Chapter 188: We Have Common Enemies

Dante sat down.

"Your brother Salvatore was murdered three weeks ago by Dimitri Valentino," Nico continued without preamble. "In that same time frame, we’ve accelerated our timeline for the viral release. The field test is now scheduled for ten days from now, not thirty. We’ve compressed everything because Dimitri Valentino is moving against us."

"How do you know that?" Dante asked.

"Because we have people inside his organization. And those people are telling us that Dimitri has discovered our bioweapon program. That he’s planning to infiltrate our facilities. That he’s planning to stop us." Nico leaned forward. "Which means we need to move faster. And we need to use every asset available to us."

"And what asset am I supposed to be?"

"You’re leverage. Against Dimitri Valentino, against Antonio Valentino, against anyone who gets in our way." Nico smiled. "You’re a man with a vendetta. A man with nothing to lose. A man who controls a criminal organization in the heart of Italian mafia territory. You’re exactly what we need right now."

Dante understood immediately.

He was being recruited.

Not hired because his family already works with them, But recruited.

Which meant he had a choice.

Work with The Covenant voluntarily, or be destroyed by them.

"And if I refuse?" Dante asked.

"Then we release information about your organization’s connection to bioweapon development to international authorities. You spend the rest of your life in prison. Your family loses everything." Nico’s expression didn’t change. "So you don’t refuse, Dante. You accept. You help us the way you family have being helping us. And when this is over, you get a cut of the profits from viral sales. Enough money to make you the richest man in Italy."

Dante looked at Luca, who was carefully neutral.

This was a setup. Had been a setup all along.

His family had been working for The Covenant without even knowing it.

Which meant Dante had inherited a war that wasn’t just with Dimitri.

It was with an international terrorist organization that had resources beyond anything he’d imagined.

"I need guarantees," Dante said carefully. "Protection for my family. Assurance that The Covenant won’t turn on the Romanos."

"Done. We’re all in this together now." Nico stood. "Dimitri killed your brother. The Covenant killed his mother. We have common enemies. It makes sense to be allies."

Dante understood the logic.

Understood the trap.

Understood that he was now irrevocably connected to one of the most dangerous organizations in the world.

And that the only way to survive was to be more valuable to them alive than dead.

"Okay," Dante said. "I’m in. What do you need?"

***

The meeting lasted three hours.

By the end, Dante understood the scope of The Covenant’s operation in ways beyond what he thought it was about.

They had facilities across Europe. Scientists from a dozen countries. Government connections in five continents.

And a virus that was going to be released in ten days.

When the meeting ended, Dante left headquarters with a new assignment and a burner phone that connected directly to Nico.

***

POV: ENZO

Enzo sat in his secure New York facility at 11:47 PM, staring at the seven listening devices his team had removed from Isabella’s Rome apartment.

They were spread across the metal examination table like surgical specimens, each one carefully tagged.

And every single one told a story Enzo didn’t like.

His lead technical analyst, a woman named Clair who’d worked NSA surveillance before coming to work for him....stood beside the table with her tablet, pulling up analysis results.

"These aren’t consumer-grade devices," Clair said without preamble. "These aren’t even high-end commercial surveillance equipment you can buy on the black market."

"What are they?" Enzo asked.

"Military. Or close to it." Clair zoomed in on the first device. "Look at the construction. Custom circuit boards. Encrypted transmission protocols that would take me weeks to crack. Power sources that can run for months without replacement. This is state-of-the-art technology."

Enzo leaned forward, studying the device more carefully.

It was smaller than he’d expected. Barely larger than a button. The kind of thing that could be hidden anywhere and never noticed.

"Walk me through the specifications," Enzo said.

Clair pulled up detailed schematics on her tablet.

"Each device has three primary components: audio capture, data transmission, and power management. The audio capture is remarkable, it can pick up conversations from up to thirty feet away, filter out background noise, isolate specific voices. The kind of clarity you’d need for legal wiretaps or intelligence gathering."

"And the transmission?"

"Encrypted. Military-grade encryption that cycles through randomized frequency bands to avoid detection. Whoever planted these knew exactly what they were doing, they designed the system to be essentially invisible to standard counter-surveillance sweeps."

"But they found them."

"Because they were not using standard equipment. They were using tools designed to detect exactly this kind of sophisticated surveillance." Clair pulled up another screen. "But here’s what’s really interesting.....the manufacturing."

She zoomed in on microscopic markings on the circuit board.

"These weren’t made in China or Russia or any of the usual black market manufacturing centers. These were made in Italy. Specifically, in Naples."

Enzo went very still.

Naples.

The Romano family’s home base.

"You’re sure?" Enzo asked.

"Positive. I traced the component serial numbers through international electronics databases. The circuit boards came from a manufacturer in Naples that specializes in custom electronics for... let’s call them ’specialized clients.’" Clair’s expression was grim. "The kind of manufacturer that doesn’t ask questions about what their products will be used for."

"The Romanos," Enzo said quietly.

"That would be my guess. And it gets worse."Clair pulled up communication logs. "I managed to crack the encryption on one of the devices. Took me eight hours, but I got in. And the data transmission? It wasn’t going to a generic IP address. It was going to a secure server registered to a shell company in Naples."

"Which shell company?"

"Adriatico Holdings. On paper, it’s a legitimate investment firm. But when I dug deeper...." Clair showed him corporate ownership documents.