Chapter 186: The plan and how to use it

The door barely closed before the Admiral flopped out a satellite map of the small town where I lived. I was impressed with his preparations. "Before we get into this tell me where you are going to start."

"I'm going to start with the assumption that this asshole is at least as smart as me. Maybe more, since he is a Harvard Grad." I said it with a smile.

"Good, few people ever died over estimating their enemy," The admiral said. During the exchange I poured coffee for us both. The coffee was just as good as Helen's, since I taught her how to make it. "Good coffee," he added after he finished his thought.

"So what is your first move?" he asked.

"Intel, all I can get. And of course an ambush," I said.

"Of course, the only thing open to you at the moment." he said stating the obvious.

"So you are going to move from here and leave it as the bait?" he asked.

"Yes, and I'm going to work with the following assumptions. If they come here again, it will be a car bomb parked in the alley. Also it won't be a suicide bomber, the driver will want to get away." I said.

"Yes drug dealers don't have ideals for which they are willing to commit suicide," he agreed. "What else?"

"If he goes with the car bomb, it will be some low level thug from here. He has to have limited assets from home?"

"Maybe a dozen men," the Admiral said.

"That's my guess to," I said.

"It's a little more than a guess for me, but do go on," he said.

"If he goes for a face to face kill, it would most likely be on of his own men," I said.

"Yes, I doubt he would trust anyone local to do that kind of work again. It would be too risky, if they got picked up. His people have family who can be used as a threat, to keep them from talking to the police." he said. "The one the police have is going to talk eventually. They must have been in a panic or still thought that you were just amateur blackmailers. Possibly their intel isn't very good."

"To them I am a female TV actress how hard could it be to hit me?" I asked. "But we aren't the police. If we grab the assassin clean, he will fucking talk."

"Enhanced interrogations?" he asked.

"What would you do to save your friend's life and your own?" I asked. He just nodded.

"So what you need right now is a shadow team, and an ambush team." the Admiral said. "Half of my force should do it, three for the ambush and two for the shadowing."

"That is only until we get the intelligence we need to move on this bunch," I said.

"What did you have in mind?" The admiral asked.

"Why a little insurgency of course," I said.

"Ah a real war on drugs as it were," he said. "We might teach the DEA a few things."

He dropped a folder on my metal, work bench/dining table as he stood to leave. "Burn after reading, and I mean that Maxine." Then he looked around and said, "I like what you have done here, very industrial looking." Then he was out the door without any further comments.

He and I both knew the longer he and his team stayed the greater the danger to us both. I did like the gruff old man though. He reminded me of the gunny with a better vocabulary.

I went back to trying to decide how to make my new office building secure. There is no such thing as totally secure, but at least secure from gun thugs. I knew the first thing I needed to do was to control access, just as I had at the apartment. In the case of the office I wanted to try to minimize the damage, if someone tried to drive a car bomb through my front door. IEDs scared the pure hell out of me.

I still hadn't decided when five of the people in black utilities came through the door. "Ms. Stone, the Admiral said we were to stay and help you for a few days." The older looking of the five said to me.

"Work it out among yourselves who is going to man the ambush, and who is going to follow me around. Tomorrow morning it is business as usual for me. What about food, any special diets or anything.

"Ma'am you don't have to bother, we can pick up something." one of them said.

"No son," I said to the younger man. "The ambush team is inside or within sight of this compound from now on. If our chink friend decides to keep this place under surveillance I don't want him seeing people come and go. It would kind of defeat the purpose of an ambush."

"Yes Ma'am, I do see what you mean. The shadow team goes where I go and when I go. Otherwise you are locked down as well. When you decide who is going to do what, come back and let me know. By the way, trust me the best stakeout food in the world is served here." I smiled as they wandered off to Lois's apartment to change and decide who would be doing what.

"We need a mason," I said to Lucas.

"You mean like the brick layers, not the lodge members?" he asked.

"If our mason is a mason, I could care less. I just need someone who has a big enough crew to work fast." I said.

"Ed knows everybody in town," Lucas said.

"That's even better. See if Ed will make the call. Ed can tell him that his nephew will meet him at the office to explain what he needs done. Tell Ed to make sure the guy can put a full crew on it tomorrow."

While I waited to hear from Lucas that a crew would be ready to work the next day, I began to design a wall to go around the office. It was my plan to turn the parking area into a grassy courtyard. Grass makes lousy shrapnel.

"Ed said he knew just the man. Ed's words were, 'Hell of a mason, can't hold his liquor, and can't fight worth a crap, '" Lucas said with a laugh.

"What time are you going to meet him?" I asked.

"Ed called back after he talked to the Great mason/lousy drunk. Ed said to be at the office at 7 AM sharp." Lucas said.

"Then that's your assignment for tomorrow. Now remember you have to work out of that office too, so don't let them fuck up this wall." I waited until Lucas nodded before I went on. "I'm going to call an out of work dump truck driver, I met at Cowboys. I'm going to see if he is still out of work." Actually I called Joyce.