Russian Roulette: Family secrets [2021 version]

Ch. 28: Don't be smart with me!

Two routine tasks left, and Jace could call it a day.

He had spent several days guiding the new people under his command into their designated functions. At least he was not in charge of pickups. He loathed going to those dumps. Luckily, Dimitri had drawn the short straw on that shit.

Jace had gotten a bunch of seasoned guys and a few newbies to join his teams. Together with Oleksander, who supervised the weapons caches, Jace had divided his teams to teach them about the town, the different locations of the caches, transport routes, how to check out weapons from a cache if needed, and gotten them up to speed as fast and smoothly as possible.

At some point, their ability to do their jobs would become crucial for them. If not against Grychenko, then later on. It was Jace's responsibility to make sure they knew everything. All in all, he felt confident that the new men knew what to do in an emergency.

Smoking a cigarette, he waited in the parking lot near one of Gareth's warehouses to be picked up by his team. They had to get a shipment of weapons and then take them to a cache for storage. Oleksander waited at the cache, and when handed over to him, Jace's day would be done.

Jace had three other teams out doing the same at other delivery locations. Oleksander was a smart man. He made sure the deliveries were small and at alternating locations every time to avoid the authorities. Gareth did not stock up weapons to sell or trade, he only brought in weapons to use against an enemy, and with Grychenko in their asses, they needed extra shipments.

The big truck with the logo of a twenty-four-hour moving service, driven by Kolja, with Igor and Pavel, came first. They joined him, smoking while they waited for the two other cars. A little later, a van with a twenty-four-hour locksmith logo arrived with Nicholay and Ruslan and parked next to the moving truck, soon followed by a huge cold storage truck with Stepan, Yefim, and Kirill.

Kirill, a mechanic at a garage owned by Gareth, had designed their vehicles specifically to look like they belonged in the city nightlife picture. Nobody suspected any twenty-four-hour service companies to not have their people working at night. And the cold storage could in theory deliver at any deli, supermarket, or restaurant, and would not raise an eyebrow if going through town, even during the night.

Just smoking and talking for a bit made them all relax.

That did not mean they were not prepared or alert. All of them knew the importance of weapons deliveries, and they were all good at it. Though some of them were new to Jace's team, they had been on weapons duty in the cities they came from. They all knew the drill, and looking relaxed and bored with their jobs was part of that. If they had to pull over at a gas station or something to avoid suspicion, being lazy and smoking served as a great façade.

When Jace had asked them to saddle up, they had all gotten in their respective cars and drove their specific routes to the delivery rendezvous, where they would meet again.

It was safest if they took different routes.

Jace rode with Nicholay and Ruslan in the van. They all took their time to smoke and shoot the breeze. They needed to act and look casual, which they had to be in the mood for.

Nicholay was far chattier than Ruslan. He had some great tales from his work in Moscow with Gareth's mother before he got transferred to another city and later ended up on Jace's team.

Jace already knew Gareth's mother, Zariyah. She was a tough lady, though she looked like a porcelain doll. Beautiful and well-mannered. She spoke softly and rarely raised her voice at anything or anybody, though if the going got tough, she did not hold back. She had a mouth on her that would make most sailors proud.