CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 19
By six-forty five the four brothers were all seated at the large table in Danieli’s office. Each had finished a glass of wine and was ready for a refill. ‘Thanks for coming guys.’ Danieli said, ‘I had an interesting visitor today. The minister for the Environment and his sidekick dropped in for a chat. He gave a detailed account of the visit, including his reactions to the visitors themselves. ‘So what do you think guys? Should we take up the offer?’
His brothers knew he was joking and played along, ‘Sure’ Nicolo said, ‘let’s do it. Then we can all shoot through to Sicily and play in the sun.’
‘Shut up Nicko.’ Vincenzo snapped. ‘This is serious shit. These creeps are trying to sell out on the people, and they actually think we’re gunna help ‘em.’
‘Chill little brother.’ Nicolo said gently. ‘Let them think what they like. Don’t get your knickers in a twist; we’ll soon have them screaming for mercy.’
‘And how are we gunna do that?’ asked Stefano.
‘By playing along with them.’ Charlie said, ‘We’ll let them dig a hole big enough to put the PM’s residence in it, and then we’ll let the press tear them into little pieces.’
‘And how do you suggest we actually dig this hole Charlie? If we play along with them, we’ll go down too.’ Stefano said, thumping his fist on the table, ‘and I ain’t about to stand by while some slimy dick drags the Travioli name through the mud.’
‘Neither am I.’ Charlie said firmly. ‘Hear me out fellas.’ The brothers all reached for their wine and nodded. ‘OK Charlie, what’s you plan?’ Vincenzo asked.
‘It’s simple. Danieli tells the PM his minister is on the take, we play along, get the dirt on the scumbags and when they think we’re cooperating, we leak to the press.’
‘Won’t work.’ chipped in Nicolo. ‘The PM can’t afford to step in and save us if our name’s been linked to a dirty minister. Anyway who’d believe him if he did? No one; that’s who. People would just say he was lying and we were as dirty as the pollie dudes. No one would believe we were just playing along until the time was right to expose them. People would say we just got nabbed before the job was done and we turned nasty on our former partner to take the heat off ourselves.’ Nicolo added; his face tight with tension.
‘Nicko’s right guys. If we do this we’ve got to find our own way to show people the Minister’s a crook; and it’s gotta be a way that doesn’t cover us with shit when the fan goes on.’ Vincenzo said. ‘Maybe we take on the job, all clean an innocent like, then we find out which other companies tendered and we suggest they scream ‘inside job’. Stefano added.
‘That’s not such a crazy idea. Only why don’t we just joint venture with our two major rivals? We don’t have to put it in the proposal, we can announce it after the contract winner has been announced. We just say that we want to speed up the end dates and we decided to subcontract two thirds of the work to Lexington Brothers and the Transcon boys . We hold a press conference; we make the announcement, press the flesh a bit, photos of us all grinning like jackasses, and we do the bloody job. All sweet and clean.’ Charlie was breathless when he finished. ‘So what do think guys?’
‘You’re a clever man Charlie. That’s the solution. What’s scumbag Bellingham and his little boy gunna do about it? Run to the big guy and cry that he’s been suckered out of 30% of the profits? Nawh. He’ll still try to come out as the saint who saved a nation. He’ll have to keep up the pretence if he wants to keep his job.’
Vincenzo finally spoke, ‘It doesn’t seem fair that someone as filthy as Bellingham and his friend Jacob, just get off free. They deserve to be exposed and they deserve to be run out of town.’
‘Absolutely brother,’ Danieli said and patted him on the shoulder, ‘And they will be.’ He walked over to the cabinet behind him, pulled open the doors to reveal a large screen TV. He picked up the remote and hit the play button.
‘As soon as we’ve got the other companies on the job, and we’re all working happily together, then my brothers we will send a copy of this to all the major TV stations.’ The screen filled with the image of the Minister for the Environment, Jacob and Danieli. Their whole meeting played out before them; everything recorded onto a high resolution DVD, and with sound quality to rival many recording studios. We get Sophia to edit out my face and voice and then we send off the doctored disc.’