Mafia works, Colonel Carter?' 'Only the Sicilian variety.' 'It's pretty much the same in New York. They start them young. First there are the boys, the picciotti, gaining advancement, what they call respect, by acting as executioners when required. Some of them graduate pretty quickly to the next rank. Sicario, the professional assassin who's a specialist in that line of work.' *1 know,' Carter said. 'In Sicily they prefer the lupara, 56 . sawn-off shotgun, for that kind of thing. You have to et close, but then, that's really the point.' 'They say Luciano's killed at least twenty men himself d that isn't those he's put a contract out on.' 'Just how powerful a figure is he?' Carter asked. 'I mean, . js jn here, isn't he? You close a cell door on him every night.' 'Inside or out, it doesn't really matter. He's still the single most important influence in Mafia. Rose to power in the liquor business during Prohibition. What made him different from the others was his brain. He's a hugely intelligent man with a genius for organization. When Prohibition ended, he diversified into every possible racket that would make a dollar. Even invented a few. In 1936 Governor Dewey, who was then Special Prosecutor, brought him to trial for offences concerned with organized prostitution and succeeded in obtaining a conviction. 'Strange,' Carter said. 'It's the one thing that doesn't seem to fit.' The Warden smiled. 'That's what a lot of people say, but don't expect any comment from me. This is a state appointment. I know one thing. He can always be relied upon to do the unexpected thing. He was at Dannemora in 1941 just after Pearl Harbor. That was a bad time with Christmas coming up. People's minds were on other things, so there were no packages for the cons until Luciano put the word out. Christmas Day, three truck-loads of gifts turned up from New York.' There was a knock on the door. He called, 'Come in I' and Luciano entered. He glanced at Carter casually, then turned to the Warden. 'You sent for me.' The Warden stood up. 'This is Colonel Carter. He's ^m the Government and he has full authority to speak ith you on a matter o� nationai importance, so I'm going to leave you to it.' 57 case. He went out and Carter took out his silver 'Cigarette, Mr Luciano?' 'Heh, you're English.' 'So are the cigarettes.' Carter gave him a light and Luciano sat down by the window. 'What the hell are you doing here?' 'I believe you've had some visitors in recent months' Carter said. 'From Naval Intelligence. To discuss the Sicilian invasion.' Luciano said, 'Not again, for Christ's sake. Look, I gave them all the information I could. All the right names.' 'I know,' Carter said. 'I hear they're going to drop flags with an L for Luciano on every village in the Cammarata. Was that your idea?' Luciano moved to the window and looked down into the Yard. 'You got an ace in your hand, you play it.' 'I don't think that's going to be enough.' 'You don't think!' Luciano laughed. 'What the hell hai it got to do with a limey like you, anyway?' Carter replied in good Sicilian, 'Sure, in the Cammarata they still talk about the great Luciano. Salvatore the saviour. But turning out to fight Nazi tanks with shotguns, just because someone drops his flag on their village ... I don't think so.' Luciano frowned, immediately wary. 'How come you speak such good Sicilian?' 'Before the war I was a university professor, ancient history, archaeology. That kind of thing. I used to spend a lot of time in Sicily excavating.' 'Excavating?' 'Digging up old ruins.' 'You mean you're only a part-time soldier? Just for th� duration? A professor, eh? Now that I can respect.' He passed across his copy of The City of God. 'Have you ever read this?' Carter examined it. 'St Augustine. Oh, yes. You read a lot, do you?' Luciano nodded. 'He knew what he was talking about. rod and the Devil, they both exist, only these days God's outnumbered.' 'I see,' Carter said. 'So you've settled for reigning in
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