Mob Psychology

Remo pursues bank executive Digory Lippincott in a plane, then investigates disappearing IDC service engineers. Recent hire Wally Boyajian is drowned in a cranberry bog after he cannot restore F&L Importing’s LCN computer. Remo enters IDC as Remo Mercurio and follows the trail to Boston boss Carmine Imbruglia, known as Fuggin or Cadillac. Smith and Chiun direct cosmetic surgery while Remo is unconscious; surgeon Rance Axeworthy extracts the black orb Chiun calls the orb of Shiva, which takes control of Axeworthy and consumes him. Wendy Wilkerson explains that she and Tony Tollini turned a joke into a Boston Mafia software pilot: LANSCII, an IDC accounting system.

Chiun steals its disk; Nicky Kix later takes it from a staged ransom exchange, shoots Vinnie Maggiotto, and escapes, while Chiun kills the wounded Maggiotto. Smith’s tracer exposes LCN accounts and a Terrapins file. Jeter Baird and Devin Western create a comic franchise that becomes a media success; extortionists kill actors playing D’Artagnan and Athos and threaten the creators. Costumed figures intervene as “guardian Terrapins” and kill Nicky, with the familiar voices and “Little Father” address strongly pointing to Remo and Chiun, although the costumes are not explicitly unmasked. Smith alters LANSCII to make Carmine appear to be skimming. Remo presents the false records to Don Fiavorante, who dispatches a courier-disguised soldier against Carmine; Carmine shoots him and assumes he is dead, though the text does not confirm the driver’s fate.

Chiun kills Fiavorante, and he and Smith revive Don Pietro Scubisci, while Carmine forces Tony into a Mafia initiation and orders him to kill Fiavorante. Don Pietro’s guard kills Tony. Smith lures Carmine to a staged cash meeting; Remo kills Bruno Boyardi after extracting Carmine’s location, and Chiun kills Carmine after entering the fortified Manet Building. Smith says his LANSCII time-bomb virus paralyzes the LCN network; Remo reports that they also physically shattered the computers.