Chapter 9

By God, this book IS the mother lode! It has the names and addresses of a great number of members of the Russian Mafia. The name of Ivan Gorskey Ivanovitch appears prominently and often as the person who ordered a murder. Even if he is not the big boss, he is worth a social visit from the Sunshine Boys, otherwise known as the employees of Sunshine Enterprises, Inc.

We held a council of war and decided to hit Ivanovitch immediately. He seemed to us to be too dangerous to be allowed to continue to live. Yeah, murder, but we preferred to think of it as culling the vicious predators. Anyway, Ivanovitch lived in an estate on Long Island, so our first job was to scout the estate to see what we had to work with, or is that "against?"

Hank and Doug rented a nondescript car from Rent-A-Wreck and drove to Long Island to take a look at the estate. They even parked and spent some time examining the main house while afoot. Their report was that the house was well-guarded by humans and dogs. They even detected some electronic sensors and surveillance cameras.

All of us agreed that this was going to be a tough nut to crack, then Pete had a brainstorm: drive Ivanovitch out of his shell so that we could get to him. Later on, we could loot the estate. That scheme rang a bell with all of us, so we started to look for ways to implement Pete's idea.

Our idea was to take down so much of the fence surrounding the main house that Ivanovitch would move somewhere else where we could get to him. We assumed that he would move to an apartment somewhere on Long Island or into NYC, and all we would have to do would be to follow him when he left his current residence.

The destruction of the fence would be simple with a chain of explosives laid along it. We could easily demolish a hundred feet or so according to Doug, our explosives expert. The RV had been stocked with explosives and fuses on the California trip, so that would be no problem. Doug said that he and Gus could handle that part of the scheme themselves, and the rest of us would be free to follow Ivanovitch when he ran.

The explosives were the Russian version of C4 and could be formed into a shaped charge that would blow out the fence, but leave very little collateral damage. The line of explosives could be set in only a few hours, and the job could be done at night with the aid of night-vision goggles, also picked up at one of the weapons caches in California. The council agreed with the overall plan, but we wanted some covering guards along with Doug and Gus. Alice and I were tired of sitting on our asses, so we elected ourselves as the guards. The AK-47s were available, so we did not need anything else to do the job.

Two days later, we rented a dark blue van and loaded up for the trip to Long Island. Alice drove while I rode shotgun. We were all wearing our dark working clothes, and we would apply face blackening paint once we passed the last toll booth. Alice knew exactly where to drive, and we got there with no difficulties at all.

She parked under some trees about 100 feet from the fence and we took our places as guards while Gus and Doug worked at placing the explosives. We figured that it would take Ivanovitch a good 24 hours to react to the blown fence, so we were prepared to set off the explosives before we left the fence tonight. For one thing, it would take a while for the realization to sink in that the fence could no longer keep enemies out nor his ferocious guard dogs in. Thus, he would have to go into hiding somewhere.

We rented two more cars to use as chase cars when Ivanovitch ran. Pete and Hank would be in one, and Doug and Gus would be in the other. Alice and I would keep the van. We would stay in contact by using our cellphones.

It was about 3:40 AM when Doug set off the explosives. He chose that time because several of the guards and guard dogs were near the explosive site. He was using an electrical detonator controlled by by a hand held box. That was the best way to insure that the explosives detonated exactly when he wanted them.

He knocked out three guards and two dogs with the explosion, so we figured that we were ahead of the game no matter what happened. Alice drove away before any other guards showed up to see what had happened. The two cars were already at the rendezvous point, and we were able to form our pairs very easily. We were close enough to watch the mansion through binoculars, so we could tell when anyone drove away.

Our idea was that the two cars would tail Ivanovitch when he left his estate, and the van would stay back to mingle with other traffic. If necessary, Alice could drive us to be one of the tailing vehicles, but we wanted to keep that to a minimum. All of us humans were wearing a simple disguise: a hat. We planned to change the hats fairly often so that we would not present a consistent profile to anybody who happened to glance at us. With hats, without hats, and with different combinations of hats should provide enough variety to keep us safe from discovery for as long as necessary.

A continuous watch was kept on the driveway leaving the estate. Alice and I in the van provided courier service for sandwiches and hot coffee for us and the guys in the cars who would do most of the close tailing. It was late in the afternoon before any cars left the estate, and there were three that left together. I couldn't help laughing when the last car stopped long enough for a man to jump out and put a chain and padlock on the gate. Had they forgotten the gaping hole in the fence?

A quick conference call on the cellphones had each of our vehicles tailing one of their cars. We didn't know who was in which car, so we had to treat them all equally. Dammit, I cursed right then that we had not swapped off the van for a more discreet vehicle. Nevertheless, we were stuck now, so we had to make the best of the situation.

All three cars stayed together and turned toward the main highway route heading out farther on Long Island. At that point, it certainly made life easier for us. The first of the evening rush hour traffic was already on the highway, and that provided cover for us. We were trailing what amounted to three black stretch limousines, and they were easy to spot in the mass of much smaller cars.

Eventually, the limos turned off toward the Islip airport and headed for an ornate hotel. They parked in front of the hotel, and we pulled up behind in the van. That got us some funny looks from the men who exited the limos and formed the classic bodyguard ring around an older man. They marched into the hotel, and I was right behind them. Our two cars had pulled off to park somewhere else while I found out what rooms our quarry was taking.

I had taken the time while we were following the caravan on the highway to step into the back of the van and change into some casual workman's clothes. When I got out to enter the hotel, I was wearing a jacket labeled for a fictitious plumbing repair service. I stood courteously aside while the large group checked in, but I was close enough for the recorder in my pocket to pick up all of the names and room numbers. Naturally, Ivanovitch went for the "penthouse suite."

When they finished and left for the rooms, I made up some cock-and-bull story about looking for an address, and I had gotten lost. I asked for directions and left before any other customers arrived.

We debated hitting the gang in the hotel or searching the house first. The consensus was that the estate was not going anywhere, but the crooks could disappear at any moment. The difficulties involved in chasing them from place to place were enough to convince us to eliminate the humans as soon as possible. Besides Ivanovitch, there were nine bodyguards that we had to be concerned about.

This hotel was not as security conscious as the other two we had dealt with, so we were not going to have as much trouble getting to Ivanovitch and his men as there had been with the previous two raids. Ivanovitch and four of his bodyguards were staying in the penthouse; the other five bodyguards were staying in rooms on the floor below the penthouse. That probably made things easier for us, but we wouldn't know for sure until we had checked things out in more detail.