 Who is Big Louis?
A gun is an interesting weapon; it can be hired, of course, and naturally doesn't care who hires it. The evening was dark, it was unlikely that the other even saw the circle of steel that was the mouth of the shotgun barrel, now resting on the car's window ledge. Joe Prantera said softly, "Big Louis sent me, Al." And at that moment, the universe caved inward upon Joseph Marie Prantera. There was a falling through all space and through all time. Big Louis, he ain't going to like this. The other spoke precisely and slowly, the way a highly educated man speaks a language which he reads and writes fluently but has little occasion to practice vocally. Joe had been born in Naples and his mother had died in childbirth. His father hadn't brought him to the States until the age of five and by that time he had a stepmother. He looked out, however, not on the lawns and walks of a sanitarium but upon a wide boulevard of what was obviously a populous city. The fear of police, of Al Rossi's vengeance, of the measures that might be taken by Big Louis on his failure, were now far away. Reston-Farrell, the one Joe had already met, was tall and drawn of face and with a chainsmoker's nervousness. He wondered, all over again, if this was some kind of pressure cooker. Whatever the something else was, a slot opened in the middle of the table and a glass, so clear of texture as to be all but invisible, was elevated. Reston-Farrell said, "Suffice to say, you are now one hundred and seventy-three years after the last memory you have." I seen what it looks like out that window—" The real comprehension was seeping through to him even as he talked. "Everybody I know, Jessie, Tony, the Kid, Big Louis, everybody, they're dead. Even Big Louis." The two men of the future said nothing more for long minutes while Joe Prantera's mind whirled its confusion. And already he was beginning to long for the things he knew—for Jessie and Tony and the others, for his favorite bar, for the lasagne down at Papa Giovanni's. Overnight, for all practical purposes, the whole world was industrialized, automated. The second industrial revolution was accompanied by revolutionary changes in almost every field, certainly in every science. "So everybody's got it made.
 Big Louis is Joe Prantera's boss.
 Big Louis is Lawrence Reston-Farrell's boss.  Big Louis is Al Rossi's boss.  Big Louis is Warren Brett- James' boss.  Big Louis is Joe Prantera's boss.