“Now if I understand this right, what you want in return for letting us into this territory is that we lay off Big June and Possiltum. Right?”
I count real good up to three.
“And me,” I added. “No ‘getting even with the guy who thrashed our army plans,’ no ‘join the Mob or die’ pressure. I’m an independent operator and happy to stay that way.”
“Sure, sure,” Don Bruce waved. “Now that we’ve seen how you operate, no reason we can’t eat out of the same bowl. If anything, we owe you a favor for opening up a new area to our organization.”
Somehow, that worried me.
“Dm . . . tell you what. I don’t want any credit for this . . . inside the Mob or outside. Right now, nobody but us knows I had a hand in this. Let’s keep it that way, okay?”
“If that’s what you want,” Don Bruce shrugged.
“I’ll just tell the Big Boys you’re too rough for us to tangle with, and that’s why we’re going to leave you alone. Anytime our paths cross, we go ahead with your approval or we back off. Okay?”
“That’s what I want.”
“Deal?”
“Deal.”
We shook hands ceremoniously.
“Very well,” I said. “Here’s what you need to travel between here and home.”
I fished the D-Hopper out of my sleeve.
“This setting is for home. This one is for here. Push this button to travel.”
“What about the other settings?” Shai-ster asked.
“Remember the magic wand?” I countered. “Without instructions, you could get lost with this thing. I mean, really lost.”
“Come on, boys,” Don Bruce said, setting the D-Hopper. “We gotta hurry home. There’s a world here to conquer, so we gotta get started before somebody else beats us to it. Mister Skeeve, a pleasure doin’ business with you.”