Chapter 183: Bad Coffee and Bad Cops

The Smiley thing had turned out to be a simple raid from start to finish. We had worked for weeks gathering information. After making elaborate plans, it all come down to a stungun and a can of pepper spray. That had to be like the raid that killed Ben Laden. Some poor bastard worked his ass of for years to find the prick. The special operations guys plan and plan, then plan some more, they rush in to snatch and extract him, In the end, it was a bullet that cost less than a buck, which wrote the final line of the Ben Laden story. Smiley did have one chapter left. It was a footrace to see who reached the house first. I had no problem leaving Smiley's fate in God's hands.

As for Lucas and me, we headed back to the apartment. "Circle the neighborhood before you pull in," I said to Lucas. We drove around a three block area before I felt even a little safe going into the compound.

"What are we looking for?" he asked.

"As the man said about art, I don't know what it is, but I'll recognize it, when I see it. At least in our case, I hope I'll recognize it." Since nothing looked out of place, we pulled into the parking lot. We sat in Lucas's Hyundai while he reviewed the surveillance image file online. It showed nothing, but if these guys were elegant pros, it wouldn't. Since they were thugs, I trusted the tape 90%. I still carried the shotgun as I went into the apartment compound.

We made it to my apartment before anything out of the ordinary happened. Out of the ordinary came later in the form of my phone ringing like a phone. "Ms Stone, thank you for allowing us time to move our money, before Mr. Smiley had to be eliminated. For that act we have decided to allow you to live. We are moving the operation out of your quaint little town. It is easier to move, than to enter a war with you and your police."

"That is a very logical decision," I said.

"We do try to be sensible," the voice with the Harvard business school accent said.

"What about Smiley? You know he really was the reason for my investigation," I informed him.

"I could not in good faith have order his elimination, if it were just for your interest, but James Smiley had our money in his off shore account. For that he had to be punished." He said.

"So it has already been done?" I asked.

"People are on their way to do that as we speak," He said.

"Then, I am sure the state will thank you for the savings in such troubling times." I suggested.

"Probably won't happen, but they should thank us both." he said. "Maxine Stone, if you were not who you are, and I was not who I am, we would have made great friends."

"Olivia Newton John?" I asked.

"Exactly, I guess we will just be leaving it at this, we should not meet again. You do understand?"

"Of course, but I think I will keep my security cameras going." I replied.

"It wouldn't help you much, if you happened to be in the mall walking when a terrorist bomb went off," he said with a laugh.

"Of if you had The Russians, The FBI, and Swamp Thing all looking for you personally," I suggested. I did not have any idea they would really get involved.

"I did give that some thought as well, so the game ends in stalemate?" he said.

"So it does," I had made it into the apartment during the conversation.

"Well, I'll be looking forward to my episode on your TV show. Goodbye and I hope we never have to meet." he said.

"If that happens, at least it won't be boring," I said. He didn't answer, he was just gone.

"So it's over?" Lucas asked. "All that work for this?"

"Hold on Lucas you are forgetting what our job was. We were supposed to stop Smiley from ever doing this kind of thing again. That has happened one way or another. We also were hoping to punish him. If nothing else he got one hell of a scare, and Jen is going to be on his ass with a civil suit that will take everything he has. All the rest of it was just a lucky accident."

"Yeah, but it don't seem like enough," he said.

"Hell Luke, a public beheading isn't enough. The FBI can chase their tails for years looking for these guys. The local cops are going to get some good PR and we got some good TV footage. What more could we ask?" I said.

"You should have shot Smiley's Penis with the pepper stray," he said.

"Yeah, but I guess you can't think of everything," I replied. All that work for a couple hours excitement didn't seem right to me either, but I wasn't surprised. It was like the paramedic who summed up her job as, hours and hours of boredom, punctuated by a few minutes of pure terror, then immediately back to boredom. No wonder she was bipolar.

The one thing I didn't tell Lucas was that we most likely had only bought some time. The Chink with the Harvard accent might just be playing us. He wanted us to drop our guard, then he would be back. But only if he needed to shut us up. Coming back to Aster would be dangerous. It would have to be necessary to protect the grand plan, or else why take the risk. So unless the FBI or the cops busted him, it would be a waste of assets to kill us. At least that was my hope.

Earl had returned and was sitting at my metal work bench drinking coffee, when I heard the buzzer on the gate sound. It was a black man in a police uniform. I had no idea what the hell the cops wanted with me, or why it wasn't Mike Dawson. I almost walked out there without my vest. Something about how poorly the cop's uniform fit gave me pause. I slipped off the sweatshirt, which I had changed into immediately upon reaching the apartment. Okay I was standing in my bra in front of two men, while I put on my vest, but I doubt anyone noticed.