It wasn’t a bad plan, all considered. Wolfgang always relied more on his heart than his head, and it was likely Arturo’s plan to exploit that. However, one needed to consider that he wasn’t relying entirely on Wolfgang’s emotions and quest for blood to hand the Austrian neatly in his lap. “We should be cautious when presuming Arturo’s intents, after all, he’s known us all for years, and as much as we know his strengths and weaknesses as readily as he knows ours, it would be foolish to assume we know his own plans. If he were counting on you to do something rash, Wolfgang, you would have done it the night… of the incident.” Lucian said, not wishing to remind the man of his lost family more than he had to. “We must also take into consideration that if he is serving the Italian military, then he may not be the one calling the shots. I can see him being an advisor or even a task force leader, but he is not a general or a politician. He reports to someone. Someone who likely now knows everything Arturo knows about us and will use that information in ways we will not readily know. We must act quickly and decisively, but I strongly caution us to not fall into any patterns or routines that can be exploited, and we must not follow similar practices as when we were last all working with one another. I would stake a large sum of money on Arturo predicting us forming, as well as trying to draw him into a situation where he’s exposed. We all know he’s never been so foolish to fall for a rudimentary ruse.” The Frenchman cautioned. 

Lucian drank from the glass before setting it down on one of the sides of the map to keep it from furling up once more. He watched Wolfgang’s fingers deftly trace the trade routes, as well as locations of interest. Lucian’s eyes lingered on Algeria, bringing a heavy frown to his face. That was one country he was in no hurry to see again, and he knew full well what their slaving practices were like. He tried not to let his memory remind him of the day of his lapsed judgement and the dozens of dead men left to rot in the central African jungles. The trade relationship between France and Italy was interesting; typically, the two countries were at odds, and Italy was none-too-pleased with France’s military alliance with the Russians. If this were left unhindered, both Italy and France stood to become economic titans in a volatile political climate; everywhere one went, there were murmours of a coming war. Europe seemed to be a powder keg, waiting for the fuse. The military and economic alliances, the increasing military sizes, the European disposition for frequent wars over the smallest slights, there was a lot to be concerned with.

He nodded when Wolfgang concluded his ideas for the operation. “Naval convoys are mostly concerned with anti-shipping practices. It is still quite possible to attack these ships with minimal risk, either from a steep decent towards the top of the destroyers, or from just above the waves where their heavy guns cannot easily target. And let me assure you that targeting the destroyers should be one of our main aims; nothing is more embarrassing for a nation than to lose an expressive warship in peacetime. They would be forced to retaliate and send units to hunt us down to save face.” His finger tapped the route between Venice and Constantinople. “Which is why it is wise to continuously strike in unpredictable ways, between several different routes, means of attack, and nations. When the world looks West for us, we head East. When they look East, we head South. Although there’s only so many places we can call a refuge, it’s still trying to find a needle in a haystack unless they know where to look. The same goes for us, the timing of departure and routes are going to get mixed up the more this goes on to try and throw us off, and there’s likely to be decoy convoys meant to lure us out we need to be wary of. This likely means we’ll have to visually confirm when a trading route is being used over following hunches and dispatches. But the longer this goes on, the longer Arturo has to forge his net for us. We cannot do this indefinitely. Our planes are old now, and we’ll be facing much more modern equipment. We need to accept that Arturo may not meet his end at our hands, not in a dogfight. We may have to resort to… other tactics.” Lucian concluded.