Baccano! - Volume 19 - Chapter 14.5

Linking Chapter Nobody Can Throw Stones

A port somewhere on the east coast of America

Several hours had passed since Victor’s visit to Edward. Evening had arrived.

“Hey! Whaddaya mean, ‘We can’t check into it’?” Victor barked.

He’d had his men investigate the direction the seaplanes had flown in after the previous day’s attack on New York, and he had hit on the possibility that their main base might be moving somewhere out on the ocean.

After narrowing the options to a few ports that seemed likely to be on their supply route, they’d checked into the ships that had entered and left. In one port, they’d discovered vessels that had kept their departure data and their cargo under wraps. Sure he’d found a winner, Victor had gone over there in person, but they refused to issue a warrant that would let him search the boats without needing consent.

Out on the wharf, in the blustering wind, Bill Sullivan faced his livid superior and scratched his cheek, looking embarrassed. “Uh… The thing is, they’re foreign ships. There were issues.”

“There are idiots who were blazing away over New York with machine guns on those boats! Even if they were firing blanks, this is no time to hold back just because they ain’t from here!”

“Well… They aren’t just ‘not from here’… Erm, they’ve got a bit of a connection to our department, so I think we should tread carefully.”

“Huh?” Victor sounded dubious.

Bill handed him a pair of binoculars and pointed to a vessel that was out at sea. “One of those ships just left port a few minutes ago, and it’s lying at anchor offshore. I think it’ll be faster if you take a look for yourself.”

“Quit beating around the bush. It would obviously be faster if you told me. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but a good report sums up a thousand pictures in a word…”

Grumbling to himself, Victor looked at the ship through the binoculars.

He froze in an instant. Instead of grousing at his subordinate, he groaned in shock.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

Night The restaurant Alveare

“You got attacked, too, Maiza?!”

Since the police had questioned Maiza about the smoke screen, he hadn’t made it to the restaurant until that evening. Firo had been surprised upon hearing the story, but his surprise had promptly turned to anger. “Dammit, Melvi again!” he snarled. “That son of a bitch is making monkeys of us.”

“We aren’t certain he’s the one who did it yet.”

“But I can’t think of anybody else who would, can you?!”

“Even so, shouting before we have proof would be playing right into our opponent’s hands.”

Even though Maiza had been personally attacked, he was keeping his cool, and watching him made Firo realize just how far he still had to go.

I’ve gotta learn how to keep my emotions on a tighter leash, he thought, and tried to make some levelheaded conjectures about the situation as a whole.

However, after about ten minutes, he was forced to stop.

“Firo, telephone for you,” Seina called.

“For me?”

Firo went to the phone at the back of the restaurant and picked up the receiver. “Hello? Firo Prochainezo speaking.”

The voice that answered was a familiar one. “Hello there, Firo. How have you been?”

“Melvi… It’s you, isn’t it?!”

“Oh, you recognized my voice! I’m terribly honored. And? Are Yaguruma and Maiza also well?”

Melvi specifically naming the two who’d been attacked that day was an obvious taunt, and Firo almost blew a fuse then and there. But Maiza was right; if he lost his temper now, he’d be playing into his enemy’s hands. He reined himself in before he answered so that the fury in his voice was buried deep.

“You don’t have to explain a thing. Just start thinking about what corner of the ocean floor you’d like to spend eternity. And any snacks you’d like us to pack in the concrete with you.”

“Well, well. You aren’t threatening to eat me?”

“You’re not worth it.”

“Oh dear. You see, there’s that personal bet I made with you… Since I want Szilard’s knowledge, which is inside you, I thought I’d have to let you eat me if I lost.”

There was a nasty, chuckling sneer in Melvi’s words, and Firo’s anger was boiling up again. As he responded, his voice trembled. “I see. Yeah, that damn Szilard’s memories and your brains might balance the scales.”

“Indeed. Still, I worried that might be too dull…” Melvi let a brief silence fall between them, then made an odd comment. “Firo Prochainezo, it should happen any minute now. Don’t hang up, all right?”

“Any minute now? What are you talking about?”

Suddenly, the restaurant’s door burst open. Czeslaw Meyer dashed through in ragged clothes.

“Czes?!” Firo almost ran over to him, but the voice from the phone kept him where he was.

“Don’t hang up! Stay right where you are, Firo. Don’t move an inch.”

His courteous tone was gone; Melvi was speaking forcefully now. However, that unpleasant sneer was still there.

Both Seina and Maiza called to Czes, but he ran right over to Firo. “I’m sorry… Firo, I’m really sorry…”

“Czes…? What? What happened?!” Even as Firo spoke, he kept the receiver pressed to his ear. The reason he hadn’t ignored Melvi and hung up was because the sight of Czes had made his blood run cold.

And his fear was absolutely justified in the worst possible way.

“The apartment blew up all of a sudden…and Ennis… Some strange men took Ennis…”

Firo’s mind went white, perfectly blank.

In a sense, his way of escaping the reality.

The silence lasted only about a second, but to Firo, it felt like hours before roaring laughter came through the phone to shatter it.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Bingo! It looks like I managed to call at the best possible time! I’m so glad, Firo Prochainezo!”

There was no longer any trace of the politeness Melvi had shown when they met the previous day. He spoke loudly and cheerfully, like a kid crowing about a successful prank, while Firo wordlessly listened.

“All right, now our wagers are evenly balanced! If you win, I’ll return Ennis to you unharmed! If I win, I’ll take all of Szilard’s knowledge from you. You know what that means, don’t you? Well, if you want to cheat, you could cobble together a homunculus, use your left hand to share some knowledge with it, then give it to me. That would be easy if you used Szilard’s knowledge, wouldn’t it?” Melvi snorted. “If you can make it happen by the time the casino opens, that is.”

“Hey… Wait…”

Firo’s thoughts were just beginning to return to reality, and it took everything he had to squeeze out those two words.

Melvi went on mercilessly. “Don’t worry! I have no intention of eating Ennis! Although if someone were to do something stupid…like going to that newspaper, say, or the police…I can’t guarantee the outcome. Even if I didn’t eat her—because I didn’t eat her—she might just suffer pain and humiliation for eternity. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

It was a coarse laugh full of hatred.

Firo didn’t understand where that bottomless hate was coming from. His voice trembling, he murmured, “…Why?”

He wanted to scream Give Ennis back! He wanted to tear Melvi apart.

However, his ties as a camorrista—the ties that bound him to his “family,” the Martillo Family, just as they bound him to Ennis—managed to keep his emotions from breaking down entirely.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Firo asked. There was no need to ask how Melvi felt about him at this point.

The answer was easier, yet more incomprehensible, than he’d imagined.

“That’s simple. Because you ate Szilard Quates.” Melvi gave a short chuckle before his voice turned cold. “You stole my future…and now you’re going to give it back.”

“…Huh? What are you talking—?”

By the time he started to ask what that meant, the line had gone dead.

Still stunned, Firo looked around.

He could see Seina and Maiza, watching him with worry in their eyes.

Then he looked down and saw Czes. The boy’s body was unscathed, but his clothes were scorched and burned through in many places, and the sight told him in no uncertain terms that this was real, and Ennis was gone.

And that was all Firo’s rational mind could take.

Instead of screaming, Firo slammed a fist into the phone, shattering it.

He’d shattered his fist, too, but he didn’t care. The phone was already in pieces on the floor.

Maybe it was because they’d gotten a look at his face, or maybe they’d figured out the situation from the way he was acting, but neither Seina nor Maiza said a word about the destruction.

Firo felt enough blame in the silence.

He should have run straight back to Ennis as soon as he’d heard that Yaguruma had been attacked. What a fool he’d been.

The Runorata villa Melvi’s room

“All right… Now I just need to nail down the demon.”

After hanging up the phone, Melvi left his room. His expression was oddly cold.

As he started down the corridor, a voice called to him from behind.

“An exclusive phone line in your room? What magic did you use to make that happen?”

He turned around. A beauty with cold eyes was standing beside the door of his room. Her blond hair was pulled back, and she was wearing a casino dealer’s uniform.

“…Carlotta. Eavesdropping? That isn’t a very nice habit.” Before he’d arrived, this woman had been the Runorata casino’s top dealer. Melvi went on, still sarcastic. “Also, wearing those clothes outside a casino is in poor taste.”

Carlotta narrowed her eyes slightly, but she didn’t get angry. Her tone was indifferent. “Who you are is no concern of mine. That means what I wear is no concern of yours.”

“If that’s what you think, then tell your hangers-on to stop shadowing me.”

“Tell them yourself. I’m not making them do that.”

“Then what did you need? Don’t tell me you’ve been lying in wait for me just so you could make sarcastic comments,” Melvi baited her.

“Yes, just to be sarcastic. You’re the one who’ll be managing the new casino. Don Bartolo made that decision, and I wouldn’t want to betray the Family by being jealous.”

When Melvi heard that, he smirked. “…The Runorata higher-ups really are amazingly loyal to the don. Well, I’ll do my level best to be useful to him as well.”

“I see… In that case, let me give you one word of warning.” Expression still cold, Carlotta narrowed her eyes again and murmured to Melvi, “Get a little greedy. If you don’t, someone’s going to knock your feet out from under you someday.”

“Oh, come on. If you were listening in on that phone call, even if you didn’t understand it, you must have noticed that I’m dripping with greed.”

“…If that’s genuinely an emotion you developed, then it isn’t a problem.” For the first time, Carlotta smiled faintly—and the smirk faded from Melvi’s face. Turning her back on Melvi, she raised a hand, tossing a final remark behind her.

“I’ll be praying that you notice your own true desire…Melvi Dormentaire.”

Three hours previously Somewhere on the east coast

Victor would never forget what he’d seen through the binoculars.

The distinctive family crest painted on the ship’s side featured an hourglass.

It belonged to House Dormentaire.

It was a great noble family that had once employed Victor and Szilard as their personal alchemists, and they manipulated vast wealth as easily as if it were their own limbs. In the modern age, their power had waned, and he’d been aware they were only economically active in parts of Europe.

As a matter of fact, he hadn’t heard a single scrap of information that the family was involved with the American immortals incident.

“Why are they showing up now of all times?”

Victor stood frozen. In contrast, the ship with the House Dormentaire crest kept rocking gently in the wavelets.

It was as if it were mocking Victor—

Or this country. Or the world itself.