The tracking room was a giant GPS-styled system that Elasaid had installed to keep tabs on his entire family.  He got behind the desk and, with Alex, Oz, and his brothers at his side, pulled up Zylena’s file.

“It shows that she did leave the castle grounds,” Elasaid noted as he checked out the co-ordinances.  “Then to a club.”

“Which means she left of her own free will,” said Oz.

“But her car is still there,” responded Elasaid.

“Which club?” Jabari asked.

“Thyella,” responded Elasaid.

Oz immediately pressed the intercom button.  “Get a team to Thyella.  Zylena’s car is there.  Tear that place upside down in search of her.”

“Yes, sir!” the security chief responded.

“What about her phone?” asked Alex.

“I’m searching it now,” responded his father.

“Is it at the club, too?” asked Oz.

“It moved from the club, but only a few meters.  That is where it lays.”

“Undoubtedly tossed there,” said Maximus.

Elasaid nodded.  “The only answer.  The location is in the middle of the street.”

“Any other way to track her?” Alex asked.

“No,” said Elasaid.  “Unfortunately, no!”

Then they all looked at Alex.  Back in the day, when he ran things, he would be the one to come up with the clever answers.  Everybody knew what had to be done to get Zylena back, but Alex wasn’t sharing his opinion.

It was Elasaid who stood up.  “We waste time,” he said.  “I’ve got to meet with the families, in exchange for them handing over Zee.”

“But which family has her?” Oz asked.  “We know next to nothing at this point, Papa.”

“And you are the last one who can agree to meet with them,” said Maximus.  Then he looked at his oldest nephew.  “Only Alexio can do that,” he said.

“Alexio?” asked Elasaid.

“Yes,” Jabari agreed with their brother.  “Alexio is the only one they still respect.  He is the only one they know had no hand in the dirty deed.  They will murder you on sight, Elasaid.”

Alexio knew it was true, just as all of them knew it was true, but he remained silent.  The Greek mafia, he knew, was the very definition of a slippery slope.  Once you get on that slide, you can only go down, and down so far in the mud that you are more than likely to get stuck.

But then the phone rang and took the decision out of his hands.

The call was dispatched through by security without prompting Elasaid because, apparently, he knew who was on the other line.  Unlike the first call, where the screaming obscured the voice, there was no question of the voice on this call.

It was Batebbi, the underboss of the Galen crime family.  And his message was clear: “We have the girl,” he spoke in Greek.  “Bring Elasaid to us,” he added, “and we will release her unharmed.  Refuse, and she dies.”

Elasaid was about to respond, but Alex held up his hand.  And Alex, to the delight of everyone in the tracking room, responded.  “Your demand is not reasonable,” he said.

“Who is this?  Is this who I think it is?”

“It is Alexio, Batebbi. You have my sister.”

“Ace is back!  Well.  I did not anticipate such turn of events.”

Neither did Alex!  “We have to call a truce,” Alex said.  “Because, you know, if you kill my father, I will have to take action against you.  What good will that do any of us?”

“There was a truce.  You people leave us alone, we leave you alone.  But the truce was broken by your father!”

“I will meet with you.  You make your demands.  And I will bring them back to my father.”

“And if he refuses our demands?” asked Batebbi.

“If they are reasonable,” Alex said, “you have my word he will not refuse to comply.”

Oz looked at his father.  Nobody on the face of this earth could speak so assuredly for him as Alex could.  It was that very strength that allowed Oz to be in awe of his big brother, and to despise his big brother too.

“But first,” Alex added, “you must release Zylena.”

There was a long pause, as, Alex was certain, Batebbi was conferring with the others.  Then he was back on the phone.  “You will come alone?” he asked Alex.

“To negotiate a truce?  Will you come alone?”

Batebbi laughed.  “The same old Ace!  Okay.  You bring three with you.  You may bring one other to take your sister away.  But no others.  We had been playing based on your father’s terms.  Now they are our terms.”

“Agreed,” Alex said.

“When?”

Alex looked at his father.  Elasaid mouthed the word now emphatically.

“Now,” said Alex.  “In a neutral location.”

And the meeting that Elasaid had been hoping for all along, especially after his disastrous decision, was set.