Page 126
"Which family?" I ask.
"Different ones."
"Which?"
His eyes flick toward Adrianos before returning to me. "Greek. Italian. Irish. Colombian. Russian. I've dealt with intermediaries connected to all of them."
My skin prickles.
The network didn't choose one kingdom and use it to attack the others. It fed from all five.
Adrianos looks at me. "Someone designed this to make us suspect each other."
"Possibly."
"Possibly?"
"We're still assuming the goal is simply to start a war between the families. Hundreds of millions have already been deployed. We don't know what the final objective is."
Drakos gives a faint, strange laugh.
I turn toward him. "What?"
"You're still doing it."
"Doing what?"
"Trying to identify the enemy."
Adrianos's expression darkens. "There is an enemy."
"I'm sure there is."
"Then what's funny?"
Drakos looks at him for several seconds before answering. "Men like you always look outward first. Another family. Another organization. Someone trying to take your territory or destroy what belongs to you. You assume the danger has to come from somewhere else."
Adrianos leans forward. "You have ten seconds to become useful."
"I'm telling you what I know." Drakos's composure finally cracks. "I've spent six years taking instructions from people connected to your world. People who had legitimate credentials, legitimate access, and legitimate reasons to be where they were. Nobody involved ever behaved as though they were trying to get inside."
A cold sensation crawls down my spine. I think about the penthouse. The attacker didn't break through Adrianos's security. He used legitimate credentials.
I think about Kalliopi's records, twenty years of financial evolution, shell companies embedded inside trusted Crown infrastructure, and money quietly siphoned from every family.
I think about Karras, a respected banker who served the Crown for decades. Then another possibility occurs to me. One I don't like at all.
Adrianos sees something change in my face. "What?"
I don't answer immediately.
There are five kings. Five empires.
Five men with extraordinary access to the Crown's infrastructure, finances, security, and internal politics.
Volkov.
Adrianos.