After The Fall (Book 4): Undercover Read online

  “And this is Alex Jasco,” Steve continued. He gestured to the man sitting next to Nicoletti. He was a large man, well over six feet tall and weighing over two hundred pounds.

  “He goes by the nickname, ‘Ears’,” Joe said.

  Kevin sat quietly, not saying anything. Nicoletti looked like the hood he probably was. Kevin had seen enough of his type with Stansky during his reign in Hillsboro. Jasco, or Ears, looked like a bodyguard, muscle for someone in power, Nicoletti in this case. Take more than one 9mm bullet to stop that guy. He had the type of body that a .45 was made for.

  “Why Ears?”

  Kevin directed his question to the man. He made the chair he was sitting in look small. That didn’t seem to make him uncomfortable, though. He was used to being oversized and seemed untroubled with his effect on others. He was imposing, no doubt, but Nicoletti was the one to worry about. Kevin was afraid he was not bringing good news to the town.

  Ears just smiled and pointed to his two appendages, scarred by years of contact, probably from boxing.

  “Mr. Nicoletti has traveled here from Charlotte,” Steve said. “I asked him to wait until you could join me to hear what brought him all the way to our town.” Steve nodded to Nicoletti to begin.

  The man shifted forward in his chair. “Mr. Tagliani sent me here to talk with you about some overdue payments we’re owed. Joe Stansky, who I assume you know, stopped paying the money he owed to Mr. Tagliani two years ago and Mr. Tagliani wants to make his account current.”

  Here it is, Kevin thought. We knew this day might come. Now we’ve got another challenge to deal with. He sat quietly. Steve would have to take the lead as mayor. He was there to offer his support as well as his insights after these men had departed.

  “And who is Mr. Tagliani?” Steve asked.

  “Al Tagliani,” Nicoletti relied. “He’s in charge of Charlotte.”

  “And why would Joe Stansky be paying Mr. Tagliani?”

  “We had a business arrangement. Stansky paid Mr. Tagliani for the right to operate in Hillsboro on his own. Think of it as a franchise fee.”

  Nicoletti turned as Kevin gave out a short laugh.

  “It was a legitimate business arrangement,” Nicoletti said. “But he stopped making payments after the power went out.”

  “What you say brings so many questions to mind,” Steve said. “Let me start by first asking why is this the town’s problem?”

  “We know that the town played a role, shall we say, in closing down Stansky’s operations. That made it impossible for him to bring his account current with us. So, you inherit the account.”

  Steve continued. “Why’d Tagliani wait more than two years to inquire about his fee, as you call it?”

  Joe smiled. It was a smile that failed to soften the menace in his face. “As you know, things got crazy after the power went out. Charlotte was a war zone. The cops were overwhelmed by local gangs and people were starving, attacking one another…it was chaos. Mr. Tagliani had to get things under control.”

  “Is he head of the police?” Steve asked. He figured he knew the answer but wanted to hear it from Nicoletti.

  Now the big guy, Ears, laughed.

  “Let’s say,” Nicoletti replied with his smile still in place, “that he worked closely with the police. After desertions from the ranks and officers getting killed, the police weren’t able to deal with the anarchy. Mr. Tagliani couldn’t let the local gang bangers just ruin the city, kill anyone in their way. We had to go out there and bust ‘em up, put them in their place. Ears here can tell you some stories. We all could. There wasn’t no time to worry about Stansky. But after we got things under control Mr. Tagliani decided it was time to call in the debt.”

  “So, you helped the police get the city under control. Where was the National Guard in all this?”

  “They helped, but in the end, they couldn’t do what we could.”

  “They just stepped aside and let you handle things?” Kevin asked.

  “They didn’t have much choice. So many of their members left and headed home to protect their families, they didn’t have the manpower, so we took over.”

  “That’s some story,” Steve said. “This guy, Tagliani, runs the city now?”

  “We keep things nice and calm,” Nicoletti responded.

  “You do know Stansky’s dead?” Steve asked.

  “We heard.”

  “That means he’s not around to pay whatever it is you say he owes you.”

  “Like I said, you inherit his debt. And we understand Hillsboro has his assets.”

  “We have the resources that he was stockpiling for the city. They belong to the city.”

  “But the fee wasn’t paid. The fee don’t go away, even if Stansky ain’t around. It has to be paid.”

  Steve looked nervous. Kevin could see he was unsure of what direction to take the conversation.

  “What was this ‘fee’ you talk about for? You called it a ‘franchise fee’.”

  “Kind a like that. He paid us a fee for the right to run his operations here in Hillsboro. His nightclubs.”

  “He was running a criminal enterprise in town,” Steve said.

  Nicoletti shrugged. “Don’t know nothing about that. He was paying us to run his clubs. As far as we were concerned, they were legitimate. If he broke the law here, we weren’t part of it.”

  “Gambling, prostitution, extortion, protection, that’s what he was involved in. You’d be familiar with such activities, wouldn’t you?” Steve responded.

  “We run legitimate businesses. We gave Mr. Stansky a license to operate bars and nightclubs here in town. He made money from them. The city confiscated his assets, so the city needs to pay us the money.”

  Steve just sat there, staring at Nicoletti who stared right back at him.

  Now we have a macho stare-down? Kevin thought.

  Finally, Steve rose. He went over to a cabinet behind his desk and took out a bottle of Jack Daniels, along with two glasses. He brought them back to his desk and poured a couple of fingers in each glass.

  “I need to discuss a couple of things with my associate here. Please, enjoy some of this increasingly rare bottled whiskey while we talk about this situation. Make yourselves comfortable. We’ll be just a few minutes.”

  He headed for the door with Kevin following.

  Chapter 3

  ___________________________________

  W hat the hell do I do?” Steve asked when the two men had left the office.

  “This comes from everyone thinking we’re resource rich,” Kevin said “That’s what Knoxville thought when they tried to shake us down. It doesn’t surprise me that Charlotte would be aware of that information. Seems as though Stansky paid money to operate in Tagliani’s territory. It really is like a franchise fee. And it sounds like we’re dealing with the Charlotte mob, the mafia.”

  “Then their request is illegal. We don’t have to consider it,” Steve said.

  “Of course it’s illegal. But that doesn’t mean it will go away. Knoxville didn’t go away and their request was just as illegitimate. Remember we had to fight them off.”

  Kevin thought for a moment, then continued. “The question is, does this Tagliani actually run Charlotte? It’s a big city. Could he really get it all under his control? Knoxville was dangerous partly because the man we were dealing with ran the whole city and could use all of its assets,” Kevin said.

  “How could he get control over such a large city?”

  “Who knows? We heard there was a lot of chaos down there. If his mob was large enough, organized enough, they could have cornered a lot of weapons and coopted the police while taking down the smaller gangs. A larger version of what Stansky did here. What you need to do is buy us some time until we can figure this out.”

  Steve opened the door and the two men went back into his office.

  “I still have a lot of questions about your request,” Steve began. “First does Mr. Tagliani run the city? Is this a reque
st from the Charlotte government or is it an individual request from Tagliani? And I’m still not convinced we’re responsible for Stansky’s fee as you call it.

  “Stansky was a criminal, broke our laws, and tried to take over the town,” Steve continued. “He was killed in an operation that removed him from power. If he hadn’t been killed, he would have been either imprisoned for a long time or executed. His assets were legitimately forfeited to the government—seized if you will.” He smiled, “I’m sure you’re familiar with government seizures.”

  Nicoletti didn’t smile. His eyes narrowed. “You got a lot of questions. What you got to understand is that if you don’t want trouble with Mr. Tagliani, you need to pay what is owed.”

  “For the record,” Kevin asked, “how much are we talking about?”

  “Five hundred grand.”

  “If it’s money you want, I can probably arrange to pull that amount out of the local bank vaults.”

  “I’m not a fool,” Nicoletti said. “Paper money is worthless. We’ll need our payment in gold or ammunition or fuel.”

  Kevin spoke up. “Just so we understand one another, Tagliani is the Charlotte mafia boss, isn’t he? I can look it up in our police records and probably confirm the fact. This request is to pay off the mob.”

  Nicoletti looked at Kevin with a slight smile on his face.

  “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.”

  “I can’t agree to anything at this point,” Steve said. “We have a civilian government, with a city council. Your request has to go before the council to see how they want to respond. I’m going to have to tell them that it’s not an official request from the city, but it comes from a mob boss. That probably won’t help.”

  “You can tell them that it comes from the city. Mr. Tagliani is in charge since getting everything under control. He has support from the feds as well.”

  Steve looked surprised. “You want to clarify?”

  “It is what I said. No clarification needed.” Nicoletti gave Steve a hard stare.

  Kevin could see Steve was taken aback. “I…I can’t get you an answer for some time. I’ll need to get the council together and they may take days to discuss this. Then, if we agree, it will take some time to put together that kind of payment.”

  “We could send a message back with our decision,” Kevin said.

  “You give us some gas to drive back and I’ll report to Mr. Tagliani that you’ll be in touch with us.”

  “Give us two weeks,” Steve said. “With travel being what it is.”

  “Two weeks. That’s it.”

  “But we’re going to need more time to arrange any payment, if that is what the city agrees to. Plus, there is the issue of figuring out how your demand translates into goods,” Steve said.

  “We’ll work on the rest, just let us know you’re gonna pay the fee.”

  Chapter 4

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  W hen dawn came, Jason headed off the interstate and into the woods. He’d been walking all night since turning the boy loose, so he wanted to rest for a few hours before going on. He put an MRE in a pot and activated the flameless heater which he then put in the same pot. After covering it, he waited for ten minutes and the meal was hot and ready. Once he had eaten, he lay back and closed his eyes. He slept lightly, his ears constantly investigating the sounds of the forest. After a fitful couple of hours, he felt more rested and decided to start walking again. He’d sleep later that night.

  He was approaching State Route 74. The road led east, joining Interstate 84 which ran through Gastonia and into Charlotte. He would be approaching the city from the west. Route 74, also

  a divided, four-lane roadway, ran just to the north of Columbus. Jason considered checking out the town. It was a county seat and he wondered if it was empty. The range of possibilities intrigued him.

  He was two days out from Charlotte. With his aggressive pace, the trip was only going to take a total of four days to complete. After two days of walking, his body had adjusted to life on the move. Better than sitting at a desk. He had enough rations, even after giving the young man a meal. He wondered about his generosity. Trying to make up for all the people you killed? He rolled that thought around his mind as he strode along. It was fall and the days were cool and crisp. The nights had begun to get colder as well and he was glad he had brought a thermal blanket with him.

  Curiosity overcame his caution and Jason decided to check out Columbus. Information about what was going on in smaller towns could be invaluable. Better to know more than less. He didn’t want to arrive at Charlotte in the daytime, so a short side trip wouldn’t really slow him down.

  As Jason recalled the town was very small, less than 1500 people, even though it was a county seat. There was a main street with angled parking for the small businesses that had served the community. He wondered if anything survived the breakdown after the EMP attack.

  Jason left the highway and walked south towards the main road through town. He’d walk the length of the main street and then swing back up to Route 74 at the other end of the downtown. He switched to high alert as he approached the main road, and, turning left, started down the street. Nothing stirred. As Jason slowly walked along, he scanned the street and buildings, looking for any signs of activity. It was all still.

  He went up to the courthouse. The front door was ajar so he stepped inside. The darkness caught him off guard and he stood still waiting for his eyes to adjust. Used to happen quicker, he thought. When he could see in the gloom, he started moving around the main floor. There was a lot of paper strewn about underfoot. Opening a few doors revealed offices left in disarray with desks and file cabinets opened, their contents scattered. The court rooms were empty. They showed evidence of people having camped there, but nothing indicated any recent activity.

  There seemed to be nothing to be gained by a thorough search so he headed back to the front door and stepped outside. The sun blinded him for a moment after the dark of the courthouse. He switched his M4 carbine from his shoulder to hang it across in front of him. From there he could raise it to fire with a minimal amount of movement.

  He started back down the main street. A few cars were sitting abandoned in the street and in the angled parking slots. Small businesses had their doors broken open; their windows shattered. Jason didn’t have to look inside. He knew they had been looted clean.

  It was beginning to look like a useless side excursion. At least I can get back to the highway easily. The emptiness brought back an oppressive feeling, one of loss and destruction. It was so different from the attitude of recovery and hope that pervaded Hillsboro. It reminded Jason of his first walk through Clifton Furnace, seeing the devastation Big Jacks and his formidable outlaw gang had wreaked upon the small town after the EMP attack. At least there aren’t any body parts scattered around.

  Then he saw it. Someone ducking down a side street, momentarily exposed as they ran out from behind an abandoned car. Jason stopped. Two more bodies flitted past the opening, catching his eye. With everything so still, any movement stood out, grabbing the eye’s full attention. Jason stopped. Had they seen him? Probably. That’s why they were running. He decided to investigate.

  He ran towards the intersection. When he got there, no one was in sight. Jason headed down the side street in the direction the figures had gone. He held his carbine at low ready, scanning the sides of the road, checking potential ambush sites. Up ahead there was a patch of woods. A trail disappeared into it. Probably leads to the highway. A shortcut.

  He entered the woods and started down the trail. Up ahead he could hear branches snapping, the general sounds of someone crashing through brush. Jason quickened his pace. Where the woods ended, there was a low bank, about seven feet high, rising to the highway. Jason scrambled up the bank and carefully looked over the edge. He could see figures to his right, running east.

  He started down the road after them. Now he could see there were four in the group, two adul
ts and two children. A family.

  Chapter 5

  ___________________________________

  T he man looked back over his shoulder at Jason as he hurried the female and two children along. The kids were obviously having difficulty in moving quickly, especially the younger one. The woman, Jason could see, was hampered by the large bag she was carrying.

  Jason closed the distance between them. Finally, the man halted partly behind an abandoned car and took out a pistol. He pointed it at Jason and called out to him to stop. Jason stepped behind the hood of an abandoned car and held up his hands. The man was far enough away that Jason estimated a shot would miss. He could drop for cover if the situation escalated.

  “I mean no harm. I just want to talk to you,” Jason called out.

  “You chased after us,” the man said.

  “That’s because I want to talk to you. I don’t want anything from you.”

  “What are you doing out here? You’re a bandit, aren’t you?”

  “No. I’m going to Charlotte.” Jason thought for a moment. “I’m thinking you are as well. We could walk together.”

  “We don’t need your company. And I’d feel safer without you around.”

  Jason stood there, trying to not look threatening even with his M4 slung across his chest.

  “Well that’s a problem since we’re going the same way. I’m sure you don’t want to keep looking over your shoulder, and I certainly don’t want to do that.” He tried to sound calm. “I’m going to unsling my rifle. I’ll do it slowly and with my left hand. Then I’ll put it over my shoulder, out of the way. That might help everyone relax a bit.”

  “Don’t try anything tricky,” the man said.

  Jason slowly moved his M4 and put it over his shoulder, the weapon now behind his left arm.

  “I’d like to approach you so we don’t have to shout.”

  “Not too close.”

  “Just enough that we can talk normally.”