A Crowdsourced Novel
Read it here – Say what comes next.
Frank backed away from the bedroom window. So many police cars. It was good that Roya was someplace else. He checked himself—wrong time to start thinking about Roya and Tony. No sign of the police boat yet. “Tatiana, don’t move from this room. If they question you, tell them I held you hostage—you got that?”
“That’ll just get you in deeper trouble.” She sounded scared. Frank needed her calm.
“Don’t worry about that. The way things are going, it won’t cause me any more trouble than I’m already in. The important thing is to keep you out of it. Besides, I just might get away. Don’t say anything about Roya. Admit she’s your sister and she stopped for a visit but that’s all. You don’t even know my last name–just some guy named Frank. Can I count on you for that?”
She paused, then nodded.
“Stay down. If you hear shooting, don’t move. They’ll eventually find you here. Tell them you’re scared. They’ll probably question you. Don’t believe anything they say about Roya or me–it won’t be true.” Frank closed the bedroom door and crept down the steps.
Sun blazed through the windows overlooking the lake—the water only fifty feet from the French door. He’d just slip under the surface and swim away. He knew better than to give himself up. If they put him in prison, that contract on his head would get filled before morning.
The door and two windows crashed in, immediately followed by flashes so bright, he lost his vision and explosions loud enough to cut off his hearing. Stun grenades. He’d used them in training but he’d never been on the recieving end. Disoriented and unable to see or hear, Frank felt the steel cuffs squeeze his wrists behind his back. In the acrid smell of magnesium and aluminum, large hands gripped him, half carried him out the splintered door. Walked him across the lawn. Pushed his head down. As his vision cleared, he found himself in the caged back seat of a car.
Two women dragged Tatiana to another car. Frank saw her hysterical tears but couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in his ears. His car pulled away.
* * *
Agent Harris watched the operation from the back seat of his car. He checked his watch. Thirty three seconds. Satisfying. He had Smith—the main event, and maybe a bonus. “Let’s go, Paul.”
His car rolled out behind the other two and Harris settled back in his seat for the long drive to headquarters. Soon he’d find out everything he wanted to know. He’d get a line on Fetova and take the head off this new organization.
When they crossed the Tri-State Tollway, Paul handed back the phone. Harris grabbed it. “Talk to me.”
“The house is clean. Not even a weapon.”
He scowled at that. “Lock it down till forensics gets there. If Fetova left so much as a flake of dandruff, I wanna know.”
* * *
Harris stepped through the elevator doors, across the hall and into FBI headquarters. When he got to the interrogation room he checked the glass, saw Frank Smith sitting across the table and the back of a head. Thick red hair. Not one of his men and he didn’t like it.
He pushed through the door and faced Dan Mahoney—the pencil pusher from the Organized Crime Taskforce in Washington. Harris leveled his eyes at Smith, showing his command, then turned back to the red-headed man. “Let’s talk in my office, Mahoney.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be necessary and there isn’t time.” That irritating nasal whine made Harris grit his teeth. Mahoney went on: “I’m taking this prisoner to Washington. I’d appreciate a lift to O’Hare.”
Stan Harris just glared at him.
” Now, Harris.”
.
What happens next? TAKE YOUR TURN [click here]
HOW TO PLAY–This is an interactive story based on Nate’s game in my novel. You get to say what comes next:
1.) KEEP IT SHORT – It’s easy to play Nate’s game. Just enter your idea as a comment like, “their jeep drives off a cliff.” Don’t worry about form—just suggest the next step in the story. I’ll pick one, write it, and post it as a scene in serial form.
2.) KEEP IT CLEAN – I hold the veto pen. In general, if it wouldn’t fly in an old 60’s Bond movie, then it’s out. Since this is an experiment, I get to add rules as we go along.
3.) SHARE – Your posts are a precious gift to me. Maybe you’ll help write my next novel. If so, I’ll list your name prominently as a contributor. If not, then we’ll just have a great time. I take you at your word that all ideas are your original thoughts. No criticism. No arguments. No lawsuits allowed. Let’s have some fun.
The Gamemaker's Father 
hey this new chapter came up when we were reading the other one. i’m at a party, typing this on my brothers big flat screen screen tv 🙂 were going from blog to blog there’s lots of noise here
frank and mahoney are in washington. mahoney gives frank a choice. go to prison and wait for his trial. or work for mahoney. if he goes to prison, he’s dead for sure. so he gos to work for mahoney. 😦
if umo graso gets taken down then chicago goes up for grabs. but mahoney sees that. no point in knocking off one mob just to get stuck with another one. so he tells frank to pose as tony and join the russians in new york. remember graso put out that contract. sothe real tony has a reason to join up with another mob. that makes franks story sound true
is that a step up or a step down from franks days as an insurance salesman? :!
Posing as Tony, Frank can feed all sorts of inside information about the Chicago organization to the Russians. Mahoney will supply the information. Some of it will be true, some not. When the Russians make their move on Chicago, Frank will be established as an insider, but he’s really helping Mahoney take them down, cutting an arm off the Russian organization and preventing one set of gangsters from taking the place of the other.
heres what my brother says. the reason criminal investigations are so hard is because the crooks don’t usualy walk up to the police and tell them hi, i’m so-and-so and i just did such-and-such. but frank will do that.
Hey you guys, this is great. I’m really glad I turned off the comment filtering. Here’s what I see:
1.) The action can take place anywhere.
2.) You need an initial meeting with the Russians in New York. They don’t have a big presence in Chicago yet because Grasso runs that territory.
3.) That’s also the reason the other Chicago mobs keep to their own turf. Grasso owns the town because he owns so many of the politicians.
Okay boys, this will be my last and I’m shutting down. Have you noticed that the nature of the connection between Roya and Mahoney has yet to be determined? Is she working an illegal covert operation for Mahoney or is she really rogue? As you’ll recall,, Mahoney talked to her by phone in the story. I don’t think he told Agent Harris about that. Mahoney knows that Roya wants to kill Grasso and he knows her reasons. Either he’s orchestrating events or taking advantage of them. Which is it? Good cop or bad cop?
This could be several Chapters:
1.) Franks meeting in DC with Mahoney, the FBI Organized Crime guy.
2.) Roya and Tony do what Lee said last time.
3.) Frank in NY infiltrates the Russian criminal enterprise.
4.) The real Tony bumps off another one for Roya.
5.) Frank, posing as Tony, fronts for the Russians and sets up operations in Chicago.
6.) Roya does something outrageous.
7.) Eventually, Frank entraps the Russian organization for an FBI sting.
What’d’ya think?
goood with me
Good night.
Okay, here’s the material Lee posted last time. It still needs to be written into the story. Here’s Lee’s post:
Episode Roya and Tony:
Roya was pleased with how quickly her interrogation of Tony Ferragamo transpired. He had lots of muscle—but not too much will power. This was a character flaw she had discovered true with most criminals. Now that she had convinced Tony it was in his best interest to work with her, she did not want to lose any momentum. She did not have time to check on Frank and Tatiana—but she had no reason to worry. Tatiana had chosen a more domestic lifestyle, but she was a Fetova and had plenty of street smarts.
She knew Uomo’s goons would be looking for both Tony and her if they returned to Chicago. But that was exactly her plans. One of Nicki’s specialties was disguises. He had already picked up some red hair dye for Roya and some changes of clothes for her and Tony both. Tony complained some. He had a certain fashion sense and liked to dress sharp—in a sleazy kind of way. Nicki had other plans. Since Tony had been on the run for a number of days, he already had a few days growth of beard. Nicki explained to Tony that he was going to become a beatnik poet out of the 1950s. He would have a small goatee, a shaved head, horned-rimmed black glasses, a beret, and dress in all black. The black didn’t hurt with some of the night surveillance they would be doing.
Roya already knew from Tony’s flood of truth telling about Uomo’s nephew Desi. Tony had shared that Uomo didn’t much like Desi, but he was the closest family he had left. Desi didn’t care all the much for his uncle and so the feeling were mutual. It seemed Desi had ambitions to take over the operation and so he tried to keep the peace. Roya thought Desi might be weasel enough to betray his uncle for the right reason.
It was decided Nicki would be their driver since his car was not wanted by the police, plus it would not hurt to have a little extra muscle in the event they needed a third person. They left Milwaukee late afternoon and this allowed them to arrive in Chicago after the worst part of the evening rush hour. Tony convinced them to stop at one of his favorite chains of greasy spoons that serve Chicago Style Hotdogs and Italian Beef sandwiches. Both Nicki and Tony seemed to really enjoy the juicy and messy Italian Beef with a large helping of fries.
They arrived in Oak Park around dusk and parked across from Desi’s computer repair shop. Tony knew the second floor of the business was used by Desi for all kinds of cyber fraud and electronic spying activity. They wanted to see if Uomo had assigned any bodyguards to look after his dear nephew. If so, these poor slobs would be the latest of Uomo’s goons to face Roya’s wrath.
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