THE TAKEOVER - Part 4: The New Boss

Part 1 - The War Council
Part 2 - The Offer
Part 3 - The Armenian Dick Head


I woke up the next morning well enough. Sandra was there and thoughtful enough to have sent someone for some clothes for me. Apparently she had me followed, figured out who Abdulian is and asked the Russians to bring him and his crew in to answer some questions. Of course, her story explaining all this took a good hour when it could've taken a damn sentence. Fucking Sandra, no one cares.

I changed clothes, took a piss and sent one of the Russians out for bagels. Then I went to finally have that chat with Abdulian. He was tied up in a small room, the Russians had beaten him pretty good when they captured him. “The tables have turned,” I said to him, “last time I saw you I was beat up and tied up.”

“And are you going to feed me to your Russian dogs?” he asked.

“You’ve been selling RPGs to the Chinese, Abdulian. The Russians won’t like that.”

“The Chinese? No. The Chinese import their own weapons.” He seemed sincere.

“So they didn’t attack us with your weapons?” I asked.

“Uh… no.” His answer seemed cagy.

“What do you mean, ‘Uh...no.’?” I asked.

He sighed, “In the interest of self preservation, I will say this. Those were my RPGs, but I didn’t sell them to the Chinese.”

I believed him. I thought about the events of the last couple of days. All we had to go on was Ivanov’s assumption that it was the Chinese who attacked him. He’d been encroaching on their territory for months, it made sense. But an old gangster like Ivanov would have many enemies, anyone of whom could have blown up his house and office. “Who did you sell the RPGs to,” I asked.

He chuckled and bits of blood and phlegm shot out of his mouth and splattered onto his shirt, “I sold them to Ivanov two weeks ago.”

I was stunned silent. I believed him. But why? Why would Ivanov bomb himself? Or did he? Is he trying to start a war? Was one of his men behind all this? I fucking hate mysteries. I pondered my next question when in walked two large, Russians with two handguns. One escorted me out while Abdulian begged for his life. The loud gunshot and Abdulian's slow, gurgling death only confirmed my suspicions. Now to prove them.

I went back to Sandra and pushed her for an in with her handler or boss or pimp, whatever you call him. "Just set up a meeting for me. I think I can work out a peaceful way to end all of this."

"It doesn't work that way, Gene," she tried to tell me.

"The only way you and I survive this, is through your pimp."

"Will you stop calling him that? He won't just meet with you on your terms. I'll put in the message, but he makes the calls."

"Just call it in already"

She pulled out her cellphone and began dialing. Then she got a worried expression on her face. “It’s dead,” she said, “someone’s jamming the signal.”

“That would be me,” Ivanov said as he walked into the room looking remarkably un-comatose. There was an ugly Asian man with him, “Allow me to introduce my business partner,Kong Rui Bao.” They looked awfully chummy for two assholes who were supposed to be at war.

The world just turned upside down and took a steaming dump on my head. I just stood there staring at the buddy-buddy crime lords like an idiot.

“While the CIA and the local dick have been running around chasing ghosts, our men have wiped out the Italians, the Albanians and the Columbians. Vegas is now ruled by a single crime-lord,” Kong said

“And which one of you assholes gets to be the boss?” I asked.

They looked at each other and smiled. Ivanov was about to say something, but another damn rocket came crashing through the window and exploded at their feet. This time, there was no doubt, Ivanov and Kong were dead. Sandra and I climbed to our feet and looked through the shattered window in time to see a smiling Wayne Newton wave at us with a fully functional bionic-hand. Newton dropped the rocket launcher at his feet and climbed into his waiting limo. With a screech of tires, he was gone.

“Son-of-a-bitch!” Sandra and I said in unison.

“He planned the whole thing,” I said, “just to take over vegas.”

“Where did he get that hand?” Sandra asked.

I told her some mysteries are best left unsolved. She told me that she hoped she’d never see me again. Then we went our separate ways, but I had a feeling I’d bang her again someday.