AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He also taught me to pay attention to tonality, speed, and hand gestures. Those three things were often more important than the words themselves.
It was like Dario showed me how to tune the dial on a radio. At first the reception was staticky, and I only caught every other word – but eventually meanings came through crystal clear.
He also taught me the key to surviving San Vittore: understanding the different factions.
“You already know about my business acquaintances, the Cosa Nostra,” Dario said as we strolled through the yard. “Originally from Sicily, they spread to America in the late 1800s and took over New York City in the 1920s. From there, their influence spread across the United States.
“The Cosa Nostra also gained a bigger foothold throughout Italy over the last 50 years… Rome, Venice, Florence. That’s not widely known, by the way. Most outsiders think that the Cosa Nostra is still largely confined to Sicily. In reality, they expanded quite a bit over the last half-century. They just managed to keep it secret from the authorities.
“For the most part, the Cosa Nostra families ruling the different regions co-exist in peace… but you can never be entirely certain that another family isn’t plotting to take your territory. However, out of all of the factions inside San Vittore, the Cosa Nostra are the closest thing we have to reliable allies.”
“The day you got attacked, I saw you speaking to an older man on the bleachers. Was he Cosa Nostra?”
“Yes – Don Godino. He’s the head of a smaller family based in San Rimini, on the eastern coast of Italy. I’ve known him ever since… well, I’ve known him a long time.”
I noticed that occasionally Dario would catch himself, as though he’d almost slipped up and told me something I shouldn’t know.
I was pretty sure his connection to the Cosa Nostra went far deeper than he let on, but his lack of transparency didn’t bother me. After all, I had never been completely honest with him about why I was in San Vittore. I had certainly never told him about MI6 or why I had been visiting Italy when I got arrested.
Dario continued. “You also know about the Camorra from our first encounter in the yard. They’ve traditionally controlled Naples and the surrounding areas, although the Cosa Nostra has fought an invisible war with them over the last 40 years to try to break their hold over the region. Because of the situation in Naples, the Camorra hates the entire Cosa Nostra – and that’s why they’re the ones we truly have to watch out for in here.”
Dario gestured towards a group of tattooed thugs surrounding a 40-something man with close-cropped grey hair and a vicious scowl. “That man is Aristide Caproni. He is the highest-ranking member of the Camorra in San Vittore. If I had to bet, I would say he’s the one who ordered the hit on me. Beware him and his lieutenants.
“Then you have the ‘Ndrangheta.” Dario pronounced it DRAHN-geh-tuh, with just a hint of an ‘n’ at the beginning. “They’re based in Calabria, the ‘toe’ of the boot of Italy – and right next door to Sicily. ‘Ndrangheta is Greek, which is still spoken in pockets in the south of Italy. It means ‘men of honor’ or ‘manly virtue.’ I don’t know if I’d agree with those translations,” Dario said drily, “but that’s how they think of themselves.
“They’re originally descended from bandits forced out of Sicily in the 1800s. Actually, there’s an old ‘Ndrangheta myth that says the Cosa Nostra, the Camorra, and the ‘Ndrangheta were started by three Spanish knights who arrived in Italy in the 1500s. I think they just like attaching themselves to the Cosa Nostra the way some people brag about being related to Pope So-and-So from the 19th century. It’s bullshit, but it makes them feel better about themselves.
“What’s not in dispute is that the ‘Ndrangheta are probably the most powerful of the three groups today. Not so much in Italy, but internationally. They’ve spread throughout much of Europe and into parts of Asia. Drugs are their most lucrative trade, and they are to Europe what the Mexican cartels are to North America. They are no friends to the Cosa Nostra but they generally don’t bite unless provoked.”
Dario talked about the smaller criminal organizations that were also represented in San Vittore: the Basilischi… La Stidda… the Sacra Corona Unita… the Società foggiana, the Nuova Mala del Brenta, the Banda della Magliana, the Banda della Comasina…
The sheer number of organizations rivaled the many tribal warlords that made Afghanistan so difficult to control. And that wasn’t even counting the various crime operations based in Albania, Romania, and Serbia that conducted business in rural pockets of Italy.
It was a lot to wrap my head around, but at least now I knew where the land mines were buried.
I just had to make sure not to step on them.
98
Besides avoiding getting murdered, the hardest thing about prison was how much I missed Rachel. At night I would lie awake for hours, my heart aching as I thought about her.
I was worried that she might think I was dead – or worse, that I’d ghosted her after our fight. The thought made me sick to my stomach.
I called Gunnar every week, desperate for an update on his search. But no matter how hard he looked, he never found a trace of her.
I considered asking him to go to London and visit MI6 headquarters, but I was worried he would raise too many alarms by poking around. If Alistair made the connection between me and Gunnar, then Rachel’s professional life would be ruined… Gunnar might get ‘disappeared’… and Alistair might send someone to San Vittore to make sure my mouth stayed shut permanently.
So I kept quiet and prayed Gunnar would find something eventually.
I waited a long, long time.
As the months wore on, what began as an alliance of convenience with Dario became a real friendship.
Partly it was because we spent nearly every waking hour together. He somehow got me released from my job in the laundry, and we spent the time training instead: him in combat, me in Italian.
Dario never told me exactly what his connection was to the Cosa Nostra – only that he was in prison for financial crimes. And I kept quiet about my deal with Alistair and MI6.
But the more we got to know each other, the more we talked about everything else.
