The Wolf by Lorenzo Carcaterra Read Free Book Online Page A

in agreement as he spoke.
    “The Russians give them access to the art world, to banks, to credit cards and to high-end weapons,” I said. “The Mexicans buy their drugs and pay off the shipments with stolen guns. That’s your real axis of evil right there.”
    “And the Russians and Mexicans, what do they expect to gain from all this?” Big Mike asked. “It’s not like you can trust any of the terrorist cells. So why, is my question. Why are they in this with people they know they can never trust? What’s the end-game?”
    “Us,” Kodoma said.
    Kodoma could sway the room in my direction and had just begun to do so.
    He had been the head of the Japanese mob—the Yakuza—for two decades now. He was a direct descendant of Yoshio Kodoma, the Yakuza boss who unified the various factions after World War II and made them a prominent criminal force in Japan and Asia.
    Kodoma had fifteen thousand members under his command spread across forty-one gangs, all secretive and impossible to infiltrate. Together, the two of us had invested in dozens of American companies and had holdings in excess of $10 billion in legitimate enterprises. We then took that money, ran it through a series of shell companies, and funneled the profits back into the organization.
    Kodoma controlled 2,500 banks worldwide, which made cash and wire transfers simple to complete, especially since money laundering is legal in Japan. He ran over three hundred gambling operations that netted the organization a yearly profit of $460 million. No one runs better gambling dens than the Yakuza. They initially began their operations by sponsoring underground tournaments of Bakuto, a card game similar to blackjack, with one distinct difference—if you lose a game of blackjack, you leave cash on the table; if you lose at Bakuto, you leave behind a finger, giving rise to the name Yakuza, which means hand-cutter. The Yakuza have even published a book called How to Evade the Law —which all members of the council are required to read. Kodoma gets a kickback for every book sold.
    And if you control the money and the banks, the deck is stacked in your favor. I knew some in the room would balk at my plan, but it would be much more difficult for them to do so with Kodoma at my back. I could freeze any dissenters out of large chunks of my operation, costing them millions each month.
    Kodoma could bring them to their knees by refusing to wash their money and oversee their gambling operations. I looked across the table at him and felt certain he was prepared to do just that.
    “Close to two million Russians, we don’t know how many terrorists, and have even less of an idea of the number of Mexicans,” Carbone said, sitting rigidly in his chair, hands cupped around a glass of cold water. “That correct?”
    “Pretty much,” I said.
    “So I’m hoping—we’re all hoping—you have a plan to go along with your call to war,” Carbone said.
    “And it can’t just be any plan,” Jannetti said. “It has got to be one terrific, kick-ass plan. Because I am not eager to get into the trenches with these bastards just to have my ass handed to me.”
    “I have a plan,” I said. “It’s risky.”
    “Which means what?” Orto asked.
    “Which means it’s a great plan,” Qing said. “Only risky plans have any chance to be great.”

Chapter 6
    Naples, Italy
    Victorio Emanuele Jannetti walked down the center of a crowded street of Spaccanapoli, the very heart of Naples, beside his confidant of more than thirty years, Alfredo Lambretto. Three burly bodyguards walked several feet in front of them and two others followed close behind, all armed, eyes trained on the tourists and locals surrounding them.
    “The kid’s instincts are correct,” Lambretto said.
    He was a tall, thin man with a head of gray hair and a stylish beard. He had made it out of the hard streets of the most dangerous neighborhood in Italy—Forcella—and had the scars to prove it. He had risen from