novelSusiti Chapter 81 Ghostly Transfer! The Sinful Route on the Aegean Sea!
Chapter 81 Ghostly Transfer! The Sinful Route on the Aegean Sea!
Kostas knelt on one knee and presented the confession, stained with greed and sin, with both hands.
Constantine emerged from the shadows, took the heavy document, but didn't immediately look at it. His gaze passed over Kostas and landed on the brightly lit conference room outside.
That's where the real battlefield is.
Mavromi Harris's testimony is just a key to opening the gates of hell, but how many devils are hiding in hell still needs to be uncovered by Andreas and his "army of accountants".
"Lock him up and keep him under strict guard." Constantine handed the statement back to Kostas. "His usefulness isn't over yet."
Kostas nodded emphatically, got up, and left to accept the order.
Constantine pushed open the conference room door, and a strong smell of sweat, kerosene, and old paper hit him.
Inside the enormous conference room, twenty accountants, like wound-up machines, were working tirelessly through the night amidst mountains of ledgers. The clatter of abacus beads and the rustling of papers created a tense yet highly efficient symphony.
Professor Andreas stood in the center, his eyes bloodshot, but his spirits were unusually high. He saw Constantine enter and immediately strode forward.
"Your Highness, Mavromi Harris's testimony has provided a wealth of clues, and we are cross-checking them! But... the Skopelos family's accounts are too chaotic. They have employed at least five senior accountants and created more than a dozen sets of false accounts. Much crucial information has been hidden in seemingly unrelated daily expenses!"
Constantine didn't speak. He walked to a long table and casually picked up an account book. It was filled with detailed purchase records of a textile factory, from cotton to dyes, every entry was crystal clear, without a single flaw.
"Your Highness, look," a young accountant wearing gold-rimmed glasses stood up, pointing to a row of numbers, his voice weary and confused, "this cargo ship named 'Helena' records show that it travels between Piraeus and Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire every month, transporting textiles and agricultural implements."
He pushed another set of customs tax declarations over.
"But its cargo volume records are very strange. Sometimes, it declares a full load of cargo, but the customs duties it pays are only 70% of the normal amount, or even less. We checked it several times, but we couldn't find where the difference went. It's like one-third of the cargo just vanished into thin air at sea."
"Helena..." Constantine murmured the name, his fingers tapping lightly on the cold cover of the ledger.
He looked up and turned his gaze to Kostas, who had just walked in.
"Costas, I have a task for you. Find the complete crew list of the 'Helena,' especially those who have been retired or discharged."
Kostas didn't ask why, he simply stood at attention and saluted: "Yes, Your Highness!"
The efficiency of the Royal Tax Police is astonishing.
In less than half a day, a detailed list was placed on Constantine's desk.
Constantine's finger slowly traced across the list, finally stopping at one name.
"Jans Barbadopoulos, former first mate of the 'Helena'. He was dismissed by the Skopelos family three years ago for 'drunkenness and disorderly conduct' and currently lives in the slums of Piraeus port, making a living by doing odd jobs."
Constantine pushed the list to Kostas.
"Go find him."
Night, Piraeus port, in a dimly lit tavern reeking of cheap alcohol and mold.
Kostas found Jans.
This first mate, who once commanded respect on the Aegean Sea, was now huddled in a corner, his face covered in stubble, his eyes cloudy, clutching a nearly empty wine bottle tightly in his hand.
Without saying a word, Costas sat down opposite him and pushed a thick envelope over.
Yang Si raised his head warily, a fierce glint flashing in his cloudy eyes.
There was no money in the envelope, only a photograph.
In the photo, an elderly woman with a wrinkled face is holding a five- or six-year-old girl, sitting at the door of her dilapidated house, with a kind smile on her face.
Those were Jans's mother and daughter.
Jans's hands trembled violently. He looked up abruptly, staring intently at Kostas, like a wild beast driven to the brink of despair.
"What do you want to do?!"
Costas pushed another sheet of paper over. It was a bank draft issued by the royal family.
The figures above are enough for Jans and his family to buy a house with a garden in the most respectable neighborhood of Athens and live out the rest of their lives in peace.
"His Highness asked me to tell you," Costas's voice was devoid of warmth, "that the Skopelos family can offer you hush money to keep you quiet. But what His Highness can offer you is the safety of your family and a completely new future."
Yangs stared at the bank draft, then at the photograph. The fierce glint in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by intense struggle and pain.
He knew that the moment Kostas found him, he had no choice.
"I said..." Yang's voice was hoarse, as if it had been sanded down, "What do you want to know?"
Kostas took out a nautical chart of the Aegean Sea from his pocket.
Where did the cargo that evaporated at sea on the Helena go?
Yangs extended a trembling finger and drew a circle on the nautical chart in an area that almost no one would notice.
"Here, in the eastern part of the Cyclades, lies a group of uninhabited, deserted islands. We call it 'The Devil's Teeth'."
A hint of fear and memory flickered in his eyes.
"Every time the 'Helena' returns from Smyrna, it will deviate from the main channel and enter that area of water late at night. All the ship's signal lights will be turned off, and we will unload about a third of the cargo and hide it in secret caves on those deserted islands."
"and then?"
"Then, small Ottoman smuggling ships, like flies drawn to blood, would come from the other side and quietly transport the goods away. In this way, the goods would not have to pay taxes when entering the Ottoman Empire, nor would they have to pay the full customs duties at the port of Piraeus."
Yang Si gave a bitter laugh.
"They profit from both ends! That's the secret to the Skopelos family's wealth! We sailors are just mules they use to haul gold! And I'm that stupid mule whose leg was broken for wanting an extra bite of hay!"
……
When Jans's statement was delivered to Professor Andreas overnight, the entire accounting corps was in an uproar!
The last piece, and the most crucial piece of the puzzle, has been found!
"Ghostly Luck!"
Professor Andreas held the confession, trembling with excitement.
He immediately ordered that all the complicated false accounts be abandoned and that all efforts be focused on the Skopelos family’s shipping records over the past five years and the ship’s logbook.
Using "ghostly luck" as a starting point, all the seemingly unrelated numbers are now perfectly connected by a clear line!
A massive, suffocating smuggling empire was clearly revealed before everyone's eyes.
They used this method to smuggle not only textiles and farm implements.
French luxury goods, British precision machinery, Russian furs, and even illicit drugs from the New World!
Every single transaction represents a huge profit that would drive ordinary people crazy with envy!
The amount of taxes they evaded was astronomical!
At dawn.
A detailed report, over a hundred pages long, was urgently delivered to Constantine.
The report includes the shipping routes of all ships involved in the Skopelos family's "ghost transfers," a detailed list of smuggled goods, handwritten testimonies from multiple witnesses led by Giannis, and...
Professor Andreas and his team worked through the night to calculate the estimated total amount of taxes evaded by the Skopelos family over the past five years!
Andreas placed the report on Constantine's desk, his voice trembling with emotion and on the verge of tears.
"Your Highness! They're out! They're all out!"
He pointed to the alarmingly long number circled in red on the last page of the report.
"This evidence alone is enough to condemn the Skopelos family to eternal damnation, ensuring they can never rise again!"
"And..." Andreas raised his head, his eyes gleaming with fanaticism, "This number far exceeds half of what you wagered with the Council! We've won! We've won more than half!"
Constantine picked up the report and carefully flipped through it page by page.
The meeting room was quiet, with only the sound of papers turning.
Andreas and Kostas held their breath, awaiting the Crown Prince's thunderous rage or the joy of victory.
However, Constantine's face remained expressionless.
After reading the report, he simply closed it gently and placed it on the table.
His gaze passed through the window and looked toward Athens, the city that had been occupied by oligarchs for decades.
"This is just an appetizer."
Constantine turned around and gave Kostas an order that surprised everyone.
"Kostas, make arrangements to find an 'absolutely reliable' person to send a 'false intelligence' out of the port."
Kostas's face showed confusion.
Constantine's lips curled slightly, a hint of coldness in his expression.
"The intelligence report states that my investigation has reached a stalemate. Apart from finding some evidence of small-time smuggling activities, I have gained nothing."
"I want to make those gentlemen in Athens realize that this pig is not as fat or as easy to slaughter as they think."
He turned to look at Andreas.
"It also made them realize that the knife wasn't as sharp as they had imagined."