What the fuck do you mean?! Carson wanted to scream, but he knew enough not to be obtuse. Obviously, Chops didn’t want to clarify further, meaning Carson had to figure it out by himself. He struggled with the riddle, his brow furrowing and his eyes moving from side to side. The growing smiles on the other two occupants only served to irritate him further and make clear thought more difficult, but finally he grasped the real meaning of the word “take,” and his heart skipped a few beats.
“You’re going to kidnap someone?!”
Chops’ face became as expressive as a corpse. “I didn’t say that. And, more importantly, you didn’t hear that, or even think it real loud. Remember ‘need to know’ from the service? Well, this is the same thing.
“All you do need to know is where to be and when. Turn off the GPS on your phone, and go buy a burner phone you can chuck in the ocean later. Tell work you have an emergency and need a coupla’ days off. Your part will be over by Saturday, maybe Sunday at the latest.”
“Three or four days,” Carson reiterated. More importantly, it meant he’d have to cancel his plans with Katie, and that seemed like a really bad idea at the moment. “This puts me in a real bad spot, Chops. Real bad.”
The beefy capo still didn’t seem concerned. “What? You got plans? You never have plans, and if you do you cancel ‘em.”
“Cancelling might raise an eyebrow or two.”
“Tell me,” Chops ordered.
Carson paused. He absolutely didn’t want to bring even Katie’s name into the situation at all, especially if it might be the last time he ever did something like this, so he had to be very careful. “It’s like this. I started dating a girl, and she really likes me. If I disappear for a weekend right now, she’s going to ask questions, and she’s smart enough to see through a shitty lie.”
To his surprise and irritation, Chops laughed raucously. “Shit, I thought it was something serious. You’ve never been married, have ya’?”
Carson shook his head. He was sure Chops knew this already.
“So all you do is tell your new squeeze that your old friend – in your case, from the Navy – came into town and wants to get together. It’s the only time you’ll be able to see him for years, so you really want to do this, and then you buy her flowers and chocolate next weekend and everything’s good.” He raised his hands, palms up, as if this was obvious to everyone and he didn’t understand why Carson needed a refresher in Being a Man 101.
“OK, fine,” he responded, accepting Chops explanation even though he had no intention of treating Katie so callously. “But what happens when half of the state, not to mention friends and family, come searching and asking questions? You expect me to hurt cops or civilians, good people? No fucking way.”
“Well, at least you’re still thinkin’,” Chops told him. “We’ve been keeping tabs on the package for quite some time, at least we did until the last week or so. This package hasn’t been in the area long, doesn’t have much of a social life, and isn’t involved with anyone as far as we can tell. No one is going to even know it’s gone until it’s back, safe and sound. This is a milk run for you.”
Carson hated this. Hated it – way more than beating up some sicko or planting drugs or wrecking an apartment. He didn’t say anything, but his feelings must have come through his expression clearly enough. Chops sighed like he was tiring of this give and take.
“Look, two things. One, like I said, if you try and refuse, it’s gonna’ suck for you. Totally suck. I think you understand what I mean. No one here wants to go that way, so how about you don’t make us go that way, OK? Two, this is so important to us that, if things work out, you’re going to wake up next week with 25 large under your pillow and we won’t bug you for any more shit – ever. That should help you deal with any of your boy-scout guilt. Are we seeing eye-to-eye now?”
Carson realized he didn’t have a good option. “Yeah.”
“Good. So it’s supposed to happen Thursday. Get your burner phone by tomorrow and make sure I have the number – you’ll hear from me by nine o’clock one way or another.”
“What do you mean, ‘one way or another?’ Are you doing this or not?”
“This isn’t like getting’ a pizza delivered, Navy,” Chops told him. “Shit happens. Things go wrong. There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to pick the package up, and that means we can’t be sure we can deliver it.”
“Sorry,” he replied without sincerity. “This is my first time.”
“No kidding. If it’s a go, you’ll be told where to go and what to do. Time is critical, so be ready to move. You know the rest. Covert. More than ever, make sure you can’t be traced to anything. At all. Got it?”
“Yeah, dammit.” He felt his hands and fingers tingling with the stress and incredulity of the moment, and he ground his teeth together hard enough to initiate a headache. This cannot be fucking happening!
“Relax,” Chops told him, and even in this moment of hyper-anxiety he recognized Chops was doing his best to be compassionate. “You and I both know that, as soon as you get the way you get, you’re gonna fuckin’ nail it. So settle your shit down, cause if you’re crappin’ your pants at work for the next two days, someone’s gonna notice, and then we all have a problem. Get it?”
He was right. Carson knew the pre- and post-mission phases were as important as the mission itself, and he couldn’t lose sight of that now. He had to get through this last obstacle, distasteful as it might be. What did Katie
