22. Simple Minds - Don't You

Parked across the street from our last destination for the day we stepped out of Franky's car and just gazed at what I hoped was going to be my first major acquisition.

A little taxi depot and more importantly five yellow cars neatly parked in front of it.

After I had Franky instruct his men to handle the handover of King Snake and Lynx according to my deal with Mr. Tzu, we had made a short trip to Atlantic City where we had collected and immediately cashed in my little nest egg for a sizeable amount of cash. The little nest egg, that had been once the valuables of the sadly deceased Family Dekker amounted at the end of the day to a solid 48,000 Dollars, which I had felt the need to round up to a cool 50K with my own reserves hidden in my apartment.

Said money, was to be the first installment of the payment, that would hopefully convince the Taiwanese owner of the Yellow Dragon Taxi Service to hand over the keys without much strife.

The business was a minor player, virtually unnoticeable in the yellow swarm descending daily into Downtown Gotham or to the airport north. It was however right at the edges of the industrial district the Dockyard Dogs called their home-territory.

"The taxis look to be in good condition." Franky commented offhandedly when he stepped around the car and joined me at my side.

"Gotham Metropolitan Taxi Service." I proclaimed proudly; the name had been floating around my head since I had the idea. "GMTC" I said it and pretended to point at an imaginary sign, that was already stuck to the front of the old brick building.

From the corners of my eye, I saw Franky give an unimpressed shrug, which made me struggle to keep a straight face.

'It's a great and proper name!'

"Let's get inside." I said instead and thankfully kept my thoughts to myself.

Said and done we stepped over the threshold of the office entrance, which made an old Asian gentleman perk up behind his desk at the far end of the small open space.

Giving me, a 14-year-old boy in a fancy suit, and my companion, a tattooed hard-man clad in leather, a long hard look, I reckoned he was probably weighing up the options of preemptively dialing 911 or, more likely given we were in Gotham, moving towards a hidden gun.

In the end, however, he walked the couple of feet from his desk to the counter at the front and greeted us like regular customers…despite the shifty vibes we were no doubt giving off.

"How may I help you?" He asked calmly and with a noticeable accent, but I couldn't help but notice how his right hand stayed underneath the countertop and out of sight.

"Good evening, Sir," I began politely. "My name is Leonardo and this is my business partner." I briefly paused after the short introduction and quickly cut to the chase. "This might seem awfully sudden, but we are very keen on buying your business." As proof, that we were serious I reached into the inside of my jacket and retrieved an admittedly rather unprofessional locking baggie filled to the brim with rolls of cash.

His eyes widened a fraction, decent poker face I had to admit, still, he clearly didn't quite expect this turn of events.

Before he could formulate a proper response I already went ahead and tried to have him see reason.

"50 thousand Dollars cash now plus 10 thousand Dollars every month for the next 10 months, and you can keep your place. We want your cars and more importantly the respective medallions."

"Why?"

'Why what?'

"To start our own little business, of course." I said, not quite sure if I followed there.

"What business has such a young…man and his partner?" He asked, face carefully blank but polite.

"The business you don't want to know about." Franky commented idly, his gaze through a side window into what seemed to be a little workshop for basic car repairs.

"I want in!" His polite façade cracked and there was suddenly fire in his eyes, which I didn't appreciate in the slightest given, that this crap now seemed to shape into something annoying and tedious.

"Listen," My shitty salesman aura slowly bleeding out of me. "please take the money and just enjoy a quiet life with your wife." I pointed at the ring at his finger before I went on. "Leave this city, start fresh somewhere sunny."

"Wife is dead." He said flatly while a scowl settled on his face, which made me sigh internally, annoyance steadily rising. I just wanted to go home and relax, dammit!

"You have kids?" I asked into the blue, not really caring. "Give them a better chance." 'or whatever.'

At the mention of kids, I noticed his scowl only became more pronounced and I had to refrain from working my jaw in a fit of minor agitation.

"Children are also gone." He pointed out the obvious.

"Listen," I tried again tiredly, why couldn't life be straightforward for once I thought absently when I was suddenly cut off by the man opposite me.

"What do you know about taxi business, paperwork, registration, routes in this city?" He heatedly asked and, I hated to admit it, but for a hot second there he caught me flat-footed.

I chanced a glance towards Franky, who gave a very helpful shrug.

Eyeing the agitated man in front of me I let my thoughts wander, thinking things through.

I might have been slightly naïve, but how hard could it actually be to run a taxi business, at least that's what I had been thinking. My eyes drifted over the man's shoulder to his office and then to the workshop, I might have been too hasty with the assumption to 'just wing it'.

This would be a boon and paperwork would be a non-issue. Regular business would be in experienced hands, too, and yet….

"Tell me, why does a man, even without wife and children deny himself a lot of money, which he could use to do whatever he wants wherever he wants? Why does a man want to join a questionable business at the drop of a hat?" I asked him, suspicion fully on display and before he could respond I felt the need to clarify a few things.

"Before you answer, IF we would agree to this partnership, I want you to know, that I wanted to do this as fair and as pleasant as possible for you. We could have taken everything in a very different manner." I revealed and made sure that he understood that I was deadly serious now, which he thankfully seemed to pick up on given that he was standing noticeable straighter, his hand still firmly underneath the counter.

"You spit on my generosity, I let it slide, but you spit on my trust at any point in time you will regret it. Are your reasons strong enough to justify such a risk?"

"This city!" He spat it like a curse. "It took everything. I want to take something back!"

The ride back to King Snake's old warehouse and more importantly my car was fairly quiet until...

"So, Mr. Miyagi is on a desperate quest to retrieve his masculinity?" Franky asked, apparently not quite sure yet about our new employee.

"Seems like it." I muttered, somewhat dissatisfied, but rounding the corner and seeing my black Ford down the road I instantly felt my mood lift. This was the home stretch of the day and then it was off to bed.

"An Asian taxi driver, a gang member, and a child of the mob walk into a bar…" I began as if I was telling a joke, but quickly snorted and shook my head in disbelief. Hearing Franky chuckle quietly beside me as he parked alongside my car, I decided to leave things on a high note for him and his boys and reached inside my jacket and for a second time revealed the clear plastic bag with the money.

Technically Mr. Huang didn't agree to the deal, so I simply kept the money, easy as that.

Grabbing a single cash roll, five thousand dollars to be exact, I handed it to Franky, which he took with a questioning gaze.

"Travel reimbursement or whatever it's called."