"WMD." "Got that WMD." "You've got to move it on down." " It ain't pretty." " Doesn't have to be." "Just needs to pull them from the places worth salvaging." "All right, I told the other shifts, now I'm telling you." "When I ride my district at the end of this week, I want to see empty corners." "They bring it here or the other two free zones or you bang them senseless." "Anything you need to do, you do." "Up to a body that can't walk out of the emergency room I'll back you up." "You understand me?" "I've detailed our IID representative for the entire week." "Citizen complaints will be handled by Lieutenant Mello here." "Whatever it takes." "I ain't even dirty." "I got rights and shit." "Go with the one about staying silent." "Shit like this don't happen in Hamsterdam." "I'm up for just standing?" "Fuck y'all." "We in America!" "Uh-uh." "West Baltimore." "I swear to God, Officer Herc, you unhook Babycakes, my people will be where you want us, I swear to God." "If you fuck with a man's ride, you get his attention." " Babycakes?" " Yo, yo, yo." "Hold up!" "That motherfucker's gonna hear from my lawyer." " This is some outrageous shit." " You think?" "Fuck you all, you lying motherfuckers!" "Gentlemen." "That is outrageous." "Come on, sweetheart." "Bust your ass outta here." "It's still Maryland but if y'all don't take that shit to Hamsterdam tomorrow, next time it's West Virginia." "That little star there across from the Dipper, that's north." "You wanna go the other way." "Assholes." "When you walk through the garden" "You gotta watch your back" "Well, I beg your pardon" "Walk the straight and narrow track" "Walk the straight and narrow track" "If you walk with Jesus" "He's gonna save your soul" "You gotta keep the devil" "Way down in the hole" "He got fire and the fury" "Fire and fury" "At his command" "Well, you don't have to worry" "Hold on to Jesus' hands" "Oh, we'll be safe from Satan" "When the thunder rolls" "Oh" "You gotta keep the devil" "Way down in the hole" "You gotta keep the devil" "Way down in the hole" "Way down" "Way down in the hole" "WMD." "Got that WMD." "Landfill, got Landfill." "WMD." "Got that WMD." "They all here." "Landfill." "We'll start within the week so we need to readdress the budget." "Readdress how?" "The price of steel will triple if we don't buy it now." " Ain't the steel bought?" " Not the bulk of it." "Gutting costs exceeded our expectations." "He needs to wear that hat when he's on site." "Code, you know." " The gutting costs went up?" " Yes, due to the changes you asked for." " Necessitating new permits." " And more delay." "Unless we expedite, bring the architect back in over the weekend." " Ain't that part of his fee?" " No, this was unanticipated." " Y'all fucked up so you take the hit, right?" " Excuse me?" "My man knows shit about no gutting costs and no price of no steel." "He's just trying to get some shit built." "Y'all supposed to have the expertise." "Only it seems the expertise ain't where it should be." "Cost overruns are the nature of the business." " We should discuss this over lunch." " Hell no, I got elsewhere to be." "This Marlo kid is fresh blood." "Bell's given him the best real estate." "The Barksdale people took what they needed when the Towers came down." "Stringer hasn't missed a step." " He's still selling drugs?" " Lot of drugs." " He's not dropping bodies?" " He doesn't need to." "He has enough corners." " And I'm supposed to give a shit?" " Two weeks, Bell looked insulated, like he had enough legitimate front to be the bank." "He's still involved." "Otherwise, why the face-to-face with the Stanfield kid?" "He's still connected to the day-to-day." "We come back in six, eight months, you won't even get him in a room talking drugs." "It's now or never, Lieutenant." "Stringer Bell is quiet." "If he's quiet, I don't give a fuck if we come back a year from now and find out he's on the Greater Baltimore committee." "This unit is about the bodies." "Major Foerster, call 2462." "Major Foerster." "What the fuck is this?" "Ten-page report on the heroic police work undertaken to retrieve Officer Dozerman's service weapon." "Send that upstairs, keep the bosses out of your ass for a while." "You actually did all this?" "Would it matter if I had?" "Jay, I'm a murder police." "I got a double on my plate." "I'm gonna work it." " We ain't got Fayette and Poppleton neither." " I'm working on it, man." "Then why ain't we at least got a shop set up down the block?" " We did." " There was a setback." " Ran our boys off." " Who?" " Just some player, man..." " Listen." "Let him tell me." "We hired him for muscle." " The boy, Marlo." " Marlo." "Who the fuck is Marlo?" " Is he tied to one of the mobs?" " Young boy." "Running it on his own, too." "Got maybe 15 spots along here and the avenue." "An independent with no support got all the prime real estate and we doin' what?" "A young boy ran us off the corner?" "I'm losing my motherfucking mind, man." "And I sincerely mean your girl no disrespect but Tosha wasn't killed because she just happened by that mess, right?" "She was a player." "We know that much." "We got the science that says she fired a gun." "The gun wasn't there for us to find but that just means somebody grabbed it up." "I mean, your girl, she definitely had her say when everybody else on that street was talking." "Am I wrong?" "I got witnesses that said she was in the middle of a drug robbery." "A boy by the name of Omar was in on it, too." "Nobody's saying Tosha was an angel." "Nobody's saying that." "But what are they saying?" "The crew Tosha was running with, maybe they didn't kill her, but if they don't tell me the true story," "I guarantee they won't breathe a free breath until them cicadas come back." "Y'all get the word to the right people." "You've spoken to the medical examiner, correct?" " He says it's lumpy." " Lumpy?" "For a credible scenario, he's willing to change the cause of death to homicide." "Do you even have a suspect here?" "Uh, no." "I don't know how you city guys do it but we try to duck a punch or two, not lean into every last one." "My county doesn't need another murder." "I'm glad you could come." "Ladies, Reverend Wright, I'd like you to meet my husband." " Not that I've seen." " She was invited, right?" "Of course." "Eunetta doesn't make it to much nowadays." "Not even council meetings." "I think Eunetta's gonna have her hands full, come the primary." "The Mayor will pull her through." " Does he still have coat-tails?" " Shit, boy." "Look up "incumbent" in the dictionary and Clarence Royce will be smiling back at you." "He gets his ticket through." "The Mayor's got a new poll." "His negatives have really jumped in the last year." "Not that he'll be putting a press release out about that." "I hear you took a swipe at him on that witness murder." "Not at the mayor directly but we had the police brass in front of the subcommittee." "I don't know." "There's no excuse for what happened." "You keep on it." "A smack here and there does this administration a world of good." "That's why we need new blood on the council." "Keep everybody honest." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Give me a Coors Light." "Don't embarrass yourself." "So, your murder's never gonna be a murder" " and Daniels' got his head in another case." " I know." "You know the hardest part about being a police?" "Explaining to your wife why she has to take antibiotics for your kidney infection." "I was gonna say trying to make the job matter." "That, too." " Speaking of your ex-wife, what's up there?" " Nothing." "She's got her hooks in some lawyer." "Money guy." "Fuck it and fuck her." "So what, are you movin' on?" "Yeah, I might have some fresh hope." "Yeah?" "Yeah, there was this woman at this thing for my kids." "She raises money for the school and all that, you know?" "She's got a face, a body and a brain working together and she looks like she might tell me when my shit stinks, which is probably what I need." "She's kind of like Freamon with tits." " So what, did you get her number?" " Nah, not exactly." "What kind of detective am I if I can't track a white woman in Baltimore?" "There you go." "You were so smooth tonight." "You had them eating right out of your hand." "It's what you need from me, right?" "Anyway, it wasn't too bad." "I'm getting better at it, I guess." "You are." "Cedric, maybe we could..." "I don't know." "Right now, you tell me where you need me and whether you want the Class A or B uniform, and I'm there." "More than that, I just don't know." "So?" "So?" "I'm sayin', what the fuck?" "Take a deep breath, man." "I mean, take a long deep breath." "Know that if you call the shot, we at war." "I'm there like I always been." "The thing about turf, it ain't like it was." "I mean, you ain't gotta pay no price of buyin' no corners." "Since when do we buy corners?" "We take corners." "You gonna buy one way or another." "Whether it's with the bodies we lost or are gonna lose, time in the joint that's behind us or ahead of us." "You gonna get shit in this game, but ain't shit for free." "Uh-uh." "How many corners do we need?" "How much money can a nigger make?" "More than a nigger can spend." "We won't be around to spend what we done made." "Shit, I didn't think I was gonna be around this long." "Yeah." "Well, we here now." "We got every mob in town, East Side, West Side, ready to pull together, share that good shit that Prop Joe is putting out there." "If we get in the money game downtown, niggers ain't going to jail." "We past that run-and-gun shit." "We find us a package and we ain't gotta see nothing but bank." "Nothing but cash." "No corners, no territory." "We'll make so much goddamn straight money, if the government comes after us, there ain't shit they can say." "Businessmen, huh?" "Let the young 'uns worry about how to retail, where to wholesale." "Who gives a fuck who's standin' on what corner if we're taking that shit off the top, putting that shit to good use, making that shit work for us?" "We can run more than corners, B. Period." "We could do like Little Willie back in the day with all that money and run this goddamn city." "Like businessmen." "Let me talk to Marlo, see if I can't smooth this shit out." "It ain't gonna be overnight 'cause the nigger only knows what he knows." "But I think I could talk some sense in his head." "I ain't no suit-wearin' businessman like you." "You know, I'm just a gangster, I suppose." "And I want my corners." "I gotta tell ya, I'm havin' a tough time wrapping my head around the reality of you being paroled." "I won't fully comprehend it until I'm sipping a Martini." "Homicide police went to Tosha's people, saying how they know she was in the mix." "Said they got witnesses and shit." "They called your name." " What did they say?" " They called me." " I know this cop, man." " Yeah?" "Maybe we should help him out." "Tell him who did what." "Stop wilding, Kimmy." "I said I got this." "Tosha's people wanna know what happened." "Say she caught one taking them boys down." "Ain't no need to involve the police." " Sound to me like he involved already." " I told you, I got this." "My husband worked for Mr. Cooper at the American Can." "He made good money." "We saved up and bought this house." "There were white families still living in the neighborhood then." "The neighborhood has changed." " This is a picture of the house." " Oh." "City-owned, taxes paid and all." "It is very nice." " But I can't afford that." " You don't have to worry." "It's all taken care of." "It's a special program we have." "It's for people who are living in really bad situations, you know, with the drug trafficking outside." " And this is a good neighborhood." " Mm-hm." "It's safe and it's on the number 19 line and it's walking distance from your church." "Officer, this is the only home I know." "It's all I've got." "Now, you say you have a program that can place me somewhere else but you ain't got no program for what's outside my door?" "You weren't lying." "Yeah." "I told you." "And I've been all over these blocks like you said." "I haven't seen any cameras, nobody peeking'." "Monk Man has been here for days and narcos haven't even blinked." "I'll tell you what." "Put some of my people on it." "Just them young 'uns." "Make the package real small, just in case this a trap." " I wanna hear directly from you on this." " I'm on it." "This shit is just bugged out." "String called, said to tell you he's gonna be late." " Are you telling me we're weak?" " I reached out to Black Donnie." "OK, spit it out." "Stop fuckin' double-talkin' me." "Black Donnie ain't having any of it." "Says Brother Mouzone put a hex on all of us." "What about Peacock?" "Peacock hired out with some Dominicans." "What about Eggy Mule?" "Eggy locked up." "Caught a nickel with the Feds for a pistol." "What about Shorty Boyd?" "Shorty Boyd went and cleaned his whole act up." "Yeah, I know." "Fucked us all up." "What we got?" "The soldier you sent at us, Cutty, he gonna work out, but the rest of them dudes, I don't know." "Listen, big man, you're about to earn your fucking keep." "You get Cutty and the best of the rest and you put a hurtin' on Marlo." "I want my corners." "What the fuck?" " What now?" " Problems, Mr. Bell." "This ain't the time for problems." "I got places to be." "We're being told it may take weeks to get these changes approved." " Weeks?" " Meanwhile you lose money." "How does anybody make money in this game?" "Every time I think we're good, you back in my pockets." " You need to make a call." " Again?" "He's the consultant, right?" "You're paying him to consult, right?" "This is why we hire a politically connected guy." "He goes downtown and does for us what we can't do for ourselves." "Democracy in action, Mr. Bell." "All right, me and Slim, we're gonna work through the alleys and hit 'em from the sides." "I want you to come through here." "Slow down, through the intersection." "Ohh." "If we come up this way, we ain't got to cross no intersection." "Come that way?" "You puttin' your driver in the line of fire, man." "Think on it." "He getting' taken out." "Car gonna crash." "Where that put you at?" "You don't wanna be shootin' across your driver." "All right, come in easy." "We're gonna have their full attention." "And pick your targets, drop 'em and move out quick." " Who driving'?" " I'm under the wheel." "Slow down at the end and toss your weapons." "Get rid of any shell casings that kick back in the car." "Police could trace them." " Toss the gloves, too?" " No, hold on to them." "They're gonna have that DNA shit all on 'em." "It's gonna take us some time to get set up so we need y'all to lay back four or five blocks." "When we ready, we're gonna get you on the burner." "But y'all hold tight till I call you." "You got it?" "We can handle our end." "You just make sure there's some fuckin' work left for us." "I don't wanna feel like some decoy." "Damn right about that." "It's just to relocate, no big deal." "I'm not asking for round-the-clock protection." "No big deal?" "Where the fuck am I gonna find a house for this old broad?" "I got one." "It's a foreclosure on the Harford Road." "All you gotta do is file the petition." "My boys'll move her in." "She's a witness against a violent drug crew." "Without her, it won't go forward." "She's 73 years old." "Brave old broad to be doing this, but..." "Come on, Ray." "We just lost a witness in a drug case." "We don't wanna lose another one so quick." "If Rawls gets wind of this, you forged my signature." " Where's she living now?" " Vincent Street, Sector Two." " That's a bad location?" " You wouldn't believe it." "Wait for the call." "What if they've got lookouts?" "If we wait, it'll be over by the time we get there." "Plus, how's that gonna play with Avon, man?" "They taking' all the credit." "Yo, fellas, strap up." "There go that motherfucker Nay-Nay." "I say we take him." " We should wait for the call." " We wait, he gonna get away." "Go, go, go!" "Get out, get out!" "What the fuck?" "Didn't I say something about waiting for a fuckin' phone call?" "You know how you blow off half the invitations you get?" " Ribbon cuttings, playground clean-ups?" " No choice." "I got one to a fundraiser for the Delta Phis." "I drag my ass over to the Forum." "Who was there in his ironsides but Odell Watkins." "The rainmaker." "Talking in public about being disappointed in the mayor." " Disappointed." "Yeah?" "Like how?" " Like sincerely disappointed." "The way you'd be with one of your kids." "He really wanted to see the mayor pressed." "Maybe somebody can take a run at Royce in next year's primary." "Like who?" "Madam Council President?" " Mickey Pepper would give him a fight." " No, Mick won't risk it." "Well, you gotta have someone with balls." "And somebody black." "This being Baltimore an' all." " How many y'all take?" " Two." "Didn't get nearly a shot off." "That speaks to the quality of Barksdale people." "He's gonna come back at you." "It ain't gonna stop at this." "I don't want it to stop." "Barksdale weak today." " And he ain't working with my ammunition." " No doubt you carryin' a full clip." "But when you're at the head of the table, once you there, you've got to hold it down." "Sound like one of them good problems." "Yeah." "Prison and graveyards, full of boys who wore the crown." "But they wore it." "It's my turn to wear it now." " We're gonna do this, right, Chris?" " It's ready like yesterday, dawg." "Want a white T, man?" "Need to get yourself a white T, dawg." "So you working your plan, Bubs?" " Dollar here, dollar there, Kima." " So why did you call?" "Are you still interested in that boy, Marlo?" "No?" "You wanna keep getting paid, you need to get your ass up to Park Heights where Kintel got them corners." "Kintel?" "My bosses don't give a fuck about Marlo." "Stringer neither." "That's too bad because now we've got a whole lot of drama." " What happened?" " That young buck Marlo, he just dropped two of Barksdale's soldiers two hours past." " What?" " Them corners is all jumpin' bad." "I thought Marlo had the corners with Stringer." "All I know is Marlo is flyin' his own colors." "West Side's about to be all Baghdad." "But y'all looking for whatshisname, Kintel." "Y'all are too fickle with Bubs, man." "I swear." "A little gift for you and your boys." "Call me." "Whitey sale!" "Whitey sale!" "Deputy, I am aware of the incident and my men are on it." "We called in the flex squad and my DEU is out canvassing." "And what do we know?" "It seems to be rival gangs." "What does homicide have?" "Fuck homicide." "I'm asking you for answers." " Sir, my men..." " And you have none." "My men are out there..." " What do we know that we can tell the man?" " Rival gangs." "Which gangs?" "Gangs." "Assholes who don't like each other." "I'm sorry, Major, but we got nothing on it." "Play it." "It don't make me no never mind." "It's all about trumps." "Evening, Omar." "Evening, Bruiser." "Speaking of them trumps now." "Hey, everybody." "What's for dinner, Jen?" "I'm starving." "It's working." "Ow!" " Hi, Daddy." " How are you doing, beautiful?" "Daddy, we shared with you." "That's nice." "Have you seen that tape I was watching?" "I don't know what you're talking about." "The videotape from last Monday night's council meeting." "Keiffer tried to block my resolution but I laid him out good." "I was in rare form." " You seen it?" " Maybe you left it in the VCR?" "What?" "Son of a bitch!" " Who the hell...?" " Franky shared his sandwich with you." "We hid it so no one else could eat it before you came home." "Can I get some chips and pickles with that, too?" "I don't wanna disrespect you." "String been good to me, you know?" "Not just my bills." "Him and Avon probably think they owe me that much." "Mmm-hmm." " And it ain't what people might be saying." " What they saying?" "It ain't like I don't miss Dee." "I do." "Yeah, well, I miss him, too." " But he's been gone a while now." " More than a year." "Stringer's fine." "No denying that." "I feel safe around him." "You asking to get with String, I'm OK with that." " I thought you was gonna be mad." " Uh-uh." "I mean, everything with Dee is so messed up, you know?" "I mean, every time I think about it..." "And you know this one police, he came by here and brought it all up again." " Who did?" " Police detective from the city." "The one that tried to turn Dee on Avon when he got pulled up in Jersey." "White boy?" " Bushy hair?" " Yeah." "What did he say?" "What did he say?" "He said maybe D'Angelo didn't take..." "You know." "Take his own life." "He said maybe it was somethin' else." "And he came to you with that?" "Left his card here one day but I didn't say nothing to the man." "Just told Stringer, is all." "Hmm." "She's gonna run for Council?" "She is." "Probably win, too, if I know her." "And you're the proud husband?" "Not sure how that makes me feel." "It's just for show until the election next year." "A city police lieutenant looks good on her arm." "Who even cares anymore?" "Everyone's either separated or divorcing for the second time." "This is a favor." "For her." "It's hard to explain." "Look, I disappointed her." "For years she told herself I was tracked for deputy commissioner at worst, and past the police department, who knows?" "And there were some things that happened a long time ago." "I guess she wanted more out of me." "And after a lot of years and a lot of plans, it turns out I have a better head for police work than climbing the ladder." "She hung in there thinking my career was some big deal." "And I probably let her believe it just to keep peace." "Now she wants to be the big deal." "What do you want?" "I don't want to disappoint her anymore." "And right now I'm more help showing up at some dinner in my ring and dress blues than being the not-even-divorced-yet husband with the white woman on his arm." "I'm gonna do what I can to see she gets what she wants this time." "Nothing more." "Last seen Gerard was racin' bullets up on Fayette Street." " He appeared to be winning." " Till he shows up here, we ain't gonna know what happened." "I damn sure know one fuckin' thing." " Two of our people chalked." " The police are going be real heavy on this." " I say we take time to build our muscle." " I ain't got no more motherfucking time!" "When the word comes out about Marlo punking me, what am I gonna look like?" "I'm gonna do this myself!" "You just this minute got home." "They're gonna pull your parole." " Let me take care of this." " We was thinkin', we could hit at them ourselves." "That way there won't be no fuck-ups." "You two niggers get on it, man." "And get it right." "See how shit have to be handled?" "The game is the fuckin' game." "Period." "Same as it ever was." "I don't know though, man." "I mean..." "I mean..." "I was with one of our young 'uns on Vincent Street where they got the empty houses over there." "And they got crews over there twirling dope and coke like the shit was candy." "Kids with a lemonade stand down there." "The cops were standing round like that shit was... legal." "I mean, every day." "Now, that shit was business." "What are you saying, man?" "What's up?" "Nothing, man." "Nothing at all." "Those are Stringer's people." "You wanted us to be about bodies." "We had this kid Marlo working for Stringer but he might be going to war for those corners." "Let me be clear." "This is no longer about Stringer Bell or Kintel fucking Williamson." "What is my rank, Detective Greggs?" " My rank!" " Lieutenant, sir." "What is my rank, Detective McNulty?" "If you can't remember that much, then you can go back to narcotics." "And you can go the hell to whatever unit will have you." "Now get the fuck out of my office." "Your message said you'd be here." "Still, I thought it'd be one of your minions who showed up in the flesh." "You called on some of my people's people." "I was just working." "Doing what a man is supposed to do." "I know you been busy." "Caught some talk from the men you rousted on the West Side." "That was about a gun that belonged to a police." "Yeah, caught some talk about that, too." "This here, it's about something else." "Girl by the name of Tosha who got her head blown off in a firefight." "If you're not here to cooperate, then why are you here?" "I could just pull up that other girl from your squad." "She ain't gonna talk to you." "Ain't nobody gonna talk to you." "I just came here to make that clear." "Ain't no thing because I already got an eyeball wit." "You do?" "I don't know about that." "Old Bruiser is blind from that fortified half the time." "You gonna have to dry him out just to get him on the stand." "Besides, he done had a change of heart to that story." "That's what I heard anyway." "You gonna have to call this one of them... cost-of-doing-business things y'all police talk about all the time." "No taxpayers." "The way y'all look on things, ain't no victim to even speak on." "Bullshit." "No victim?" "I just came from Tosha's people." "All this death, you don't think that ripples out?" "You don't know what I'm talkin' about." "I was a few years ahead of you but I know you remember how the neighborhood was." "We had some bad boys for real." "Wasn't about guns so much as knowing what to do with your hands." "Those boys could really rag." "My father... had me on the straight." "But like any young man, I wanted to be hard, too." "So I'd turn up at all the house parties where the tough boys hung." "Shit, they knew I wasn't one of them." "Them hard cases would say to me," ""Go home, schoolboy, you don't belong here."" "Didn't realize at the time what they were doing for me." "As rough as that neighborhood could be, we had us a community." "Nobody, no victim, who didn't matter." "And now all we got is bodies." "And predatory motherfuckers like you." "And out where that girl fell, I saw kids acting like Omar, calling you by name, glorifying your ass." "Makes me sick, motherfucker, how far we done fell." "25,000." "You don't need more than that to get it done." " What the fuck are you saying?" " It's how they do at Zoning and Permits." "They know you got a contractor and people sitting on they ass." "You're paying twice that every week." "25 gets me the permits?" "Mmm-mmm. 20 gets you the permits." "Five is for me for bribing these motherfuckers." "I'm the one who got to risk walking up to these thieving bitches with cash in hand." "I'm telling you, String, the people running the city now, they make the last bunch look sanctified." "I mean, this is some shameful shit." "Permits come when?" "Monday." "Latest." "Mmm-hmm." "Spider bags!" "Green tops." "Spider bags!" "That's him, man." "The fool." " Yo, I know that nigger, man." " Yeah?" " Owe me money, actually." " Yeah?" "She ain't saying it like that." "She saying it like she wants to get pregnant." "You all right?" "Damn!" "I opened up too early, man." "I stepped on your shot." "Come on, let's roll." "Hey, there go five-0 right there." " Yeah, I know." "It's nothin'." " Huh?" "Cops be lettin' niggers grind down here." "Get the fuck out of here, hoppers!" " Get out of here." " Who are these little niggers?" "Hey, yo, what if they lock us up?" "I hope y'all got toothbrushes." "Otherwise you're gonna be using some other boy's brush or rubbing your teeth with your damn finger." "If you don't get locked up, you can keep an extra 20 each." "All right." " Who got that fire, baby?" "That fire." " WMD!" "Come on, Tommy, give it up already." "Look, Terri, you gotta do this for me." "Tell me why I should vote for you over Royce?" "Something is wrong in that city and I can fix it." "This guy?" "He don't give a shit about tackling the problems." "Crime is out of fucking control." "Last week, a kid witness in a drug case turns up shot dead." "I go to the mayor and Mr. "Reform is more than the watchword of my administration"" "pats my ass, thanks me for my concern, shows me the door." "The end." "So, with crime as the issue, the great white father rides to the rescue against a black incumbent mayor in a city that's 65% black?" " Black, white, green, people are pissed off." " How is this doable?" "One, I hear the mayor's got problems with key supporters." "Two, the police commissioner, Royce's own man, is telling me stuff about his fucked-up department." "And three, Tony Gray comes close to telling me he's thinking about a run for mayor." "That'd split the black vote." "You need a player who gives the black middle class permission to vote white." " You got one of those in your pocket?" " Not many of those around." "Elijah?" "He ain't gonna save your skinny white ass." "What about Odell Watkins?" "It's funny you should mention him." "He's not too happy with the mayor." "I hear a new poll shows Royce's negatives are high." "You'd have to raise a load of dough." "He has to see it." "I know he sees it." " It's past that." "It's about us showing respect." " Fuck respect." " He ain't right." " No he ain't." "But with you on the other side of the argument, he'd rather be wrong." "Maybe if the word came down from on high, it might change his mind." "I mean, if your friend Bunny Colvin's up to his ass in bodies," "I bet he'd take all the help he can get." "Not that you'd ever go behind anybody's back or anything like that." "Right?" "No way." "Two more murders yesterday." "Another three today, including a 14-year-old." "We're doing all we can." "You're at 260 for the year and it's barely October." "You promised me 275 or under." "I had that as a promise." " Sir..." " We see 300 before the New Year, and I'm not sure that I can justify a full term for you." "Now, I hate to say it, but there it is." "Barksdale's people and who?" "Marlo Stanfield." "He's the new kid." "We've been on him a couple weeks." "I thought Daniels' people were in the Northwest." "Your war's only gonna get worse, Major." "Northwest has been quiet for weeks." "You're willing to backdoor your lieutenant?" "You ain't changed, Jimmy." "Shit." " It's always about your case, huh?" " Do what you can." "Keep my name out of it." " How did it go?" " We got one of them two motherfuckers." "You come strolling in here all walking tall..." "Man, we was blazing on them dudes." "You know what I'm saying?" "Just got in the heat, man." " It was like..." " Relax, man." "I already heard." "I'm not tweaking behind this." "That's one less motherfucker breathing since yesterday." "But I'm surprised at you." "Shit didn't get by you back when." "Wasn't my man's fault." "I unloaded on the young 'un too soon." "Gave him enough room to buck and run." " I fucked that shit up myself." " Hold on." "It's on me." "I had that kid in my sights, close enough to take off his Kangol and half his dome with it." "Couldn't squeeze the trigger." "Couldn't do it, man." "Why not?" "Wasn't in me, I guess." "You know, whatever it is in you... that lets you flow like you flowing... to do that thing, it ain't in me no more." "All right." "So you done soldiering but we could use you for what you've got in your head." " We're gonna put you on a corner..." " No, man." "I ain't making myself clear." "The game ain't in me no more." "None of it." "But you ain't done shit else so what are you gonna do?" "I don't know." "But it can't be this." "All right, then." "We straight." " See you." " See you." "B, he was a man in his time, you know?" "Yeah." "He a man today." "He a man." "Any idea what this is about?" "Lieutenant." "What's he got in his head?" "Here he is, Bunny." "Cedric Daniels to the rescue." "Man of the hour." "English SDH"