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“I’ve never seen him that rattled” uttered Henry without realizing he said it out loud.
“We’re working without a net here!” answered Slim.
“He always works without a net, oh, my, did I say that first part out loud?” Henry asked.
“You did” Stretch replied “and I would like to know just how rattled you’ve seen him.”
“Irritated, never rattled” answered Henry. “There is a story circulating about him that says he got rattled once. It was the last time he knew the names and faces of anyone in management.”
“How’d they become unknown to him?” Giant asked. Really not the sharpest tool in the shed.
“There was a sudden restructuring” answered Henry. “A great chunk of management was permanently retired. By him. Rumor has it the conditions were somewhat similar. A certain group in management wanted to kill off the senior workers and start their own company with new hires and, of course, all the money the old company had. Didn’t work out so well for them. A few more countries got added to the list of places he can’t work and we got a smaller management team.”
“Countries?” asked Slim.
“Just because we are in America doesn’t mean everyone running this company is here” answered Henry. “A large part of management resides outside of the United States, some in countries without a U. S. extradition treaty. It helps facilitate global jobs and ensures no single law enforcement agency can bring down the entire company.”
“Personally, I would advise you young kids to take his earlier offer of a handful of diamonds, then run like Hell” continued Henry. “I was naive enough to believe management just got tired of all his shit and wanted him gone. The minute the police are tipped off to the other place, that’s the minute human sacrifices start happening wholesale.”
“We can time that” said Slim.
“Can we?” queried Stretch. “You know how the place smelled. How long before the kids up the street run to mommy and daddy complaining of the smell? Whether we do it or not, the fuse will be lit. If we aren’t the ones to do it, we will be sitting here when that grenade goes off.”
“How so?” asked Giant.
“We only have the files off some of our phones” answered Slim. “Without the rest, we don’t really know what it is we are supposed to do and exactly who to do it to.”
“You guys check out the files from Dimitri. I’m guessing it has everything we really need, assignments be damned” Henry answered.
“What are you going to do?” Giant challenged.
“Go to bed” answered Henry. “Save the pictures of people you want me to look at and I will see if I recognize any of them in the morning. I’m a Chef. Field operatives and field tactics aren’t in my wheelhouse. Whatever we learn tonight, it will be the three of you who figures it out. Hopefully we won’t need to ‘question’ the watcher. I don’t know of any place we could safely use for the interrogations. For people who play chess to relax, the Russians didn’t think this through. We are below sea level in New Orleans. Even if we find an abandoned warehouse and nobody within earshot of it, we won’t be able to bleach out all of the DNA.”
“We are going to need more bleach than a person can buy without attracting attention too” Stretch mused. “Even if we each buy one gallon, we will have to make several trips. That’s a lot of security video.”
“I can get five gallon from the bar and each restaurant I own, but, you are correct. We will be looking at a forty gallon minimum if the place is to be mostly clean and the drain somewhat clean” responded Henry. “Too much for me to pull out without questions.”
“But five gallon is okay?” queried Giant.
“We use that much to clean this place once a tenant has moved out. All of those bathrooms. When a new guest checks in this place is sterile. Oh, I should see just how much is here!” Henry said as he dashed off. A few minutes later he returned and stated “we have three gallon to start. One in the kitchen, one in the garage and one in the laundry room.”
“Need a big roll of heavy plastic wrap and duct tape” said Giant into the air. “At least need to make a splatter barrier, even if we don’t cover the floor. He’ll need to make a poncho for him out of it as well. Should be able to get that at a big box hardware store.”
Henry fished around in a drawer pulling out a pad and pen then handed it to the Acrobats saying “make a shopping list while you go through the data we have. I’ll go get it in the morning.”
“Why you?” asked Giant.
“Because I live here” answered Henry. “I’ll get it from places where I’m known. Most won’t have cameras and even if they do it won’t seem odd. A tourist buying a roll of plastic will attract attention. Hmm, if we don’t need a full roll, I think there is a part roll at the bar. We had some work done a few months ago and they used it to wall off the part being remodeled. Might even have duct tape in the store room as well.”
“The IV supplies will be a bit trickier” offered Slim.
“I know he prefers having them so he can jack the person with uppers if they start passing out, but he may have to do without. We don’t have 180 days in our time table. Once the watcher falls we will be lucky to have 72 hours” answered Henry. “There won’t be time for finesse. Now, let me get some sleep. If you wish I’ll make you breakfast, otherwise help yourself to whatever is in the kitchen and put your dishes in the machine.”
“One last thing” piped up Slim. “You said you had picture of the watcher?”
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