It was late Sunday night before Tom Hagen could kiss his wife goodbye and

Drive out to the airport. With his special number one priority (a grateful gift from a

Pentagon staff general officer) he had no trouble getting on a plane to Los

Angeles.

It had been a busy but satisfying day for Tom Hagen. Genco Abbandando had

Died at three in the morning and when Don Corleone returned from the hospital,

he had informed Hagen that he was now officially the new Consigliori to the

Family. This meant that Hagen was sure to become a very rich man, to say

Nothing of power.

3 The Don had broken a long-standing tradition. The Consigliori was always a

Full-blooded Sicilian, and the fact that Hagen had been brought up as a member of

the Don's family made no difference to that tradition. It was a question of blood.

Only a Sicilian born to the ways of omerta, the law of silence, could be trusted in

the key post of Consigliori.

Between the head of the family, Don Corleone, who dictated policy, and the

Operating level of men who actually carried out the orders of the Don, there were

Three layers, or buffers. In that way nothing could be traced to the top. Unless the

Consigliori turned traitor. That Sunday morning Don Corleone gave explicit

Instructions on what should be done to the two young men who had beaten the

Daughter of Amerigo Bonasera. But he had given those orders in private to Tom