Page 72 of My Sunfall

D and Teo are already there, seated at the table, their attention focused on the nearest wall of monitors. Teo exhales without looking back. “The cameras weren’t destroyed. They weren’t looped either. The feeds were blurred, remotely. I’ve found no backdoor left open, no signature code. There’s nothing we can work with to identify the ship or the men.”

I drop the shipping manifest onto the table.

“Fake origin,” I say. “Naples, Florida.”

D takes it to scan it with his eyes, then he holds it out to Teo who does the same. “Amateurs?”

“No,” Teo says immediately. “Amateurs don’t ghost surveillance and walk away invisible. They’re professionals.”

“Then why leave this?” D asks.

I lean forward, palms braced against the table. “Because they wanted us to find it.”

The room goes quiet.

Teo finally turns to me, eyes grave. “You think it’s misdirection.”

“I think it’s bait,” I reply. “It’s too obvious to be real. Someone wanted us chasing ports that don’t exist. And we did, for the last few months we’ve been keeping eyes and ears there on a wild goose chase.”

Teo’s fingers still on the tablet. “What if it’s…them?”

I look at him. “Who do you have in mind?”

“Manticore,” he says.

The word lands heavy between us.

“They’ve gone quiet,” Teo continues. “There’s no sign of activity in the darknet channels. We’ve double checked and we are keeping eyes out for them round the clock, but there’s been nothing substantial for the last twenty-four hours. It’s as if they vanished. And every time they go silent there is something happening on our docks.”

D’s jaw tightens. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

“No,” Teo agrees. Silence stretches again, thick and uncomfortable. “If this was Manticore,” he goes on, “why hit the docks? Why kill our men?”

“Because it’s our territory,” I fall in.

Teo nods once. “But why not directly come after us then?”

“Fuck if I know,” I reply. “It’s like they are testing the waters, and waiting for something to happen. But what?”

Our silence stretches on as we reflect.

I glance at the screens again as if the answers we are looking for were there. But all I see are maps, data and dead ends. Meaningless fragments we can’t piece together. Frustration is nagging at me, making my gut burn.

“We can’t move if we don’t know who or where they are,” D says.

“I know,” I reply. “And they know that, too.”

Anger settles cold in my chest. We have four dead men. But no trail, and no enemy to strike back at. Someone wanted our attention. And whoever they are, now they’ve got it.

Just as I’m about to stand up, my phone vibrates on the table.

I swipe the feed up. And curse. “Motherfucker.”

D and Teo both look up at the same time.

I lift my eyes from the screen, frowning. “Vitale’s nephew,” I say slowly. “Niccolò. He wants to meet me in two days.”

Teo’s fingers still over his tablet. “That’s…interesting timing.”