Крестный отец, часть 1. Английский язык с Марио Пьюзо.
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Rocco Lampone arrived early and Clemenza explained what had to be done and what their roles would be. Lampone's face lit up with surprised gratitude and he thanked Clemenza respectfully for the promotion allowing him (позволяющее) to serve the Family. Clemenza was sure he had done well. He clapped Lampone on the shoulder and said, "You'll get something better for your living after today. We'll talk about that later. You understand the Family now is occupied with more critical matters, more important things to do." Lampone made a gesture that said he would be patient, knowing his reward was certain.
Clemenza went to his den's safe (den – берлога, нора; укрытие; каморка, уединенная комната) and opened it. He took out a gun and gave it to Lampone. "Use this one," he said. "They can never trace it. Leave it in the car with Paulie. When this job is finished I want you to take your wife and children on a vacation to Florida. Use your own money now and I'll pay you back later. Relax, get the sun. Use the Family hotel in Miami Beach so I'll know where I can get you when I want."
Clemenza's wife knocked on the door of the den to tell them that Paulie Gatto had arrived. He was parked in the driveway. Clemenza led the way through the garage and Lampone followed him. When Clemenza got into the front seat with Gatto he merely grunted in greeting, an exasperated look on his face. He looked at his wrist watch as if he expected to find that Gatto was late.
The ferret-faced button man was watching him intently, looking for a clue (клубок,
Clemenza said sourly to Gatto, "Damn that Sonny, he's running scared (сильно напуган). He's already thinking of going to the mattresses. We have to find a place on the West Side. Paulie, you and Rocco gotta staff and supply it (набрать людей и всем обеспечить) until the word comes down for the rest of the soldiers to use it. You know a good location (помещение, место; размещение, дислокация)?"
As he had expected, Gatto's eyes became greedily interested. Paulie had swallowed the bait (проглотил наживку, приманку) and because he was thinking how much the information was worth to Sollozzo, he was forgetting to think about whether he was in danger. Also, Lampone was acting his part perfectly, staring out the window in a disinterested, relaxed way. Clemenza congratulated himself on his choice.
Gatto shrugged. "I'd have to think about it," he said.
Clemenza grunted. "Drive while you think, I want to get to New York today."
Paulie was an expert driver and traffic going into the city was light at this time in the afternoon, so the early winter darkness was just beginning to fall when they arrived. There was no small talk in the car. Clemenza directed Paulie to drive up to the Washington Heights section. He checked a few apartment buildings and told him to park near Arthur Avenue and wait. He also left Rocco Lampone in the car. He went into the Vera Mario Restaurant and had a light dinner of veal (телятина) and salad, nodding his hello's to some acquaintances (знакомым; acquaintance [∂'kweınt∂ns] – знакомство; знакомый). After an hour had gone by he walked the several blocks (несколько кварталов) to where the car was parked and entered it. Gatto and Lampone were still waiting. "Shit," Clemenza said, "they want us back in Long Beach. They got some other job for us now. Sonny says we can let this one go until later. Rocco, you live in the city, can we drop you off (подвезти: «сбросить»)?"
Rocco said quietly, "I have my car out at your place and my old lady needs it first thing in the morning (прямо с самого утра)."
"That's right," Clemenza said. "Then you have to come back with us, after all."
Again on the ride back to Long Beach nothing was said. On the stretch of road (на отрезке дороги; to stretch – тянуть/ся/, растягивать/ся/) that led into the city, Clemenza said suddenly, "Paulie, pull over (останови машину: «отъезжай-ка к обочине»), I gotta take a leak (мне надо спустить; leak – течь, утечка; to leak – просачиваться)." From working together so long, Gatto knew the fat caporegime had a weak bladder (мочевой пузырь). He had often made such a request (просьба, требование, заявка [rı'kwest]). Gatto pulled the car off the highway onto the soft earth that led to the swamp (вела к болоту). Clemenza climbed out of the car and took a few steps into the bushes. He actually relieved himself (и
Rocco Lampone scrambled out (выкарабкался, вылез) of the back seat. He still held the gun and he threw it into the swamp. He and Clemenza walked hastily to a car parked nearby and got in. Lampone reached underneath the seat and found the key that had been left for them. He started the car and drove Clemenza to his home. Then instead of going back by the same route, he took the Jones Beach Causeway right on through to the town of Merrick and onto the Meadowbrook Parkway until he reached the Northern State Parkway. He rode that to the Long Island Expressway and then continued on to the Whitestone Bridge and through the Bronx to his home in Manhattan.
Peter Clemenza slept badly that night. In the morning he got up early and made his own breakfast of a glass of grappa, a thick slice of Genoa salami with a chunk of fresh Italian bread that was still delivered to his door as in the old days. Then he drank a great, plain china mug filled with hot coffee that had been lashed with anisette. But as he padded about the house in his old bathrobe and red felt slippers he pondered on the day's work that lay ahead of him. Last night Sonny Corleone had made it very clear that Paulie Gatto was to be taken care of immediately. It had to be today.
Clemenza was troubled. Not because Gatto had been his protégé and had turned traitor. This did not reflect on the caporegime's judgment. After all, Paulie's background had been perfect. He came from a Sicilian family, he had grown up in the same neighborhood as the Corleone children, had indeed even gone to school with one of the sons. He had been brought up through each level in the proper manner. He had been tested and not found wanting. And then after he had "made his bones" he had received a good living from the Family, a percentage of an East Side "book" and a union payroll slot. Clemenza had not been unaware that Paulie Gatto supplemented his income with free-lance stickups, strictly against the Family rules, but even this was a sign of the man's worth. The breaking of such regulations was considered a sign of high-spiritedness, like that shown by a fine racing horse fighting the reins.
And Paulie had never caused trouble with his stickups. They had always been meticulously planned and carried out with the minimum of fuss and trouble, with no one ever getting hurt: a three-thousand-dollar Manhattan garment center payroll, a small chinaware factory payroll in the slums of Brooklyn. After all, a young man could always use some extra pocket money. It was all in the pattern. Who could ever foretell that Paulie Gatto would turn traitor?
What was troubling Peter Clemenza this morning was an administrative problem. The actual execution of Gatto was a cut-and-dried chore. The problem was, who should the caporegime bring up from the ranks to replace Gatto in the Family? It was an important promotion, that to "button" man, one not to be handed out lightly. The man had to be tough and he had to be smart. He had to be safe, not a person who would talk to the police if he got in trouble, one well saturated in the Sicilians' law of omerta, the law of silence. And then, what kind of a living would he receive for his new duties? Clemenza had several times spoken to the Don about better rewards for the all-important button man who was first in the front line when trouble arose, but the Don had put him off. If Paulie had been making more money, he might have been able to resist the blandishments of the wily Turk, Sollozzo.