Downtown Druid

Book 2 Chapter 54: We Were All Young Once

Normally Uptown would be the dumbest possible place to hold a meet. You had to bribe guards to even get into it if you didn’t look like you belonged. Even once passed those guards you’d need to not draw the attention of other guards or of the nobles who might take offense to seeing you in their part of the city. The only reason to meet in Uptown if you were a midtown ganger was to avoid other midtown gangers, or the ones who led them.

Each of the sub bosses sat at a long table in a private room at the Gilded Gosling. The majority of them had a look of intense discomfort on their faces.The seats were too soft, the walls decorated so much that they confused the eye, and the table in front of them was even without any blemishes. No hearts crudely carved into it, or names of those who’d sat at it fifty years ago, or even random jagged scratches where knives missed plates.

There were five of them there. Two were former Dock Shark smugglers that had fallen in line with Mondego when their former partners had all suddenly met unfortunate ends. One was a younger boss who only recently rose to the top for his management of the dust dealer. One was an old timer dwarf that was in charge of recruiting young muscle. The last of them was an older halfling woman missing her left hand that managed the movement of illicit product from midtown deeper into the city. She was the only one that seemed comfortable with her surroundings, she picked idly at the iron hook fixed to the end of her stump.

Dantes watched them all through Jacopo’s eyes as he sat only a few doors down in a separate room. He was pretending to be late to see if they would start talking without him. So far, they’d been too cautious to do more than nod at one another in acknowledgement. Dantes already knew that four of them were unhappy with Mondego, and he hoped to convince the fifth of them to be as well. The group formerly known as the Shadow Cats had been feeding Dantes information about them for some time, and he’d received a bit of additional information on one of them from Mercedes. He’d arranged the meeting through the former shadowcats, as well as notes he sent to them by pigeon. It was risky, but he’d watched them all every step of the way, and knew that they hadn’t been followed, nor had they told anyone of their intention to be at the meeting.

He watched them for a few more minutes before deciding he’d made them sweat long enough. The youngest of them, the newest promotion, was sweating bullets and Dantes was concerned he might pass out. He stood up and walked out of the side room, through the hall, and pushed open the door to the private room.

All their eyes turned to him as he stepped through the threshold and let the heavy wood doors close behind him. He wore the dark gray coat, and hat he favored when going around Uptown incognito, but he’d placed the pistol he usually kept concealed in a prominent place at his hip.

“Good evening,” he said as he began walking toward the table, “I apologize for the wait. I was blowing up another stash house and I got sidetracked.”

None of them laughed, except for Mira, the one handed halfling, who let out a small chuckle.

“Sorry, was that in poor taste?” he said, standing with his hand sitting on the back of the chair at the head of the table. He looked around the room. “I recognize the majority of you from when I was just a street rat picking pockets, though I doubt you know me.” His eyes moved to the youngest one at the table. “You though, you’re new to me,” he walked over to him, and noticed the young man almost jump up as he did so. Dantes held out a hand, and the young man held out his own. Dantes clasped it, pulled him in for a brief half embrace, then released him. A greeting as old as the Mutts in midtown. That seemed to calm him down a bit.

“I know. Have a seat. You want a drink? Does anyone?”

“I think what we want is for you to quit flexing and dancing in front of us and tell us why we’re here,” said Sand, the older dwarf.

Dantes moved over to his seat and sat down. “I think that’s obvious. I know you’re all upset with Mondego, and I want you to agree to work with me once I’ve taken care of him.”

The man scoffed. “You’ve been killing my boys left and right, burning our operations to the ground, and costing us gold all the while. We may be upset with Mondego, but it’s not as if we can’t recognize how much of our troubles are your fault.”

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Dantes nodded sympathetically. “You’re right, I have been costing you a lot of money, men, and time, but how has Mondego been handling that? Has he reduced his taxes on you knowing that you won’t be able to meet your quotas due to my interference? Has he allocated more men to support and protect you? Has he looked for alternative strategies? No, he’s raised his taxes on you and pulled your men away from you to protect himself. Let’s be honest, it’s not as if he was great to all of you before I got here either. You followed him because you were afraid, and he kept the gold flowing. Now, you’re just afraid.”

“Watch it,” said Grima, one of the dock sharks, a half-orc woman missing the ring finger on her right hand.

The other dock shark Fandal, a human man with a touch of elf somewhere up the line, spoke up next. “You’re an upstart kid. An impressive upstart, but nothing more. You can break some things down with whatever unsanctioned magic bullshit you’ve got up your sleeves, but you have no experience running an organization. Now, if you want to talk about being partners, being an equal boss with the rest of us, if you manage to take out Mondego, then we can talk.”

Dantes smiled. “I have experience organizing hundreds, but I take your point. If you just rolled over, I don’t think I’d really respect you.” He paused and rubbed his chin gently. “Your wife Emma is doing well by the way.”

“Wha-”

“She’s finishing off that whiskey in the top cupboard now that she got your youngest to sleep. Little Don, he took a helluva lot of effort to go down.”

Fandal stared at him, but Dantes turned to face his fellow dock shark.

“Grima, that young stud you keep around, Khanshal, he seems to be having a great time with your cousin in your bed at the moment. After you were nice enough to give her a job too. Sand, your son is doing well at his carpenter’s apprenticeship, he’s up late finishing up a very fine table. Good of you to try and get him a less violent job than your own,” the three of them looked at one another, paling a bit. He didn’t mention the other two’s connections as they hadn’t given him a reason to yet, besides he felt the implication was clear enough anyway.

“Don’t worry, unlike Mondego I won’t slaughter them just to prove that I can and keep you in line. I won’t pulverize my lieutenants' faces with brass knuckles simply because I suspect a possible betrayal with no evidence to back it up and happen to be in a foul mood.”

Dantes paused for a moment to let everything he said sink in. “Intimidation aside, I’m better for Midtown than Mondego. Your taxes will be lower, I won’t need as many men for my own protection, and I’ll actually meet with you face to face rather than hiding away for months at a time.”

“A wonderful offer,” said the halfling woman Daisy, gesturing with her hook. “Unfortunately, before any of us can really consider what you’re offering Mondego will actually need to be taken care of. Do you intend for us to help you with that? After you’ve fucked with our money?”

Dantes shook his head. “No, I don’t need any of you to take him down. I just want you all to stay out of my way until it’s over. I mean, think about it. Even if I lose there’ll be casualties and losses. If you stay out of my way, I’ll leave your operations intact. The other bosses, those whose loyalty seems sure, or are, let's be honest, useless, are who I’ll focus on.”

“Neutrality,” said Daisy, exchanging a glance with the others at the table. “That’s something I think we can manage. We can talk about working with you, once the dust has settled.”

Dantes noted her phrasing. He hadn’t expected things to go perfectly, but he admittedly expected them to be a bit more rattled at what he’d said about their close ones. Still, he could flex more thoroughly to bring them under his thumb later. He just wanted to make sure that at least some infrastructure was in place for him to move into once he’d cleared midtown, and to make sure that Mondego had fewer allies to call on.

“I think we’re all in agreement then. You all wait and see, and in return I won’t fuck with your money anymore. Sound go-”

The youngest of them stood, still sweating so heavily he looked damp from a distance. “I won’t hear any more of this. You’ve fucked with Mondego long enough!” He reached into his jacket pocket, and a look of confusion overtook his face. He checked another pocket.

Dantes reached into his own pocket and pulled out the pistol he’d taken from the man’s jacket when he’d first greeted him as he’d entered the room. “Looking for this?” he asked. Randon had been the one Mercedes had warned him about. It looked like her info had been good.

The young man paled.

Daisy sighed, leapt up from her chair and jumped onto his back, driving the point of her hook into his neck before dragging it to the side. He fell, and by the time he landed he was dead and Daisy was standing on his back wiping her hook on the back of his jacket.

“Stupid fucking kid,” she muttered. “He was great on the streets, but clearly didn’t have a head for anything beyond that.

The other gangers all nodded their heads sympathetically.

Dantes shrugged. “We were all young once. Good meeting overall. Let me take care of the cleanup. I have a few thousand friends that would love to help.”