згадить /напр. работу/). Baloney (вздор, чепуха /сленг/ [b∂'l∂unı]). He was paid off to set the Don up. And Phillips said he's the kind of guy who'll try it again. Sollozzo must have given him a fortune for openers and promised him the moon to come."
"Was my getting hurt in the papers?"
"No," Hagen said. "We kept that quiet. Nobody wants that known. Not the cops. Not us."
"Good," Michael said. "Did that boy Enzo get away?"
"Yeah," Hagen said. "He was smarter than you. When the cops came he disappeared. He claims he stuck with you while Sollozzo's car went by. Is that true?"
"Yeah," Michael said. "He's a good kid."
"He'll be taken care of," Hagen said. "You feeling OK?" His face was concerned. "You look lousy (паршиво, отвратительно: «вшиво»)."
"I'm OK," Michael said. "What was that police captain's' name?"
"McCluskey," Hagen said. "By the way, it might make you feel better to know that the Corleone Family finally got up on the scoreboard (на табло; score – зарубка; счет очков). Bruno Tattaglia, four o'clock this morning."
Michael sat up. "How come (как так)? I thought we were supposed to sit tight."
Hagen shrugged. "After what happened at the hospital Sonny got hard. The button men are out all over New York and New Jersey. We made the list last night. I'm trying to hold Sonny in, Mike. Maybe you can talk to him. This whole business can still be settled without a major war."
"I'll talk to him," Michael said. "Is there a conference this morning?"
"Yeah," Hagen said. "Sollozzo finally got in touch and wants to sit down with us. A negotiator is arranging the details. That means we win. Sollozzo knows he's lost and he wants to get out with his life." Hagen paused. "Maybe he thought we were soft, ready to be taken, because we didn't strike back. Now with one of the Tattaglia sons dead he knows we mean business. He really took an awful gamble bucking (to buck – становиться на дыбы, взбрыкивать /пытаясь сбросить седока/) the Don. By the way, we got the confirmation on Luca. They killed him the night before they shot your father. In Bruno's nightclub. Imagine that?"
Michael said, "No wonder they caught him off guard."
At the houses in Long Beach the entrance to the mall was blocked by a long black car parked across its mouth. Two men leaned against the hood (капюшон; капот /автомобиля/) of the car. The two houses on each side, Michael noticed, had opened windows on their upper floors. Christ, Sonny must really mean business.
Clemenza parked the car outside the mall and they walked inside it. The two guards were Clemenza's men and he gave them a frown of greeting that served as a salute. The men nodded their heads in acknowledgment. There were no smiles, no greetings. Clemenza led Hagen and Michael Corleone into the house.
The door was opened by another guard before they rang. He had obviously been watching from a window.
They went to the corner office and found Sonny and Tessio waiting for them. Sonny came to Michael, took his younger brother's head in his hands and said kiddingly, "Beautiful. Beautiful." Michael knocked his hands away, and went to the desk and poured himself some scotch, hoping it would dull the ache (притупит боль; ache [eık]) in his wired jaw.
The five of them sat around the room but the atmosphere was different than their earlier meetings. Sonny was gayer, more cheerful, and Michael realized what that gaiety meant. There were no longer any doubts in his older brother's mind. He was committed (принял решение, ввязался) and nothing would sway (поколебать) him. The attempt by Sollozzo the night before was the final straw (последней соломинкой = последней каплей). There could no longer be any question of a truce (перемирие).
"We got a call from the negotiator while you were gone," Sonny said to Hagen. "The Turk wants a meeting now." Sonny laughed. "The balls on that son of a bitch," he said admiringly. "After he craps out (to crap out – проигрывать; crap – дерьмо; to crap – изгадить, испортить) last night he wants a meeting today or the next day. Meanwhile we're supposed just to lay back and take everything he dishes out (предложит; to dish – подавать еду, раскладывать по тарелкам). What fucking nerve."
Tom asked cautiously. "What did you answer?"
Sonny grinned. "I said sure, why not? Anytime he says, I'm in no hurry. I've got a hundred button men out on the street twenty-four hours a day. If Sollozzo shows one hair on his asshole he's dead. Let them take all the time they want."
Hagen said, "Was there a definite proposal?"
"Yeah," Sonny said. "He wants us to send Mike to meet him to hear his proposition. The negotiator guarantees Mike's safety. Sollozzo doesn't ask us to guarantee his safety, he knows he can't ask that. No point. So the meeting will be arranged on his side. His people will pick Mike up and take Mike to the meeting place. Mike will listen to Sollozzo and then they'll turn him loose. But the meeting place is secret. The promise is the deal will be so good we can't turn it down."
Hagen asked, "What about the Tattaglias! What will they do about Bruno?"
"That's part of the deal. The negotiator says the Tattaglia Family has agreed to go along with Sollozzo. They'll forget about Bruno Tattaglia. He pays for what they did to my father. One cancels out (to cancel – вычеркивать, аннулировать) the other." Sonny laughed again. "The nervy (смелый, волевой) bastards."
Hagen said cautiously, "We should hear what they have to say."
Sonny shook his head from side to side. "No, no, Consigliori, not this time." His voice held a faint trace of Italian accent. He was consciously mocking his father just to kid around (высмеивать, подшучивать). "No more meetings. No more discussions. No more Sollozzo tricks. When the negotiator gets in touch with us again for our answer I want you to give him one message. I want Sollozzo. If not, it's all-out war. We'll go to the mattresses and we'll put all the button men out on the street. Business will just have to suffer."
"The other Families won't stand for an all-out war," Hagen said. "It puts too much heat on everybody."
Sonny shrugged. "They have a simple solution (решение /проблемы/). Give me Sollozzo. Or fight the Corleone Family." Sonny paused, then said roughly, "No more advice on how to patch it up (patch – клочок, лоскут; to patch up – латать, ставить заплаты), Tom. The decision is made. Your job is to help me win. Understand?"
Hagen bowed his head. He was deep in thought for a moment. Then he said, "I spoke to your contact in the police station. He says that Captain McCluskey is definitely on Sollozzo's payroll and for big money. Not only that, but McCluskey is going to get a piece of the drug operation. McCluskey has agreed to be Sollozzo's bodyguard. The Turk doesn't poke his nose out of his hole without McCluskey. When he meets Mike for the conference, McCluskey will be sitting beside him. In civilian clothes but carrying his gun. Now what you have to understand, Sonny, is that while Sollozzo is guarded like this, he's invulnerable. Nobody has ever gunned down a New York police captain and gotten away with it. The heat in this town would be unbearable what with the newspapers, the whole police department, the churches, everything. That would be disastrous. The Families would be after you. The Corleone Family would become outcasts. Even the old man's political protection would run for cover. So take that into consideration (прими в расчет, в размышление)."
Sonny shrugged. "McCluskey can't stay with the Turk forever. We'll wait."
Tessio and Clemenza were puffing on their cigars uneasily, not daring to speak, but sweating. It would be their skins that would go on the line if the wrong decision was made.
Michael spoke for the first time. He asked Hagen, "Can the old man be moved out of the hospital onto the mall here?"
Hagen shook his head. "That's the first thing I asked. Impossible. He's in very bad shape. He'll pull through but he needs all kinds of attention, maybe some more surgery (операция, хирургическое вмешательство). Impossible."
"Then you have to get Sollozzo right away," Michael said. "We can't wait. The guy is too dangerous. He'll come up with some new idea. Remember, the key is still that he gets rid of the old man. He knows that. OK, he knows that now it's very tough so he's willing to take defeat for his life. But if he's going to get killed anyway, he'll have another crack (нанесет удар) at the Don. And with that police captain helping him who knows what the hell might happen. We can't take that chance. We have to get Sollozzo right away."
Sonny was scratching his chin thoughtfully. "You're right, kid," he said. "You got right to the old nuts (совершенно /сленг/). We can't let Sollozzo get another crack at the old man."
Hagen said quietly, "What about Captain McCluskey?"
Sonny turned to Michael with an odd little smile. "Yeah, kid, what about that tough police captain?"
Michael said slowly, "OK, it's an extreme. But there are times when the most extreme measures are justified (средства оправданы). Let's think now that we have to kill McCluskey. The way to do it would be to have him heavily implicated so that it's not an honest police captain doing his duty but a crooked (изогнутый, кривой; искаженный; добытый нечестным путем) police official mixed up in the rackets who got what was coming to him, like any crook (крючок, крюк; жулик, ренегат). We have newspaper people on our payroll we can give that story to with enough proof so that they can back it up. That should take some of the heat off. How does that sound?" Michael looked around deferentially (почтительно, с уважением) to the others. Tessio and Clemenza had gloomy (мрачный) faces and refused to speak. Sonny said with the same odd smile, "Go on, kid, you're doing great. Out of the mouths of infants (устами младенца …), as the Don always used to say. Go ahead, Mike, tell us more."