Owen screws his eyes closed and puts his fingers to the side of his head. “What are you doing? Oh wow, you look ridiculous!”
“I'm positive thinking that you will be quiet.”
“You can think all you want, you know that will never happen,” I say. I laugh and other customers turn and look at us.
Owen opens his eyes. “It was worth a try, I suppose.”
The waiter arrives with our pizza and places it in the middle of the table. I can smell the hot melted cheese.
Aah, I love pizza.
“Are you nervous about Sunday?” I ask.
“Nah, it's only a recon mission. As long as we keep our distance, we shouldn't attract any attention to ourselves.”
“I tell you what I do find strange,” I say as I bite into my pizza.
“What’s that?”
“Why haven’t we had any contact from the four councilors at all?” I ask.
“Now you’ve got me. I'm sure if Bob had heard anything, he would have mentioned it,” Owen says.
“And the other thing is, we’ve heard nothing more about The Kingmaker's daughter.”
“I know, I thought that. I'm going to have to call my contact and ask again. He was convinced she was here,” Owen says. His face changes as he tastes the pizza.
“There are a lot of weird things going on really, the strangest being your sister being taken from the hospital.”
Owen looks at me and makes sure no one can hear us. “I knew there was something I wanted to mention,” he says. “I told that to Ingrid, or Susan did, and you know what Ingrid’s reaction was?”
I shake my head. “I have no idea what she could have said in response. I can’t imagine what you should say to something like that.”
“She said that she believed that hospitals are no good, and that they just watch. And that my sister should be with family, and that was it.”
“She's right, but that doesn’t help at all,” I say.
“If it was closer and we had more time, I would go back to Philly and check,” Owen says. “But for now, I just have to hope she is safe, wherever she is.”
“I have a feeling she is in good hands, no one could just take her for their own reasons. I reckon it could be for her own good. Let’s hope so.”
I glance around the restaurant and see from the window a few motorcycles driving up to the window.
“I'm sure I’ve just seen Drake, and he is coming in here,” I say.
“Drake in a pizza place?” asks Owen.
“I saw some bikes pull up out front.”
We turn our heads as the door opens and the bell rings. In strides Drake and Smokey Joe enter. Drake looks toward us and nods.
“What did I tell you,” I say.
“Drake likes pizza, so what,” Owen says.
Drake walks from the counter and sits on the table next to us like he owns the place. Smokey Joe smiles with his yellow teeth bared toward us.
“Fancy meeting you two here,” Drake says.
“I was just saying the exact same thing. So, what are you doing here?” I ask.
“We’ve just got back from the club. We have another show to go to next week,” Drake explains. “What’s happening up here? And do you still need us?”
I turn on my seat to face Drake. I whisper, “I think we can cope with the councilors, and we’re doing a recon mission on Sunday to see what they do with the cash. Since we saw you last, we found out they move it on a weekend.”
“Any idea where to?”
“None at all, they cause an hour power outage, and then they move.”
Drake laughs. “And you're staking out where?” he asks, seemingly unimpressed by our plan.
“At the turnpike and the far ends of the freeway,” I say.
“I bet the cash doesn’t go within one or two miles of the precinct,” Drake says.
“What makes you say that?” asks Owen.
“They give themselves an hour. You can do a lot in an hour. But travel by road and you're visible again. Why hide just to get out of the area.”
I look at Owen who is busy chewing on a slice of pizza and shrugging his shoulders.
“Are you sure?” I ask Drake.
“It's what I would do. You load up, hit the switch, drive a short distance under the cover of darkness, and then unload. No one knows any different.”
Owen has a sip of his drink. “He is right you know, and this means we can’t sit watching the precinct,” Owen says.
“Why not, we’ll have night vision goggles,” I say.
Owen laughs. “That’s what Drake was saying. They drive somewhere in the dark. The guys are ex-military, they’ll all be wearing night vision.”
Drake leans back and claps his hands as Smokey Joe gives a big toothless grin. “I couldn’t have explained it any better.”
“The question is, does this make it better for us, or harder?” I ask.
“That all depends where they take it to,” Drake says. “What else do they own out there?”
“All of it,” Owen says.
“Needle in a fucking haystack until Sunday then.”
“We have six vehicles; do you think that’s enough?” Owen asks.
“Yeah, just pull everyone in closer, and don’t be obvious. I would get my guys to help, but we look obvious, don’t we Smokey Joe?” Drake laughs and Smokey Joe copies him.
Smokey Joe stops his laughter and opens his mouth and grins. “You won’t forget me in a hurry, will you?” he says in a deep, croaky voice.
Owen leans to Drake and whispers, “Is there any news from Mexico?”
“That’s another thing that’s strange,” Drake says. “I think someone is feeding you a lot of wrong information.”
“Why do you say that?” Owen asks.
“The Kingmaker couldn’t father children was what I heard. Low sperm count or something,” Drake replies.
“That’s charming, another freakin’ dead end,” Owen says with a huge sigh. “I had a contact, and I think he is going to come up with the same sort of information.”
Drake sits fingering his beard. “It might sound crazy, but I reckon that you’ve all been set up.”
I look up. “How and why?”
“Well, Janey, that’s only something the person who’s set you up can answer. I reckon it goes back to the very start,” Drake says.
“That is utterly ridiculous, who could control all the events that Beau and Shona have been through?” I ask. “And everyone else as well.”
“I'm only saying, but it would have to be a person who’s very smart and has enough vision to make everything seem plausible,” Drake explains.
“I don’t know anyone who has that capacity to do even half of what you're saying,” I say to Drake as he picks up his first slice of pizza from the table.
“The closest thing we got to anything like that sort of scenario was the note. Owen had a note that he has another sister,” I say. “We found that on a piece of notepaper that was taken from a desk in the club.”
“I don’t know, that’s someone who is close to you, or someone who has got a person to do it,” Drake says.
“Motive,” Owen says. “What would a motive be?”
“Sorry folks, I can’t help with that one I'm afraid.” Drake wipes tomato sauce from his beard. “One last thing though, do you need my guys for security.”
“We’re planning on opening a week from tomorrow,” I say.
“Jesus Janey, and you're doing all that on Sunday?”
“That was the plan. We have help from the Russians when it comes to the cash moving.”
“I could say I hate the Russians, but they’re straight when it comes to business. I sell them a few guns every now and again, courtesy of Ty,” he says grinning. “Who is it? Vlad or Drakmir?”
“Ingrid,” I reply.
“Ingrid; long blonde hair, not as young as she used to be but probably still extremely attractive?” Drake asks.
“Yes why? Do you know her
?” Owen asks.
“I haven’t seen her in fifteen to twenty years, that is one woman you never forget in a lifetime,” he says.
I look at Drake and just have to ask him. “You didn’t sleep with her, did you?”
“No, of course not, but that wasn’t without trying. I was unlucky, she was pregnant at the time,” he replies. “That’s not the done thing.”
“Who was she pregnant with? I’m just being curious,” Owen asks.
“I don’t know, she would never say, he was an American guy though, she always said she loved his gray eyes.”
I begin laughing with Owen. “What’s funny?” Drake asks.
“Alex, he has those kind of eyes, you know, sexy eyes. And she has a huge crush on him, now we know why.”
“That woman could get anything she wanted. If she wrote a list it would be done,” Drake adds.
“The only people who know your full story are the ones who help you write it.”
Owen
“If your plan doesn’t work, change your plan but never your goal.”
Mikey had driven the last car into the courtyard, and we stand looking at the mixed bag of vehicles that he had chosen. It wasn’t what you would expect for a stakeout, and they wouldn't be much good in a high-performance chase.
Luckily for us, we were not wanting anything high performance. And as we thought, we would only be following armored vehicles to a destination unknown. We had to just blend in, and blend in we would do.
“Less than twenty-four hours and we’ll be revving these beasts and making our way to the precinct,” Brent says.
“I have a slight update in theory I have to discuss with everyone about that,” I say.
Brent turns to me and scratches his head. “Things haven’t changed, again, have they?”
I sigh. “We’re not sure, it's a theory. We just happened to bump into Drake last night, and he sort of turned everything upside down.”
“Just when we thought we were sorted, it all goes belly up” Brent says.
“No, it's not bad, just different.”
Brent leans on the hood of a beige colored sedan and folds his arms. “Explain.”
“Well, we’ve been preparing to follow these trucks wherever, so much so, that our stakeout positions were all geared around this,” I begin to explain. Bell walks up and leans on the hood of the car next to Brent. She folds her arms and listens with concentration.
“Drake reckons, if they have a power outage in the area for an hour only, they’re not leaving the area. They’re only moving the cash to another location under the cover of darkness,” I explain.
“If you want to know something sneaky, Drake is one of the best to come up with sneaky ideas,” Bell says grinning.
Ty walks out from the club and joins in with the conversation. “What’s going on here?” he asks.
“New theory,” I reply.
“How does this affect the plan?” Ty asks, looking slightly confused.
“We now think we’re not going out of the area, and that the cash is only being moved locally,” Brent says.
“We have to pull the vehicles in closer and we’ll need night vision for everyone then,” Ty says.
“It looks that way,” I reply.
Ty smiles. “Luckily, I got six pairs of goggles, only on loan though.”
“So, the plan is basically the same, we’re just not stationed so far away, and we can’t stakeout the precinct as we wanted,” I say.
“Yes, we can,” Bell says.
“How? I mean, all the guards there will be wearing night vision for when the power goes out, so they’ll easily spot us sitting in a vehicle watching,” I say.
“Who says anything about sitting in a vehicle?” Bell replies. “You men are hilarious, sometimes!”
I shrug my shoulders and shove my hands into my sweatshirt pockets. “You’ve lost me.”
“You went into the store to buy soda. You told the shopkeeper you were checking on the power outages, so just wait in the warehouse and watch,” Bell says.
“Now you can see why I love her so much,” Brent says as he puts his arm around Bell’s shoulder and gives her a big hug.
“It can work, I can even park the work truck outside. It's only when the power goes off that we’ll have to be careful,” I say.
“Workmen will have backup lights, just have a generator, we can have a light so as the trucks pass, we can see where they’re heading and inform the others,” Ty says.
I nod my head. “That makes a lot of sense.”
“That’s it then. All sorted. We just have to look at a map and pick the best locations where to sit and wait. Hopefully, if they do go to the highway, we can follow using the goggles until we reach a zone with street lights,” Brent says.
“Bell, can you tell all the others about the revised plan, especially the girls, we don’t want any confusion setting in,” I say.
“No problem, I was just heading in to see Janey, anyway.” Bell waves a goodbye and heads toward the rear door of the club.
“Did you sort the guns?” I ask.
“Yeah. Only pistols though, if worst comes to worst, we don’t want anyone caught with semi-automatics, that will be instant prison,” Ty says.
Brent taps on the hood of the car. “I know this is just a dry run, but there is one thing we haven’t considered yet.”
Ty turns to him and shakes his head. “We’re listening.”
“How do we get the cash?” Brent asks.
I look at him. “Ha! You're right, we haven’t thought of that. We’ve been more pre-occupied of where they’re going with it.”
“Yeah, do we grab it on Sunday, or what?” Brent says.
“I have the feeling, this part of the plan will change, so let’s just see what happens this weekend first. We might find out we can do nothing at all,” Ty says.
“No, not true. Janey was teaching me this positive thinking thing. It will be done, it has to be. Visualize us having the cash, and it will happen.”
“Have you smacked your head or something?” Ty asks.
“Why?’
“Positive thinking. You believe in all that bullshit?” Ty asks.
“It works, I wanted a pizza place last night, and so I visualized it. Guess what, we walked around the corner and there was a pizza place. It’s magic,” I say smiling.
Ty shakes his head and grins at Brent. “And you're on the same team as us? Fuck,” Ty says.
“Trust me, it works.”
“If you believe it, feel free. I'm more of the ‘make my own destiny’ sort of guy,” Ty says.
“We had heard,” I say giggling.
Brent looks at me. “Did you and Janey manifest our bedroom a few nights ago?”
I bow my head. “Um, no. But…”
“Never mind,” Brent says, rolling his eyes.
“What else did Drake have to say? I mean, he never only has one piece of information,” asks Ty.
I huff and shrug my shoulders. “He actually turned another theory right on its head,” I say.
“Now what?” Brent asks, becoming annoyed by all the talk without any action.
“The Kingmaker’s beloved daughter. Drake has been informed it's not possible.”
“Why not? I thought she was here. Although, we have no more signs of her,” Brent adds.
“Apparently, The Kingmaker was unable to father children,” I say.
“You mean he was firing blanks?” Ty asks.
“Yeah, sterile or low sperm count. Something like that.”
“I bet that’s why he went into all of this cloning thing, he must have known he was this way, and it pissed him off or something,” Ty says.
“He must have taken it badly to go to the extremes he did,” I say.
“Some people just get a hold of something and it drives them insane,” Brent says. “I'm glad I'm fully loaded.”
“Brent, a little too much information about the condition of your loins,” Ty says laughing.
<
br /> “I was only meaning I was in full working order.” He shrugs his shoulders.
“Yeah, he is,” I add.
“Stop it, you're talking about your private parts. I don’t want to hear it,” Ty says shoving his hands over his ears.
Brent follows Ty toward the club. “You're okay down there though, you have no complaints? Ty, Ty answer me, will you? Damn it.”
I shake my head and walk into Bob’s office. “What was all that in aid of?” Bob asks as he looks up from his screen.
“Brent was asking Ty about the condition of his virility.”
Bob screws his face up. “How gross. How did that topic arise? It's not a typical conversation between guys.”
“Don’t really want to explain it. We’ve found out The Kingmaker couldn't father children, so it seems the chance of him having a daughter was all wrong,” I say.
“Aah, I'm lucky I didn’t go too far down the route of having her show up here, only to find out that it's impossible for her to exist,” Bob says.
“Bob, that’s a riddle if I ever heard one,” I reply.
Bob pushes his spectacles up his nose and faces back to his computer. “I just mean, I could have wasted a lot more time on her, researching and all that bs,” he says.
“I suppose you're right. In a way though, I was sort of disappointed, but it's just another dead end.”
“Not to worry, I think the new ending will more than makeup for it,” Bob says.
“Geez Bob, you sound like a damned scriptwriter who has been told to do a rewrite,” I say laughing.
Bob glances at me from the corner of his eye. “I should be so lucky, the amount of work I have from you all, when would I get the time?
“Maybe you can do it when it's all finally over, I'm sure you can make a decent story out of everything that has happened,” I say.
“Just listen to yourself, do you think anyone would read about what you guys have been up to?” Bob says as he shakes his head.
“I guess not,” I say as I stand and look at the map on the board.
“Now what are you looking at?” Bob asks.
I turn to face him as he turns off his computer screen. “We need new stakeout positions. We think the cash is only moved to a new location in the area.”
Bob stands and looks at the board with me. “No ideas where they might take it?” he asks.
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