Fulmine woke up to the sound of his phone ringing on his nightstand.

"Yeah?"

As he recognized the voice on the other end of the line, Fulmine became wide awake. He listened to the what the voice had to say without interruption. When the voice finally stopped speaking, all Fulmine said into the phone was " Yes Of course, Right Away." After speaking his understanding of what was to be done, all he heard was the dial tone. Fulmine got up and got fully dressed. After brushing his teeth he reached under his pillow and checked for his Browning Hi-Power handgun. After checking that the gun was fully loaded and that there was nothing that could've jammed it he pushed the gun into his waist band. After doing all this he sat on his bed and dialed the number for an associate of his out by the docks.

" Do you have any idea what time it is? Whoever you are you'd better have a damn good reason for-"

"Its me. Fulmine. Listen I got something for you. Its come to my attention that arrangements have been made to get a very important man from Sicily over here. Now Look I know you've still got those connections from when we used to smuggle people into America back in those days. Make sure you get him on a nice boat over here safe and sound. Not a hair out of place You hear?" After saying all of this, Fulmine gave his associate the full details of the job and hung up. He then fell back onto his bed and just laid there thinking, What have i gotten into?"



THREE DAYS LATER


Fulmine flicked the butt of his cigar away when he noticed the approaching boat. He gestured to the local goons he'd hired for the job to prepare the area for the ships arrival. At once they got around to their jobs. Fulmine nodded at his associate and his associate came over.

"Whats wrong?" He asked

"Nothing. Were you able to dig up anymore info on this guy we're supposed to baby sit?"

"Nope, Not a thing. You know how those guys back home operate. No way were they going to talk to a second generation American about any one on this guy's level. No matter how large the bribe."

At that, Fulmine chuckled. He knew well How Omerta worked back in his grandfathers homeland.

"Just as I expected. Well anyway, its time to play the host."Fulmine said this while nodding towards the recently docked boat. Fulmine and his associate began the short walk to the end of the pier and got onto the boat where their charge awaited them. When they entered the boat they caught sight of their man. He was wearing a fedora which cast a majority of his face in shadow.

"Evening Gentlemen. I thank you for agreeing to take on this responsibility. Now please lets get off this damn ship. You'll understand if I am a bit eager to get off this boat." The man said in heavily accented English. "You'll also understand if, for the moment, we don't exchange names."

From then on the three men walked in silence until they made their way to the streets. The moment they soot foot on the sidewalk, they heard an engine start up and a car speed up towards them. Without any hesitation Fulmine whirled around with his weapon already drawn, ready to fire.

Clown received the note 4 days before in the usual manner.   A street urchin asked him for a nickel just outside his ma’s house downtown and palmed him the envelope before scuttling off.

“Great, just what I need” He muttered under his breath before entering his mothers overpowering hallway.  Not being able to concentrate on the home cooking and his mother’s incessant family gossiping he made his excuses and left just 20mins after arriving.

Quickly making his way over to Bennies across the road he shouted for his usual straight on the rocks and sat down carefully opening the wax sealed envelope.  Whoever it was that gave him these ‘jobs’ certainly did not lack for the old style panache.

Opening the envelope he read the short note twice sipping his drink slowly and blowing smoke into the air before placing it in the ashtray and setting fire to it before setting off home to make the necessary arrangements.

FOUR DAYS LATER

“How long do we have to sit in this fucking heap of junk boss?” Jimmy the choo lisped in his usual no nonsense way.

“As long as I feel the fucking urge now shut the fuck up, eyes front that boat will be coming in any time soon” Clown was losing his patience.  He’d been parked in this Sedan for over 6 hours with just Jimmys idiot ramblings to deal with.  The boat was late,;

“Trust the fucking limeys not being able to organise something so simple as travelling across the pond.” He mumbled to himself for the tenth time, he was getting twitchy.  He liked jobs like this to run like clockwork, the slightest fuck up had the inevitability of sending things to shit fast.

“Boss, boss! Two of Los Angeles stooges just got out of that Cadillac there walking toward that boat that’s just come in.” Jimmy was getting excited gripping and un gripping the steering wheel like the idiot savant he was.  Putting the newspaper he was reading on the seat Clown slowly gets out of the car and walks round to the drivers side.

“Ok Jimmy you know what to do.  I’ll be standing just here making sure things go as planned.  You do the job.  Get out of the car make sure its done the get the fuck to Joes scrap yard.”

“I’ll be waiting at Mo’s in an hour.  Ring me from the yard and we’ll get everything cleaned up.”

Clown steps into the shadows, lights up a cigar as Jimmy wheel spins off heading toward the targets…

Fulmines associate, Luciano-Trabotti also heard and saw the car speeding towards em. With a heavy sigh he grabbed his shotgun hidden underneth the long coat, ready for anything...but this was damn shitty timing...he had this date with the redhead from giannos taven, and he sure as heel didnt wanna burn her off on account of some shotout in the harbour.

Shaking those thougths of his head he made ready for what came at them.

It was five in the evening and moqmed was watching play at his daughters school, when he felt a tap on his right shoulder. He turned around and saw a thug holding an envolope for him, he handed it over and Moqmed noticed that the seal had been broken. Feeling in good nature he leaned him forward and whispered in his ear that if it weren't for his daughter and her classmates being here he would have put a gun in his dog's mouth, for he's always seen walking it, and popped her head off. The thug stumbled off and exited via the double doors. Moqmed, stood up and walked over to the toilet.

He came out, a couple of minutes later with a grin on his face. Went over to his wife, kissed her on the lips and told her he was going to be back in a couple of days. If Isabella asks you where I am tell her daddies gone to work and that he won't be back till wednesday. "Tell her I love her and that I couldn't disturb her and hey make sure you lock the doors and windows before you go to bed."
 -"Oh shutup and go already will yah im already pissed off with you as it is."

Moqmed woke up the next morning, to a knock at his wooden door. "Yo Moq you there, open up." A slight pause "I don't want to have to ask you again" Moqmed recognised the voice and sprung out of his bed, still half asleep and bolted over to the door. For his boss Silenzio was said to be coming over. "What took you so long"  
"err.. sorry boss had a hard time sleeping last night, you know being away from my family and all but I gotta do what I gotta do for the family right"
"Right, and don't you ever forget that but remember you're famiy's my family and vice versa. Anyways back to business I hooked you up with a man who's said to be selling the weapon you were looking for. Now, i've paid him the money already, don't worry about it and he's meeting you at the garage tonight at eight o'clock don't be late." And with that Silenzio rose from his seat and walked over to the door. "And hey come back to me after you're done with this little thing of ours and I have a couple of things I need you to sort out for me." 
"Will do boss, i'm helping out Fulmine out with something he needs help with, i'm suspecting you might know what's happening but as soon as I'm done helping him I'll swing by the HQ, as soon as possible."
"I was the one that gave him the permission to go and do it so yh it's good to help out a family member once in a while"

Half past eight and Moqmed came out of the garage, with his brand spanking new rifle, "Let's see what this baby can do tomorrow"  and with that he began laughing. He climbed into his car and drove to a hotel closest to the docks.

The next morning, Moqmed was getting ready, he dresses himself in all black and got himself a homemade balaclave made out of his wooly hat. He cleaned his gun, three times for luck and put the clips of ammo into his rucksack. Half an hour later and moqmed was lying face down staring down the barrel of an M24 7.62mm sniper rifle. Moqmed watched as the boat came closer and closer to the shore, when he noticed a suspicious looking car out in the distance, he tightened his grip on the trigger and kept the scope locked on to the driver. When all of a sudden the tyres screeched and the engine came to life as soon as the boat docked, Moqmed zoomed in and ..........

As Fulmine prepared to shoot their solo assailant, A loud, resounding, boom sounded. The glass of the windshield shattered and the bullet-hole of a large caliber sniper rifle formed. Almost immediately after that a cloud of red burst out from the drivers neck. With the driver's death, the car spun out of control. The car was however still hurtling towards Fulmine and the others. Quickly, Fulmine jumped out of the way while pushing the stranger out of the cars path. Fulmine fell onto the floor and immediately started looking around for any other potential enemies. Looking across the street, he thought he saws something. "Nah, its probably just shadows." As he began to turn around he saw the sun glint off of something in the distance. Fulmine froze up immediately and wonders Is that the guy who took out the driver? Whats going on here? Fulmine almost said something to the others but he realized that if it was a sniper he'd be dead. Hey Luciano, we'd better get out of here. The Bossman's going to be waiting for us. Not to mention the explosion from the car has attracted alot of attention. Fulmine and the others make their way to the waiting car and Fulmine starts the car and begins to pull of when suddenly a man stepped from the shadows.

Watching jaw a gape as Jimmys head explodes Clowns eyes automatically flick up to the rooftops where the shot came from, then back down again just as fast, as he sees the target get roughly pushed out of the way of the now obviously uncontroled car.

"Bastard...." Clown takes a last drag on his cigar flicks it to the ground and steps out of the shadowy alley he is standing in.  Taking his beretta out of his coat pocket he fires a few rounds in the direction of the target knowing full well he have to be luckier than God to hot anything.

"THIS ISN'T OVER" He shouts in the direction of the three men now scrambling toward there ride.  Concious of the shooter on the roof Clown quickly ducks back into the alley and runs pell mell toward the main street.  Flagging a taxi down he quickly jumps in.

"Mo's Diner 22nd and 3rd. Don't spare the horses and no fucking chit chat."

The taxi driver looked nervously into his mirrors at the fancy dressed guy in the back he was sure he could smell cordite but years of experience told him ask no questions, especially of sharp dressed guys going to Mos...

The taxi stopped outside Mo's and clown got out..

"You can stick your fare up your scrawny ass." His face loomed in the drivers window, the driver swallowed hard, nodded meekly and drove off.  Clown stomped into Mo's up to this point he'd been in limbo, now it was time to face the music.  He walked to the phone booth at the back of the diner and dialled the number that was engrained into his mind.  A muffled voice answered after only one ring as was per usual.

"Yes?"

"The jobs fucked" Clowns experience was to be short and succinct in such matters.

"Define Fucked..." The voice on the end of the phone was obviously irritated and it irritated Clown more not knowing if this was some stooge he was speaking to or some kind of boss.

"Fucked… as in the target is still walking around doing whatever the fuck he wants and one of my guys is sleeping with the fishes fucked.”

"Oh I see.  I assume you are at Mo’s as was agreed? No.. No.. don’t answer yet, I know you are at Mo’s.  Stay where you are and we will see if we can rescue this debacle before things get out of hand. "

The phone clicks off leaving Clown standing there holding his end like some schmuck prick.  Carefully replacing the receiver on the stand Clown thinks twice picks it up again and violently smashes several times on the wall until all that is left are pieces of bakerlite and a few stray wires hanging down.

The diner has gone quiet everyone looking in his direction he turns around spreads out his arms wide with a manic grin on his face:

"What’s the matter with you pricks eh? You never lost a few dollars on the horses?”

Moving over to his usual seat he sits down and tries to compose his thoughts, the dolly bird come over and he orders a straight expresso, this is no time for the hard stuff.  The shit’s gonna hit the fan and he’s going to need every ounce of his cunning and experience to draw on with a good clear head...

As Johnjo went about cleaning out his dead father's attic out, he came across one of his old journals. As he began to read the story he sat down and settled in, it looked like he wa going to be up here a while.

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Fulmine took off his light jacket and wrapped it around his fist. He used his covered hand to break the glass of a nearby car. As he hotwired the car he called out to Luciano " Hey Luc, get over here! Get him inside the car now" As Luciano and their charge got into the car Fulmine started the car and immediately starts to pull away, not even bothering to wait till the two got their bearings. " Is thiis how you Americans treat your visitors?" the Foreigner asked." You put them in harm's way? I must have a chat with my god son when we arrive." Fulmine ignored the man and put all his focus on driving. As he sped through the streets he passed Mo's diner and thought he saw a shadowy figure hovering near the alleyway. He stood like a professional hitter on a mission. Fulmine shook these thoughts free from his head. He did not have time to worry about such matters. In his line of work, people were killed day in and day out. It was nothing new to him. Fulmine continued his mad dash through the city at breakneck speed. When he arrived at the arranged safe house, he got out the car and said " Stay in the car. Someone outside the family knew of your arrival and didn't want you to make it out pf the harbor. I'll go ahead and clear the area. If im not back in 10 get the hell outta here. Go to the back up safe house. Got it?" Lucinao and the visitor merely nodded and Fulmine approached the house carefully. He made a quick perimeter sweep and found noone waiting to spring a trap. Fulmine then entered the house with his weapon drawn and shut the door behind him. He got down into a low crouch and crept across the wooden floor. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw three figures in the corner sitting patiently. Two of them were standing and the last was sitting quite comfortably in the chair. The seated man truned on the lamp near him and yet his face was still partially obscured in this new light. " Kind of you to join us Fulmine. Be a sport and invite my Godfather in. We have much to discuss."