“You expecting company?” Sean asked, just above a whisper.
Cagliari said nothing at first, but shook his head slowly. He pointed to the back of the great room to a dark doorway. “Quickly,” he said in a hushed voice.
The old man moved fast toward the back of the house. Sean was surprised at his speed. Cagliari led them through the short archway and to the left where a set of stairs descended into the basement of the home. The three men hurried down the steps and through another door. They were greeted by a vast wine cellar with racks of bottles lining the walls.
“Where are you taking us?” Tommy asked, wondering if they weren’t being put in a corner with no escape.
Their host flashed another mischievous grin. “Some of these old buildings have secret passages built in. It was one of the reasons I bought this home. I couldn’t help myself. I love mysterious things.” He stepped over to a narrow wine rack that stretched up to the low ceiling. Cagliari reached out his hand and pulled on the third bottle from the top of the far right row. The entire wine rack swung slowly away from the wall like a giant door, revealing an opening behind it.
“Quickly, gentlemen.”
Cagliari removed a cell phone from his pocket and tapped on the screen a few times until the light on the back side of the device came on, illuminating a dark, musty passageway behind the wine rack. He disappeared behind the rows of bottles, still moving faster than Sean thought possible.
“I guess this is our way out,” Tommy said.
“I guess so.”
The two followed the old man into the entry of the secret passage and pulled out their phones, turning on their lights the same way Cagliari had.
The Italian stepped over to a handle on the wall and pulled it down gently. A second later, the wine rack swung closed, immersing the three men in the darkness of the corridor, save for the light their phones provided.
“Where does this lead?” Sean asked as Cagliari began to make his way forward.
“Ironically, it leads to the river.”
Chapter 24
Thanos banged on the door one last time. “Signor Cagliari!” he shouted in Italian. “This is the police.”
A few tourists passed by and stared at the three men hovering around the red door. Thanos’s two assistants made sure to look as menacing as possible to avert further intrusion by curious eyes. His driver had just parked the car outside the Piazza Navona near one of the grand, domed cathedrals situated on the edge of the square. On the walk over, they kept their eyes straight ahead, hidden by sunglasses to further protect their identities.
The door remained shut, which either meant Cagliari wasn’t home or he wasn’t answering. There was another possibility as well. Sean Wyatt could be inside. “Be ready,” he said to the other two. “Be careful, though. If you fire your weapons, do not hit the map.”
Thanos had just gotten off the phone with Dimitris. Apparently, Adriana had given up the information they needed. Thanos hoped that she hadn’t been roughed up too badly. He wanted to have that pleasure all to himself.
“Once we are inside, if there is no one here, search everywhere you can. The map is probably a parchment scroll. It will look very old. Understand?” The other two nodded.
Thanos took a quick look down both sides of the street. Satisfied the coast was clear, he stepped toward the door and slammed his heavy foot into the middle of it. The door gave way easier than he thought, bursting open and swinging hard into the doorstop. With guns drawn, his two mercenaries entered the living quarters first. One made sure the right was clear; the other took the left. Thanos went in directly behind them with his gun held in front of his chest.
The inside of the home was deathly quiet; too quiet for the burly, bald man. Thanos scanned everything rapidly, and then silently motioned for the guy on the right to go to the back of the home. He’d walked into more than a few ambushes before. From his experience, before the storm things were always calmest. He pointed for the other one to check out the upstairs area.
The men obeyed and disappeared to their assigned locations. Thanos lowered his weapon, keeping it at the ready, and closed the door behind him. No need to leave it open for the wandering eyes of the city’s visitors.
While his men were searching the house, Thanos stepped into the great room and surveyed the space. He made a note of the sofas and chairs, the coffee table and other furniture. The decorations weren’t to his taste, but then again he preferred to keep things minimalist. Furniture and interior decoration was for function only. His eyes stopped on an object that appeared out of place in an otherwise clean room. An empty wine glass rested atop the end table next to one of the chairs. Thanos picked up the container and inspected it closely. It was hard to tell how long it had been sitting there, but the mere fact that it was not put away contrasted the otherwise orderly apartment.
That meant Cagliari had either left in a hurry, or absently forgotten the glass. Something told Thanos it was the former. The glass was still slightly warm to the touch. His eyes darted around suspiciously. If Cagliari had left recently, he wouldn’t be far away. He set the object back on the nightstand and purposefully made his way over to the little workstation in the corner. There was a series of envelopes, letters, and sticky notes atop the desk. The three shelves attached to the desk and flush to the wall held more envelopes and letters. One particular envelope caught his attention over all the others. It had the name Adriana Villa on the bottom left corner.
Thanos picked it up carefully and took a quick look around to make certain no one was sneaking up on him. Paranoia from years in the field taught him never to let his guard down. He slid a fingernail underneath the seal and ripped it open, then pulled back the edges and peered into the envelope. A folded piece of paper was cradled inside. Thanos pulled out the sheet and unfolded it. His eyes widened as they scanned the content of the letter. He could hear his man’s footsteps upstairs as he moved through the home, probably sifting through drawers and cabinets. The man Thanos had sent to the back of the house returned to the great room and found his employer staring at a sheet of paper.
“What is it?” the mercenary asked.
“It’s what we were looking for,” Thanos answered.
His assistant appeared dubious. “I thought you said it would be on an old piece of parchment or something.”
“The original probably is. This is a copy. Cagliari must have duplicated it and brought it here.”
The younger man squinted. “Then where is the original?”
Thanos shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We have what we need. Now we can get the boss what he wants.” He knew that Gikas would be pleased with such a quick end to the search. The wealthy man would likely reward Thanos with some kind of a bonus. Gikas had been generous with his money before. This time, Thanos hoped that would be the case again. And there was the issue of what to do with the Spanish woman. His employer had made mention of her before. Just thinking about the wicked things he would do to her made Thanos’s skin flush. Quickly, he refocused his attention to the current situation.
The mercenary still looked curious. “So where to next?”
“Ostia,” he tapped on the paper, showing it to his subordinate. “The mouth of the Tiber River.”
Chapter 25
Vincenzo Cagliari led the way through the secret passage as if he’d done it a hundred times before. Something told Sean that the old man probably used the corridor more frequently than necessary simply because he liked it.