Mercury Decending (Mercury Black Authority Book 3)

by Finian Blake

  “We could not get near the place. A few of the neighbors said that there was a party there. Cars were coming and going right up until things blew up. We could not even approach the building.” Troy was hoping that Rich had kept his word privately chuckling to himself thinking of the idea of the fire department setting fires as in the book ‘Fahrenheit 451’. With the advanced warning Troy was able to keep the damage restricted only to the targeted buildings and with the infrared detectors, he could reasonably be sure, that things were clear.

  Rich drove to the hangar with Brent. He had Victor, Valentina, Margarita and their clients with him. Everybody was naked except for Victor who was wearing his leather jock strap with a cactus inside of it, since Rich had promised Grace that Victor would go to hell with the cactus. They pulled in the hangar loading everyone in the Twin Otter. He secured their restraints to the 300-pound weight in the door using the chain. Everybody was seated on the floor and the Twin Otter was in the air by eleven PM. The door of the aircraft was left open and the temperature in the aircraft drop below 30° quickly causing the naked passengers to start shivering violently. Rich sat next to Victor on the floor.

  Victor could not believe that the response took less than a week, “How did you put this together so fast?”

  “You tried to do the same thing to us in Manchester. You told your team to kill everyone at the Inn. We caught two of them and they gave us a full lay out of your operation. When we took out ‘Mercury’ she had several of your snuff films. I was in the process of putting something together when you snatched Alice. Our equipment was on the way and our plan was set by the time Anna called. You should have taken the million and a half that I gave you for the girls.”

  “That was an insult that I could not ignore. You stole my property and threw me a bone.” Victor’s temper was starting to flare. “Those girls are mine!”

  “A million and a half is not a bone. All of those girls were all Gregory’s daughters and when I married Anna they became my daughters. Sarah is Anna’s sister and you tried to kill her in Georgia. We were thinking of doing something in Pakistan, but we decided to keep our arrangement. I delivered on our deal as promised. You should have been thankful. You were paid two million each, a million and a half for the girls, plus your papers. On top of that, I hid you from the CIA.” Rich’s voice did not raise or fall. He spoke to Victor in a calm fashion. Victor shook his head.

  “My luck was bad, but I am still alive. We can work a deal. I can be of use to you. Get rid of this damn cactus and we can talk.” The cabin lights went out and Rich slipped the restraint on the weight.

  “Your luck is still bad.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I promised you that I would not lift a hand against you. The catch is that I will not raise a hand to help you.”

  “How is that bad luck?” The plane made an extreme bank to the left climbing steeply. Without seat belts all of the occupants rolled to the left rear of the Twin Otter with the 300-pound weight flipping out the door at the same time in seconds the cabin was empty, so there was only a few seconds worth of screaming. Rich looked out the door of the airplane saying, “keep the cactus.”

  The Twin Otter flew to Milwaukee where Roger and Asshole number one met the plane. The two Franks took both aircraft back to the west coast and the remaining four men drove back to Chicago. They went straight to Tony’s junk yard. The two vans that they used for the operation were just going in the crusher and the other cars had already been processed. All of the Russian gear for the operation went into the crusher. A flatbed trailer was being loaded, with the crushed cars. Inside of four hours all of the evidence would be in the smelter. Tony met them at the gate and escorted the four men to the trailer. Tony passed out the beer while they settled down to talk. Rich went straight to business.

  “I believe that cleans up the mess that was dropped on you. Did you find any run kits?” Tony shook his head and laughed.

  “It’s always business first, isn’t it? We picked up three hundred thousand and some very personal papers. Why Are you looking for a discount?”

  It was Rich’s turn to laugh as he handed Tony the agreed upon sum. “I just wanted to be sure that we were right.

  “We are more than square on our end and I am sure that the City of Chicago would thank you too. That was a nasty bunch. My assholes are just finishing up out there and everything is back as it should be.” Rich shook his head, no.

  “I have to finish one more piece of business with you.” Tony looked surprised. Rich opened his bag and pulled out ten stacks of ten thousand dollars. “They had a large stash. This is a bonus”

  Tony laughed at the comment, “For getting rid of the trash I owe you a cut.”

  Rich shook his head, “That’s your bonus too. I have to leave now, my scars hurt every time I come here.”

  Tony turned to the others in the room, “This asshole will never forgive me for that one. I was sitting at this desk one night when two men were going to cut me up for some money that they thought I owed them. This Asshole came down that hallway to back me up when I fired my sawed off shot gun and the crybaby took fifteen little pellets in the arm. I even helped him pull them out.” Tony picked up the money and put it in the desk drawer. Why don’t your assholes get the hell out of here and get some sleep?” Ralph was not happy about being called an asshole.

  “Don’t be insulted,” Rich tried to soothe Ralph. “Tony calls everybody asshole. You might have noticed that he never called anybody by name. I was asshole number three for years. Our helpers tonight were assholes one and two.” The crew was back at Wanda’s by three AM.

  9.

  CLEAN UP

  Troy and the arson inspector greeted the police when two teams of detectives showed up. The small door of the garage was unlocked so entry was not a problem. When they entered the most obvious thing was twenty file boxes stacked in the van that was parked in the garage. After looking in through the hand holes in each of the boxes the arson inspector let the detectives work the boxes. The Watch commander sent two teams since the buildings were frequently a subject of their investigations.

  Troy and the inspector were almost finished with the work bench when all four detectives went crazy, “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…” After walking several circles around the boxes the lead detective turned to Troy and the inspector. “We need some guidance from the top. This looks like blackmail material of a really nasty nature. We are calling in the whole nine yards FBI, DEA, ATF, NSA, CIA and the rest of the alphabet soup. Do you know why this building didn’t burn?”

  The inspector shrugged, “The fuse on the device failed and if it hadn’t this would look like the garage across the street. That is what I cannot understand these guys were pros. I have never seen a conflagration this complete.”

  The detective put his head in his hands, “I was afraid of that. This is a set up if I have ever seen one. This whole set up is for the Russians. There is enough here to keep all of those agencies busy for a few years. Have you seen any sign of the Russians?”

  “No, we haven’t been able to access either building, but best guess is that they were unoccupied. Each one of these buildings was prepared in detail and that can’t be done on the sly to get the building to burn like this you have to knock holes in the floors and roof liberally spreading accelerant and explosives. We have found traces of prima cord and plastic explosives along with diesel fuel, this was not home made shit, it was military grade. Troy could have been pouring water on the building at the time that it went up and you would have the same result.”

  The lead detective still looked panicked, “We need the garage until we can remove the files. Have fun with the rest of the buildings. The Alphabet soup will be pressing hard for answers. We need to find out where they came up with this equipment, as you say you can’t just pick it up at a gun shop and where the hell did those Russians go. They didn’t just leave all of this evidence so that we could indict them.” The detective shook his head
every answer created ten more questions. Just before the FBI arrived the Chief of police called.

  “Detective Wanzer, we will give the FBI full jurisdiction on this case.”

  “Why…,” Wanzer asked.

  “Because if you don’t you will be a beat cop in the ‘Cabrini Greens’ for the rest of your career,” the chief answered brightly as he hung up. The Chief quickly dialed another number that was answered by a warm feminine voice.

  “Cassandra the FBI has full jurisdiction can you tell me why I just did this?”

  “Because the blackmail evidence is on several prominent local figures and you would come under severe conflicting pressure to do many things that you don’t want to get involved with. If the FBI starts with jurisdiction it will be almost impossible for you to take it back.” Cassandra hung up the phone knowing that she had saved her friend’s career. This case involved too many highly placed local politicians who would do anything to save their asses.

  Everyone was in Wanda’s kitchen when Roger, Ralph and Rich walked in the building. He wondered all the way back, what kind of a mess he was going to walk into. Wanda was having a drink with the crew. He looked at every one at the table.

  “Did anybody get hurt?” Anna answered his question.

  “No, Alice checked all of the girls that we rescued, and they are all good for the night. Alice wanted to talk to you as soon as you walked in the door. She is in our bedroom.” Rich poured himself a drink, and went to check on Alice. He knocked quietly and when there was no answer he started to leave.

  “I said come in.” Her voice was barely audible. Rich opened the door and walked to the bedroom to see Alice curled up under the covers. Alice indicated that she wanted him to have a seat. “I made a promise that I want to be sure would be kept.” When he did not respond Alice continued. “I promised Petra and Ivan two hundred thousand dollars and a set of papers if they got me out of there.”

  “That was your promise. Are you going to keep it?”

  “I have the money and Sarah can do the papers. I can keep the promise, but I wanted to make sure that you did not break it by doing anything to them. Sarah won’t do the papers unless you approve.” Rich kissed her lightly on the cheek.

  “Your word is my word. I will do whatever it takes to see that your word is kept. How are you?” Alice started to cry. He kissed her cheek “If you are good for now we can discuss the rest in the morning.

  Alice started out, “Don’t go. I need to talk to you about the girls. Victor tattooed his name on all of them. Thank god he did not brand them like he used to in Russia. Every time they look in the mirror they will be reminded of him.”

  “Tattoos are permanent. What can we do?” Rich wanted to see what her solution would be.

  “Sarah came up with an idea. We can get a tattoo artist to do something decorative over the name. At least they will not have to keep looking at his name. Wanda said she would make the arrangements.”

  Rich softly stroked her cheek, “That is an excellent idea. We can go with that. Now, get some sleep and I will see if the others are interested in your idea in the morning.” Rich started to leave. Alice held on to his arm. Rich, lay down on top of the covers, and fell asleep holding her. He did not feel Anna come to bed, or the two of them leave in the morning. Rich awoke around noon to the smell of the hot dog stand next door. He walked to Wanda’s apartment finding that the door was wide open. Wanda was looking over some papers at the large table.

  “Sarah will not do the papers for Petra and Ivan. She asked me to do them. I guess that it is some point of honor. Do you want me to do them?”

  “Yes, I will not break Alice’s word. I would like a full setup including a detailed history. You can work out the names and other details with Petra and Ivan. Do a full background and check to make sure the names are clear of any wants or warrants. There is more than enough money in the stash to keep her promise. Don’t tell anyone what I am doing.”

  “It’s too late,” Alice walked out of the kitchen with Petra and Ivan behind her. Petra was limping heavily and still wearing her green sweat suit.”

  “After all that has happened, you would do that for us?”

  “No, I would do it for my daughter and her word is my word. If you can wait until Wanda makes the necessary papers we can open an account for you. In the meantime, Alice can take you shopping. It does not look like you packed a bag when you left. How are the others? From what I have seen some of them look pretty rough. Can I go up and check on them?”

  Petra had to find out, “What happened to Linda and Roxanne?”

  “They went the same way as the generals. Let us say that none of the others will be joining you for breakfast or any other meal.” Rich sounded decidedly moody. Petra knew that he would never give a specific answer, but there was no doubt in her mind that she would never see them again since ‘Mercury’ was in absolute awe of his ability to make things disappear. She and Ivan were suddenly glad that they made their decision when they did. It looked as if all of Rich’s solutions were permanent.

  Alice needed to break the mood, “Anna and the other women are up there now. They are trying to figure out how we will work with the girls. We have eleven girls and six are pregnant, but three of those have a strong chance to miscarry. We have five that are over eighteen, three that are seventeen, two that are sixteen and one just turned thirteen. Tina, our thirteen-year-old was sold to them for drugs by her mother. There is a lot more in the mix, but those are the basics. Lori and Constance are twenty-two they were shanghaied yesterday which brings the total to thirteen if you don’t count Petra and Ivan.”

  Rich shrugged his shoulders. “I better go up and see what Anna has for me so far. We can go from there.”

  Anna was talking to all of the girls in the largest of the bedrooms because the two from Dennis’s place were bed ridden. Every one of them was anxious to find out what was going to happen. Rich knocked at the door.

  “Come in Rich, the girls wanted to talk to the man in charge. They want to know what will happen to them now.” Rich bowed his head in thought.

  “I understand that there are as many different problems as there are women.” He looked around the room. “If you have a little patience we will work out what each one of you needs and then find out what each one of you wants. We would at least like enough time to get you some decent clothing and see to your immediate health needs. We have a safe place here. We can guarantee that you will be well cared for and not be molested. This is a rescue not a kidnapping. Wanda has arranged for a tattoo artist to cover Victors name on you with something of your choosing. He will be here in an hour or so. Anybody wishing to do this can get it done today. We will get everybody several changes of clothes. Should you choose to leave you will at least have something to wear.” He looked around the room. “I would like to talk to Lori and Constance.”

  “What do you want?” Lori was the first to speak.

  “I know that you have had a bazar experience. These were some of the nastiest people that I have ever run into. You are both of age and have responsibilities. I would like to ask for your cooperation with us on this matter. You are not prisoners. If you decide to leave you may do so. We have other girls with many problems. If you decide to stay you will be very well compensated.”

  “How well compensated?” Constance broke into the conversation.

  “No less than three hundred thousand, with more if you cooperate,” both women were floored by the figure.

  “Three hundred thousand for the two of us,” Lori could not believe her ears.

  “No, that would be $300,000 minimum each for everybody in the room, plus we would help you find the situation that would work best for each person. Of course if you would rather go to the police you can take whatever they will arrange for you.”

  Rich motioned the ladies from the Inn out of the room and left with them. “They should make up their own minds. If they want to go it is up to them.”

  Anna could not believe her
ears. “Even Tina…?”

  “Yes, even Tina can go if she chooses. We can’t make them stay. More than likely Child Protective Services will take her. Some of these girls have been abducted. They want to go home and will do exactly that after we see to their needs. All of the runaways can make their choices. Five are over eighteen that means they are legal to make their own decisions. “The other six will need help. We can set something up for them depending on their age and what they need. Each solution must be individual according to their needs.” Rich’s comments were met with general silence. “Look, can we agree on at least asking them what they want to do?” Lori came out into the hall and walked up to Alex.

  “If we decide to stay can we change our mind later?”

  “You may change your mind five minutes from now, but I would at least like to hear from you before you leave. If you wait a few hours you will be able to leave with clothes and a suitcase. I understand that your things burnt with the building. Alice is taking Ivan and Petra shopping. You and Connie at least have sweats that you can wear. Go with them and you can get what you want. Grab Connie and meet us down stairs.” Anna went back in the room and started taking down sizes. After thirty minutes she had enough information to get everybody outfitted except for Tina. Anna searched the building not finding Tina until she bumped into Sarah. Tina was following her around like a shadow. Tina was dressed in one of Sarah’s sleeveless blouses which was long enough on her to act as a dress.