I figure it's about time I get to work on this. I remember when my father gave me his Black Book - I was fourteen, and had just spent my first night in the slammer. He looked me in the eye, only moments after my mother had finished bawling her eyes out - horried that her little boy could have fallen in with a gang. He didn't care about my mother's grief. He knew that I was well on my way to following him in his footsteps. I read over the pages that he left for me over and over again, and understood the meaning almost immediately. In the Life, it's important to have a release. It's hard to trust - even when you have The Family at your side. The Black Book is your last line of defense. From yourself, and your enemies. Nobody wants the secrets that the Life brings on getting revealed, and should I find myself at the short end of a long rope - I have taken precautions to have this notebook delivered to the proper fellows who will take care of any business of which I have not had the time to take care of by myself. Now - on to the important bits of my first entry, huh? THE UNION The folks that I've currently got under my payroll - this is the one part of this journal that I will be keeping up to date. At least then I'll have one thing I don't need to keep in my noggin, see? Vinnie: If I had one person I'd give a cliche name to - he'd be my Underboss. My right hand man, known him all my life. I would trust him with my life, and my business. If anything happens to me, everything's going to him. Aceness: Silent sonofabitch. Good people, and the real muscle of the operation. He's a big hulking bastard, and usually has got a slice of pizza. Just like Vinnie, he comes from the neighborhood. We've been close for as long as I remember. Tony: One of the New Kids, still. I'd trust him too - maybe not as much as the Boys, but I still don't got no doubt in his abilities to be an earner. Tommy: He came in right around the same time as Tony, and they're real close. Maybe a little slow, but that's okay. His mother was real close to my paps, if you get me. It would have been real awkward if we didn't give him a job or nothing. Alberto: He's another one of the newbloods. Not very close to many of the Boys, he tends to stick to me. Kind of a kiss ass - but sometimes that's the kind of guy you want around when you're surrounded by wise guys. Jake: The newest fella to join up. Sometimes I feel a little iffy about adding him to the operation - but he hasn't been afraid of getting his hands dirty yet - and he gets along real well with most of the Usuals. A real natural. Rest in Peace. Luigi: Just got in to the sector. One of those real classy fellas, him and his crew back Home used to be called the "Old Country Boys". Mario, Luigi and Wario. Yeah, we get the joke. Wario: This sonofabitch is a tricky one. Real snake in the grass - with a tongue to match. I've got him operating my Motel for now. He'll do good there, I think. Mario: Luigi's brother. Yeah, we still get the joke. Antonio: Real paranoid. I guess I can't blame him. Some shit happened to him that nobody should ever have to go through. Still, really? He always gots to eat out of these disgusting canned meats and stuff. Yeesh. Alfonso: Mr. Fancy Pants Lawyer Man. Real obedient - he's the only one of us that really ever did any real schooling. He does a whole lot of the more official business, see? Nico: Real oldschool guy. Kinda' a scumbag - but what can ya' do? Not many docs are gonna work off the books for a fella for so cheap. Benny: Benny's kinda a wiseguy kid. Funny, but still. Real wiseguy material. Met him and Nico around the same time, back in the old Neighborhood. He's a greaseball, for sure. ASSOCIATES These people are close - close enough that I feel the need to mention them. Not on the payroll. Mayor Moosebellow: Crazy sonofabitch, but I love him. A real capitalist - doesn't seem to mind much our little operation. Or maybe he's just clueless. Either way, I like him a lot. Nothing is to happen to him. David: We've tried getting him to play ball. He hasn't yet - shit, he was basically insulting us with his 'business advice'. But I don't know why I like him so much - I just want him around. That rat fuck's dead now. Fuck. Abbey: This girl. Really giddy - and clearly weak. A cute dame, but still. She's payin' thirty percent of her profits to us, and we get free use of her shop. Booyas, baby. Mayan: She's working in the restaurant. A real tough doll, she is. Fed a floran some mystery meats once. Maybe she'll prove to be more useful in the future, huh? Ray: Man, I really hate having to associate with the Wolves. He ain't too bad as far as they go, I guess - but they are too damn flashy. He says he's got contacts, meds and guns. I dunno if I trust him. Good to know a guy who knows guys, though.
Jeesh. It's real scary having to be away from the Mills for most of the week - having to rely on the Folks to keep the place from burning down. I got faith, but sometimes I wonder what it is that I'll be coming back to. I trust Mayan and Jake the Pole enough that they wouldn't try to screw me over - at least not on purpose. It's always possible that a customer might get too handsy with Mayan, or that Jake decides to flip his shit and start stabbing folks. But they probably won't. Probably. From what I was able to gather while I was heading on the door the other day, is that Vinnie hired some bum Floran to garden and harvest our little underground side business. The first time we saw the shit, it was from some Greenskin joint with weird fuckin' Witch Doctors and shit. I dunno too much about the sharptoothed hobo - not even his name. I'll have to ask Vinnie about that some time, and check up on the progress next time I head in to the Neo Italiano. Speaking of progress - I was thinking it over, and I think I know exactly why some many people are so sketched out by the ol' Tee-Tops. Some sketchy looking guy in a coat handing you a sack of fruit ain't nowhere near as trustworthy as some crackpot Doc' giving you a bottle of pills. So I figure here's what we're gonna start doing - we're going to dry out, grind, and capsulize the fruit - and start selling medicinally. Or at least, make it look that way. It's easier to take that way, and while we're extracting all the important bits from the less important bits - the high will probably get even more intense. And really, we're just trying to make the customer happy, right? I still need to talk to the Fleeties about setting up a little bit of protection for us - on the legitimate side of things. I've been seeing that P8 guy patrolling around, but from what I've heard of him and seen on the wanted posters - I wouldn't rely terribly much on his defense of the Joint. Hell, I'd probably put money on him starting more shit than he stops. That's another thing I'm gonna have to ask Mayan when I get in. Jesus christ, I forgot how much damn management goes in to being a.. Uh, manager. I guess.
Mother fucker. Today I heard over the wire that my food joint got shot up. The fuckin' front door got burned open, the fuckin' office door got burned open. The fuckin' kitchen doors got busted open. Mother fuckin' mother fuckers. They're gonna pay for fuckin' with Frankie Mother-Fucking Bada-Boop Contralto. Apparently they's some Avian and Hylotl. This fuckin' mook mother fucker Hylotl is dead, but this Avian sonofabitch still gots to pay for his crimes. I make it a point to punish folks who disrespect me - but coming in to my place of business and destroying it is another matter entirely. We're gonna wipe this little shit of the map. Me, Ace, Vinnie. Maybe Jake the Pole too, if he's around. Not only that, but apparently those poaching, direspectful little rats broke in to our backroom operation and took my fucking product. Means we're gonna have to start growing off site, which means I'm gonna have to expand the crew, pay for security, maintain the fuckin' joint, keep it hidden. God damnit. When I find this fuckin' bird mother fucker, he's gonna tell me everything he fuckin' knows - cos those rat fucks were smart enough to wipe the cameras. FUCK.
In this life, it's very rare that a man can live to see his grandchildren be born - let alone die a natural death, peacefully. We was reminded of this all too recently with the death of our dear associate, Jakob. I sent him out to do my dirty work - and god bless his stupid Polak soul, he did it. Only to get his head blown off by that crazy cagna, Abbey. I don't know what she was thinking. She's usually so smart. Now she's goofed. I was gonna let her go her own way after this last shipment, but now.. I think she'll be paying off debts for as long as she lives. If she lives. You don't just kill one of my boys and go unpunished. Apparently ol' Jake the Pole thought it would be a good idea to cap that bastardo David in broad daylight, in public. At least he got that right before he kicked the bucket. The disrespectful puke is dead - and for that, Jake will have my eternal gratitude. Now hopefully people will know that I am a man not to be played with - if you attempt to ruin my business, I will ruin you. I will have you ended. Rest in Peace, Jakob.
Gad'damn fuckin' goombas. Those goofballs, Upton the fuckin' Hick and Sessiel the Fuck that we had taken care of a couple weeks back tried breaking in to my food joint. Jesus gad-damn Christ. I mean, of course we's got to take care of them now. Ace knows what one of them looks like - and we's got both of their faces on camera. Whether the Fleeties or we find them first - I'll have both of them hanging off of the meat hooks in the back one of these days. Yep. One of these days, I'm really gonna have to hire some outside security or something. Yeesh. I can't get going out of business for a couple days every time some stupid mook thinks they can go snooping around my place of business. I definitely can afford it. I got Vinnie and Ace to pay Abbey a little visit the other day - we're now raking in 30% of all the dough she makes off of her new chop shop and we're also getting free business off of her. Fuckin' ay, maybe we should have ganked David sooner, huh? On a side note, kinda' relating to the previous topic.. Is mercy overrated? I mean, fuck - you'd think that motherfuckers would know that messing with Frankie Bada-Boop Contralto is a real bad gad'damn bad idea. But apparently not. Still debating internal-like on whether or not we're gonna gank or goof the dirty little crooks who tried breaking in to my place. Yeesh.
Yeesh. It's been way too long since my last entry. So much has happened. Good shit and bad shit - but at least the mooks from the last entry have been taken care of. Nobody'll be seeing anything of Sessiel the Fuck or Upton the Hick no more. They ran for a good long while - but they's done. Didn't ever really have a chance - I even feel a little bad about it. A little. Oh yeah, and we also finally got our little operation on the Fields up and running. Got a bunch of minimum-wage Floran goombas working it, and we've got this real crackpot Doc purifying the Tee-Tops. Finally settled on a format for it - we're drying, grinding, and purifying it in to a powder. We've been running a baggie at about a hundred pixels - what with the 5 grams we keep in each. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Out of there, we've started running the weapons we got from the Fleeties too. Ruby's a real swell gal - and even though she couldn't pay me up front - she promised me that once those Armada plucks are done with, I'm gonna be getting a nice shiny block of the Field for my own. Oh yeah! On to the bad news.. Abbey. Poor pluckin' Abbey. That stupid rat cagna thought she could wiggle her way out of our arrangement. She's gone and plucked herself real good this time. Told the Fleeties all about our arrangement - about how I tried getting her to make me the weapons. They're on to me now. So, I've got Antonio the Clamps running the Restaurant now. The joint needs a legitimate face. It pains me to have to do it - but that was the last straw. The broad's gotta go. She's still in hiding - but once I find her, Ms. Bennett's done for. How could I almost have forgotten! I met this horrid broad, glitch pluck by the name of QT-KT. She likes ta' call herself Katie. Apparently she thinks that I'm the kind of person who appreciates competition. I don't plucking think so. I run the Product in this sector - and not only that, but the disrespect she's shown me in the past - not to mention that she pulled a god damn gun on me. Nobody pulls a gun on Mr. Contralto. Nobody.
Got a whole bunch of the Old Boys coming on over from their spacegoings. You know. We got Benny coming back, and Nico too. I remember the first time I met them. At my Aunt's godmother's second wedding, to that guy - Muhammad the Jew. Yeah, that was him. Anyways, I figured I should probably bail real fast since my Aunt's Godmother's one of those Irish Mick goofs who won't never stop talking once you start with them. So I head to the back of the chapel and who the hell do I see playing a little game of cards in the back pews? Needless to say, they was my kind of people. So, we chatted a little bit - turned out they was in a little crew and new my Pops from the old days. They worked in some little street crew so I kindly invited them to make a little bit of extra money. Good to know that sometimes I know who's gonna be loyal and who ain't. Christ, I swear you can only really trust an Italian. So yeah, that's real swell. Finally got ourselves a Doc, and a Grease Monkey to work on our stuffs, since you know. Abbey's gone. Oh well! The broad was dead weight anyways. She ain't been seen in a while. Hopefully she found herself a real swell place to hide out, cos God knows I don't wanna have to do what I gotta do to the dame. Haven't seen Sweepy in a good long while either. Huh. Maybe somebody did off the girl. Oh well. Went to the Wolves Den for a funeral for some big bastard's funeral that I didn't know. I figured it'd be real polite. Didn't expect to see the Fleeties there, but oh well. It ain't like I was expecting them to cuff me there or nothing. Silly big bird sonsabitches. I did see one lady - folks tell me she's the Priestess for their silly Cluecks. Yeesh. I mean, I ain't usually in to no dirty Xeno broads - but that birdie really got me going! Gonna have to be a real proper gentleman with this one, yes sir. Haven't seen QT-KT in a while. I figure somebody must have offed her. Guess that's another thing crossed off Mr. Contralto's check list. Damn, it feels good to be King.
Sonofabitch. So, new places to set up in. Business has been slower than a broad on 34th and Lincoln in the middle of the 4th of July. I've had to start extending outta the Mills just to keep us in the Green. I got a Pawn Shop and another bar opened up in this little dingy joint in New Chicago, not to mention the fight pit. Dunno how well that'll pan out. Probably gonna have to ditch the idea, who knows how much drama mooks'll stir up about all of that. I also am in the middle of getting these dumb plant-fellas to dig up my own little Op underneath Badwater. Turns out that Cass remembers them favors I done for her a while back. Just goes to show that a fella can do good by showing some manners. Speaking of manners, some sonofabitch was walking around my office in New Chicago, looking around my papers. Sonofabitch. I'm gonna have to do something about that snooping cagna soon. I need to get back in the game, or else folks might start forgetting about good ol' Mister Contralto.
Frankie's had a real change of moods, book. Thanks to those robot pals on that Living Renaissance Fair of a planet, Frankie's got a whole new outlook on life. Bright future. Very bright. Bright, burning. Man, does that give Frankie a laugh. Ain't nobody gonna be expecting my next move. Hell, nobody's gonna remember old Frankie. Liberty Mills isn't even a thought in the back of their noggins no more, they ain't gonna be even thinking one bit about Mr. Contralto. No, they sure isn't. All the better for Frankie, ain't that so though? Yes sir, that sure is right. Whole bunch of work ahead of Frankie - those damn kids I was helping out gone Big League Terrorist style, which I ain't exactly sure how I'm thinking about using them exactly yet. Hopefully they's got some sort of honor - hope I drove that point across before my little Baptism by Fire. Yes sir, the future's looking bright. Real bright.
Hey book, don't I got real good news? Mr. Bada-Boop back in the game, see? Got product running in and out of all sortsa colonies - and I got myself a lab set up that's growin' the shit like clockwork! Man, ain't that just the swellest? Real sorry about the short entry today, I got people to do and things to see, see? View attachment 2633
