"If they had gotten the old man, what would you have done?" Michael asked.
Sonny said very simply, "Sollozzo is dead meat. I don't care what it costs. I don't care if we have to fight all the five families in New York. The Tattaglia Family is going to be wiped out (будет истреблена; to wipe – стирать; уничтожать; убивать /сленг/). I don't care if we all go down together (если все, пусть даже мы все загнемся)."
Michael said softly, "That's not how Pop would have played it."
Sonny made a violent gesture (violent – неистовый, вспыльчивый). "I know I'm not the man he was. But I'll tell you this and he'll tell you too. When it comes to real action I can operate as good as anybody, short-range (в ближнем бою: «в малом радиусе действия»). Sollozzo knows that and so do Clemenza and Tessio, I 'made my bones' when I was nineteen, the last time the Family had a war, and I was a big help to the old man. So I'm not worried now. And our Family has all the horses in a deal like this. I just wish we could get contact with Luca."
Michael asked curiously, "Is Luca that tough (действительно настолько крутой), like they say? Is he that good?"
Sonny nodded. "He's in a class by himself. I’m going to send him after the three Tattaglias. I'll get Sollozzo myself."
Michael shifted uneasily in his chair (задвигался, заерзал беспокойно). He looked at his older brother. He remembered Sonny as being sometimes casually brutal (подчас жесток, груб) but essentially warmhearted (по сути, в основе своей добр). A nice guy. It seemed unnatural to hear him talking this way, it was chilling (жутко; to chill – замораживать, охлаждать) to see the list of names he had scribbled down (набросал; to scribble – писать неразборчивым почерком, небрежно), men to be executed (которые должны быть казнены), as if he were some newly crowned Roman Emperor. He was glad that he was not truly part of all this, that now his father lived he did not have to involve himself in vengeance (месть, мщение ['vendG∂ns]). He'd help out, answering the phone, running errands (бегая по поручениям) and messages. Sonny and the old man could take care of themselves, especially with Luca behind them.
At that moment they heard a woman scream in the living room. Oh, Christ, Michael thought, it sounded like Tom's wife. He rushed to the door and opened it. Everybody in the living room was standing. And by the sofa Tom Hagen was holding Theresa close to him, his face embarrassed (смущенное). Theresa was weeping and sobbing, and Michael realized that the scream he had heard had been her calling out her husband's name with joy. As he watched, Tom Hagen disentangled himself from his wife's arms (освободился: «выпутался»; entangle [ın'tæŋgl] – запутывать, сплетаться; tangle – запутанный клубок) and lowered her back onto the sofa. He smiled at Michael grimly (мрачно). "Glad to see you, Mike, really glad." He strode (to stride – идти большими шагами, быстрой походкой) into the office without another look at his still-sobbing wife. He hadn't lived with the Corleone Family ten years for nothing (недаром, не бесследно прожил), Michael thought with a queer flush of pride. Some of the old man had rubbed off on him (что-то перешло к нему от старика, какой-то налет остался; to rub – тереть; to rub off – стирать), as it had on Sonny, and he thought, with surprise, even on himself.
When Michael Corleone arrived at his father's house in Long Beach he found the narrow entrance mouth of the mall blocked off with a link chain. The mall itself was bright with the floodlights of all eight houses, outlining at least ten cars parked along the curving cement walk.
Two men he didn't know were leaning against the chain. One of them asked in a Brooklyn accent, "Who're you?"
He told them. Another man came out of the nearest house and peered at his face. "That's the Don's kid," he said. "I'll bring him inside." Mike followed this man to his father's house, where two men at the door let him and his escort pass inside.
The house seemed to be full of men he didn't know, until he went into the living room. There Michael saw Tom Hagen's wife, Theresa, sitting stiffly on the sofa, smoking a cigarette. On the coffee table in front of her was a glass of whiskey. On the other side of the sofa sat the bulky Clemenza. The caporegime's face was impassive, but he was sweating and the cigar in his hand glistened slickly black with his saliva.
Clemenza came to wring his hand in a consoling way, muttering, "Your mother is at the hospital with your father, he's going to be all right." Paulie Gatto stood up to shake hands. Michael looked at him curiously. He knew Paulie was his father's bodyguard but did not know that Paulie had stayed home sick that day. But he sensed tension in the thin dark face. He knew Gatto's reputation as an up-and-coming man, a very quick man who knew how to get delicate jobs done without complications, and today he had failed in his duty. He noticed several other men in the corners of the room but he did not recognize them. They were not of Clemenza's people. Michael put these facts together and understood. Clemenza and Gatto were suspect. Thinking that Paulie had been at the scene, he asked the ferret-faced young man, "How is Freddie? He OK?"
"The doctor gave him a shot," Clemenza said. "He's sleeping."
Michael went to Hagen's wife and bent down to kiss her cheek. They had always liked each other. He whispered, "Don't worry, Tom will be OK. Have you talked to Sonny yet?"
Theresa clung to him for a moment and shook her head. She was a delicate, very pretty woman, more American than Italian, and very scared. He took her hand and lifted her off the sofa. Then he led her into his father's corner room office.
Sonny was sprawled out in his chair behind the desk holding a yellow pad in one hand and a pencil in the other. The only other man in the room with him was the caporegime Tessio, whom Michael recognized and immediately realized that it must be his men who were in the house and forming the new palace guard. He too had a pencil and pad in his hands.
When Sonny saw them he came from behind his desk and took Hagen's wife in his arms. "Don't worry, Theresa," he said. "Tom's OK. They just wanta give him the proposition, they said they'd turn him loose (отпустят). He's not on the operating end, he's just our lawyer. There's no reason for anybody to do him harm."
He released Theresa and then to Michael's surprise he too, got a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He pushed Sonny away and said grinning, "After I get used to you beating me up I gotta put up with this?" They had often fought when they were younger.
Sonny shrugged. "Listen, kid, I was worried when I couldn't get ahold of you in that hick town. Not that I gave a crap if they knocked you off, but I didn't like the idea of bringing the news to the old lady. I had to tell her about Pop."
"How'd she take it?" Michael asked.
"Good," Sonny said. "She's been through it before. Me too. You were too young to know about it and then things got pretty smooth while you were growing up." He paused and then said, "She's down at the hospital with the old man. He's gonna pull through."
"How about us going down?" Michael asked.
Sonny shook his head and said dryly, "I can't leave this house until it's all over." The phone rang. Sonny picked it up and listened intently. While he was listening Michael sauntered over to the desk and glanced down at the yellow pad Sonny had been writing on. There was a list of seven names. The first three were Sollozzo, Phillip Tattaglia, and John Tattaglia. It struck Michael with full force that he had interrupted Sonny and Tessio as they were making up a list of men to be killed.
When Sonny hung up the phone he said to Theresa Hagen and Michael, "Can you two wait outside? I got some business with Tessio we have to finish."
Hagen's wife said, "Was that call about Tom?" She said it almost truculently but she was weeping with fright. Sonny put his arm around her and led her to the door. "I swear he's going to be OK," he said. "Wait in the living room. I'll come out as soon as I hear something." He shut the door behind her. Michael had sat down in one of the big leather armchairs. Sonny gave him a quick sharp look and then went to sit down behind the desk.
"You hang around me, Mike," he said, "you're gonna hear things you don't wanta hear."
Michael lit a cigarette. "I can help out," he said.
"No, you can't," Sonny said. "The old man would be sore as hell if I let you get mixed up in this."
Michael stood up and yelled. "You lousy bastard, he's my father. I'm not supposed to help him? I can help. I don't have to go out and kill people but I can help. Stop treating me like a kid brother. I was in the war. I got shot, remember? I killed some Japs. What the hell do you think I'll do when you knock somebody off? Faint?"
Sonny grinned at him. "Pretty soon you'll want me to put up my dukes. OK, stick around, you can handle the phone." He turned to Tessio. "That call I just got gave me dope we needed." He turned to Michael. "Somebody had to finger the old man. It could have been Clemenza, it could have been Paulie Gatto, who was very conveniently sick today. I know the answer now, let's see how smart you are, Mike, you're the college boy. Who sold out to Sollozzo?"
Michael sat down again and relaxed back into the leather armchair. He thought everything over very carefully. Clemenza was a caporegime in the Corleone Family structure. Don Corleone had made him a millionaire and they had been intimate friends for over twenty years. He held one of the most powerful posts in the organization. What could Clemenza gain for betraying his Don? More money? He was rich enough but then men are always greedy. More power? Revenge for some fancied insult or slight? That Hagen had been made the