Pullo grinned. “You’ll be given the title, A Man of Respect. In a way, you’ll be an honorary goombah.”
“And what do I have to do for this honor?”
“You have to promise you won’t kill your fellow goombahs.”
“Moss Murphy came after me; it wasn’t the other way around.”
“I know, but this allows the commission to save face. They can’t just admit that a war with you might be too costly.”
“And you say Jake Caliber was given the same title?”
“Before we were born, Caliber tore holy hell out of the mob back then. If he hadn’t killed so many, Sam Giacconi might have never had his own family. There was a lot less competition around once Caliber was done.”
“Why was he at war with the mob in the first place?”
“We tried to kill him, more than once, and even used a car bomb. Sam always said that Jake Caliber was the toughest man he ever knew.”
“I’ve never met him, but I know his grandson. You’d have trouble with him too.”
“So, I tell Jerry Mags you agree to meet?”
“Yeah, I’ll go. I’ve a few precautions to take first, in case Silva is up to something.”
“Take precautions, but I think it’s all just like Jerry Mags said it will be, a simple ceremony and a declaration of peace. If I thought it was a trap, I’d warn you.”
“I know you would, and I’m glad you’ll be there to see me get my honor.”
“I can tell you think it’s funny, Tanner, but this is a big deal. It’s like they’re admitting they’re scared of you.”
Tanner recited the location of a residence in Hyde Park, Chicago.
“What’s that, an address?”
“That’s where Jerry Magdalena lives. I also know the addresses of the other commission members. If we had gone to war, they would have been the first to die.”
“Hmm, I’m glad I’m on your good side.”
After talking to Pullo, Tanner picked up Sara outside the penthouse and they traveled to see Duke.
Duke was a man who could get you practically anything if you could afford it. He met with clients in the back room of a coffee shop he owned. Duke had a beefy build, salt & pepper hair cropped short, and a nose made crooked by virtue of having been broken many times.
Sara hissed in sympathy as she took in Duke’s black eye.
“What happened to you? Did someone hit you?”
Duke nodded. “I’ve had a little trouble lately with a competitor.”
“I didn’t know you had competition, Duke,” Tanner said.
“I didn’t either until this guy showed up. He sent a man around to tell me I had better retire, or else.”
“When was this?” Sara asked.
“Yesterday, he caught me as I was carrying groceries into my apartment.”
“What’s the name of this competitor?” Tanner asked.
Duke shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I’ve been asking around to the gun dealers I use to fulfill orders. A few of them say that a guy calling himself Harkness has been making deals with them lately. This Harkness must be trying to muscle in on my turf.”
“You watch your back, Duke,” Sara said.
“I will, now enough about my trouble, how can I help you?”
“That depends,” Tanner said. “Do you have contacts in Chicago?”
Duke smiled. “I’ve got contacts all over the country. Tell me what you need and when you need it.”
Tanner explained what he had in mind as Duke listened attentively. When they were done, Duke made an observation.
“It sounds like you’re planning for war.”
“I’m preparing for one, which I hope never comes.”
Duke wrote on a sheet of paper as he spoke. “I’ll need time to come up with all this.”
“Days or weeks?”
“Most of it I can have in a day or two. That special item is another story. That might take a week or more.”
“That’s not a problem,” Tanner said. “I’m surprised you can get it at all.”
“With enough money, I could get you a nuke.”
“Don’t give him any ideas, Duke,” Sara said.
When all the details were handled, Duke said he had something he wanted to show Tanner. He asked that Sara help him set up the display.
“What is it?” Tanner said.
“You’ll get the full effect if I show you instead of tell you, but I’ll need Sara’s help.”
“You’ve got me curious too, Duke,” Sara said. “Tanner, go have a cup of coffee while Duke sets things up.”
“All right, but it better be good after all this hype.”
Tanner left the back room and ordered a coffee, as Sara suggested. He sipped on the brew while watching the street outside the café. The weather had grown warm finally and the young women of New York were enjoying it by wearing short skirts. Tanner approved of their fashion choices.
He was eyeing the pastry in the coffee shop’s display case when Duke peeked out of the back room to say they were ready.
Duke smiled at him as he stepped inside the room. There was a blonde woman with glasses checking out a selection of knives, and Tanner wondered where she had come from. There was also no sign of Sara.
“What’s going on, Duke, where’s Sara?”
“I’m right here,” Sara said.
Tanner stared at the blonde, then realized she was dressed as Sara had been, in a white blouse, dark slacks.
“It’s a mask,” Sara said. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Moving closer, Tanner was shocked to realize he couldn’t tell Sara was wearing a mask. It wasn’t until he touched her on the cheek that he could discern any difference between the mask and real skin. As he did so, a flash of inspiration flooded his mind.
“What is this, Duke?”
“It’s a silicone mask. I know the woman that creates them. She’s a hell of an artist.”
“I’ve seen silicone masks before but never anything quite this detailed and lifelike. It’s also ultra-thin and lightweight. Can the woman make a mask that looks like anyone?”
“That’s what she says, and she can work from a good photo, or a detailed sketch.”
“Take it off, Sara. I want to look at it.”
Sara peeled off the mask with assistance from Duke. As Tanner held it, a grin spread across his face.
“What is it?” Sara asked.
“These masks, they’re the ticket to everything I’ve been planning to do.”
“You’re talking about the ranch?” Sara said, while actually referencing Tanner’s true identity as Cody Parker.
“The ranch… and so much more. Duke, I’m going to need as many as six of these. Is that possible?”
Duke smiled. “Doable, but expensive.”
“I’ll gladly pay, and I’ll need them as soon as possible.”
Tanner and Sara told Duke goodbye a short time later. As he was about to leave, Tanner turned back and spoke to Duke.
“This competitor of yours, if he becomes a threat, let me know.”
Duke raised an eyebrow. “Are you serious?”
“I am.”
“Thanks, Tanner, but I hope it won’t come to that. In a city like New York, there’s enough business for both of us.”
“Like Sara said, watch your back.”
Duke laughed. “Look who’s talking. Someone’s always out to get you.”
“I’m hoping to put an end to that soon,” Tanner said, and thanks to the plan he had involving the masks, his scheme should succeed.
7
Making Waves
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, THREE DAYS LATER
One of the conditions Tanner had for the meeting with the mob’s commission was that Pullo would act as an intermediary between them. In that role, Pullo boarded the 100-foot luxury yacht first to check for signs of a trap. He’d found none.
The five commission members were present with two bodyguards and the yacht’s staff. The commission
was seated at a round table down in the salon, where they sipped on drinks and ate hors d’oeuvres. Pullo leaned against a bulkhead while sipping on a beer. There was no one armed with a sniper rifle and no hidden army of killers waiting to pounce.
“Satisfied, Pullo?” Shane Silva asked. “Now call Tanner and tell him to get his ass on board so we can get this bullshit over with.”
“I don’t have to call him.”
“Why not?”
“He’s standing right behind you.”
Silva looked up from his phone long enough to swivel his head around. He saw Tanner standing along the corridor that led to the master stateroom. Tanner was wearing a black suit along with a tan dress shirt and no tie. The two bodyguards, taken by surprise, stiffened with anxiety, but they didn’t reach for their weapons, as Tanner’s hands were empty.
“Where the hell did you come from, Tanner?” Silva asked.
“I spent the night on board the yacht. I didn’t want to be late for the meeting.”
“Shit, he could have killed us when we came on board,” Silva said, he scowled at the bodyguards. “Didn’t you search the yacht?”
“We did,” said one of the men, a burly giant. “He must have been hiding somewhere.”
“Duh, you think, genius?” Silva said.
Magdalena took out a phone and told the captain to get the vessel underway. He then extended a hand toward Tanner.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Tanner; I’m Jerry Magdalena.”
Tanner shook the offered hand, then took a seat that enabled him to keep everyone in view. Pullo joined the group by sliding in beside Silva. If a sniper appeared at one of the nineteen ideal shooting posts Tanner had identified in the area around the marina, Tanner would be warned by the activation of hidden motion sensors. Tanner had been in Chicago for a full day as he prepared for the meeting.
While it seemed as if the mob was legitimate in its desire to avoid war, verifying that was essential before any meeting could take place.
As a younger man, Tanner learned the hard way to perform due diligence whenever he was going into an encounter. It was one of the reasons he was still alive.
“I understand that Joe explained to you why I killed Moss Murphy.”
“Murphy should have been handled by us, Tanner, not you,” Silva said.
“If anyone tries to harm me, I kill them, and I don’t give a damn what club, organization, or mob they’re a part of. I thought you all understood that. It’s why we’re meeting, isn’t it?”
Magdalena held up a hand. “Moss Murphy is in the past. We’re here today to make sure we have no trouble now or in the future.”
“I hope that doesn’t include Liam Murphy, because if he sticks his head up, I’ll place a bullet in it.”
“Joe explained that. Liam made his bed and now he has to lie in it. Any action against him is sanctioned.”
“That’s something else I didn’t agree with,” Silva said. “Liam should have a chance to tell his side of the story.”
“His story ends the moment I lay eyes on him,” Tanner said. “Liam is out of chances. That goes for you too, Silva. Send any more men after me and you’ll be buried with them.”
Silva reddened with anger but kept his mouth shut. Magdalena continued.
“Liam aside, we don’t want a repeat of your war against the Conglomerate. Good God, Tanner, do you know how many of our people you killed back then?”
“I didn’t keep count, so no.”
Magdalena’s face became grim. “It was an impressive number, including Frank Richards, who was attempting to gain control of everything. In that instance, you did us a favor.”
The yacht picked up speed as it moved across the waters of Lake Michigan. When they were far out from shore with no other vessels nearby, the ship dropped anchor. After drinks were refreshed and more food was served, Magdalena explained to Tanner what the A Man of Respect title meant.
“Essentially, we’re stating that you are not to be touched by any of our people. Likewise, you’ll refrain from initiating conflict with us.”
“I never instigated anything with Richards. He asked me to kill Al Rossetti, then changed his mind. I don’t have an off switch. Once I take a contract on someone that person is dead. Richards refused to accept that and tried to have me killed after I hit Al Rossetti. Things escalated from there.”
“I understand.”
As they were talking, Shane Silva laid a phone on the table. After rising from his seat, he announced that he was headed to the bathroom.
“I’ll be in the can. I’ve got to take a leak.”
Pullo slid out of the booth for a moment so that Silva could get past him. After leaving the table, Silva stopped to speak to the attractive female steward that was supplying the table with drinks and food. The woman was polite but seemed unimpressed with the young mobster. When he left the steward, Silva headed upstairs and toward the stern of the vessel, instead of going to where the nearest head was located.
Tanner noticed this, as Jerry Magdalena commented on the fact that Silva left his phone behind on the table.
“The kid usually has the damn thing on him all the time. I bet he screws with it in his hand,” Magdalena said.
“That’s not his phone,” Tanner said.
Magdalena squinted at the device. “It looks like Shane’s phone.”
“That was the whole idea,” Tanner said, earning a puzzled look from Magdalena.
“I hear something approaching fast,” Pullo said, as he stood to head up on deck.
“It’s a speedboat,” Tanner said. “Shane Silva plans to make a fast getaway.” As he was speaking, Tanner removed a hand-held explosives detector from beneath his suit jacket. One of the bodyguards jerked his hand toward his weapon until he realized Tanner wasn’t holding a gun.
“What is that thing?” the man asked.
“It detects explosives,” Tanner said. “Silva had a duplicate of his phone made with a powerful plastic explosive added to it.”
One of the mob commission members, a fat man in a good suit, pointed at the phone. “Are you saying that’s a bomb?”
“We’ll know in a few seconds,” Tanner said. He had removed a small slip of paper from a pocket, then rubbed it over the casing of Silva’s phone. Afterward, he fed the sampling paper into a slot on the front of the explosives detector. Ten seconds later, the machine gave the result that everything was okay. The phone on the table held no trace of an explosive.
“We’re safe,” Tanner assured everyone. “It’s just a phone. Silva has the rigged one, but I had to make certain that he didn’t leave the wrong device behind, which from his point of view would have been the right one.”
“You’re saying you knew he had a bomb on him?” Magdalena asked.
“I was tipped off, then I arranged to have the phones switched and his SIM card cloned. Only the rigged phone could send and receive calls and texts, so Silva has been using it since the switch. Shane thinks he left behind a bomb. Instead, he’s carrying it.”
Outside, the speedboat pulled up alongside the yacht, at the stern. Pullo was up on deck when Tanner and the commission members joined him. The speedboat was taking off with a passenger on board. It was Shane Silva.
“He planned to kill us all?” Magdalena asked.
Tanner pointed at the departing boat. “Your boy Silva there hired Ordnance Inc. the same way Moss Murphy had. Instead of employing mercenaries, he asked them to build a bomb for him with a powerful explosive. I found out about it and made a slight change to the plan.”
“What change?” Magdalena asked.
“As I said before, I had the explosives planted in Silva’s real phone. If he activates the bomb, he’ll be blowing himself up. I had my source use less plastic explosive than Silva asked for. The device he wanted would have sunk this yacht while killing everyone on it.”
The words had scarcely left Tanner’s mouth when the explosion occurred. Shane Silva was far from the yacht and no more than
an indistinct figure. That figure grew less distinct still as the bomb inside his phone went off. Silva’s phone had been in his hand. The blast blew him literally to pieces, while severing his head, legs, and arms.
The speedboat driver, who was Silva’s friend and accomplice, was struck by body parts, this included a section of Shane Silva’s lower jaw, which embedded itself in the rear of his friend’s skull. The speedboat slowed, then drifted and began to sink, as both men on board were dead.
Pullo turned to look at Magdalena. “Silva was trying to kill you and the rest of the commission, and not just Tanner.”
“Of course, and you too.”
“I would have been collateral damage. Silva wanted Chicago and the commission for himself. Once you were dead, he would have made a move to take over your territories while placing his friends on the commission. It would have been a massive bid for power, and likely caused a war between the various Families.”
Magdalena shook his head as his hands curled into fists. “That arrogant son of a bitch.”
“I normally charge for work like that,” Tanner said, “but we’ll just call it a free sample… now that we’re friends.”
Magdalena stared at Tanner, then broke out in laughter.
“We definitely want you as a friend and not a foe.” Magdalena gestured at Tanner with a sweep of his arm. “Gentleman, as of right now, Tanner is to be thought of as A Man of Respect. He’s untouchable and will be considered one of us.”
Those gathered bowed toward Tanner, except for Pullo, who wore a wide grin.
“How’s it feel to be a goombah?”
“I have a sudden craving for calamari,” Tanner said. He also had a need to speak with Billy Price, his contact within Ordnance Inc.
If Trevor Healy knew about Shane Silva’s intention to kill him, and helped him to do it, it meant that war with Ordnance Inc. was imminent.
8
Just A Matter Of Time
Chicago was home to more than one criminal organization. It was also where Ordnance Inc. had its headquarters.
A Man Of Respect Page 4