The Rolling Bootlegs/Day One

Synopsis
In November of 1930, a panhandler begs for change in a back-alley. His pleas for help go ignored until he's approached by a young man, who chastizes him for using God's name in his attempts to draw people in. The young man suggests he's only using religion as a flimsy excuse for his current state and chastizes him for even being lazy by the standards of most other people begging on the streets, but pulls out his wallet and produces a few coins anyway. The panhandler notes that the young man's wallet is impossibly thick for someone working an honest profession, and accepts the coins the young man holds out to him.

As the young man begins to walk away, the panhandler calls out and offers a few flowers he'd picked earlier as repayment. The young man shrugs him off, at which point the panhandler produces a knife and attempts to stab the young man. Acting quickly, the man slaps the panhandler's hand to the side, easily getting ahold of his opponent and rendering him immobile. After slamming the panhandler into the wall, the young man rebukes him for his actions. When the panhandler looks like he's about to run away, the young man punches him hard enough to knock him out.

He contemplates for a second what he should do about the knife that the panhandler had been holding and is about to pick it up to throw it in the river, when a voice calls out his name--Firo Prochainezo. The voice belongs to Edward Noah, Assistant Inspector for the local police department, who tells him to keep his hands away from the 'evidence'. At Edward's behest, several other officers arrive to help deal with the scene Firo and the panhandler had left behind.

After sitting by and watching this for some time, Firo demands an explanation from Edward. Edward relents and informs Firo that the panhandler he'd just immobilized is a suspect for several murders; they'd been planning on doing something about him for a while by using an officer as bait, but Firo had shown up at the perfect time to take the officer's place. Firo and Edward bicker back and forth about the lack of intervention the police had shown to the situation and Firo's suspiciously thick wallet before the two of them are interrupted by a third party.

Maiza Avaro, Firo's colleague, cuts in on the conversation expressing concern about Firo, since he'd been late to meet Maiza at the hat shop nearby. Edward quickly and openly identifies Maiza as the Martillo Family contaiuolo. Maiza greets Edward politely, then non-specifically remarks that he's heard Edward is due for a promotion soon. Edward is shocked, since he has just begun his training with the Bureau of Investigation, but nobody is supposed to have heard about that just yet. Flustered, he continues to attack Firo, which Firo responds to in an equally biting way.

Throughout the conversation, Firo has been thoughtlessly making comments implying that today is something special for him. Edward finally catches onto this and asks why, but Maiza interrupts before Firo can reply. Putting together the implications of a 'special day' and an outing with an executive of a crime syndicate, Edward expresses disbelief towards the idea that the Martillo Family could possibly be promoting Firo to an associate because of his age; whereas most associates of crime syndicates are older and more mature, Firo is still only eighteen and a half.

Edward asks again if he'd gotten it right, and upon recieving no answer he begins to make personal digs toward's Firo's "girly" appearance, insinuating he might have slept his way to the top. Both Firo and Maiza stop in their tracks, and Maiza calmly tells Edward to watch what he says. Edward doesn't reply, stricken by a sudden sense of fear and impending death should he carry on talking. Maiza follows up with another threat, and Edward manages to find his voice once Maiza has begun to walk away again, calling out that he'll wipe out Mafia scum like them someday. Without turning around, Maiza corrects that they're not Mafia; they're Camorra.

After Maiza and Firo are out of sight, one of Edward's subordinates meekly reminds him that they should be getting back to the station. Edward demands to know where they'd been during the confrontation, then expresses distaste at their cowardice for having kept to themselves back in the car. Edward resolves that he'll get back at the two gangsters; his subordinate replies that he's talking a lot like a mafioso from a novel, to which Edward responds by kicking him in the shin.

Further away, Maiza and Firo converse about the situation that had just happened, though they don't seem to be taking it all that seriously. The two of them had planned to go to a hat shop close to where the confrontation with Edward had happened, but hadn't found a suitable hat, so Maiza had suggested a different one that had left them walking for around an hour.

Firo takes a moment to reflect on Maiza, who's started talking about The Wizard of Oz. He notes that Maiza is not particularly well respected, and that most members of the Martillo family seem to think he only earned his position as the contaiuolo of the organization because of his skill with reading and accounting. Though Firo personally thinks Maiza is "all right", he concedes that it's hard to defend Maiza's position as a Camorra executive when Maiza is going on about musicals.

As Firo finishes his scrutiny of Maiza's character, the two of them arrive at the hat shop, where Firo immediately marvels at the wide selection of hats. As Maiza ducks off to go searching for a hat, Firo recalls the tradition that had led the two of them here. The Martillo Family's traditions for promoting a member are slightly different from the rest of the Camorra. Ordinarily, the person being promoted shouldn't know about the promotion ahead of time, but this hat-shopping had become part of the Martillos' ritual after its head, Molsa Martillo, had purchased a hat for each of the first members of the family.

Eventually, Maiza finds a hat, and Firo marvels at how well it seems to suit him; it appears green in the light, but moving into the shadows, it takes on a darker color. Gazing at his reflection, Firo smiles, appearing happier than he'd been since he was first allowed to join the family.

As Firo and Maiza leave the haberdashery after paying the shopkeeper, they run into a strangely dressed couple who rebuke them for their clumsiness before heading into the shop.

The couple, Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent, huddle to themselves after having entered the shop, reminding eachother not to do anything that would draw attention to them. Then, more loudly, they begin to marvel at the selection of hats in front of them before going around to observe individual items. Eventually, Isaac brings a selection of hats up to the front of the shop: a black fedora, a woman's lace hat, a Japanese helmet the two of them had incorrectly identified as a Japanese crown, and an odd wooden mask.

Isaac pays the shopkeeper, and after recieving change for their purchase, both him and Miria begin to nonsensically threaten the shopkeeper not to tell anyone at all about their presence despite the fact that nothing they had done in the shop was illegal. The shopkeeper looks at them, nonplussed, and the two run away, having been suddenly stricken by fear.

After making their successful getaway, Isaac and Miria discuss their circumstances. Isaac denies having been afraid, instead suggesting that he'd actually run off so Miria wouldn't have been put in any danger if a fight broke out. This delights Miria, who asks him if he means it. Isaac replies, asking if Miria's ever been put in danger in all of their eighty-seven robberies and Miria enthusiastically replies that she's only been put in danger eighty-seven times. Flustered, Isaac responds that it's still not a hundred times, which seems to satisfy Miria.

The two of them then begin to talk about the future they'll share together in Miami after they pull off their "last big job" in New York, dancing right into the middle of the road, and then very suddenly get hit by a car.

The old man in the back of the car questions its driver about whether or not the couple they've just hit is dead. The driver confirms that the couple don't seem to be hurt, since the car wasn't moving very fast. Hearing this, the old man ushers the driver to keep going, chastising her for having hit the couple in the first place. The two of them speculate over why the couple had been dancing in the middle of the road, but talk of their eccentricities causes the old man, Szilard Quates, to mutter that he hasn't understood or trusted young people in around 200 years. The driver comments that almost nobody in the world is younger than him, to which he replies that he trusts no-one.

The driver takes the car to a building near Grand Central Station and the still-under-construction Empire State Building. As he exits the car, Szilard complains about the sun's brightness, to which the driver opens a parasol and covers the both of them for the five yard walk towards the building. The driver opens the door to the building with a key and the two enter the eerily empty building. Szilard walks over to a spiral staircase and strikes the floor with his heel. When a lightbulb over the staircase lights up, he repeats this process, adding one more stomp. This time, his actions are followed by a hatch opening up in the floor. The man who opens it greets Szilard, who remarks that he hasn't been here in twenty years.

Szilard, the other man, and the driver descend downwards through the floor-hatch, eventually reaching a large underground room populated by men aged over forty. Szilard casually remarks that Barnes and Stagen are missing from their number; the men inform him that Barnes is at the 'distillery' and Stagen has passed away of old age. Szilard remarks that death by old age is to be expected since they've only had the 'failed liquor', then further inquires about whether or not the 'blender' has actually died. He learns that the blender had been recently stabbed by a mugger who was caught by the police and identified as an independent drug addict.

Szilard expresses mild disappointment at having not given him the failed liquor, since it would have delayed his death. The man who'd led him into the room rebukes this sentiment, looking down on the blender, and Szilard inwardly comments that he and the blender are equally as dull as eachother. Nevertheless, Szilard asks if Barnes is still keeping the liquor safe, and he's told that Barnes is alone in the location they'd been using to distill the liquor--officially a wheat storehouse--but without a bodyguard. Again, Szilard inwardly looks down on the men, but agrees with their reasons for not hiring a bodyguard out loud.

He asks his driver, who he refers to as Ennis, to pick up Barnes and the liquor with the stipulation that she should kill him immediately if he's either drank or spoiled the liquor. She agrees impassively and leaves. The other men in the room feel a sudden fear; while they can't die by ordinary means, Szilard and Ennis are equipped with a means of killing them that they cannot reciprocate, leaving them vulnerable.

Meanwhile, in an East Village alley nearby a certain wheat storehouse, Martillo executives Randy and Pezzo are preparing for the celebration over Firo's promotion that night. Randy, wearing a leather glove and using some oil they'd purchased earlier, impresses Pezzo by lighting his hand on fire and remaining completely unscathed. Hpping to emulate this, Pezzo opens up his own can of oil (which Randy protests, insisting there's plenty left in the one he'd already opened) and pours it on his glove. However, when he sets his hand on fire, the fabric of his gloves doesn't protect him the way Randy's leather gloves had, and his hand begins to burn.

Pezzo's ensuing flailing as he attempts to put out the fire spills both opened cans of oil everywhere, but he finally manages to remove the glove from his hand and fling it aside. Randy and Pezzo share a breath of relief, before realizing the glove has landed right on top of the spilled oil, setting not only the oil on fire but also the nearby wooden walls of the building. The two of them hastily grab their belongings and flee the scene before any witnesses can arrive.

In the distillery, Barnes conducts a final experiment on a white rat that had been injected with the completed Grand Panacea, eviscerating it with a hammer and watching it regenerate. He reflects on Immortality and his relationship with Szilard as he watches the rat regenerate, musing that Szilard had chosen him to distill the liquor for his ignorance towards alchemy. As he brings the hammer down on the rat again, he hears what he presumes to be the tapping sound that signals the arrival of his associates. As he excitedly flips the switch to turn the lightbulb on the other side of the hatch on, he hears more tapping, and moves to open the hatch. When he actually opens it, he recoils in horror, seeing the entire upper area of the building on fire.

Elsewhere, Firo calls to Maiza from outside a greengrocer, beckoning him to take a look at something. When Maiza does, he sees a billowing cloud of smoke rising into the sky, which Firo says he's going to go take a look at. Because he's carrying four bottles of liquor with him currently, Maiza warns him not to stick his nose into that scene, but Firo brushes him off and rushes towards that area anyway.

Pulling up to the 'wheat storehouse', Ennis gazes in dismay at the sight of the building completely engulfed in flames. As she watches the fire, unsure of what she should do, she's brought out of her daze by a young man (unbeknownst to her, Firo) putting a hand on her shoulder and asking after her current state, commenting that she looks very pale. Ennis quickly shrugs him off, then turns and walks off away from where she'd parked her car, hoping to see if Barnes had somehow managed to escape to someplace nearby before the fire had gotten too bad.

Noting both the odd reaction of the woman he'd interacted with and her generally strange appearance, Firo impulsively made up his mind to attempt to follow her, assuming something had been going on. Although he'd lost her pretty quickly to the "urban maze" of New York, he'd been able to identify the area he'd ended up in as territory of the Gandor Family, a group with a reputation for being merciless and aggressive. He privately hopes the woman hadn't been kidnapped, but stumbles across a worrying scene before he can consider that possibility further.

Following the sound of voices, Firo sees a group of thugs beating down an old man with a crate (unbeknownst to him, Barnes). The thugs' leader demands an apology from Barnes, who's long since been knocked onto the ground, for an earlier insult while simultaneously kicking him. While he was initially hostile, the Barnes frantically tries to backpedal and offer up any money the thugs might have wanted, but the thugs instead knock him out and steal his crate despite a last desperate attempt from the man to escape with it. As the thugs observe the liquor that had been inside the crate, they finally take notice of Firo, who'd still been watching them.

Though he doesn't take any particular issue with the thugs' actions towards the old man, Firo snarkily asks them what they plan to do with the box in the first place, since the cops will likely mark them for carrying something suspicious. The thugs' leader responds with indignation at being condescended to, and ask Firo who he thinks he is. Firo replies that he's an associate of the Martillo Family, and when the thugs don't recognize the name, he compares the size of his organization to that of the Gandor Family, who he's incorrectly assumed these thugs must work under.

Upon finding out the group isn't associated with the Gandors, Firo prepares to leave, dismissing them. However, one of the affronted thugs attempts to launch an attack on him, prompting Firo to methodically trade blows with all four of the men present, remaining on top even when their leader draws a knife. Eventually, the thugs flee, leaving Firo alone with the now unconscious Barnes.

Several minutes later, Barnes regains consciousness to Firo standing over him. Though he's initially relieved to see the contents of the box still safe, he becomes hostile when Firo expresses interest in the box. Firo asks him if he's seen a woman in a suit around, and though he recognizes Ennis, he doesn't admit as much, sending Firo on his way; Firo leaves the scene with surprisingly little fuss.

After Barnes has gathered himself, he continues wandering through the alleyways by himself. As he thinks to himself that Szilard will probably kill him for failing to save more than two bottles of liquor, he once again encounters the group of thugs that Firo had chased off minutes earlier. This time, alone and defenseless, they break his arms and legs and take the box from him forcefully. When Ennis comes across him, he hasn't yet regenerated.

Nearby, in a jazz hall ran by the Gandor Family, four men--Keith Gandor, Berga Gandor, Luck Gandor, and Jorgi--play poker around a table. Jorgi, one of the people responsible for managing the family's money, attempts to make small talk with the Gandor brothers, but is silenced by Berga. In the midst of the tense atmosphere, Bergs suggests an idea to make their game more entertaining; the guy with the worst hand should have to play Russian Roulette. Suddenly incredibly nervous, Jorgi considers cheating, but finds that everyone in the room has suddenly fixed their eyes on him, including the brothers themselves.

Jorgi becomes even more panicked, and Berga explains they're just making sure he doesn't try and cheat. Though Jorgi protests, Luck replies that cheating seems to come easily to him, since he's been embezzling money from them for two years. At this, Jorgi freezes; the Gandors go on to explain that they'd noticed the discrepancy in bookkeeping due to an unrelated drug addict they'd been trying to investigate, and then carry on with the game. Luck lays his cards, five aces, on the table, prompting Berga to declare defeat with his five kings. Keith silently puts down his own cards: five jokers.

As all the men around him laugh, Jorgi's bad cards slip from his own hands, and the gun is passed his way; he notes with horror that every single chamber has a bullet in it. Making an impulsive decision, he notes the fact that nobody around him appears to be armed, and attempts to shoot the gun he'd been given at the Gandors. All six shots come up with nothing; the bullets loaded into the gun are blanks.

After Jorgi finishes trying to fire, the Gandors express disappointment. Luck explains that he'd sealed his own fate; if Jorgi had pulled the trigger on his own head, he'd be allowed to leave. If he had begged for his life, he'd have been beaten, but allowed to leave. If he had denied the allegations of embezzlement, he'd have his tongue cut out, but he'd still be allowed to leave. Hearing this, Jorgi starts to beg for his life, but before he can get a word out, Berga kicks him in the face, knocking him out cold. At this point, several of the men in the room gather Jorgi's body to be taken somewhere outside the city, where he'll likely never wake up again. Keith speaks for the first time to call Jorgi a fool.

A few minutes later, one of the men associated with the Gandors informs Luck that Dallas' group is here to see them. Luck puzzles briefly over who Dallas could be before recalling the leader of some local thugs; he tells the man to let Dallas in, but make sure they're unarmed first. When Dallas does come inside, he explains to Luck how his day has gone, asking Luck if he might be able to do something about "this Firo punk" at the end of it.

Luck quickly rejects this request, asking Dallas why he should do that kind of thing. Dallas tries to insert that someone causing trouble on their turf should be their concern, but Luck replies that those who aren't members of the family don't have a say in how they respond to things. When Dallas offers to join the Gandor Family if Luck deals with Firo, Luck bluntly rejects them, saying they cause too much trouble. Though Dallas and his friends get riled up by this, they're quickly silenced when Berga arrives and knocks one of them out with a punch. Afterwards, Berga and Luck threaten the rest of them, and eventually toss them out significantly more battered than when they'd arrived.

After Dallas and his group have left, Luck notices a crate they've left behind, though he's not completely sure if the liquor inside belongs to Dallas or to one of his men. Deciding to ask the next day, Luck sets the crate down on top of their safe, then begins getting ready to go out with his brothers.

Meanwhile, Barnes wakes up to see Szilard hovering over him. Nonplussed, Szilard addresses Ennis and asks why she didn't kill him after she'd found him without the liquor. As the other men in the room look onto Barnes with despair and anger at the fact that he'd returned empty-handed, Ennis replies that she thought they should get information from him. Szilard rebukes her for not doing so herself beforehand, then reaches forward, setting his right hand on Barnes' head.

Immediately, Szilard begins the process of 'devouring' Barnes, absorbing both Barnes' memories and physical body into his right hand. After completing the process, Szilard announces that he now has access to Barnes' memories, declaring that the other men should follow his example by being singularly loyal to him even in the moments before their deaths. Furthermore, he announces that two bottles of the liquor were saved from the fire, but that they were stolen shortly after.

After taking some time to reflect on the nature of Immortality and scientific development, as well as lamenting his inability to properly track down the man who had first summoned the demon aboard the Advena Avis, Szilard tasks Ennis with finding the four thugs who had stolen the complete liquor. He also informs her that someone seems to be looking for her, troubled for a moment with the thought that it might be another alchemist who knows of Ennis' true nature. Szilard further reminisces to a time Ennis had devoured one of his companions, noting that she'd seemed to display a reluctance to kill those she personally knew afterwards, but waves that concern off with the thought that he'd simply dispose of her if she became too soft.

In a different place altogether, Edward Noah meets with Donald Brown and Bill Sullivan, two people who will become his superiors when he begins working with the Bureau of Investigation. The two of them begin to debrief Edward on a case they've come here to investigate regarding a pair of robbers. When they show Edward images of the strangely-costumed bandits, he assumes they're joking, but Bill reassures him that the two people in the photo really are the suspects they're after; people often catch them in the middle of robberies, but assume they must be actors, so they've never been apprehended. The two agents further explain that they hadn't been a significant threat beforehand, since their robberies were all generally innocuous things; the reason they're being taken more seriously now is that they'd managed to steal the legacy of the Genoard Family, a wealthy family who had until recently been headed by the late Mr. Genoard.

Edward incredulously asks why they haven't been on the news for either that or their smaller crimes. Bill and Donald reply that Mr. Genoard's relations had suppressed the incident from going public, and the other crimes were overshadowed by news about people like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano. This causes the discussion to spiral into talking about Capone. It's eventually Bill who gets the conversation on track, turning the discussion back towards the robbers.

Isaac and Miria, meanwhile, are starting to recover from being hit by a car. Though they're alright physically, the two of them express indignant anger at their 'attacker' while they make their way towards a deserted alley. Once there, the two of them recount all of their past capers, which line up perfectly with the crimes described to Edward Noah by the two BOI agents; the theft of clocks, a museum door, chocolate, and the legacy of a rich man. Having finished remembering their best crimes, they resolve to commit one more 'good' crime, and plan to steal from the Mafia. As they set off to achieve this goal, the group run into four thugs.

Dallas Genoard, the leader of the thugs, is in a bad mood for a lot of reasons. Previous encounters with Firo and the Gandor brothers notwithstanding, he'd also been robbed of an opportunity to kill his father and inherit most of the family fortune when said fortune had been mysteriously stolen. As such, when he was bumped into by a couple wearing odd clothes, he didn't think of sparing them from a beating for even a second.

Ennis happens to walk by as Dallas is laying into Isaac, noting the odd coincidence of Isaac and Miria having shown up after she'd hit them with Szilard's car earlier. Deciding this is as good a time as any and figuring the two of them would probably take the chance to run away if she stepped in, Ennis very swiftly dispatches of the thugs, rendering them all unconscious but mostly unharmed. She's about to load the men into the car when she notices that Isaac and Miria haven't left the scene. Overjoyed, they thank her for her service to them and praise her for her heroism, then offer to do a favor for her. Accepting this offer, Ennis asks them to help putting the bodies in the car.

After the three of them finish putting the bodies of Dallas and the others into the car, Isaac and Miria further insist that they still owe Ennis, and decide to hang around for a short time. The two of them comment that this car looks a little like the one that had hit them earlier, but don't manage to make the connection, instead asking Ennis what she plans to do with the unconscious thugs. Ennis lies, telling them she plans to take the men to the police, and Isaac and Miria inform her that since they have a bad relationship with the police, they'll be on their way.

Ennis asks what they've done, and Isaac and Miria answer that they've killed a lot of children--though, in actuality, they believed children dying was the natural consequence of their earlier chocolate theft. They further explain that they're on a journey of atonement for their crimes. Ennis expresses that the two of them are very strong for that, since she herself is terrified of facing her sins. Even Isaac and Miria's declaration doesn't make her feel any better, considering what she's done.

When Szilard had first made Ennis, she'd been a blank slate who had no knowledge and felt no emotions, something that existed only to enact Szilard's will. That had changed, however, when she had devoured an alchemist for the first time, and she had suddenly been given a whole host of knowledge that had made her realize that both her and Szilard were awful people. She hadn't thought about eating Szilard, though, since Szilard would have been capable of killing her with a single thought, and when Szilard had asked her about her opinions on this new knowledge, she had told him she couldn't understand it.

Isaac and Miria's calls bring Ennis out of her reminiscing; they inquire after her health, since she had looked like she was spacing out. The two of them carry on their thread of conversation from earlier and insist that, regardless of what Ennis has done in the past, the fact that she saved the two of them today makes her a good person. Ennis feels more downtrodden than before, and goes to leave, but Isaac and Miria quickly give her their names before she leaves, a gesture which she returns. As she finally drives away, she sees the two of them waving in the rearview mirror, and manages to smile for the first time. Shortly afterwards, she cries.

Twenty minutes later, Ennis has brought Dallas and his friends back to Szilard's hideout, where the four of them have been tied up and laid out on the floor. Dallas is the last to wake up, and is informed by one of his friends that Ennis had shot them up with 'something' while they were out. At this point, Szilard speaks up, saying simply that he's going to ask Dallas and company a question and then kill them. Following this, he devours one of Dallas's friends, to the horror of Dallas and the other two. After gaining access to the thug's--Scott's--memories, Szilard attempts to offer Dallas a bargain in exchange for retrieving the crate he'd left with the Gandors. Unfortunately, Dallas is still too shocked to respond.

Privately, Szilard goes on to question Ennis about the couple who had witnessed her dispatching Dallas and his friends. Ennis lies, saying they had left the scene while she was dealing with the men, and Szilard doesn't question her further. He tasks Ennis with giving the three remaining thugs an ultimatum: steal back the liquor of immortality, and they'll be rewarded. The other men in the room protest Szilard's choice to give the thugs the incomplete product immediately after Ennis leaves, but he silences them with the reminder that these thugs are in a position to deal with the mafia, while everyone else in the room is not.

Cultural References

 * The mob bosses Al Capone and Lucky Luciano are referred to a number of times throughout the chapter.
 * As mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, the practice of shop owners selling grape juice and telling patrons exactly what not to do in order for it to ferment into wine was indeed a common practice of the Prohibition era.
 * The scope of the Bureau of Investigation and its mentioned future name-change to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (or, the FBI) in 1935 are chronologically consistent with real life.
 * The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published in the year 1900. The adaptation of it Maiza talks about is probably the 1902 Broadway musical adaptation, considering he refers to it as a musical and not a book. The most widely known adaptation, famous for its use of Technicolor, would not have come out yet; it was released in 1939.
 * The Empire State Building is mentioned as scheduled to be complete in 1931. This is chronologically accurate; the building was completed in April 1931 and opened to the public in May.

Unanswered Questions

 * Who summoned the demon aboard the Advena Avis?
 * What is Ennis?

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Firo Prochainezo
 * Edward Noah
 * Maiza Avaro
 * Isaac & Miria
 * Szilard Quates
 * Ennis
 * Randy and Pezzo
 * Barnes
 * Dallas Genoard
 * Jorgi
 * Keith Gandor
 * Berga Gandor
 * Luck Gandor
 * Donald Brown
 * Bill Sullivan