Assault on Soho

moment later the sedan door across from Giliamo opened and Nick Trigger slid in, hastily closing the door to deactivate the domelight mechanism.

By way of greeting, Giliamo emitted a bored sigh and said, 'I guess you was right, Nick. He ain't showed up here. Nothing on your end either, huh?'

'Nothing, hell,' Trigger replied quietly. 'We had plenty on my end. But you were right about that lucky bastard, he's as slippery as melted jello.'

'You mean he got away again?' Giliamo replied in a dulled voice.

'Yeah, he got away.'

'Well he ain't turned up here.' Giliamo nervously tamped a cigarette against his fist then shoved it between his lips and lit it, his eyes weary and disturbed in the glow of the lighter. 'So what happened?' he asked.

Trigger sniffed and settled deeper into the seat. 'We had him bottled in a rock joint over by Soho Square.' The massive shoulders raised and settled again in a tired shrug. 'He busted out, that's all, got away clean.

And cops all over the God damned place, I mean crawling out of every hole.'

Giliamo took a nervous pull at the cigarette and asked, 'Okay, so what happened to my boys?'

'Six of your freelancers are dead,' Trigger reported with a sigh. 'Also Looney and Rocky got arrested. Don't worry, I'll have 'em sprung first thing in the morning.'

Giliamo mouthed a string of half-audible obscenities, then said, 'You see what I been up against, Nick?'

'Yeah.' The London enforcer punched his elbows into the backrest with a loud sigh. 'I don't see any sense in hanging around this neighborhood, Danno. Leave a couple of boys to keep an eye out, just to make sure, but I guess we might as well tuck it in for the night. Bolan isn't going to run from one setup right to another. Arnie Farmer and his army is due in first thing in the morning. We'll huddle with them and see what we can come up with.'

'I was hoping to get it all over with before they showed up,' Giliamo muttered. 'Do you know this Arnie Farmer?'

'We met a couple of times,' Nick Trigger replied heavily. 'Do I get it right that you feel about this Capothe way I feel about him?'

'If you mean is he an uncomfortable so and so to be around, then we feel the same way, Nick, yeah you got it right.'

'Then you might as well come out and say it. Arnie Farmer is a bastard, and I don't like him coming over here. I wish he'd stayed home.'

'That's exactly right,' the Jerseyite muttered. 'And I wish to God we could've got Bolan before the other bastard showed up.' His eyes flicked to the man in the driver's seat. 'Nobody better not go repeating that, though. Right, Gio?'

Gio Scaldicci, the wheelman, swivelled about with a grin. 'Right, Mr. Giliamo. I got ears that don't hear nothin' that's not spoken to 'em.'

The two men in back settled into an uncomfortable silence, then Nick Trigger said, 'Well, I'll ride back with you, Danno. Let's get out of here.'

'We gotta wait, I got Sal out on the street makin' his rounds. Hell be back in a minute.'

The three Mafiosisat through a protracted silence, then a front door opened and a fourth man hastily entered the car. This was Sal Masseri, one of Danno's crew leaders. In a choked voice, he announced, 'We got three dead soldiers out there, Danno.'

'What do you mean?' the New Jersey caporegimegrowled.

'I mean Willie Ears and Jack the Builder and Big Angelo are dead as hell, that's what I mean. No blood or nothing, they're just laying there dead. I think their necks are broke or something.'

Giliamo was speechless. He gaped at his companion in the rear, then made a lunge for the door. Nick Trigger quietly restrained him and asked Masseri, 'How long have those boys been dead, Sal?'

'I'd say no more'n ten or fifteen minutes. I went on around and warned the other boys. Nobody's seen nothing, though, Nick, not a damn thing.'

'Ten or fifteen minutes,' Trigger repeated musingly. 'That means he could have hotted it straight over here and…'

Giliamo slid forward to the edge of the seat and craned his head for a tense inspection of the hulking outline of the museum, just around the square from their position. In an angered tone, he declared, 'That cuts it! That bastard has found some way to get in and out of there without being seen. I'll bet he's in there right now.' He tapped his driver on the shoulder and commanded, 'Pull around there slow and quiet, Gio. Park in front of that bus stop.'

The car moved quietly around the corner and eased to the designated spot, directly across the street from the museum.

'Are we going back in there?' Massed asked nervously.

'Bet your ass we are,' Giliamo barked. 'You get out there and pass the word along.'

Before Massed could react, two men ran quietly up to the vehicle. Giliamo lowered his window and thrust his head outside. One of the new arrivals breathlessly reported, 'We just wanted to tell Sal that we found something. Over there.' He pointed to the opposite side of the square. 'A book store. The back door has been jimmied open. It could mean something.'

'Awright, take some boys and check it out,' Giliamo commanded.

The men jogged away. Masseri said, 'Maybe I oughta go see what they got, Danno.'

Nick Trigger chuckled coldly. 'I think Sal is awful anxious to stay out of my little playhouse,' he observed.

'As a matter of fact he is,' Giliamo answered for his man. 'And that goes for me double, but that don't cut any ice. You stick right here, Sal. We'll give Stevie a chance to check out that store, and then we're gonna be moving.'

'Well, I don't like it either,' Trigger growled, 'but I guess not for the same reasons. There'll be too many people in there now. That means too many witnesses.

Besides that, we're messing up the sweetest little operation I ever walked into.'

Gio Scaldicci turned toward the rear seat and asked, 'How'd you ever get onto a creepy joint like that, Mr. Trigger?'

The London enforcer shrugged his shoulders. 'You learn to use what's available, kid, and don't forget that. Don't ever forget that. That creepy joint as you call it has given our thing a clean sweep in this part of the world. I just hate to see it getting messed up, that's all. Especially over a crumb like this Bolan.'

The four men sat in a strained silence for another long moment, all eyes glued to the building across the street. Presently a man approached from the other side on a dead run. He pulled up panting beside the vehicle and reported, 'Stevie's found a tunnel! He wants to know should he go on through!'

'O' course he should go on through!' Giliamo snarled. 'Tell 'im to goddammit be careful and remember who he's going against!'

The messenger sped back into the night.

Giliamo said, 'Well, well.'

Nick Trigger produced a revolver and swung out the cylinder to check the load. He sighed and clicked it into place and said, 'I guess we better go in just the same, Danno.'

Sal Masseri swung outside with a Thompson sub under one arm, then leaned back in for a word to his boss. 'I'll bring the other boys over, Danno,' he said tightly.

'Do that.'

'Uh, listen Danno. Big Angelo was a good boy. Anybody can have any part of Bolan they want, but when we get 'im, I get the target practice on his nuts.'

'Sure Sal, I know how you feel,' Giliamo told him.

Massed walked off into the darkness, the Thompson cradled casually in his arms.

Nick Trigger opened his door and slid his feet to the ground, remaining seated in the open doorway, no longer concerned about the dome light. He said, 'I've got a feeling.'

'Me too,' Giliamo replied. He opened his door and stepped onto the street, then paused to glare across the roof of the car toward the museum. 'He's in there, I know it.'