Chapter 87

"Maxine. we need to meet." The voice on the cell phone belonged to Vlad.

"I'm at the house. It's going to take me twenty minutes to meet you anywhere." I explained.

"I am at your gate now."

"Alright, I'll turn off the alarm. Do you need me to come unlock the gate?"

"No, I can get it open," He informed me.

"I thought so," I agreed.

I had time to pour a cup of coffee before Vlad showed up. I put the shotgun under the bedspread before I let him in. He didn't need to see the shotgun within easy reach. Or to know that I sat at the table looking out the window as he drove up. Since he was the only one, other than a couple of my friends, who knew where I lived, I was very careful.

"Hello Maxine," Vlad was very formal and I was just as glad. The job was the job, the other was what it was no more.

"Hello Vlad, what have you heard?"

"Our target will be in Harlan county Kentucky next Thursday. He will be leaving York City about 10am and then drive all the way to Harlan county. They tell me it will take him twelve hours to do the driving..."

"Do you know exactly where the meeting is going to be.?" I asked.

"No easy rides this trip. We will never figure out this one in time, but you can be in place to collect the information for the next ambush. That is if you are still in."

"I'm in. When do you want to leave?

"When can you leave."

"I can make a call and leave now, but we don't have a plan." I informed him.

"We will make a plan as we drive to Kentucky. Make your call."

I called Jen and told her to pay whoever needed paying, but to stop all work until I returned. I had Vlad swing by the office where I put a container into his trunk, a container of tools. "Being a gun collector has it's moments," I explained.

As we left town on the interstate highway I asked, "There are less than 50k people in Harlan County, why are the Russians messin with them."

"You should know better than me, but I will tell you what they told us at the task force meetings. The Russians did not want to build a business, they wanted to just take over businesses. So they looked for distribution networks that aren't heavily defended. Right now the people of Harlan are being seduced. Before they know it they will be working for the Russians or dead."

"Ah, I see so they play rough?' I asked.

"They play very rough Maxine. You must be very careful. Never lower your guard, not even around your own people. By now Ivan and his friends will own many of the criminals."

"And criminal's families are stupid." I said adding to the general shared information.

"Pretty much," he agreed.

"So what's this plan of ours,? I asked being more than a little sarcastic.

"We are picking up a trailer in Kingsport Tenn."

"Oh, are we going to pretend to by Ricky and Lucy?"

"Who?" he asked.

"Never mind, what about you and your accent. You can't hide the whole time that we are there."

"No, I'm going to be your husbaand." He handed me a wedding band, then went on. "It seems to me, we want to make a good impression, so I thought we could be missionaries."

"Don't you think when Ivan shows up dead on their doorstep, the cops will look at all the strangers who were here."

"You would think so, but alas they will just vanish into thin air."

"Maybe you can vanish, but I can't. I live here."

"No, no you don't vanish Maxine, Sister Maybell vanishes."

"Did you pick that name?"

"No I heard it and liked it." he replied curiously.

"I don't," I said.

"Then you pick one," he demanded.

"Martha, just Sister Martha." I replied.

"You will have to clean up your act some." He did smile as he said it.

"If I clean up my act, we will never find out anything." I laughed.

"Okay, then at least be more discreet in your seductions."

"I promise I will try," I laughed. You have to admit, Vlad lecturing me had an ironic twist to it. Even though there was a meet set for that very night we didn't rush. It was just the excuse for making the break. We needed a lot more information, if we were going to get our chore taken care of and then get away clean. The murder part was difficult enough but the surviving it would be the real accomplishment.

Vlad would likely be taking off on an airplane within days of the hit. Me, I had to live through it. I planned to be very, very careful. I could always walk away at anytime. I wasn't sure, but I might have to kill Vald to do it. If it came down to me doing time or killing Vlad, then it might take me a minute to decide. Vlad and I swung into a camping trailer dealership where he had arranged a camper for us.

I was beginning to have real doubts about Vald. He had way too many resources for a simple Moscow cop. He was up to something, but I had no idea what. Still he suited my purpose unless of course he was lying to me. If that was the case, I might kill him myself. His story had an undercurrent of truth. People did kill for revenge. So it was possible that the brother was biding his time to come for me. Whether he was or not, he was most likely going to get a shock.

The completion of the drive to Harlan County was boring and our arrival was the worst. Mostly because I expected a greeting of some kind and we went unnoticed.