Chapter 5

-Brian-

It had taken awhile to get Allison calmed down and it wasn't easy, let me tell ya. Christ, the poor girl was completely overwhelmed and totally shell-shocked. If I'd had my med-kit with me I'd of tranked her (For those of you not lucky enough to have needed the services of a field medic it means I'd slip her an shot of Don't-give-a-shit juice and tranquilize her.) but I didn't and as my daddy always said, "Wish in one hand, and shit in the other and guess which one fills up first."

"Allison," I said gently shaking her head until she stopped blubbering and looked up at me. She was sitting in my lap which I would normally consider a very good thing but I've seen less pain in the eyes of a fellow soldier who'd just had his legs blown off. I'd thought I'd become immune to that look years ago but when it came from her baby-blues I swear I felt it just as deeply. There were some differences though: Allison didn't have the history or experience to handle this type of stress and was basically freezing up on me. I, on the other hand, being the calm, collected and rational person I am, wanted to start killing: early and often.

"Allison," I said again softly. "Baby, you've got to stay with me here and pay attention. We got a lot of planning to do and not much time to do it."

"God damn-it," she sniffed and caressed my cheek. "It's just not fucking fair. I finally find a guy I want to be with and this happens. What do you think we could do? I have to go back for her!" Suddenly she sat up straight. "Maybe ... No I couldn't ask that..."

"What baby?"

"But you hardly know us," she sighed and shook her head. "I was going to ask if maybe you could find a way to keep Jeremy safe. At least then those bastards wouldn't have him. But I can't ask you that."

"You could but you don't have to," I answered, "because I already plan to keep the squirt safe. The only difference is you're going to be right there with him."

"But I can't leave Stasi..."

"We're not leaving your sister anywhere," I interrupted firmly. "I'm going to stash you two somewhere safe and then go get her. None of you will be too broken-hearted leaving Tucson, will you?"

"And go where?" she asked puzzled.

"I was hoping Tampa."

"Really?" She looked at me questioningly. "Why?"

"Well, I was thinking it would be a lot easier to get a date if you were a little bit closer to where I lived," I chuckled. "After all, it is every man's dream to date a beautiful stripper, isn't it?"

"I think you already got what most men fantasize about," she sniffed but showed me a tiny smile at her tease.

"Oh, Allison," I sighed and leaned my forehead against hers. "I want so much more than your beautiful body. Can't you tell? I'm madly, desperately and completely in love with you. You and that wretched little urchin or yours have captured my heart totally and I have no idea what to do about it."

"Good," she said tilting my head back so she could look into my eyes. "Because I feel exactly the same way." Then her lips met mine and the rescue planning was put on hold for a little while longer.

I hadn't said anything to the guys about this. Shit, it wasn't their fight and I didn't want them to get involved if they didn't have to. Hopefully, this was going to be a simple snatch-and-grab but I felt kind of funny asking my teammates to put their asses on the line for someone they didn't even know.

Originally I'd planned to stash the both of them in my apartment but thought better of that while we sat in the Tube heading towards Tampa. If something did go wrong I didn't want them to be stuck in a strange place with nobody around they knew. Of course I immediately thought of the captain and wondered if he could put them up for a night or two on his boat. With the increased security we'd pretty much forced him to take on and with Mike hovering around him the way she was they'd probably be safer there than just about anywhere else. He was scheduled to be back a few hours ahead of me so I figured we'd grab my car at the Tube station and track him down.

At least the first part of my plan seemed to have worked. Allison's sister and bosses were expecting her back that evening which of course wasn't going to happen. Allison tried to call her sister but wasn't getting an answer; it looked like Anastasia's pers-com had been turned off. Instead she called her boss and told him Jeremy had slipped debarking the plane and had broken both an arm and a leg. Nothing really serious but that type of injury would require him to be in the hospital under sedation for the fast-healing so it seemed like a good excuse. Her boss wasn't happy but he bought it which was all that mattered for the next day or two. The fucker's happiness wasn't a requirement; we just wanted to have him think this was a slight delay so he wouldn't put any pressure on Anastasia. Actually we didn't want him putting pressure on Allison by using Anastasia but you know what I mean. Besides if things went well I'd have Anastasia out of there and back with her sister by the day after next. If things went great then she'd be back with Allison and he'd be dead but I didn't tell Allison that part.

He by the way was Anton Malenkov, oldest of the three Malenkov brothers, Iosif and Pyotr being the younger two scumbags. As she told it, they were the last in the line of the Malenkovs who had originally immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1900s after the fall of the first Soviet Union and set up shop with what was called at that time the Russian Mafia. They thought of themselves as the natural heirs of the original Sicilian Mafia and even called themselves "The Family." No doubt they were nasty customers but competition in the crime industry back then was pretty fierce. The Ivans thought they were pretty bad shit: mean, nasty and sadistic as hell but their major competition — the South and Central American drug gangs — were all that in addition to being totally bug-nuts fucking crazy. It's tough to win a war against an enemy that doesn't give a fuck how many of their solders you kill and can afford to trade you ten for one without blinking; the slums around Mexico City probably produced enough cannon-fodder alone to overwhelm the Ruskies.

So even by the time of the war the Russians were little more than third-rate thugs living on the scraps the drug gangs didn't want to bother with, like running strip joints and pimping whores. All of which goes to show you just how stupid these assholes were. Why the hell would they put their dicks on the table trying to force the Benson sisters into prostitution when they could have had thousands of willing girls from south of the border more than eager to spend a little time on their backs for some good ol' Yankee cash? I suppose they couldn't be blamed for not having a contingency in their business plan for some old, broken-down war vet falling in love with one of their intended cash cows. It wouldn't be fair if I faulted them but that didn't stop me; I have a feeling my definition of fair probably wasn't the same as the one found in their dictionary, anyway. My definition of fair is pretty simple: If I'm still alive after someone fucks with me then whatever happened was fair. The definition has now broadened slightly to include fucking with Allison (not me by the way; I fully intended to keep fucking with her as much as she let me) and Jeremy.

Allison was a nervous wreck for most of the trip and not happy that I wouldn't tell her about my plans once I got to Tucson. I didn't want her to get even more nervous and besides I didn't really have much of a plan. Sure she'd given me the general layout of the club and the kind of muscle they usually had in place, all of which didn't give me much of a warm fuzzy feeling, but it's not like she'd ever studied the place with a view to breaking someone out of it. I was going to have to play it by ear which from my experience was only slightly worse than having no plan at all. In most operations the key to success is flexibility and I've had enough practice being flexible I think I'm now flexible enough to bend over and kiss my own ass goodbye.

Anyway it wasn't long before we pulled into the Tampa Tube station and were in my car heading over to the captain's marina. She had another little shit-fit when I told her where I was hoping to stash her and the kid and an even bigger one when I told her why.

"You can't do this!" she practically screamed. "It's too dangerous!"

"Cool your jets, baby," I answered calmly. "I'm not planning to take any chances if I can help it but I need to think about the possibility of something going wrong. Lady Luck can be a bitch sometimes and what would happen to you if the shit hit the fan at just the wrong time? Besides, if your sister looks anything like you then my heart may stop from the overload and then where would we be?"

"Stop it!" she groused smacking me on the arm. "This is serious; I can't ask you to do this knowing there's a chance you could get hurt."

"Can't be helped," I shrugged then continued before she could start arguing again. "The fact is you can't stop me. Now before you start spouting bullshit about going back before I can do this I have to tell you it won't do any good. It'd just mean I'd have to worry about pulling three of you out of there instead of just one and that would be a whole lot more dangerous."

"I still don't like it," she sniffed softly as she laid her head on my shoulder.

"I ain't at all happy that it has to be done either," I assured her. "But these dumbshits ain't leaving us any choice, so whining about it ain't going to do any good. Let's just get it over with and we'll figure out the rest when your sister is safe."

"You really are my hero," she sniffed again.

"Yeah? A hero, huh?" I chuckled. "Well then I'll be expecting a real hero's welcome when I get back."

"You just want me for my tits," she smiled weakly and smacked me lightly on the chest.

"Actually I hadn't got up that far yet," I whispered into her hair. Jeremy was in the back seat and I have to admit I was just a little bit uncomfortable talking about having sex with his mother where he could hear me.

"You're terrible," she giggled. It was nice to hear that again. I don't think she'd smiled or laughed since she'd heard from her sister and it was sweet music to my ears. "But I think something could be arranged."

I'm on the visitors list so we were waved through the marina security after they'd checked my ID and a couple of seconds later I was parking next to where the Katherine was berthed. The Cap was standing on the after-deck with Mike, both of them looking at us rather curiously.

"Hey there, Cap," I called out. "This is my friend Allison Benson and her son, Jeremy. They have a little problem and I need to go out to Tucson for a few days to fix it."

"Nice to meet you Allison; you too Jeremy, now tell me about it," was all he said and pointed to a couple of deck chairs. It didn't take long between the two of us even with Allison breaking down every now and then.

"You need backup," he announced flatly. Nothing else, just that. No second guessing, no trying to talk me out of it, just that. He'd heard the situation and knew it was the righteous thing to do so he immediately shifted into operational mode.

I tried to say I didn't want anyone else getting his ass stuck out for something that was entirely my doing but that didn't fly very far. He even tried to wiggle his way into coming but Mike shut that down even quicker. Now I've seen Mike badger and bully the Captain for more years than I can count but I'd never seen her be this forceful before.

"Boss," she hissed, "if I have to break an arm and a leg or two to keep you here then I'm going to do it. You keep your dumbass here so I don't have to worry about you. Besides you need to keep an eye on little-dick's girlfriend and the kid. If you go then I'll have to go anyway. This way I'll know you're safe back here."

"Yeah, but I won't know you guys are safe out there," he protested.

"You're sweet! Now shut up," she said patting his cheek. "You heard him. Allison and the kid need a place to hide for a few days. Think you can do that without fucking it up too badly?"

"You're a pain in the ass. You know that?"

"You're just now figuring that out? Not too bright, are you?" she smirked. That pretty much ended what little discussion about the matter there was.

Turns out Top wasn't available but Weird was. He said it sounded like fun; well he is weird, and was heading right over with his kit. The next Tube leaving with the right connections wasn't leaving for a few hours so when Weird arrived we huddled up with Allison and she told them pretty much everything she'd already told me.

"How long have they been doing this?" Mike asked. "Forcing girls into going pro, I mean."

"Never that I know of," Allison answered sounding flustered. "Yeah, there were a number of the girls who did it but it was never forced that I knew of. There're some rooms in the back where they can take their clients for a private dance, if you know what I mean. I'm sure Anton got a cut of what they made but that's all that I knew about."

"Must be something new they're trying to get into," the captain mused. "Doesn't make any sense to me but then a lot of what these types get into doesn't make any sense to me."

"Yeah, why force them?" Mike asked. "Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. Hey boss, maybe I should have turned pro. Been a hell of a lot easier and more fun than what we'd been doing for the last eighteen years."

Okay, okay; yes I should have kept my mouth shut but with a straight line like that could you have resisted? I couldn't.

"It'd ever work, Mike," I said shaking my head.

"What are you saying, needle-dick?" she asked sweetly looking at me dangerously. Normally when Mike starts the sweet talk and the look it's time for most prudent men to cross their legs and start shuffling backwards but seeing how she'd have to go over Weird and the captain to get at me I felt a little safer. "Are you inferring that nobody would pay for a chance to have a go at this lush body of mine?"

"Oh, that's not the problem," I said waving it off. "There will always be enough of the right kind of guys around: really desperate, with some pocket change. Naw, the problem is if you went pro then you'd have to let them call the shots and stop when they wanted to and not when you wanted to. You couldn't keep them going just because you weren't ready to quit."

"Hmm, there is that," she grumbled, her eyes were still narrowed to slits. "I see your point but I'm still not happy about that 'desperate' and 'pocket change' crack. You'd better watch yourself, dick-head, or your girlfriend is going to be even more disappointed in your love life than I'm sure she already is." Allison was sitting next to me and I felt her start to bristle at Mike's not-so-veiled threats.

"It's okay, baby," I grinned and patted her knee. "We're just tossing crap back and forth. It doesn't mean anything."

"But Brian, you're wonderful in bed!" she exclaimed.

"You see, Michelle? I'm wonderful," I smirked.

"How did you find such an inexperienced virgin with a kid, dick-head?" Mike grinned back at me. "Did you get her so drunk she passed out so you could tell her how good you'd been?"

"I prefer love and romance," I said lifting Allison's fingers to my lips to give them a kiss. "Unlike some people who seem to have to use intoxicants to lure their unsuspecting prey into their parlor."

"Are you saying I have to get men drunk before they'll go to bed with me?" the eyes narrowed again.

"Well I wouldn't go so far as to say have to," I shrugged casually. "But I'm sure it helps deaden the pain somewhat."

"Oh, Brian, I am so going to get you for that," Mike chuckled. Fuck! She called me Brian. That was never a good sign.

"Behave, children," the captain admonished. "We have planning to do."

My initial thought was to do it the easy way. Wait until Anastasia returned home after her shift and take her away from there: quick and easy. Even if the dumb-fuck brothers had sent someone or some ones to watch her I couldn't imagine it would be too difficult to distract them for the time it took us to get the hell out of town. Worst case (best case) they could spend the time searching for the 5mm bullet I could hide somewhere in their brainpan. I figured that should keep the nosey bastards occupied for a while anyway.

Unfortunately Allison called a couple of their neighbors she was friendly with and they told her they hadn't seen Anastasia for the past couple of days. You didn't need Weird's brainpower to figure out they were keeping her somewhere "safe" until they could get their hands on Jeremy and have leverage on both the sisters. So much for quick and easy.

Plan B was for me to go into the club during Anastasia's shift and see if I could contact her. If she wasn't there during working hours then we move on to Plan C; we start grabbing people and start asking them questions. I was pretty confident that between my motivation, Weird's complete indifference to anything except results and Mike's surly attitude towards anybody that pisses off the captain (Captain Mayhem was a bit peeved about the Malenkov brothers recruiting techniques), answers to our simple little questions would be readily forthcoming.

So with enough cash to buy half of Tucson and enough ordinance to level the other half, the Three Mouseketeers (Yes, I watched that stupid show when I was a kid! Can you believe it's almost a hundred years old and still going strong on the Unidiz vid-channel?) boarded the Tube and set off to rescue the damsel in distress.

Given our KISS plan (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) there wasn't much to rehash on the trip out to Tucson. For the most part I was going to walk into the club during what should be Anastasia's shift — 2200 to 0200 — and recon the layout. If I could find her, then I'd try to make contact. If she wasn't there then I'd look for likely candidates for a little heart-to-heart talk. Mike and Weird would stay outside listening in over our net in case things got furry. We pulled into Tucson around 1400 and had a little time to kill so after renting a car we got a cheap room near the club to either get some sleep or at least to get out of the heat. Of course Cap and the rest of the team knew we'd made it but I called Allison anyway just to let her know we were there.

We'd decided I should start my recon at about 2300 so we had a little time to kill. Weird was screwing with some equipment he'd brought along and I was sacked out on one of the beds trying to get a little shut-eye. Something must have wound up Mike because for some reason she just wouldn't shut up.

"So how you going to know this bimbo?" she asked.

"Like Allison said, she looks like her," I answered without opening my eyes. "How tough can that be? If I can't eyeball her I'll just ask."

"God-damn! A man asking for directions? What the fuck's the world coming to?" she gasped. Weird snickered.

"Working four hours a night for what did she say? Four nights a week?" she continued. "Sweet deal. Maybe I should take up stripping instead of hooking."