A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Downtown Kaliburg, Château Lumière Restaurant
6:45pm, March 29, 5693

The Chancellor had just sat down at her reserved table at the extremely exclusive Canrillais restaurant Château Lumière in downtown Kaliburg.  She was eating alone tonight:  her husband was out of town again, and so she had come directly from the Capitol where she stayed longer so she wouldn't have to go home before dinner.  She studied the menu...  The coq au vin was always a treat here and was one of her favorite meals.  She would start out, however with the house specialty, salade niçoise-  Kalistani tuna, fresh caught just this morning, was always a great way to start a meal.  And for desert...  perhaps well, of course the creme brule...

Just out of the corner of her eye, she caught movement, and looked up from her menu...  and there, across her little table sat a man, in a dark suit.  He was old, his salt and pepper hair falling from his receding hairline put him in his late fifties, but the wrinkled leather of his skin suggested more like late sixties.  He smiled when he caught her eye, and she knew exactly who he was in an instant.  It was the Sulari bookie and Yeudi mob associate Julian Levinson.

"My apologies, Madame Chancellor," said the old man.  "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Mr. Levinson, you shouldn't be here."

"You're right, Madame."

"You won't hurt me here in public...  Mr. Levinson..."

"No Madame, I am not here to hurt you..."

"... because," she continued...  "All I have to do is scream, and this place will be filled with police in an instant."

"Madame, I do not want to hurt you and I apologize for frightening you."

The words left his mouth and Lady Donahue instantly felt a touch of pity, mixed with resentment.  Who was this person to approach her here, with such brashness, and also, how could this restaurant let this convicted mob associate get this close to the Chancellor of the Empire.  The more she thought of it, the more indignant and angry she got.  Security was definitely lacking.

"Well, then what do you have to say for yourself?"

Levinson heard the question with not a little hostility imbued in it, and said, "Excuse me Ma'am?"

"I suppose you are pretty proud of yourself, beating those charges like that..."

This was definitely not how Levinson imagined this conversation would go.  "Madame, I am here to visit Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell at the cemetery.  Your government had me locked in a cage when they were shot."

"And you were walking down the street past this restaurant and you just happened to see me here, so you thought, what, you'd come here and threaten me?  Intimidate me?"

"No Madame, I came here to give you something.  But I don't know if I should bother with it now.  If you show this sort of disdain for an innocent man, I don't think I have much else to say to you."  He put his hat on his head, stood up but then paused and sat back down again.  He stared at her for a moment, "Hashem, gib mir shtarkeyt." he said under his breath, with his eyes fixed on the Chancellor.

Lady Donahue was upset that he sat back down, and she was about to call the staff over to have Levinson ejected from the building, when he picked up his satchel and reached inside.  She froze in an instant, convinced he was about to produce a pistol.  She sat and did not move a muscle.  She felt her breathing stop and she suddenly could hear her own heartbeat in her ears.  Time stopped.  All movement in the restaurant ceased.  She was only aware of her own sudden terror and fear of imminent death, and this old gangster, who had been involved in how many killings, and how many disappearances that she knew off, who had just beat the system, and who was sitting here going through a leather case that could hold who knows what.  She looked for security, not daring to move another muscle.  He looked at her again and produced a thick manila envelope.

"Before my friend Jacob died, I swore to him that I would give you this.  He made me promise.  Jacob didn't think you people liked him very much.  And he was deeply hurt by you and the Princess sending the White Gem from the country.  He felt betrayed, but he was loyal to you goys to the very last breath.  I know he was.  And I know what he told you people before he was killed not one mile from this spot.  He gave you a lot of names that you didn't have, names he shouldn't have given you.  Names of people who would have killed for them to not have been mentioned.  I warned him.  I tried to stop him.  But you know him...  He could be a real schmuck sometimes, a real mshugene Yeudi, follow?  But he was a crusader.  He was what they call a true believer.  And he now he is gone from us.  When I last saw him, made me promise him one thing.  No matter what happens, I am supposed to give you this."

The Chancellor looked down at the manila envelope.  It looked like it hid half a ream of paper inside it.  "What is it?" she asked as he slid it across her table.

"I never looked for myself, Lady Donahue and I didn't ask him.  It's for you, not me."

She slowly took the envelope and brought it closer to her.  "Why the secrecy?  Couldn't you have just sent it to my office?"

"Let's say I have an idea what's in that, and so no.  No chance, Madame."

She undid the clasp and looked inside.  There was a stack of about two hundred leaves of paper, with lists, highlighted names, transcripts, and what could be bank records...  Her eyes grew very wide.  The titles on many of the pages said "AYIC- this or that..." 

"Judging by the look on your face, I think I might have been right..."  said Levinson.

After leafing through it and realizing just what she had--enough ammo to completely decapitate and utterly bankrupt the Yeudi Mob-- she became concerned for Levinson's safety.  "Mr. Levinson, you will need protection...  If anyone ever finds out about this...  I mean... they can shoot Jacob in the street.  These people don't mess around.  I have to make some calls, but I can get you protection..."

He smiled, and said, sarcastically, with a chuckle, "Ohhh...  that's sweet..."  She didn't understand his sudden change in tone.  "See, here's how this works.  If they wanted me dead, I'd be dead already.  I walked right into this restaurant and sat down here with you, and nobody stopped me.  And the waiter hasn't come by to check on you.  Notice that, Madame?  Weird isn't it...  All the security you could possibly dream of wouldn't stop these guys.  I know them.  They're my people, undzer shtik, not yours.  I imagine you saw a lot of names and a lot of numbers and a lot of words in there...  Let's just say this.  Those names?  I'm only walking around still because I know where all their money is buried."

The Chancellor closed the envelope and slid it into her own briefcase.  "Alright Mr. Levinson.  Then what's in it for you?"

"How do you mean, Madame?" he asked.

"You guys are always working some angle.  What's the upside for you?"

"Well," said Levinson, "I already told you, I was keeping a promise to an old friend, maybe one of my best friends, and a far better person than most people walking around on this planet right now.  So here's my angle:  You take care of the muterfaking schvantzes on those lists.  Do whatever you gotta do, before they figure out it was me who put the finger on them.  Then you won't need to hire security.  Once I leave here, just forget you ever met me, or that I even existed.  I'll do my time, and then you can just let me go.  I bought a nice condo in Tel Bira.  I met a nice girl.  I would like to retire in the Holy Land, if you don't mind.  How about one hand washes the other?  I got a year until I can leave Kalistan for good.  You take care of some folks, you have some names there, and the ones you already got, you help us Yeudis clean up our community like Jacob wanted all along, and you pay them back for taking my friend from me, than you and me are square.  Farshteyn?"

The Chancellor considered his request.  "I never met you, Mr. Levinson."

"Smart girl" he said in a very condescending tone, without smiling.  "I think you'll make something out of yourself after all.  He always liked you best, you know..."  Levinson stood up and put his hat on.  He tipped his brim and said "Madame Chancellor..." before turning around and walking away.

"Julie Books," she called after him as he walked away.  "Did you do it?"  He paused and then continued walking out the front door of the restaurant and out into the dusk on his way to the cemetery where Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell had been laid to rest.