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By Root 763 0

and he didn't see the truck until he was only a few feet away. It was a beat-up Russian vehicle, with fence wire over the top, both to prevent escape and to let people see the cargo. They were going somewhere. Robin had no real idea where he was and could hardly speculate on where he might go. Nothing could be worse than this place had been - and yet he'd survived it somehow, Robin told himself as the truck rumbled away. The camp faded into the darkness, and with it the worst trial of his life. The Colonel bowed his head and whispered a prayer of thanksgiving, and then, for the first time in months, a prayer for deliverance, whatever form it might take.

'That was your doing, Mr Clark,' Ritter said after a long, deliberate look at the phone he'd just replaced.

'I didn't exactly plan it that way, sir.'

'No, you didn't, but instead of killing that Russian officer you brought him back.' Ritter looked over at Admiral Greer. Kelly didn't see the nod that announced the change in his life.

'I wish Cas could have known.'

'So what do they know?'

'They have Xantha, alive, in Somerset County jail. How much does she know?' Charon asked. Tony Piaggi was here, too. It was the first time the two had met. They were using the about-to-be-activated lab in east Baltimore. It would be safe for Charon to come here just one time, the narcotics officer thought.

'This is trouble,' Piaggi observed. It seemed facile to the others until he went on. 'But we can handle it. First order of business, though, is to worry about making our delivery to my friends.'

'We've lost twenty kees, man,' Tucker pointed out bleakly. He knew fear now. It was clear that there was something out there worthy of his fear.

'You have more?'

'Yeah, I have ten at my place.'

'You keep it at home?' Piaggi asked. 'Jesus, Henry!'

'The bitch doesn't know where I live.'

'She knows your name, Henry. We can do a lot with just a name,' Charon told him. 'Why the hell do you think I've kept my people away from your people?'

'We've got to rebuild the whole organization,' Piaggi said calmly. 'We can do that, okay? We have to move, but moving's easy. Henry, your stuff comes in somewhere else, right? You move it in to here, and we move it out of here. So moving your operation is not a big deal.'

'I lose my local -'

'Fuck local, Henry! I'm going to take over distribution for the whole East Coast. Will you think, for Christ's sake? You lose maybe twenty-five percent of what you figured you were going to take in. We can make that up in two weeks. Stop thinking small-time.'

'Then it's a matter of covering your tracks,' Charon went on, interested by Piaggi's vision of the future. 'Xantha is just one person, an addict. When they picked her up she was wasted on pills. Not much of a witness unless they have something else to use, and if you move to another area, you ought to be okay.'

'The other ones have to go. Fast,' Piaggi urged.

'With Burt gone, I'm out of muscle. I can get some people I know -'

'No way, Henry! You want to bring new people in now? Let me call Philly. We have two people on retainer, remember?' Piaggi got a nod, settling that issue. 'Next, we have to keep my friends happy. We need twenty kees' worth of stuff, processed and ready to go, and we need it right fast.'

'I only have ten,' Tucker noted.

'I know where there's some more, and so do you. Isn't that right, Lieutenant Charon?' That question shook the cop badly enough that he forgot to tell them something else that concerned him.

CHAPTER 36

Dangerous Drugs

It was a time for introspection. He'd never done anything like this before at the behest of others, except for Vietnam, which was a different set of circumstances altogether. It had required a trip back to Baltimore, which was now as dangerous a thing as any he'd ever done. He had a new set of ID, but they were for a man known to be dead, if anyone took the time to check them out. He remembered almost fondly the time when the city had been divided into two zones - one relatively small and dangerous, and the other far larger and safe. That was