by Nees, David
“We ain’t getting enough from the coal trains and we’re running out of them. Now I had some people scout around and we found a plant west of here, the Cliffside Steam Station. It’s ruined from the EMP attack, but there’s a lot of coal there.”
“That’s good boss,” one of the bolder capos said.
Big Al eyed him with a dark look on his face. “Yeah, that’s good. But I had to find it by myself. Nino here, who I put in charge, didn’t find it.” His voice was beginning to raise in volume. “He’s focused on the trains and didn’t think to send scouts out.”
He turned directly to Nino. “Did you know where you were going next after you stripped the last train? There ain’t an unlimited number of trains sitting around.”
Nino didn’t answer; just stared back at his boss.
“I put you in charge of the whole operation. All you focused on was stripping trains. That won’t get the job done.” His voice grew more menacing.
Big Al’s fist slammed on the table. Glasses jumped and rattled. He stood up, his face now even more red. Everyone in the room was silent. Nino now didn’t dare look at his boss. He knew he was in for a bad time. He’d known it since told of the meeting. Everyone could see he was out of his league and not able to get a handle on the full scope of the project. But Big Al wanted results when he assigned you a job, not excuses.
He started pacing.
“Maybe you didn’t understand the importance of energy, what it means to us. Maybe I didn’t explain it properly to you. Did I miss something in my explanation?”
He had stopped across the conference table from Nino.
Nino shook his head.
“What’d you say?”
“No,” Nino said in a whisper.
Big Al started pacing again.
“So, you understood how important energy is. How important it is to this family, to us gaining more power with the other families. And yet, you didn’t get the job done. And we’re struggling to feed the one power plant we got running.
“Do you know how much coal that son-of-a-bitch eats? Tons of it, and we still aren’t running it at full capacity.”
He stopped behind Nino.
“You know how much coal is needed each day?”
Nino only looked at the table as Big Al shouted behind him.
“Answer me!”
“A lot,” Nino said, his voice soft.
“A lot of coal. Do you provide it a lot of coal?”
Nino shook his head.
“And you don’t look for other sources, dead coal plants, abandoned coal mines. Did you look around?”
Big Al’s voice was loud and sounded dangerous.
“You were told to get me more energy, enough to feed that power plant. You knew that was necessary to getting things back to normal. You let me down. You didn’t come to me for help. You just kept shuffling along.”
He put a large hand on Nino’s shoulder, pinning him down in his chair.
“Did you think I would accept that? Did you think I’d be happy? That I’d let you get away with stumbling around? Not getting the job done? Answer me!”
Nino shook his head.
“No one gets away with fucking around. No one gets away with not getting their job done!”
His right hand, balled into a face-sized fist, swung down with ferocious energy and crashed into Nino’s right ear. His head snapped sideways. Big Al held him in the chair with his left hand as he rained repeated blows to his neck and head. “You didn’t show respect. You didn’t do what I told you to do.” Big Al spoke through panted breaths.
He swung him around, the man barely conscious, and began to hit him in the face with both fists, left, right, left, right. Finally, he grabbed Nino by the collar and threw him to the floor. Nino’s face was a bloody mess, unrecognizable
“Get him out of here,” he said to his bodyguard.
The man dragged Nino out through the door. He was not alive.
No one at the table moved. No one looked at Big Al as he went back to his seat. He was breathing hard as he sat down. The red in his face began to recede slightly.
“No one.” He looked around at his capos. “No one gets away with not doing their job.”
He took a drink from his water glass.
“Joe and I are going to appoint someone to be in charge of finding and getting the coal we need to run that damn power plant. Run it full time. I expect whoever we pick to get the job done. Find the people to help, find the resources, but Get. The. Job. Done. All of you are to help him. Now get out of here.”
After the meeting Joe sat down with Big Al. They shared a whiskey and talked about their plans.
“Did you really need to do what you did?”
Big Al took a sip of whiskey. “I made an impression. No one wants to come up short now.”
“And no one wants the job. Hell, I wouldn’t.”
Big Al looked at his Underboss. “I made an impression. That’s important. Just like I’m going to make an impression on the towns around us, starting with Hillsboro.”
“We’re going to collect what they owe us—”
Al shook his head. “I ain’t worried about that. We’ll get what’s owed us. But I want to make an example of them.”
He leaned forward in his chair, a wild look into his eyes. “When we send the militia there, we wipe them all out, every single one of them.”
Joe stared back at his boss.
“Just like Genghis Khan.”
“I don’t get it.”
“He’d wipe out a city. Leave one survivor to pass the word to other cities and they’d surrender the moment he showed up. No more fighting. We don’t want to waste resources fighting to get all these small towns under control. We make an example of one of them, like Hillsboro, since it’s got such a reputation. After we take everyone down, the others will fall in line without a fight.” He leaned back.
Joe smiled. “Brutal, but effective.”
Big Al changed the subject. “We need to talk about Roper.”
“What’s to talk about?”
“He’s doing a good job. The militia is getting pretty professional. My worry is that he controls a serious amount of muscle.”
“You worried about him turning? He give you any reason to worry about that?”
Big Al shook his head. “No. I think he still wants to retire in luxury in South America. But people’s plans change when they see other opportunities. A large military can control a city…or more.”
“What’s he going to do? The other families will never agree to support him. He’d be all alone.”
“Agreed. It would be a stupid move on his part, but if he tried, it could mean big trouble for us. We don’t need that.”
Joe thought for a moment. “Whaddaya want to do?”
“Let’s hedge our bets. I want you to identify his senior officers. We’ll get pictures of their families. Then you visit each one, show ‘em the photos. Let them know we can reach their family members if they step out of line.”
“Threaten them?”
“Not directly. It’s insurance to make sure they do what we want in the end. They’ll be taking orders from Roper, but they’ll know the safety of their families is in our hands. If Roper starts turning on us, we want them to let us know and not follow him.”
“If there’s a split and they side with Roper—”
“Right. We whack the families. It’ll be the first thing we do.”
“Gotta hand it to you, boss. You cover all the bases.”
“We can even let them know there’s money in it for them, besides the safety of their families. In the end it’s all about the money.”
“But what about the coal project?” Joes asked. “You need someone to run it.”
“I need someone smart. Someone that can tap into the brains that are here in the city. Hell, I don’t expect our guys to know about this crap. But we want someone smart enough to find the people who do…and to convince them to work for us.”
“Does it have to
be one of our guys?”
“You got someone in mind?”
“I’m thinking, we got a guy, an associate. He works for Vincent. He’s smart and productive. He’d find the experts. He’s that kind of a guy—resourceful.”
“I’m not putting an associate in charge. One of our guys has to oversee it. Is this guy a possible crew member? The books ain’t open now, but I could make an exception.”
“No. He’s not Italian. At best he’s a good associate. He can help a lot, though. Seems to want to be useful.”
“If I give the okay, who runs him?”
“His boss, Vincent.”
“Or you, maybe?” Big Al gave Joe a dangerous look.
“To hell with that. I got enough crap to take care of. Got to take care of Hillsboro.”
“You do what I told you with them.”
“Still, it’s gonna be some work. The guy I’m thinking about for the coal project came from Hillsboro. I want him to talk with Roper. He’ll be ready to attack soon.”
“Set it up when he gets back from training. What’s this guy’s name?”
“Jason Rich.”
Chapter 23
___________________________________
J oe and Vincent met at a bar located in the downtown area.
“Vincent, you know I got to pick someone to head up the coal production.”
Vincent felt a chill come over him. After discussing the problem with the other capos, no one could come up with a possible choice. Now he was afraid he was going to be tapped by Joe for the job.
“I got an idea,” Joe continued. “I ran it by Al and he’s willing to give it a try.”
Vincent looked warily across the table at Joe.
“I want to use that new guy, Jason. I met with him the other day. He’s smart. He don’t know about coal or power plants, but he’s resourceful. He’ll figure things out and get the problem solved.”
Vincent felt a wave of relief spread over him.
“Just one thing,” Joe said. “You’ll need to watch over him, supervise him. Big Al doesn’t want an associate running the operation without one of us looking over his shoulder.”
Now Vincent’s dread returned.
“Joe, I don’t have time for that. What the hell happens if he fucks up?”
Joe didn’t answer but just stared at him.
“Look if my ass is gonna be on the line, I got to work at that full time. Look what happened to Nino. How’m I gonna let some associate run things without me being there every day?”
Joe shrugged. “You figure it out. At least I got one guy in between you and the problem.”
“And further,” Vincent said as if he didn’t hear Joe, “what happens to my collections? I can’t let them go to hell while messing around with coal trains.”
“Put someone in charge.”
Vincent was thinking as fast as he could. He had to side step this job. It smelled like a death trap.
“How about I put Tony on it? He gets along with Jason. Thinks he’s the greatest thing to come along. He can monitor him and report back to you. I can easily get someone to cover his crew so my earnings won’t take a hit.”
Joe looked thoughtful. Vincent knew he saw through his offer. But Vincent knew Joe understood. Hell, he wouldn’t want the job after what happened to that dumbass, Nino.
“Okay. I can sell that to Big Al. But he reports to you, not me.”
“You’re trying to keep clear of this ain’t you?”
“Vincent, watch what you say. You gotta be a part or Al won’t buy it. I can always put you directly in charge. You got a buffer. Now just make sure the job gets done.”
Vincent sighed. It was the best he could do. Maybe it was enough to keep him from Nino’s fate. Vincent didn’t have much hope that the gang would find the coal needed to keep the plant going for long. They were going to have to mine coal and no one knew how to do that. Hell, no one knew if there were any miners in the city.
“There’s just one thing we got to do first,” Joe said. “I want Jason to talk with Roper. Set it up for next week. The militia’ll be back. Then you put him on the coal job.”
“Can I tell him and Tony about it?”
“Sure. But don’t tell Jason about Nino until they start.” Joe smiled. “What happened to Nino shouldn’t go to waste. Use it to motivate the next in line. It’ll help them take the job more seriously.”
The next week, Jason, Vincent and Joe were sitting at the restaurant in the Omni Hotel, the hotel where the meeting of all the capos had taken place. Jason was on edge, but also excited. Things were moving fast but the ground underneath him might get unstable Price to pay for moving up. The higher I go, the more dangerous it gets.
“We got a new job for you, but before you do it, I want you to meet with the militia commander and talk about Hillsboro with him.”
Jason nodded. Here was a chance to find out first-hand how prepared the militia was. He could get some information on their capabilities and plans before he dropped out of sight.
“The militia’s back this weekend. You come to my office next Wednesday,” Joe said. “You can meet the commander and tell him what you know. I know you were there only a little while, but you’re the best source we got right now.”
“You still got a thing about Hillsboro? You going to try to take them over?”
“We got plans. They want to be independent and we can’t allow that.”
“What about this other job?”
Joe glanced at Vincent. “You impressed me. I’m gonna put you in charge of supplying the power plant with coal.”
“What? I don’t know anything about coal or power plants. The only thing I know is what I saw when you took me out there.”
Joe cracked a smile. If he was trying to make it a warm one, it didn’t work.
“No one in the organization knows much about it. You find people who do. You’ll have Tony working with you, he can help.”
“With all due respect. I doubt if Tony knows any more than I do. How much coal does a power plant use each day? Anybody know?”
“See,” said Joe. “That’s the kind of question that needs to be asked. We need to get some planning into this. The previous guy didn’t think it through. He just went after stalled coal trains and never looked beyond that source. You need to find the guys who know about these things. The guys who helped get the power plant back on line. They’ll help you out.”
“I thought Nino had already done that.”
Joe looked over at Vincent. “I told you. He’ll know what to do. Even if he don’t know about coal plants.” He turned back to Jason. “Mr. Tagliani is looking forward to your success. He’s anxious to generate more power, show everyone how well Charlotte is working since we’ve taken over. Stansky had the same idea, but he didn’t understand how to manage the population. He couldn’t get the services back soon enough, so people revolted.”
Jason knew there were other reasons, but kept his mouth shut. The mob here in Charlotte must have known what Stansky was doing. Maybe that’s why they were trying to operate with a softer touch. Not the brutal terror that Stansky brought to Hillsboro’s citizens, especially through his lieutenant, Leo.
“When do I start?”
“Right after your meeting with the militia. Pack your bags when you come. I’ll drive you and Tony out to the site and you can meet with the crew bosses. They got the manual part of the job down. You need to move forward to find other resources and plan how we’ll make the plant work long-term.”
“You expect Tony to be able to do this?”
Now Vincent spoke up. He had been sitting quietly during the conversation. Jason wasn’t sure if he was in favor of this move or not. Joe’s decision would prevail in any case.
“Tony won’t be much help in that. He’ll work with the crew bosses and check on your progress. Tony’ll report back to me so I’ll know what’s going on. I want to see progress on our current work and on finding new resources.”
The disc
ussion went on through dinner. After, Ears drove Vincent and Jason back to their neighborhood.
“Are you okay with this?” Jason asked Vincent. “You’ve been worried about me since I came aboard.”
“Not worried. Suspicious. I don’t know you that well. Maybe things will change later. You do a good job with this and it will go a long way to staking your place in the organization.”
“What happened to the last guy?”
Vincent paused for a moment. “He was out of his league. The job was too big for him, so Big Al had to retire him.”
“And he thinks I can do this?”
“Joe thinks you can do this. And Big Al is going along.” They were both sitting in the back seat. He turned to Jason, “If you fuck up it goes back on Joe…and me. You don’t want that to happen.”
Jason could guess what the word, “retired” meant. The stakes had just escalated with such a high-profile assignment.
“Besides giving me this job, why is Joe so focused on Hillsboro? He wants me to talk with the militia commander? I already told Joe as much as I know.”
“It don’t matter. You tell it to the commander if that’s what Joe wants.”
Jason shook his head. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense. This coal project is a huge challenge. Messing with Hillsboro seems like a side issue.”
“It ain’t a side issue. Big Al wants to make an example of the town.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s going to send the militia to wipe everyone out.”
“Kill everyone? Why?” Jason felt a cold shiver run through him.
“Says it’s like Genghis Khan. Kill everyone in one town, the other towns hear about it and they’ll all give up without a fight.” Vincent looked over at Jason. “He figures that will save time and resources. The commander seems to be enthused by the idea.”
Jason worked to keep the dread he felt out of his voice. “Who is this militia commander?”
“He’s ex-Army. A guy named Roper. He was a captain before he retired out. We made him a better offer, better pay. He’s whipping the militia into shape and is excited about the mission, especially making an example of Hillsboro.”
