Gwenny June

by Richard Dorrance

  Chapter 22 – The Russians Tangle in Charleston

  Quiet descended on the group. Even Jinny managed to keep his mouth shut, for once. Stirg had thrown down the gauntlet, and now everyone had to figure out what this meant. It was a hell of a situation. Typical June scenario.

  Gwen got ready to take command when Slevov stood up. She handed her gun to Jinny, who was standing next to her, watching Nev. He now had four guns: his primary, his backup on his ankle, Stirg’s Brusshev, and Slevov’s. If he stuck any more in his belt, his pants would fall down. Over the last months Jinny had learned about and adopted some American customs. Sometimes his sources of information were a little suspect, like some of the folks at Pierre’s Men's Salon. He also watched Entertainment Tonight a lot on TV, and extended the stuff he saw there to the population at large. For example, he thought all American women were waxed. So he had persuaded Guignard to adopt that practice. And he thought most American men didn’t wear underwear. So he had adopted the practice. If someone did hand him a fifth gun and he stuck it in his belt, and his pants did fall down, well….

  Slevov looked at Nev and said, “Do you have any vodka in the house? Any decent vodka?” Nev motioned with his head to the kitchen. Slevov looked at Helstof and said, “Would you look, and bring some glasses, too?” Helstof thought of handing her gun to Jinny, but had heard rumors of Jinny’s new dressing habit, so she took it with her to the kitchen. Slevov asked Gwen to move her chair back, away from Stirg’s chair, and asked Jinny to drag Nev’s chair closer to Stirg. She then went to the wall of the living room, and with Guignard’s help, moved a table to the center of the room, in front of Stirg and Nev. On the other side of the table she lined up five chairs. When Helstof returned with two bottles of vodka, a bunch of small glasses, and a box of crackers, she asked Roger and Gwen and Guignard and Helstof to sit down. She put herself in the center chair, opposite Stirg, and Gwen at the end, where she would have a line of fire. She put Jinny behind Stirg and Nev, standing up. She said, “Jinny, hon, you’re the designated driver. I’m sorry, but someone has to forego the vodka. Someone has to be able to put a bullet in either of these guy’s heads if they get cute and start something. That’s you hon. We’ll make it up to you later. Ok?” Jinny nodded. “Gwen, if Jinny misses, you got the second shot.”

  Gwen nodded and said, “If Jinny misses, I’m gonna shoot him first, then take the second shot at these two.” She looked at Jinny, without smiling. He smiled back at her though. He loved Gwen when she acted tough.

  Slevov had decided it was time to try something new, a Deneuvian move. She never had lacked for self-confidence, and now she had it in spades, having learned that both Catherine and Gwen felt she was, well, one of them. A Deneuvian. A person who could influence others, using special skills. With everyone in place and security assignments clear, she filled glasses with vodka, and dumped crackers onto the table. Stirg watched with great interest. Nev calculated distances and probabilities of outcomes. Gwen was thrilled that Slev had stepped up. Roger was perplexed, as usual, because he realized this was a Deneuvian moment, and he never could figure them out. He just knew that usually, people did what a Deneuvian wanted them to do. That certainly was the case with him.

  Slev knocked back a shot of vodka, and followed it with a cracker. While she chewed, she waited for the others to do likewise. They did, except Nev. Looking at him, she said, “I’m going to work something out between us, Nev. At least try to. I’m not sure what it’s going to be, but we need to try to come to terms here. Your side is strong, and our side is strong. If we clash, things are going to get nasty. If you try to save your boss here and now with some kind of attack, that is going to fuck up this attempt of mine at conciliation. Please don’t do that. Jinny might miss, but Gwen won’t. Have a drink. See what happens. Trust me.” This was the first Deneuvian move, and it was a good one, because Nev was feeling desperate. He’d been humiliated, and was looking to redeem himself. Slev had sensed this, and wanted to ameliorate the threat. Nev looked at Slev, and listened to her words. She had power in her eyes, eyes that were focused on him. He knew she was fully committed to him; to his intentions, to his needs, to his feelings and thoughts. He came instantly to believe her, to see from her perspective, to feel her influence. His mind involuntarily sent messages to his body: relax, stand down, have a drink, listen to her. Continue to live. He reached for his glass. Gwen smiled inwardly. This was new to Stirg. He didn’t understand, yet. The others watched him.

  Slev said, “We’re like people who work together in the same company, and don’t like each other. None of us are going to quit our job over this and go work somewhere else, so we have to play nice and co-exist, even though we don’t want to.” She looked at Stirg, and he got a funny feeling. “You’re a very powerful guy, Mr. Stirg. We have said we know that, and we respect that. We know you are serious. So are we. You know that now. You know that beyond any doubt.” She counted to ten. “There are six of us here in your house. But our team has eight players. Two of them are elsewhere. Two more men. I know one of them very well. He’s my husband. I don’t feel any need to tell you our name. His name. The other guy has a name too, but it’s not necessary for you to know that, either. This other guy is Helstof’s husband.”

  Slev stopped talking and poured vodka into all the glasses. She put a cracker in her mouth, took her time chewing it, then washed it down with the drink. Jinny wanted one so badly. “That’s our team. You have Nev on your team, and we know you can get others, people who are loyal to you, or mercenaries. So we have these two factions working in the Charleston company, doing different tasks, not seeing eye to eye, maybe not liking each other. What’s to do? We like working in the Charleston company, Stirg, and so do you. You want us to give up our stuff, but we like it. It’s part of us here. We worked hard to set up our part of the company, and we’re not going to give it up, even though that’s what you want us to do. We’re not trying to fuck with your life here, Stirg, but you’re fucking with ours. I don’t see you giving up on this, but we gotta keep a lid on it. Otherwise, the company disintegrates.” Slev sat back and picked up another cracker.

  Stirg had had two cognacs and two vodkas, but he wasn’t feeling it much. His thinking was clear. The side of his head hurt a lot, but that was manageable. It had been a while since he had drunk shots of vodka with other Russians, and he was enjoying it, regardless of Jinny standing behind him holding a Brusshev 45 cal. But the feeling of enjoyment mixed with the head pain mixed with the alcohol didn’t deflect him from his thoughts and feelings of Americans stealing Russian heritage items, or of them co-opting his granddaughter. He didn’t like either of those things one bit.

  “I get the picture,” he said. “But. Anna’s my granddaughter. She’s with me.”

  “We didn’t come to your office and recruit your granddaughter. She came to us.” Slevov said this, knowing that using logic as a communication tool was hopeless. Stirg was pissed on both counts, and he wasn’t going to get talked out of his viewpoint by logic. She had to try, but she was focusing on intuition. “If you come after us again, we’ll defend ourselves. Know that. Ask yourself if it’s worth it. Anna will be back to you somehow, sometime. Those are our messages. That’s why we paid you this visit. If you want to tell us more about how you see this situation, we’ll listen.”

  Stirg thought about having another shot, but he knew he’d had enough. He was feeling many things: loss of Anna, Slev’s influence, Gwen, the assault on his home, age, pride. And the pain at the side of his head. Feelings, feelings, pride, women. What a jumble. What a day. He wanted these people out of his house. He said, “You tell Anna I want to see her. And this isn’t over.” He got up from his chair and crossed the room to the wide staircase. He looked back at all of them, and began a slow climb to the upper levels.

  The party was over. Jinny motioned to Nev to unti
e his legs. Everyone got up, got what few things they had brought into the house, and made their way outside to the dock, with Jinny bringing Nev along. Roger fired up the boat engines, with Nev looking down at them from the dock. The tide was out. Gwen said to Jinny, “Give him back the gun.” Jinny looked surprised, but he removed the magazine and the round in the chamber from the Brusshev, and tossed it up to Nev. He and Nev stood looking at each other as the boat drew away, and Jinny waved.