Jimmy opened his mouth but his father kicked him under the table. It was not the time for Jimmy to fuck things up.
“Can you tell us more about what you want?”
“Not until you agree and sign these papers!” said Smith pulling two documents from the chair beside him and placing them on the table.
“I’m not signing no papers!” said Jimmy pushing his away from him.
Gandolini senior was more intrigued and read the form in front of him. Short and to the point, it took him less than a minute to look up in astonishment. “You’ve got be fucking kidding me?!”
“What, Pa,” asked Jimmy, reaching for his own form.
Gandolini Senior stopped Jimmy reading his. “We do what they want under the condition that if we ever tell anyone, these fuckers will have us hit!”
“Hit?” questioned Jimmy, this was the government after all.
“To put it succinctly you are signing an acceptance that should you fail to maintain your end of the bargain. That is, keep your fucking mouths shut, we will terminate the contract with extreme prejudice and you will be assassinated! You’re fucking with the big boys now!” smiled Smith.
“This can’t be legal,” said Gandolini pushing his form away.
“Who said anything about legal, we’re the CIA.”
“So we do this and keep our mouths shut or Guantanamo for how long?”
“There’s no how long, it’s just Guantanamo, period!”
Gandolini shook his head “This is so fucked up, you can’t do this.”
“We can and we are! Gentlemen, we are on a clock here, either sign the document or I leave the aircraft and next stop is Cuba!” threatened Smith.
“And what you want us to do won’t hurt us?”
“There’s a reason the CIA don’t want you to talk to anyone, you’ll gain from this.”
“Fuck it!” Gandolini senior pulled the form towards him again and continued reading. “What the fuck, 20 % of additional profits to be paid into an offshore account!”
Smith nodded his head. “Additional!” he emphasized. “Get it? This will make you more money.”
Gandolini senior smiled. They had no idea how much he made, it was an empty condition.
“Fine!” he said waving his hand for Smith to give him a pen.
Smith didn’t give him a pen, instead he slipped a note across the table, a number written clearly on it.
Gandolini senior looked at the number and recognized it easily. It was the profit he had made the previous year, not the profit that everyone including his son thought he had made but the real one, the one with all the action that nobody knew he had a piece of.
“Fuck! How did you get that?” asked Gandolini in awe.
“Mr Gandolini, you are fucking with the big boys now, we know everything. Rest assured, we know what the additional take will be, failure to keep your end, will result in termination of contract. You don’t want that. So if you sign, remember your end! And junior, when you step in for daddy, this continues!” he warned handing over the pen.
“Additional on top of this?” he queried pointing to the number.
“No, additional as a result of what we do today. If one of your other businesses tanks, you don’t offset against this. We clear?!”
Gandolini nodded. “Crystal!” and signed the form. Jimmy followed his father blindly and signed his.
“Excellent, next stop. Mexico!” announced Smith, retrieving the signed contracts and checking his watch. 3pm in New York. 2pm in Laredo and it was just over three hours flight time. They would land just after five!
Chapter 55
Mike had sat for three hours as he waited for a chance to speak to Vincent. He needed to bring him up to speed. Jane had worked wonders on Sean’s requests. In fact, probably too well. There were a number of points that were probably going to see Vincent back in hospital when he found out what had been done. Partly Mike’s fault, he had made it clear to Jane that having Sean back was a matter of National importance on a scale not seen since the darkest days of the cold war. Jane, taking Vincent’s stress into account and his resultant heart attack, believed Mike and did whatever it took, no matter how distasteful the consequences to clear the way for Sean to resolve his problem.
The only positive was the 20 percent take that would help fund some of the CIA’s less public activities. Something that Mike was sure would temper at least some of Vincent’s anger.
“You can go through now, Mr Ritter,” offered the consultant, his tone clearly unhappy.
Mike walked into the room and was shocked to see how pathetic Vincent looked. Just four hours earlier, he had been the powerful, untouchable and impressive boss of one of the CIA’s most powerful and important divisions. Now he was an old man in a hospital bed, wired to a gaggle of machines, beeping and blipping almost continually. An oxygen mask covered his mouth as if even breathing were beyond his capabilities.
Vincent smiled weakly and pulled the mask aside. “Mike,” he struggled.
Mike smiled and suddenly realized he was on his own. There was no way he could bring Vincent up to speed in his current condition. Hearing what he and Jane had done would most likely kill him.
“Some good news,” he offered. “Sean is OK!”
Vincent nodded slightly. “That boy’s invincible, didn’t doubt he wouldn’t be.” He waved Mike closer.
“Get me out of here!” he pleaded.
Mike stepped back and looked at him like he was mad.
Vincent lifted his hand and caught Mike’s arm and with the strength of a paraplegic pulled him closer again.
“They’ve pumped me full of drugs! There is too much going on, my mind needs to be clear!” he struggled to form half of the words.
“How are you, Mr Black?” announced the doctor loudly as he entered the room.
Vincent let go of Mike and looked him directly in the eye. Vincent’s stare was as deep and as intense as ever. His mind was working just fine, the link between his mind and his actions were the problem. The medication.
“Fine,” replied Vincent.
“Hmm,” scoffed the doctor as he checked the charts and readout. “You have had a heart attack, I’m not sure I’d define that as fine!”
“Doctor, when will Vincent be fit to leave?”
“The first twenty four hours are critical. If he makes it through that and with no complications, I’d say maybe a week or so!”
“I’m not sure we can manage without him for a week!” Mike was being egged on by Vincent, behind the doctor’s back.
“No,” the doctor laughed. “That’s out of hospital. He won’t be back at work for the next six weeks. You’ll need to work out how to manage without him!”
Vincent pulled a face behind the doctor’s back that had Mike biting his tongue not to laugh. He wasn’t sure Vincent would be able to remove it quickly enough should the doctor have turned around.
One thing was very clear, they needed Vincent back and from his antics, he needed to be back. However, there was absolutely no way Mike was going to argue against the twenty-four hour critical period. Jane, Sean and himself were on their own at least until the next day. He just hoped none of them ended up in prison before Vincent could protect them and even then, he might even decide to put them in prison himself.
Chapter 56
Sean looked hopefully as Luis tried the number again. Jane had given Sean an update, three flights would be arriving between 5.15 and 5.45 at Quetzalcoatl International Airport, the airport that served the Mexican side Nuevo Laredo. He had taken Luis back across to the empty house, the CIA equipment was still in the loft and he did not want to risk Katie overhearing anything.
Luis nodded, Juan had answered. Finally. It had been over an hour.
Luis spoke quickly in Spanish and from his demeanor, Sean knew it was not good before he ended the call.
“Five pm!” Luis shook his head despondently as he said it. He knew Juan would not change the time. Once Juan had said 5pm, no matter what, he would never back down. In his eyes it would show weakness.