Chapter 33

Stretch was a bit nervous when Alexei Mikhailov requested a sit-down. Stretch wanted it in public, so Alexei agreed to meet him at a small strip mall diner in Tulsa called Trencher’s Deli. He’d been in and tried their hot pastrami, and though it wasn’t up to Philly standards, it was one of the better sandwiches in Tulsa.

Alexei wanted to meet for a late breakfast, something Stretch hadn’t experienced. If the smell of freshly baked bread wasn’t reason enough, the plan to grab an assortment of freshly baked cookies to take home on his way out made the choice obvious.

When Stretch arrived, Alexei and his security, Lev, had already taken a table, which made his day because there always seemed to be a line to order.

“I got you a coffee and their Huevos sandwich. The girl at the counter said it was the best choice for this time of day,” Alexei said as Stretch sat down.

He tasted the coffee, and it wasn’t bad. He might have to put this place on his breakfast rotation if the egg sandwich was this good.

They made small talk until their order was called; Lev went to get it. While he was gone, Alexei gave Stretch a stern look and said, “That son of yours is a conundrum. At times, I want to take him out to a deserted road and end him, and at other times, I want to kiss him.”

Stretch chuckled.

“You should have to live with him.”

“I have two daughters. Believe me, I would trade for Alex any day.”

Lev came back and handed out the sandwiches. Stretch gave his a quick look and saw they’d put scrambled eggs on a homemade bagel and topped with bacon, cheese, and avocado. He guessed that putting avocado on it made it Mexican enough that they could name it Huevos. He took a bite, and it became certain that he would return for breakfast.

“What did he do this time?” Stretch asked.

“Besides pointing me in the direction of where the ex-sheriff stashed his stuff—which the boys back east appreciated—he got five of my men killed.”

Stretch had been drinking his coffee when he heard the last part and choked when it went down the wrong pipe. That triggered a coughing fit, and it took him a moment to respond.

“Five?!”

“If they hadn’t been working for one of my ex-bosses, without my knowledge, I would have had to put him down,” Alexei said.

Stretch could see he was dead serious.

“Does this have anything to do with the human trafficking bust the FBI made?” Stretch asked.

Alexei nodded.

“That puts a different spin on things. Alex wouldn’t stand by and let that go on in his backyard,” Stretch said.

“For a kid with no crew, he can cause some chaos.”

“That he can,” Stretch admitted, then asked, “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Alex was a standup guy and came to me before he made his move. I’ll give him props for that.”

“But?” Stretch asked.

“I want him to keep me in the loop about everything he’s up to, and I want veto power if he crosses a line.”

“What does Alex get out of this?”

Alexei smiled for the first time.

“This is why I like you and Alex. You’re always thinking ahead and looking out for yourselves. You wouldn’t believe how much he fleeced me to stop a hacker from taking down my company’s servers.”

“I hadn’t heard about that,” Stretch admitted.

“It’s unimportant because he knew I had to pay him, and at the time, I was happy to.”

“This sounds like one step closer to Alex working for you. I’m not sure he would be on board with the veto stipulation.”

“I can see that. But what I want is for Alex to keep me in the loop. I may be retired, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work together to make some income on the side,” Alexei said.

“You realize he will never help you do anything in Conclave, don’t you?”

“I know that, but if he’d come to me with the semi score to begin with...”

“That was my job, not Alex’s.”

“Then I want the same from you. If you’re planning a job, I want the first crack at it.”

“I’m planning a jewelry heist for Steve, but Alex plans to use it to draw him out and take Steve and his crew off the board. I’m not sure you would want that heist,” Stretch said.

“I would bet Alex gets the best of you on that one.”

“You may be right. I do have a couple of others that Alex planned involving local casinos that could be used nationwide. But those will cost you.”

Alexei shook his head in defeat.

“You guarantee they’ll work?”

“I would never do that because if you get greedy, you’ll get caught. You know as well as I do that someone always gets greedy.”

“True.”

“But it could be a consistent money-maker if done right,” Stretch said.

“Okay. Work out the details and hit me with a big number. I’ll sell it to my friends back east.”

“And you’ll leave Alex alone?”

“I’ll protect him and you from the ex-sheriff and your old crew,” Alexei promised.

“Deal,” Stretch said and reached out and shook the Russian’s hand.

He didn’t plan to start working for the Russians on an ongoing basis, but he wasn’t beyond selling them a job now and then. The problem was that it was one of their jobs that started all this when Viktor, Alexei’s nephew, was killed when he got greedy and the police shot him.

He needed to talk to Alex because his son had left out critical pieces of the casino-job plans. He was sure that was why Steve’s guy had been caught.

Alexei and Lev took their leave while Stretch got back in line. He wasn’t leaving without at least a bag of white chocolate toffee and thin, crisp oatmeal cookies to take home. He went ahead and bought another bagful for Alex, who was a cookie connoisseur. It might be enough to convince him to share the flaws in his plans.

It had been a busy couple of weeks for Janice. The FBI had taken over the investigation because two of the girls were from out of state. Local communities were rocked when it was discovered that a math teacher and his wife in Tulsa had taken two of the girls; an insurance salesman in Oklahoma City had taken several; a car mechanic in Watonga had taken one; and a mother of three in Stillwater had taken one. All were arrested, making headlines in the local papers.

The mother in Stillwater told the FBI she’d made contact with the traffickers via the dark web. Janice had Lyric explain to her that the dark web was part of the Internet that wasn’t observable to search engines and could only be accessed using an anonymizing browser called Tor.

Alex gave Lyric some ideas about how to track down the traffickers, and she used her AI coder to write an app to trace their movements. It determined most of the girls were headed to the Far East, while some were destined for locations in the States. The person on the other end discovered they’d been hacked and closed the security hole in their system. But before they did, Lyric managed to gather enough information that the FBI was able to uncover two more locations where more girls and a few boys were being held.

Janice assumed that the people held would all be sent into some sort of sex trade. But the FBI told her that some might be used as forced labor in jobs ranging from agriculture to sweatshops to even mundane places like restaurants and hotels.

Something else that surprised her was that many of the victims were too afraid to seek help when they had the chance.