Chapter 18 - The Threat from the Past
The peace of the autumn evening was shattered three weeks later by a single, unexpected package delivered to the downtown office of the Vance-Duca Foundation.
Danny was in his office, reviewing the applications for the upcoming spring scholarship program, when his assistant brought in a small, wooden box wrapped in heavy brown paper. There was no return address, and the postage stamp was from a small town in upstate New York.
"What's this?" Danny muttered, opening the box.
Inside sat a vintage, brass compass. The glass face was cracked, and the needle was frozen, pointing permanently to the North-East. Tucked beneath the compass was a single, typed letter on heavy cream cardstock.
Danny picked up the letter, his eyes scanning the words. As he read, the blood drained from his face.
"To the Duca Family,
You think you buried the past in the ruins of Selinunte. You think because Don Caprese fled to South America, the old alliances are broken. But the Caprese family had partners in the North—men who do not forget the debts of the old world. The shipping channels you seized in the Mediterranean belonged to us as well. We are coming to collect what is ours. We will start with the foundation. We will tear down your charity brick by brick until you return the forty million euros you stole.
— The Syndicate of the North."
Danny didn't panic. Over the last year, he had grown from a scared, injured boy into a brilliant, strategic operator. He immediately took the box and the letter, locked his office door, and called Marco on a secure line.
"Marco," Danny said, his voice steady but urgent. "We have a problem. The Caprese fallout isn't finished. A group calling themselves 'The Syndicate of the North' just sent a threat to the foundation."
A brief silence followed on the other end of the line. When Marco spoke, his voice was like a glacier grinding against rock.
"I know who they are, Danny. They are a faction of the old New York families who used Caprese’s shipping lanes to move illegal cargo into Europe. They think because we are in Chicago and Palermo, we cannot reach them."
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"What do we do?" Danny asked. "They are threatening the foundation, Marco. They are threatening the kids we are helping."
"They are threatening my family, Danny," Marco corrected him, his voice rising with a cold, lethal intensity. "And that is the last mistake they will ever make. Stay in your office. I am sending Enzo to bring you to the estate. We are locking down."
