Gwenny June

by Richard Dorrance

  Chapter 28 – Strategy

  The team arrived at The Hall at 5pm. There were thirteen people, two cats, and one dog. Guignard had brought along the Russian blues, their first time out of the house since arriving from Saint Petersburg via container ship. She said they were getting stale and needed some new sights and sounds. As she let them out of the carriers, they looked around at the large space with its high, ornate ceiling, spied the stage, jumped up, turned around, sat down in their standard regal posture, and stared at the humans. They were happy.

  On the other hand, Henric had brought his borzoi pup, which in the last three days had gained five pounds, and now weighed in at forty-five. Its behavior was at the other end of the spectrum from the cats, exuberance, scampering up one aisle and down the others, all over the place. After a few minutes of this, from the back of the theater, the dog saw the cats sitting on the front of the stage. She came barreling down the center aisle towards the stage at full speed, and given the downward slope of the aisle, of course couldn’t put the brakes on in time, crashing into the base of the stage just below the cats, stunned. The cats didn’t even blink. They sat staring at the huge pup, with what more than one human thought were looks of utter distain. The dog shook off the shock of the crash, and ran back and forth across the front of the stage, desperately seeking a way up onto it, with the cats’ heads followed metronomically. The human’s heads moved the same way, amused.

  The first order of human business was to introduce Henric to Anna. The men knew of Anna’s invasion of the June’s home, and of the counter invasion of Stirg’s home by the team. Constantine and Henric found the following points of the story of particular interest:

  1. Stirg's twenty-seven year old granddaughter, armed, had served as his invasion force. 2. Subsequently, the team had co-opted Anna to their side, or at least into a neutral position. How did they do that? 3. During the counter invasion, Roger had used serious physical force to emphasize the team’s position to Stirg. They wondered about the last time Stirg had gotten clocked in the head and left bloody. Probably many years.

  Henric was impressed when his wife introduced Anna. Someone, Jinny, of course, had described her underwear to him. Not that Jinny had been there and seen that, but word had gotten around the team. Henric wished he had been there.

  The McCrady’s staff arrived with the picnic style dinner, and set up the folding tables and chairs on the stage. They covered the tables with white clothes, unboxed the wine glasses and china dinnerware, stuck the flower arrangement in a vase of water, and left the food in boxes on the side tables. Roger opened four bottles of wine and poured them into decanters.

  The team moved to the rear of the large stage where chairs had been arranged in a circle, and Guignard served coffee in mugs. Gwen opened the meeting by standing up in the center of the circle and pulling her Glock from its holster, hidden under and at the rear of her sky-blue silk jacket. In one smooth motion she racked the slide, pointed the gun at the ceiling, and pulled the trigger. The Blam Blam resounded through the theater, filling the space with sound. She looked around the circle with hawk eyes. Gale jumped at the sound. Peter and Pater, sitting next to each other, grabbed hands. Roger expected something like this, so he was serene. Richard Adams’ mouth opened in an unnatural way, though he didn’t look scared or anything. The Gromstovs, man and woman, and the Rodstras, man and woman, were impassive. Jinny smiled. He loved his Gwenny, the hottest broad he’d ever known or dreamed of. Anna stared intently, in full learning mode.

  A little plaster dust drifted slowly down into the circle, Henric knowing he would foot the repair bill. “That’s all I have to say,” Gwen said. “Who’s carrying right now? Show ‘em.” Roger, Jinny, Slev, Helstof, and Anna reached to different parts of their bodies and pulled out guns. Both Constantine and Henric looked surprised to see their wives armed. Surprised but pleased. Gwen said, “That’s not good enough. Everyone involved in this deal needs to carry, or get out. She looked at Gale and Richard. None of the others could get out, even if they wanted to. They were in. The original team was in. Stirg knew who they were, and if he intended to pursue his vendetta, then they all were potential targets. Gwen said, “Range practice tomorrow. 7am. Be there.” She nodded at Roger, holstered her weapon, and sat down.

  Roger stood up, hoping all the McCrady's people had left the building before his wife fired her gun, and hoping no cop happened to be passing by outside. The shot had not disturbed the Russian blues, who sat just outside the circle, watching. The pup had fallen asleep at stage right, curled up on an old piece of curtain left over from a production of Wagner’s The Ring, the previous operators of The Hall having had lofty ambitions.

  “We’re going to talk about this situation for half an hour or so, and as my wife illustrated, it’s serious. When we left Stirg’s house, he said, ‘this isn’t over’. I take him at his word. We need a strategy that everyone buys into and supports. The floor’s open to suggestions.”

  Gwen immediately looked at Jinny and said, “Forget it.”

  Jinny looked disappointed, Guignard, his girlfriend, looked puzzled, and leaned over to him. “What’s she mean?”

  He whispered back, “I was going to suggest we just kill Stirg and get it over with.”

  “Oh. How did she know that?”

  “She’s got the Deneuvian stuff, you know that.”

  “Oh.”

  A couple of people looked at Anna, but she was watching the cats and appeared to be ignoring Roger and the rest of them. Constantine spoke up. “You did the right thing when you went to his house. I’ve never met him, but he’s well known in circles I touch now and then. He’s been out of the limelight in Russia for many years, though people occasionally speak of him. He helped Russian Jews, just as he helped Israelis and others. You don’t do that kind of work without getting involved in violence. And when you are involved in violence a little bit, you tend to get involved in violence more. Violence can be a very effective way to achieve goals. Stirg had serious goals, and he achieved lots of them. Roger was right to hit him in his house. Gwen is right that we have to be ready for violence against us.” He put his hand on his wife’s shoulder.

  Henric said, “Russia is different than America, just as India is different than America. In Russia we can love our country, and still steal from her. For us, that is not a non-sequitur. Many people in India still believe in the caste system. Millions and millions do. People live in gray areas about some things, and they live in black or white areas in others. Stirg lives in a black and white area when it comes to old Russian things, like those we stole. I live in a gray area there. So we have different values.”

  Pater said, “Stirg’s rich. He can afford to be white or black about a lot of things. I’m here in this new place, and I like it. My….our, lives in Saint Petersburg were boring, and we didn’t have much money or much hope for something different. Here, we have a chance to do something we like. I don’t want Stirg to take that away because we stole some lamps, and he doesn’t like it.”

  Roger looked at Peter, who nodded assent.

  Gale said, “I wouldn’t like it if someone came to Charleston and stole something from our museum.”

  Guignard looked at Jinny, and then said, “Jinny’s a crook. That’s what he was in the past, and that’s what he was in the Hermitage caper. I don’t know if he’s going to be that in the future, or not. But we’re together now, and I love him, and I know he doesn’t want to give the stuff back, the way Stirg wants. So I say we hold on, and stick it to Stirg. Sorry Anna, but that’s the way I feel.” Anna offered a half smile to Guignard. Jinny offered her a full smile.

  Gwen looked at Richard and said, “It’s time for you to decide if you’re in or out. If you’re in, we’ll protect you. If you’re in, we need your loyalty. Right down the line.”

  He didn’t hesitate. “I’m in. I like y’all, and I like your lifestyle.
I haven’t spent that much time with some of you yet, but I want to.” Richard was direct and frank. “I’ve spent time with Helstof. We’ve done some writing stuff, and some reading stuff. We’ve talked a lot. Jinny and Roger have shown me the warehouse, and we’ve talked about antiques and artifacts. Roger loves that stuff, and it’s rubbing off on me. The last few months have been fodder for me, and it’s showing up in my writing. I like it. You don’t know it, but I went to West Point, and then did my years in the military after that. I did military history, because I could write. But I didn’t like the military, because I don’t like people telling me what to do, and that’s what the military is all about. So I bailed as soon as I could. But I did all the basic training. I know about conflict and discipline. I know about violence, at least second hand.” He paused to catch his breath and his thoughts, looking at the hundred year old wood floor. “Now, through you, I’ve met Anna. I’m in.”

  None of them had expected this from Richard. In fact, all of them wondered what the hell he was doing in the group. They just figured Gwen had invited him, and that made it ok. Helstof knew more about Richard than any of the others, but she couldn’t really disclose that, given the circumstances. Now they all knew something important about him, and they liked what they’d heard. They all wondered about his last statement, including Anna.

  Roger thought these comments were good and that they represented all or most of the thoughts and feelings of the group. He went into consolidation mode. “The first thing I see here is a good team. We care about each other. We don’t agree on all the finer points, and certainly we have differing perspectives, but I sense we’re in this together; that we’re committed to the good of the group. Anyone see things differently? Speak up. Gale?”

  “Y’ all are crazy, and a bunch of thieves, that’s obvious. But the history of Charleston is full of thieving, and guess what, my family did its share. I’m like Richard, I like this group. I can stand some excitement in my life. I get that the danger is real. Screw it. I’m in.”

  This was the first time Gwen and Roger had ever heard Gale swear. Gale was wild in her talk and wild in her behavior, but she didn’t swear. This was something new.

  Roger went on, “We’re not giving the stuff up to Stirg.” He looked around the circle, and saw affirmative faces. “Our two options are that we go to him and see what else we can do to pacify him, or we wait for the conflict and deal with it then, on the fly. Any other ideas?” He looked at Constantine and Henric. They were almost a generation younger than Stirg, but still were the closest to his cultural perspective.

  But it wasn’t either of them that spoke up; it was Slev, just as Gwen knew it would be. Slev stood up and walked across the circle to Anna. She went around behind the chair and put her hands on Anna’s shoulders. “It’s not about the Hermitage stuff anymore. It was in the beginning, and that’s what pissed Stirg off at first. And that was real enough for Anna to execute a mission to find out about it. But he underestimated Roger and Gwen, which is a sign he’s getting old. He never made that mistake when he was after a German down in Argentina. It was about the artifacts and his feelings of loyalty to his country. It was about resentment that someone would steal stuff. It was him being offended. All that was knocked out of him at his house when Roger hit him. I saw fear. No one ever got to him like that, and everyone at sixty-seven is weaker than earlier in life. He said it wasn’t over for him, but the artifacts stuff is over. If that was all it was, he would not come after us.” She looked around at the faces. “Now it’s something different. Now it’s all about Anna. Now it’s about the most important thing in his life. Her. It’s personal. The artifacts were not really personal. He anthropomorphized them, yes, and made them about his country and his youth and his feeling of loyalty. But in the end they’re just objects. Anna is not. Anna represents his youth in a personal and direct and emotional way. She is him, years ago, and we have taken her from him.” Slev paused, then went on. “This happens to lots of people at some point in their lives, and it can be threatening. Stirg is that type. He was a man of action, a man of principle. He was in the trenches, and that marks you. He has led a very complex life, and now he’s begun to decline. He senses this, and clings to things like chasing women, even at his age. Sorry, Anna. Now he wakes up every morning and his back hurts, and that didn’t happen before. That is a very tangible and inescapable thing. He doesn’t remember things the way he used to, and that’s annoying. He’s pissed that some Americans stole some Russian stuff. All of these things are happening in a big and dynamic mind that is starting to shrink a little bit; in a big and dynamic body that is starting to shrink. And now he gets hit with the unexpected. A capable team of people who resist him in a powerful way. No one’s come at him like this in years. Women, no less. Armed. Maybe he thought he was ahead of the curve by training Anna that way. Now he finds the Junes ahead of him, behind him, with guns. The Junes.” She looked at Roger and Gwen, and smiled.

  “And what have they done? They’ve co-opted Anna. That’s what is in his mind now, that’s the driving force in Stirg. Anna. We’re here tonight to develop a strategy to deal with him. He is coming after us and he wants to separate us from Anna. She is the lynchpin of our strategy.”

  Slev squeezed Anna’s shoulders, and went back to her seat. The dog woke up, looked around, and wandered over into the circle. She looked around at the faces, spied Henric, and waggled over to him. She missed at her first attempt to prop her front legs up onto his lap, but got it right the second time. He patted her long, narrow head, which eased the tension that Slev’s exposition had created in the group. Roger knew it was time to close out the meeting.

  “Anna, what do you think? You’ve heard everything. Help us.”

  Anna said, “I love my grandfather, and he loves me. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t do bad things. He chases young women and doesn’t treat them well. He says dumb things to old friends of his and offends them. Sometimes he wants me to be his partner, and sometimes his little girl. I can’t be both; that’s crazy. Sometimes Nev wants to leave him. We’re not so different from most families, even with all the money. That’s not such a big deal as most people think. Money doesn’t get you away from personal problems. He is different from most other people because of his past. The Nazi hunting thing was really big. Some people don’t like to talk about traumatic things, but my grandfather has told me about that stuff. It was crazily intense and violent. And that’s in my grandfather today.

  “I’ve heard everything you’ve said, and you understand the situation. All I can say is this. I want to be with you now, and I don’t want to see my grandfather hurt. I don’t know how to handle this, but I do know you have to protect yourselves. He might come after you. He will come after you. That’s all.” She looked around the circle, her face drawn. She ended by looking at the pup, and called it. It turned from Henric and waggled over to her. She needed a pet from it more than it did from her.

  Meeting adjourned.