Joe nodded grimly at The_Courier before standing up and waving to everyone at the table. Quickly crossing the room over to Gracie, he gave her a brief hug whispering, “It will all be over soon and you’ll have a fresh start” before walking out the door.

Outside his slid into the backseat of a waiting sedan and it and one behind it pulled away quickly. After a short drive, they arrived at the firehouse and Joe stepped out flanked by three bodyguards. The driver of his sedan stayed in the car with it idling while 4 bodyguards piled out of the second sedan and took up positions around the driveway to the firehouse. One of Joe’s bodyguards pulled a small crate out of trunk of the sedan and another a small box and they made their way up the driveway toward the house.

As they walked up the Captain eyed them warily. He knew Joe well and had accepted a rather large amount of cash from him over the years to ensure top priority from the fire house in the case of anything happening at one of his businesses, however, this was the first time he had come to the firehouse in the open fashion he was now. Typically, he would sneak quietly in and out leaving a small wad of cash for the Captain and a bottle of moonshine for the boys before leaving with little more than a “as always I appreciate your discretion” – all of the boys new who he was of course but Joe had always kept up the pretense of simply being a businessman wanting to look out for the safety of his business. Now, as guards were out in the open not bothering to hide the highly illegal weapons they carried the captain new something was wrong. His boys were all too young to pick up on the signs, however, and were smiling widely and greeting Joe as he reached them.

Joe waved jovially and had his bodyguards set the crate and box on a small table the firemen used to eat their lunches. Removing the top from the crate Joe revealed that it held a dozen bottles of the boys’ favorite moonshine

“Evening boys, I’m going to be asking you and your fine Captain here to do me a favor – this booze is a small token of my appreciation and inside the box you will find some lovely jewelry to take to your wives as well as a few trinkets for your little ones.”

The men exclaimed over the gift as Joe walked over to the Captain and directed him to follow him to a far corner of the firehouse where he began to speak quietly.

“In the next few minutes you are going to get a call about a fire at Saving Grace – when it comes in your going to be delayed somehow in responding, I’ll let you work out the details as long as they are convincing.”

As he said this Joe signaled to one of his bodyguards who pulled out a large manila envelope stuffed with cash – easily four months’ worth of the normal bribe he Joe paid the Captain – and handed it to the man.

The Captain tentatively accepted the envelope but looked at the ground without opening it. Looking back up at Joe he said in a somewhat trembling voice.

“Mr. Scalise, you know I am always happy to help you but this . . . this is a lot different than making sure firetrucks respond quickly to Scalise’s or turning a blind eye when we here explosions coming from your shop. You’re asking me to look the other way as you commit arson . . .”

Seeing a dangerous look start to come into Joe’s eye the man quickly continued, “Look Mr. Scalise, I am sure you have your reasons and frankly as long as you aren’t hurting innocent people I don’t give that much of a damn, but if we do this me and my boys are going to be standing in soup lines quicker than you can say conspiracy when the investigation takes place and they find out that we delayed in responding. You may have connections that will keep you separate from all this but my boys and me have no such protection. I’ll take the fall with you and face those consequences but my boys ain’t done a damn thing wrong and I won’t let them pay for my greed.”

Joe smiled at the man’s loyalty toward his men. “Don’t worry Captain, the investigation is being taken care of as well. You and your men won’t be investigated at all I assure you.”

Looking back at his men who were busy joking with each other and playfully arguing over who got to take what jewelry home to their wives the Captain sighed. Joe could likely go to them directly and they would do has he said regardless what the Captain ordered so he might as well take the cash. Nodding he offered his hand to Joe who shook it before quickly making his way out of the firehouse while waving once again to the men.

After leaving the firehouse Joe and his guards quickly made their way to the outskirts of town were a large well maintained home stood. Driving up to the house the men all quickly stepped out and took positions around the door.

Again, with three bodyguards flanking him Joe knocked lightly on the door. An older woman wearing conservative but obviously expensive dress answered and looked up in surprise at Joe and the men standing behind him.

“Mr. Scalise? Can I help you?”

Joe smiled his most charming smile at the old lady before speaking

“Mrs. Franklin, so wonderful to see you. Mr. Franklin asked me to stop by to show him a new piece I just got in for his collection. It is rather valuable so I brought along some guards to ensure I wasn’t mugged on the way – you would be surprised how dangerous some of the people in Vegas can be at times.”

Mrs. Franklin smiled back with a soft chuckled saying “Oh, Rupert at his little artifacts from Africa, well do come in won’t you. He is in the study – you know the way there I believe.”

Joe nodded and stepped into the home and made his way down the hall to a richly furnished study on the right.

As he stepped in Mr. Franklin looked up from his desk slightly startled. As he was about to speak Joe spoke over him as two of his bodyguards took positions alongside Mr. Franklin and the third pulled a pistol from inside his jacket and held it in front of him in clear view, though he had it aimed at the floor for the moment.

“Mr. Franklin, how lovely to see you, I have that piece you asked me to acquire for you and I think it would be best for us to discuss it in private for a while don’t you? It would probably be best if Mrs. Franklin were to need to go pick something up from the store, don’t you agree?”

Mr. Franklin paled considerably before calling out to his wife

“Umm, dear, would you mind terribly running to the store and picking up some fresh steaks – I feel like grilling tonight and I those t-bones from the butcher we had last week were just perfect for it.”

Mrs. Franklin replied that she would and soon they heard her driving off. Joe then cut all pretenses as he looked steadily at Mr. Franklin and Rupert realized that he might well be in trouble, though he couldn’t think of what he may have done. Mr. Franklin had been buying illegally procured ancient artifacts from various African countries from Scalise’s for years. He always knew that Joe dabbled in illegal trade but always convinced himself there was nothing ore too it – seeing him standing here now with thugs that looked like they would kill their own mother’s let him know just how naive he had been.

“Mr. Franklin, I am here because I need your help, and you are going to give it.”

As he said this he tossed an envelope with several pieces of paper onto the desk in from of Mr. Franklin.

“And what exactly is this Mr. Scalise?”

Mr. Franklin tried to keep the fear out of his voice but still chastised himself internally as he heard his voice shake slightly.

“That, Mr. Commissioner, is the results of an exhaustive investigation into the fire at Saving Grace which shows that it was the result of an explosion caused by a gas leak in the kitchen and some faulty wiring. It further shows that the fire department valiantly attempted to put it out but the fire was simply too hot to be stopped before it completely destroyed the building and all of its contents – you really should consider giving those boys a commendation for their heroic efforts.”

The fire commissioner began to get red in the face – sure he may have done some illegal artifact trading with this guy but who the hell did he think he was coming in to his home and trying to get him to betray his oath to office and cover up an arson.

“Now you listen to me Scalise, I don’t know who the hell you think you are but if you think knowing I bought some junk from Africa that I shouldn’t have is going to allow you to do something like this you are out of your damned mind.”

Joe took two swift steps forward before reaching behind him and pulling out one of his throwing knives which he imbedded into the desk inches away from where Mr. Franklin’s hand was resting. As the man sat trembling looking at the knife Joe reached across the desk and backhanded him hard sending him back into his chair with a bloody lip

“I don’t give a shit about your little collection. You are going to file this report because if you don’t I will personally see to it that your skin is stripped from your bones and you are fed to my dogs while your wife watches. Someone I care for deeply is in a lot of trouble and you ARE going to help me help her out of it or so help me God I will make you pay in ways you can’t imagine – am I being perfectly clear Mr. Franklin?”

Shaken to his core Mr. Franklin slowly nodded and accepted the file. Joe then turned to one of his guards

“Give him the artifact we brought along, need to make it plausible to his wife, I would hate for her to think badly of me after all. Be sure to clean up that lip before she gets home Mr. Franklin. “

Joe then walked quickly out of the house, he wanted to reach out to Gracie and make sure she was okay and didn’t have time to sit around with this fool.

As soon as Joe leaves, The Courier gets up and rolls up his sleeve. "Ladies and gents, I would request that you all step outside, far away from this place. The show starts in approximately five minutes." he tells them with a twisted smile. He loved arson jobs. "I'll see you outside." he whispers to Merci, before planting a kiss on her cheek and heading towards the kitchen. 

Once inside, The Courier opens the secured casing, protecting the gas lines running to the stoves. He pulls out a screwdriver and a spanner from the sack he was carrying, and gets to work, opening up the insulating layer. Once it is off, he loosens the valves so that the gas is free to run out of the pipes, and into the kitchen. He had approximated that he would have to let the pipes spew out their contents for a good three minutes to create a fireball powerful enough to chew through the multiple layers of cement and concrete. 

While the gas continues to pour out, The Courier heads back out of the kitchen and is relieved to find the place empty. He was worried that they wouldn't be able to leave in time. He walks to the electrical circuitry box, and shuts off the power, to prevent any premature ignitions. Returning to the kitchen, he loosens the nearest power line, opens up the insulation and frays the wire with his switchblade before placing the tip right on top of the leaking gas pipes. 

"Right, just two minutes more." he thought to himself, returning to his position by the main switch, preparing to turn the power back on and igniting the gas once it was ready. As the minute hand ticked closer to the mark, he felt a little nervous. "Well, here goes nothing." he thought, as he flicked the power back on. 

There was a world-wrenching boom, and The Courier felt himself fly into the wall, and then collapse onto the floor. He didn't have long to recover himself however, for an inferno, hungry for all within its reach was rampaging through the restaurant, out of the kitchen door. He barely had time to dive out of the door before the entire place was engulfed in flames. 

"Fuck!" he cursed, trying to put out the residual flames on his back, as he half-walked, half-ran to the rest of the group, before the flaming building came crashing down on his head............

Stormwaver had been silent the whole time, just hanging around for moral support and if someone needed her assistance with the fire. When she saw The_Courier stumble out of the building, she instantly strode to his side. She seen enough people die from fire and she wasn't about to have him join them. Stormwaver took off her coat and lightly beated at the smoke coming off his clothes.

"Are you okay?", Stormwaver asked as she finsished and backed away, giving him some air.