Baccano! - Volume 19 - Chapter Pr

All right, Huey Laforet. Let’s get this show on the road.

This time, there’s no friend to shut down your rampage.

Let yourself go, expose your greed, and stew in your own arrogance.

Naturally…there’s no friend to save you, either.

Yes, that creepy smile junkie isn’t in town. Isn’t that wonderful?

You won’t have to worry about letting him seeyour shameful behavior.

And I won’t have to see his detestable face.

Linking Chapter Can’t Fight the Current

Somewhere in New York A casino

The situation could be summed up in one simple word: chaos.

An eerie feeling had seized Firo Prochainezo, Martillo Family executive—as if his heart had been caught in layer upon layer of spiderwebs.

It was the first time in his twenty-odd years that he’d found himself in such confused circumstances, and his mind couldn’t keep up with the reality in front of him.

That said, he was resilient enough to become a Camorra executive at a young age, so maybe that was why he kept working to understand the situation at all.

If Firo’s life were a vast ocean, it would have a few whirlpools in it. Becoming a member of the Martillo Family had given him a current that pushed him forward in his life; however, becoming an immortal had pulled him into a huge vortex between the ocean currents.

Firo had been caught in this whirlpool for several years, but a few months earlier, his involuntary trip to Alcatraz had sucked him in even deeper.

Events today had dragged him right to its heart: a casino breaker; a man who’d apparently won on the slots by cheating; visits from Ladd Russo and Christopher; Maiza Avaro, his boss and a senior immortal; and a dead ringer for Maiza’s kid brother, Gretto, who had arrived and declared himself Firo’s enemy.

All of this on its own might have been enough to drag him into the maelstrom, but Maiza had told him something else that served as the final push.

“There are airplanes outside…? What are you talking about, Maiza?” Firo replied, confused.

Maiza calmly explained that multiple fighter planes had appeared in the sky over New York and were firing machine guns mounted on them. The city didn’t seem to be taking any damage, so he assumed they were probably firing blanks.

In that moment, another whirlpool was added to Firo’s life, and his mind almost stopped in the chaos.

He didn’t panic, though. His obligations and pride as a Martillo Family executive, plus the presence of two other executives he loved and respected, kept him anchored to sanity.

If he’d succumbed to the urge to scream and smash whatever he could, he might have felt a little better, but that wouldn’t fix the situation.

Firo had realized if he sank into that whirlpool right now, he’d drag down people who were important to him, too.

“Maiza, you don’t look so great. You okay?” Firo asked, partly to help himself calm down.

“I don’t?” Maiza said, startled by the observation. “Oh, well, it’s true that I’m confused. It isn’t only the situation outside. Just now, I passed someone who bore a strong resemblance to an acquaintance of mine…”

“Yeah. I know.” Firo nodded firmly, and with that, Maiza was caught in a whirlpool of his own. He’d wanted to write it off as a chance resemblance, but under the circumstances, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“…What was he? I do know he can’t be…him,” Maiza said.

“Oh, uh, it’ll take a while to fill you in on the details, but… The short version is, he’s with the Runorata Family.”

“The Runoratas…?” Maiza’s eyebrows drew together.

Someone else interrupted them. “That conversation can wait until after we’ve dealt with the casino.”

“Ronny.”

Like Maiza, Ronny Schiatto was a senior executive.

At the phrase “dealt with the casino,” Firo took another look around the room. “For now…I’ll have the kids work on cleaning the place up. It’s not like all the tables are broken, so if everything goes well, we’ll be able to open again tomorrow.”

Ladd Russo had been listening in, and now he spoke up. He was one of the people who’d trashed the casino. “Seriously, Firo, sorry about that. If you want, I’ll get you some replacement tables by tomorrow.”

“I ain’t usin’ any tables you brought in. Not worth the risk.”

“Cautious fella. Well, that ain’t a bad thing… By the way, who’re these guys? Introduce me, wouldja?” Ladd smiled at Ronny and Maiza. Firo froze.

“Yes, Firo, who are they?” Maiza asked, motioning toward Ladd and Graham, but Firo wouldn’t look at either of them.

“Uh, I’ll introduce you later. You too, Ladd. Just sit tight, all right?”

After Firo had put them off for the moment, a question occurred to him. Now that all their customers had scattered, he saw faces that didn’t look like they belonged in a casino.

What’s Christopher doing here anyway? Who are the two kids he’s got with him? Wait, one of those kids has some crazy scars.

Now was probably not the time to ask those questions, but to settle his mind, he decided to start somewhere. Although he’d said he’d introduce everyone later, would it be better to get Maiza, Ladd, and the rest acquainted now?

No, wait. Those kids might be outsiders. I get the feeling they came in with Ronny, though…

He decided he’d better check on that with the man himself. “By the way, Ronny, are those people acquaintances of—? Hmm?” His eyes fell on a certain face, and he broke off.

“Eeep?!” a tattooed kid shrieked as Firo’s gaze stopped on him. He was standing next to Ronny, and Firo kept staring.

“Hey… I think I recognize that tattoo,” Firo said.

“Aaaah! I—I’msorryexcusemeforgiveme!” the boy shrieked all in a rush.

With that, the tattooed newcomer was dragged into a new whirlpool.

Although this particular boy—Jacuzzi Splot—had already been on the verge of drowning in a maelstrom of his own.

And so the story picked up speed.

Firo Prochainezo’s whirlpool was the trouble around the casino. That said, history’s great ocean was shared property. The people around Firo were being dragged into their own separate vortices. The whirlpools of their lives overlapped, and nobody could predict where the currents would take them anymore.

What lay in their hearts? Did the same thing lie beneath every one of the maelstroms?

They simply continued drifting through life, unable to catch so much as a glimpse of the bottom.

Should they escape from the whirlpools? Or should they give in to them and peer into their depths?

They didn’t know the answers to even these basic questions.

At this point, all they could do was let the massive current carry them along.