WEB OF SHADOWS

Luca's fur tingled with cold from the night air as he accompanied Bianca down the forest trail, pathos of lies at each step. Gravel crunched beneath their feet, and a faint mist was already beginning to rise up out of the earth, shrouding the woods in an eerie fog. Far-off hooting was remote—a reedy, empty sound. But Luca was not aware. His thoughts were tangled in fury and disbelief. Adraine. His cousin. His blood. And now… his enemy? Bianca walked beside him in silence, but her glances were frequent—watching him, studying him. She had known Luca long enough to recognize the thunderstorm brewing behind his calm facade. 'You're too quiet," she finally said. 'It's unsettling." Luca didn't answer at first. When he did, his voice was cold steel. "I should have known better. She always had a weakness for fucked-up deals. When I was a kid, she used to steal my cigarettes out of my drawer and sell them back to me." Bianca smiled dryly. "Sounds like a student of the hustle." "She was worse than that," he growled. "She was smart. Ice when she needed to be. But I never thought she'd go this far.". They came to the edge of the woods where a half-tarmac, weathered road went on to the city limits. There was an out-of-place rusty old payphone standing, and Luca walked over and dug in his pocket for change. "You sure that works?" Bianca asked with an eyebrow raised. Luca put on a half-nervous smile. "Old equipment still proves useful." He made an investment of cash and phoned out of memory. Rings, a few. A harsh voice at the end. "Yes?" "LUCOMMUNICATIONS. We've got a live one here. There's an extraction. At the entrance to Solace Mill, where there's trees." There was silence. "Alive then?" "Barely. Use a stealthy operative." "One on it. Ten minutes." Luca moved back and placed put. Looking against the phone booth now, he nodded by a fraction. Shaking hands hardly at all. Bianca had been observing him. "Who did you call? "Enzo's man. He owes me a favor." Bianca nodded. "Let's get gas." Now, in the span of a ten-minute period, a plain delivery van pulled up beside them, headlights off. Driver, big man with crew cut and crooked nose and cigarette stuck between his teeth, nodded at them. "Luca?" he said. Luca nodded once. Behind him. "Hop in. And don't lift your head. We don't have time for snoopy eyes." Within the van, the aroma of coffee and oil lingered in the background. Bianca perched on a crate near the back, pulling out a compact first-aid kit and tossing it at Luca. "You're bleeding," she said offhandedly. Luca looked down at the cut on his shoulder. "It's nothing." "Still needs cleaning." She applied antiseptic to a cotton pad and pressed it hard against the wound. Luca protested, but he didn't move. Her fingers didn't shake; they remained steady, although he was hurt. As she wrapped him, Luca's attitude dropped. "I barely even believe it. Adraine. if she betrayed Raphael, that means she has to be in on it with whoever this is. That's not betrayal, it's war." Bianca lifted her head, their eyes locking. "Then we play for war." The van stopped in a shadowy alley between two of the city's tallest skyscrapers. The driver snarled. "Here's where I drop you. You'll find Enzo inside, fifth floor, apartment 5B." Luca tipped his gratitude and pushed a crumpled bill into the man's hand. "Thanks." They stepped in and in. Stairwell odor of wet cement and stale smoke. At the fifth floor, Luca knocked with a particular sequence—two brisk, two leisurely, one leisurely. The door shifted infinitesimally, stuck by the chain. Enzo's slit-eyed face appeared. "Luca?" "It's me." Door shut, chain dropped, creaked on. Enzo stepped aside to reveal a mess of living room of screens, wires, and the blink of monitoring feeds. Bianca gazed around. "Keeping tabs on the world round the clock?" Enzo smiled. "Information is power, darling. And I prefer to keep mine connected." Luca strolled over to the principal desk. "We need your assistance. Yesterday." Enzo sucked on a cigarette and let the smoke haze drift away. "Tell me." Luca outlined it all—the phone call from Adraine, the phony location, the attack, the betrayal. Enzo listened with furrowed brows, slowly nodding. 'Damn. That's cold," he muttered. 'You sure she wasn't being forced?" 'She wasn't scared. She was laughing with them," Luca said bitterly. 'She knew exactly what she was doing." Enzo scratched his beard. 'Alright. Gimme her number. I'll start tracking her calls. If she's involved with anyone local, I'll know." Luca recited Adraine's number. Enzo began typing rapidly, pulling up call logs and triangulating pings. "Have something," he said to him after a moment. "She placed an encrypted call this morning. Can't track it directly, but I know that kind of encryption. They're a gang that hangs off the piers—Black Serpents." Bianca's brows crunched. "Gun runners." "Among other things," he said to him. "Drugs, trafficking, call it. And if Raphael's missing, I wouldn't put it past them to be holding him for leverage." "For what?" Luca's eyes grimmed. Enzo shrugged. "Maybe a message to you. Maybe as part of a last game. Either way, I'd start at the docks." Luca stood, his anger boiling just beneath the surface. "Then there we go." Bianca put on her gloves, her voice cold. "Tonight?" "No," replied Luca. "We need sleep. Guns. Surveillance. We go in during the day—when they won't be looking." Enzo gave Luca a burner phone. "Take that. I'll keep calling Adraine. I'll try to catch any other calls she makes too. If she calls anyone else, I'll know." "Thanks, Enzo," replied Luca, shoving the phone into his pocket. Enzo nodded resolutely. "Beware, Luca. Family against you… that's the kind of wound which never heals quite right." "I don't need it to heal," Luca snarled, moving towards the door. "I need it to remind me." --- It was still barely dawn when Luca and Bianca sat on top of a warehouse in front of the Portside Docks. Luca scanned the yard with binoculars—mountains of containers stretched high, guards in twos patrolling, a black van with black windows at the loading dock. Bianca pointed to something. "There. North corner. That rusty-colored container with the padlock?" "Yeah," Luca said. "Odd to lock one up alone." "Matter of holding onto something… someone." Luca put down the binoculars. "Make a plan, then." Bianca smiled. "High ground for you. Sneaking around and picking off the guards quietly for me." Luca nodded. "And then the two of us get into the container and then we grab Raphael and get out. If he's not in there—" "Then improvise," she finished. "Like always." They shared a look—a silent connection that had been perfected and sharpened over decades of madness and survival. This was not just another assignment. This was personal danger. They descended into the maze of the docks, their dark forms specters on the pavement like rain-soaked silhouettes. The hunt for Raphael began. And Luca this time would not depend on anyone.