"The point is, Tommy, that we're all going to get through this shit and I don't want to hear any talk about 'TOGETHER'!" Sal had reached his reason for the 'invitation' and it went against everything Blue was working to acheive. "I want you and Victor to keep the war alive. Nothing is better for business than competition, and right now, you two are the heavyweight champ, and the top contender for the title."
"Which one am I Sal?" Tommy asked as if it actually meant something to him.
"To me, Tommy, you're the Champ and always have been, to the rest of Rat Town, however, you are the top contender. The way they see it, Victor's my boy, you know that. He's been with Maxie long enough, the two of them shoulda been pumpin' out some babies by now. Guy's probably got somethin' wrong with his prick. Anyways, it's not like I give a rat's ass about grandkids. Family ties are the whole reason we can't let the truth out. you've been doing a real nice job of drivin' the numbers, Victor keeps thinking that he's callin' the shots but you and I both know, there hasn't been a single change in the price of Juice that we didn't personally instigate. Now that why I've called you here, Tommy. Change is good and I want to be good, right now, in a big way. I'm after another ten an ounce, so you know what to do." Tommy nods even though Blue hasn't got a clue."Good, after you drop your prices by five an ounce, Victor's going to have to follow. Make sure you cap it at fifty barrels, including exports, then cry dry. Victor's going to mirror that shit but before he does, he's gonna want to squeeze for everything he can get and that's when he'll inflate the price, and he'll get it too. Then I'll tell him to dry up, if he doesn't do it on his own. the small timers are going to start selling their juice like crazy, probably in the neighborhood of twenty more per ounce. by then, we'll have our shipments back, we'll hit the streets at ten an ounce higher than we're getting now and it will be a bargain. We should be able to ride that wave for a few months with sales peaking just in time for Farb Fest." Sal laughed with self-satisfaction. Tommy joined in. Blue didn't know the particulars of the JumpJuice business but the supply and demand model Sal was just spinning seemed to make sense. More importantly, he discovered that Sal was actually an ally, which meant that Tommy had nothing to fear from Sal or Victor which was good news, even if he did have to keep it to himself.
That's exactly what Blue was thinking when he decided to take a chance,"So Sal," he started off matter-of-factly,"where are the shipments? I realize that the one you're looking for now may actually be lost, missing or just out of your reach at the moment, but Sal, I can't believe that YOU don't know the whereabouts of missing shipment number one," he closed with a shower of praise,"it's simply incomprehensible that someone got the better of Sal Lorenzo, so where is it?"
Blue's training was paying off, he was reading people well, judging situations well and saying only what needed to be said but this time he really nailed it, sal was really dying to brag about how smart he was and the only person he could have done that with, who really knew just how devious he had been, he had to dump dead on a doorstep. "With great power comes great responsibility," Sal said as he confessed his longing to share in the news of his triumph. Tommy hadn't been privy to any aspects of the Bobby story until this moment so the whole thing was really quite enthralling but what captivated him most was the pure selfishness and greed which fueled every iota of Sal's being. The man lived for nothing but the acquisition of wealth. blue thought about how easily Sal could have blended in on Wall Street if only Earth was his home world, but Sal had Rat Town and Cleveland and several other major cities across the land, what he didn't have was compassion or scruples of any sort. "I would have liked to share my victory with Bobby, sort of, for an hour, maybe. Well, anyways, I do know where the shipment is and YOU are going to find it. I will tell you just where and when to find it when the time comes. For now, I just have to tell you my favorite part of the story. Victor's team is really far too good to pull one over on, so I had to split them up. Only a few of his regular guys were on this shipment and they kinda hated him so it was easy to get them to go along with the plan, plus, they were weak-minded and horribly insecure, my favorite thing about having a staff psychologist, profiling! Naturally, they jumped at the chance for more money and more power!
No comments:
Post a Comment