by Lee, S. K.
“Hi. What can I do for you young man?” He said.
“I’m Jeff, nice to meet you.” Jeff said, extending his hand.
“My pleasure…” Enzo replied, shaking his hand.
“Well, I’m your IT guy.”
“Oh! Okay, okay… Well, I want my login and password, Jeff. I need to start making money. I feel like I’m missing a lot of opportunities and that’s very frustrating.”
Jeff cleared his throat. “Hum… Well, I’m not that kind of IT guy. I’m your dev actually.”
Enzo raised his hands in the air to apologize. “Aww! Sorry, man. You’re my commando, right?”
Jeff nodded. He was a dev, or software developer. Actually, his exact job title was much more sophisticated and impressive - he was a front office commando developer.
Guys like him had to be able to come up with complex scripts and little programs to execute automated tasks for traders; and they had to do it fast… very fast. Like within a few hours or so. Money couldn’t wait.
There was no project management team, no meetings to talk about budgets or anything like that. If the trader wanted something, the commando developer had to be ready to type a few hundreds lines of code for him, immediately. They had to be operational all the time, just like soldiers.
All traders were working at the front office – the center of the universe. Simply put, it was a department within the bank where traders were making money.
It was the only place to actually take positions in the market.
It was the only place that really mattered.
The middle office and the back office were supposed to support the front office, and confirm all transactions made by the traders. In other words, these two departments were filled with people who dreamed of becoming traders one day, by staying as close to them as possible.
That rarely happened.
Traders were a very unique kind of individuals. They were many things at the same time – educated, smart, confident, arrogant, cocky, self-centered, greedy and risk-takers.
They knew how to make money, and in the world of capitalism, they were more than valuable – they were Gods.
Enzo wasn’t just any trader, though.
He belonged to a special set of traders called prop traders, or proprietary traders, meaning that he didn’t deal with clients. All he had to do was taking positions, buying or selling products, on behalf of the bank with the sole purpose of making pure profits.
He had very little contact with the risk management team – his goal was to maximize profitability by taking as much risk as possible, within a certain limit. He was totally exposed in the markets, meaning that he didn’t hedge his positions.
When he was right, he was making huge amounts of money. When he wasn’t, losses could quickly become very significant – unless he knew when to cut his losses. Not everybody was able to assess the situation properly.
It was a skill.
It was an art.
“Okay, just sit down! As you can see, I can’t do anything for now.” Enzo said, inviting the young nerd to sit next to him.
“I’m really honored to work with you Mr. Fancelli. I’ve heard a lot about you and you’re a hero for many of us. You’re like a superstar!” Jeff said enthusiastically. He seemed sincere and Enzo immediately liked him.
“You can call me Enzo…” He replied, ignoring his comment but feeling flattered deep inside. What a nice welcome!
“Oh thank you, Mr. Fancelli… Hum, Enzo!”
“Do you have a resume with you? Or any programs you did before?” Enzo asked. He liked Jeff, but he wasn’t here to make friends. He needed to know if the kid could perform and help him make money.
“Absolutely. Here you go…” Jeff said, handing a little folder.
Enzo looked at it and nodded in satisfaction - Jeff was really good. He would definitely be a good guy to work with.
“So, do you have any questions? Anything you want to learn?” Enzo asked - he could feel Jeff was boiling with millions of questions.
“Yes… but it’s not about finance…” Jeff said. He seemed a bit embarrassed.
“Sure! Go ahead.”
“It’s a weird question… but how do you get so many women? I mean, everybody knows your success rate in this department and I have a lot of work to do in this area… I’d do anything to know how to be more successful with women…”
Enzo looked at him in surprise - he didn’t expect that, but at least the kid was honest and straightforward.
“You’d do anything, uh?”
“Yes…”
“Okay, why don’t you go and get me some coffee then? I’m kind of thirsty…”
“Aww… Sure… I’ll be back, Mr. Fancelli.”
As soon as Jeff left, the desk phone rang. Enzo was kind of surprised - he wasn’t expecting any call. It was his first day after all, who would call him at work that early?
He put down Jeff’s resume on the table and picked up the phone.
“Enzo Fancelli speaking.” He said, leaning back in his chair.
A woman who sounded pretty confused and alarmed mumbled something. Enzo struggled to hear her clearly, as she was trying to cover a loud noise in the background. People were shouting and yelling at each other and Enzo instinctively knew something was going on.
“Mr. Fancelli, this is the reception. Could you…” she paused and took a deep breath. “Could you please come downstairs? There is a group of people fighting with the security, and they say they want to see you.”
Enzo suddenly felt his chest become tight. “Sure. I’ll be there in a minute.”
He quickly jumped on his feet and grabbed his cell phone. He looked around to see if anybody was looking at him, but everybody was busy watching their screen. Enzo checked the time - it was 9:36am and the markets had opened already.
He quickly put the resume in his drawer and rushed to the men’s restrooms, but on the way, he met Jeff who was bringing him his coffee.
“Hey Mr. Fancelli, here’s your coffee. But I don’t know if you like it with sugar or not…” Jeff told him.
Enzo didn’t want to be rude but he had an important phone call to make. “It’s okay, I take my coffee black.” He’d formed the habit of not taking sugar from Victoria, back in the days.
Jeff kept staring at Enzo, waiting for him to grab his cup.
“Jeff, can you bring it to my desk please? I need to do something now…” Enzo said.
“Okay. I’ll wait for you over there. Oh and by the way, I stumbled upon Ms. De Lissieu and she said she wants you in her office to give you your objectives for the year.”
“Oh really? When?” Enzo asked, feeling stressed.
“She said you can go to see her in ten minutes. I think she wants you to start working as soon as possible.”
“Alright, thanks.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll be waiting at your desk, Mr. Fancelli.” Jeff said, before walking away.
Enzo thought he was a bit rude to Jeff, and felt guilty but he didn’t time to talk much. He called him back.
“Hey Jeff!”
“Yes?”
“Okay, here’s the secret for you to be more successful with women… Just remember that; you will lose money chasing women but you will never lose women chasing money… Trust me, as soon as you hit it big financially, your pussy rate will significantly increase. I really have to go now… and stop calling me Mr. Fancelli, it makes me feel old!”
“Wow thanks, Mr. Fan… Enzo!”
Enzo left and finally entered the restrooms. He made sure he was alone. Lucky for him, everybody was busy trading at that time and he locked himself inside.
He quickly dialed Danny’s number and his deep voice answered. “Enzo? Where are you? We need to talk.”
“Where the hell do you think I am? I’m at work Danny, you know it! Is it you downstairs with your thugs?”
Danny ignored the question. “We need to talk, Enzo. Come here, now!”
Enzo became red.
He hated to receive orders, especially from someone working for his dad.
“Danny, this is my first day here. I can’t leave just like that. What the hell do you want? If you need to talk, just talk now!”
“Enzo, stop being childish. I told you we need to talk, face to face! This is important.” Danny insisted.
“We can’t be seen together! You can’t show up like that in my building, I have a career and a reputation, for Christ’s sake! What do you have to tell me, we don’t do business toge…”
“ENZO, LISTEN TO ME!” Danny yelled at him.
For a few seconds, Enzo could hear his own heartbeat and Danny breathing heavily on the phone. He was furious to be yelled at but wasn’t willing to argue with him.
He calmed down and took his time to reply.
“You better have a fucking good reason to talk to me like that, Danny… I might not kick your ass myself but I’ll make sure my dad is…”
Danny interrupted him right away.
“Your father’s dead, Enzo…”
Chapter 8
When Enzo arrived at the reception, Danny and his men were gone. He calmly approached the receptionist.
“Hi, I’m Enzo Fancelli. You said there was a group of men who wanted to see me?”
The woman seemed confused. “Hello, sir. I don’t know what happened. They were fighting with the security and they suddenly stopped. They left the building maybe two minutes ago.”
Enzo pretended to be surprised and tried to act cool. “Oh really? Well, I guess I’m lucky then…”
“Are you in danger, sir? Do you need us to call the police?” She was obviously in shock and seemed genuinely worried.
Enzo reassured her. “I don’t think it’s going to be necessary, but thank you for your concern. It was probably a mistake. My name is pretty common in our community and I’m sure these men have nothing to do with me. By the way, I’m going out to grab some coffee. Do you want anything?”
Putting on a show and being friendly at that moment was one the most difficult thing Enzo had ever done in his life. He wanted to scream and to run. He wanted to get in his car and race in the streets, while listening to loud music. He wanted to get drunk and hopefully wake up the next morning and realize this was only a bad dream.
But it wasn’t - it was the ugly reality.
He had to look as relaxed and confident as possible, to avoid drawing too much attention on him. He wasn’t sure that lady would buy into it but he had to try anyway.
And it worked.
Enzo and Danny had agreed to meet outside of the building. There was no way Enzo could be seen with him anywhere near the office, but due to the urgency of the situation, there was no other choice.
Danny was waiting near a pickup truck, surrounded by a dozen of men when Enzo arrived. The scene looked unreal – there he was, impeccably dressed in his expensive navy blue suit, meeting with a group of gangsters in a dark and almost empty parking.
When he saw him, Danny opened his arms to hug him. Enzo wasn’t a big fan of hugging other men but that was a tradition in his Italian family and he reluctantly welcomed Danny in his arms.
Enzo kept silent. His gaze was empty, hands in his pockets. He couldn’t believe it was actually happening. He used to complain and criticize his father, but now that the old man was gone, it was a completely different story.
Everything that frustrated him about his dad and all the mistakes he’d made seemed irrelevant to Enzo. All he wanted was to have a second chance to talk with his father again. Life was so fragile… even for the Don of the Famiglia!
Enzo didn’t know what to say or what to do. He was completely lost. It didn’t make sense, but he wished his dad was back in his life to tell him what to do next.
“What happened?” He finally managed to say.
“Giovani was murdered last night… We found his dead body in a dumpster this morning.” Danny replied.
“What about the bodyguards? I know we spend a fortune on security, what is it for?” Enzo was outraged.
“They are missing. We don’t know where they are, or even if they’re still alive.”
“Fuck man! You guys really suck! What about you, Danny? What were you doing? How come you weren’t there protecting my father?”
“I’m not your father’s bodyguard, Enzo. I’m the Consigliere.” Danny seemed calm but Enzo felt that he’d slightly hurt his ego. Danny was the second most important man in the Famiglia after Giovani, and Enzo wasn’t supposed to compare him with a mere security man.
“Whatever, Danny. How did you let that happen?”
“Don’t start blaming me, kid. Nobody’s happy about that situation! Do you really want to be a pain in the ass? You think it’s the right time to do that?” This time, Danny had raised his voice and Enzo could feel the tension building up.
However, Danny was right - there was no point in fighting and looking for someone to blame. At least, not for now. Enzo knew that Danny was a wise man, and he calmed down.
“Okay, so what do you have? Any lead or anything to start investigating?” Enzo asked.
Danny shook his head and sighed. “Nothing for now. We’ve deployed 50% of our men in the streets to look for information. 25% are dealing drugs as usual to ensure we don’t lose money and 25% are at home protecting your mama. We don’t know what we’re dealing with, we never know…”
Enzo nodded. He was completely lost. He was trying to look calm and tough, but deep inside he was struggling between sadness, anger and fear. The last thing he wanted to do was to get involved in a war with other families.
“What about the police? Should we call the police?” He asked without thinking.
Danny raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Are you friggin’ kidding me? Cops are the last people on earth you want to call in this kind of situation. Your father was a wanted man. We can’t ask for help outside, we need to find a solution by ourselves.”
Fuck, that’s right. Damn, this is so fucked up!
Enzo realized he had no idea what he was saying. He’d just made a mistake by speaking his mind without being careful. He tried one more time.
“Okay, then offer money. Offer something like a reward. People will talk! Promise them money in exchange for information!”
Danny shook his head. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, son. It won’t work. You can’t buy everything, okay? Maybe that’s how it works in Wall Street but in Real Streets people actually care about their lives. Omerta, you remember? I know you like to pay to get what you want, but it doesn’t work like that in OUR world. No amount of money can make them talk if they know they’re not supposed to talk. Get it? So now, stop trying to come up with a solution.”
Enzo couldn’t believe his ears. “What? Wait a minute. I’m trying to help, okay? You called me for help and now, you’re telling me to stop trying to find a solution?”
Danny wasn’t intimidated. “I never said I needed your help.”
Enzo threw his hands in the air. “What the fuck? Are you serious? What do you want then, smart ass?”
Danny remained perfectly calm. “I told you we need to talk. That’s it.”
Enzo looked at him, his hands on his hips. “Okay. Okay, go ahead then, talk! Let’s talk if that’s what you want to do. My dad was murdered, and you just want to talk! I think you should get your ass out there and get busy looking for what happened instead of wasting my time!”
Danny suddenly grabbed him by the shirt and brought him close to him. Enzo felt his blood boiling in his veins and he immediately tightened his body.
Danny was a tall and strong man, also called “The Trouble.” Typically, he was the kind of man nobody wanted to meet in a dark alley at night.
He was known to knock out his opponents within seconds in street fights and Enzo’s mind started to race in many directions – was he going to flatten his nose with a head-butt? Or break his jaw with a hook? Or kick him in the groin? That man was extremely vicious and effective in the s
treets.
Enzo knew how to fight, but there was no doubts in his mind that Danny would break his neck without even trying. No matter how big his ego was, Enzo had to shut up if he wanted to avoid ending up in a hospital bed.
Danny was losing patience. “Listen. I’m here to help you. I’ve known and worked for your father for 30 years and I’m determined to find out the asshole who killed him. But first, you need to stop with the attitude and get your shit together!”