Seven Demons Aidan Truhen (reading an ebook TXT) 📖

Reinhard shakes Lucille’s hand solid but absolutely median like he can smell the razorsuit under Lucille’s overcoat and maybe he can because he has these really long nostrils.

I do not stare at my lawyer’s nostrils that is not professional.

Reinhard does pleasant for a bit longer and then says that we should go.

Our meeting is about to start. Mr. Calvanese is—let us not say he is waiting he does not do that. Let us say that he is presently in the agreed location presiding over other business.

Ottavio Leopold Calvanese is a big old wheel of cheese in a thing called the ’Ndrangheta. This is a sort of a version of the Mafia that they do not make movies about because you do not fuck around with the ’Ndrangheta. The ’Ndrangheta did not get the memo about cooling it off and going corporate they are still very traditional men and they do a whole lot of shit that is on the hot side of criminal. They are quite comfortable duking it out in the street with your Albanians your Ukrainians your Taiwan mob your Irish Republicans your Basque your Islamic Jihad your just about any sombitch got ideas of his own regarding the disposition of nonlegal cash flow in a given region. And yet at the same time in a peculiar sidebar or parallel upper echelon these are the folks who do organized crime over the border here in Switzerland and in that connection they are organized to the max and very dressy. Ottavio Leopold was a knife man in his younger days but now he is fat and velveteen and powdered or manicured and he is quite the best-presented former street thug you will ever know. Fucker has a waxed mustache I shit you not.

We do bullshit:

“Good day Mr. Price I am Ottavio Leopold Calvanese.”

“I’m Jack Price hi it is nice to meet you.”

“Mr. Price you are welcome in Bern.”

“It is great to be in this lovely city.”

Ottavio Leopold Calvanese points one finger points at the ceiling like: (wait I was not finished). “Providing always that you are not here to make a fuss.”

I guess the bullshit portion is over.

“That is music to my ears Mr. Calvanese because although I was constrained into some fairly extreme negotiating tactics recently I personally have no truck with fuss.”

Ottavio Leopold does not know this expression to have no truck but he glances at a flunky and the flunky says something in Italian and Ottavio Leopold smiles.

“That is excellent Mr. Price. I will confess that I had not heard of you until your new appointment and this gave me cause for concern. I do not like to deal with people I do not know.”

“Well I respect and understand that Mr. Calvanese but think of it in this instance as a surety. There I was dealing millions of dollars of cocaine in the gaps for years and you never heard anything about that at all and that was my whole deal. No one who didn’t need to know knew anything at all.”

“Yes quite so. I understand that the Pale Peruvian Stallion was—”

“Do not mention it Mr. Calvanese I beg you I am still mourning its demise.”

“A sweet deal?”

“I loved that cocaine Mr. Calvanese. I loved the operational hygiene of it. I loved its invisibility its distributed order and fulfilment infrastructure its all-but-fucking-legality. It was SO sweet.”

“Perhaps one day you will have the chance to return to that enterprise. Let us say, with a helpful partnership organization?”

“Yes that might well be an investment opportunity for the future.”

Ottavio Leopold laughs because he knows as well as I do that the whole point of the Pale Peruvian Stallion was that I did not have to deal with legacy industry organizations such as his but obviously the fact that I am willing to lie politely is what he wanted to know. Yay I have passed his sophisticated test of character go me.

“Mr. Price forgive me I had to ask. You understand? Here I am embedded deep. In club with ministers I have dinner. With administrators I arrange building permissions for overseas companies there is no bribe no threat just favors one way then the other okay? Maybe someone got a client with bad neighbors in Umbria. They got a daughter in college in Milan her boyfriend is not so nice. You see? But nothing is formal no one has to be concerned. Nobody keep score that is business this—this is just life, like music. I do drawing room. You know this expression?”

“Yes you talk about wine and wear slippers and you talk art maybe.”

“Esatto. I wear slippers. Not working boots. But you understand I still got boots.”

“Of course.”

“This is natural.”

“It is natural Mr. Calvanese. I was raised on a farm sir and I know how it goes with slippers if you don’t also got boots.”

Big laugh like to rattle the Venetian chandelier. Big hand waving. Big big everything and now we are all friends forever.

“Wonderful Mr. Price WONDERFUL so few modern men in our line remember the soil. I am delighted to see the Demons in this city again. And I will be honest Jack I did not find your predecessor convivial. He was—come si dice insipido?”

Flunky steps up and whispers.

“Veramente, is called: bland? It’s the right word? Okay bland Jack he was bland. So tell me what can I do for you?”

“I need a guy. Like a guy with certain capabilities that I do not propose to use.”

“What capabilities?”

“Gunplay and hitting folk.”

“Ay ya ya yai.”

“Yeah I see where that would alarm you maybe a little given our conversation but again I gotta point out the negation is the promise sir we don’t have that person already on the team. That is not our thing right now hence we recruit. The one thing we do not have is a straight-up guy who goes first through the door.”

“I could lend you this.”

“With respect sir—”

“No. I also would not accept. You promise me you are going to be quiet?”

“I want to show a certain mood