“I assume you’ve begun planning, Jorge.”
I consider my answer, and my thoughts race a mile a minute.
“Not specifically,Tío, but I think we need to do more than haveTíoMatáis test the waters by screwing with their investments. That’ll take too long to coax them out. The more I think about it right now, the more I believe we need to act now. All three families have investments here in Frankfurt. Whether they want to admit it or not, the Kutsenkos still have the Heidemann holdings. It’s time we let them know we aren’t taking their meddling like we’re their little bitches.”
I recognize the harrumph even if I can’t see Javier’s scowl.
“That’s too obvious. They’re probably already expecting us to strike those facilities. They’ll think this is just about our deal falling through.”
I know my brother has a point, but I push back because we need to keep working through all possibilities before we reject any.
“You don’t think they know about Gunter? I’m certain they do. They’ll know this isn’t just about the deal. They’ll know it’s about the Schlossbergs. Even if it isn’t them, they may know something. This could be the nudge they need to come forward.”
Pablo’s not usually the mediator—Joaquin is—but he offers a compromise. “We pick something less obvious than the Heidemann holdings, but we go after something of theirs in Frankfurt. We don’t necessarily make it obvious that we’re behind whatever happens.”
“But it has to be something connected to the Schlossbergs to tease out whether they have anything to do with this.”
I don’t think Pablo’s wrong. I don’t even think Javier is either, but we can’t just strike them without a specific desired outcome.
“We could take an entirely different approach.”
I look over at Alejandro and raise my eyebrows. When no one speaks up, he continues. His suggestion surprises me since it’s something that hadn’t even remotely crossed my mind.
“We leverage the ‘Thieves in Law.’ They aren’t hiding as much anymore, so they’re targets we won’t have to search hard to find. At least ten percent of prisoners in Germany are Russian speakers, and that gang continues to recruit within the prisons. It’s not like we’ll risk catching anyone innocent in our crosshairs. The Kutsenkos may not be directly connected to them right now, but we can force them to be.”
“How so?”TíoEnrique asks what I’m thinking, and I’m sure everyone else is too.
“We target the Heidemann facilities since we don’t want Maks and his family to keep them, but we make it look like it was the Thieves. Let the bratva think the Thieves are trying to expand or retaliating for the bratva’s presence, even if it is legal. We snatch the bratva’savtoritet—Maks’s brigadier or top guy in Frankfurt—and make it look like the Thieves took him. We intercept and steer the communication between Maks and his man. Depending on how Maks and his family react, we’ll know whether they have Gunter. We can always send him two middle fingers. If the bratva took Gunter, they’ll get the double meaning. If they don’t have him, then at least we guarantee some MAD that’ll weaken both sides here. It may leave room for us to sweep in and expand.”
MAD—mutually assured destruction. If anyone understands that Cold War era scare tactic, it’s the Russians. It’s the principle that keeps the Four Families from truly annihilating one another.
I glance at my watch. This isn’t a job to pull off in broad daylight, and we can’t get everything in order by tonight.
“This could work, but we need at least a day to plan and line up everything. We should be safe here, so I’m not worried about Liesel staying here with us tonight or during the day tomorrow. She definitely needs to go to Hisham and Noor’s before we start. What about the Mancinellis and O’Rourkes? Do we see how the Kutsenkos handle things, then decide who to strike next? Or do we go for a triple header? The latter will probably spread us too thin.”
“Can you each spearhead a mission,sobrinos? Or would it be better if all three of you work together?”
Alejandro, Joaquin, and I look at each other as we consider ourtío’squestions. We know we can each handle a mission, but it would mean none of us have as many men as we’d like. This isn’t a city any of us know well, so it would be wiser for us to stick together. Alejandro speaks for us.
“If you want us to each lead, we can, but it’ll spread us thin with the men we have. Depending on how long the bratva takes to engage, this could last a couple days.”
I don’t love that idea. “True. That makes me think we do need to divide and conquer. I don’t want Liesel and her family in limbo that long. Gunter may not have that time to spare.”
“Hisham has somewhere you can take Maks’s guy once you have him. He has men who can watch him until you’re ready to deal with him.”
TíoEnrique is reassuring, but I don’t want to wear out our welcome. House guests are like fish. After three days, you want to throw them out. We’ve descended on Hisham and Noor like an entire school of them.
“He’s already doing so much for us. I don’t know that we should ask for more.”
“I’ll make it up to him.”
I’ll take mytío’sword for it, so I’m ready to move on to the next big picture. My brother, my cousin, and I will work out details for the attack on the bratva amongst ourselves.
“What about the Mancinellis? Just because the money is winding up in Italy doesn’t mean we should assume it’s them because they’re the most obvious. Joaquin hasn’t found any direct links to them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t hiding in plain sight. What can we do to them here?”
No one answers me right away. Everyone’s weighing our options. I’m getting anxious and second guessing my idea to hit each family here.
Frankfurt may be the banking capital of Central Europe, and all Four Families have dealings here, but that doesn’t mean we have to hit them here.
