in an hour. There is something I need to tell you about Victor."

"There is something I need to tell you about Victor too," she said. "Come when you are ready."

I pulled into the main location. Gio met me at the door.

"Elena's building," Gio said. "Twenty minutes ago."

Something went cold in my chest. "What about it," I said.

"She is not there," Gio said. "She left the office at two. She should have arrived at the apartment by two-twenty. The perimeter guard called it in at two-forty when she did not appear."

I looked at him.

"She is not answering her phone," Gio said.

I was already moving.