“William, Nick Johnson.”
I was having such a hard time processing what just happened that I had to pull the car
over in a shopping center. After a few minutes, I knew this latest wrinkle should be presented to
William. I was so close to my disappearance date that I just wanted to make sure I was thinking
rationally. If I chose to delay the date for a month or two so as to get a better read of my new
blackmailers, but then decided that I needed to disappear, the crime would have become a lot
more difficult to pull off. Especially given how much longer the daylight is in March versus
January.
“Nick, how are you?”
“Confused, William,” I say, pulling the car out of the shopping center. “It seems that I
have a new criminal network blackmailing me. I met them fifteen minutes ago at my medical
building and they told me that Oleg and his partner have been killed.”
“What?” William shouted into the phone. Betsy must not have been home. “This thing
gets more bizarre by the minute!”
“Yeah, it does,” I say. “So the question here is whether these guys are going to play by
standard blackmail rules and leave my family alone if I cooperate.”
“These guys didn't tell you where they were from, did they?” William asked.
“No, but they have been doing there homework on my family,” I reply.
“Well, are they following you? Because, I would be on the lookout at your home tonight
to see exactly who is monitoring you? And it just occurred to me that the Czechs may not as dead
as these guys are saying.”
Timothy Gilbert
Damage Control
281
The more I thought about it, it was hard to imagine Oleg and his pony tail partner being
blindsided like that.
“So, don't make any decision, wait it out for a few days?” I asked William.
“That seems to be your only choice at this point.”
Timothy Gilbert
Damage Control
282
Tuesday, January 7th
8:10pm
Jim Lick's cell phone buzzed and he flipped it open. “Jim, it's Mihail, we have a
problem.”
“What happened?” Jim fired into the phone.
“Your guys are dead because Oleg knew when they were coming. You have a leak
somewhere and you must find it.”
“Oh, that guy is getting an army up his ass!”
“Good,” Mihail asserted.
“It'll take me a bit to put it all together, but, this time, it won't matter if Oleg knows when
we are coming!”
“Alright, I'll call you over the weekend,” Mihail said.
Timothy Gilbert
Damage Control
283
Wednesday, January 8th
2:30pm