Chris Bunch's The Gangster Conspiracy by Steve Perry

Author:Steve Perry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

The Star Risk team sat in von Baldur’s office on the new mezzanine overlooking the casino’s main floor, one of three offices Freddie had for different functions.

Jasmine had called the meeting, and they all looked at her.

“Jas?” von Baldur said.

“I have some scut from one of my informants,” she said. “We are going to get a visit from a local street gang looking for protection baksheesh.”

Goodnight and Grok both perked up at that. “When?” Goodnight asked.

“Tonight,” Jasmine said. “During our opening. The gang reasons that we don’t want any trouble, nothing to mar our coming-out party, so they figure we’ll be more tractable about meeting their terms.”

“Good thinking,” von Baldur said. “That’s how I would play it. Do we know what the terms are?”

“According to my source, they want one percent of our action to make sure that we don’t have any accidents or street rowdies stopping by and causing problems.”

“And do we know the name of this gang?” Grok asked. “And where they might be found?”

“We do,” Jasmine said. “They go by the name ‘Mamas Boyz,’ and they have a clubhouse in the warehouse district, a couple of kilometers from here.”

“Ah, well, that’s convenient,” Goodnight said. “Neighborhood extortion—so much better than having to deal with some out-of-town stranger.”

“Needless to say, we do not need this irritation at this time,” Jasmine said.

“Or any time,” Riss put in.

“And,” von Baldur added, “we probably don’t want to start out with a reputation as people who allow ourselves to be pushed around, given who we are supposed to be.”

“Oh, I agree completely,” Goodnight said.

Von Baldur looked at Jasmine. “Do we know what kind of associations these ‘Mamas Boyz’ have? Who their patrons are?”

“They are loosely linked to one of the two Board members who run this planet,” she said. “Fellow named ‘Susa.’ But apparently he is not concerned with their day-to-day operations, as long as he gets his percentage of whatever business revenues the gang generates. He is already getting a piece of what we make; it comes out as a dealer’s tax or some such. Plus he gets a cut of the contractor’s gross, and undoubtedly the food and liquor supply businesses. Got fingers in a lot of our pies.”

“Ah. Well, the question is, would this fellow Susa be overly displeased with us if we were to, um, deal with the Mamas Boyz on our terms?”

Jasmine shook her head. “Hard to say. From what I have gathered so far, you are either a wolf or a sheep in these parts. The predators don’t have much respect for the prey.”

Goodnight said, “Well, I’m looking around and I don’t see anybody who could pass as a sheep. I say we make that real clear.”

Von Baldur nodded. “Discussion?”

Riss shrugged. Jasmine said nothing. Von Baldur said, “Well, that’s it then. We’ll leave it to Chas and Grok to . . . deliver a message as to what kind of creatures we are, agreed?”

They all nodded.

Von Baldur looked at the chronometer inset into his desk’s top, a lovely antique Volstok analog that probably set them back a couple of thousand credits.

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