The 2 thugs that we hired to be our security inside the brewery were brothers named Kazbek and Bekkan. Emilio started getting more requests to respond to the medical emergencies than me. I wondered if me being bisexual had a part to play in this. I did not mind it all that much if it did. Emilio and I were equal partners. Emilio was not the type to betray someone. His money was mine essentially and vice versa. It also freed up more time for me to directly manage our rackets. Listening to the concerns of my employees gave me side missions to complete. Doing them made them much more loyal to me. It made the possibility of them betraying us lower. There were also missions that could temporarily change the status of the racket. The first one was a burst pipe in the brewery. That brought Production and Quality down a whole star. I had the cash on hand to fix it, so it was not a major deal for us. It did set back my plans to upgrade though. Another side mission was when Bertolo got into a spat with a singer from one of the main 8 gangs. We went over to one of their speakeasies for a sing off.
Bertolo lost the competition. The mobsters of the speakeasy wanted to cripple him for the major insult he had caused them. I barely managed to intercede for him. It was a really close call. Bertolo's pride was wounded, but this did bring in a small boost of patrons the following week. He did not do badly. The rival simply was just too good. I pat Bertolo on the back and said "Cheer up. Just practice your set. Come up with a new song or two. You'll be up on top of that asshole before long." He gave me a wry smile. "Thanks, boss." he said. The security was able to tell me what dangers to look out for going forward. Outside security could tell if scouts from rival factions or cops were sniffing around the racket. Inside security could intervene if there were any fights or troublemakers inside the racket. Apparently, there were some scout thugs from the Electric Fangs. That was the same faction that owned the club Bertolo was beefing with recently. There could be something more to this. I thanked them for their help here. I appreciated good work. They shrugged and nodded their heads. I had to go think on it.
Emilio and I were both only considered thugs. Even though we owned 2 rackets, there was no association with other members of the criminal underground. We got our names in the Blue Codex on the merit of our skills in being mob doctors. At any point, we could be contacted and offered a contract to join a faction. We could also go to one of their higher ups and ask to join. We would have to do a couple of favors for them and give up a massive cut of what we had. I did not see the need to do that just yet. There are thugs, who were the low level NPCs that could be hired on as random staff for a racket. Basically they were wannabe tough guys. The associates were those that were in an ongoing relationship with those ranked lieutenant or above. They did several tough jobs for them. Usually this was reserved for those of the wrong ethnicity, but are acknowledged as doing good work. Made gangster was the rank of those that had finally made it into the crime family. They got a seat at the table and were managers of rackets and high leveled soldiers. Lieutenants managed the neighborhoods.
An advisor was one elder that was respected and trusted by the kingpin. It did not have to be a member of the mob. Sometimes it could be a family member, a childhood friend or even a specific clergymen like a confessor. The underboss was the second in command. His word was law and could only be countermanded by the kingpin. It was a very dangerous position. The kingpin was the mafia don. All of us were thugs. If Emilio and I moved up in the world, we would take our guys with us. Emilio and I had already talked about it. The employees that were not our ethnicities were going to be associates. Emilio was very adamant about not making them made gangsters. I did not agree, but I was going to respect his decision. "We will immediately lose all our credibility with the other made gangsters. You have to live by the code if you want to get by. You're already going to be in a weaker position because you're gay." he said. I just looked at him. "Half gay." he corrected himself. That was probably true. It was still much better than just being a random grunt on the streets. They all could deal with it.
