[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

kind of world if people acted that way. It was insane. It meant you couldn’t do what you wantedwith your own money, with the companies you owned, the power you had to give orders. It wasten times worse than communism. It had to be smashed. It must never be allowed.Woltz let the doctor give him a very mild sedation. It helped him calm down again and tothink sensibly. What really shocked him was the casualness with which this man Corleone hadordered the destruction of a world-famous horse worth six hundred thousand dollars. Six hundredthousand dollars! And that was just for openers. Woltz shuddered. He thought of this life he hadbuilt up. He was rich. He could have the most beautiful women in the world by crooking hisfinger and promising a contract. He was received by kings and queens. He lived a life as perfectas money and power could make it. It was crazy to risk all this because of a whim. Maybe hecould get to Corleone. What was the legal penalty for killing a racehorse? He laughed wildly andhis doctor and servants watched him with nervous anxiety. Another thought occurred to him. Hewould be the laughingstock of California merely because someone had contemptuously defiedhis power in such arrogant fashion. That decided him. That and the thought that maybe, maybethey wouldn’t kill him. That they had something much more clever and painful in reserve.Woltz gave the necessary orders. His personal confidential staff swung into action. Theservants and the doctor were sworn to secrecy on pain of incurring the studio’s and Woltz’sundying enmity. Word was given to the press that the racehorse Khartoum had died of an illnesscontracted during his shipment from England. Orders were given to bury the remains in a secretplace on the estate.Six hours later Johnny Fontane received a phone call from the executive producer of thefilm telling him to report for work the following Monday.That evening, Hagen went to the Don’s house to prepare him for the important meetingthe next day with Virgil Sollozzo. The Don had summoned his eldest son to attend, and SonnyCorleone, his heavy Cupid-shaped face drawn with fatigue, was sipping at a glass of water. Hemust still be humping that maid of honor, Hagen thought. Another worry.Don Corleone settled into an armchair puffing his Di Nobili cigar. Hagen kept a box ofthem in his room. He had tried to get the Don to switch to Havanas but the Don claimed theyhurt his throat.“Do we know everything necessary for us to know?” the Don asked.60