Omerta - Mario Puzo [93]
Rubio shook his finger at Tulippa. “Inzio, stop making trouble for the fun of it. We all have a right to decide our personal affairs.”
Grazziella smiled a thin amused smile. “This is true. You, Inzio, have never confided to us your secret laboratories. Your desire to own your own personal weapons. And such a foolish notion. Do you think the government will put up with such a threat? They will change all the laws that now protect us and permit us to thrive.”
Tulippa laughed. He was enjoying this meeting. “I am a patriot,” he said. “I want South America to be in a position to defend itself from countries like Israel and India and Iraq.”
Rubio smiled at him benignly. “I never knew you were a nationalist.”
Portella was unamused. “I have a big problem here. I thought Cilke was my friend. I invested a lot of money in him. And now he is coming after me and all of you.”
Grazziella spoke directly and strongly. “We must abandon the whole project. We must live with less.” He was no longer the amiable man they had known. “We must find another solution. Forget Kurt Cilke and Astorre Viola. They are too dangerous as enemies. We must not pursue a course that could destroy us all.”
“That won’t solve my problem,” Portella said. “Cilke will keep coming after me.”
Tulippa also dropped his mask of affability. He said to Grazziella, “That you should advocate such a peaceful solution is against everything we know about you. You killed police and magistrates in Sicily. You assassinated the governor and his wife. You and your Corleonesi cosca killed the army general who was sent out to destroy your organization. Yet now you say abandon a project that will earn us billions of dollars. And desert our friend Portella.”
“I’m going to get rid of Cilke,” Portella said. “No matter what you say.”
“That is a very dangerous course of action,” the consul general said. “The FBI will declare a vendetta. They will use all their resources to track down his killer.”
“I agree with Timmona,” Tulippa said. “The FBI operates under legal constraints and can be handled. I will supply an assault team, and hours after the operation they will be on the airplane to South America.”
Portella said, “I know it’s dangerous, but it’s the only thing to do.”
“I agree,” Tulippa said. “For billions of dollars one must take risks. Or what are we in business for?”
Rubio said to Inzio, “You and I are at minimal risk because we have diplomatic status. Michael, you return to Sicily for the time being. Timmona, you will be the one who must bear the brunt of what follows.”
“If worse comes to worst,” Tulippa said, “I can hide you in South America.”
Portella spread his hands in the air in a helpless gesture. “I have a choice,” he said. “But I want your support. Michael, do you agree?”
Grazziella’s face was impassive. “Yes, I agree,” he said. “But I would worry more about Astorre Viola than Kurt Cilke.”
CHAPTER 11
WHEN ASTORRE RECEIVED the coded message that Heskow wanted a meeting, he took his precautions. There was always the danger that Heskow might turn against him. So instead of answering the message, he suddenly appeared at Heskow’s home in Brightwaters at midnight. He took Aldo Monza with him and an extra car with four more men. He also wore a bulletproof vest. He called Heskow when he was in the driveway so that he would open the door.
Heskow did not seem surprised. He prepared coffee and served Astorre and himself. Then he smiled at Astorre and said, “I have good news and bad news. Which one first?”
“Just tell it,” Astorre said.
“The bad news is that I have to leave the country for good, and that’s because of the good news. And I want to ask you to keep your promise. That nothing will happen to my boy even if I can’t work for you anymore.”
“You have that promise,” Astorre said. “Now, why do you have to leave the country?”
Heskow shook his head in a comical act of sorrow. He said, “Because that dumb prick Portella is going over the top. He is going to knock off Cilke, the FBI guy. And he wants me to be operational