“How long do we have to keep doing this?” I whined.
“Until Dad says we don’t have to do it anymore,” Angelo said.
Nobody should have to wake up at 4 AM. Unfortunately for me, Angelo, and the rest of our crew, Uncle Luca had forced us to do that every morning for the past two weeks. It was supposed to be our penance for planning the robbery without his approval. He might’ve forgiven us for it, but that didn’t mean he could let us off scott-free. I was still pissed at Mello for telling him everything, but he denied doing it.
Every morning we had to wake up so early that even roosters were still sleeping in, and drive around town to track down some guy named Ronald Ershon. Uncle Luca was adamant that we needed to find this guy ASAP and grew increasingly agitated as we failed to get results. On top of this wild goose chase, I still had to go to my bodyguard gig afterward and protect The Xtremers until late at night. I’d never been so sleep-deprived in my life. My bloodstream was mostly caffeine at this point. Even though he never complained about it, it was clear that Angelo was hanging on by a thread too. A few of the other guys in the gang had been running the poker game while we were dealing with this.
“I still don’t get why your dad is so hung up on finding this guy. Has he told you what this is all about?” I said.
Angelo shook his head. “Nope. Whenever I try to get some answers from him he just tells me to mind my business and get back to searching for Ershon.”
We were parked outside a rundown old apartment building. Joey got a tip from a friend of a friend that Ershon would show up here. They said that he was hiding out with an escort who lived in this building. She was supposed to be getting home from work at around this time. We didn’t know how good this intell was, but it was all we had to go on. I noticed a tall woman in a revealing outfit walking down the street.
NEW ACTIVE QUEST
QUEST: COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE
OBJECTIVE: TAKE RONALD ERSHON TO ELEVATION REAL ESTATE
TIME LIMIT: INDEFINITE
REWARD: 200 XP
“Is that the woman?” I asked.
Joey quickly pulled up the picture on his phone and looked back up at her. “Yeah, that’s her. Let’s go!”
Angelo got out of the car. “You and Mello stay here. If too many of us go in there at once, she might realize that something is up and tip off that Ershon guy that we’re coming. Nico, come with me and follow my lead.”
I jumped out of the car and we hurried to the apartment building. Angelo stuck his foot in the door before it could close. The woman was already inside the elevator by the time we got into the building. She saw us coming and held it open for us.
“Thanks,” Angelo said, flashing her a smile.
“No problem,” She nodded.
Angelo pretended to reach for the buttons on the wall and then stopped when he saw that she’d already pressed the button for her floor. We settled in and stood there in silence. I felt my heart beating faster. We hadn’t talked about what would happen once we followed the money back to Ershon’s apartment, so I wasn’t sure how this would go. I decided to trust that Angelo knew what he was doing.
When the elevator came to a stop on the 6th floor, Angelo stood aside and let the woman get out before us.
“Thanks. Who says chivalry is dead?” the woman chuckled.
“You’re welcome. Have a good day,” Angelo said.
The woman walked down the hallway towards her apartment. Angelo pulled his keys out of his pocket and dropped them on the ground. He made a big show of fumbling to pick them up. By the time he got back on his feet, the woman had already put her key into the door to her apartment.
“Now,” Angelo whispered.
We sprinted towards the woman at the same moment that she turned her key and unlocked the door. She stumbled backward when she saw us bounding in her direction. Before she could get inside the apartment, we were right behind her.
Angelo placed one hand on her shoulder firmly and pressed a pocket knife into her back. “Relax. Don’t do anything stupid and this will all be over soon.”
“Chloe, is that you? What took you so long?” said a voice from the living room.
We walked further into the apartment and saw a skinny man with dark hair watching an old action movie on the TV. He didn’t bother to look in our direction.
“Ronnie? You have some… guests.” the woman said. She was shaking like a leaf.
“Guests? What’re you talking abou-” He started to say. The TV remote fell out of his hand as he whipped around. His face paled when he saw us and took in the situation. Tears rolled down Chloe’s face.
“Ronald Ershon? Luca Moretti wants to see you,” Angelo said.
“I don’t want anything to do with you people. Get out of my apartment!” He yelled.
Angleo narrowed his eyes. “Do you really want to talk like that to the guy holding the knife? his doesn’t have to get ugly. Just come with us quietly.”
Ershon looked at Chloe and sighed. “Alright, Alright. Can I at least change my clothes first?”
“Nope. Let’s go.” I said. It seemed like a bad idea to let him go into another room where he could try to grab a weapon or call the cops or something.
Ershon grumbled to himself incoherenly, but complied. I stood close behind him so that he couldn’t run away. Angelo kept his knife on Chloe’s back until we reached the door.
“Don’t try to be a hero and call the cops after we’re gone,” He told her before we left. “Trust me, that won’t end well for you.”
She nodded her head violently and slammed the door behind us. I heard the lock click. Angelo turned the knife on Ershon and I pressed the button for the elevator so we could get out of there before someone saw us. We managed to get him down to the car without anyone noticing that something was wrong. Once we got to the car we squeezed Ershon into the backseat in between me and Angelo. While Joey drove us to the real estate office, we tried to get some info out of Ershon about his connection to Uncle Luca. Unfortunately, he refused to speak to us at all. It was a long awkward ride. Finally, we arrived at Elevation Real Estate and pushed Ershon through the door.
QUEST “COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE” COMPLETE
200 XP AWARDED
NEW SKILLS AVAILABLE
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The real estate office was just as empty as it usually was. I greeted some of the guys there as we made our way to the back office. Uncle Luca lit up when he saw us come in.
“Ronald Ershon. Just the man I wanted to see,” Uncle Luca said with a savage grin. “Good work, guys. Now if you’ll excuse me, Ershon and I have a lot to talk about. Give us a few minutes alone and then I’ll have a chat with Angelo and Nico after.”
Whatever he had in mind for Ershon couldn’t be anything good. Angelo and I cleared out the room and waited outside. Part of me wanted to put my ear against the door and try and listen in, but the part of me that wasn’t a complete idiot ruled that idea out. Still, after spending so much time tracking the guy down I was curious to know what my Uncle wanted from him. I decided to pass the time by looking at the Skills section of the system to see what was available. Instead of just staring into space like a weirdo, I pulled out my phone and pretended to surf the web.
* CAPTAIN COOK I: MASTER 1 NEW RECIPE TO COOK DRUGS. COST: 100 XP
* SAFECRACKER I: GRANTS BASIC LOCKPICKING SKILLS. PASSIVE ABILITY. COST: 100 XP
* SHARPSHOOTER 1: GRANTS BASIC GUN HANDLING SKILLS. PASSIVE ABILITY. COST: 200 XP
* STICKY FINGERS I: GRANTS BASIC PICKPOCKETING SKILLS. COST: 200 XP
* NINJA RUN I: GRANTS BASIC PARKOUR SKILLS. PASSIVE ABILITY. COST: 200 XP
Captain Cook still didn’t interest me. Safecracker didn’t seem like a bad choice. Ever since I joined the mob I seemed to spend a decent amount of time trying to get into the houses of people who didn’t want me there, so lockpicking skills could come in handy. That one was a maybe. I didn’t expect to find myself in a situation where I needed to use a gun any time soon, so I decided not to go with Sharpshooter. Sticky fingers seemed kind of lame for a skill that cost so much XP. I laughed when I saw the Ninja Run skill. The thought of climbing up buildings and running on rooftops like an anime character was pretty funny. It could be useful if I ever needed to make a quick escape. Eventually I decided to go with Safecracker because it seemed like something that I’d be able to use more often. Now my next kidnapping job would go even smoother. I watched my XP drop back down to 150.
The door to my uncle’s office swung open a few moments after I chose my new skill. Uncle Luca walked out grinning like the Chesire Cat. He had his arm draped around the shoulders of a very nervous-looking Ronald Ershon.
“Glad we could work things out. Get things started on your end and I’ll check in with you soon,” Uncle Luca said.
“S..sounds good. I’ll get right on it,” Ershon said. He scurried out of the office.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“Step into my office. We have a lot to talk about.”
“You’re aware of the current situation we’ve been facing with the Caruso family, right?” He waited for me to nod before he continued. “For years now, they’ve been expanding their territory and making it harder for us to do business. They’ve got more goons, so going up against them has been difficult. But that’s all about to change.”
“What do you mean? They still outnumber us so how can we go against them?” Angelo said.
Uncle Luca frowned. “Don’t interrupt me. I’m getting to that. They might have more people and more influence than us, but now we have two things that they don’t: a new market and a new product.”
“This security racket that you boys have cooked up has been going very smoothly so far. I appreciate all the cash that it’s bringing in. But I think we can use it as an opportunity to make even more money,” he said. “We now have access to a new market of customers with deep pockets and low intelligence. This is a world that the Carusos haven’t tried to break into yet, which means that we shouldn’t have any direct competition.”
I hesitated for a moment before I spoke. “I’m not sure I’m following you. Direct competition for what?”
“The YouTube kid that you work for likes to party, doesn’t he? That’s his whole shtick? Well, the club crowd loves to get high while they’re having a good time. They need somebody to help them get high, so it might as well be us.”
I felt my stomach turn. Drugs? He wanted us to become drug dealers?
“Uncle, I hope I’m not overstepping here, but I don’t think this is a good idea. We could get in a lot of trouble if we get involved in selling drugs,” I said.
Uncle Luca snorted. “Sorry to burst your bubble kid, but we’ve been selling drugs for years. It’s not glamorous, but we do what we have to if we want to put food on the table. It’s just a part of the business.”
I looked at Angelo in horror and he avoided my gaze. Never in a million years would I have thought that he’d stoop to dealing drugs. I’d always looked up to him and I couldn’t believe that he was okay with this.
“For as long as I can remember, The Carusos have had a lock on all the heroin and meth in the area,” Uncle Luca continued. “Those assholes have forced us to rely on them as our supplier and we have to pay an insane markup on every shipment. We have a certain territory where we’re able to sell without pissing them off, but they keep shrinking that territory more and more every year. Cocaine is controlled by the Colombians and trying to go up against them would be even crazier than tangling with the Carusos. But everything is different now that you brought Ershon to me.”
“Why? Who is he?” Angelo asked.
“Ershon used to develop new synthetic drugs for a major pharmaceutical company. He has a Ph.D in chemistry from MIT. The man is like a real-life Walter White,” Uncle Luca said. “He fell on hard times and borrowed a lot of money from me, but then he tried to skip out on paying what he owed.”
Realization dawned on me. “And now that you’ve found him, you’re going to use him to develop new drugs for you,” I said.
“You got it! We can use him to create synthetic stuff like Molly and make a boatload of cash. The best part is that our customer base will be completely removed from The Carusos’. While they’re peddling crank to bikers and meth heads, we’ll be making money hand over fist from these influencer hipster kids,” Uncle Luca laughed.
“Nobody says hipster anymore, Dad,” Angelo groaned.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can do this,” I said. “I know that we’re not exactly saints, but I never wanted to become a drug dealer. That stuff can ruin people’s lives. There are some lines that you just shouldn’t cross.”
“Don’t give that crap. You’re the one who came to me and asked to be a part of all this! If you’re in, then you’re in.” Uncle Luca said. “I warned you that this was serious business and you told me that you were ready for it.”
I winced. “I know. I guess I just didn’t know exactly what I was getting myself into. I want to make money but I don’t want to be the reason that someone becomes an addict.. or overdoses.”
“Look, I can understand your concerns. These people are going to get their drugs one with or without you. So you might as well be the one to profit off it. And Ershon knows what he’s doing. He’s not going to make the drugs so powerful that they hurt people. None us want that to happen,” Uncle Luca said.
I’d only known The Xtremers for a month and a half, but I’d started to enjoy the job. They were all pretty welcoming and chill when the cameras weren’t rolling. My security job with them felt more like hanging out with some friends than working. Harry and I had grown especially close. He trusted me after I’d protected him from the robbery. That trust might have been based on a lie, but if I started pushing drugs on him it would be like completely trampling on the trust that I’d built up so far. The Xtremers liked to party and get wasted but I’d never seen them do any hard drugs. I didn’t want to be the one to get them hooked on anything.
“Aren’t we already making good money from the security business? You said so yourself. Do we really need to sell this stuff? We could find another way to make money if we need to,” I said.
“My mind is made up, Nico. This is just the way that it has to be. We need to adapt with the times or we’re going to die out. You’re the one who helped me see that,” Uncle Luca said. “Every crew in our organization is going to have a quota of merch that they’ll have to sell each week. I don’t care how you divide the work as look as you meet that quota. Ershon told me that he should be able to produce the first batch by next week, so we’ll hit the ground running then. Understand?”
“Yeah, no problem. We know what we have to do. Right, Nico?”
I clenched my fist. “Yeah,” I said softly.
My uncle smiled. “Good. I’m glad that we’re all on the same page. Trust me, this is going to work out well for everybody. I’ll see you later.”
I turned and headed out the door. “See you later, Uncle.”
My mind was a jumbled mess when I left the office. I didn’t know why I’d agreed to go along with this. Was I really about to become a drug dealer? Sure I could make a lot of money from this, but I didn’t know if it was worth it. My uncle had always looked out for me in the past and I wanted to believe that he wouldn’t steer me wrong. He knew more about this world than I did. If he seemed sure that this wouldn’t be such a big deal then maybe I should just listen to him.
Ershon was supposed to be a talented chemist, so it was unlikely that he would mess up the formulas when he created the drugs. And he knew what would happen to him if he disappointed Uncle Luca. There was no way that my uncle would sell drugs that would cause people to overdose. That would just bring unwanted attention to the gang and he was too smart for that. So keeping all of that in mind, there was probably nothing for me to worry about. This operation would probably be as safe as drug dealing could possibly get. Right? The arguments seemed fairly solid. We were going to sell the drugs, make a lot of money and everyone would be just fine. Maybe if I repeated that to myself enough times I would start to believe it.