Page 162 of Deadfall

“So Lincoln, Lev—has run back to Mahoney,” Knight stated. “Mahoney obviously didn’t succeed in giving Emersyn over to the brothers. So, where are they all now? Will they come for her?”

“Octavius isn’t a problem anymore,” Griffin interrupted.

“Why?”

“Because I killed him,” I said.

Silence again, except for Nyx. “See? I told you—ouch!”

He glared at Atlas who had a benign look on his face. I felt my father’s attention, and the entire room dropped away as I slowly looked his way. I don’t know what I was afraid I’d see, but the look on his face made my heart lurch in my chest. That’s what pride looked like. That’s what love looked like.

“I don’t think Basilion will come for her,” Griffin answered. “He has bigger problems because Albatron will be moving on him now.”

“Have we found Mahoney?” My father asked.

“He’s back on his island,” West said. “And I just received this.”

He threw an email up on the screen, and Nyx started to read.

“Greetings my new friends—this motherfucker,” he muttered before he continued. “In a show of continued good faith, and because I assume your next vendetta will be against Mahoney, I would like to share with you some information I consider pertinent to your cause—how nice of him—As I’m sure you’re aware, Mahoney is still on his island and doesn’t appear to be making any moves to relocate.

More importantly, Basilion has disowned Mahoney—” Nyx whistled low. “While Mahoney has his own resources, he will receive no help and has been cut off. Apparently, giving a gift that ended up killing his brother doesn’t earn any favors with the rest of the family. Do with that what you will.

Further, Basilion’s transition into power after Octavius’ death has occurred as expected, and we will be moving on him shortly to capitalize on this unrest. As we so briefly discussed, ‘the enemy of your enemy is your friend’—ha, he’s a funny one—” Nyx said dryly. “I am not one to ask for things, so this is highly out of character and, as my second, Dante would say, out of practice, but this is a formal request for space to accomplish the removal of Basilion.

To put things plainly; I need a year.

After that, if you feel called to come extract whatever vengeance you believe is required, I will meet you on the battlefield.

To further this dazzling display of good faith, I’ve included the full blueprints of the island.

Good luck.

Albatron’”

“So, he expects us to take out Mahoney,” Nyx said. “And just sit by and let him take out Basilion?”

“That would give him an absurd amount of power—basically without impediment,” Atlas agreed.

“Impeding him would require siding with Basilion,” Knight said. “I doubt that’s something we want to do. Or, if we go after Albatron right away, then he’s fighting two battles which means yeah, we could probably eliminate him, but then we’d have to go after Basilion.”

“Who at that point would have the resources of the entire family business,” West said.

Knight shook his head. “We’re really in a shit situation. Either way we inadvertently help Albatron.”

“It does seem like it would be to our advantage to let Basilion and Albatron battle things out between themselves—weaken each other, the entire structure—before we have a go at him,” Nyx mused.

“Do you think Albatron will win?” West asked.

“If I was a betting man, I’d put good money on it,” Nyx said.

“Why didn’t he use Emersyn as leverage?” Graham asked. “Albatron could have had all of NorTac at his disposal—”

My father shook his head. “He knows better. He’s been watching us—watching me—he knows I would have done everything to make that impossible for him. Not to mention it would have been one more thing for him to deal with. No, this was a character demonstration.”

“Kind of risky,” Nyx muttered.

“Yes, but he wanted us to get a different opinion of him so we’d agree to give him the space he needs,” my father said.