Click – Brothers At Arms #5

With a small snort, Desi simply shook her head.

“So, you knew about me all along too?” Delaney asked him.

Leon tisked “Of course, my dear. It is how I operate.” He looked around at the men and women in the room. “I may know all of you better than you know yourselves.”

Zeus cleared his throat and nodded. “Ok, now that this is settled, the sun is up and we have work to do.” He looked at his men and said, “We have to find and dig up that abandoned well and try to locate this fake tree stump Barrett used for his drug runs. I want some men on the roof to watch our backs while we’re out there in case Barrett decides we’re getting too close to his stash and tries to shoot us.” He turned to Leon and asked, “Can your men be outside the gates to try and find him?”

Leon nodded. “Si, my men want this man as badly as we all do. They don’t appreciate being made fools of by him.”

“I can stand a watch on the roof if you like,” Desi offered. “I’m a fair shot with a rifle and I’ll shoot the bastard but I won’t kill him. I want him to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison. While knowing the money he stole is back in the hands of who he stole it from and I want to be the one to testify at his trial.”

Marty nodded. “Me and Lindy will go with her. You know we can shoot too.”

Leon smiled and looked over at Zeus.

He slowly shook his head.

Just then, three men came to the doorway and they hesitated to speak for a moment while they stared at the group in the kitchen. Finally, the lead man cleared his throat and looked at Marty. “We’re all done. We managed to block the entrances and exits to the tunnels every twenty feet or so. We found most of the air ducts and blocked them as well.”

Marty smiled and said, “Thank you Rafe.”

“Ms. Marty I got to say whoever made that maze below ground knew what he was doing.” Rafe shook his head. “We found more damn tunnels that we knew were there but the foam blocked them all. We found fifteen exits and nine entrances to this place.”

One of his men nodded. “We went as far as we could get. Some of the places had blockages of dirt and debris, but we did manage to find an open tunnel by what looked like a still room? We completely filled that tunnel. The foam did a great job and unless we missed something, we got it all buttoned up for you.”

Marty nodded,” Just wait here for a few minutes, ok?” She left the kitchen.

Leon moved in for a cup of coffee.

Lindy smiled at him as she poured him a cup then offered it to him.

“Gratzi.” He took the mug from her. “A man cannot concoct plans to surmount evil without his coffee.”

She and the other two women chuckled.

Marty returned and handed Rafe a thick envelope.

Rafe frowned as he opened the flap to see the bills. “Are you sure about this?” he asked her.

“I’m sure. You guys did a last minute job and we appreciate the effort and the all nighter you just pulled.”

“Well ma’am, we were honored that you called us. And I thank you,” Rafe assured her. Then he gave the others there a nod of his head as he the other two men left

Zeus shook his head and looked around the room, “We need to get the men up, so we can get this done. I sure as hell hope we can find this money or the man himself. This cannot end soon enough for me.”

Marty nodded at Desi and Lindy said, “Let’s grab our rifles and get on the roof. We can give our men backup and protect them while they do search and seizure.”

Desi nodded as Lindy gave her cousin a grin. They both followed Marty out.

Zeus shook his head and looked over at Leon, knowing the man would be smiling. “We’d better get out there and find that well.”

Wearing that expected smile on his face, Leon drank the rest of his coffee and plucked his phone out from his vest pocket.

Ten minutes later, the men heard footsteps on the roof as they gathered shovels and the well map. They’d decided two areas fit the criteria of what they needed to find. So they split into two teams. Both wells were in the same area so they wouldn’t be too far apart.

When the group found the first well and began digging up the lip of the old well, Diabolus looked around. With his recent stab wound, no one would let him dig in the ground but he couldn’t just stand there and watch the others at work either. Heading over toward the line of trees nearby, he began searching. Slowly moving along, he kept his eyes at ground level in an attempt to find the fake tree trunk the dealer had used to deposit Barrett’s drug money. When he spotted some of the trunks nearby, he tried them. The minutes ticked by then after several misses, he knocked on one tree trunk and it didn’t sound like the rest. Running his hand down the side of the trunk, he paused. It felt like all the others but when he took a closer look, he found the bark had been glued on rather than having grown on the outside.

Shaking his head and feeling a bit excited, he got down on his knees and immediately noticed other differences. The top seemed to have a series of small hinges.

Leon had stood and watched him the entire time. When Diabolus knelt down, he walked over to him. “Is it real or what?”

Diabolus looked up and told him, “No, it is fake as hell. I found some glue and hinges and as far as I know, trees don’t come with those features.” He grinned. “I might have found the fake tree trunk Barrett used for his deposits.”

Leon raised his brows as he too, looked excited at this find. He then paused to look from the trunk Diabolus was at and then the short distance away where the other men were digging out the lid. The ground had overgrown the hole in the earth and as their shovels hit the cement lid of the old well, a sudden thought entered his mind. “You don’t suppose the trunk is linked by a shaft to the well do you?”

Diabolus snorted. “At this point, nothing would surprise me. A clown could come up from that well while making damned animal balloons, and I wouldn’t bat a fucking eyelash.”

Pausing, Leon chuckled. “Indeed. Me either.” He turned to watch the men trying to lift the old lid from where they had dug it up.

Zeus and the men finally got it loose enough to get it up and out of its hole. When they lifted it and pushed it over to the ground next to the hole, they all leaned in to look into the dark hole.

“We need some light here.” Zeus growled as he peered into it.

“Boss, let me try something,” Diabolus called out, then he got up, walked over to a pile of rocks and picked one up. He then went back to the trunk and began working the lid. When he finally got it open, he turned and glanced at Zeus.

“What the hell are you doing?” Zeus asked him while looking puzzled.

“I think I found the fake trunk. Leon thinks this deposit hole might be connected to the well. We need to find out.”

Zeus shrugged. “Then let’s find out.”

With Leon beside him, Diabolus pushed the rock in through the trunk opening.

With lights shining into the well hole, they all heard it coming and soon enough the rock dropped in through a small opening deep inside the old well.

Zeus turned his head to Leon and Diabolus and nodded. “It came through all right.” Looking determined, he stated, “I’m going to call Click and Captain. Have them bring a ladder and more lights out here. This secret ends here and now.”

About ten minutes later, Captain drove a truck down to them. In the back were a couple of ladders and an outside bright light that would allow them to see how deep the well went.

Getting everything set up, took a while but when they stuck one of the ladders down into the hole, they found it hit the ground at about twenty feet deep.

Zeus looked over at Memphis and shook his head.

Memphis set up another ladder on the other side of the well. Both men went down into the hole. They were carrying lights and they had small duffle bags over their shoulders.

Leon, Diabolus, Captain, and the rest of the men waited for a long while for them to appear again.

About twenty minutes later, they popped up through the hole in the ground and tossed the duffle bags over the edge onto the grass.

Climbing out, Zeus looked over at Leon and shook his head. “That man has a lot of money down here. We found three dozen bundles of loose money from his drug days plus the money from the bank robbery and what looks like the gem heist. We could barely fit it all into the bags. He’s got nothing left now, at least not behind these walls.”

Leon’s eyes glittered with a feral light as he replied, “And now we wait for him to realize that. Then I honestly hope he goes insane. When he does, all hell will break loose.”

Memphis then climbed out of the hole. The other men brought up the ladders. They loaded everything in the back of the truck and Captain drove it back home.

Leon glanced at Zeus as they stood above the well hole. “What are you going to do with that?” He nodded his head at the opening in the ground.

“I’m going to leave it just like it is, open and empty. That will be our message to Barrett. A sort of fuck you, we got it all type of message.”

“I like that. But you do know that’s going to drive Barrett right over the edge don’t you? He will come at us with nothing left to lose.”

Zeus nodded. “Like I care. We need him to do just exactly that. And we’ll be ready for him when he does.” He moved away and then stopped when his phone pinged with a text message. Reaching for his cell, he read the text from Marty then turned to glare over at the fence. Turning his head back to Leon he announced, “The girls saw Barrett moving around on the other side of the fence. He’s trying to figure out what we’re doing and it appears he’s very agitated.” Shaking his head he said, “The dumbass must have figured out what we’re doing here.”

“Yeah and he doesn’t seem to like it much does he?” Diabolus growled.

Zeus shook his head. “No, I am sure he hates the idea. I can only imagine that he’s about ready to pop by this time.”

“And now is when we must be ready for just about anything from him,” Leon stated. “The man is no idiot and this was the dream that got him through several years in prison and now we snatched the prize right out from under his nose. He didn’t seem to mind us taking his sons away from him or us finding the bulk of what his grandfather left behind but this stash was his. He robbed so many and hid a fortune. This was his own sweat, blood and tears. He may not be in his right mind anymore but I have a feeling he knows this much.”

Zeus looked over at him. “So now it is his nightmare, as I like to think of it.” He almost smiled at the idea. “So what do you think he’s going to do about this turn of events?”

Leon pondered this for a moment then said, “I think he knows he can’t do anything by himself right now, so he’ll wait until his own men get here. That’s when they will plan out their strategy and then they will make their move. But in the meantime, Barrett will have time to think about this turn of events and he’ll have the time between then and now to come up with some kind of plan.”

Memphis shook his head. “Lord save us from the plan of a madman.”

“We’d better get back to the clubhouse,” Diabolus grumbled. “I for one do not want to be caught out here in the open. Especially this close to the fence line. The nut case could climb a tree and get a shot or three off before we would even know it.

“Aww, Diabolus…” Memphis grinned at him. “Don’t you trust our backup?”

“Si.” Leon smiled. “We have some pro snipers on that roof, young man. In fact, I’d hate to be Barrett if he does show his face.”

“I trust them all right, I’ve seen Mary and Lindy in action. But it’s not them I don’t trust but Barrett himself. If he’s crossed that line into insanity, then he’s probably figuring he’s got nothing left to lose. Men in that frame of mind, just don’t care who’s shooting at them. He probably wouldn’t think that we got people watching our backs. That would never occur to him because he’s never had anyone else’s back and he thinks he’s alone out here until his men get here.”

Leon chuckled. “He may not know it, but my men are searching for him on the other side of that fence as well. If he had any brain’s left he wouldn’t lift his rock up high enough to stick his nose out, he might get it shot off.”

“That’s all well and good but I’d rather not risk it if you don’t mind,” Diabolus grumbled.

“Si, you might be right about that. We should go back and get under cover ourselves.” Leon nodded.

Zeus turned to walk back to the clubhouse. “It’s gonna be a long day and an even longer night.”

“Si, I believe it will be,” Leon agreed as he followed him. “But if Barrett can make a plan, so can we.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Memphis asked as he walked beside the two men.

“Just what I said. Think about it for a minute, giovanotto. We now have his stash, we can make plans to draw him in and take him into custody.”

Zeus looked pensive as he thought about this concept. “Like use the loot as the cheese?”

“Si, mighty Zeus.” Leon was grinning again. “To catch a very large rat.