Maxine's New Life Ch. 13

"No way, I'm not going to sit around waiting for some asshole to shoot me in the back." I said.

"I suppose you have a better plan?" he asked.

"If you can get the intel, we can hijack his ass and frame the local thugs." I suggested.

"It would be a logistical nightmare," he assured me.

"Well having Ivan and a couple of his thug friends in my hometown, doesn't seem like anything but a nightmare to me. I just won't do it." I admitted.

"Then I will lure him out without your help." Vlad said.

"You need to rethink that. I doubt there is anyone else in the world who would be willing to participate in this little venture. So we need to find a plan we can both live with." I suggested. "I'm not above being bait, but I want it to happen immediately and not in my home town. I have killed too many people here."

"I have a pipeline into the FBI's investigation. I can get all the latest information. We can sit down and take a hard look at it together."

"Since you know where I live, get it and let's make a plan." I suggested.

84 excessive misery.

The number of boats being loaded into the city lake convinced me that there was something different about that day. There was, it was Saturday. I had not realized that the time had passed so quickly, but it had. Enough mundane chores had occupied my time during the week so that days just slipped by while I tried to find some new directions.

Realizing that it was Saturday gave me an idea. It was time for me to finish cleaning out the office. but only if it was empty. I had no desire for another encounter with Gwen so soon. Of them all, only Ed interested me. In my current mood I wasn't sure that I wanted to see him either.

Ed's parking lot was empty, even the van was gone. I parked the cruiser near the door, so that loading the tools of my trade would be easier. I wished that I had planned better. If I had, I could have taken a blanket off the bed to use as a wrapper for the long guns.

I remembered that since it was almost winter, I would need more blankets, so I restarted the cruiser. I drove the two or three miles to Wal-mart. I did my weekly shopping while I was in the store. I almost forgot the blanket, but I remember it just in time.

Then it was back to Ed's office. When I pulled in the second time, Ed's black sedan was parked by the door. Since it was Saturday, I parked beside it but far enough away so that loading the guns and bike wouldn't be a problem.

"Well hello Ed," I said as I entered the office using my key.

"I thought you might be in today," he said as an answer.

"I hadn't planned on it, but I realized that it was Saturday. Since I was already out, it seemed a good time to pick up the tools."

"What kind of mood are you in?" he asked.

"I'm depressed. The stray cat finally came into the cabin last night, and died there. I had to bury him this morning."

"Shit Maxine I'm sorry, but I've got more bad news for you."

"Go ahead and hit me with it Ed. It's the right day for it."

"Don't bother to load your shit,"

"Why not?" I asked.

"You would just have to move it again. Your landlord's mother decided to move her sister into the cabin."

"You are kidding me?" I said getting even more depressed by the minute.

"She called me yesterday, but I didn't have the heart to tell you. You had so much other shit to deal with."

"I'll just be fucked," I said.

"Yeah, it gets worse. You don't have a lease so she is only giving you a week to get out. She wants you out by next Sunday."

"Shit Ed, I'll have to move into a fucking motel." I said it angrily.

"Maybe not, I know some people with places for sale. It's a lousy market right now."

"Well I hate to ask, but can I leave the guns here?" I knew his answer, but I had to ask.

"That's what I said wasn't it? Just leave them till you find a place."

"What about Lucas and Gwen?"

"What about them. If they don't like it, they can leave. I expect them to anyway. Gwen is too classy for a converted service station."

"That's up to them, I'm out of the business now. We sign the sales papers sometimes next week. Jen is supposed to call me when it is done."

"Max, i'm sorry you decided to sell, but frankly you lasted longer than I thought. It's really a boring business. It's a lot like bail bond." Ed suggested.

"Yeah, I know." I replied. "I guess I'll go home and kick the fucking walls out."

"Yeah, but don't do that. I don't want to bail your ass out of jail for something that stupid." Ed said.

Instead of having Vlad help me decide where to store the weapons, I would have to sit and listen to him talk about murder. Damn, life was a shit sandwich and you didn't even get mustard, I decided.

"This place is a dump," Vlad said. "I like it. It reminds me of home."

"Well don't get settled in. I have to move. The guy who owns the place is doing a ten year bit for something or other, but his mother decided to sell it. I put in an offer, but then she decided to move her sister in. I have to be gone in a week."

"As you would say, that just sucks," he said seriously.

"Tell me about it. Right in the middle of Ivan and Davenport, I have to find a new home." I stopped talking to take a long sip of coffee, then added. "Let's get down to it. How do we kill this prick and get away with it?"

"Killing him is the easy part. Finding him is difficult. He does not travel alone and he keeps no schedule." Vlad said.

"Everyone keeps a schedule, we just don't know what it is. Like he has some chick he screws every other Wednesday night, at even numbered hours," I said smiling.

"Okay, he has a schedule but we don't know. So what do we do?"

"What does he deliver and how does he do it?" I asked.

"The FBI says it is counterfeit prescription drugs. OxyContin and Vicodin seem to be popular with counterfeiters. "

"They would be easy to transport and probably easier to get than heroine or crack. The Russians wouldn't have to deal with Drug cartels. I bet they sell crank as well." I suggested. "Damn I wish we had a board to put this on. Do not put anything about this in your computer and neither will I. If they kill one of us, let's not leave a trail to the other one?" I suggested.

"I agree," Vlad said. After a little thought he added, "So the packages would be small and easy to hide. He could make the delivery in anything."

"No sense trying to follow him If we could find him to follow, we could just pop him with a sniper rifle." I suggested.

"I agree. We need to find him at one end of the supply chain or the other. Then just take him out." Vlad said.

"I agree, but then we have to get away with it. I suggest we find him at the delivery point. Then we can kill him in a way that makes it look like a delivery gone bad. I would love to use an IED, but that wouldn't look like the country boys popped him."

"First things first. We need to find out where they deliver the goods." Vlad suggested.

"Okay, we can't find Ivan, but can we find who takes delivery of his shit."

"Oh I'm sure we can." Ivan said, "but then what. If we torture him, he won't be able to make the pick up and we lose Ivan anyway."

"But Vlad, the boys in Harlan County don't know me." I said. "You find out who is buying the shit and where he is, and I'll work him."

"So we are definitely going to take the fight to them?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"I don't have any firearms in this country," he said seriously.

"Not to worry, we will find you something." I said it with a smile. "So, go see your Fed contact and get us a name."

"I'll meet you tomorrow with more information. At the marina again?" he asked.

"Sure why not, tell me, was it the gps in the phone that you used to find me?"

"Yes, a friend got me your number, then I used the child finder application on my smart phone."

"I was afraid of that. It is way too easy."

"Not to worry, what you do dear is get a burn phone and have your calls forwarded to it. They can trace only for the phone number they know. So he traces your phone to the office. But your call is forwarded to a phone you have at your high school sweethearts house across town."

"Hey, let me rob just one cradle and I never hear the end of it." I said. It would have been better. if I could have laughed, but I was too depressed.

After Vlad left I called Ed. "Hey Ed, did you find me a new place?" I asked when he came on the phone.

"Maxine it has been two hours since you left. I haven't even had time to look. If worse comes to worse, move back to Jen's till I can find you something. You don't have so much stuff that you can't get it into a small storage unit."

"Ed, shake the bushes please. I do not want to go back to Jen's house." I said seriously. When Ed was off the line, I realized that I missed the cat. I had filled some of my down time worrying about him. So now the down time just lay heavy on me.

It was early Saturday evening and I was bored. I almost called one of my previous lovers. I had plenty to choose from, but decided I didn't want to take a step backwards. If I took a step back I wanted it to be with Mosby. She was gone of course, so it wasn't going to happen. The thought of the Cop Out didn't excite me at all. I had been there and done that the night before.

I watched a couple of TV shows on line that I had missed. It wasn't much but it did pass a little time. I pushed the phone for Archer's office number. I didn't expect to find him in, I just wanted to get a little information. I knew Jennifer was trying to get Julie released to Hazelwood so obviously the Reverend had managed to round up the funding for it.

"Hello this is Maxine Stone and it is Saturday at 6PM more or less. Let me know if you were able to get Helen's Julie transfered to Hazelwood. I'm curious. You can call me on Monday, I'm going to be around I think." I managed to get it all in before the second beep.

"Damn, I miss that old cat," I said to the empty room. "I have got to get out of here."

I started the cruiser, then rode to the gate, but the gate's remote didn't work. The last person to use the gate had been Vlad. I was sure that he had done something, so I called his cell phone.

"Yes, Maxine," he said.

"What the hell did you do to my gate?' I almost shouted into the phone. I was about two seconds from bursting into tears.

"It won't open?" he asked.

"Of course it won't open. Why else would I call you?"

"It will take me ten minutes to get there. I think I can fix it in a couple of minutes. If not, I can open it by hand I am sure.

"It's been fifteen minutes," I said angrily when he arrived.

"Easy Maxine," he said that as he pointed something that looked like my remote opener excpet that it had several more buttons. It took him a few minutes to find the right combination of buttons to make it work again. Before I let him off the hook I tried my remote several times.

"Okay what the hell did you do?" I asked.

"I forgot to return your gate to it's original settings."

"You re-programed my gate?" I almost shouted.

"Yes and I'm sorry I didn't put it back, now calm down. It isn't the worst thing anyone ever did to you."

"No but it's scary how easy all this is for you."

"In Moscow we don't have the same rules as your police do here." He said it as if it explained everything. "Let me buy you dinner to make up for the inconvenience."

"Fucking A, it's the least you can do." I said.

I took a look around the restaurant. Then I turned to Vald and said, "I thought you were on unpaid leave?"

"I am, I have a little money, so I treat myself as well as I can." he replied.

"Graft pretty good in Moscow, is it?" I asked.

"I never took a penny from anyone to do or not do my duty." he replied with a smile. "However things get lost now and then."

"I do hope the items you found belonged to the bad guys?" It was a question and he knew it.

"To the worst of them. After my wife and daughter died, I decided they owed me." Vlad said.

"Of course they owed you. The bad guys should be the ones who pay for the cops." I said it thankful that there just wasn't much money floating around the base housing units or who knows. A retired military policeman might not be as well setup as a Moscow drug copper, but it might have been better than the small pension I got now. Would I have done it, who knows. "So I can stop worrying about the cost of this little adventure."

"I fully expect for us to find a way to make them pay. If we can't, then I will absorb the cost. However, there is always loose money, where there are drug traffickers.

"And if they were dealing in kiddie porn like they were here?" I asked.

"Then there are access codes to off shore accounts. Sometimes they need a little persuading to make me the beneficiary, but it can be accomplished."

"Did you ever turn one loose for the numbers?" I asked. "You are moving from found money to extortion. Are you positive that you weren't involved in anything that got your family killed." Yes it was cruel, but I suddenly had a feeling Vlad wasn't exactly a white knight.

"I was a very honest and as you say straight cop until that happened. After that, I decided to hurt them anyway I could. It hurts the boss, I can't reach, when I confiscate his money. The true meaning of socialism. Take from those who have more than they need, and give to those who need more than they have. But I assure you no one who I could have put in jail ever bought his freedom. Some even paid more than they would have if they went to trail."

"There are an awful lot of us who need more than we have," I suggested.

"Which is why socialism only works when we can control that numbers. Not to worry Maxine, you will never be one who can be controlled."

"Glad that you recognize it." I said.

"What I really recognize is that we need a serious drink. I do not drink and drive an automobile, so would you like to come back to my hotel room, or should we retreat to your cabin again."

"Since you treat yourself well, and I don't, lets do your hotel." I suggested.

"Good, I'm sure that the bed there is much larger than the one in your cabin," he observed.

"After the steak, we need to find a liquor store. I don't like Vodka." I admitted.

"Ah Tennessee sour mash sippin' liquor, I presume?" he asked.

"Of course, Jack Daniels Black Label, since you are buying." I waited a full minute before I went on. "I have to warn you though, I am still a bit tender from the surgery, so there definitely won't be any wild sex in your future."

"Well maybe not with you," He said with a hearty laugh. I laughed as well, though I wasn't quite sure why.

It was 9PM when we arrived at Vlad's hotel. He was staying in the nicest of the Downtown Hotels. It was the hotel that specialized in upper middle class and higher weddings, and other events. Of course,if you had limited space, they would put your brother or sister up for a few days. Should they decide to visit unannounced.

"So," Vald began, when I had my drink in hand. "How old were you the first time?"

"My first boy was when I was 15," I replied.

"No, I mean when you killed your first man," he said smiling. "I know you don't talk about those kinds of things. People just wouldn't understand, so I'm asking."

"I was twenty, he was trying to get onto our base outside San Salvador. Kid was trying to drive a car through my road block. I had nightmares for a year," I said honestly. "Fortunately there were local's shooting as well. They got the credit and the abuse, I got transfered out of the country. We were all thrilled. From that I got my first lesson about how things work. It isn't what you do that counts, it's what people think you do, for which you must account. I was not a hero, but I also didn't go to jail. It seemed like a fair exchange."

"I was fourteen, a drunken man tried to rob my mother of her pension check. I stabbed him with a sharp broom handle. I doubt anyone would have even bothered about it, if I had not stabbed him over twenty times. I was tired of being threatened, and I was tired of my mother being abused. It all ended that night.

I learned that being willing to kill, wins one as much respect as actually doing the deed. People knew that I could kill, so they found others to torment." He said smiling at me yet again.

"Sounds reasonable." I commented. "After I did it, people either wanted me around, or they ran from the room screaming, when I entered."

"Not really," he demanded.

"No, but it was strange, once it happened, I began getting assigned to places where it might happen again. It was like killing was a disease and had to be kept with those already contaminated. It didn't happen often, but they kept putting me where it was possible. When they ran out of shit holes, I did tours on stateside bases near high crime areas."

"Me it was the Russian Army. I was with the troops that invaded Afghanistan, before your country ever heard of it. I did things there no man should be expected to do. That time did something to me that never went away. It taught me something that is universal.only the loser gets judged. Never lose, and you never face judgement day."

"Were you Spetnaz?" I asked.

"No, they are the worst of the worst. I was a sniper, interrogator and reconnaissance operative. I was in the real war. They were involved in trying to break the will of the people to resist. It was truly ugly."

He paused a long time, so we both finished out drinks, then began another. His drink was almost straight vodka with just the touch of water from the melting ice. Mine was three ounces of JD and one ounce of real coca cola for the sugar.

"How many?" he asked.

"I'm not going there, I don't want to think about that." I said it shaking my head to make sure he knew that it was my final word on the subject. "Do you usually tell people that?" I asked it because I was curious. I had never told anyone.

"To be honest, Maxine, I have no idea. It was a real shooting war in Afghanistan for me. I threw a lot of shots into the side of the mountain. I have no idea, how may or if I killed anyone at all. Not knowing probably helps me sleep."

"Yeah, I fired a lot of rounds into empty windows with no idea, if I hit anything or not. I like your answer. I think from now on I will just say I don't know and leave it at that. My answer is too complicated."

"So what's the closest you ever came to being killed." he asked after several more minute of silence. I could tell he was reliving some of his moments on the edge.

"They tell me this last one was close, but I don't remember it. The one that made me think I would die any minute was the Mendez brother jamming his cock down my throat and telling me I was going to strangle on it. If Blevins hadn't showed up, I would have died there."

"He tells it a little different," Vlad said. "He says you knew that they would torture and possibly kill you, but that you did it anyway. According to him you did it just to get them all killed or jailed."

"I say tomato, he says tomato...So you gonna show me your scars?" I asked after several more sips of my drink.

"I'll show you mine only, if you show me yours," he said.

"This is just like a scene from Jaws. you go first"

"What is that a Movie?" Vlad asked.

"Oh yeah, but you got to go first. Stop stalling." I demanded again.

He removed his shirt. I saw the round scar that only a bullet creates. "He pointed to the scar an inch below his right nipple. "Shot with my own Tokamak TT-33. It was a woman, don't ask." he said laughing. "Now you."

Since I still wasn't wearing a bra, when I took my top off, both my belly scars were visible as well as my boobs. The two year old white one and the red one with the dots where the staples had been were clearly visible.

"Nasty," he commented.

"The white one is and IED. A nice little Afghan roadside souvenir. The red one was from Davenport's thug. I couldn't get the bomb builder, but by God I will get Davenport." I said it with a smile.