An Unusual Meeting

I had a night shift at the entrance and things were going smoothly as usual. At almost midnight on a typical New Reno evening, three black suits approached us through the regular gaggle of riff raff. I put my hand on my 10mm pistol ready to draw if things got ugly while Vincent approached. The Mordino thugs were unarmed and conversed with Vincent for a few minutes while the other entrance thugs kept a watchful eye on them. The tourists went around the giant thugs and the rest of us herded them through business as usual, but still ready to draw at the first sign of violence. Then I saw the head honcho. The old man and enemy of Mr. Bishop, "Big Jesus Mordino" entered the scene through another entourage of black suits. I never seen the guy before, but his elderly and semi-sickly demeanor confirmed the rumors I'd heard about the man. Then, a half dozen Bishops emerged from the casino walking past me to greet the rival boss with machineguns in hands. Vincent motioned for the party to enter and the black suits walked past me into the Shark Club.

I watched them enter, but then felt Vincent's heavy hand on my shoulder, and he said, "Let's go."

I wasn't sure what was going on, but Vincent and I trailed the Mordino boss and his entourage through the hustle and bustle of midnight at the Shark Club. Our guys dispersed to specific locations but had guns trained on them the whole time. Just then, Big Jesus stopped and turned around. I took that moment to study Big Mordino. He wore that pristine black suit but had a slight hunch and a limp. His face was marked with old age and his skin was very pale in a sickly sort of fashion.

He looked at me and Vincent; the old man stared at us for a second and said to me in a gruff old voice, "This is your place, right?"

I stared at his group menacingly (like I'd been taught) and nodded. Mordino motioned us forward and said, "Well, lead the way then" through a gross cough that didn't match his suave appearance.

Vincent and I took the lead and walked the rival boss to the elevator. Vincent took the lead since he was the one talking to the unarmed thugs at the start, and since he was my superior. Me and Vincent rode the elevator all the way up to the penthouse of our Boss with five unarmed rival thugs and the head honcho of our greatest enemy. We stayed silent the whole way up and emerged into Mr. Bishop's private penthouse. I didn't get to take in the place, but briefly noticed its extravagant décor and a glass wall leading to what looked like a rooftop pool. Instead, I was focused on the escort. Stepping through the elevator doors, we were immediately joined by more guards and Mr. Bishop's personal assistant who led the party to a dim room with a long table in the center. It was clear at this point, Mr. Bishop was expecting them.

I did my typical job of standing by the door emotionless and scanning the room. Mr. Bishop entered the conference room accompanied by four of his men, and he talked with Vincent for a brief moment. They all sat down and immediately began to discuss what they came for. Vincent took his place on the opposite side of the door, observing every subtle movement the Mordinos made and I did the same. I understand this sounds weird, but sometimes it's hard to hear when you are so focused on watching people. Vincent and I meticulously scanned the Mordinos, taking mental notes of every scratch itched, every knuckle cracked, every sniff, every leg adjustment, and every idle tap of the finger. With any suspicious movement, we were going to whip out our pieces and start blastin. The intense focus caused me to miss out on much of what was said, but I managed to gather some interesting details through the random word I happened to catch.

The conversation was loosely about the Mordinos and Bishops situations on the street and dominance over different aspects of town. The talk at first didn't seem to have any sort of point, but instead was more like of a flexing or bragging match. I again didn't catch too much, but Big Jesus Mordino mentioned something about the town of Redding and the Morningstar Mining Company. The words they spoke seemed to be near gibberish, code, or something just above my place as a lowly thug. So, I wasn't able to pinpoint any details about any kind of Bishop or true Mordino involvement in the activities out there. However, Big Jesus did mention that New Reno itself was losing out on the gold up in Redding due to an event up there a few months back and Bishop mentioned that Morningstar was having to use actual employees instead of slaves because of increased NCR and Vault City involvement in the local politics. They said the town was too divided at that time, but there were reports of strange activity out that way by an unnamed tribal or something doing stuff in the area. After that, one of Mordino's men made a strange adjustment to his shirt stay and I refocused for a while. The last bit before the meeting was over was about a strange place north of New Reno. I missed most of it, but in the end I learned; Vincent and I were going to supervise some kind of operation at, "The Stables."

The meeting let out before I knew it, and some of the penthouse guards escorted them away. Mr. Bishop was a good Boss, even though he was a tad racist towards tribals (That he thought I was), and knew all his thugs fairly well. So, when Big Jesus Mordino and his men entered the elevator, the Boss had a word with us. He said how we simple thugs, and his lieutenants were the only ones who knew about this operation (Even though I didn't) so we were going to have to pull the job.

I simply gave a determined nod and Vincent said, "You got it Boss."

Apparently, Vincent gathered more than I did, but our shared confidence was shown in the pride on Mr. Bishop's face. He told the two of us to take the rest of the night off and I was just happy to hear that. I walked to my room on the Employee level (7th floor) with Vince and we chatted about what was going to happen. Vincent and I were going to meet with the Mordinos on the north end of town to supervise a "Distribution Operation" at "The Stables" in two days. I asked Vince what The Stables were, and he said he didn't know. I asked what to bring and he said, "Just a gun and no suit." I reached the door to my room and opened it to a smiling Sophia listening to the radio. She asked why I got off early while she flipped through a magazine, and I told her what happened.

The days passed business as usual, and I still didn't really know what the plan was. The day came and Vince knocked on my door as I was dressing for the morning shift. Upon opening the door, he saw I was half dressed in my typical suit, and he reminded me I had to change. He then sat in the chair in the corner while I threw on some wastelander gear I saved up for. I never saw Vincent without a blue suit on before that day, but he sat there with a scratched assault rifle across his lap in a half suit of combat armor that was only missing the arm and shoulder guards. The guy didn't need them anyway, his muscles were ginormous. I threw on a get up similar to the caravan guard armor made of mostly patchwork steel and leather.

As I got dressed, Sophia rustled on the bed still asleep and Vincent said in a whisper, "Oh yeah! I forgot that you were banging Tuco's sister."

I tightened the straps on my bandolier, returning in a whisper "Yeah, not when you locked me in his office though! Didn't I tell you I married her a few months ago?"

He said, "Probably. A lot goes on around here, don't really have time to follow your romantic endeavors."

I laughed quietly trying not to wake her, "There was nothing 'romantic' about it, Haha. A night of getting drunk and high put those rings on our fingers."

I was throwing the last of my stuff in my bag when he said, "Just don't let Tuco find out. He might scalp you or something… At least you aint banging Mr. Bishop's wife or daughter, Haha."

I asked humorously, "Why?... They asking about me?"

He smiled, "Nah, Mr. Bishop fucks around all the time, but nobody can touch his wife or precious… Angela." He sounded seduced when he said, "Angela."

I slung my bag over my shoulders and asked, "What's with Angela Bishop?"

He stood from the chair, "You never seen Angela Bishop? Our Boss's daughter?..."

I shook my head and he said, "Go figure, junkie gal is so fucked on Jet she hardly ever leaves her room... Probably for the best though. A month before you showed up, spoiled bitch called 'Rape' on one of the boys and Mr. Bishop had him dismembered. But I knew the guy, he wasn't no rapist. Guy probably thought it was a one-night stand, Angela wanted a boyfriend, she wouldn't have it, and then cried to daddy. I can't blame the guy for fallin into her web though…"

He paused, broke his distant gaze to give me a sly look and said, "I had to take a package to her room once and, strung out or not… She's got it going on! Hell, if she weren't passed out when I dropped off that package, you and I wouldn't be talkin. Haha!..."

He whistled, "Damn, Son" and shook his head at a prospect that could never be.

I laughed, gave the giant a punch on the chest, and said, "Let's go Hornball."

The two of us headed downstairs and onto the lobby level. The casino floor was always an interesting place in the morning. Most people were still drunk from partying all night or completely passed out. The thugs usually paraded around the place carting away passed out drunks to the nearest alley while a janitorial crew had to make the place presentable for the evening rush. Vincent and I left the Shark Club to the east into Wrights territory and then north to the fringes of the north end till not a person could be seen. The noise of New Reno faded into the distance as we headed north through the chipping streets. Outside of town was dangerous since those "Yakuza" freaks tried to attack anyone they could, and ambitious junkies tried to steal from anyone they could find at gun or knife point. This time, the streets were quiet, and I got to ask Vincent what was going to happen.

The plan was simple; We were going to link up with a Mordinos contact on the outskirts of town who was going to take us to that place called, "The Stables." From there, we were to await the arrival of an independent caravan crew that was going to unload their wares and take up what the Mordinos were offering. I asked why we needed to be involved and Vincent said that we were there to observe and make sure Mr. Bishop wouldn't get cheated. I had to ask how Mr. Bishop was involved in this and he said that the Boss worked out a deal with the Mordinos to get some of their most recent product to a place down south.

Neither he nor I understood all that was going on. The bottom line for us was; make sure those caravans get loaded up with the correct stuff. We would soon find out what the caravan crew was supposed to collect... Though it may be obvious.

Not long after I got the plan, we saw a man in the distance in a leather jacket and road gear. We approached cautiously thinking he might be a raider. Getting closer to the man, he pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against and asked, "You Bishop's boys?"

The two of us remained silent but nodded. Vince appeared to be on alert and surveyed the area while readying his rifle. The man grinned and said, "Right this way."

We followed the man until the road died and a large expanse of desert lay before us. After thirty minutes of walking through the desert, we saw a large scrap building a mile ahead, and frayed yellow grass seemed to be focused in this area. We stepped onto a dirt trail and walked onward until I made out several brahmin beyond a rotting wood fence. I studied the herd of mutated cattle while the building got closer. We reached the plaza in front of the large makeshift structures and several sets of hostile eyes were trained on us. There was a half dozen men in the area all wearing armor and holding rifles or shotguns.

In the center of the compound and between the buildings, our contact turned around and said, "Make yourselves at home, Caravan'll be here in a couple hours."