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“Meet Felix,” Leonardo interjected, gesturing to the stranger. At that, he got up and offered me his hand for a handshake. “Felix, this is Matteo. He’s the one you’re going to have to impress.”
“Pleasure,” Felix said with a slight sneer smile. “Felix. You should know I’m a former infantryman. I did a couple of tours in Iraq, before I decided it wasn’t for me.”
“Sounds like me and college,” Cesare joked, giving me an elbow jab. “Only I just lasted six months. How long did you serve?”
“Four years, give or take,” Felix replied. “I know all there is to know about rifles and handguns.”
I pulled Cesare aside and whispered in his ear. “Where did you find this guy?”
“He comes highly recommended,” he declared, looking me in the eye. “Leonardo and I were talking to some gangbangers last night. When his name came up, they all said he knew his shit.”
“So, he’s going to be the first new member of our crew?” I asked, throwing a quick, sideways glance at him. Man, the dude was short. I was sure I was at least eight inches taller than him.
“No.” His response was sharp. “Leonardo and I are vetting four more men. You know we need more muscle.”
“I do,” I admitted, before turning my attention back to Felix. “Here’s a quiz for you, kid. Let’s say you’re caught in a firefight. It’s a rainy day, and your M-16 falls in a puddle of water on the street. It’s your only weapon. What do you do? Do you pick it back up and open fire? Or do you run for your life?”
Felix snorted in amusement and shook his head a few times, his gaze dropping to the lawn between his feet. “Well,” he paused and lifted his gaze back to mine. “I’d have to say neither. The M-16 wasn’t designed to operate in extreme conditions, like excessive humidity. You try to pull the trigger on a wet M-16? It’s going to jam—that’s for sure. I wouldn’t run, because my enemies would probably get me. I’d try to create a diversion, so I could slip past those bastards unnoticed.”
“Good answer,” I commented, eyeing Cesare and Leonardo. “Did you talk money yet?”
“Yeah,” Cesare said, folding his arms across his chest. “He’s getting fifty grand per shipment. Are you okay with that?”
“I am,” I told him, more questions popping in my head. “Do we have a fix on our first shipment yet?”
“Our guy from the port authority says there’s one coming in from China tomorrow night,” he informed. “He wanted me to give him the money to bribe the cops, so they’ll look the other way. I told him to go fuck himself. Leonardo’s in charge of that.”
“Listen up,” I addressed Felix in a louder voice, standing just inches from him. “Once we’ve secured those guns, you and I are on quality check. This is going to be a test. You fuck it up? You’re out. Am I getting through to you?”
“Yep,” he nodded. “Quality check. I hear you.”
For all his confidence, I wasn’t going to be convinced.
Not like this.
He did have credentials. He had been abroad, getting shot at by enemy combatants, but that didn’t make a weapons’ expert. He would have to prove that to me. I could forgive one mistake every now and then. A scratch on a handle was no big deal. His real test would have to do with telling apart genuine handguns from fake ones. Not many people knew the differences between those. For his sake, Felix had to know. Otherwise, I’d kick his ass out faster than he could say gun.
18
CESARE
The docks.
The one place we all knew we had to stake a claim to from day one.
At the very least, we needed a foothold.
I wasn’t naïve. I knew several crews had been operating there, long before we turned up that night. They all wanted—and had—a piece of the action. Whether they’d been smuggling in drugs, weapons or exotic cars, they had been using the docks. So, outsiders wouldn’t be welcome.
To that end, I had brought my entire crew there. We were eight, instead of three. More firepower meant that rival groups would think twice about opening fire. Facing eight armed men was much harder than facing three. Of course, this was just me and my theories. Reality could be a lot different. It was all a matter of power. Whoever wanted it, they had to go after it. The ones who had it, would not let go that easily.
In any case, I wasn’t so worried about the outcome of that night’s work.
The way I saw it, the hardest part was over. We had more than seven million in our disposal. It was plenty for us to get started. It was more than enough to buy at least three gun shipments at once. By selling those guns, we would make more and invest it again. That cycle would repeat itself and stuff our pockets with cash. This was the whole point of us sticking our necks out. This was why Matteo had decided to go Cesare Bauer on the two thugs that were about to crush me and Leonardo to death.
Elizabeth III was one ugly ship.
Docked just twenty yards from my spot, I could make out plenty of nasty details about her. It had been years since that dark-blue paint on either side was applied. Sunlight and humidity had turned into a pale shade of gray. The red around the prow and its stern had turned into a light shade of brown. Just over its hull and near the middle, rust had been splashed across the metal.
