Chapter 124: Planing the Plan

Even though we had the state police car outside, we stayed up a couple of hours after we got home. It was mostly to check out the cook shack, and of lesser importance to watch the drive on video. We watched Someone leave the cook shack about 1AM. He walked out of the camera frame for a few minutes, then back inside the shack.

"Does he look familiar to anyone?" I asked.

"Not one of the brothers for sure," Martin said.

"That's what I was afraid of. Cooking that shit is too dangerous for the brothers. One misstep and you got a room full of bodies. You can make crystal Meth or you can make poison gas. It all comes from the same ingredients."

"So now what?" Martin asked.

"Well, we still might get them on tape going into the place, but the odds are slim. There is no reason for them to be at the shack. They can take care of business anywhere. Pay off the cookers and take delivery of the shit."

"You mean I did that for nothing?" Martin asked.

"No worse than other things you have done for nothing," I replied.

"Yeah, there is that," Martin agreed. "So what is the next plan."

"Well they have been telling everyone we aren't really the good guys, let's let them think they are right."

"Oh, what do you have in mind?" he asked.

"A little power play gone wrong," I suggested.

"You heard that cop Maxine. We cross the line, we are going to jail. Not something I signed on for." Gwen said.

"Gwen you are allowed to leave anytime you think a plan puts you at too much risk. What you can not do is roll over on us, while we are still operational." Then I turned to Martin and Mike. "She does have a point though. If we so something illegal while filming for TV, we are screwed."

"Yeah it would be like a confession. You can't say it is fiction, if you have people bleeding on tape."

"Lets give this some more thought. Maybe we should just run with the preacher thing for a while and think. We are not on the clock or anything. We make a move today, or next week it's all the same."

"You have a point none of us have a life," Martin said.

"Speak for yourself Martin. I have a boyfriend I want to see some day." Gwen said. When she said that I thought of Cheryl. It was just a passing thought, before I forced it from my mind. I had really serious shit to think about.

"You know I'm getting really tired of your whining," Martin said. "I know we have to treat you TV people with kid gloves, but you are really getting on my nerves."

I changed the subject just to give everyone the chance to cool off. "Why don't we start a terror campaign on the bothers. Nothing serious enough for them to call the cops, just enough to be a pain in the ass. Then set up a meet and get them to incriminate themselves on tape."

"I'm telling you, we need to just kill them." Martin said.

"Hell Red, where is challenge in that?" I asked.

"Okay what is your plan?" he asked.

"First we watch the cook shack. We also gather intelligence everywhere we can, then we make a real plan. In the meantime we stay inside the cover story." I could see that Martin didn't like the inactivity. I thought that he sometimes forgot that everything we said was being recorded. I took Martin aside and whispered in his ear, "Trust me. As soon as we are alone we can talk. Right now, we have to play to the camera."

He nodded but still didn't look happy. I'm sure it was more the bullshit of the TV show, than the Atwoods. I went to the bedroom to pass out. I was that tired. I had been stumbling around for the last twenty minutes. I can watch the video the next morning, I thought.

I still wouldn't let Gwen leave the house alone, so I rode with her to get breakfast for everyone. We even took the cop's order. In order to get anything worth eating as takeout, we had to drive back to the highway interchange. Since I was the one who wanted biscuits, I should be the one to go. If I went, I had to take along a shadow. If I had to take along a shadow, I chose Gwen. I still didn't care for her, but it gave the guys a break from her. At least she was a woman. Not that I don't like men just as well, but her questions just sounded a little less abrasive, than Mike's.

After breakfast we decided that we should make noises like a group of religious zealots, since that was our cover story. Mike printed up some 'prayer of the day' fliers, so Martin, Gwen and I went into town to pass them out.

"So, are we still allowed to use your action house for our services, even after the shootout at our house?" I asked the auctioneer

"Absolutely and I'm sure it will be a full house," he admitted with a good humor smile.

"I certainly hope we have a full house, but even if only two of us are meeting in his name, God will be with us," I said.

"Good morning," I said to everyone I met. I also passed out the prayer sheets along the streets of town. Even in flea markets and the farmers exchange we made pests of ourselves.

"So do you think the Atwoods are going to lay low?' Martin asked.

"Oh yes, just as long as the state police are around." Martin and I were in his SUV. Gwen was following us around in her econobox. I made the signal for him to do his 'black out' thing with the microphones.

"They will stay low and this is the ideal time to put some hurt on the boys. We can't kill anyone, but we can reek havoc on rolling stock and fixed assets of the business. They aren't going to put their pet cop on us with real cops around."

"That's a good plan. So what do we do first?" he asked.

"We need to figure a way to get the cooker away from the shack, then we need to get the dogs out. We are not going to injure those dogs," I said. I added with a smile, "Then we burn the mother to the ground."