Aurora fixed her hair.  She tried her best to dry her eyes and used cold water to rid herself of the puffiness.  A quick swish of water around her teeth and tongue and she was ready. Stopping in the hallway she told the man there, “When Billy arrives, tell him that it’s not Oriana.  Tell him that is one of her team. Tell him that she can help us find Oriana and he can join us when he’s ready.”  

She stopped short of telling the man to tell Billy not to kill her if he recognized the voice.  She couldn’t bring herself to confront the girl because she honestly wasn’t sure how she’d react if the girl spoke as ‘devil-may-care’ about the murder of her brothers as she did everything else.  

She would, however, be able to read Billy’s expression like an open book.  He wouldn’t be able to hide it if he knew the girl’s voice and then she’d know.  Then she’d have to decide. If he didn’t recognize the voice, however, then she might be able to lie to herself for the rest of her life and sleep peacefully.  She hoped.

Forgive me, Will.  Mom. Dad. She’s my little girl.  I know you understand.

Aurora walked back into the room and over to the table.  She sat down and with all the training, and every lesson she took from watching better gangsters than she ever could hope to be, Aurora found her smile.  “I told you the pasta was worth the wait.” Silent for a time, she continued to break bread with her enemy.

The meal progressed quietly and quickly.  Once it was done, Aurora had found some footing again.  “Obviously I’m in no condition to run across the globe a second time this year.  The baby will be coming before long.” She put a hand on her belly instinctively as if invoking it made it more vulnerable somehow.

“But I do have someone who is hunting Oriana in my place.  I’d like to consult with her. Introduce you. Make arrangements for you two to meet up somewhere and move forward with her and the team.  I assume you have no objections to that as per our contract?”

“No objections.”

Aurora looked at the clock.  “Well, let’s see if she’s still having a shitty time sleeping.”  She said getting up and walking back over to her desk. Picking up her phone she began to dial the number she’d committed to memory.  She waited for the long period of connecting and then sighed as it began to ring through.

“Hello?”  Tara said picking up the phone already expecting that it was her mother by this hour.  Feeling dejected that, yet again, she had nothing new to report. Despite all her fire and determination the whole trip had so far really given them nothing.  Ori was a ghost. Hunting people in cities was really nothing like animals in the woods.

“Tara?”

“Hey, Mom.  How are things at home?”

“Everyone is fine. But there’s been a development.” Rora paused to let Tara process.

Tara sat up in her chair instantly, her heart racing and a smile growing on her face, “Yes?”

“Viola Montini, one of Oriana’s former associates, is sitting in our living room. Says she knows how to find Francesco- and probably Oriana. She just wants money in return, and I already gave it to her. I have no reason to think she’s lying.”

Tara gasped and then after a moment asked,  “Is she there with you now? Put her on the phone, please.”  

“She’s promised to be honest in answering all of our questions.” Rora paused, closing her eyes for a moment. “Don’t ask her anything you don’t want to know the answer to, Tara. I’ll put her on now.”

“Yes, Mom.”  she said softly, realizing that the woman very likely had information about Oriana that might be troubling to her.  Things that Ori hadn’t been ready to share. She knew she shouldn’t dig into any of that now. None of that mattered.  All that mattered was getting Ori back safe.

“Viola speaking.” The woman’s voice was businesslike. This was a transaction- and she’d already been paid. She spoke clearly, enunciating like Ori tended to when she was tired, frustrated, hurt, or any of the three combined.

Tara gripped the receiver as if it were a liferaft in a hurricane.  “Thank you for coming to my family, Viola. Ori said you were a good person.  I’m glad you’re safe with my mother.”

“None of those sentences really makes sense to me. I’m here for money and because I have no other options, so you don’t need to thank me. I’m not a good person, but I’m a better person than Oriana, which isn’t saying much, so maybe that’s partially true. And I’m not particularly safe, either. What do you want to know? Or do you want me to tell you the basics of what I told your mother so far?”

Tara winced and literally bit her tongue so hard she nearly made a noise, just to keep from saying something in defense of Ori.

“The basics.”  she managed in a breathy voice and frantically waved Brigitte over to listen with her, tilting the phone to share it between their ears.

“Oriana showed up in Italy a two-three weeks ago. My partner and I got called back from the States.”

Aurora closed her eyes in silent prayer, For once dear God, let Tara be so singular she doesn’t think too much...

“Francesco thought that Oriana was getting close to unraveling where his new base was, so he left it for us to confront her. We managed to find her. Oriana chopped off my arm, threw Serena off a bridge, and killed a couple teenagers. She had a chance to kill Francesco, but she froze. Then she got stabbed and captured. She’s probably at Francesco’s base, and I can find it if I retrace Oriana’s steps with you.”

“How certain are you that you can do what you say?  How do I… How certain are you?” She didn’t care if it was a trap at this point, so long as she found Ori.  Brigitte glared at Tara but remained silent and listened.

“I know for sure the city she started and who I-we- should talk to there. After that, 80% sure. I know Francesco’s contacts. I also know that every information broker in Italy has been threatened not to speak to any Americans… but some of them know I work- worked- for Francesco, so they’d probably talk to me.”

“What are the odds Serena survived?”

“There was water under the bridge. She’s alive unless she got shot on the way down.”

“Ori thinks Serena is a total bitch.  She liked you. Why the hell does she chop off your arm and help that woman escape?”

“She didn’t escape. How many fights have you been in? You do what the situation allows you do to. I had a knife and was going to stab her. So she cut my arm off. Serena got tossed off because Oriana didn’t care about her- she was moving toward Francesco and saw a chance to use Serena’s motion against her.”

Brigitte put a hand on Tara’s arm, urging her to be calmer and logical with a silent look from her blue eyes.

Tara nodded, “So Serena is likely back with Francesco too… it’s not just him if we go there.”

“And a few of the little shits in his next ‘class’; there were seven of them, but I’m pretty sure Oriana killed a few.”

“I don’t know this guy.  I barely know of him… tell me, is there any hope he lets her go?  At any price?”

“Let’s her go when she wants to run away from him again? Zero.”

Brigitte turned her head and put her lips firmly on Tara’s brow, holding her in one arm as if it were a full embrace from Billy himself.  She knew Tara was in pain, she would do anything to help her sister through it.

“Well, then that settles it.  When can we meet?” Tara said with absolute conviction in her voice.  “I have no better leads than you. So, there’s no point in delaying. Once you’ve eaten, slept, and gotten some pain meds for whatever is ailing you… how quickly can we connect face to face?”

“Whenever your mother puts me on a plane. I’ll sleep in the air. I want to get this over with.”

“In that, we’re in agreement.  Where’s the plane bringing you?  What city are we starting our hunt in?  I and my team will meet you there.”

“Genoa.”

“Put my mother back on.  I’ll see you soon.”

There was silence, then Rora’s voice said, “It’s me.”

“She’s all we got, Mom.”  Tara said, she knew she could lie to anyone on the earth if she HAD to, but Aurora would hear it in her voice.  She was upset. Very upset. “Put her on a plane, please. Ori told me she’s a decent person. For whatever that’s worth to you, Ori would have trusted her… she’s all we got.”

“People can change, Tara. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes, worse. Don’t put too much stock in Oriana’s old opinion of her. Once she’s on her way… did you want to talk about anything? I can call you back, if you want.”

“No.  I’ve got the same things I had yesterday and the day before, Mom.  I can’t do this, no matter how much I wish I could. I need her help.”

“Okay. I’ll send her over. Just be careful.”

“Mom.  Thank you.”

“We love you, Mom.”  Brigitte hurriedly said into the mouthpiece.

Aurora closed her eyes for a moment. “Love you too. Talk soon.”

Tara hung up the phone feeling as though she were cutting a cord between her mom and herself as well as herself and the only bit of Ori that felt like she could find in all the world.  She turned and clung to her sister a moment.  

Brigitte comforted Tara, still staring at the phone as if it were a viper.  Tara might have been distracted by her fears for Ori so much that she missed what was said… but Brigitte had not been.  Her younger sister was hanging all her hopes on a woman that Brigitte knew damn well wasn’t trusted by her mother, a woman who very likely killed Uncle Will and Uncle Volkov based on what she’d said.  They were two men who Brigitte, unlike her siblings, actually knew and had some memories of.  Happy ones.  

Brigitte shushed her sister and pet her hair.  These were dark thoughts. Thoughts for another time.  For now, they would use this woman to find Oriana, and then … after Oriana was safe, then she’d get her second chance to prove herself to the family in the family business.

Chapter 4: The Hunt Begins

Tara looked up at the cross of St. George flying high above them, whipping in the wind that came off the Gulf of Genoa.  The wait for Viola’s arrival had been almost worse than all the searching and waiting up to this point combined. She knew there was little enough chance that something would happen to the young woman in the care of her parents, but until she had Viola in her presence, Tara would remain ill at ease.  She was the only lead on Ori’s whereabouts, the last person to have seen her alive and that alone made her valuable to Tara.

Brigitte had been her usual self, a constant comfort to Tara, which ironically only put Tara in the position of feeling worse.  If Brigitte knew about her mother she gave no hints of it and Ori proved to be right in that the truth was a stone in her shoe. She could not ignore it and the pain increased daily.  Yet, how could it be spoken about now in the middle of all this when she most needed her sister’s love and support? Telling her that she had ordered her birth mother’s execution was not the way to thank her for all she’d done so far and might yet do.  It was only now that she began to understand all her mother’s silly platitudes about honesty being a gift… the gift wasn’t one to the person you told the truth to, it was to yourself. The gift of freedom.  

Until she could talk openly with Brigitte, she was a slave to her choices and the actions of the past and there was nothing to be done for it.  Until the moment they could be honest with each other again, the truth would be a heavy chain on Tara’s neck strangling her and holding her back from fully accepting all the love Brigitte was capable of giving.  In the moment, she simply did not feel worthy of it no matter how hard she tried to tell herself that Ori was right - she did do what was right.

It was nearly midday when Raini came into the small office on the plane which Tara had claimed for herself.  The maps here were valuable, old looking, and mounted behind panes of glass. It was lovely really - great aunt Tara had spared no expense in building this small boardroom.  Brigitte was on her feet the moment the woman who her family lovingly called ‘Patches’ appeared.

“Your father’s plane has landed.”  Raini announced.

Brigitte turned to Tara, “You can’t look overly eager.  Calm. Remember, you’re in charge, not her.”

Tara waved a hand.  “I know that. She knows that.”

“Tara, it’s important.  Perception of power is everything.  What we know logically doesn’t matter if you’re going to do something different than follow-”

“I’m just going out to meet her I’m not giving away the keys to the plane,” Tara began walking towards the door and Brigitte stepped in her path.

“Listen.  Please Tara.”  Brigitte’s words were firmly spoken, a rarity out of the girl who was always so jovial and carefree.

Tara paused and met her sister’s blue eyes.

“She has what we need.  I agree she’s important, but take a moment to think about who Ori is.  Really think about it. If she were here, if she were the one with the information we needed, and you ran out there like a puppy waiting at the door…”

Tara did as she was told, she thought about it and it only took a moment to accept what Brigitte was saying.  Oriana would manhandle the whole damn show from that point on. She’d be following the other woman’s lead and bitching about it the whole way.  It didn’t matter that she was ‘in charge’ if she did give Ori the indication that she was calling the shots and that final decision wasn’t her own… well, that would be it.  And if Viola was leading them into a trap, well, she’d never see it coming. Whether she was going to spring it or not would be utterly irrelevant.  

“What do you suggest?”  Tara said softly.

Brigitte smiled and put a hand on Tara’s shoulder, “Patches and I will head out to meet her and bring her to you.  You stay here with the team. Find something to keep you busy. Anything. Just don’t be waiting for her. When we come in, make us wait to see you.  Five minutes, I won’t make you do it more than that, it wouldn’t be believable if you do it more than that. However, enough time to make her realize that you, not her have the hold of the helm.  Okay?”

Tara nodded.  “You really are better at all of this.”

Brigitte smirked, “Better at the knowing people part… the doing… well, I won’t stroke your ego Tara but … um… just keep your eyes on the prize, okay?”

Tara watched Brigitte and Raini leaving and walked back around to the head of the table and the large leather seat there.  Settling down into the chair she drummed her fingers on the table, staring at the information in front of her. Renato, Laurent, and even Josephine had tried to find leads of their own- but it was all piles of useless information that had lead them nowhere.  Silently she prayed that Viola had something more substantial to work with than what she’d amassed on her own.

***

“We need to talk.”  Brigitte said flatly to Raini as they departed their plane heading down the stairs.  “I don’t think in all the years I’ve known you I’ve ever had a serious thing to say to you.  Not like what mom and dad talk about and certainly nothing like Nona Bella.”

“You were a kid.”  Patches said with a smile over her shoulder.  “Why should you?”

“I have something now.”

“If you mean about your sister, your mother has already told me.”

Brigitte narrowed her eyes a moment and shook her head, “No.  Nothing about Tara. I need to tell you about the woman to whom we’re about to entrust our lives.  This Viola Montini.”

“You do not trust her then?”  Patches said arching an eyebrow high.  She then shrugged, “Probably wise. When a family with the resources of yours has exhausted all it’s best efforts and ended with nothing and then the answers just show up to offer themselves at your door… well, that’s all the reason you need to be suspicious of them.”

“It’s not just that.  It’s something mom said and more what Viola herself said.”  Brigitte stepped onto the ground and waited for Patches to stand in front of her.  Meeting her eyes, “I think she’s the woman who killed Uncle William and Uncle Volkov.”

The silence could have been cut with a knife.  The dark eyes of the older woman hardened and for a moment Brigitte wondered if she had made a terrible mistake in trusting her with the truth.  “Why would your mother send her here to you and your sister if that were so? Surely Oriana is not that important to the family? You have other assassins, and while I see your sister cares a great deal for her, this too can’t be more than-”

Brigitte held up a hand, “Mom’s reasons are her own.  I won’t speculate, but I know my mom. She is worried about this woman leading us into a trap and she wants us to exercise caution dealing with her.  And, I think this woman if confronted would admit to what she did to us… Tara… she’s only got eyes for Oriana and the mission. That’s fine, but you and I… we have to take care of the family.  So I’m telling you, in case something happens to me, what I know.”

Raini nodded, seeming to understand Brigitte’s request.

“When we find Oriana, I’m going to ask Viola.”

“She will lie.  Or she will know you mean to kill her.  You will have no more use for her once Oriana is found.  If this is not a trap, Brigitte, she will take the question as her cue to act against you before you can finish the job.  If she does anything else it is akin to putting a gun in her own mouth and women who extort money, millions, they aren’t prone to suicide.  She has plans. She must. If you believe this is the truth…”

“I do.”

“Then when you have Oriana, just do it.  The woman has extorted your family. She is a violent criminal and a loose end.  Even if you are wrong about her actions against William and Anton, there can be no mistaking her as a possible future threat.  If I were advising your mother, I would tell her the same thing. I only hesitate because you are you… but if this is who you mean to be, then the path ahead of you is plain.  Once you have the objective, cut off the loose end. End the threat and let your mother believe her brother avenged. Ask her nothing. You will get only lies and pain in return for your kindness… this life has no place for such things.  It is a difficult lesson, to know one can be good… and make hard choices, but this is the nature of your family’s business. This is the face of it that your mother took pains to keep from you. You can either choose to go back to your innocence or push forward to become what you see now.  You can not, however, remain unmoved by truth now that you know it.”

Brigitte looked at the ground.  Had she thought it was possible to live with one foot in the life and one foot outside of it?  Did she really believe she could ever be half-a-gangster? Did she think she could just kill one person and walk away?  All her life she’d been made to understand there was no way out once you were in… of course, she hadn’t considered what she was considering now.  Had she ever NOT been a part of the life?  

Perhaps, she considered silently, I am more like mom than either of us ever really wanted?

Brigitte nodded.  “Thank you, Raini.”

With that the two women crossed the tarmac and proceeded to another hanger where already she could see a set of stairs being pushed over to the door of her father’s plane.  Any moment now, the two of them would see the face of the woman who most likely killed Uncle Will… the silly man who had flown her about the house like a plane, who had played hide and seek with her, who had held her when she cried while mom was away in Russia.  

Brigitte stood up taller and summoned up her smile, channeling the memories of her youth in a different way.  She put on the happy, flippant girl of her youth with the ease of putting on a jacket. The grim realities of her recent thoughts melting away until they were nothing but a tight knot in the back of her mind. Buried as deep underground as her Uncles and Aunt.

Viola exited the plane and blinked from the sunlight. She’d mostly slept on the plane, eating enough to keep her going. Viola was in a foul mood; she’d spent an excruciating hour on the plane dealing with phantom pains of her missing arm. Still, she hid the scowl and walked down the stairs slowly.She’d never be as good as she was, of course, but the doctors said that her strength would gradually return in the coming weeks. Hopefully she’d be alive to enjoy that. 

As she descended the stairs, she saw two women standing in front of her; one was young, blonde haired, and white, while the other was an older black woman. Viola nodded at the smiling younger woman, waiting to get taken to Tara Mastrosimone. 

Brigitte extended her hand,  “Viola Montini?”

“That’s me.”

“Brigitte Mastrosimone.  I’m Tara’s older sister.”

“I know.”

“Oh good that makes things a ton easier.  Well, come on. The plane is just this way.  You must have had one hell of a long flight. I bet you’re sick of planes by now.”

“It’s fine. I’d like to just get this over with. I’ll live on a plane if it helps us finish this sooner.”

“Oh us too.  Believe me, we’re all eager for this to be over with.  The whole damn team really. I think we’re all tired of sleeping on these tiny little beds, eating whatever we come across, it’s not ideal.  I’m sure with you here now we’ll be done in no time though.” She let herself laugh musically. “So… you and Ori have the same last name. How are you related?”

“That’s why I’m here. Not sure about no time. A few days, at least. A couple weeks at most. If things end sooner than that, we’re probably dead. And “Montini” was a name we’d all given ourselves. Didn’t have surnames, mostly, so we invented our own. Grew up in the mountains.” It had been Lucia’s idea. Viola almost smiled, remembering the girl. “I guess you’d call us all adopted sisters in the same, very, very dysfunctional family. Currently estranged.” 

Brigitte hoped that Oriana didn’t view the woman as a close sister, it would definitely make Thanksgivings and Christmases more awkward if she murdered Oriana’s beloved sister… Still the estranged part felt like it might mean things weren’t good.  She would hang her hat on that.

“Well, I think we’re very fortunate that you found your way to my mother and father.  Honestly we’ve been all thumbs here. Tara’s smart and she gets … uptight when things don’t go smoothly.  She’s used to very tightly run ships. Me, I’m more of a go with the flow sort. So, if you need me to be a go-between… don’t hesitate.  I’m used to her biting my head off. No big deal at all.” Brigitte hoped offering herself as good cop would excuse any tension out of her sister not as a fondness of Oriana but just Tara as being a surly taskmaster.  She didn’t want Viola coming to understand that her sister might be a way to hurt Oriana. The last thing she needed was a woman capable of murder in arms reach of her sister having any reasons to try something.

“Fortunate might be the wrong word- or the right one. I’m here because your parents are paying me a fortune. I’ll find you Francesco and Oriana, then I’m out. Retirement. And that’s fine; I’ll keep that other stuff in mind.” Viola gave Brigitte a small smile.

Brigitte returned the smile, all the while thinking what an idiot this woman was if she really believed that it was possible to do all the things she’d done and walk away without paying a price.  Everyone, no matter how good or kind, eventually paid for their sins in this life. She’d seen it happen far too often to pretend that ‘retirement’ was anything other than the act of sending a beloved animal ‘upstate’ to die.  Maybe, Brigitte thought, she really is looking to commit suicide… suicide by Oriana or Mastrosimone.

The three women boarded the plane and as planned, they waited outside of Tara’s office for a brief period.  Brigitte played with her nails, fidgeted with her hair and looked out the windows as if eager to get going onto the adventure.  She didn’t, however, make any small talk. There was a fine line in how far one should push a thing in the first meetings. Warm the subject up.  Let them see through your behavior the sort of person you are, let them make the next move and if she didn’t do it now… she would later. The next part, that was on Tara.  She hoped she’d primed Viola to see Tara in the right light and that she didn’t instantly take her for the desperate lover she was eager to find her girlfriend before something horrible befalls her.  If Viola did see it, it might result in the whole damn trip becoming infinitely more dangerous with a shark swimming amongst them and calling the shots.

The door came open and Tara looked first to Brigitte and then Patches and finally her eyes fell upon Viola.  Her eyes, then the empty sleeve, and the rest of her. Without a word she turned and went back into the office.  Brigitte shrugged and followed.

Tara took a seat at the head of the table again.  She didn’t instantly greet the other woman, instead she opened with a question.  “What did she take your arm off with?”

“Machete.”

Brigitte wasn’t sure what the hell to think of Tara’s tactic here… was it a tactic?  Tara really was terrible at this but surely this was a major misstep. Wasn’t it?

Tara nodded.  “You said she froze when she saw him.  Did she say anything that you remember?”

“No.”

Again Tara nodded.  Brigitte wasn’t sure what to make of this, as Tara continued down this path of hers.  

“Do you suffer from nightmares?”  Tara asked flatly.

Brigitte narrowed her eyes.

“Not until recently. Sometimes I have a dream that I still have my arm, and it fucks with my brain. I guess I had them when I was younger. Not now.”

Tara closed the folder in front of her, “Good.  Then no special arrangements need to be made for rest periods.”  She sat forward in her seat, folding her arms on the table, “So, where are we beginning?”

“The only lead I know for sure; the rest is a jumble of rumors, but I’ll be able to figure them out as we go, I hope, if we follow the actual thread. Oriana started here in Genoa; she captured a man named Danielo Strozzi and killed him in a warehouse near the docks. Francesco heard that someone named Ludovico Avaldi had witnessed the killing, but we never got the chance to hunt him down; by the time we heard that, Oriana was too close to finding him.”

“And you think you can find Avaldi?”

“He’s a drug smuggler. Lowlife criminal past his prime. He won’t be hard to find, if you’ve got anyone who can walk into the right sort of bar without scaring people away. I could do it. Don’t think you could- no offense.”

Brigitte hid her wince as best as she could.  How many times …

“Why is it you say that exactly?”

“You look too put together. Same with Goldilocks here. Maybe if you two rolled around in the dirt a bit, you could. But you don’t look like the types to walk into a dive bar, ask where to find someone, and get anything other than silence. Well, maybe not silence. You’d be propositioned, I’m sure. But unless that’s what you’re looking for, you should probably send me to arrange a meeting. Or someone else, if you don’t trust me.”

Before Brigitte could speak, Tara threw out, “I don’t know you.  Can’t trust someone you don’t know.”

“That’s fine. I don’t trust you, either. Just being completely honest with you to get this finished sooner. It’s part of my contract.”

“Same here.  Honesty.” Tara stood up.  “If you were going to run, you would have done it already.  You came to us. You didn’t have to do that. I have no reason to believe you’re not going to keep your word.  Set up a meeting.”

Brigitte’s eyes widened a hair.  Tara knew she didn’t approve of trusting the girl not to run off and set some trap or call in Francesco to kill them but at this point, Tara would almost welcome a confrontation with the man.  They’d been here nearly a month. God alone knew what had happened to Oriana in that time. She was done waiting. It was time to act.

“If I run without enough money to keep me hidden, I’m dead.”

“I’ll put my trust in your desire to survive then.  Set the meeting up, and come back to us.” Tara sat back down.  “Brigitte, tap the team. Get them back here just the same. We’re done waiting.”

Brigitte looked slightly unsettled. Why not send Renato? Or even Laurent? Someone in this family had to learn that not every assassin should be treated like a lost puppy… but she nodded at her sister. It was Tara’s mission. “Of course, Tara.”

“Do you need anything to make sure this meeting can be set up without much fuss?”

“Not that I know of yet,” said Viola. “But we’ll see what he says.”

“Whatever the terms, agree.  Money isn’t an issue. I don’t want to lose the only lead we have.  I won’t go back to praying that someone charitably decides to offer us information.”

“Just to be clear, I’ll set up the meeting. You’ll have the chance to talk to the guy yourself. They’re not going to just waltz me into a backroom to talk to the guy. They’ll get the word out on the street, and if I throw some money around, someone will tell us where we’re meeting. Give me a bunch of cash, and I’ll make it happen. I’d also like a weapon to protect myself with. Preferably a gun.”

Tara nodded.  “Fine. A gun, some cash, easily done.  However, I do have one question for you before you go …”  She tilted her head to the side, “Considering Oriana took your arm for your troubles the last time you saw her, you can’t be too excited about the prospect of meeting up with her again.  When we close in… at what point do you depart from this team and go your own way?”

“When we get the location of Francesco’s compound, I’m gone. You can go there and confront him, find Oriana yourself. I’ll wait until my bank confirms the rest of my payment, then I’m out.”

“Sounds good.  Raini, please furnish Ms. Montini with a gun and some pocket money in local currency.”

Raini nodded in response to Tara’s request and then opened the door and held it for Viola.  Tara refrained from thanking the woman again, but nearly did so. She was grateful, though she had a fair amount of reasons to suspect the worst of their new ‘help.’  She wanted the woman to think of her as fearless, or a fool, or both… Brigitte had been right. Everything she said and did would create an image. Let the assassin either think she was too trusting or that she had eyes in places that she wasn’t willing to disclose.  Either way, she wouldn’t be thinking anything near the real truth of the matter.  

Also, sending Viola away gave her time to talk to the team frankly about Viola and her part in this mission.  Her mother was right. The woman probably wasn’t all Ori thought. In fact, the truth was probably that Ori’s dear friend Lucia might well have been killed by this woman.  It was probably why Ori took her arm. She’d talk to Brigitte about that suspicion later though. For now, she’d play the part of confident leader and wait. 

Viola was gone for a few hours, slinking off with her gun and her money to find the right sort of seedy establishment.

While the assassin was gone, the team reassembled around Tara. They waited for her in the “living room” of the plane, where several couches and chairs were roughly assembled around a coffee table. All the furniture was, of course, bolted down. Josephine Stone, dressed in a sundress, was sitting and speaking to Dr. Niccolo Magnotti, who was holding a cocktail. They’d been working on Josephine’s Italian for the last few weeks and she’d made some excellent progress. She still wasn’t fluent and probably couldn’t pass for a native, but it was passable.

“Very good, Jo,” said the doctor. “Soon, we will finish with all these social niceties and I will start teaching to you medical terminology.”

“Doc, if we’ve got to start operating in Italian, we’re fucked. Teach me how to talk to people and we’re good. I’ve got to get my Italian seduction game up to par.”

“You know,” said Niccollo as his eyes lit up, “did I mention I am not married?”

“You did. Don’t get your hopes up. You’re a little old for me. And your liver is probably a hundred years old at this point.”

Niccolo laughed. “Guilty as charged. On both counts.”

He waved at Laurent Parmentier and Renato Cambio as they walked in. “Where is our friend Zetico Crupi, eh?” asked the doctor. “Nevermind. He is with the boss, of course. Why do I even ask?”

“Because you like to hear yourself talk,” answered Jo. 

“Guilty there as well,” admitted the doctor. “Come, friends. Tell us. Did we find anything in our search? The fact that we’re all finally together again means something must have been discovered, no?”