Chapter 7 - The Shadows of Naples
By two o'clock that afternoon,
the emergency press release had reverberated across every major financial news network in New York.
Vale Meridian stock plummeted fourteen percent within thirty minutes of trading,
forcing a temporary halt on the floor of the Stock Exchange.
Inside my temporary war room on the fifty-fifth floor,
Margaret Shaw handed me an encrypted satellite phone with a grim expression.
"It's Matteo Rossi,"
she said quietly,
referring to the lead representative for the Naples syndicate.
"He bypassed our office switchboard and called the direct legal line."
I took the phone,
placing it against my ear without hesitation.
"Mrs. Vale,"
Rossi's gravelly voice spoke through the receiver,
thick with an Italian accent that carried years of casual violence.
"Your husband promised us Harbor Nine by midnight yesterday."
"My husband had no legal authority to sell what was never rightfully his,"
I replied calmly,
leaning back in my leather executive chair.
"You are playing a very dangerous game,
Nora,"
Rossi warned,
his tone dropping into a icy quiet threat.
"The men I represent in Naples do not lose hundreds of millions over corporate administrative paperwork."
"And the federal prosecutors I work with,"
I countered softly,
"do not hesitate to seize foreign assets involved in international wire fraud."
"Adrian gave you a fraudulent contract signed by a mistress who is currently under internal investigation."
"If you press this issue,"
"I will submit every transaction file from Naples directly to the Department of Justice."
"You can walk away clean and cut your losses,"
"or you can fall into a federal penitentiary along with Adrian."
"The choice is entirely yours,
Mr. Rossi."
May you like
There was a long,
dangerous pause on the line before Rossi hung up without another word.
