The King of City

31 THE BAR

Lionel wasted no time and decided to go the next night to the bars that the boy had pointed out in order to find the gangs, he remembered very well the appearance of the boy from the park, who wore a cap, T-shirt, and baggy jeans since he supposed that the members of the town gangs would dress similarly.

"Larson, are you going out tonight?". Corrine asked in surprise.

"Yes Mary, I'm going to have a few drinks".

"Will you go alone?".

"That's right, I want to reflect a little". Said Lionel so as not to invite Corrine to visit the bars of the town.

"Okay, have fun". Said Corrine who was about to follow Lionel during his walk that night.

Lionel took his truck and headed to a bar located near the town's main park, perhaps there he would find the gang boss, when he entered, he ordered a couple of wines to make a a couple of mixes while analyzing the site:

“Good night sir, welcome The District what can I offer you?”. Said a young waitress.

“Give me a glass of wine from Hamilt's 1978 vintage and a glass of wine from Lick's 1989 vintage”.

"Of course sir, I already bring you your drinks".

While the drinks were being brought to him, Lionel observed that a couple of young people came and asked one of the waiters about the owner of the establishment, the waiter with a little fright pointed out to his boss that he was near the bar, after that, both young people approached and greeted the owner of the site. Therefore, Lionel stood up under the pretext of going to the bathroom and thus be capable listen to some of the conversations that the three men were having.

"You know the the boss asks that you be honored with the cooperation". Said one of the men.

"I know brother, give me a few hours to collect everything. Tell the boss that I give him my word. Today you will have cooperation”. The owner of the place said a little scared with the presence of the two young men.

"You will have to talk to him yourself, we only follow orders". The other boy said.

“Please let me talk to the boss, give me his phone number; I immediately call him”. The man continued pleading.

"I’ll let you call him, but you will do it on my phone". Said one of the boys.

Lionel didn’t quite understand what they meant by cooperation and was willing to continue listening to the entire conversation, so he asked the waitress to transfer his drinks to the bar, since he preferred to be there. Once at the bar, he tried to get as close to the three men as possible to hear better.

"Well, what the agreement did you come to with the boss?". Was the only thing Lionel heard, who couldn’t hear the phone conversation between the boss and the owner of the bar.

"I’ll give you half the cooperation now and in three hours you will come for the other half". The man explained to the boy who lent him the cell phone to make the call, meanwhile he took a bouquet of notes from the cash register and handed it to him. handed over to the boys.

"I’ll pass this cooperation on to the boss". Said one of the young men.

Before leaving the two boys ordered some beers and stayed at the bar, then Lionel saw the perfect opportunity to come closer and try to strike up a conversation.

"The music in this place is amazing". Said Lionel.

"I prefer other rhythms". Said one of the boys.

"In this place you won’t find varied music, it will tire you quickly". Said the other boy.

"Too bad they’re repetitive”. Said Lionel.

"I think so brother, the truth is only for some businesses, we prefer another type of environment".

"I'm new to town and would like to see different places before I leave".

"Dude, you have to go to The Station". Said one of them excited.

"Thanks for the recommendation, friend". Said Lionel. "Let me offer you a drink, I assure you that you won’t regret it".

Lionel immediately made some of his mixes and offered them to the boys.

“Friend this drink is from another world". They said in unison.

"Good that like you guys".

After a while of talking with the young people, Lionel ventured to ask them about his occupation.

"And what do you do, friends?".

"We collect cooperations for the boss".

"What are cooperations?". Lionel asked with a look of surprise.

"The cooperations are the sum of money that the bars of this town give in exchange for us giving them some security". Said one of the boys.

"Your work must be very dangerous".

"Not at all friend, we only charge, we drink something and we take the money to the boss".

"And who is the boss?".

"I can't give you that information, only the owners of the bars and we have contact with the boss". Sentenced one of the boys.

"Too bad, if the boss is as nice as you guys it would be great to meet him".

"You can't friend, especially if you're someone who's passing through here".

“I understand, you shouldn't expose yourself too much. I like your work guys". Lionel said trying to empathize with the gang members who were collecting cooperation that night.

"It’s the most the profitable job you will find in this town".

"I think so, brothers".

After sharing some drinks, the boys left the bar because they had to continue with the collection, so Lionel also decided to leave, since he realized that he would never find the boss in one of those bars, since the man always sent other gang members. On the other hand, Corrine didn’t find anything suspicious either because she only saw Lionel chatting with those boys, so she left before he surprised her.

Once he arrived at the Villa, Lionel went up to his room to rest and chat for a while on the phone with his friend Beau:

"Beau, how are you doing with the inquiry?".

"I have nothing Cheetah, you will have to keep searching on your own".

"Friend, I’ve made some inquiries here, the gangs in this town have information about all the inhabitants, but they only give it to their boss, the man knows everything and if any of his men mention something, he kills them". Said Lionel.

"And haven't you tried to reach him?". Beau asked.

"Today I went to a bar, the man sends his gang members to collect something they call cooperation, it’s money that all the owners of the bars give him in exchange for alleged protection, false for alleged". Continued Lionel.

At that time, Lionel came up with a great idea, he could open a new bar in the town and so the gang members would quickly arrive for cooperation, that situation would bring him closer to the boss and once in confidence he could ask him for valuable information about Mary.

"Beau, Beau, I'll call you later. I have a plan".

"Cheetah wait". Lionel didn’t wait for Beau's farewell and hung upon him.

Immediately, he set out to write down in a notebook all the things he would need to open a new bar, he was sure that if he attracted customers with his innovative wine mixes, his bar would soon be very popular in the town, and the gang members would demand cooperation to send it to your boss.

It took Lionel two weeks to put together all the equipment for his bar, which he called Chat, in an old cellar. The place was full of tables decorated in a jungle style, that was his theme: The jungle. On opening day, he made sure to look for the boys he had met at the first bar in town he visited. Similarly, he went to the gang members to whom he had offered drinks and promised courtesy drinks if they attended the opening and brought more people to his new business.

The inauguration was a resounding success, all the guests were fascinated with the drinks that Lionel offered that night to his visitors, with the music and with the decoration so different from the place, nobody believed that this bar was an old winery. Lionel felt triumphant, all that remained was for the popularity of his business to reach the boss's ears so that he would send his gang members to collect cooperation, just as he did with the other bars surrounding his.

THE COOPERATION

Lionel continued opening his bar every day of the week and doing promotions with his drinks so that the place was known throughout the town, his plan gave results since everyone spoke of that very exotic place of which owned by a man from another place.

It was very surprising to Corrine that Lionel had started a business in town, she didn’t know very well what this had to do with Blackwing, her strongest hypothesis was that they were going to camouflage a document forgery business like the one she had discovered in her moment, however, it didn’t seem logical for them to locate this business in that town because the transportation of all the machinery could raise enough suspicions.

While Corrine concentrated her efforts on investigating Lionel's motivation to set up a bar in that town, he only cared that more people knew about his incredible place and thus be capable to attract gang members. In order to achieve his mission, he became very close to the gang members he met in one of the bars in the town while the men collected the cooperation, in order to keep them on his side, he offered them complimentary drinks every day they went to his pub.

"Larson friend, this is the best bar in town".

"You were the ones who gave me the idea, guys, that night in the bar I met you, when you told me how much the same thing bored you". Said Lionel.

"That's why we deserve all the free drinks here". The men laughed. "You had better baptize one of your drinks with our names, quite an act of honor". The boys continued.

"I’ll consider it, I don’t promise you anything because the customers scare me away". Said Lionel jokingly.

"That's not funny Larson, this bar is practically ours". They continued joking.

"Friends, I want to ask you something". Said Lionel mysteriously.

"Don't scare us, Larson". The boys continued laughing.

"Guys, I just want to know if your boss has ordered you to start asking for cooperation from this bar?". Lionel asked.

"Don't worry brother, the boss knows when to act, I don't think you're desperate to pay for cooperation". Said one of the men.

"To tell the truth, it’s not that I want to pay now, really what worries me is that they start to request cooperation and I’ve only been in business for a short time". Said Lionel, trying to find out if at any moment the boss would appear for your establishment.

"We are going to give you a fast and just because you’re our friend, you give us free drinks and you will make a drink in our honor". Said the boys.

"You know you can trust me, you’re my only friends here". Lionel stated convincingly.

"All right, Larson, don't think this the thing about collecting cooperatives is made that easy before the boss sends one of us to get the money, he waits for the newly opened bar to go through a sort of trial period".

"Sounds interesting, an entire infrastructure has its boss mounted". said Lionel surprised.

"That's right, you can't jeopardize any part of the business". One of the boys interrupted.

"And how's that for the trial period?". Lionel asked.

"It's simple, the boss sends some infiltrators posing as any customer, they must come to the bar for two weeks during the days it is open, they write down how many clients they enter and then send the information to a trusted man of the boss, who passes the information on to him and the viability of the place contributing to cooperation ”.

“And if people don't go to the place, that is, they don't like it among customers. What happens?".

"We must compel the owner to close, no establishment, without exception, can be open without paying the boss for cooperation in exchange for security". Said the young man emphatically.

"You really have surprised me, you don’t lose a penny". Said Lionel feeling a kind of anger with the boss for the the abuse he committed with the owners of the establishments, however, he had to hide very well not to win the enemy boys, at that moment he needed them as allies.

"And you can tell me who are the infiltrators of the gang who are coming here?". Lionel asked. "I don't think it's the two of you".

"In effect, we were not delegated by the chief for that surveillance, we came here because you’re a fan boy and also give us free drinks".

“There are at least two members of the gang who are comfortable in my place. But let's not stray friends, can you tell me who are the infiltrators? They're here?".

"We aren’t supposed to give you that information, despite everything the boss wants everything to be very clean".

“Come on my friends, I’ve shown that I’m faithful to your friendship. If you reveal to me who the infiltrators are, I can treat you very well so that they take the information to the boss so that I don't have to close my business”. Lionel expressed showing some sadness. "I don't want to lose my investment".

"Okay brother, we wouldn’t like to close this nice place that you have created either". One of the boys said the other boy was nodding his head.

"Different people come every day, generally it is a couple made up of a man and a woman, they arrive around 11:00 p.m. and they always order 4 beers”. Said one of the young men. "We don’t know who will only come to the orders they have to evaluate the place".

"With what we have just told you, you can keep an eye on that hour and take good care of everyone who has the characteristics I have just mentioned". The boys said, laughing.

Soon, the boys left the bar as he was supposed to collect some cooperation from other nearby places, so Lionel concentrated on identifying the gang members who would visit him, as his friends had told him, at about 11:20 a man arrived wearing a jean and a wide shirt, and wearing a cap, and a girl who wore small shorts, a shirt, and tennis shoes, as soon as he looked at them, Lionel took care of them personally, knowing that they were the infiltrators.

"Good night friends, today we have a special promotion for all customers we give them two drinks of their choice". Said Lionel.

"Sounds nice". Said the girl.

"Give us 4 beers friend". Said the boy.

Lionel quickly brought them the drinks and in addition, prepared a couple of wine mixes as an additional courtesy.

"This place looks nice, and it's also full of customers". Said the girl.

"After we pass the report on to this man, he won’t feel like giving courtesies, the boss will impose high cooperation on him". The man concluded when he saw a large number of people in the bar.

Lionel went out of his way to serve the a couple very well and at the same time he looked for his clients to bring more companions the following days, granting some bonuses for each companion that arrived, his bar was full for the next few days, it was the most desired place in town, so much so that long lines were made to get inside.

No more than a week passed, when some gang members asked about him:

"We need Larson".

"It's that one over there". Said one of the waiters.

"Hey Larson, we can talk to you for a while".

"Of course, friends, how can I help you?". Lionel asked suspecting that the time had come to hand over the cooperation.

The chief has selected this place for us to provide him with our protection services, starting today you will have to pay cooperation in return”. Said one of the gang members.

"I had already heard of the cooperation, why didn't your boss come to tell me that?".

“He has more important matters to deal with, however, you are already aware. In two hours, we come for cooperation and don't worry, you will soon be capable of talk to the boss”.

At that moment Lionel knew that he was one a step closer to the boss, he would have to gain the trust of these new gang members so that he could finally have direct contact with the boss and get the the information he needed to complete the mission that had been proposed: find out the true identity of that girl who called herself Mary.