THE BLIND SOVEREIGN: King of The Underworld

CHAPTER 9: Echoes at the Heart of the City

Milan was a monster breathing at a high frequency. For Dante Moretti, the city was no longer a collection of skyscrapers and winding streets, but a chaotic symphony of noise. The screech of trams grinding against rails, the roar of sports car engines, and the constant hum of thousands of air conditioners formed thick layers of sound.

Dante sat in the back seat of a black sedan cutting through a light drizzle in the Brera district. His eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses, but his ears caught every detail.

“Too loud?” Elena asked from beside him. She watched how Dante’s jaw tightened every time a heavy motorcycle blasted past.

“This city is screaming, Elena,” Dante replied quietly. “I used to see Milan as a map of lights. Now I feel it as constantly shifting air pressure. Every building has its own echo.”

“We’re almost at the safehouse. Marcus has cleared the area of listening devices,” Elena checked her phone. “Lorenzo just arrived at the Hotel Principe di Savoia. He’s hosting a dinner with the shareholders of Moretti Port Holdings.”

“He’s trying to reassure them,” Dante said with a faint smile. “He needs their support for tomorrow morning’s acquisition of the southern docklands. If he gets that land, he will control Mediterranean logistics completely.”

“And you’re going to let him?”

“I’m going to let him believe he’s already won, right up until the final second.”

The car stopped in a cold underground garage. Marcus was already waiting, standing beside a row of monitors displaying stock market graphs and satellite maps.

“Sir, the system is ready,” Marcus reported as Dante stepped out of the car with the aid of his carbon cane. “The digital auction for Dock 14 begins in thirty minutes. Lorenzo has prepared four hundred million euros from company reserves.”

“Four hundred million?” Dante walked toward the main table, his steps confident as if he could see every cable on the floor. “He’s using money that was meant to be the family’s emergency reserve. He’s desperate.”

“He believes he has no competitors. All other major players have already been threatened or bribed,” Marcus added.

“He forgot that there is a new entity in this market,” Dante said as he sat down and put on specialized headphones that amplified certain audio frequencies. “Elena, take position. I want you to monitor Lorenzo’s reactions through the internal live feed. Tell me every time he blinks too fast.”

Elena quickly sat beside Marcus. “Ready. I’m inside the hotel servers. He’s in the VIP room. He looks extremely confident. He’s laughing with a cigar in his hand.”

“Enjoy your laughter, my brother,” Dante murmured. “Marcus, enter our anonymous ID.”

“What name would you like to use, sir?”

“The Oracle.”

In the VIP room of the Hotel Principe di Savoia, Lorenzo Moretti felt like the king of the world. Around him sat elderly men in expensive suits, men who controlled the arteries of Italy’s economy.

“Gentlemen,” Lorenzo raised his glass. “Dock 14 is not just land. It is the gateway for Moretti to dominate all of Europe. Tomorrow morning, once this auction is complete, no one will dare challenge our authority.”

“What about the rumors of trouble in Tuscany, Lorenzo?” one of the older directors asked skeptically. “There are reports of an explosion at your brother’s villa.”

Lorenzo’s face hardened for a split second, then he covered it with laughter. “Just a minor technical issue. Dante… well, you all know his condition. He accidentally triggered the gas system. He survived, but he has chosen to withdraw completely from public life. He’s already signed all the power of attorney documents.”

“That’s good to hear,” the director nodded. “Let’s begin the auction.”

A large screen lit up with digital numbers. Opening price: two hundred fifty million euros.

Lorenzo immediately tapped his tablet. “Three hundred million.”

The number changed. No counterbids appeared for several minutes. Lorenzo smiled in satisfaction and turned to his secretary. “You see? They’re all afraid.”

Suddenly, a sharp beep echoed through the room. The number on the screen jumped.

New Bid: 310 Million Euros (The Oracle)

Lorenzo frowned. “Who is this ‘The Oracle’?”

“Probably a minor player looking for attention,” his secretary replied.

Lorenzo tapped again. “Three hundred fifty million.”

New Bid: 360 Million Euros (The Oracle)

Two seconds. That was all it took for the anonymous entity to respond.

At the safehouse, Dante listened to Lorenzo’s heartbeat through the hidden microphone Elena had planted in Lorenzo’s watch the day before. The sound was amplified, pounding like war drums in Dante’s ears.

“He’s getting restless, sir,” Marcus whispered. “His breathing is getting shorter.”

“He’ll raise the bid to his maximum limit,” Dante said calmly. “He hates being humiliated in front of the board.”

“He just entered four hundred million, Dante!” Elena exclaimed. “He stood up from his chair. He looks furious.”

“Marcus, send him a private message now. Through the encrypted channel the board can’t trace,” Dante ordered.

Lorenzo stared at his tablet with trembling hands. Suddenly, a notification appeared on his personal screen, covering the auction app.

Message: “The money you’re using isn’t yours, Lorenzo. It’s a blood debt you’ll never be able to repay. Stop now, or you’ll lose everything tonight.”

Lorenzo’s eyes widened. “Who is this? Trace the signal!” he shouted at his technical team in the corner of the room.

“We can’t, sir! The protocol keeps shifting. This… this is military grade!”

Lorenzo felt his pride on the line. In front of the directors, he could not appear weak. With boiling rage, he typed a new number, one that exceeded the board’s mandate.

“Four hundred fifty million!” he shouted, his voice cracking slightly.

The room fell silent. The directors exchanged looks. It was a mad figure for that land.

The screen flickered again.

New Bid: 451 Million Euros (The Oracle)

Only a one-million difference. A blatant insult.

“DAMN IT!” Lorenzo smashed his cognac glass onto the marble floor. “Who are you?!”

“Sir,” his secretary whispered, pale. “Our funds… the system is rejecting further transactions. We just received a report from the Swiss central bank. Our reserve accounts have been frozen for an immediate audit on suspected money laundering.”

Lorenzo froze. “What? Who reported it?”

“The report came from… internal company channels. Using Dante Moretti’s personal access codes.”

The room erupted. The directors stood, some already calling their lawyers. Lorenzo’s reputation collapsed in seconds before the most powerful men in Milan.

Dante removed his headphones. Silence returned to the safehouse, but this time it tasted sweet.

“He lost,” Elena stared at the screen in awe. “He lost the land, and now those directors are circling him like sharks that smell blood.”

“That’s only the beginning, Elena,” Dante said as he stood, feeling along the table for his cane. “He’ll try to vent his rage. He’ll start hunting for who ‘The Oracle’ is. Marcus, make sure all our digital traces are erased within five minutes.”

“Already done, sir. We’re clean.”

“Dante,” Elena said. “How did you know he’d cross the line? You could’ve lost four hundred million if he stopped bidding.”

“I know Lorenzo better than he knows himself,” Dante walked toward the window. Though he couldn’t see the city, he could feel Milan’s vibrations, now different to him. “He’s a man built on ego. A man like that will never allow himself to look weak, even if it means jumping into an abyss.”

“You just shattered his financial foundation,” Elena murmured.

“Not shattered, just cracked. I want him to feel what it’s like to watch his kingdom collapse brick by brick,” Dante turned toward her. “Tomorrow, he’ll call you. He’ll ask if you know anything about this.”

“What should I say?”

“Tell him you saw me talking to ghosts in Tuscany. Tell him I often mutter the name ‘The Oracle’ in my sleep. Make him think I’ve gone mad, but somehow still hold the strings.”

Elena stepped closer, studying the man whose face now looked so cold under the safehouse’s neon lights. “You really don’t leave any mercy, do you?”

“Did he show mercy when he blew my face apart on that ship?” Dante replied, his voice ice-cold. “The mafia world doesn’t know forgiveness, Elena. There are only rulers and the buried. Lorenzo chose to bury me. Now he has to learn what it feels like to be buried alive by shadows.”

Suddenly, a small alarm sounded from Marcus’s laptop.

“Sir, we’ve got movement,” Marcus reported quickly. “Lorenzo’s hit team just left the hotel. They’re not coming here. They’re heading to the Rossi family’s old apartment. They’re looking for documents you might have left there, Elena.”

Elena gasped. “My father’s photos are there. And some of his personal notes!”

“Let them take them,” Dante said calmly. “Inside one of those photo albums, I slipped in a coordinate.”

“A coordinate to what?” Elena asked, confused.

“To a warehouse on the outskirts of the city where Lorenzo is storing an illegal weapons shipment from the Triads, arriving tomorrow night,” Dante smiled faintly. “If he thinks he can steal your documents, I’ll let him find something that makes him dig his own grave alongside the Triads.”

Dante walked toward his resting quarters. His steady steps and the rhythmic tap of his cane sounded like a countdown to Lorenzo’s destruction.

“Get some rest, Elena,” Dante said before disappearing behind the door. “Tomorrow is the day we start pitting the wolf against the dragon.”

Outside, Milan’s rain fell harder, as if trying to wash away blood that had yet to be spilled. But in Dante Moretti’s mind, everything was already mapped with perfect precision. Without eyes, he had become the architect of an inevitable ruin. Lorenzo Moretti might still be holding a gun, but Dante Moretti was already holding the rope tightening around his brother’s neck.