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picked by me. I questioned them when they came to my house. They saw his body in
the light of the tollhouse. He could not live with the wounds they saw. They place their
lives in forfeit for what they say."
Don Corleone accepted this final verdict without any sign of emotion except for a few
moments of silence. Then he said, "None of you are to concern yourselves with this
affair. None of you are to commit any acts of vengeance, none of you are to make any
inquiries to track down the murderers of my son without my express command. There
will be no further acts of war against the Five Families without my express and personal
wish. Our Family win cease all business operations and cease to protect any of our
business operations until after my son's funeral. Then we will meet here again and
decide what must be done. Tonight we must do what we can for Santino, we must bury
him as a Christian. I will have friends of mine arrange things with the police and all other
proper authorities. Clemenza, you will remain with me at all times as my bodyguard, you
and the men of your regime. Tessio, you will guard all other members of my Family.
Tom, I want you to call Amerigo Bonasera and tell him I will need his services at some
time during this night. To wait for me at his establishment. It may be an hour, two hours,
three hours. Do you all understand that?"
The three men nodded. Don Corleone said, "Clemenza, get some men and cars and
wait for me. I will be ready in a few minutes. Tom, you did well. In the morning I want
Constanzia with her mother. Make arrangements for her and her husband to live in the
mall. Have Sandra's friends, the women, go to her house to stay with her. My wife will
go there also when I have spoken with her. My wife will tell her the misfortune and the
women will arrange for the church to say their masses and prayers for his soul."
The Don got up from his leather armchair. The other men rose with him and
Clemenza and Tessio embraced him again. Hagen held the door open for the Don, who
paused to look at him for a moment. Then the Don put his hand on Hagen's cheek,
embraced him quickly, and said, in Italian, "You've been a good son. You comfort me."
Telling Hagen that he had acted properly in this terrible time. The Don went up to his
bedroom to speak to his wife. It was then that Hagen made the call to Amerigo
Bonasera for the undertaker to redeem (выкупить /заложенные
искупить) the favor he owed to the Corleones.
Book 5
Chapter 20
106
The death of Santino Corleone sent shock waves through the underworld of the nation.
And when it became known that Don Corleone had risen from his sick bed to take
charge of the Family affairs, when spies at the funeral reported that the Don seemed to
be fully recovered, the heads of the Five Families made frantic efforts to prepare a
defense against the bloody retaliatory (to retaliate [ri’tжlieit] –
тем же самым; применять репрессалии; retaliatory [ri’tжlitri] – ответный,
ответный удар; репрессивный) war that was sure to follow. Nobody made the mistake
of assuming that Don Corleone could be held cheaply because of his past misfortunes.
He was a man who had made only a few mistakes in his career and had learned from
every one of them.
Only Hagen guessed the Don's real intentions and was not surprised when emissaries
were sent to the Five Families to propose a peace. Not only to propose a peace but a
meeting of all the Families in the city and with invitations to Families all over the United
States to attend. Since the New York Families were the most powerful in the country, it
was understood that their welfare affected the welfare of the country as a whole.
At first there were suspicions. Was Don Corleone preparing a trap (западня)? Was he
trying to throw his enemies off their guard? Was he attempting to prepare a wholesale
massacre to avenge his son? But Don Corleone soon made it clear that he was sincere.
Not only did he involve all the Families in the country in this meeting, but made no move
to put his own people on a war footing (привести в боевую готовность) or to enlist
allies. And then he took the final irrevocable (неотменяемый, окончательный,
безвозвратный [i'revkbl]) step that established the authenticity of these intentions
and assured the safety of the grand council to be assembled. He called on the services
of the Bocchicchio Family.
The Bocchicchio Family was unique in that, once a particularly ferocious branch of the
Mafia in Sicily, it had become an instrument of peace in America. Once a group of men
who earned their living by a savage determination, they now earned their living in what
perhaps could be called a saintly fashion. The Bocchicchios' one asset (имущество
/часто об одном предмете/; ценное качество /разг./) was a closely knit structure of
107