Chapter 7

Ed and I went out to the truck and headed into town. I reset the warning system when I was clear of it.

“Where are we going in such a hurry?” Ed asked.

“To the gun shop to pick up some new guns.”

“You don’t have enough guns?” Ed asked. “You have to buy more!”

“Yes, these are for the bedroom, matched his and hers. They’ll look just right on either side of the bed,” I told him.

“You two are just strange,” Ed said as he rolled his eyes.

Gary was still open when we got there. He must have seen us pull into the parking lot, as he had the two doubles open on the counter when we came in.

“Hi, Gary,” I said as we came through the door.

“I thought you would be down here panting for these before now. George got them finished just before he went home. The polishing really makes them look good and the actions are smooth as silk now,” he said.

“Oh, Gary. This is my friend Ed. He’s a retired green beanie,” I told him.

“Hi, Ed. We won’t hold that against you. At least you were airborne qualified,” Gary said.

“Gary was in the 82nd. He had to do a lot of support for you guys,” I told Ed.

“Not so much for me,” Ed replied, “I spent a lot of my time at Fort Sam.”

“You were a medic?” Gary asked.

“Yep, twenty five years. May I try one of those?” Ed asked pointing at the shotguns.

“Sure,” Gary replied. Ed picked up one of the doubles, closed the action and brought it to his shoulder. He looked down the twin barrels for a few seconds, then brought it down and opened the action before replacing it on the counter.

“Very nice,” Ed said thoughtfully. “Very nice indeed.” I could almost see what he was thinking.

“Gary, do you have any buckshot loads for the twenty,” I asked.

“Yes, I got three boxes in yesterday. I knew you would be wanting some,” he said.

“Give me another box of twenties also. It doesn’t matter what kind. They’re for training and will be used on paper targets. There’s no need to waste good buckshot on training,” I said. Gary got the boxes of shells and put them on the counter.

“What’s the total?” I asked. He told me and I counted out the money from my wallet and gave it to him.

“Keep the change,” I said. “Give it to George as a tip for doing such a fine job.”

“I’m sure George will appreciate it,” Gary told us.

“Say, Gary,” Ed piped up, “you wouldn’t happen to have another one of those twelve gauges, would you?”

“Actually, I got another one in this morning. I haven’t even had a chance to get it on display yet,” Gary said.

“I’ll take it,” Ed told him. “Can I get the action polished the same as Bill’s are?”

“Sure,” Gary answered, “that won’t be a problem. It’ll take a couple of days. George is a little busy.”

“That’s fine. I’ll pay for it now and pick it up in a few days. I’m spending a lot of time lately at Bill’s place. I’ll need a couple of boxes of buckshot to go with it.”

“Sure,” Gary told him and then gave him the price. “I’ll throw in the two boxes of shells for free because you’re a friend of Bill’s.” Ed counted out the money and got a receipt. He helped me carry the guns out to the truck. We made a quick stop at the the pharmacy section of the big box store so I could pick up a container of lube. Ed only grinned a little when he saw what I was buying.

“You want me to make you a rack for your new gun?” I asked on the way home.

“No, I’ll build one. It will match my night stand, and it’ll be veneered with inlays and have a fine finish,” Ed said, obviously already planning the piece in his mind.

“That will take a while,” I said, “and from what I saw of your furniture - quite a while.”

“That’s OK. I’ll sleep with it under my pillow till the stand is finished.”

“OK,” I answered, with a grin.

“There,” Ed said suddenly, in exasperation on seeing my grin, “see, you’re making me as paranoid as you are. I thought I got over all of that when I retired from the Army, but being around you is bringing it all back again.”

“It’s OK, Ed,” I told him, “being prepared is a survival trait.”

“It is around you,” he said with a grin and a chuckle.

We were back to the house in no time and brought the guns into the kitchen to show Ashley. She had dinner on the table and wasn’t ready to look at shotguns.

“Eat first, toys later,” she told us in a no nonsense voice. We put the guns in the den. I reset the security system and we went to wash up for dinner. It was fabulous. Ashley really is a very good cook.

“You know, I could get used to this,” Ed said, as we ate. “If you aren’t careful, I’ll have to find a woman to cook for me, too. At my age, looks aren’t too important, cooking would be though.”

“Are you serious about looking for a wife?” Ashley asked Ed, just out of the blue.

“Well, I haven’t made up my mind yet. Maybe, if I could find a girl like you - just a little older. I might seriously consider it,” Ed told her in all seriousness. Ashley just smiled at that.

By the time we finished dinner, it was too late and too dark to go out and let Ashley practice with the shotgun. It would have to be put off till tomorrow.

Ed went home soon after dinner. We had arranged an early start time in the morning, and we both needed to get a good night’s sleep. Ashley and I went up to bed early. After a long leisurely shower, we were in bed together, but only to sleep tonight. Still, she sure is nice to sleep with.

On the north side of town that night, another meeting was taking place at the Boss’s house.

“I got a warning that other environmentalists have been checking out the plant here,” Phillip told the large man in expensive clothes.

“What do you mean?” the large man asked.

“The manager at the facility just up the road from ours told my people at the plant that he caught two guys with camouflage gear and a shotgun coming back from the area of our plant. He said they threatened him, but it wouldn’t take much with that wimp,” Phillip said, disgustedly.

“Two guys, you say?” the Boss asked. “Most of that group are women. The males with them aren’t the kind to use camouflage gear or carry shotguns, a sign maybe but not a shotgun. Are there any signs of outside support? Have your people seen any strangers at those meetings?”

“No,” Phillip said, “my people watching the apartment say that only the usual bunch of terminally stupid assholes have been there.”

“Is this some new group?” the Boss asked.

“There’s no way to know yet. There’s only this one report, and the source isn’t that reliable. It could just as easily have been hunters,” Phillip told him.

“Well, you better get some more people in there. Bring up some of the trusted people from the other plants. We don’t need anyone messing up this operation now. It’s been going really well for the last few months, and I intend to keep it that way,” the Boss said. “You better put some more people on here, also. Those fools are liable to try picketing here or something.”

The next morning I was up early and was really disturbed when I realized that I hadn’t set the new close in alarm system or the house system last night because I had been too distracted by thoughts of showering with Ashley. That would have to change. I got up, did my morning business and went out to load some of my finished sample pieces on the truck, also some touch-up paint, primer, and paint brushes; a battery powered four inch angle grinder with a wire brush, and some hand held wire brushes completed the touch-up kit. That should take care of any spot repairs that I needed to do.

Ed arrived at 8:30 and we had breakfast, We were ready to go by 9:15, but I was still worried about Ashley. She, on the other hand, wasn’t worried at all.

“Bill, I’ll be fine. I’m going down to the wood shop and do a little work. I saw that you have some nice wood there, and I want to make something. You’ll see it when you get back,” she assured me.

“All right, but stay down there and don’t come out if someone shows up here. We’ll be back as soon as we get done,” I told her.

The drive to the north side was marked by traffic accidents and slow downs, typical for our city. We checked out the people that lived in the accessible subdivisions first. There was nothing to draw our attention there, everything looked normal.

Next we tried the two gated subdivisions. At the first one, we didn’t have any trouble getting in, but again there was nothing remarkable to see, and my client’s iron work was still in good shape.

The second gated subdivision wasn’t so easy. Apparently my client hadn’t notified the gate guard, and I had to try to call him from the gate. They weren’t home or didn’t answer, one. I got philosophical with the guard and told him it’s not my worry if this guy’s iron work rotted out. That I had done what I was supposed to. The gate guard was an old guy and took pity on us and let us in. I checked the guy’s iron work, and it was in poor shape. I don’t know what this guy had done to it, but it would require a major overhaul. I left him a note and an estimate, as it was his call. The rest of the place was as uninteresting as the others had been.

That left only the single house on the large piece of property - the estate. We drove over there after having lunch. As soon as we got near the place, the hair on the back of my neck went up. That’s always a bad sign. When we got nearer, we could see that the wall around the property was masonry with some iron work on top. The main gate and the delivery gate were iron, also. It all looked to be in fair condition, but would need maintenance soon if it weren’t to start rusting badly, as you could see small specks already. I stopped and chatted up the guard at the main gate.

I didn’t get anywhere with him, as he referred me to their company maintenance department. I did manage to see through the gate, and what I saw said, “BINGO”. There were walking patrols with dogs, plus they were all armed and not just with pistols either, but rifles, also - AK 47s. These boys were expecting trouble, and I believed we had hit the jackpot. I left after a few minutes.

A little later, we tried the delivery gate. The guy there had an AK with him and didn’t want to let me near the gate or to talk to me - “BINGO”. We had parked across the road from the gate, and as we were preparing to leave, I saw a dark colored van pull up to the delivery gate. It was the same van that ‘lard ass’ had used, I was sure of that, and it went right through the gate, which had opened just before it got there. It parked just inside the gate area. That definitely confirmed that this was the right place.

I also saw the driver when he got out. He was a tall, thin, blond guy. I saw his face, too, when he turned toward the gate guard to say something to him, and I knew that I had seen him before. I just couldn’t quite place where though.

“Ed,” I said, “that’s the van that we parked at the lake.”

“Are you sure?” Ed asked.

“Yes, I’m sure,” I said, “also about the guy driving it. I’ve seen him before - somewhere. I can’t quite place him, now, but I’ll figure it out sooner or later.”

On the drive back home, I only had half of my attention on driving. Where had I seen that guy before? I just knew that I had seen him somewhere.

“Bill,” Ed hollered at me, as we almost ran up the back of a small car in front of us. There was an accident up ahead that had traffic stopped, and I hadn’t been paying attention because I was too distracted by the guy. I jammed on the brakes, and we stopped in time. I was cussing myself for not paying attention when I suddenly remembered where I knew him from. It must have been the cussing that triggered the memory.

“Ed, the blond guy driving the van. I remember where I know him from now. He used to work for the Agency. As I remember it, they dumped him after he fucked up a mission because he was greedy and tried to work a deal on the side at the same time. It went sour and blew his cover. He managed to get out, but he lost a part of his team, and I was really pissed when I had to go in later and finish the main part of the job for them. I didn’t work with a team. It was just me, and those assholes were still looking for trouble. It took me quite a while to finish things up.

“The Agency kicked him out, and then put the word out to other government agencies that he was a fuckup. I guess he went into civilian security, and it figures that he would be tied in to this kind of outfit,” I finished.

“Is he dangerous?” Ed asked.

“Oh, yes. He fucked up, but he was a fairly decent agent before that. I would definitely say that he’s dangerous.”

“Anything we can do about that?” Ed asked.

“Yes, finish things up as soon as possible,” I answered. By now, traffic was moving again, and we continued on home. It was still early afternoon and the traffic was still light, so we got back in plenty of time to do a little training with the shotguns. We found Ashley still in the wood shop when we got back. She was busy applying finish to her project, and didn’t hear us come in. The shop needed cleaning, I noticed

“Ashley,” I said as we came in. She jumped six inches when she heard me. I didn’t realize that we would startle her so. She whirled around, and there was a real look of fright on her face.

“I’m sorry, Sweetie,” I said in apology, as I came up to her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” She was really breathing hard and looked ready to cry but didn’t. I held my arms out, and she came into them. I held her tight for several minutes until her breathing subsided.