Chapter 99 Mateo Cost

Chapter 99 Mateo Cost
Luca's Pov

By four in the morning the immediate work was done.
The four individuals had been removed from the premises. The forensic specialist had completed her initial assessment. The security perimeter had been rebuilt with six people and two additional cameras brought from the city by Sienna's team.
Elena was at the kitchen table. She had been there for two hours, alternating between coffee and work, which was how she processed things. The vehicle accounts were open on her laptop. She was not looking at them but they were open.
I sat across from her.
"The jamming signal," I said. "Gio has the equipment. What do we know about where it came from."
"Military-adjacent supplier," Sienna said from the doorway. "Not widely available. The controller could access this. Mateo could not independently."
"Someone gave it to whoever used it," I said.
"Yes," Sienna said.
"The contact in the southern city," I said. "Mateo's contact."
"We have a name now," Sienna said. "Gio pulled it this afternoon from a secondary intelligence trace. A man named Ferraro who ran logistics for Valentina's network before the trial. He was peripheral enough to avoid arrest."
"He has been running something independently," I said.
"A small operation," Sienna said. "Nothing significant until recently. In the past three months he has been expanding. New resources. New equipment."

"Funded by the controller," I said.

"That is my read," Sienna said. "She rebuilt through Ferraro rather than directly. Which is why Carlo could not trace her directly."

I looked at Elena. She was listening.

"You need to leave the house today," I said to her.

"I know," she said. "Where."

"The city apartment," I said. "With Gio's team in the building until this is resolved."

"Resolved meaning Mateo," she said.

"Resolved meaning the full chain," I said. "Mateo. Ferraro, the controller.”

She held my gaze. "I am not going to tell you to be careful with Mateo," she said.

"No," I said.

"But I am going to tell you to find out what he actually did before you decide what it means," she said.

"Yes," I said. "I know."

She looked at her laptop. Then at me. "Go," she said.

I went.

We drove to the city in two vehicles. Elena in the first with Gio. We parted ways at the city limits. Elena went to the apartment, Sienna and I went to the main location.

At seven in the morning I sat at the table in my office and Sienna laid out what we had.

Mateo's phone had been traced to a property in the eastern district of the city. He had been there for fourteen hours. 
The property was registered to a name that came back empty on three separate databases, which was the same registration pattern as the Gallo shell company.

"Ferraro is here," I said.

"Almost certainly," Sienna said. "Mateo went to the city and Ferraro followed."

"Or Ferraro brought him," I said.

"Yes," she said. "The question is which."

At nine I went to the eastern district property with Gio and two people whose presence meant the conversation was not optional.

Mateo was there.

He was alone in the front room when we came in. He looked at me and his face did the thing that told me immediately that he had heard about the house.

"Luca," he said.

"Where is Ferraro," I said.

"He left last night," he said. "After he got a message."

"After the operation failed," I said.

Mateo was quiet.

"Tell me what you did," I said.

He looked at the floor. Then at me. "Ferraro contacted me two months ago," he said. 

"He said he had information about a threat to the house. He said he could help me warn you."

"The same approach as last time," I said.

"Yes," he said. "I know. I know exactly how it sounds."

"Tell me what you gave him," I said.

"The security layout," he said. "The camera positions. The approach routes." He held my gaze. 

"He told me it was to help him plan a protective response. That he was going to intercept whoever was coming before they reached the house."

"And you believed him," I said.

Mateo looked at his hands. "No," he said. "Not fully, but I thought if I gave him the layout I could also monitor what he did with it. I thought I could stay close enough to intervene if he moved against you."

"You gave the attack team the security layout," I said. "And then you could not intervene because Ferraro moved last night without telling you."

"Yes," he said. "I tried to call you. Three times. The signal was jammed."

"I know the signal was jammed," I said.

He held my gaze. His eyes were doing something that was the expensive kind.

"One of the men said my name," he said. "Before he died."

"Yes," I said.

"That was Ferraro," he said. "He put my name in that man's mouth before the operation. So that if it succeeded you would believe I ordered it. And if it failed you would still hear my name from a dying man."

I held his gaze.

"He used you to compromise my security," I said. "Then he made sure my last image of you was your name from that man's mouth."

"Yes," Mateo said. "That is what he did."

"And you gave him the tools to do it," I said.

"Yes," Mateo said. "I gave him the tools."

The room was quiet.

"Luca," he said.

"I know," I said. "I know you did not send those men."

"I am sorry," he said.

"I know that too," I said.

I turned to Gio. "Find Ferraro," I said. "He has been in this city for fourteen hours. He has not had enough time to put real distance between himself and wherever he went after the operation failed."

"Yes," Gio said.

"And get Mateo somewhere secure," I said. "Not a cell. A location where he is protected and where Ferraro cannot reach him."

Gio moved. Mateo looked at me.

"You are protecting me," Mateo said.

"You are my brother," I said. "That is still true regardless of the decisions you keep making."

He held my gaze. Something moved through his face that I chose not to examine too closely because we did not have time.

"Go with Gio," I said.

He went.

I drove back to the main location. Sienna was waiting with the morning's security briefing and a woman I had not expected to find there.

She was in her forties. Sharp face. Conservative clothes. The kind of person who occupied professional space with complete confidence.

"Dr. Voss," Sienna said. "She has been working on the corporate structure for the legitimate transition. She arrived this morning."

"Lena Voss," the woman said. She extended her hand. "Corporate law. Sienna brought me in for the regulatory side of the legitimate restructuring. I understand it has become somewhat urgent."

"Yes," I said. "It has."

"Then we should talk," she said.

We sat at the table and she walked me through the work she had been doing on the corporate governance structures for the legitimate entities. She was thorough and direct and did not waste words, which I appreciated.

An hour into the meeting she set her pen down.

"There is something you need to know before we continue," she said.

"Tell me," I said.

She reached into her briefcase and placed a small device on the table. It was a circuit board about the size of a coin, sitting in an evidence bag.

"I swept the main office this morning," she said. "Standard practice before I use any client's conference space. I found three of these. One in the phone housing. One in the lamp base on the conference table. One behind the wall panel near the secondary door."

I looked at the device.

"Listening devices," I said.

"Yes," she said. "Placed recently. The solder points are fresh."

"How recently," I said.

"Within the last two weeks," she said. "The technology is current and professionally installed."

"Victor Kane was in this building two weeks ago," I said.

She held my gaze. "Then I would start there," she said.