Chapter 184 Meeting Conditions

After Patrick finished speaking, a long silence fell over the conference hall.

Everyone knew what those words meant; a family that had run a contraband empire for thirty years was now taking the initiative to negotiate with a young man in his early twenties.

This wasn't a business collaboration; it was tantamount to outright surrender.

"I'll pass on the message," Richie O'Leary said, standing up from his chair.

"You pass on the message," Patrick said, staring into his eyes. "Tell Mu Xin's people that it has to be face-to-face. I want to talk to him in person."

Richie nodded, turned, and walked out of the conference hall.

The others in the conference hall dispersed one after another, leaving only Patrick and Molly.

"Dad," Molly said softly, "what if he refuses to meet?"

Patrick slowly swirled the empty whiskey glass in his palm. "He will meet. Otherwise, he would have had the Federal Bureau of Investigation raid us already."

"From beginning to end, he hasn't shown his face in person, nor has he mentioned us in any public statement or directly linked the Connolly Family to the water poisoning."

"He put all his cards in a place where we can see them but can't touch them. Moving all the way from Oxford Town to Washington and then back to Cincinnati, he's just been waiting for us to speak first."

Molly didn't speak. She was only twenty-eight, and this kind of pressure from the federal government left her at a complete loss.

"When I meet with him, you come along too. As the head of the Connolly Family's legitimate businesses, we need to show him our bottom line." Patrick sighed.

...

Meanwhile, on the third floor of the Morris Building.

Vinny sat on the sofa, holding a cup of cold black coffee.

"Richie O'Leary passed on a message through an intermediary in the gray market. The Connolly Family wants to meet with you—Patrick himself wants to talk to you face-to-face."

"Patrick himself," Mu Xin repeated the name, then leaned back in his chair and smiled.

"He has run a contraband business in Cincinnati for thirty years and has never bowed his head to an outsider. Now, he wants to come and see me in person."

"What an honor!" The last sentence was clearly laced with sarcasm.

"Because he has no other choice," Tom chimed in.

"The Federal Task Force has already put all his peripheral distributors under surveillance. I was in a meeting at the Hamilton Police Department this afternoon, and three of their deputy chiefs were suspended. The ones issuing the summons were FBI internal affairs investigators."

"No one received any phone calls or notifications before the summons. In other words, all of the Connolly Family's backdoors in the law enforcement system were completely sealed off today."

"He thinks you can help him, because he thinks you can put a stop to this whole situation," John said, leaning against the window.

"Or," Jessica closed her laptop screen and looked up, "he thinks you can at least give him a path forward."

"Our two sides have never crossed paths in southwestern Ohio before. From the outside, this conflict looks like both you and he are jointly bearing losses caused by a third party."

"He needs a way to clear his name, or at least to the point where his entire family doesn't end up spending the rest of their lives in prison."

"He really thinks highly of me... What do you think, then?" Mu Xin looked at Jessica.

"It depends on what price he is willing to pay," Jessica's voice was calm.

"The scope of the Federal Task Force's investigation isn't up to him to decide. Once a RICO case is initiated, the Department of Justice won't just back down on its own initiative."

"But he can choose the scope of his concessions. If he gives up all distribution networks outside of Cincinnati, the task force can declare complete success in their operation in southwestern Ohio, giving the federal prosecutors plausible evidence to stop digging deeper."

"What he gives up is the peripheral network, and what he secures is personal criminal immunity for himself and the core members."

"Vinny, tell them I'm willing to meet with him. He can decide the time and place."

"But not a single one of my conditions can be spared. First, all of the Connolly Family's fentanyl distribution in Oxford Town and all surrounding towns must stop immediately."

"Second, all operational data in Ohio for all secondary distributors under his control must be handed over, to be used as bargaining chips for evidence exchange with the Federal Task Force."

"Third, hand over all records the Connolly Family has on corruption within the local law enforcement system to me."

"He doesn't have to hand over the core moles, but he must at least hand over enough to allow the task force to claim in the media that they have rooted out systemic corruption. This is his own shield; the more he hands over, the lower the probability of him going to prison."

"After that, I'll have Jack arrange a closed-door information exchange with the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Washington."

Victoria asked from the corner, "What if they don't agree to hand over all the operational data of their peripheral network?"

"Then let them live in the headlines. The FBI won't let them off the hook."

"They have two options: sit and wait for a search warrant, or take the initiative to come to the table and hand over what they can."

"Taking the initiative at least gives them bargaining chips. By the time law enforcement reaches their doorstep, they won't even have any chips left."

At this point, Mu Xin held the upper hand. He believed the Connolly Family would not be so foolish as to fail to recognize the situation.