Russian Roulette

Chapter Fifty-Eight: A Little Girl

---Isador---

Isador messed with his hands a bit the awkwardness causing him to direct his gaze more to the ground as he shuffled his feet a bit. Aodhan relaxed and smirked at Justin. "Rather bold of you, Zamiski, to assume I only do car thefts..." He was insulted, that was fairly clear, but he did not dwell on it. Isador looked up slowly to watch everyone's interaction with everyone. He was a bit nervous about them all meeting Aodhan. After all, the last thing Aodhan said to him --before Isador contacted him earlier-- was that he knew his Feds. *The man does his homework... but he also has a hacker who cracked the FBI's system quite a few years ago.... Oh, and Isador? He knows who you really are too... So maybe be careful?*

Aodhan looked at Aleksei then. "Actually it was a very easy decision. Have you taken a look around? A war is wreaking havoc across this state, people are dying... paying people are dying..." Aodhan sighed before giving a nod. "What you see here is not a warehouse, nor is it a sales floor. The basement is more like fallout shelter. I've got an armory, bunks, a kitchen, and locker room type area you are welcome to use. Only two ways to access it, so it's rather secure. Also not on the blueprints for the building itself, so it's actually rather perfectly hidden." Aodhan laughed lightly when he spotted the liger and piglet.

"Promise the liger is semi-trained... I cannot speak for the pig..." Isador had not mentioned the two animals in his rather quick chat with Aodhan. *Well shit... he could send us packing based on just that...* Aodhan looked at Isador, studied him for a moment before speaking again.

"There should be a space for them inside the main floor of the building... Next to the tanks. That way if the building collapses the tanks will shelter them." Aodhan could tell there was tension amongst these men. Well, he could tell who had what tensions at least. Aleksei's smile caught him a bit off guard. "No sir needed. A friend of Benji is a friend of mine... And those? Yes, they run well, trailers are very accessible. I own them. I have others, but they are locked in different states with all this... shite happening. What brings ya to ask?"

----Aleksei---

Ex-Fed Justin looked at Aodhan with a blink of surprise before letting out a low chuckle, "The last time I was called that is when a certain someone tried to rat me out to my now dead boss." Justin looked at Aleksei who cringed as he quickly looked down at his feet, "Look, I said I was sorry, okay? Technically I wasn't wrong about you being a fed, I was simply wrong about your intentions." Aleksei sighed as he walked over to get a closer look towards the semi trucks.

"Do you know how much my business suffered after that? I was so afraid of ratting out the wrong people that I stopped doing it and five gangs got taken down because of it. I'm too good at my job, that's my problem." Aleksei clarified. His business was a serious one and he did not like bringing back memories from his worse days.

"Anyways, I go by Ghost now. Let's keep it that way." ah, Ghost replied.

"Aleksei...plan?" Eko got Aleksei back on track and Aleksei turned back to them with a nod, "okay okay, my bad. So anyways, trojan mule." Aleksei said and Eko glared at him confused, "You mean horse?" but Aleksei shook his head, "No, No, not horse, mules, they are better." Aleksei let out a cough so he wouldn't let himself get distracted again, "As I was saying, we could use those semi as a trojan mule. Make it look like the national guard is transporting arsenal to aid in the war. Jerome will happily take a chance at stealing the semi, we let him take it, because with those highly dangerous weapons will be explosives. The truck will be fitted with a tracker, once they take the trucks into the garage, we hit detonate and boom, they also lose their hideout, some good men, vehicles and lots of arsenal themselves." Aleksei said and the bald assassin clapped, "Wow, came up with that one in a few minutes did ya?" he mocked before continuing, "One, how will we get Jerome to think that this hunk of junk is a military property? and two with what explosives?" he raised and Aleksei tilted his head.

"Good, it seems like you just volunteered your team to help with finding explovies." Aleksei glared before looking at Eko, "How do you feel about putting on some riot gear and driving those tanks that I'm sure Aodhan will let us use." Aleksei looked back at Aodhan with his own raise of a brow, basically saying that he wants to use them with or without permission and this is his first good plan so without permission will be enforced with whatever means necessary, he wasn't going to allow this one to slip away.

"Ya heard him, going to need access to those tanks, and the armory," Eko smiled as he shifted his gun a little, oh they were guest and they were supposed to ask nicely? Well, this was nice for them. Eko's group got ready to help out with getting the vehicles ready while Bald Assassin's group prepared to start finding explosives that could be denoted manually.

"Ben, you start preparing the animals in the main floor and then you can get the bunks ready for us." Aleksei gently took Isador's hand in his before kissing him lightly on the cheek, "I promise I'm not giving you the easiest job because I don't believe in you, I'm giving you the easiest job because that is what I need from you right now." he smiled before pulling away. He wasn't completely lying, he knew by now that Isador was completely capable of handling himself, he just needed to...distract Isador as well. "Okay, everyone to your duties." he smiled at Isador again before watching everyone get to work, he stayed there and waited until Isador catered to the animals before turning to leave.

"Wait, Aleksei," Eko called out as he ran back towards the car Aleksei was in, "You do understand that's not how it happened right?" Eko asked and Aleksei tilted his head, "How what happened?" he asked back and Eko smiled, "The trojan horse was given as a gift...no one had to steal anything." Eko told and Aleksei frowned, "get back to work..." he rolled his eyes and began to back out from the hideout as Eko snickered.

On the road again! Aleksei had to pick up someone, someone that would also be very useful. The ride took hours and he didn't want to worry Isador but he couldn't have Isador wanting to come with him either. After almost 4 hours of being on the road, he stopped at a familiar apartment complex. He bolted out of his car and knocked frantically on the door as he awaited an answer.

The door creaked open as a young girl called out, "Aleksei? What are you doing here?" she asked and Aleksei barged into the room and closed the door behind him, "Aurora, we need to go. Get your most important things and we are leaving." Aleksei looked at the child who seemed confused but if he was this anxious it must have been serious. "Okay." Aurora replied as she got a backpack and began to file electronics, she also grabbed a stuffed bunny because surely she couldn't live without it. "Ready." she smiled and Aleksei nodded as he led her out of the apartment and back into his car. He put on some music for her and she gently hummed to the song as he took her back to Aodhan's place. It was almost nightfall by the time they got back.

He parked the car and waited for someone to let him in as Aurora took in the environment, "woah." she spoke softly until the door clicked as Ghost let them back inside, "Where did you...."Ghost paused as he took a moment to look down at the child before back at Aleksei, he silently walked away from the scene.

"What was that about?" Aurora asked and Aleksei huffed, "some people don't like kids." Aleksei shrugged as he situated Aurora into a spot, "okay sunflower, I need you to do some hacking, for dear old Aleksei" Aleksei requested but Aurura shook her head, "The ride was almost eight hours, I'm not hacking anything without food." she huffed and crossed her arms together, her little hands were covered up by an overly large sweater that she was wearing, clearly it was Aleksei's. He glared at her before rolling his eyes, "I'll find something." he sighed before feeling a wave of nausea himself. Oh shit, right, he hadn't had a good rest since he got back from russia, he hasn't eaten either, he had multiple near death experiences, chemicals in his face, then a liger scratched him, leaving a wound that he still didn't clean yet, then his lungs were filled with smoke from the chaos...he was tired, his body was exhausted and in three...two...one...

Crash.

Aleksei limply fell to the ground as his body finally shut down on him. Aleksei, you are not superman. Aurora watched him lay there for a bit before she carefully walked over to him, "Aleksei?" she kicked him with her feet to make sure that he was still alive, "Someone help Aleksei!" she yelled out.