the men involved in the raid had to wait for an automobile to arrive that would allow them to open the electric security gate a genuine fortress twenty feet tall twenty-five feet long before they could enter the grounds of the villa but there were no signs of the wanted man we’re not leaving here without finding him was the order from the officer in charge the instructions imparted by Guido Longo to his agents this was the bunker where Sandokan had had visits with his wife and his daughters three times a week for at least a month now that is since he had returned definitively to Casale di Principe even though never during his time on the run had he left the town for very long evidence of that fact was the birth of the two little girls during the time that the police were hunting for him and that he was present was certain this time the DIA agents had followed Giuseppina Natta and they had countless wiretaps and recordings the last of which offered further confirmation of his presence leading the DIA men to spend an entire night and half of the following day digging and excavating they obtained those last recordings while they were in contact with their colleagues outside the villa who were listening in on the frantic series of phone calls between Sandokan’s relatives speculating feverishly on how things would turn out in that villa

the two little girls are weeping from the tear gas but also from the thirteen hours of terror and forced silence with the enemy just inches away and Daddy upset and nervous in a way they’d never seen before a strong and determined woman leaves the bunker Giuseppina Natta recognizes one of the investigators and launches into a denunciation it’s you again always you I ought to spit in your face they handcuff the boss’s brother in law Mario as well then the cars screech away heading for DIA headquarters with the godfather who barely speaks in the police car you’ve finally won but I regret I’m a victim of injustice you’ve won but you couldn’t find me until the very end you’ve won but I’m not talking in fact before they caught him he had tried to escape from the bunker by digging his way out with a pick through a limestone wall or by following an underground passageway where the police found weapons ammunition and tents access to the passageway was from a manhole inside the bunker perhaps Sandokan was afraid that the police had already found that route

his lair is a villa like many others high walls and invulnerable gates an industrial shed made to look shabby and at ground level on the right the last block of stone that conceals the entrance and slides magically on metal rails you have to get on your hands and knees to get in it took months of hard work to build it and finish it so perfectly hundreds of accomplices and inside it’s a fortress but also a house filled with comforts and conveniences no doors no windows but a de luxe air conditioning system a living room master bedroom bedrooms for the children kitchen and bathroom two refrigerators full of all sorts of food on the wall is the last shopping list we need artichokes closets and dressers filled with clothing the finest and most expensive brands of perfume at least two stereo systems three television sets the kind that cost a fortune a film projector and a professional quality screen on the wall hundreds of movies on subjects ranging from medicine to pornography history books but only about the Bourbon dynasty and a computer with files about his clan the public works contracts the politicians the millions the accounting ledgers of hell and weapons two Bulgarian made submachine guns a pump shotgun and 181 shotgun shells a switchblade