Lisa had skimmed and was now reading a
report about how some gangster organization from Italy had been
infiltrating Finnish social networks. It said that seemingly the
Italians had found mostly that the criminally-inclined among the
Finns were a bit too unruly for them to really appreciate. They had
been judged fairly similarly by much of the Russian mafia, usually,
the report pointed out. But there was one huge difference, which
hardly was surprising to her: The Russians had judged the Finnish to
be awkward to deal with for ruling over the rest of Scandinavian
while the Italians were into the vice versa, sort of. They had found
that the other Scandinavians weren't too keen on Finland for there to
be a trouble there, with that many of the Finns never reflected over
pan-Scandinavian attitudes as their domain of interest. This told her
that the probably many Finns were into notions of themselves as so
independent that they should be seen as the superiors of their own
cultural habitat. With that at stake, it seemed to her, there was an
issue of freeing oneself from any foreigners influence among the
people to approach for those gangster groups.
After reading about one third of the
report, she rose from her seat in order to make some coffee. Her
percolator started up the water, which effervesced pleasantly, she
felt. After it had finished brewing she poured herself a cup and
drank it with pleasure. Then the phone rang.
“Hello, it's Lisa,” she answered.
“You know, Lisa,” a male voice said
on the other end of the line, “it's not time yet for us to show any
interest in nailing those mafia groups, which may have started to
cooperate!” His voice was calm, but she didn't quite realize how
come she was supposed to feel trust for the fellow.
“Who are you?!” she asked.
“I'm that man whom you're supposed to
meet with about those issues about the Finnish mafia seeming to be
into something of trying to expand into foreign territory! I'm not
done with my part it yet! But please, as I'm telling you, there's a
mediocrity in trying to watch them as if we had to be watching them
forever! So, please, let me tell you about them, and then perhaps we
can finish the deal later, about how to handle them!”
Lisa now recalled that her boss had
told her that some half-Finnish man had been contacted and was
supposed to prompt an investigation that could at the very best piece
out and complete theirs, so that the mafia groups could sooner or
later perhaps be mapped well enough for them to know beforehand, much
better than they already did, when and where they would be likely to
become dangerous. This she had expected not to surface until a few
months from now. So she asked; “Why did you expect that I was in
all that much of a hurry?”
“Oh, sorry! But I have to finish this
deal with some people of the kind that they wouldn't expect there to
be telling from, if you see what I mean!”
“I'm not sure. But I guess you might
have some kind of informer among the people they expect not to be
it?”
“Yeah! And I also have some informer
among the associates of the associates of those people they're
dealing with in order to get rid of those who want to double-deal
them about certain smuggling deals they were closing!”
“I see. But what's that got to do
with me already?!”
“It's because, you see I have a deal
and they want you to be part of it!”
“What!? Do you mean they know who I
am!?”
“Yes, so it seems!”
“What the fuck do they know about me,
then?!”
“They seem to be into that you and I
are partners in some kind of business that has something to do with
their seemingly legit transporting company!”
“What?!”
“I'm sorry! ...”
“Are you sure about this!?”
“I'm as sure as I can get. Because I
also had some doubts! But double-checking it, I didn't find anything
that said that it wasn't for real - that is, that they thought so!”
Nonplussed about this, Lisa thought for
a moment. “Then how come the mafia, I mean the Finnish one, seems
to be into that they aren't of the sort that shouldn't be considered
smart at dealing with just about everybody who could, even possibly,
be anything whatsoever of their potential business partners?”
“I guess it's just because they've
already closed a deal with some company who seems to claim that you
are involved. As a matter of fact I thought you were! But now they
seem to have been faking that!”
Nonplussed again, Lisa pondered upon
what this company could have had to do with her, of all people. “Is
it that I, as it is, seemingly take part in their business as sort of
a dummy, or a decoy? Because I have, some years ago, posed as a dummy
among certain people who were doing business in that area!”
“I guess that could be so!”
“Is it about, do you think, that they
expect me, as a dummy, to be faking that I can dal with them as
though I was mature enough to win by pretending that I am a smart
woman of competence that seems mediocre on the surface?!”
“That seems likely!”
“Then how come they expect that I am
actually there, do you think? Because I haven't been playing the role
of that dummy for almost four years - and even then I didn't really
have very much to do with them - not ever, actually.”
“I don't know! But it seemed to be an
expertise in that woman whom they dealt with for bargains in the New
Hampshire area!”
“What woman?”
“The woman you dealt with when you
told us that everyone has to deal with America as the only asset of
calibre enough for them to really have something going for them.”
“I have never at all stated anything
like that!” Lisa burst out.
“Then how come you were there and
told her that as they, if not you precisely, stated it, you would be
able to expect a gratitude from everyone who was talking about it?!”
“I have not at all been there! By the
way, where were they? And when was this occasion?”
“Oh, look, I can't be telling you
about that if you now are unwilling to tell me what you actually had
to do with it!”
Troubled and nonplussed, she said:
“There's nothing for me to say about that! I haven't even the
remotest idea what you're talking about!”
“Then how come you were strategically
challenging them as if they were mediocre? I mean when they seemed to
be doing your business!”
She was silent for a moment, then
answered:”If you mean that occasion six years ago, where I closed a
deal with the Italians and seemingly seemed to understand what that
deal was about, then I gues syou could call it that I was dealing
with them that way!”
“I can't trust you on that you
weren't there exactly three years ago!!”
“But I was not!”
“Then how come you want me to trust
you about you not dealing with my affairs as though you weren't there
in the first place?!”
“It's you who called me! I didn't ask
you to start dealing with me! Even if my boss did, I really haven't!”
“Then how can I trust you on that you
can't close the deal with the Russians, and that that deal won't be
behind my back?!”
“I'm not sure why you're talking to
me at all! Now please get off my back!”
“Okay then, bitch! But remember, if
you try to deal with me like that again, then I'll kill you!”
With that he hung up the phone.
Two years later she found out that a
second cousin of hers, who really looked very much like her, had been
killed by Finnish people who seemed to be into business with the
Russian mafia.