CHAPTER FOURTEEN
2000 – Return of the Spare
By mid-June, a plan had been put in place by Bolo and Hopeton, with an assist by Mundo, I assume. Hopeton had been in Panama for a few weeks and they’d all sat down and hashed it out face to face, Bolo and Mundo leaving it to Hopeton to fill me in on how this was all gonna run. That led me to assume I was gonna be assigned a utility player role.
First off, I was given the task of selling the Brownsville garage, preferably off market, preferably to someone in our circle. Mundo generously offered me a 25% commission if I could manage it from beginning to end. I accepted that assignment with pleasure.
Hopeton explained to me that shit in Panama was in flux now that the U.S. had pulled out. Drugs were getting harder and harder to move, but the weapons and ammunition market was wide open. Bolo made the decision to basically shut down all of the drug import business, and PanStar would be repurposed as a storage site for weapons, bulletproof vests and ammunition. Hopeton was perfectly fine with this shift- he came up in Kingston in the 70s and 80s- guns and gun trafficking was in his blood.
Bolo was working on getting some solid connections- once they secured inventory, they’d start shipping via the usual Port of Newark entry point.
“You won’t have to handle any of that,” Hopeton assured me. “All we need for you to do is be the face man. You make the initial meet with the buyer and ensure payment is in place. You won’t even have to worry about handling cash- we’re going digital. I may have to bring Biz in for that.”
I laughed. That paper-pushing fuck was gonna wind up richer than all of us if we didn’t watch out.
Then I laughed again, this time at myself.
Bolo wanted me to be the face man. I really was inheriting all of Mundo’s hand-me-downs. If that was the case, I was gonna have to talk to Hopeton about my rate. Mundo’s roles and responsibilities should definitely come with Mundo’s salary and perks.
“Maybe we should talk money,” I said to Hopeton. He ushered me over to the mahogany desk.
Time for the Spare to move on up.
