At eight in the morning, the Iceberg Lounge had not yet opened.
The Maroni family's car stopped outside, and the Falcone family's car pulled up across the street right after it. Only after both groups entered did they discover that Oswald had invited them to the same table.
Maroni wanted the goods from Warehouse 6, the driver Nico, and the list of temporary workers.
Falcone wanted the kitchen, the delivery routes, and the Iceberg Lounge's liquor purchases for the next two weeks.
Penguin pushed the keys to the empty truck toward Maroni, then wrote a check for the warehouse losses. Falcone got the liquor contract. The goods already sold, the driver, the kitchen, the cold storage, and the temporary worker list all stayed with the Iceberg Lounge.
Maroni's men brought up Rocco to remind him.
Falcone's men said that The Roman still remembered how Cobblepot used to scrape a living, and was willing to let him keep his seat here.
"Thank Mr. Carmine for me," Penguin said. "His willingness to leave me my restaurant is truly touching generosity."
Neither side pressed for more.
Sal was fighting to reclaim Pier 7. Falcone had just acquired the cold storage and still had to guard against Maroni's convoys. Both families wanted to swallow up the Iceberg Lounge, but for now, whichever struck the killing blow first would see the other immediately take over the place.
A little over ten minutes later, the two groups left separately.
For an empty truck, a check, and two weeks' profits, Oswald had kept everything else.
Watching the two convoys head in opposite directions outside, he already knew that neither old family could swallow him up right now.
The office fell quiet.
A little while later, he heard a very soft sound behind him.
Tap.
A shoe sole