There was a pause on the other end. “No. The roads are too crowded down here. Too many witnesses.” Thanos’s raspy voice sounded as frustrated as Gikas felt.
“Where did they go?” he asked, rubbing a free hand across his sweating forehead.
“We aren’t sure yet,” Thanos answered. Knowing the response would anger his employer further, he continued. “We are still following them. I sent the men in the other car into Wyatt’s shop, though, and had them search the entire place. They said there was nothing but a bunch of kayaks and boards in there.”
Gikas drew in a long breath and sighed. What were federal agents doing apprehending Sean Wyatt? The timing was strange, too strange to be a coincidence. There was no way the United States government was aware of what was happening; at least that’s what Gikas forced himself to believe. He knew their tentacles reached far and wide across the globe, but Gikas had kept to the shadows, carefully orchestrating everything from behind the scenes.
While the Greek economy continued its downward spiral, Gikas had continued to make enormous amounts of money from other places in the world. He was careful to keep his assets where they couldn’t be touched by his greedy government, who desperately sought to snatch up everything they could from the few wealthy people left within their borders. Gikas had no intention of leaving his homeland. To the contrary, he had his sights set on the highest prize possible.
The death knell was about to ring on the Greek government. The country’s reckless spending and lack of a stable gross domestic product meant they sent way more money out than they had coming in. Importing things from all over Europe and the United States had resulted in a leaky economy that no one could fix. Most of the wealthy people in Greece had under-the-table deals with government officials. They’d allowed their federal deficit to swell despite knowing the problems that would ensue. What did they care? They would be rich, and rich people could figure out a solution later. Gikas knew that it was only a matter of time until the outcry of his people would lead to a change in regime. When that day arrived, he would be ready to give them a leader and return the ancient country to its former glory under a new monarchy.
It would be a glorious tale, too. When he was just a child, Dimitris Gikas spent long days in his parents’ vineyards and wineries. At the tender age of six, both of his parents had been killed in a car accident. Young Dimitris was sent to an orphanage, where he first learned the hard lessons that life had to offer.
He was small for his age, and was regularly picked on by many of the other boys. What he lacked in physical stature, though, he made up for in wits. By the time he was nine, Dimitris was making a few dollars a week selling cookies to people in town. He’d discovered a local baker who threw out cookies at the end of each day, knowing he would be unable to sell them the next. Dimitris had never been shy, and asked the baker if he could have the cookies. The man was happy to give them to the child, since he was only going to throw them out anyway.
Dimitris took the cookies down the streets of the city, selling them to every person who passed by. Each day he would make his way back to the orphanage with a pocket full of money. It was always a precarious proposition to sneak past the other boys without them noticing. Every night when he went to sleep, he dreamed of the day he could return to the family land where the vineyards rolled through the countryside, and the ocean sea breeze washed over the land.
Dimitris never took a keen interest in school and didn’t excel. He didn’t understand why it was important to learn things he already knew about, or didn’t need to know about. He did, however, continue his entrepreneurial ventures. He’d taken his little cookie business and expanded into other products. When he reached his seventeenth birthday, Dimitris Gikas had four different businesses going simultaneously, and they all brought in more money than some of his teachers made.
Even with all the early success, Dimitris Gikas was never satisfied. One of his teachers had told him they’d never seen such an ambitious young man before. He took offense to the comment, but said nothing. Dimitris didn’t want to be looked at as some charity case who was doing something cute with his businesses. He wanted to be the wealthiest person in all of Greece. Because of that, he had developed a desperate thirst for power.
Maybe his quest for control and absolute authority had come as a result of several instances where he’d been beaten senseless by other children. The fact that he had successful businesses at such a young age brought a great deal of undesirable attention to the young Gikas. At one point, some of the boys in his school had beaten him so badly that he feared he might go blind from the wounds to his face. When he didn’t, he swore that someday he would get his revenge.
Now, he was worth billions, and the boys who had beaten up on him in school were working menial jobs in his companies.
His thoughts returned to the present. There were only two other men who could challenge him for a position as sole ruler of Greece. One, Kostas Maragos, had built his wealth through the dairy industry. While Maragos had a considerable amount of money, it was far less than Gikas. Maragos, however, had ties with the current government. Those ties could potentially prove problematic if it came time for a new election. Gikas was done with elections. It was time for a return to the old ways.
The second man actually wanted the same thing as Gikas. Vasilis Leventis believed in what some of the ancient Greek philosophers taught, which was that the only stable government was a monarchy. Democracies and republics were temporary forms of government at best, some of the ancient sages had written, and would eventually crumble to the whims of popular opinions.
While Leventis was ambitious, he also had his own set of problems. Through an extensive amount of research, Gikas discovered some of his opponent’s deepest, darkest secrets. They were weaknesses that Gikas could use to his advantage. Leventis would be easy enough to eliminate. Maragos, on the other hand, would take a little more discretion. The dairyman was as squeaky clean as anyone Gikas had ever come across. Getting Maragos would be tricky, and they were running out of time. The government’s total collapse was imminent and could literally happen any day.
“We are following the vehicle Wyatt is in, sir,” Thanos said. “For the moment, they are heading east. I will keep you informed of any further developments.”
“Make sure that you do. We need to find out if he knows anything that the girl isn’t telling us, but if that isn’t an option, you know what you need to do.”
“Of course, sir. He will be taken out of the picture.”
Gikas ended the call, set the electronic device back down on the table, and looked across it at his dinner companion. She was beautiful, with a slender, athletic build and hair like dark chocolate cascading over her right shoulder. Her pinkish-red lips were plump like thin berries, and her lightly tanned skin looked like creamy mocha.
She said nothing, though in her eyes Gikas could tell she wanted to yell a million things. Actually, she probably wanted to jump across the table and snap his neck, something he knew she was fully capable of from his intel on her. The deadly set of skills she possessed were the main reason Gikas had three armed guards watching her around the clock.
His patience was wearing thin with her. He’d tried to be cordial, despite the fact that she was his prisoner. All he wanted was some information that he believed she possessed. For the last three days, though, she had produced nothing and seemed as though she intended to keep whatever knowledge she had a complete secret.
“I just got off the phone with my men in the United States,” Gikas said, plucking the glass of wine from the table and holding it out with his arm half cocked as he sat down. He crossed one leg over the other in dramatic fashion, exposing pale feet that dipped into black slip-in shoes. “They said that someone else got to your boyfriend first. I wonder who else he might have angered.”