“In my eyes you are my idol. You refused to give up the rifles.” Alex patted my shoulder, then continued. “And your father understood that to keep his youngest son alive he needed to get him out of England as soon as possible.”
“So what I have now is not trading in firearms, but an opportunity to get rid of them, and even if it means to help the terrorists, so be it. It is a whole lot easier to do it this way, because I know the buyer personally. He is a childhood friend. Though, if I close this deal, it means my father broke both his promises… but he is in Europe and I will be selling in the United States and I believe the distance has its advantages. Besides, a promise made in one continent does not count in another.”
We sat ourselves down in the casino restaurant and without saying another word, the best delicacies were laid down on the table before us. I thought the disguise of the hero I made out to be in front of Alex wouldn’t apply if I had to stand up before my father. My father was one of the first Albanians to arrive in Europe. He was a ruthless, unstoppable and especially cruel man, and as such, he raised the level of violence in the streets. The Europeans hadn’t yet met with his type before.
I was the polar opposite, having grown up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I’d never had to be cruel. That was something my older brothers were known for. I arrived in the States to escape the violence only to land myself in the cruelty of the South American cartels. The Mexican cartel, the Columbian cartel…. These guys were cruel in ways I had never known, probably because most of their activities were done under the influence of the heavy drugs they cooked for themselves. The result was that I learned how to get what I needed, not through violence, but through business. The business world, so I quickly learned, was the most ruthless world of them all.
Alex asked, “And what about the rifles? Are they here already?”
“We stuffed them in a container of a family that should be arriving in the next few days.” I pushed my plate away, now empty, whereas a few moments ago it had been filled with eggs and salmon. I removed the white napkin that I’d tucked over my tie.
I didn’t want to supply Alex with too many details yet. He was my personal bodyguard, a close friend and someone who was willing to put his life on the line for me, but I thought that the compartmentalization was good for him. I didn’t tell him that the father of the family was a specialist at a hospital in Philadelphia, that the mother was unimportant and that I chose them because they had three kids and the amount of boxes and bags one needs to bring all their things to the park is astounding. I was left thinking about how and with what could I compensate ‘my’ Arabs for their delivery of the goods, given that it was slightly late. According to their plan, an accurate timetable was the key to success. But that was their plan, and I had another problem that I had to take care of… the strange occurrence of the previous the evening. Who was the youngster with a laptop? How did he know to pack up just moments before security reached him and who had helped him escape the casino? And, more importantly, did he manage to breach the casino’s security and access its files? Or worse, my own?
***
I entered the control room and as usual everyone tensed. One put out his cigarette, others sat up straighter in their chairs, their eyes glued to the screen. The room went silent. I stood on the staircase and studied them. They moved uncomfortably in their chairs. No one dared to take his eyes off the screen and return my stare. It gave me some of the feeling of power I had once had. The fear of those surrounding me was energizing.
I savored the feeling a bit longer, then spoke in a low voice. “Attention, everybody!”
Everyone stopped staring at their screens and, with curiosity and fear, looked at me. I assumed the news from yesterday had already been leaked.
“Yesterday we had an unusual occurrence. We allowed a visitor with a fake ID to enter. First failure.” They exchanged glances. By the smiles of relief, I could tell who wasn’t on yesterday’s shift. I continued, “He arrived with a black backpack with a laptop inside it. At some point during the night, he took out his laptop and started surfing the web. No one here noticed it, even though we all know that it could be an opening to penetrate private files. Second failure.” I smiled for a moment and carried on with a tone of mock forgiveness. “Maybe because he stepped away from the tables and you were focused on them. One of the waitresses did notice and immediately notified the security guard. But before we could catch him, he packed up and ran away. Third failure.” I raised three fingers in the air. “It is a possibility that while he surfed undisturbed, he infiltrated my personal files… failure number four.” I paused intentionally, looking at each and every one of them. “I don’t know if one of you guided him in any way…” another pause. “Either way, everyone on yesterday’s shift is fired!” I allowed them to look around at one another,
