Chapter 5 - The War Cabinet
At 8:00 AM the following morning, the sun broke through the storm clouds over Manhattan, casting a cold, crisp light across the city.
Inside the grand mahogany library of the Torino estate, twelve men sat around a massive oval table. These were the top captains of the Torino family—men who controlled the city's concrete unions, the shipping terminals, the waste management networks, and the private security firms.
At the head of the table sat Vincent.
Beside him sat Luca, who had connected a high-speed satellite laptop to the central display monitor mounted on the wall.
"The encryption on the flash drive was high-grade," Luca reported to the room, pointing at the waterfall of green financial data scrolling across the screen. "Julian Miller was a genius. He didn't just log the transfers; he embedded digital certificates from the Swiss banks holding Salvatore Moretti’s private reserve accounts."
"How much?" Vincent asked flatly.
"Four hundred and twenty million dollars," Luca declared. "Spread across eight accounts in Zurich, Nassau, and Liechtenstein. Every single dollar of the Moretti family's liquid capital."
A low murmur rippled through the twelve captains.
"If we execute these wire transfers using Julian’s master keys," Luca continued, "Salvatore Moretti loses his liquid assets in ten seconds. He won't have enough money to pay his soldiers, his mercenaries, or his lawyers by noon today."
"What about his federal protection?" asked Captain Bruno, a broad-shouldered man who managed the docks. "Senator Vance has been blocking federal indictments against Moretti for five years."
Vincent reached into his coat, pulling out a sleek black tablet.
"Senator Vance's private offshore accounts are detailed on page forty-two of this ledger," Vincent said, his voice dropping into a deadly register. "Luca sent a copy of those files to the Special Prosecutor at the Department of Justice twenty minutes ago. Senator Vance is currently being arrested at his home in Bethesda."
The room went completely silent. The captains looked at Vincent with profound, absolute awe. In less than twelve hours, without firing a single shot in the city streets, Vincent had completely decapitated the political and financial infrastructure of their greatest rival.
"Now," Vincent stood up, his dark eyes scanning his lieutenants. "Salvatore Moretti is trapped in his compound in Bay Ridge. He knows he has lost his money. He knows he has lost his political cover. He has thirty mercenaries left inside that house, and he is waiting for us to come."
"Do we breach?" Marco asked, his hand resting on the grip of his sidearm.
"No," Vincent replied coldly. "A breach creates noise. It creates public chaos. I promised Elena that this war would not touch the streets where her child walks."
He looked at Marco.
"We cut his water. We cut his power. We cut his communications. And at 2:00 PM today... I am going to walk into his house alone."
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Marco gasped. "Boss! That's suicide! Salvatore is a cornered rat! He'll blow the entire house up before he surrenders!"
"Salvatore isn't going to blow anything up," Vincent said, a razor-sharp smile touching his lips. "Because he thinks he still has one card left to play."
