Miami Massacre

visitor.

Toro caught Bolan's amazed reaction and quietly extricated him from the welcoming, moving him insistently toward the house. 'Is it so surprising, Senor Bolan,' he said, grinning, 'that courage and daring is admired in this place?'

'I guess not,' Bolan replied. His doubts had left him. El Matador, he was certain, was in the very best of hands.

Chapter Eleven A matter for competition

Ciro Lavangetta had put in a rough day . . . and it was getting rougher by the minute. George the Butcher had been needling him mercilessly, with at least the tacit approval of the eastern bosses — right up to the moment when the electrifying news came in from the Tidewater Plaza. From that point on it had been sheer turmoil, with Ciro on the hotseat, being required to repeat over and over each tiny detail of his entirely second-hand knowledge of Mack the Bastard Bolan.

The Talifero brothers had presented the worst ordeal, with their suavely cold manners and often cooly mocking attitude during the interrogation. At least five times they had insisted that he repeat his complete impressions of the scene at Palm Springs, site of Bolan's latest big operation. They even tried crossing Ciro up, interviewing him one at a time in a closed room and each one asking identical questions — and Ciro never knew which one he was talking to. Stand those two boys side by side and you couldn't tell which was which.

The whole thing was terribly unnerving to Ciro and of course he blamed Mack Bolan for the entire ordeal. What the hell, Ciro had never done anything to Mack Bolan, or to Bolan's old man or old lady or the damn kid sister. Was it Ciro's fault the bastard comes roaring home from the war on a vendetta against the organization? Hell no. Was it Ciro's fault the bastard slams Sergio and Deej and tumbles their whole territories into ruins? Hell no. And now these Talifero brothers acting like Ciro was to blame for it all! Well, screw the Taliferos, this was Ciro's reaction. If they were such goddamn hot stuff, let them find the bastard theirselves and put him through the ordeal — why take it out on Ciro Lavangetta?

The Arizona chieftain's discomfiture was understandable enough. The Talifero brothers were not every day items in the life of a Costa Nostra boss. They occupied a unique niche in the family hierarchy, answering to no particular Capo or family, but to the invisible and impersonal body of the Commissione itself. Indeed, the Taliferos constituted a 'family' of their own, also largely invisible, impersonal and loyal only to the unified concept of 'this thing of ours,' or La Cosa Nostra.

It is not certain as to just how, when, or by whom the brothers were originally empowered to carry out the Commissioners' edicts. It is not even known if Talifero is the true family name (a constructed name could be suggested by the Italian tale, meaning 'such,' and ferro, 'iron') but that they were brothers is beyond contest. They were, it seems, identical twins. Each stood about six feet tall, weighed about 175, had dark hair, light skin, blue eyes, and were evidently well educated. Legend has it that they were graduated from the Harvard Law School; if so, they did not attend under the name Talifero.

At the time of the Miami convention, the brothers were about 40 years of age. They dressed immaculately, spoke precise English in the Harvard manner, and were said to be in athletic good health. If they ever smiled, there is no record of this rare event. Perhaps they had little to smile about. Or perhaps they felt too strongly the weight of their grave responsibilities to 'this thing of ours.' The Taliferos were, in the deeper analysis, that much debated entity of international crime, 'the boss of all the bosses.' Not in decision-making functions, nor in the normal run of business — but they constituted the physical will of the council of Capos. As such, the Talifero brothers were the final word in family discipline. They served not themselves, not the Capos, but this thing itself.

A normal Mafia family was actually a business enterprise, geared to the accumulation of money by whatever means available. Contrary to their public image, the Families did not normally indulge in overt criminal activities, such as armed robbery, burglary, etc. Occasionally an individual Mafioso, short of funds and seeking a new stake, might pull a stick-up or a hijack, but this type of activity was generally frowned on by the Family itself, considered far too risky for the rewards available. Relative safety with rich rewards was much more likely along the 'trade routes' of the underworld, in endeavors such as gambling, loan-sharking, narcotics wholesaling (never retailing), smuggling, and brokerages in illegal whiskey, stolen automobiles and appliances, etc. Labor racketeering had also proven lucrative, and millions of illegally acquired dollars had moved into legitimate trade areas like banking, construction, trucking, vending machines, garbage collection, nightclubs and casinos, restaurants and bars, and virtually anywhere that profits could be reaped by unscrupulous and non-regulated manipulating.

Violence upon the outside world, then, was not a normal Mafia pursuit; that is, it was not regarded as profitable. A certain amount of strong-arming was perhaps inevitable in some minority of business pursuits; for the most part, however, violence was a thing of, in, and around the underworld itself. Protection of trade routes, for example, against invasion by outside or competitive interests; enforcement of Family fealty and territorial rights against over-ambitious Mafiosi; and, of course, protection of the Families themselves against unwarranted persecution by members of the 'straight' community and legal establishment. In this connection, the major obstruction to court prosecution of known Mafiosi lay in the difficulty of keeping prosecution witnesses alive long enough to get their testimony into the court records.

From all this emerges the true picture of a Mafia Family. Except for a small number of 'enforcers' working within each Family group, the average Mafioso was little more than a shrewd businessman with a total disregard for legal restraints. He might be called upon from time to time to bear arms, to protect the Family estate, or even tapped for an execution of an errant brother — and he might hire 'rodmen' from outside the Family to discourage competition or to provide for his own protection. He could be, and often was, a vicious and conscienceless killer — when the cause was right. Torture killings were a favorite method of vengeance against those foolish enough to betray or threaten the Family, from within or without, and some of these were hideously perpetrated.

Even so, life inside the Mafia was generally quiet and businesslike, with as few ripples upon the surface of society as was possible to make. The general inclination was toward total non-recognition, and to foster the idea that stories and charges of La Cosa Nostra'sexistence were entirely mythical.

The Talifero brothers did not operate a typical Mafia Family. Their business was murder, intimidation, espionage, and violence of every stripe. Their cadre had never been officially numbered, but it is known that their influence was ever present throughout the scattered provinces of Mafiadom, and that they were feared more than any other force of La CosaNostra.

When the brothers left the council chambers that evening, they knew Mack Bolan's professional background as perhaps no other persons living. They had wrung dry the memories of both Ciro Lavangetta and Frank Milano; they had carefully and painstakingly reconstructed the strikes at Pittsfield, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Phoenix, and Miami Beach; and they had a fairly valid working model of The Executioner for their specialized minds to ponder.

Lavangetta gratefully closed the door behind their departure and told Augie Marinello, 'I don't want to ever be put through anything like that again. I'd rather face a Congressional committee.'

Marinello smiled and replied, 'You know, we wouldn't have asked you to, Ciro, except that we thought it just had to be.'

'We should of put them on the job a long time ago,' George Aggravante growled. 'And then maybe we wouldn't have this mess to face right now.'

'You know how I hate to see those boys activated, Georgie,' Marinello said quietly.

Aggravante snickered and replied, 'Yeah, it's sort of like starting nuclear warfare, huh. This's a job for massive retaliation though, Augie. I don't see how we could of done otherwise.'

'That's exactly what I'm telling Ciro here. We just had to turn those boys loose. I'm sorry if they ruffled