Vincenzo Gambini sat nervously in the fancy business office he kept downtown. The fact that he had 15 armed guards surrounding the office on all sides, as well as two in his office itself, did little to comfort him.
Someone was gunning for him.
Or at least that's how it seemed.
His nephew Carlo, who had been on the job only a couple of weeks now, had just been found dead in his garage, a package containing his... ah... "Man-Thing"... was mailed to his wife.
Across town three of his best guys had lost their heads... literally... while attempting to "hit" a local judge who had been giving his family a hard time. The judge escaped and somehow gained ahold of some damning evidence that had the potential to bring him down.
And, to top it off, a total of seven of his guys were killed at random all over town, each of whom were with friends who "saw nothing", and each of whom had pieces of paper stuffed down their throat, which said:
GAMBINI IS DEAD GAMBINI IS DEAD GAMBINI IS DEAD
Ever since then, understandably enough, Gambini had been keeping himself out of the public eye.
His nightclubs and gambling joints could handle themselves, he supposed, though attendance had dropped suddenly for some inexplicable reason. His dealers kept on disappearing, a few of them explaining they were "Moving away... far, far away". And the heads of the other families wouldn't return any of his calls. It was strange. Business wasn't doing so good these days.
And then there was this business with that deadbeat Piper. Seems his kids had been rescued right out from under his guys' noses -- at great loss of life, it must be noted -- although the mother seemed to have been killed. Who was this mofo Kit Piper, anyway? He seemed to be better connected than Gambini ever suspected. He knew something about the "MBL Consulting" gig Piper was involved with, but it seemed to be a real small-time operation. Strictly amateur. So who was knocking off all'a his guys?
"Hello, Mr. Gambini."
Vincenzo Gambini jerked as he heard the voice in the room, and he jumped up and looked around. There was no one to be seen, and there didn't seem to be any place to hide. No closets to hide in or couches to hide behind, at all.
"Wh-who's there?"
"I think you know, Gambini..."
All of the hairs on the back of Gambini's neck seemed to stick straight up just then. "Y-you're the guy who's been whacking all my guys, aren't ya?" he said nervously, at the same time reaching into his coat pocket and producing two guns. "Well, wherever you are, you're gonna DIE, YOU SONUVA--"
Gambini shot his guns in virtually every direction of the room, but as the echoes of the gunshots began to dim down (and why hadn't any of his bodyguards come rushing in at the sound?), the only sound in the room that could be heard was laughter:
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA"
"Who the fuck ARE you?" he screeched.
"I am your worst nightmare. A-heh. No, no... scratch that. It doesn't quite sound like me. It suffices to say that I was hired by a Mr. Kit Piper of Puerta Mibela, La Perdita, in the Lesser Antilles chain in the Caribbean islands. You've been a very naughty boy, haven't you, Gambini?"
Sweat began to pour off the mob boss' face. It seemed to be getting hotter in here. "Whatever the guy paid you, I'll double it -- no, TRIPLE it! Whatever you want, man, I can give you!!!"
A pause.
"Hmm... No. No, Mr. Gambini, I'm afraid I can't accept your offer. I have a reputation to uphold, after all. Who would trust to hire old Griffin again once word got out that he had failed to complete an operation merely because his victim was willing to pay a better price? I do have principles, sir."
Gambini sunk to his knees as he heard the name "Griffin" -- was there anyone in the Underworld who hadn't heard that name and trembled? Legend was he was unstoppable. Legend was that no one had ever seen his face, but that he had always left his calling card. "Please don't kill me... I'll stay away from Piper from now on. I'll consider the guy 'untouchable' from here on out. An'... an' I'll spread the word to all the other families. Nobody touches Kit Piper or his family. Just don't kill me. Don't kill me." His words trailed off and turned into loud sobbing.
"Pathetic."
The crime boss didn't respond, but continued to shake in fear and terror. Here was a man he couldn't bribe or control, who held Gambini's life in his hands. Griffin sighed loudly.
"Very well."
Gambini perked up.
"I am not without sympathy. I was so looking forward to killing you, but I there is little honour in putting to death a quivering worm like yourself. Luckily for you, my contract allows me to negotiate the terms and conditions, which, of course, for you are non-negotiable. I will, of course, require the entire sum of money you extorted from Mr. Piper..."
"Yes, of course! Anything! I'll double that amount just to get him off my back!"
"...as well as a further sum for the loss of Diana Piper and for the trauma that the children have been put through. On top of that, there is my own fee, which need not come directly out of Mr. Piper's pocketbook. The condition for all this would be your oath never to put in harm's way Piper or any of his family or friends. Consider them all untouchable."
"Done..." Gambini said. "I'll have the money brought in right away, wherever you want it."
"Right. Right. Well, then. It's been a pleasure. I trust you won't give us any further problems, then? After all, I happen to know that you have three sons currently studying in a boarding school in Switzerland. It would be regrettable if something should happen to them."
"What do you take me for, Mr. Gambini? I am hardly a child-killer. Unless, of course, circumstances require me to do so. The final stipulation of my contract with Mr. Piper is that, should he or his children be harmed by anyone in your organization in any way, your family will be the first to feel my wrath. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes... yes, you have."
"Very well, then. Now that we've gotten the 'messy' parts over with, let's complete our transaction..."
