Chapter 9 - Reclaiming the Name
The transition of the Duca empire from a traditional criminal syndicate to a modern, fully audited international logistics cooperative was a process that took six months of quiet, intense work.
The high-rises in Gold Coast were sold to pay the state tax penalties, the shipping vessels in Newark were re-registered under a public-interest transport cooperative, and the board of directors was restructured to include representative managers from the dockworkers' unions.
Alessandro Duca remained the chairman of the board, but his office was no longer a lead-shielded mahogany bunker in Rosemont. He had moved his headquarters to a small, sun-drenched office on the municipal pier, where the windows were always open to let in the fresh, clean wind of Lake Michigan.
On a warm Tuesday afternoon in late June, Alessandro sat at his desk, looking over the first quarter's financial reports. The numbers were clean, the margins healthy, and the shipping lanes were operating without a single federal audit flag.
The phone on his desk rang—not the secure burner phone he used for emergencies, but his personal line.
"Don Alessandro," the voice on the line was warm, carrying the distinct, cheerful lilt of Sophia Alvarez. "It’s Sophia. I wanted to call and tell you that we’ve finally finished unpacking the laboratory here in Taos."
"How is the air, Sophia?" Alessandro asked, leaning back in his chair, looking out at the blue water of the harbor.
"It’s beautiful, sir," she said. "The mountains are red, the sky is so wide you can see the storm clouds before they even reach the basin. And Emma... Emma has already started her first preschool class. She’s made three friends, and she’s currently trying to teach her puppy how to count to ten."
Alessandro smiled, a genuine, warm expression that made the pale slate of his eyes look soft. "And the rabbit?"
"The rabbit has a new eye," Sophia laughed. "Emma insisted on a green one because she said it looked like the leaves on the trees here."
"I’m glad she’s happy, Sophia," Alessandro said. "You deserve the peace."
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"We have it because of you, Alessandro," she said, her voice dropping to a low, emotional whisper. "You gave us our lives back. I’ll never forget that."
"We paid a debt, Sophia," Alessandro said, looking down at the small ceramic coffee mug on his desk. "And the Duca family always pays its bills."
