"You're guessing."
"Sure," said Kurtz. "But I think I'm right. You want to bet your life that I'm wrong?"
"We'll bring in more people from New York and New Jersey," Gonzaga said softly, as if speaking to himself. He stood suddenly and looked at Angelina. "Why are we discussing tactics in front of him?"
Angelina smiled. "Because 'him' is the one who found out what's going on after we've been fucking around in the dark for months. And I think 'him' has a plan, don't you, Joe?"
Kurtz nodded.
"Who pays for this 'plan'?" said Toma Gonzaga.
"You do," said Kurtz. "And the price is seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
Gonzaga laughed, but the noise carried no hint of amusement. "To you, naturally."
"Not a cent to me," said Kurtz. "Not even the hundred thousand you offered me if I found this perpwhich I have, by the way. It just happens to be a small army of perps."
"Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars is insane," said Gonzaga. "Out of the question."
"Is it, Toma?" Angelina crossed her arms. "You're talking about a long war. You're talking about disrupting all our business for weeks or months. You're talking about having to buy off cops and maybe media to keep it quiet, and about bringing in more manpower from New York and New Jerseythat'll certainly make the Five Families happy. And do we want Carmine and the others thinking we can't run our own shop out here?"
Gonzaga put his palms flat on Arlene's desk and leaned toward Angelina Farino Ferrara. "Three quarters of a million dollars?" he whispered.
"We haven't heard Joe's plan yet. Maybe it's brilliant."
"Maybe it's fucked," said Gonzaga.
"We won't know if we don't hear it. Joe?"
Speaking slowly and calmly, checking his watch only once, Kurtz told them the plan. When he was finished he stood, walked to the small refrigerator next to the sofa, and took out a bottle of water. "Anyone want one?" he said.
Gonzaga and Angelina only stared at him.
The male don spoke first. "You can't fucking be serious."
Kurtz said nothing.
"He is fucking serious," Angelina said softly. "Christ."
"Tonight ?" said Gonzaga, pronouncing each syllable as
if he'd never beard the word before.
"It would have to be, wouldn't it?" said Angelina. "Kurtz is right And we don't have much time to decide."
Kurtz looked at his watch again. "You have less than a minute to decide."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" snarled Toma Gonzaga.
The downstairs buzzer made its raucous noise.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
No one shook hands when Baby Doc's bodyguards left. No one spoke. Kurtz made no introductions. He doubted if the three had ever met, but they knew enough about each other. The powerfully built Lackawanna boss simply took off his expensive, camel-hair topcoat, hung it on the coat-rack, sat on the sprung couch, looked at Toma Gonzaga and Angelina Farino Ferrara, and said, "Have you decided that it's worth the money to you? Time's wasting here either way."
Angelina looked at Baby Doc, then at Gonzaga, and chewed her lip for a second. "I'm in," she said at last.
"Yeah," said Toma Gonzaga.
"Yeah?" said Baby Doc, sounding like a schoolteacher prompting a student. "What does that mean?"
"That means I'm in for my half. If you can provide all that stuff tonight. And if you don't have any more demands."
"I do, actually," said Baby Doc. "I want to be able to take over and run the Major's empire if I can."
Well , thought Kurtz, there goes the old ballgame .
Angelina shot a glance at Gonzaga where he sat on the far edge of Arlene's desk. "What do you mean?" asked Toma Gonzaga, obviously understanding but stalling for a moment to think.
"I mean what I said. I want you to acknowledge my right to take over the Major's business operations down there. I don't need help I just need your word that if I can do it, you won't try to come in and take it away from me."
Angelina and Gonzaga looked at each other again. "You're going into sale of the product?" said Angelina.
"I will if I can take over the Major's and Colonel's business," said Baby Doc. "It doesn't have to compete with yours. You and I both know that it's small potatoes rural stuff."
"Several million dollars a year worth of small potatoes," said Gonzaga. The don was rubbing his cheek while he thought.
"Yeah," said Baby Doc. And waited.
Angelina shot Gonzaga a final glance, they born nodded as if they were using some sort of special Mafia telepathy, and she said, "All right You have our word. You manage to take over that network, you can have it. Just don't bring it north of Kissing Bridge."
Kurtz knew that Kissing Bridge was a ski area about halfway between Buffalo and Neola.
"Done," said Baby Doc. "Let's talk about how this gets done."
Kurtz had been working on a sketch of the Major's house and grounds, and now he moved to the photocopier behind Arlene's desk, got the machine warmed up, and made three copies. They all studied the sketch.
"How do you know the guard will be out here in this cupola near the little train tracks?" asked Gonzaga.