<b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00ff40">Patrick McReary leaned on the rotten sink in the Steinway Beer Garden bathrooms. He buried his face into the small heap of white powder on it, gasping as the rush reached all over his body. That took off the edge. He pulled away from the sink and sat on the bathroom floor, caring nothing that it was filthy and the entire room smelled. After a few moments the energy hit him and he sprang up, joining the othersback outside.<br/>
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"You okay, Packie?" asked Gordon, passing him his beer.<br/>
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"Never better, Gordon my boy. Never <i>fucking</i> better."<br/>
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"You still haven't told us what you're going to do about the Japanese." Derrick sipped his beer nervously. His sleeves were short and Packie could see marks all over his arm where he'd pumped himself full of poison. <br/>
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"What is there to do?" he demanded. "The Yakuzas want to buy us out. Which'd be alright if they wanted us to join, cause it don't matter which way we do things as long as we make money."<br/>
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"Screw that!" said his older brother, surprisingly forcefully. "We're Irish. We ain't spent the last five hundred years avoidin' taking orders from the Brits just to kow tow to another set of imperialistic bastards!"<br/>
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"I was getting to that," he replied. He forgot that Derrick had fought with the Provos, had stood toe to toe with the UFF and the army alike. "That ain't even a factor, Derrick. They want to buy us out, but they <i>don't</i> want to bring us on board. They want their own people to run the drugs in Steinway, but they want to pay us to stay out of things."<br/>
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"How much?"<br/>
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"A fucking pittance. They know we're a spent force since Gerry got sent down. The three of us against a hundred psycho hitmen in suits? Forget about it. They could blow us out of the water at any time. Hence the fuckin' dilemna."<br/>
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"There's something else you haven't thought of," said Gordon. "Why don't we recruit? In Steinway and Purgatory there's gotta be at least a few boys from the old country, looking for work. Kasen can take out the three of us with a click of his fingers, but if we start makin' a presence? They're gonna think twice."</span></b>