[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

Hagen opened the folder that held his notes. The notes were in no way incriminating,merely cryptic reminders to make sure he touched on every important detail. “Sollozzo is comingto us for help,” Hagen said. “He will ask the family to put up at least a million dollars and topromise some sort of immunity from the law. For that we get a piece of the action, nobodyknows how much. Sollozzo is vouched for by the Tattaglia family and they may have a piece ofthe action. The action is narcotics. Sollozzo has the contacts in Turkey, where they grow thepoppy. From there he ships to Sicily. No trouble. In Sicily he has the plant to process into heroin.He has safety-valve operations to bring it down to morphine and bring it up to heroin ifnecessary. But it would seem that the processing plant in Sicily is protected in every way. Theonly hitch is bringing it into this country, and then distribution. Also initial capital. A milliondollars cash doesn’t grow on trees.” Hagen saw Don Corleone grimace. The old man hatedunnecessary flourishes in business matters. He went on hastily.“They call Sollozzo the Turk. Two reasons. He’s spent a lot of time in Turkey and issupposed to have a Turkish wife and kids. Second. He’s supposed to be very quick with the knife,of was, when he was young. Only in matters of business, though, and with some sort ofreasonable complaint. A very competent man and his own boss. He has a record, he’s done twoterms in prison, one in Italy, one in the United States, and he’s known to the authorities as anarcotics man. This could be a plus for us. It means that he’ll never get immunity to testify, sincehe’s considered the top and, of course, because of his record. Also he has an American wife andthree children and he is a good family man. He’ll stand still for any rap as long as he knows thatthey will be well taken care of for living money.”The Don puffed on his cigar and said, “Santino, what do you think?”Hagen knew what Sonny would say. Sonny was chafing at being under the Don’s thumb.He wanted a big operation of his own. Something like this would be perfect.Sonny took a long slug of scotch. “There’s a lot of money in that white powder,” he said.“But it could be dangerous. Some people could wind up in jail for twenty years. I’d say that if wekept out of the operations end, just stuck to protection and financing, it might be a good idea.”Hagen looked at Sonny approvingly. He had played his cards well. He had stuck to theobvious, much the best course for him.The Don puffed on his cigar. “And you, Tom, what do you think?”Hagen composed himself to be absolutely honest. He had already come to the conclusion61