“Fucking-A,” Lucamuttered.
Damian glared at him. “Is that aproblem?”
“Omonoia is the urban headquarters of the Anastos family,”Lucasaid.
“They own everything, right down to the police force,” Damian said flatly. “Yourpoint?”
“It’s true that the neighborhood is bought and paid for by Anastos,” Nico continued, obviously trying to head off an argument. “But it won’t be the first time we’ve launched an operation in unfriendlyterritory.”
There was no neighborhood, no country, no family the Syndicate couldn’t take down. They’d taken down Raneiro Donati, had toppled an international empire to rebuild it in an image that suited them. It had taken time — years — but they’ddoneit.
They could have recaptured the New York territory without Damian, could have taken the Cavallo family out along the way. They’d chosen to work through Damian — with him — only because once the territory was recaptured it would need aleader.
The other Syndicate leaders already had territories. That had meant bringing in someone new to run the city that had been the jewel in the crown of every criminal organization in modern history —NewYork.
It had meant bringing in Damian Cavallo — and sticking with him — even with the baggage of AriaFiore.
It hadn’t been an easy decision. In fact, it had been hotly contested. While Damian was in the hospital recovering from the gunshot he’d sustained during Aria’s kidnapping, Farrell and the others had spent hours around the conference table hashing out the pros and cons of standingbyhim.
Pros: they were already invested in Cavallo and he was still the strongest candidate to lead New York. By pooling his resources and the Syndicate’s, they were reasonably certain they could get Aria Fiore out of Athens quickly and get back to the business of retaking theterritory.
Cons: Any effort to retake New York would be put on hold until Aria Fiore was rescued. In the meantime, the fact that Anastos’s people had Aria Fiore — the estranged sister of Primo Fiore — meant that Primo and his calculating underboss, Malcolm Gatti, were now working with theGreeks.
And the Greeks were not to be takenlightly.
Stefano Anastos had been Raneiro Donati’s man in Athens before Donati’s death. It wasn’t an overly powerful territory — but it was a violent one, and Anastos had always been an enthusiastic match to the kindling. The economic unrest in Greece had made for fertile soil, allowing Anastos to pay off both low-level police officers and high-level politicians to look the other way while he used every means imaginable to capitalize on thechaos.
“The upside to fighting a monster like Anastos is that it’s easier to find rats willing to talk,” Farrell said. “With the rightincentive.”
Nico was dangerous, but he was also thoughtful. Every maneuver took place on a chess board in Nico’s mind. He didn’t resort to violence unless he thought it was the most effective option. He would use cash as an incentive for Anastos’s low-level snitches in Athens, or perhaps the promise of asylum when the Syndicate retook Athens in thefuture.
Farrell would be just as happy using his fists if that’s what it came to — he and Damian were alike that way — but long-term the goal was to remove every leader who had been loyal to Raneiro Donati or anyone who had taken advantage of the leadership vacuum in a way that wasn’t in keeping with the new Syndicate’s vision. That meant the low-level guys would be looking to align themselves with the eventual leaders of theterritory.
“I’ve already got a couple guys on that angle,” Damian said. “Have a mole inside the policedepartmenttoo.”
Farrell tried not to show he was impressed. Damian might be one of them now, but he’d caused them a shitload of trouble with theFioregirl.
“Good,” Nico said. “See if we can get them to detain any of Anastos’s men in the area once wearrive.”
“How long will we need?” Damianasked.
“Half hour would be ideal, but that’s not going to happen,” Nico said. “Let’s aim for twenty minutes. Make sure they’rewellpaid.”
Across the table, Christophe swiped through the images on his iPad. “Twenty minutes? Aria Fiore is being held on the building’s fourthfloor.”
Nico nodded. “That’sright.”
Farrell tried to see it in his mind’s eye — the narrow street, Anastos’s men planted in various neighborhood businesses, phone calls alerting them that trouble was coming, the fourth floorwalk-up.
Not a lot of room — or time — forfinesse.
“I take it our plan is brute force?”Farrellsaid.
“It’s all we have,”Nicosaid.
Fuck it. Farrell preferred brute force to finesseanyway.
He looked at the map of the greater Athens area. “So we land inTanagra.”