Another coughing fit. I thought, this is what happens when one stops smoking. I crossed my ankles on his desk, as if the office already belonged to me and lit a cigarette. Less because I needed a cigarette, but more to drive him crazy, “We have a chance to bite into the Russian swine, so not to do it?” I asked, with mock calmness.
He answered with one word: “No!”
“Why?” Now I lost my temper. I stood before him and blew smoke into his pudgy face, “Who does business like this these days? Because you obey all the rules in this country like a dog, you have forgotten what it is like to be Albanian. You have forgotten the unpaved roads of our country, the starving masses, the Russian period where they took everything from our people!”
“Little brat! What do you know of the Russian era, or of starvation, or of Albania of the unpaved roads? You were born in England and have lived the life of a spoiled prince!” He raised his hand and moved as if to slap me. If he had the courage, he would have done it, but he was a lamb in a wolf’s skin.
Instead of hitting me, he withdrew and moved towards the window. When he turned around again, he had calmed down. “I am here by the command of your father, my elder brother. Our casino is legal by your father’s command, you are here by your father’s command. So, you’d better think how and what to do with this transaction, so it can disappear from the sight of the authorities and at the same time, from the sight of the Red Mafia.”
“Atlantic City is dying and if this casino doesn’t start opening up to other ventures, it will die with this city. In Philadelphia, they are receiving permits for casinos and when they open, they will dry us up! The gambling market is flooded!” I yelled at him. “We are alive only because I found this niche of customers and these customers love receiving perks from me, things that are forbidden at home and all the extras that I am good at obtaining for them. I am about to close a complicated deal,” I declared, “So I hope you won’t interrupt me.”
“Complicated?” He confirmed more than asked. What annoyed me the most was the disparaging raised brow. Or maybe what annoyed me was my status in this household as his protégé. Because of it, I felt I needed to explain myself.
I sat down once again in the same position I knew he hated, with my feet up. I said, “The story is very simple. They arrived at the casino to gamble and turned to me for prostitutes.” It wasn’t as if I lied. I merely revealed a small part of the story. “A group of young men who had arrived from the Middle East, I think from Iraq. They rented a place for themselves. I also helped them with that. An isolated house in a certain neighborhood. We started talking and it turned out they needed firearms. And I already had the equipment from the robbery in Germany. All that was left was to transfer them over here, and this is where you come in.”
I didn’t actually need him. I had already organized the transferal. I just wanted my uncle to take responsibility in front of my father.
“Are you involving the casino in terror activities?” His voice rose, but a moment before his shouts started to escalate to hysterical shrieks, he paused. Maybe he realized it was not a sentence any eavesdropper should hear outside the walls of the office.
In accordance with his reaction, I kept quiet. What would he say if he knew that I had not only involved the casino with terrorist activity? What would he say if he knew that we weren’t only renting out limousines, but other vehicles that the group requested, and that I was taking advantage of our transport business to transfer firearms into the country?
He sighed. “What is the rest of the deal?”
“They are transferring money directly to the drug cartel. I receive the drugs and distribute them, and we are in business. This is the best possible time because there is a serious deficiency of heroin and crystal meth in the area.”
He shook his head. “Terror, drugs… exactly what you’re not allowed to bring in here.” The look on his face was something between disgust and despair. “Have they already transferred the money?”
I nodded my head, “A serious down payment.” In principle, I also didn’t want to deal with terror. It was totally not my style. But what can one do if terrorists have the need for special sniper rifles? I smiled at my uncle, and said, “Now you are getting to the point. I used it. At long last I could pay off the gang that broke into the German factory.”
“Now you will have to think how to make it up to the Muslims when the firearms don’t reach them, and how are you going to make it up to the Mexican cartel when the rest of the deal doesn’t go down.”
That erased the smile off my face. I jumped up from my chair and stood in front of him. I was a head taller than him and I assumed my posture was threatening. “Are you about to harm my business?”
“To harm your business? Mmm… I guess so, if you insist that this is your business. Because the heads of the family -- your father and I -- insist that the casino remain legal. I insist that the limousine rentals remain legitimate and only because I have to, I insist on keeping you alive. You are being hosted by me and by the Besa code, the Albanian host code, which binds me for life
