Operating cash from drugs? prostitution?…’ Knebworthy smiled to himself. This was going to work if they all bought into it. ‘…all-pervasive po...wer is essential … political …. financial ….. violence …. coercion ….’ ‘What about the competition? You don’t think people like the Mafia will just let you take over their path do you?’ Knebworthy smiled to himself. Typical of Dan Hegarty to put his brother on the spot. ‘No, of course not bro. We need new suppliers, new customers, niches, like these……’. "He shut his mouth, and helped Bobby get the snow off before they brought the bags of books from the used bookstore into the tent. When they had it all inside, eight bags full, enough for two days or more, he changed the subject. "It's snowing hard again, we should have plenty of water." Good." She grunted, heaving another bag onto the pile. If she did it right the combined bed would be nearly twice as high as they'd been separately. She pulled out her pistol, checked the safety and handed it. .. but his attention was somewhere else. He was still situationally aware and I knew I couldn't surprise him, but ... After a short pause his attention came back to me and he said "Mr. Kirkland, if you weren't an 8.1 yourself I'd be doing my best to quietly get you to a uncrowded spot other than this bench. We figure that at about ten thirty will be the maximum crowd. I'm PVT Dan Langhorne." He held out his hand."Good!" I said, shaking his hand. "That's over a hour from now and she said that. " How come?" he asked coyly."Didn't want everyone to... hear," I took a deep breath. My legs were stillshaky, I wasn't sure I'd be able to stand for a while.He laughed louder," I don't think you needed to worry about that," he saidand pulled the blindfold off my eyes. It took a moment of blinking to getmy eyes to adjust. Oddly, my first thought was that my make-up must be amess! As my eyes started to clear, I realized that we had an audience. Abig audience. Most of the group if I wasn't.