20 October 2077
Seattle, Washington
Morning
Primo opened his eyes ever so slowly as he rolled onto his back and let out a loud and somewhat dramatic yawn. The sun was coming up and it was time to start yet another unusually stressful day. Unfortunately lately the unusual was becoming increasing usually, much to Primo's displeasure. To all of his two dozen soldier's as well he imagined. They had grown accustomed to this job being relatively easy, most likely due to routine. The life had been peaceful for the last couple of years. There hadn't been any family wars and not even that many murders when he thought on it. Recent times were changing that though. People had started calling the shit that was going on an occupation. If things carried on the way they were already going pretty soon people would stop saying occupation and start saying war zone and when people start bringing the word war into the mix pretty soon you'd have scores of people acting like warriors. The business opportunity's these happenings had opened up certainly had their bad sides.
Grudgingly Primo climbed out of his exquisitely comfortable bed and put on his black silk robe. It was time to get ready for the day.
Half an hour later Primo was bathed, dressed and looking his usual immaculate self. Due to the strife in the streets he couldn't just leave in a nice suit however, he would have to go out heavy today. In normal circumstances he wouldn't, he had a very skilled bodyguard but at the moment things were just too dangerous. Anybody could take advantage of the chaos to see him off out of their lives. Everybody's lives actually... It was a risk that warranted the precaution. He wouldn't need something for heavy fighting, just something for emergency protection. He quickly went into his gun cabinet and grabbed his .357 Taurus Revolver. With that done he rushed outside where his bodyguard Ray was waiting for him, standing next to a Highwaymen car. It was a nice, practical and very common vehicle. He liked to think it helped them blend in a little. Ray was a good man. He wasn't Italian but he was smart, honest and very skilled.
“Ray.” Primo smiled, nodding a greeting. “Sorry about the time, I woke up a little late.”
“That's not like you.”
“Tell me about it, but what is like it is right now, huh?”
“Yeah, you got that right. Some of the shit I've been hearing... I hope half of it is bullshit.”
“Forget about it. Let's go see if we can capitalize on some of this shit.” Primo smiled, patting his friend on the shoulder and getting into the passenger side of the car. Ray went around and climbed into the drivers seat. Primo instinctively knew there was bad news when Ray didn't start the car up and get to driving straight away.
“About capitalizing... I don't think it's such a good idea. Some of the soldiers have been talking... Right now we're having trouble even maintaining. Everyone from the city gangs to the fucking store clerks have been giving us trouble when it comes to coughing up the vig. Maybe we should focus on locking things down for a day or two and then move on to the idea of expanding... Just a thought.”
Primo looked into the man's eyes as he spoke. These were strange circumstances. It was rare for anyone to ever even suggest something to Primo. The think worked on a very strict chain of command. No one below the captain influenced the captain and the captain influenced everyone. It kept things simple and strong, but sometimes, just sometimes it could be a weakness. Finally a smile crossed Primo's face.
“Thanks for being straight with me Ray... I guess we're going to need to send a few messages. One for the gangs and who knows how many for the fucking clock punchers... I've got an idea that might deal with both though. What's the most respected gang who refused to pay up this week?”
“That'd be the Face Family. Word is they've even been doing our thing. They were getting the less powerful gangs to pay them not to wipe their weak small time asses out. I guess now they figure they're on our level and think they can skip a few payments.”
“Huh... Tell Vito to get in touch with whoever their leader is. Tell him to tell that fuck that we're moving out of the gang protection business but we're looking for someone to keep them all in line so they don't start stepping on our other businesses toes when we back off. Tell him we think the Face Family is a good candidate to do that. That we have a certain... Respect for the way they've been doing things. Tell him to have his gangsters trash every fucking business that didn't give up the vig this week... Rob them, even give a beating or two. If he has his boy soldiers do that, tell him we're willing to have a sit down and discuss handing the gangster side of the extortion business over to them... Then, when the sit down comes, fucking kill them all. Make it as loud and as public as possible. Use a couple of the Hitler's Buzz-saws we've got at the warehouse if you have to. Just make sure to send a blood soaked message to the gangs that we wont tolerate lack of payment and an equally powerful one to the business owners that their lives wont run any where near as smoothly without us in them. You got all that?”
“Damn... Yeah, I got it, I'll fill him in when we meet a little later, we'll split and gather the rest of the soldiers for the sit down after.”
“Good. Now drive Raymond-O, I'm starting to get sick of my own damn neighbourhood.”