Things were going well. Minty had joined Interlude in Chicago months previous, having earned a name for himself as an odd-job man for the mob in Detroit, before joining the DT / LV / WTF Simon gang in Las Vegas, when business really had took off across the country. Simon gave Inty the chance to expand operations in the North, and Minty set off to join Inty to run some money-fronting start-ups in Chicago.

Nobody had quite estimated just how successful that move would prove to be – Chicago was a mangled hotbed for petty organised crime; you had the crooked cops and bent politicians in situ, with mostly underfunded, weak small-time street gangs terrorising local businesses. Interlude came in with the promise of ‘cleaning up the streets’. Protecting these businesses whilst using the legitimate trade routes and logistic channels to move the poison the man on the street craved. Moving in the right circles and cosy-ing up with the mayor and the city hall heads, it was almost too easy. The streets were kept under control with the muscle in the Inty and caveman gangs, the no-good hoods were slowly ‘disappearing’ off the streets, the average working family started to enjoy a better quality of life, and commerce across the districts was stable, whilst the underworld was thriving - hiding in plain sight across the city.

It was when Inty took stock, over a whiskey, one rainy Sunday night in the dive-bar, South Side, that doubled-up as the crew HQ. He had informed the crew at a sit-down meeting that operations were still growing at a crazy rate; the latest government enterprise scheme had subsidised more business development in textiles and mechanical manufacturing, right here in Chicago. It was too much for one person to manage… Minty had been with Inty since the start and knew the lay of the land and ‘how things worked’.. He was giving him the nod to infiltrate this new opportunity.

The boss taxed his captains, they taxed their capos, the capos taxed the soldiers, that was mob tradition. Interlude knew that the opportunities were virtually limitless in Chicago, so he let everyone earn and didn’t expect any kick-up in return – he only asked that Minty do the same should he accept, and he agreed.

The instructions were clear - These new players in town were to be told how things were going to run, whether they liked it or not. Pickpocketing and mugging was to be expected, in line with tradition, adhoc organised crime - be it at the Chicago gallery, the trucking depot or the loansharking scam they had - was to be encouraged to keep everyone on their toes. Respect amongst those with allegiance other crime families as standard, and the values of the mob upheld. No taxes – Just business. The South Side Outfit was born.