A small parade of black cars passed through the security gate at a nondescript shipping warehouse near the docks. One by one they glided through the vast parking lot separating the street from the main building. Only a few lonely lamps cast circles of light on the pavement. Two men stood underneath the only light visible on the main building. With their hands clasped in front of their dark suits, they guarded the only apparent entrance to the large building.
Separately, and minutes apart, the cars pulled up to the door and invariably, 4 men exited each vehicle. The first two men to get out did a cursory visual sweep of the area, nodded at the guards (who didn’t move) and then held the car doors for the second two men as they climbed out of the vehicles. Those men stood up straight, smoothed out their coats and walked quickly to the door. Only when the men approached the door did the guards go into motion. One guard turned the doorknob and pushed the door open for the two men while the other raised one hand to his ear.
Once the door closed behind the two men, the guards returned to their unwavering postures before the door. The remaining passengers from the car nodded again to the guards and climbed back into the car. The car then slowly pulled through the parking lot to a smaller office building away from the main structure. There, the black cars collected and under one last light shining overhead, silhouettes could be seen exiting the cars. A few men collected near the office door where tiny red glows could be seen from their cigarettes. The rest simply entered the building.
This procession happened several times around 10pm that night: black car through security gate, passengers dropped off, car continues to office building and remaining men enter the office, with only one small exception.
Once inside the warehouse, Joe and Frank walked the hallway along the front of the building to a small office space. Frank took the opportunity to remind Joe to take it easy.
“Remember Joe,” he said, “the family isn’t as strong as it should be just yet, so try not to ruffle any feathers in here, all right?”
Joe, already keyed up for his first big meeting with the other bosses, immediately took offense to the suggestion. “What the fuck does that mean?” he said as he stopped walking.
Frank stopped and faced Joe, “I’m just saying that we’re still in a bit of disorganization right now and we don’t need to be flexing any muscle we don’t have just yet. That’s all.”
Joe did not take kindly to Frank’s advice. “I’ll ask you again, Frank, what the fuck does that mean?” he asked more tersely.
Frank let out a quick sigh and dropped his head. Damnit, it’s like talking to a 2 year-old...
“I’m just saying don’t bite off more than you can chew in this meeting. It’s your first meeting. You’re new at these and if these guys see any weakness, it’ll be like blood in the water to a pack of sharks.”
Joe looked incredulously at Frank. With a crazy smile on his face, he replied, “You know what, Frank? Fuck you!”
“What?”
“You heard me. Fuck you!” he repeated. “I’m in charge now and I do whatever the fuck I want. I keep you around because you were with Carmine for longer than I can remember, but honestly, Frank, you’ve gotten fucking soft!” Joe poked Frank with his finger. “This is my family now and I’ll run it any damn way I see fit.”
Frank put up his hands to protest, but Joe cut him off. “No. No. You know what Frank? I don’t need you here. I can run this meeting on my own. You go ‘take it easy’ somewhere else.”
Again Frank tried to voice a protest, but again, Joe cut him off. “No! Here.” Clearly agitated, Joe reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Peeling off a couple bills, he slapped them onto Frank’s chest and stuffed them into his front pocket. “Here. Go have a nice dinner somewhere. Get a girl for the night. Drink yourself silly. On me! I don’t care. Just do it somewhere else!”
One last time, Frank attempted to speak. “Go!” Joe nearly spat at him.
Frank, bordering on rage, just glared at Joe. Fuck me? Fuck you, you prick! Deciding it wasn’t worth the effort, Frank turned back toward the door and Joe continued down the hallway. The other bosses won’t let him do anything stupid; they don’t trust him yet. I can hold off any advances on our turf and shit, best case scenario, somebody shoots him up there.
Arriving at the door, Frank pounded on the metal. He heard the one guard mumble something into his radio and a few seconds later, the door opened. The men looked a little puzzled to see Frank coming back through the door, but he rushed right past them. Instead of walking to the office building and joining the other men there, he walked off into the darkness of the parking lot. Again, he heard the one guard mumble and he could make out when the man said his name. Of course, Tony Baldo would know if anyone left the building, the question would be if he would be followed by one of the guards. At the moment, he didn’t care.
He walked straight through the long parking lot back to the street. Since he and Joe were the last to arrive, the light at the security gate was out. Still, he knew Tony’s two guys would be in the guardhouse. After a long few minutes, he approached the gate and it opened automatically. Obviously, the guards were told he was coming, and Tony knew Frank would be smart enough to walk several blocks away before hailing a cab. Thus, the easy exit.
Inside the warehouse, the men passed through two more guarded doors and went through a pat down at each one. Finally, in the corner of the huge building, a large room stood above the warehouse floor. Windows looked out over the warehouse space and opened up to the ocean as well as the West side of the building overlooking the parking lot. Only the North side of the room was closed off.
Joe surveyed the room the second he walked in. He calculated the set of windows Matty’s shot was supposed to come from and immediately began to think of a way to get Phil isolated from the group.
The bosses and other men shook hands casually and spoke in soft tones to each other. Since Joe was the last to arrive, all the men paused for a moment when he entered the room. Noticing Joe looking around nervously, Tony Baldo excused himself from his conversation with Tommy Calletti and approached Joe.
Tony thanked Joe for coming and asked where his other man was. Joe was at least able to manage a lie and told him that Frank was feeling sick so he sent him home. Tony expressed his concern and motioned Joe to a seat at the table in the center of the room. Tony called for the meeting to start and the rest of the men slowly made their way to the table.
With the men all at the table, Tony passed the lead to Phil. As Tony sat, Phil thanked him for the introduction and stood up in his place.
Joe kept glancing toward the window as Phil rambled on thanking Tony for providing a secure location for the meeting, for all the men who showed up and a few other things. Beneath the table, his leg bounced fiercely even as he tried to maintain his composure with his upper body. He made it look like he was paying attention, but his mind still wrestled with a ploy to get Phil nearer the windows.
“... Particularly the Russians,” said Phil. Joe finally snapped back to attention when he heard Phil mention their rivals.
“It would be in our best interests to do something with these increasingly bold infringements on our territory,” Phil continued.
A few grumbles from the other bosses quietly announced their agreement with Phil’s assessment. Tommy rattled off a story recounting one of the most recent and bolder attempts to horn in on the families’ territories, but Joe continued to be distracted. The others again, agreed.
“Therefore!” Phil spoke loudly in order to regain control of the conversation. “I propose this offer!” He placed his hands on the table and leaned over it. “I will to take out the Russian outfit’s main holdings for a 15% cut from each of the families.”
The men in the room collectively groaned at the size of the fee and a heated discussion ensued.
“That’s outrageous!”
“You’re fucking kidding!”
“That’s bullshit!”
The din grew louder and louder as the bosses spoke to their men, the other bosses and at Phil.
Tony finally stood up and shouted over everyone else, “There’s no fucking way we’re paying you 15% to get rid of anybody!” The other men at the table loudly agreed with his statement.
Phil tried to calm everyone down, “Gentlemen! Gentlemen!... I assure you this offer is more than fair! Think about how much business we’ve been losing to this outfit. It’s much more than 15%! And I’ll get it back for us.”
Tony, still standing, calmly replied, “Bullshit... You’ll take it for yourself!” At that statement, the other men roared to life and began to angrily shout at Phil.
During all of this, Joe remained mostly quiet. He was forced to stop thinking about his attempt to isolate Phil when the whole room was arguing. But, when Tony pointed out the potential power grab Phil was angling for, his ears perked up. Quickly, an idea popped into his head.
Joe shot up from the table and shouted, “Yeah!! That’s right, Fuck you Phil!” The rest of the table quieted and turned to look at Joe. Joe, suddenly aware that he had the strict and agitated attention of 4 of the most powerful men in the city, froze for a second. But, he quickly found his voice. “Yeah, Fuck you Phil!” Each of the men looked at him in disbelief.
Seizing the moment, Joe looked directly at Phil, “I’ll take care of the fucking Russians myself. No Fee!!!”
Each of the bosses looked around the table for a moment before they all burst out with laughter. All of them that is, except Phil. Phil just glared at Joe from across the table. As the other men continued to laugh and make wise cracks about the new boss, Phil couldn’t hide his anger at being shown up by this cracked-out prick at his first meeting.
As calmly as he could muster, he said to Joe, “Joe, come here.” He motioned for Joe to join him as he walked to the windows that looked out over the parking lot.
Taken aback by the laughter of the other bosses, Joe’s rage was put in check by the golden opportunity Phil just offered him. Those windows faced the parking garage nearly 400 yards away across the street where Matty was supposed to be positioned with his sniper rifle. Confident in Matty’s ability as a marksman, at least as described by Isabel, Joe thought this would provide the best opportunity for Matty to take a shot. And then those assholes won’t be laughing anymore...
Joe collected himself and walked to meet Phil at the windows. “Yeah, you two wackos talk it out!” laughed Tony while the other men laughed with him. “And when you two talk some sense into each other, feel free to join us back here in reality.” More laughter... “Ah shit... I gotta use the head,” Tony said and walked toward the door. He knocked and the door swung open.
KABOOM!!!!!
The explosion knocked 3 men standing outside the office building off their feet. Windows in the same building shattered and the sky was fantastically lit by a gigantic fireball curling into the sky. Men quickly streamed out of the office building and shielded their eyes from the debris falling from the sky. Several men ran toward the warehouse while a few others scrambled to get on their cell phones.
There was a massive hole in the roof of the warehouse where the meeting was taking place, flames reached far into the sky. A smaller hole shot flames out the north side of the building and all the windows looking over the parking lot were gone. Flaming pieces of debris rained down on the parking lot and all around the building. The men from the office building ran zig-zag patterns through the lot to avoid all the fireballs, rushing to see if any of their superiors were alive. The guards from the main gate scrambled in behind them, both on their radios trying to raise their fellow security detail.
Several of the men ran through the door, past the two guards who had been blown 20 feet into the parking lot and weren’t moving. But, they all quickly scrambled back out of the building coughing and waving their arms.
The men started to gather together in the middle of the parking lot when the sound of sirens began to rise over the noise of the fire. A few men panicked and ran for their cars. A few others simply stared, stunned at the burning building. The rest began to argue amongst themselves, each blaming one of the others for the attack.
Bobbing calmly on the waves a few hundred yards from the enflamed warehouse, Matty watched the scene through binoculars behind the steering wheel of the speedboat. He admiringly watched the flames reach into the sky and surveyed the holes blown out of the building. The flashing lights caught his attention as they gathered at the gate just to the left of the building from his viewpoint. When he saw the first police officer exit his cruiser to check the gate he knew the fire trucks would quickly push through the gate.
Putting down the binoculars, he reached for his cell phone.
Isabel’s voice came through the other side, “Yes.”
With steel resolve, Matty said, “It’s done.”
“Good.” ...No emotion.
After a short pause, Matty concentrated and forced himself to speak, “But, there was a snag...”
“Yes?” was all the voice said.
“Frank was there.” Matty waited for a response. ...None came.
He quickly tried to explain, “I watched the cars as they came in and I saw Frank with Joe. They both went inside, and I couldn’t warn him. I had to get to the boat...”
Quietly, Isabel interrupted him, “It’s not safe to say too much over the phone,” and she hung up.