John chuckled a bit as Billie spoke.

"I will say that you certainly are a bit more relaxed than most of the people I deal with; but that isn't a bad thing. We have far to many stiff necks around sometimes."

Reaching the front of the warehouse were Billie's car was waiting with the engine running he turned to Billie. 

"It was a pleasure speaking with you Ms. Faegan. Enjoy your trip - and when you return I might have to catch one of your shows at the Tower. Please give my regards to Mr. Noto - I do not know him personally but his reputation certainly proceeds him." 

Billie slid into the car while John spoke, making sure to roll down the window before closing the door. "It has been a pleasure, John. I look forward to working with you. I'll let Mr. Noto know that you send your regards. Feel free to visit us at the Tower anytime. I'll see to it that you're treated like a king." She winked playfully as the car pulled away. 

Well, that went better than she could have hoped. Flowers and thank you cards were definitely in short order. 

As Billie drove away John turned quickly and made his way to his foreman's office. He was excited about this new business opportunity and he wanted to get started right away. 

"Alfonso, whatever you're working on put it on hold; we need to do some brainstorming."

Alfonso who had been looking over the quarterly reports nodded resolutely before setting aside the papers and looking intently at John.

"Should I call in a couple of the engineers so that we can get an idea of the practicality of any of our ideas?"

With an affirmative nod from John Alfonso picked up the phone and dialed his secretary. 

"Linda, please have Lou and Frederick come to my office immediately and then please bring coffee for Mr. Scalise and I."

A short time later a pretty middle aged women came in carrying a tray with a small kettle of coffee as well as two cups that were already prepared. Taking one of them John thanked the lady before taking a sip and sighing slightly in appreciation of the good brew. 

As the secretary left two men walked into the office and were introduced by Alfonso as Lou and Frederic, two of his best engineers. Lou was a short and rather rotund man but had sharp eyes that left no doubt about his intelligence. Frederick was his polar opposite, tall and lanky - but he had the same intelligent look to his eye so John felt reassured. 

Offering coffee to the two gentlemen Alfonso looked at John and said, "These two gentlemen are the brightest engineers I have - you tell them what you want done and they'll tell ya if it's possible."

Clearing his throat slightly John sorted his thoughts before speaking. He knew Alfonso would do whatever he was told, but he also respected the man greatly so he wanted to be sure he understood the situation fully - which meant John needed to be very clear about the arrangement he had just made. 

"So here's the situation - I just got finished meeting with a new prospective client who has a very unique transportation need. The cargo and the situation is very sensitive, but I assure you all parties involved have agreed to take part."

John could see a somewhat questioning look in Frederick's eye - after all, why wouldn't all parties to shipping be in agreement? 

"We need to figure out a way to safely and secretly transport women from overseas into Detroit. We have been..."

John was suddenly cut off by an angry exclamation from Frederick.

"Now wait one damn minute, I didn't sign up for human trafficking. You want drugs, guns, booze, whatever no problem. But there's no way I'm gonna let you..."

Frederick suddenly stopped speaking as he heard the sound of a revolver being cocked behind him followed by Alfonso's gruff voice sounding like steel.

"You won't let him? Let him? Remember who your talking to here and use those brains of yours long enough to keep your damn mouth shut. This ain't a democracy and you're paid damn well to do what your told and keep your trap shut about it - you don't want to find out what happens if you forget the latter part of that agreement."

Seeing that he had gotten his message across Alfonso slowly lowered the hammer on the revolver and set it on his desk, still in plain view. 

"Now, I believe that Mr. Scalise was still speaking - and given what I know about him I expect we will hear a satisfactory explanation as to why he is considering this contract."

John couldn't help but smile a bit - when the impertinent man had interrupted him he had been ready to fly into a rage but Alfonso had proven his worth once again by squashing the issue immediately. He could tell that Alfonso was uneasy as well but trusted him enough to hear him out. 

"Thank you Alfonso - and Frederick, if you ever interrupt me like that again I'll be sure to send a card to your mother with my condolences, capisce?" 

Frederick swallowed visibly and nodded, before he could speak John continued.

"Now, as I was saying, we have been assured that all of the women who are going to be travelling with us have decided to do so of their own free will. They will be treated fairly before, on, and after the journey and will be free to make their own choices on their line of work when they arrive. I have never and will never take part in slavery gentlemen, and I would never ask any of you to either."

As he said the last part he looked calmly at Frederic and gave him a slight nod of respect - he couldn't allow insubordination but he also respected the mans passion and appreciated his mindset given that he had thought the same when the idea was presented to him. 

"Now, my thought was to simply restructure the inside of an overseas shipping container to have a small apartment of sorts inside it. What do you guys think?"

After consulting for a moment with Lou, Fredrick spoke up, "Your idea certainly has merit - a 40 foot shipping container would certainly provide enough room to at least be safe and somewhat comfortable - if not luxuriously so. As long as the trip isn't more than a week or so we should be able to provide all of the necessities within the container, however, there are a couple of things we will need to work out." 

"First, ventilation. The air in these containers would likely get very stale and uncomfortable very quickly unless we can determine a way to get fresh air into the unit without making it obvious from the outside."

"We will also want to insulate the unit so that it doesn't become unbearably hot or cold - it's not going to be perfect no matter what we do but we can try to make it as comfortable as possible."

"Finally, we have to find a way to keep all of this hidden - it wouldn't do for one of these containers to be randomly inspected and have some port authority schmuck find the ladies."

"Give me and Lou here a couple of days and we should have some ideas sketched out for you."

John smiled at the two men and dismissed them to start working on the new containers - this would be their most ambitious plan yet but he had a feeling it would work. 

John was sitting at his desk sorting his mail and reading the morning news when Alfonso knocked briefly on the door jam before stepping through the open door. 

"Mr Scalise, we have a prototype ready for you to look at for the new shipping container we discussed. If you'll come with me Lou and Frederick are waiting to show it to you."

Excitement shot through John as he stood up and quickly followed Alfonso out the door and to the back of the warehouse. Seeing their boss walking with purposeful strides towards him the guards in front of the door leading to the specialized shipping area quickly opened the door to let him pass. 

Glancing around he saw a number of workers putting together the barrels and crates currently used for any number of shipping contracts before finally landing on the back corner of the room were a 40 ft refrigerated shipping container sat looking like any other you might see in a shipyard. As he approached he saw Lou and Frederick standing near the containers door looking slightly anxious. When they reached the container Lou spoke up. 

"Mr Scalise, I believe that we have developed a solution that will allow a passenger to be at least relatively comfortable for up to a week in one of these containers. I wouldn't recommend anything more than that, however, because we can only allow for so much fresh water to be included and so much waste to be accumulated. Go ahead and look around it and then we will explain the technical aspects."

Nodding John walked into the container. The first 4 feet or so was empty, however, it was full from that point forward with shipping crates marked "produce" from what John could see. Before he could ask what was going on Frederick stepped in front of him and pressed a small section of one of the crates. Two of the crates - stacked one on top of the other - swung open revealing a hidden entrance to the back portion of the container.

As he stepped through the entrance the first thing he noticed was that the chill he had felt in the front section was no longer present. On the left side of the container near the entrance was a small but mildly comfortable looking cot attached to the wall. Under the cot were two medium sized drawers - no nearly enough to hold a wardrobe but enough to hold a few small items.  On the left side a small mirror was attached to the wall as well as a couple of pictures to try and brighten up the place. Additionally there was a small seat attached to the wall with a seat belt ready to be used. The roof of the container had a large florescent light that filled the space with a soft white light. The back 4 feet of the container was partitioned into two sections, one holding a small toilet and the other a small shower. Just in front of the commode section was a small sink and about halfway up the left side was a small refrigerator and what appeared to be a small camp stove bolted to the top of a small cabinet. 

Looking at Lou he said, "Looks good gentleman, hows all this work?"

Bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet from excitement Lou began to speak "So, the first thing we had to figure out was how to make sure the passenger would be able to breath and wouldn't freeze or overheat. Frederick then came up with the idea of a using a refrigerated container which gave us the ability to hide a ventilation system as well as integrate power and mild temperature control. I'm sure you noticed when you stepped into the back section that you had to step up about 8 inches, that is because we added vents that go back to the back of the unit through hidden vents in the reefer unit to allow fresh air to circulate in."

"The walls have also been brought in about 6 inches on each side to allow for insulation to be added to help control the temperature. Finally, the "reefer" unit is set up to always keep the front section cool as you would expect but to keep the living quarters at 70 degrees at all times."

"The other thing we have put under us is two relatively thing but large tanks. The first contains fresh water that will be able to be pumped in for the shower and the sink. The second tank is a waste tank - the used water from the sink, shower, and toilet will fill it."

"There is a small water heater attached to the reefer unit, but it doesn't hold a huge amount of water so the showers will need to be a bit short if they want them to be hot."

"It's far from a luxury hotel but it should be at least somewhat comfortable for their trip over."

"Now, the front section is left empty because we will put actual shipping crates filled with the produce that will be on the shipping manifest. This should allow it to pass any basic inspection that it may have. Now, that said, anything beyond a coursery inspection could be problematic, so you are going to want to be sure to have the port authority officer were these are coming in paid off to make sure they don't ever get marked for a full inspection - both to prevent the ladies being found but also because containers can be held for weeks or more before they are actually inspected when they are flagged."

John had been listening with great interest and when Lou finished speaking he turned to him.

"Excellent job gentlemen, simply excellent. I will ensure that the port authority won't be a problem. I'll contact Ms. Faegan and set up a time for her to come by and check it out upon her return."

"As a token of my appreciation take the rest of the week off paid - also, Alfonso, see that these men receive a nice bonus on the way out."

Later that same day John was sitting in his office sipping on a glass of Mercedes best bourbon while he waited for his next guest. He didn't have to wait long as two large men walked into the office dragging a third much smaller man between them. With a nod from John they deposited him in the seat in front of John's desk and took up flanking positions along side him, each with a firm hand on his shoulders. 

"Ah, Mr. Morris, so nice of you to join us. We have important business to discuss."

The man seemed indigent at being brought in and quickly spoke up, "Now you listen hear bub, I don't know who you are but you obviously don't know who you screwing with. You think you can have a couple of meatheads come drag me from my office and get away with it? I'm the Port Commissioner god dammit and I'll have your head on a fucking platter if you don't let me go right now."

John just smirked at the man as he spoke and then stared straight into his eyes with a steely glare, "Oh, I know exactly who you are Mr. Morris, and I also know that you like to frequent gambling establishments. I don't know were you go these days, but I know for fact that you wracked up quite the tab at Uncle Jimmy's before his untimely death. What you may not know is that my father owned that fine establishment and when he passed I got all of his books - amazing how much detail the accountants kept. Now, I imagine it would be rather embarrassing for someone of your stature if it were to be found out by the press just how much you like the tables and the ladies."

The man tried to stand up his face red with anger but he was quickly shoved back into the seat by the two large men. Unable to retaliate he settled for angrily responding "Listen punk, I don't give a damn who you say your father was - it's been years since that place was even open you think anyone is going to give a damn what you "claim" I might have done there? Get real kid, you ain't got nothing on me so whatever it is you want me to do you can go fuck yourself. I'm sure you asked around before having your goons come get me so you know, I run a clean port and I don't take bribes so your wasting your time."

John had tried to be calm up to this point but now his temper flared and he stepped around his desk and back handed the man hard across the face. "You should really learn some manners Mr Morris - here I am trying to be civil and give you an opportunity and you choose to insult me in my own office? Let me make a few things very clear to you Mr. Morris - I have business that I need to do at the ports and I can't have you or anyone else interfering. Now, you say that the dirt I have "ain't nothing", that is rather sad for you because that means that I have to use less pleasant forms of persuasion to ensure that you are on board so listen carefully."

"You will work with us, because failure to do so will only result in a new port commissioner needing to be found when you disappear. And to be sure my point is made, it won't be a nice comfortable death you will be facing. I will personally peel the skin from your bones while you watch and let you bleed out slowly - but that will just be the end of your pain. First, I will have my boys here go pick up the lovely wife and son of yours and I will let me dogs tear them apart in front of you so that you can hear their last pitiful screams and know that your righteousness brought about their end."

Stepping back and smiling cheerfully down at the now downcast looking man with tears in his eyes John suddenly changed to a light airy voice as he continued. 

"Of course the other option is that you can become a very wealthy man. I take care of those who work for me and I can assure you that if you choose to help us you will be very very well compensated. Of course, if there are any thoughts in that head of yours about agreeing and then leaving here to go report us you should know that you and your family are being watched and that there isn't a cop in this town that I don't have on payroll so your complaints would not only fall on deaf hears but the punishment for your betrayal would be swift and complete . . . so what's it going to be?"

The man looked around as if searching for some escape for a moment before finally sighing and looking up at John, "Well, I've spent my entire career staying clean and all it's gotten me is a shitty house in a shitty neighborhood and a shitty pension plan so why not. What do you need from me?"

John smiled at the man again but this time it actually reached his eyes as he poured another glass of bourbon and handed it to the man. "Excellent to hear Mr. Morris, all I need from you is to ensure that any container coming into port for Scalise Transport doesn't ever get more than a quick inspection. I'll have my associates get in touch with you to work out all of the details. For now, here is a small token of our appreciation to make up for the harsh treatment today and to give you a taste of what is to come."

As he said this John passed a thick envelope filled with cash over to Mr. Morris

"Welcome to the family Mr. Morris, these gentleman will take you back to your office now."

As the men left the office John smiled to himself and turned off the recorder he had going under his desk. He didn't think that any further threats were necessary to keep Mr. Morris in line but it was always good to be prepared and this tape would ensure that Mr. Morris knew that if he ratted on John he would be sharing a cell next door.