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POV of William Smith(german spy)
31-December-1921
"Whatever you do, you're fucked. If you kill me, there will be an investigation into my death. Even if you try to keep my disappearance quiet, sooner or later my superiors will realize I'm missing. A federal agent cannot simply vanish into thin air. All you dogs who make your living from vice will go down. It's only a matter of time" said one of the federal agents who had recently arrived in Chicago.
"So you are unwilling to cooperate?" asked our local counterintelligence chief, who also handled interrogations.
"I wouldn't cooperate with you even if you killed me. You're the worst scum in society. You sell liquor and watch the chaos it brings to our communities while fathers drink away their earnings, leaving their families with nothing to feed their vice" the federal agent said through clenched teeth, glaring at our interrogator with hatred.
"Ah, very well… We will try another approach" the interrogator said, opening a briefcase that had remained closed since his arrival, after we informed him that a federal agent had shut down two speakeasies and arrested several people.
"Do whatever you want, you scum… I won't say or do anything. I don't care if you torture me" the agent said, turning his head slightly to watch our man begin taking out photographs.
"Not you… I have no intention of doing anything to you. But what about your little boy, the one who goes to school?" he asked, tossing a photograph in front of him.
I immediately noticed the change in the agent's expression when he recognized the picture of his son.
"What about your sister… or your mother… or your father? Better yet, how about your wife… or your newborn daughter?" he said, tossing another photograph onto the table with each person he named. The agent's confidence vanished completely. His eyes widened, and his mouth slowly fell open.
"This is what will happen: if you refuse to cooperate with me, misfortunes will follow. If I could obtain these photographs as soon as I learned of your arrival in Chicago, what do you think I could do to your family before you managed to ask for help? Well? The choice is simple. Either you cooperate and stop interfering with our business and that of our partners in crime, or you will find your entire family cut to pieces" the interrogator said, repeatedly driving a knife into the photographs.
The only sound was the agent's ragged breathing as he swallowed silently.
"So, what is your decision? Should I order your family murdered so you can cherish the satisfaction of having done the right thing, of having been the champion of American justice who stood firm in the face of threats? Though, of course, you will have to bury all your relatives because of your stupidity… Or you can accept a bribe and buy your wife something nice when you return home after concluding your investigation" the interrogator said, leaning close to the federal agent's face with a sadistic smile.
The agent did not answer. His lips barely moved as he tried to speak, but no sound escaped his mouth.
"Oh, and do not even think of asking for help. Our networks extend far beyond anything the government imagines. We will know the moment you try, whether by letter, radio, telegraph, or word of mouth. The instant you speak, your family's remaining time will begin to run out. It will not happen that same day, perhaps not even that same month, but sooner or later my men will be lurking around your relatives. Until… bang! A bullet in the back of the head when they least expect it, when they think everything has blown over. I will always be watching you. I will always be watching your family, because you crossed the wrong men. Now I decide whether your loved ones live or die… Say it: I will cooperate with you" our interrogator said, bringing his ear close to the agent's mouth with a satisfied expression.
"I… will cooperate" the agent replied, his lips trembling, his voice barely escaping his throat.
"Oh… Louder, and say it properly: I will cooperate with you" the interrogator said, breaking into laughter with an enormous grin.
"I will cooperate with you" the agent said as tears slipped down his cheeks.
The interrogator bit his lip and closed his eyes at those words.
"Excellent… Take your bribe, my upright federal agent. You are part of the problem now. And never forget that I will be watching the moment you give me the slightest reason to distrust you" the interrogator said, driving the knife into the photographs once more.
"I trust your position and the consequences are clear enough. Now give me the names of every agent participating in this operation ordered by the federal government" the interrogator said, handing him paper and a pencil. With a trembling hand, the agent began to write.
"Looks like he's finished" Lewis said, watching the interrogator with some disgust.
"Where do they find these maniacs? Luckily, he's on our side. I don't even want to imagine what it would be like to have him against us" I said, shaking my head as I watched how he had broken a man who had refused to say a single word in a matter of minutes.
"It is settled" the interrogator said as he left the room, while other counterintelligence agents took over gathering the remaining information.
"What did he give you?" I asked, noticing his triumphant smile.
"The names of the men the president sent to investigate what happened in Chicago and discover why the city had suddenly grown quiet. Apparently, someone found all that peace suspicious and decided to send men to investigate. All that remains is to obtain the missing information, and we will be ready" the counterintelligence agent said.
"It seems your approach of threatening his family proved more effective than our methods" Lewis said, looking at the sadistic agent.
"Oh, that was no threat… It was a warning, because I would have actually done it. My network consists mainly of hired killers who dispose of the problems you create from time to time. Three policemen who tried to infiltrate our organization have already been eliminated and now lie beneath the foundations of buildings under construction, while their colleagues continue searching for them. We have also disposed of fifty-six people who proved untrustworthy and tried to speak to the police. They all disappeared quietly. We left false letters and the like, saying they were leaving the state, to explain their absence, while their bodies were buried in some forest or fed to pigs… But, in any case, my work here is done. I am going to hunt down the remaining agents to settle the situation" the counterintelligence chief said. Several of his men promptly followed him.
"Damn… That man gives me the creeps" I said, looking at Lewis.
"Who wouldn't feel that way? There's a reason they chose him to deal with problems. He's obsessive about documentation and investigations" Lewis replied, soon heading back toward our headquarters.
"So what are we going to do about this? We lack information, and they've caught us with our pants down. They may have been Torrino's bars, but when we brought all the gangs to heel, we promised them protection. It doesn't look good when the federal agents show up and we can't even warn the Italians before they come down on them" I told Lewis, who seemed somewhat concerned.
"They're federal agents. They barely have to tell the local authorities anything. That's our problem. As our network spreads across the state and we acquire more clients, our intelligence service should improve considerably, but we need quality, not just quantity. The more men we have, the more often that individual will have to intervene, and so many suspicious disappearances will eventually provoke a serious investigation. We must find a way to obtain more valuable information without exposing ourselves" Lewis said thoughtfully.
"We have the money. How much did we last send the Puppeteer? Twenty-three million dollars, in banknotes and some gold and silver? We could substantially reduce the share of our monthly profits we send him and use the difference to secure better informants. We'd simply have to pay more" I said, pointing to our operation's ledger.
"That wouldn't help, because first we need to know whom to pay. Just any idiot won't do. He could feed us false information or give us nothing while continuing to collect his money, and that would risk exposing the organization. Any indiscretion concerning our important affairs could bring the federal government down on us" Lewis replied, shaking his head as he sat down to examine the accounts.
"What about a politician…? Better yet, what if we put one of our own in power? We finance a major campaign and take advantage of our control over certain cities through the gangs that serve us. We could buy votes and secure a mayor sympathetic to our interests, or better still, a governor" I said, raising a finger as I looked at my companion.
"That… That could be a very good idea. But we'd have to challenge the dominance of the two major American parties, and they wouldn't readily tolerate a new one emerging. We'd also need to find a way to channel our donations to that party. Still, all the money we make already appears to come from legitimate sources, thanks to our front companies, whose numbers keep growing to conceal every illicit dollar" Lewis said with a nod.
"We can make donations through our companies and establish a party that promises some of the things the public wants, while securing votes beforehand with generous payments. That should allow us to win the governorship. If we put our man in charge of Illinois, we should be able to obtain important information from the federal government. We could gain access to numerous confidential reports and obstruct any attempt to root us out" I added, moving closer to Lewis.
"Let's see… The Chicago mayoral election, which is the one that interests us, will be in 1923. We have time to put forward a candidate, buy votes, and have the gang bosses force their men to vote for him, as well as secure their families' support. By then, the Germans are expected to have regained their voting rights through a Supreme Court ruling. We'll therefore have a German population deeply resentful of the local government. Then comes the gubernatorial election in 1924, and that will be our moment to strike. We can turn to our fellow Germans to rally votes against the Republicans and those Democrats who are still half dead thanks to Wilson" Lewis said, taking out several books in which he had compiled the information gathered by our agents.
"We need to find a couple of idiots we can control, American citizens willing to serve our interests. We finance their candidacies, hire a propaganda adviser, and mount an intensive campaign to win the mayoralty, seats in the legislature, and then the governorship. That should protect us from any federal intervention, since we'd always know what was happening in the state and receive some news from elsewhere" I said, pointing to the areas in other states where our operations had expanded.
"We'll have to inform the Herzog that we won't be able to keep sending him as much money as before. Those sums must allow him to finance a great many things, because twenty-three million dollars a month adds up to a fortune over a year. And the amount keeps increasing as our businesses grow" Lewis replied, snapping the ledger shut.
"Spending between fifty and eighty million on a political campaign should be enough to win everything. I doubt the Americans spend that much on their elections. We just need to raise the funds and keep doing what we're doing, reducing our payments to the Herzog a little while we establish the party and prepare everything we need to contest the elections" I said, resting my hands on my hips as I paced the room.
"That's what we'll do. We'll take advantage of our countrymen's outrage and see what happens. Perhaps we can expand into other states, but without attracting too much attention, or people will start asking how our companies make so much money. Even if all the paperwork is in order, I don't want investigations" Lewis said, his expression turning serious.
"We have to do it. You know who handles any problems that arise" I said, shivering at the memory of that sadistic bastard.
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