CHAPTER 180

"... THIS IS CRAZY!..." — Tommy shouted over the phone, after hearing the story told by Carl Benedetti. — "... You have to be playing a trick on me! It's impossible!..."

— I've never been so serious, kid. — Carl replied, already irritated.

"... You, working with an FBI agent? You have got to be kidding..."

Carl Benedetti shouted into the phone:

— Stop whining, kid! I've always worked passing information to Gregory Evans to take down the mafia... We don't have time to waste on this! You better listen to me!

Martin stretched out his hand asking for the phone. Indignant, Benedetti handed it to him:

"You must be Tommy Leone," he said as he picked up the phone. "I've heard some things about you…"

Tommy didn't recognize the voice. In fact, it was someone different from the henchmen the old man usually worked with. Full of sarcasm, he asked the new speaker:

"...And you're the FBI guy he's saying...?..."

—Agent Danny Martin, New York City Criminal Investigation Division, and Gregory Evans's aide.

Tommy deliberately let out an audible laugh, as he didn't believe in all that nonsense. He replied:

"... Do you think I'm going to fall for that? FBI? At most you were sent by the family to come after me, I think..."

Martin didn't understand what he meant.

Family?

Go after him?

What kind of person would this abused boy be?

He insisted on convincing him:

— It is better to believe, because the moment does not allow us to waste a single minute on useless things.

At that moment, Clooney appeared, carrying his laptop, with pertinent information displayed on the screen. While the conversation was taking place, he had been investigating young Tommy's background, a trivial task compared to his day-to-day work at the Agency. Read this!

He said, handing the computer to Agent Martin.

Martin read some information over the phone:

— Tommy Leone, twenty-nine years old, married to Katherine White, twenty-six. Lives at sixty-fifth, number three eight four.

Tommy was not surprised by the information; it was likely that Benedetti had told him that, to convince him. He also remembered that the famiglia used to investigate deeply the present and past of everyone who was accepted into its important list of members. It was likely that Carl Benedetti had such information.

Agent Martin, however, continued:

— You never knew your parents. You were raised in the old Wilkinson Orphanage, and after you came of age you lived alone until you met your wife. She is the daughter of Margaret and James White, who now live in Colorado...

For a few minutes, Martin read a list of data ranging from the young man and his wife's blood types to their social security numbers and recent web searches. When he reached the end of the information obtained from Clooney's quick research, but to heighten the dramatic appeal, he said something of some effect.

— Need I say anything else?

Tommy listened to all of this with wide eyes on the other end of the line. That information had never reached old Benedetti...

How did he know that?

The family certainly did not have such astute and skilled investigators.

Would this man then be some real agent?

Certainly his investigative ability was admirable.

"... It's better not to say anything else..." — he replied in a daze.

—Then listen to what I have to say: — Martin continued his persuasion. — We are facing a decisive moment in our lives, a path from which there may be no turning back. President Kenan is about to make a decision that could incite a new world war, on everything and everyone! Something he has hidden even from us. We have documents here that prove his true intentions, and we want to use them to stop him before it is too late...

"... And what do you want me to do? Convince him to stop? ..." — asked the young man.

— We have no options, Tommy. — Martin said gravely. — Maybe you are our only chance...

"...I'm sorry, but I don't know how I would do it..."

"Get us in touch with him!" Martin shouted anxiously, blood gushing through his bandages. "We have to do this, and we have to do it before the troops land at their destinations! If he gets the support of the other nations, we won't have a chance!"

"... There really is nothing you can do..."

Someone knocked on the suite door, interrupting Tommy in his refusal. Knowing that his stay was in the White House, any matter could be important, so he decided not to ignore it and not to make anyone wait.

"... Sorry, I have to go ..." — he said to Martin as he hung up the phone.

Agent Martin stood there listening to the final beep of the call with a disappointed expression.