Rico
and Sonny head for the meeting with Tivola, starting out at Jason
Benjamin's place, as arranged. Switek and Zito are around the
corner, for backup. They will follow Jason Benjamin's car up to the
Tivola Villa. Neither of them is wearing a bug, it would be too risky
for a first meeting with such a player.
"Benjamin, pal. Good to
see you." Sonny shakes his hand, Rico follows his lead.
"Step
into my car, I'll take you to Mr. Tivola." The driver opens the
left back door for Rico and Benjamin opens the right back door for
Sonny. They all get in the black car with blinded windows. The rear
windows are solid black, they have no idea where the Tivola Villa is
located. Switek and Zito follow carefully, leaving a reasonable
distance between the cars. After a ten minute ride, the car stops
abruptly.
"Get out!" Benjamin says.
Sonny and Rico look
at each other, Rico raising his brow, Sonny tightening his lips. They
get out as ordered to find out what they had been suspecting, this
was definitely not Tivola's Villa. The large warehouses surround
them, a large container ship was docked in front of them. Switek and
Zito silently get out of the van and approach the location with even
more caution.
Jason Benjamin takes his gun out and points it at
them.
"Throw away your piece." He orders them. Sonny ignores
the request and says "Where's Tivola? I did figure his Villa
would be something else…but this REALLY is something else."
"Don't
get smart with me, Burnett! Put your piece on the floor
slowly."
"What do you want, Benjamin?" Rico says maintaining
his Jamaican style.
"I just told you, I want you to put your gun
on the floor. Come on! Don't make me trigger this baby!"
Sonny
and Rico look at each other again, they decide to play this game
along for now. They both take out their guns and put them on the
floor.
"About time! Now turn around and take a walk to that red
warehouse on your right. Move it!" Sonny and Rico start walking and
enter the warehouse. To their surprise, Tivola was there, waiting for
them, with three of his security people, naturally.
"I hope my
dog didn't scare you gentlemen off?" Mr. Tivola joked, referring
to Benjamin.
"Hell no, you know what they say about barking
dogs…" Sonny states sharply.
"Well, anyway. I thought we'd
better meet here instead of at the Villa, we can get straight to
business. I have something to show, you gentlemen will probably find
highly interesting. Follow me."
Tivola takes them further into
the warehouse to a stack of wooden boxes. He snaps his fingers,
making one of the muscled guys open op a box, revealing its contents,
numerous bags of the finest cocaine.
"I sure like the looks of
that!" Rico says.
"I thought you would!" Tivola snaps his
fingers again to have his servant close up the crate again.
"Now
you know I'm good for the deal you are so eager to make. Show me
you're good for it."
Sonny and Rico did not quite prepare for
this right now.
"Let's meet here tomorrow, we'll bring the
cash." Sonny says.
"Oh,no, no, no." Tivola says. "That
sounds like you need 24 hours to raise the cash. As in you don't
have it yet. Show me now. That's not a problem is it? You gentlemen
should have your money at hand at any given time."
Sonny thinks
fast what to do next and comes up with
"You led us here in the
blind. You are safe. You can't expect us to throw in your face were
we stash our cash, just like that?! Give us a couple of hours to
arrange the proper safety matters."
"Well, allright. I
understand …and I respect your caution. You can't be too sure,
nowadays. Let's meet Thursday, same time, same place. We will do
the 250 kilos than. Benjamin will take you here again."
They
shake hands with Tivola and return to the car. Switek and Zito have
to get out of there fast. On the way to the car, they pick up the
guns they had left and get in.
