Chapter 16: Vengeance

Tony stopped by and gathered up Rebecca and Cheri on the way home. He had to wait a few minutes for them to change clothes before piling them in the car. He was silent, refusing to answer questions until they got to his home. He didn't want any discussions to start without Tina.

He managed to get his parents to take Anita to lunch and an afternoon of shopping. This really wasn't something she could understand. In the end he had his sister, his girlfriend, and his daughter along with Riley, who had attended church with Tina, in the basement all seated in front of him.

"OK, here are the basic facts as I know them right now. Cobblestone is gone. It was destroyed by a fire early this morning. When I say gone, that's what I mean. Nothing is salvageable; it's a hundred percent loss."

Tina gasped, then buried her face into Riley's chest. He immediately wrapped his arms around her to comfort her.

"Now some things are going to happen. We will immediately start over. The insurance companies will come around and reimburse Tina and I eventually, but they move at their own pace and if they resolve this by spring I'll be surprised. We have the money to simply loan to the company until those insurance payments come in. We're back at square one as far as I know. We either find a building or land to build a new one on. In the end we've lost a lot of hard work, but otherwise just things right? No one was hurt, just a bunch of inanimate objects were destroyed."

"That's gonna push the album back months," Tina groaned.

"No, not really. Remember we already worked on manufacturing, distribution, and promotion. We still have all that. We just have to lay down the music somewhere else is all. The first album won't be digital, but it will go out on the Cobblestone label."

"Any idea what caused the fire?" Riley asked. "I mean was it some of our wiring we screwed up or something like that?"

Tony sighed. "OK, second phase of this discussion. Cobblestone was burned down. It was arson."

"Who would... ?" Cheri started.

"Stop!" Tony said quickly. "I know who did it and I know why it was done. I don't want the name mentioned. No one is to know that we even have a suspicion of who might have done it. Even the person who lit the match probably doesn't know who paid him to do it. Not a word.

"I can't protect you all if you don't completely act as if you are totally oblivious to the cause of that fire. Not a word, just a sad accident. I need you to promise me you will do that."

"What are you going to do Tony?" Rebecca asked in a fearful whisper.

"Rebuild, move on with it."

"I've heard half-truths from you before Tony and that was a fat one." She replied, the fear in her voice moving to anger.

"OK, fair enough. I am, and I mean I am, going to make sure nothing like this happens again. Outside of that, once again, I won't answer and I don't want the question asked.

"All of you need to understand that this cannot be us against them. I can't protect you all and if you aren't involved then you don't need to be protected."

"Who's gonna protect you Tony?" Tina asked.

"I won't be alone, that I promise you. Someone predicted something like this might happen. I have sources to work with. You will never know who they are. I probably won't know exactly who they are. I will protect you girls, all of you. Sometimes I really believe that's what I'm on this earth for. In this case the best way to do it is to keep you as far from it as possible. That fire wasn't set because of you. It was aimed squarely at me. As long as you stay out of it then you're safe.

"I know that you know something will be done. You should know me well enough to know that no one will get hurt if it can be possibly avoided. I will not allow my contacts to start some kind of tit-for-tat war. Outside of that even I don't know right now, but I have some ideas to permanently end this.

"Now, I'm going down to the boat to relax if that's possible. If I can't get your promise that you will simply stay out of things and let me do what needs to be done, let me know."

Rebecca, of course, followed him to Kalliste. He had no doubt she had made sure she was the only one as well.

Tony was already sitting on the leather couch nursing a drink when she came in and curled up next to him. They said nothing for many long moments. "I know the answer to this Tony," Rebecca finally said. "Do you really know what you're doing here?"

"No sweetie. Not in any specific way just yet. I will have a meeting tonight, ground rules will be established. The first of those is that no one gets hurt. Not on either side. After that, I imagine my contacts may have some ideas."

"That doesn't leave much else."

"Sure it does. What is the one thing your boyfriend has quite a lot of?"

Rebecca actually snorted when she thought of that. "Money"

"Correct. I don't know exactly what form it may take yet, but I intend to wage a little bit of economic warfare until certain people understand that we are to be left alone, forever."

"Hit them in the pocketbook? I like that."

"Yep, and unless I'm wrong I'm pretty sure nothing is as precious to organized crime as their pocketbook."

"OK"

"OK, what?" Tony asked.

"I trust you."

Tony set his drink down and gathered his love into his arms. "Thank you, I'm not sure you know just what that means to me." They stayed that way, just holding each other for a long time.

Later that afternoon Tony was sitting in a non-descript diner off of I-95 only a few miles out of Savannah nursing a cup of coffee. It was where he was told to be. In only moments a large figure appeared next to his table. "I'm Joshua," he said. "Let's go for a ride."

Tony threw a couple of dollars onto the table and followed the man out. From behind he could tell he was a black man and he had spoken in a deep gravelly voice. He led them to a non-descript grey sedan, probably from the mid seventies. Inside the vinyl seats were tearing in places and the headliner showed places of hasty repair lest it fall down completely.

Once the car was started the man eased out and joined the interstate heading south. Finally he spoke again. "I will call you Isaiah, and you will call me Joshua. No other names are required."

"All right Joshua," Tony replied.

"I will tell you what I know. You tell me what I'm leaving out. I will talk for a while. You had a run in with a Mr. Yakimoto last week over a legal issue involving custody of a young girl. Mr. Yakimoto is not pleased that he seems to no longer have any legal recourse of returning the young girl to the custody of his sister. To intimidate you he seems to have torched a business of yours. Facts?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Yakimoto is an enforcer, and not just muscle, very high up in the chain of the Kiromo family in Japan. They are into just about everything. Mostly they are the number two supplier on the island of coke and heroin. To do that they involve themselves in smuggling, payoffs, money laundering and more. All those things you have to do to cover the money. Their largest legitimate concern is Kymo Electronics Limited. Third grade cheap electronics, toys, games, TV, Stereo, and VCR's those kinds of things.

"In short we are quite familiar with the opposition, your cause is just, and the Brotherhood takes care of its own. What is it you want of us Isaiah?"

"If possible? I would like to squeeze the so-called legitimate business. I want Mr. Yakimoto's boss, not Yakimoto himself. Because he is family, even if unwelcome family, to the young girl I don't want him harmed. Indeed I want no one harmed. Even better, it would serve if Mr. Yakimoto remained in the employ of his current boss so that an eye could be kept on him. I want it made clear to his boss that Mori Yakimoto is no longer to lift one finger off of Japanese soil for any reason. I want this done with assurances that my family and friends are safe. If you can't absolutely assure that we can end our discussion."

"This is not the way of things Isaiah. It is a matter of honor to everyone that families do not get involved. It will not happen. I can't completely guarantee your personal safety, but given the circumstances if anything happened to you personally it would cause problems. Surely the investigation would point back to Yakimoto and many things Kiromo doesn't want investigated would be involved. It will be made known that the Brotherhood would take a very harsh view if you were harmed. You are as safe as you can be.

"Also there is the very, very high possibility that the Kiromo family is not involved. They, themselves will take a very dim view of actions taken here, especially when it seems to have caused a bit of a turf war they had no intentions of getting into."

"Given what I've said," Tony continued, "do you recommend a course of action?"

"We can actually recommend two. One that you will have no involvement in, the other you may wish to dabble in yourself as it is completely above board and a young man of your means has the resources to do it. Both go hand in hand and will cause Kymo Electronics rather severe economic hardship I assure you."

"I'm listening."

For the next twenty minutes the two ideas were discussed and agreed upon. Once they seemed to be in agreement, Tony finally asked the obvious question.

"For the Brotherhood, of which I am not a member, how much?"

"You have to understand Isaiah, you are a special case. Indeed it caused quite the discussion. Normally when a favor such as this is given, a favor in kind at some time in the future is owed. It seems that shortly you are going to become an even more powerful man and favors owed to the Brotherhood by very rich and powerful men are highly valuable to us. But in this case you are correct. You are not of the Brotherhood. When our business is concluded it is concluded. You will never be contacted by the Brotherhood again, ever. A favor is owed by the brother who contacted us but he insisted that it be he who owed. On the other hand you are a man of means. When we part you will be given a list. On this list are one dozen fully registered and recognized charitable organizations. We suggest you make donations to the charities on that list."