The Twelve Zenati Pt. 36

"That's true, and I am immensely proud of all of you for the part you played in this," he sighed, trying to find the words he wanted to say. "When our ancestors retook their names and refused to be hidden behind a wall of shame, they became a combined force that was virtually unbeatable in the wars for territory and status of the middle-ages," Armando sighed. If their timeline was correct, Christo Donati was one of the first to lose their life to this mad man, and he refused to have his family suffer as the Donatis had.

"I get it, Papa. That's why I am here rather than in hiding with my pregnant wife," Gideon growled slightly. "Over my dead body will this man put my brothers or the women they love in any more danger, and Vivienne agrees, which is why she agreed to head home to her brother where she will be the safest."

Armando pulled into the home he had grown up in that now belonged to his brother Tony. Today would be a historic occasion and one that was badly needed. Cars lined the drive, so he parked around the back and strode to the house. He hoped the questions that plagued him the most would be answered today. First, he needed to know why the three Gambaro girls and their families had been targeted. Second, he wanted to know how deeply the Varangians had infiltrated each of the tables through the Battaglia, which seemed to be the gateway into the twelve tables.

"Bruno Battaglia has put off his retirement to stand with Marcus and accept the mistakes he had made in his recruitment processes which were now being overhauled. What we hope, however, is that some of those behind the recruitment of men for the Varangian would have given them answers about why the Gambaro girls seemed so important to him, particularly Marcella," Armando explained as if to reassure himself of the reasons the Battaglia called this meeting.

"Don't get me wrong, knowing the motivation behind someone's actions is always good, but I think we are beyond that now. As of this moment, we just need to find the Varangian," Gideon said through clenched teeth making his father turn his head to look at his son.

They entered the athenaeum to see everyone who could be there was present. Gideon took a chair alongside his father and looked to the end of the room, where a wall was covered in screens. He discovered both generations of the current tables were joining the meeting from their family locations around the country. When the last of the tables had joined the discussion, Gideon gauged which tables had included only the chairs and oracles and which seemed to show a full table at the conference. Protocols had undoubtedly changed with the more recent times and innovations.

Bruno Battaglia had called the conference, so he cleared his throat to start the conference. He also went a long way to enabling the networks to all route through his master server for this meeting to show his trust and faith in his Tabled fellow men. He began his opening speech by praising Noah and Xavier for making the links to the tragedies that had befallen the families in the last decade back to the one-person, circumstantial evidence or not, in the early days which had led each table to make recent discoveries of their own.

Each family went through past incursions and animosities between tables they believe could have been caused by Konrad. Then, they created a timeline of sorts leading from the warnings of Christo and his subsequent death up to the issues of today and the three Gambaro women who had been used to cause ill-feeling amongst up to six tables.

"Between Theo's investigation as well as our own," Bruno indicated Marcus and a few others who sat beside him. It would appear that the Varangian promised Apollo Martino stewardship of Perth and, more importantly, The Kimberlie region combining the two areas under one main figurehead. Which is why he needed Marcella to help make the transition from the tables as we know them, to a new regime overseen by the Varangian guard."

"From what we understand, Jessa and her husband would have taken over Adelaide before that relationship was destroyed when Severino and his brother messed up again by attempting to force the return of Marcella in Darwin. I don't think Severino ever had any intention of handing Marcella over to Apollo except in name only," Bernardo Gambaro spoke up, and Tomaso Farnese confirmed his words about the city of Adelaide.

"It would seem," Bruno raised his voice to be heard again above the murmurs. "That Konrad's plans began to fall apart when Joseph Donati did not play the Varangian's game as expected, and he lost control of two significant pieces on his game board." He didn't need to state the names. They all knew the stories of what had preceded Joseph and Antonia's deaths. "It seemed Joshua Donati, with his oracle and the support of the new mother was not the easy prey he thought they might be either. He lowered his head in acknowledgement of the Donati leader. So, he focused on the other tables and the plans he had in place there, like the wrongful internment of Marcella in the Battaglia facility and the use of Ballino Martino to begin the destruction of the Vitali family."

"This is True," Roberto Vitali nodded, confirming his words.

"I'll say it if no one else will," Mateo Vitali said solemnly, from where he sat beside his father. "Veronica Donati caused chaos and destruction in my life and family as much as she did in her own. Just as my mother and her brother began the destruction in the generation before ours, and I am sure you all have the stories to match. The fact is both the Donati and my own family were, if not saved by them, greatly advantaged by the women who came to us with new blood and new ways of looking at our families. Konrad thinks we are so mired in tradition and ritual that we will not deviate from that to save ourselves. This conference says otherwise, and I am happy to be part of this exercise in trust and camaraderie as we face a common enemy. I think my brother Ricco has already demonstrated what can come from being a team player against this man."

Several families discussed the nests they had found had also exposed those who were collaborating with Konrad's men in the hopes of taking over the table's businesses and lifestyles themselves. It had only been a matter of days since the might of the twelve had come together in a new and improved thirteenth table where the bonds of family ties held them tightly together regardless of their misgivings.

Gideon listened to it all, but at the end of the day, his brothers and the women they loved, not to mention his wife, had gone into hiding until they could be sure this man was dealt with for good. If he were as clever as the stories gave him credit for, especially his being ahead of the other players in the game, it would be surprising if he didn't already know where each of the girls were and had plans to take them as he had threatened to do Marcella. They were living bait, and he couldn't bear it much longer. He looked at his father, who seemed of the same mind and finally broke his silence for the both of them.

"This love fest is all well and good, but my sons are out there being used as bait for this man now. I want them back, sooner rather than later, so someone tell me how we accomplish that?" Armando had risen to his feet as he spoke his words loud and clear in the room. "I want my children back, and I want them back now," he demanded, including the women in his demand for his children.

Gideon was shocked at his usually steady and calm father's outburst. Like him, the room and all the screens remained silent for some time after Armando's words died off when Bruno spoke again.

"Armando, like Ricco Vitali last year, your son, Noah, is the hero of the hour with his keen insight and understanding of the bigger picture rather than our individual tables, while he has been fighting his own battles for the woman he loves with the Varangian, he was thinking not of his own life and his own family, but rather the Twelve Tables as a whole. We are indebted to him and his brothers, and you have our assurances that we are each doing everything we can to make sure they make it home to you as soon as possible," Bruno said gruffly.

Armando lowered his head and sat down. How could he so selfishly demand the return of his sons when one of them was the hero they spoke of that looked outside his own family and needs to protect others. He sighed and tried to believe in the plans Noah had put into place with his brothers. He felt Gideon beside him reach out the grasp his shoulder.

"They are coming home, Papa. You have my word on that," Gideon said solemnly, not that he could do anything more than his father. That and be the link between his brothers and the tables.

*****

Valdemar Zenati looked at the peeling paint on the hotel and grimaced. He had ridden over the border into Queensland for this meeting, and he hoped the guys he was supposed to meet were already here. Pushing in through the doors, he was grateful for the air conditioning and took a breath before he spotted Lorenzo Donati and assumed the other two men with him were Chase Vitali and Paulo Farnese.

"Fella's," he drawled, nodding his head and taking a seat. He lifted a finger to the barkeep for whatever he had on tap that was cold and turned to the men he had come to meet. "We live in historic times, cousins."

"Indeed, Red Sergi and Zed Gastone are here as well," Lorenzo said. "Interesting times indeed."

"Red and Zed?" Val smirked, placing a fifty on the bar and accepting the beer the barkeep handed him. "Whatever these dickheads want too," he grinned. Then, turning back to the men he knew held the same position as him on their own tables, they were all motorheads of some description, and he knew he would enjoy their company for whatever happened from this point forward. If it was a madman's game they played now, the pieces on the game board were shifting. The trick, he knew, would be to stay ahead of those shifts and beat the Varangian to the end square.

"Zed for Zakari," a man walking up to the group from the pool table said as he held out his hand.

"Just Red," the guy behind him said, also offering his hand.

"We've been waiting for you," Chase said casually. "We're going to ride out a bit and camp up near the lookout. You down?"

"Yeah, alright, but let me finish my beer first," Val said, surprised by the eagerness Chase had to leave this air-conditioned haven. He considered the guys around him. Honestly, he didn't know any of them well. Even Lorenzo, who he probably knew the best, was perhaps not what he would call a friend. More of an acquaintance than anything. Still, he'd been sent here with a purpose, and he assumed these guys had been too.

The guys made small talk in the pub, Lorenzo lamenting about the end of his racing career and showing photos of his pretty wife and babies in explanation. Eventually, they rode out into the desert near Poeppel Corner, remote, uninhabited, hostile desert land, or so Valdemar thought. Instead, he found a small tent city set up under the guise of an archaeological dig by palaeontologists who regularly worked in the region. Road trains with multiple wagons encircled the camp and gave off light and electricity to the services through solar panels and huge batteries. The base camp was small enough that everyone knew each other's faces, and entering the camp got you a photo ID tag you needed to wear at all times.

"So now we can talk properly," Chase said once they were through with the security checks and had all entered a large tent containing a round table where the men from the other tables all looked back at him.

"So they kept this a big secret then," Val mumbled.

"Phil saw a future where we could save the day," Red Sergi said from where he was sprawled in a chair.

"Being that he's the one they all listen to right now, we're here to save the mother fucking day," Zed chuckled loudly. "Even the new guy over there." He pointed to a man Val didn't recognise.

"Hey, new guy, I'm Val," he stuck out his hand to the man.

"Orpheo Pellegrini," the man said, surprising Val with his American accent. "Good to be on the winning team."

"Here's to that," Lorenzo said and passed Val a beer.

"So, we just wait until they find some intel and let us know where to go?" Val questioned.

"Not at all, my friend, we make our own rules out here, and each of us collected our own intel on our way out to the rendezvous point. In this remote corner of the land, communications could be dodgy at best, so we have waited for you to pool our information and make a plan. All signs seem to say he is headed north at this stage," Lorenzo said. 'The sooner we do it, the better as far as I am concerned, so let's get this hero shit underway."

"You've been waiting for me?" Val said. "I wouldn't have minded if you started the party and left me to catch up," he frowned at the other men.

"Relax, most only arrived in the last few hours," one of the others waved away his comment.

"Are we all mechanics?" Val asked. He was having trouble keeping up with all the new faces, but that knowledge would help him place the name to the face.

"I prefer the term mechanical engineer, but sure why not," Chase said. "As long as it has an engine and goes fast, I can drive it or fix it." There were murmurs of assent and a few guarded conversations around favoured vehicles.

"I've seen some pretty wild footage of bull catching in the territory where they build their own rigs with large-arse metal yokes on the side to walk them next to the truck while they force them to a tree to tie them up by the horns," Orpheo said with a little bit of awe in his voice.

"True that," Val nodded. "I've got one of my own rigs out on Kriol country. There's big money in organic beef, and you don't get more organic than wild bulls. The ringers have nerves of steel, but I like the adrenalin rush when I go out country."

"Geez," he shook his head. "You and me are going to be friends, and I am going to come to visit so that you can take me to play with the ringers."

"Sure, we come from opposite ends of the country, but why not. I can always use another bestie," Val chuckled and held his hand out for a fist bump. "So any clue what we do from here? What's your intel say?"

"Honestly, I don't think the grunts know anything, and we haven't found any generals amongst the bikers who are massing a bit further north," Lorenzo said.

"Red herring?" another asked.

"Maybe. What did you see on your side of the line?" Lorenzo asked.

"Nothing, or at least no one riding with colours or in groups," he frowned.

"Red see if you can get hold of Phil again because if there is some divine plan for us being here, I'm not seeing it," Lorenzo frowned.

"Wait, how far north are they?" Val asked, getting to his feet and digging his phone out of his back pocket. "They could be heading towards a cross over point up near Doomadgee or Nicholson. That would bring them out on Kriol country. It doesn't make sense, though. It's the wet season up north."

"Explain," Chase and Larry said almost in unison.

*****