Chapter 198

The SBI returned my pistol on the same day they moved into the pub. Even with the state police and SBI in the house, if I hadn't heard from our nerd I might not have felt safe. I got the message from our cut out board on the net. BeeBee was a liar of monumental proportions. Yes she knew we were looking at her, but she couldn't possibly be sure what our purpose was. Yes she also knew our backgrounds and reputations. She had no one with our talents on her payroll.

She had accomplished one thing and that was to guarantee that we would not kill her. As I said all along, when we lost our shield of anonymity, it was just too dangerous. So we had been thwarted. Unless BeeBee Queen did something to make it personal, she was going to walk away the winner.

Our nerd also checked her company, and her personal management group, he found that she employed a small security force of retired cops. She either under estimated us, over estimated her security, or was a monumental liar. She would probably call it a great poker player's bluff, but since we found the truth, it was just a lie.

With the SBI setting up shop in his place, and Jeremy looking after his health, the Brit was in good hands, so I could go home. God knows I needed a shower and change of clothes. I was, as my friends would say, ripe. I wouldn't have stood near me, if I could find a way around it either. I planned to go home first thing that morning. The SBI moved in some files and I moved my ass out to the Cruiser/van and then home.

With BB not an issue I went home to work on the .22Magnum. I found a round wire brush almost exactly the size of the bore. I have no idea what it had been designed for but it worked fine to scrub the barrel of the mag. I used a small diamond file to change the character of the point on the hammer. When I finished it was a different gun. I was glad to have the mag back. I had been carrying the derringer, but it was just a toy somehow. The .22mag was on a heavy frame so it had a better feel than the derringer, which tended to fire all over the place past ten feet. That heavier frame made the revolver extremely accurate.

I'm not sure I needed a half hour in the shower to get clean, but it sure as hell didn't hurt anything. I walked from the shower, through the small kitchen area. There I picked up a cup of coffee from the single cup brewer, then moved to sit by the patio door. Through that door I had a clear view of the left side of my property. More important I could hear the two wireless microphones playing through the small amplifier on my book shelf.

One of those microphone was hidden by the cattle type bridge over the trench by the road. Because it was just a few metal slats over the trench it make a hell of a rattling sound if anyone crossed it in a car. It was a simple early warning system, which I had found in one of the storage lockers. Since it had two microphones, I set one up at the storage trailer. I actually used the trailer for storage at the time.

The final pieces had come for my still, but I hadn't assembled it. I hadn't felt like it. Even though my case of the flu was much lighter than most of the other folks, it was bad enough. It was also inconvenient. If you ever had the gastrointestinal symptoms of the flu, you know what inconvenience really is. I finally felt better, so I was thinking about assembling the still.

I needed to settle the BeeBee Queen thing first. Not by wiping her out, but by making sure she was finished with it. I didn't see anything I could offer her or threaten her with, so I was going to have to play it by ear. No play is sometimes as good as a great plan, not often, but it could happen. In the mean time I had to keep an eye out for her, or more likely one of her henchmen.

I hadn't found a wireless CCTV unit in a storage locker, so I left a message for nerd boy on the board. He sent me a link to a website that offered what I wanted. I ordered one of their best units. It came with a camera that transmitted to the net. I also got the code to access the last twenty four hours of recordings on any computer or smart phone, if I had one. I agreed to the the monitoring fee which included the rental of the equipment. The monthly fee was like 10% of the alarm company, because there was no live monitoring. I had to monitor it myself. I was good with that, as I wasn't sure I wanted anyone else to know what I was up to anyway.

I fixed myself a good lunch and went to the storage building to begin assembly of the still. Once the building was unlocked I realized that it was going to be way too tight to do everything in the building. It wasn't exactly news to me. I knew all along that the space would be too small for any thing but cooking and packaging.

Much earlier I had Tomas build a lean to storage shed attached to the building. I had a heavy weight work bench made from 2x8 framing material. It was a very sturdy work bench to which I had mounted the food grinder. I could use the grinder to grind a batch of deer corn for the mash, then use it to grind a few pounds of marijuana stalks to convert my brew to something worth a hell of a lot more than moonshine. That was the plan, but I had to make a couple of gallons to test my theory. That was my project for the next week or so.

The plan was to let the moonshine mash cook off under the lean to. However I planned to mix it in the house and transport it up to the storage trailer to cook off. So I began to rummage through the assorted plastic buckets and barrels, which I had stockpiled for this project. Yeah most of them were from storage units, and yes I planned to sanitize them before use. I found what looked like a trash can from a granny's last apartment. It was small and had no signs of ever being used. So I loaded it into the back of the Cruise/van.