There are moments when men who live in the underworld suddenly find themselves staring at the machinery of the real world.
Governments.
Empires.
Oil.
And in those moments you realise something unsettling: the criminals are not the ones running the game.
They are only small investors in a much larger one.
That realisation came to me during a conversation about Kashmir.
Silvio had been listening patiently through the long explanation about our investments when the name appeared.
Kashmir.
He frowned slightly.
"E'un peccato," he murmured. "Why must that valley always burn? What does Kashmir have to do with your investments?"
Joseph smiled faintly.
"Nothing," he said quietly. "And everything."
Silvio waited.
"You see, Paisano," Joseph continued, "people like us do not start wars. We do not move armies. We do not decide borders."
He paused.
"But we sometimes invest in the roads that armies eventually travel."
Silvio said nothing.
Joseph leaned back slightly.
"The Chinese investors were the ones who first mentioned it to us. Not directly, of course. Men like that never speak directly. Everything is explained through intermediaries — bankers, consultants, shipping firms."
Silvio nodded.
"That sounds familiar."
Joseph continued.
"They were building infrastructure in Pakistan. Ports. Highways. Rail lines. Power plants."
Silvio interrupted softly.
"The corridor."
Joseph looked at him with mild curiosity.
"You've heard of it."
"Only vaguely."
Joseph nodded.
"They called it the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. C.P.E.C."
He spoke the letters slowly, as if they were still foreign to his tongue.
"To them it was simply an investment project. A very large one."
Silvio leaned forward slightly.
"And what does that have to do with Kashmir?"
Joseph shrugged.
"That part I never fully understood."
He paused.
"Investors rarely explain their strategies to people like us. They only explain where the money should go."
Silvio remained silent.
Joseph continued.
"From what I gathered, the corridor was meant to connect western China to the Arabian Sea. Roads running south through Pakistan all the way to a port called Gwadar."
Silvio nodded faintly.
"I've heard of it."
Joseph continued.
"A deep-water port. Very close to the Persian Gulf."
He raised a finger.
"And very close to the Strait of Hormuz."
Silvio's eyes shifted slightly.
The significance was obvious.
A large portion of the world's oil passes through that narrow passage of water.
Joseph continued.
"If you are China, and most of your oil arrives through ships crossing half the planet, that route becomes very dangerous."
Silvio nodded.
"One blockade and your economy suffocates."
"Exactly."
Joseph continued.
"So the corridor offered an alternative. Oil arriving by sea at Gwadar, then traveling north by road or pipeline into China."
Silvio considered this.
"That explains the port."
Joseph nodded.
"Yes."
"But Kashmir?"
Joseph gave a small shrug.
"Borders."
Silvio waited.
"The mountains between China and Pakistan are complicated territory. Old wars, disputed borders, historical claims."
He paused.
"I was told — and I emphasise told — that stability in that region is… inconvenient."
Silvio raised an eyebrow.
"Inconvenient?"
Joseph smiled faintly.
"If everything becomes peaceful and settled, governments start asking questions about borders again."
Silvio understood immediately.
"And questions about borders can interrupt infrastructure."
Joseph nodded.
"Yes."
Silence lingered.
Joseph added quietly:
"But understand something, Silvio. These were not our decisions."
"We were not running Chinese strategy."
"We were not directing Pakistani politics."
He spread his hands slightly.
"We were merely investors."
Silvio looked at him carefully.
"You financed parts of the corridor?"
Joseph shook his head slowly.
"Not directly."
He smiled faintly.
"That would be far above our weight."
Silvio waited.
"We financed companies that financed companies that financed companies involved in the project."
Joseph's voice remained calm.
"Infrastructure attracts enormous capital. Banks, investment funds, shipping companies, construction firms. Somewhere inside that chain small pieces of our money traveled."
Silvio leaned back.
"And you never asked questions."
Joseph smiled.
"Money rarely asks questions."
Silvio was silent for a moment.
Then he said quietly:
"And the wars?"
Joseph's eyes hardened slightly.
"Wars happen with or without investors."
He paused.
"Sometimes investors simply make sure their money survives them."
The room fell quiet again.
Joseph eventually added one final sentence.
"Besides," he said softly, "there is an old Sicilian truth."
Silvio glanced up.
Joseph recited it calmly.
"Nun si po' aviri la carni senz' ossu."
Silvio nodded.
You cannot have the meat without the bone.
Profit always comes attached to something unpleasant.
Sometimes that unpleasant thing is war.