This thought gave Don Carmine pause. "Yeah, but he don't have to know what it is."
"What about the Jap? There was a guy with him."
"He look like a fed?"
"No, he looked like a hood."
Don Carmine's disarrayed eyebrows bristled and squirmed in slow thought.
"I wonder who's tryin' to muscle in?" he muttered.
"Search me," admitted Nicky Kix, trying to look innocent. "Maybe it's Don Fiavorante. Gonna make a move on you."
This caused Don Carmine's bristly eyebrows to descend like relays closing.
"If it was, why'd he give back the hard-on disk?" wondered Don Carmine.
"Search me."
"Well; whoever it was, he was makin' a feudal gesture. Completely feudal. We got the disk and we got Boston. Nothin' can stop us now. We're makin' dough hand over fist."
"I am glad to hear this, Don Carmine," said a smooth-as-suntan-oil voice from the slowly opening door.
"Who's that?" growled Don Carmine, starting.
When his eyebrows had jumped up he could see clearly Don Fiavorante Pubescio's well-tanned features beaming at him.
"Don Fiavorante!" Carmine Imbruglia said brightly, his mood changing from suspicion to forced pleasure. He came out of his seat, wiping sweat off his hairy palms.
"So good to see you, Fuggin," said Don Fiavorante, reaching out to embrace his sottocapo.
Carmine Imbruglia returned the embrace, noting the two hulking Pubescio soldiers standing just outside the door. "They don't call me that up here. Up here I'm Cadillac."
"You were always the kidder, Fuggin," said Don Fiavorante. "I like this about you. I always have."
"Yeah, yeah. What can I do for you?"
"I am seeing my rent money come in like it was flowing from a tap, and I say to myself, this Don Carmine, he is one bright boy. I must see his sports book for myself."
"Didn't you get my fax?"
"Perhaps. I do not understand these machines. Many times the machine rings. I get the little light. I hear the loud beeps, but all that rolls out is blank paper."
"Wrong faxes. We get them too. There oughta be a law."
"Tell me, Don Carmine. Your sports book is outperforming Vegas. How do you pick your winners so perfectly?"
"Come on, I'll show you," Don Carmine said, urging Don Fiavorante away from the sealed hard disk with lifted hands that took care not to touch his don. "I got a brilliant new way to pick the winning teams. It's fuggin' phenomenal. Works on the ponies, on football, baseball, anything you want. It's based on a well-known law of human nature nobody but me has caught on to."
They were walking along a curving well-carpeted corridor.
"You use computers?" asked Don Fiavorante.
"Naw. Computers can't do that stuff. Believe me, I tried. First week I had one, I kept typin' in questions like 'Jets or Steelers?' All I got was error this and error that. The fuggin' computer musta thought I was talkin' baseball or somethin'."
"These machines, they are overrated," said Don Fiavorante.
They came at last to a door marked "ODDS MAKERS."
"Watch this," said Don Carmine, throwing the door open. He thrust his bullet head in, startling a quintet of unshaven swarthy-faced men seated around a big-screen TV. They were watching a hockey game.
"Who's playin'?" Don Carmine asked.
"It's the Bruins against the Canadiens," said one swarthy man in a strangely accented voice.
"Who you guys think is gonna win?" asked Don Carmine.
The quintet huddled. When their heads reemerged, the spokesman said, "The Bruins. Clearly."
"Everybody agree on that?" Don Carmine asked.
"Yes."
"Absolutely. "
"Of course."
"Great," said Don Carmine happily. "Thanks." He shut the door.
"The Canadiens," said Don Carmine Imbruglia confidently, "are gonna massacre them Broons."
"You are certain?"
"Absolutely," said Don Carmine. He jerked his thumb back in the direction of the closed door. "You see those guys back there? Palestinians, every one of 'em. They're never right. All you gotta do is ask 'em who'll win and then go with the other team. If they don't agree, that means it'll be a tie. I tell you, it's foolproof. Fuggin' foolproof!"
Don Fiavorante Pubescio placed both hands on the thick shoulders of Don Carmine Imbruglia and in his warmest voice said, "Don Carmine, you are a genius."
Don Carmine puffed out his barrel chest. His tiny eyes twinkled like proud stars.
"I know you will go far in Boston," added the don.
"Thanks, Don Fiavorante."
"And because I know great things lie before you, I am increasing your rent ten percent."
"Ten fuggin' percent!" howled Don Carmine.