Chapter 88 Things to Establish

Chapter 88 Things to Establish

Luca's Pov

Sienna called me at eight-twenty.

"Federal agents are at the office," she said. "Two of them at reception. They asked for Elena."

I was already at my desk with the morning briefing documents in front of me. I put the briefing down.

"Elena's lawyer," I said.

"He is on his way," Sienna said. "She called him the moment they showed identification."

"Good," I said. "Who authorized the visit."

"I do not know yet," Sienna said. "It may be routine compliance. The office is new and legitimate operations attract procedural attention. It may be Iris applying pressure."

"Or both," I said.

"Yes," she said. "Or both."

"Let me know the moment the lawyer arrives and the moment they leave," I said.

"Yes," she said.

I went to the office. Not immediately. I gave the process forty minutes because arriving while federal agents were present was not useful for anyone, and because Elena had her lawyer and she was capable of handling a routine interview without me in the room.

When I arrived the agents were gone and Elena was in her office with her lawyer. The lawyer was a compact, efficient man whose expression gave away nothing.

"How did it go," I said.

The lawyer answered first. "They asked about the nature of the consulting engagement," he said. "Specifically whether Elena has access to financial records connected to the organization's pre-restructuring operations."

"What did Elena say," I said.

"She said her engagement is specifically scoped to the legitimate business operations and does not involve pre-restructuring records," Elena said. "Which is accurate."

"Did they push on that," I said.

"They asked whether she had encountered any documentation during her work that fell outside the agreed scope," she said.

"Also accurate," she said. "I said no. Because the irregularity I found in the logistics company accounts is within the legitimate business scope. It is an integrity issue with the legitimate operation, not a legacy record."

The lawyer looked at me. "The framing of the visit suggests this came from Iris's office rather than a standard compliance procedure," he said. 

"The questions were too specific to be routine. They were designed to establish whether Elena's presence here constitutes an ongoing relationship with the organization beyond the formal consulting scope."

"They are trying to determine whether the consulting engagement is a cover for something else," I said.

"Yes," he said. "That is my read."

"Is it a problem," I said.

"Not at present," he said. "The contract is properly documented. The scope is specific. Elena's answers were accurate and within the scope. If they want to build a case on the basis that a qualified independent accountant is doing legitimate accounting work for a legitimate business, they will have difficulty."

"But," I said.

"But it confirms that Iris is watching the engagement," he said. 

"She will look for anything that crosses the line between the legitimate consulting scope and the broader situation."

"There is nothing that crosses that line," I said.

The lawyer held my gaze for a moment. "Good," he said. "Keep it that way." He closed his notebook and said he would be in touch and left.

Elena and I were alone in her office.

"Are you all right," I said.

"Yes," she said. "It was professionally uncomfortable but not alarming. I have been questioned by federal agents before. I know how to do it."

"I know you do," I said.

She looked at me. "It is not going to stop," she said. "The monitoring. The questions. Iris is going to keep looking for a reason to open something."

"I know," I said.

"Does that change your assessment of the arrangement," she said.

"No," I said.

"It might make things more complicated," she said.

"Things have been complicated since the night in the alley," I said. "Complicated is not a new condition."

She almost smiled. "No," she said. "It is not."

We went to the meeting room for the morning brief. Sienna was there with Gio and the summary of the envelope analysis, which the lawyer had witnessed the opening of at seven that morning before the agents arrived.

"The content," I said.

"A single printed page," Sienna said. "No signature. No identifying marks. A message in the same block lettering as the flowers."

"What does it say," I said.

She read it. The message was specific about the financial irregularity in the logistics company. It named the shell company. It named Gallo. It told us, essentially, that the controller knew we had found it.

The room was quiet.

"She is telling us she knows we found it," Elena said.

"Yes," Sienna said. "She wants us to know that finding it did not give us a window. She saw us find it."

"Which means there is a second extraction method we have not found yet," Elena said. "The shell company was the visible one. She sacrificed it to tell us she has more infrastructure than we identified."

I held Sienna's gaze. "She is right," I said.

"Yes," Sienna said. "Almost certainly."

"Elena," I said.

"I am already thinking about where to look," she said. "Give me the rest of the day."

We discussed the security protocol changes. The access to the building. The maintenance alert system that had been exploited. Gio had already made four changes to the building protocols and was implementing three more by end of day.

The meeting broke up at ten-thirty.

I stayed behind with Elena.

"Last night," I said.

She looked at me. "Yes," she said.

"I want to make sure we are clear about what it was," I said. "Not because I doubt it. Because I want us to have talked about it in daylight rather than only in a quiet office at eleven at night."

"In daylight it is the same thing," she said. "I have not changed my position."

"Good," I said. "Neither have I."

"The agents this morning," she said. "The monitoring. The letter under the door. All of that is the context we are operating in."

"Yes," I said.

"I am not going to pretend the context is simple," she said. "But the context has never been simple and that has not changed what I decided."

"No," I said. "It has not."

She held my gaze. "There are things we need to establish," she said. "Boundaries that are clear. What the consulting relationship looks like to the outside. What this looks like between us. How we handle the overlap between the two."

"Yes," I said. "We need to have that conversation properly."

"Not today," she said. "I need to find the second extraction method and you have the captain meeting this afternoon."

"Tonight," I said. "After the meeting."

"Yes," she said. "Tonight."

She turned back to her screen. I went back to my office.

The morning moved forward in its ordinary rhythm of decisions and documents and calls.

At two-fifteen Gio appeared at my door.

"A message came through the formal channel," he said. "From a representative of the Corsetti family."

I looked up. The Corsetti family was from the south. We had not had direct dealings with them in four years. A request from them out of nowhere was not without meaning.

"What does the message say," I said.

"They are requesting a meeting," Gio said. "Their new family leader wants to discuss regional territory arrangements."

"The new leader," I said. "Who is that."

"A man named Serrano," Gio said. "He took over eight months ago. He has been consolidating quietly."

"What else does the message say," I said.

Gio held the printout. "He says he is aware of your restructuring and considers it a development of interest." He paused. "He also says he has a matter to discuss that concerns a specific individual connected to your operations."

"What individual," I said.

Gio looked at the printout. "He named her," he said. "Elena Moretti. He said he has information relevant to her situation that he would like to discuss in person."

I held Gio's gaze.

"Acknowledge the message," I said. "Tell him we are open to a preliminary conversation. Do not commit to a location or date yet."

"Yes," Gio said. He left.

I sat at my desk and thought about what it meant that a southern family leader, someone who had been consolidating quietly for eight months, had sent a first message that included Elena's name.

Either he had information that was genuinely useful and was using it as an opening move to establish the meeting's value. Or he was positioning her as a shared point of pressure. Or both.

I picked up the phone and called Sienna.

"The Corsetti message," I said when she answered.

"I saw it," she said.

"He named Elena," I said.

"Yes," she said. "I noticed that too."

"What is your read," I said.

"He is testing the water," she said. "He wants to know whether she is a vulnerability or an asset before he decides which way to play the meeting."

"And which way will he play it," I said.

"That depends on what you show him in the preliminary exchange," she said.

"Then we show him the right thing," I said.

"Yes," she said. "We do.”