He voiced this sentiment to Lott, who said, with some worry, “Kaul-jen, of course, every Fist and Finger is willing to follow you and give our lives if it would bring Shae-jen and Wen back, but I’m not sure that’s the best way to—”
“I know that,” Hilo snapped. Leyolo City was not Janloon. He couldn’t land a plane full of Green Bones there. He didn’t control the streets, the police, the government, or the people. Wen and Shae would be dead as soon as the barukan found out he was in the country, and those responsible would flee, knowing he couldn’t easily find them.
Although he was too sick with worry to sleep, he was also bored. After issuing orders, there wasn’t much he could do while he waited for more information. He’d already instructed Jaya not to come up to Janloon straightaway, but to stay calm and remain at her home in Toshon until they knew more. He was finding it hard to do likewise. Lott told him politely but firmly that his constant pacing and the stress in his jade aura were distracting, so Hilo went out onto the patio and smoked, quitting be damned.
In the morning, word came from one of the clan’s secret contacts in the Leyolo City police that the black SUV Tako and Dudo had rented had been found seemingly abandoned on the side of the road five kilometers from the hotel. There were no skid marks, no signs of a car chase or collision, and no signs of mechanical failure. If they’d known they were being followed, Wen’s bodyguards would’ve driven to a safer, more defensible place. The only plausible explanation for them to be calmly stopped in a random location was that they’d been pulled over. If the kidnappers had fake or real Leyolo City police in their employ, they were expert criminals.
“It wasn’t the Matyos,” Lott reported, getting off the phone. None of the clan’s White Rats embedded in the largest of Shotar’s barukan gangs had any knowledge of the abduction. If the Matyos were responsible, there would’ve been some leakage within the gang. People would know something big was going on. Arrangements would’ve been made, safe houses secured, gunmen organized. Either the Matyos were not involved or it was an outsourced job, known only to the highest-level leaders. Given how quickly the operation had been put together, that seemed unlikely.
If the Matyos weren’t behind this, Ayt Mada most likely wasn’t either. Hilo was almost disappointed, even though he knew his oldest and greatest rival had no reasonable motive for a crude ransom kidnapping with such high odds of being botched. But if the clan’s usual enemies weren’t to blame, then who was? The answer came a few hours later. Members of the clan in the Leyolo City branch office had examined all of Shae’s and Wen’s activities since the instant they arrived in Shotar. After they accounted for everyone Shae had met that day, suspicion fell on Wen’s meeting at Diamond Light.
Hami Tumashon, who was on the ground in Shotar, took two of the clan’s Fingers from the Leyolo City branch office and drove to Guttano’s home. They snatched the studio executive off the driveway of his Redwater area mansion, stuffed him into the trunk of the car, and drove twenty kilometers out of the city to a secure location. Through a translator, the terrified man confessed. After Wen had come to his office to demand the release of Danny Sinjo from his contract, Guttano feared for his life. He’d phoned a barukan boss named Choyulo to plead for protection, revealing that the wife of Kaul Hiloshudon had visited him and that she was staying at the Oasis Sulliya resort.
Hami explained over the phone that Choyulo was a member of the Faltas barukan. The Faltas were a smaller gang than the Matyos, although the two organizations maintained an arm’s-length alliance. The Faltas acted as muscle for the larger gang but were also known for their own activities, primarily extortion and corporate kidnappings. They had tentacles into the sports, music, and film industries, and most of the Shotarian gangster films that glorified the barukan were about the Faltas.
“What should I do with Guttano?” Hami asked. The clan’s Rainmaker had been on the business side of the clan for decades, but he had once been a Fist.
Lott depressed the mute button on the phone set and said, “We shouldn’t kill this man now, Kaul-jen. A wealthy Shotarian movie executive going missing will bring in the local police. In any case, we may need to ask him other things about the Faltas.”
Hilo took the line off mute and gave instructions to Hami. “Put Guttano up in a hotel. Have him phone his wife and tell her that he’s been called out of town on urgent business. A problem on a film set, something like that. Post guards to make sure he doesn’t talk to anyone else and doesn’t leave. If we get Wen and Shae back safely, he goes free. If we don’t, he’s dead. So if there’s anything else he can tell us about the Faltas, he should do it, if he wants to see his family again.”