Black Onyx Duology Read Online Free PDF Page A

their prisons while I make one hundred million dollars a year selling it to them and they cannot touch me. I am a product of their hypocrisy. I could not exist without it. They make me, feed me, sustain me, protect me, and betray their own people for me.” He exhaled. “It is sad actually.”
    “What is?”
    “They are the freest nation that has ever existed. One that was built on the idea of man as a rational being, a being that should be given his freedom and his choices. It is…a fantastical idea. Un milagro. It is in decline and soon it will fall. That is the way of empires. They are found, they rise, they decline, and they fall. When the United States falls, the world will fall. And we will enter a dark ages. People do not understand how easily we can fall into such things. How little a push it would take to destroy civilization and turn us into monsters. But it will happen…” He turned and looked at her. “I have a meeting.”
    “Should I stay with you today?”
    “No. Take the limo. Go to El Paso and go shopping.”
    He showered and dressed in a pin-stripe suit before having a breakfast of coffee. He lit a cigarette and went downstairs. Out front, three men were waiting for him by a Mercedes and they opened the back door and allowed him to get in before they did the same and pulled away.
    The car drove through the streets of Juarez but El Sacerdote had his eyes closed. He was meditating on the meeting, playing out several scenarios in his mind. He visualized everything in his life and found that he was better prepared for the surprises that were part of his business.
    They drove over the bridge and through the gates of El Paso and entered the United States. It was a short drive to the warehouse they were meeting at and they parked in the lot. His three men exited the car and checked with a man who was standing in front of a door. They spoke a few words and one of the men came back and opened the door for El Sacerdote.
    “They are ready for you, El Padrino.”
    He stepped out of the car and walked through the door into the warehouse. A woman was sitting behin d the front desk, a poster of another woman in a bikini behind her. She glanced up and then buried her head back down into the magazine she had open in front of her.
    He walked down a corridor into a room with a conference table , and several men were already there. He sat down at the table while his men stood behind them.
    Three men sat before him. Two in gray suits on either side of a man in a black suit. The man wore a cowboy hat and he took it off and placed it on the table. His hair was graying and he was portly but not quite fat. He wiped his nose with a silk handkerchief, his Rolex gleaming in the sunlight coming through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
    “They call you the Priest,” the man said. “What’s your real name?”
    “It does not matter.”
    “I’m not doing business with a man that won’t even tell me his name.”
    “Then you won’t be doing business at all.”
    The man paused. “You’re not the only game in town.”
    “You may find m y competition unwilling to do business with those that have displeased me.” El Sacerdote smiled. “We have not begun this meeting properly, Mr. Park. I am a simple man and do not understand the intricacies of negotiation. I am merely here to make a profit, and I believe that if you make a profit with me, we can have a long, sustainable business. I need access to Canada. I believe it is a large market that has yet to be tapped. But I cannot get there on my own. You may provide that. You wish for this as much as me, I believe. So the only question is how much do you wish for your services? Everything else is irrelevant.”
    “I don’t know who the hell you are and you want me to risk my business, everything I’ve worked for, smuggling your shit. Well, fine, but I need assurances. And a larger piece of the pie.”
    “How large?”
    “Forty-five percent of any load.”
    “Deal. Now see, was