My people Part 1.

My people_

This is the story of Ricardo, the person who does odd jobs for money, but he’s also that person you keep reading about in the newspapers. When there’s a cunning burglary or when cars disappear overnight, that’s when you read about him, unnamed reports of his night life. Ricardo never thought he was a criminal, he had a rather philosophical approach, he believed that he took things away from people who didn’t actually need  those things but only bought them to flaunt their wealth. Well, he said he needed the money so he stole and the above described mind-set even kept his conscience clean enough for him to sleep at night.
He had flown over from New York City, USA because of a disagreement with the mafia and the first person he met in this crowded city was unfortunately Micki-The guy who became his lookout on his night expeditions. He was dumb, micki, and had temper problems, that’s not a good combination but they were still able to evade the cops, mostly because Ricardo usually planned the job to perfection. Micki was short, brown and a local, meaning he knew a lot of inside people. Ricardo was trying to get into the inside ever since he landed here, In Bangkok and so he stuck to micki.
His patience was rewarded merely a month after his first robbery with micki. Micki’s elder brother had a friend in the local mafia family as a gunman and Ricardo and micki were to meet the said gunman on a ship named Pearl Baby, in the nearest harbour.
Ricardo stood below his rented apartment, waiting for micki to pick him up for their meeting. He saw Micki come around the corner of neighbourhood, a market place with tenant potential in the upper floors. Micki stopped two paces away from him in his borrowed Volkswagen and Ricardo walked over to him to see his scarred face, scarred from multiple fights, and his bare scarred yet muscled arms on a replacement steering wheel, the steering wheel was only a part of the car because micki was holding it against the car, it was completely unattached.
“Micki, what the fuck is this shit? Can’t you get any car with proper basic controls?”
“Get your ass in it, bastard, I’ve wasted all morning searching for a car that works.”
Ricardo made a face and got in, not happy about it at all. Micki pulled out the crowded street and headed for the ship harbour on the side of town. Ricardo wasn’t too concerned about the meeting; it was just an ordinary gang recruiting new-bees for a job, there was no involvement of the mafia family in such petty affairs so Ricardo was surprised to see gun-men stationed on the deck of the ship, not just rough arms-bearing amateurs but dangerous looking guards. That was unusual; protection usually followed one of the Shadow people. Shadow people were named after their tendency to stay hidden behind piles of people in a scam, which can be anything from murder to kidnap to a casual robbery. They are usually gang-lords or dons, the apparent brains but there have been rumours about ultra-shadows, as the name suggests they are people of the underworld with no record of existence what so ever. The existence of ultra-shadows was very much doubtful; there has never been any indication of someone controlling the bossy, fat mobsters. Ricardo believed ultra-shadows were figments of imagination of drunken gun-men.

Ricardo and micki got out of the car and hid their guns behind them, in their trousers. It was merely a precaution as things sometimes got ugly and Ricardo was paranoid when it came to dealing with the mafia. A couple of rough Asians ran down the stairs to greet them and frisked them, taking away their guns, surprising them both. That was when Ricardo had his first doubt about the meeting, but he didn’t complain and followed the Asian friskers up to the deck of the ship. The ship was beautiful, majestic and clearly whoever owned it had a lot of wealth to spare. They got to the deck and found a well-dressed slight man sitting in a comfortable looking stuffed arm-chair, he was very old and didn’t show any interest in their arrival and continued to sip from his glass, Scotch it appeared. He was staring out over at the sea and without so much as a hint of interest in the people around him who were ready to open fire at anyone at his one motion. Ricardo resolved to be patient and looked all over the ship for exits in case of a fight, potential weapons within his reach and tricks he might be able to use to survive, but he forgot one important thing, to keep a check on micki.
“Hey, Fella, no offense but have you called us here to have us enjoy the pleasure of your silent company or what?”
Ricardo heard Micki’s loud voice directed towards the old man who was probably the gang-lord or the don and stared right at the old man for his reaction but none came; he looked at one his guards who were right beside him with a smile and then looked right into Micki’s eyes.
“I apologize for my lack of courtesy, dear ‘fellow’?” The last word came out as question and to Ricardo’s ears sounded dangerous. The Boss, for he undoubtedly was the head, looked over at one of the Asians who had taken their guns and they nodded, he smiled at Ricardo and micki satisfactorily, stood up and walked over to them, extending his hand. Micki took his hand first, rather unconcerned and the don shook his hand.
“I’m Su za ler, and I called you here for a job offer” The don said and waited for them to introduce themselves, micki again appearing unconcerned  as the Boss seemed to have bent to micki and lost his respect. Ricardo kept his emotions in check but a sliver of anger towards micki ran down his spine and he mentally insulted the son of a bitch for he was going to get them killed with that attitude. The don let go of Ricardo’s hand and clicked his fingers at one of his private guards who had followed him even on his 10 pace journey to Ricardo and micki. The guard rushed inside a room on the other side of the deck and we heard a muffled voice, 20 breaths later the guard returned and a slightly younger man followed him, he was tall, muscled and well-dressed. He walked over to Su za ler and kissed his hand ever so lightly.
“This is Koshi, the man you’d want to know if you want to be a part of the job and if I may say so, the family.” He said with bright eyes. “I know who you are Ricardo, and I know why you are here.”
Ricardo’s paranoia increased but he nodded and gave him the benefit of doubt. He went back to sit on the chair and Koshi followed him; Su za ler whispered something in his ears. Koshi asked them to come with him and he went back inside the room, this time one of the private guards of Su za ler accompanied Koshi. Ricardo and micki followed them inside the room which had nothing but a table with a map of the city and some chairs inside. Beside the table, on the floor a whiskey bottle and some glasses were kept in the tray. Koshi was sitting in one of the chairs and asked them to take one each, they sat down and were offered some whiskey by the guard. Ricardo accepted the glass offered to him without emotion and micki with eagerness, the guard offered some to Koshi and Koshi took his glass and gulped it down in one go. The guard offered him another glass but he refused saying,” Later, Mathew. You too take a seat.”
The guard pulled up the last chair and sat down, his face still impassive.

Koshi pointed towards the map on the table and started explaining the job; it was a simple plan of bringing in marijuana in the city. Ricardo, micki and Mathew-the guard-had to go to the other end of the city three times every day for a week and on any day were to be supplied with the drugs imported from Italy. They had to bring the supply back to Pearl Baby on the same day they get it. The don was even giving them a truck for the job. The plan was simple enough to be understood by the dumbest of muscleman and complex enough to fool the cops. Ricardo started relaxing as the plan was being told, this was his area and he actually liked the plan; it was the sort of tomfoolery he’d play with the cops. Koshi gave Ricardo and micki each a cell-phone he could contact them on with numbers of all the people they’d need to contact already saved in it. Ricardo shook hands with Koshi and left the ship feeling hopeful for the plan. He checked the cell-phone’s contacts on their way back and found, as was promised, Mathew’s and Koshi’s number saved under slightly different names. He had his hopes up for this job; it was bringing him money and an opportunity and possibly he’d soon be rid of micki and his shenanigans.