Maxwell Stauros in :The Politicians Keeper

Chapter one: The mad Russian

When you have lived in the city of San Francisco as long as I have you tend to think that you have seen everything there is to see. As I transitioned from job to job the weird and odd experiences just piled up. Lilian said that I was beginning to become jaded, but then again I think she is just a romantic at heart.

The case that I picked up this time was defiantly the one that I felt the strongest about. These men had come into my town and started upsetting the apple cart. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for shaking things up, and throwing the apple cart down Lombard street, but what they were doing was just too far.

And that is how I ended up here, in a pizzeria in the middle of the night. This game of high stakes poker being played has more than just my life on the line.

With a loud crash the Russian threw his chair against the wall behind him. As quickly as he stood up he pulled his gun from his waist and pointed it at my head.

“You are both liar and cheater Maxwell Stauros!” he said in a thick Russian accent as I staired down the barrel of his gun.

“I don't know what you are talking about?” I said trying to sound as cool as the other side of the pillow. “I think you are just trying to get out of paying me.”

I thought the Russians eyes were going to pop right out of his head. Once he began gesturing with his gun I knew that I wasn't in immediate danger.

“You come here on very shaky terms,” the Russian began. “With very shaky credentials, and knowing more about my operation than most of my men. And now you just manage to beat me at game of cards that I knew I should not have agreed to.”

“But you did Dmitri,” I said trying my darnedest to not sound condescending. “And now that you lost you are trying to get out of paying me!”

Dmitri motioned NO with his gun.

“What makes you think that I will keep my word? Why should I not kill you right now and just burn this entire building to the ground?” he was beginning to walk in a slow circle. It was pretty obvious to me that he thought I was no threat to him. This guy was a freaking peacock.

“Because all of your bosses, and bosses bosses need this place to launder their money through,” I said sounding smug this time. “If you kill me, then my people will come looking for me, and when they find this place it will bring so much attention that your bosses will just cut there losses and go back to Miami. And by cut there losses I mean cut you out!”

Unfortunately I overstepped my boundary of luck. As I motioned to emphasize that Dmitri would be cut out by his bosses a playing card I was hiding up my sleeve flew out and landed in front of him on the table. Neither of us could believe what just happened. As Dmitri let out a roar of a bear being awakened from it's sleep early, I flipped over the table and ran into the back of the restaurant.

“Where did you run to Stauros?!” I heard Dmitri yelling as he took another shot in the dark, the bullet breaking some glass off in the distance.

I took out my phone and pressed the button marked 'Lillian'. It only took one ring for her to answer.

“I need you to get in here right away,” I whispered, trying not to draw the mad Russians attention.

“If I come in now, it's going to have to be dramatic,” she said.

I looked around the corner and saw Dmitri looking behind the counter near the cash register. For a moment his eyes and mine locked. I saw a devilish grin cross his face as he took a shot at me, the bullet sending pieces of wood and chip board everywhere just over my head.

“Then make it Dramatic!” I hollered back into the phone.

“Listen Dmitri, lets try and work this out,” I said not putting my head back around the corner.

“I don't want to hear any more of your double talk and false promises,” Dmitri said as he took another shot in my direction.

What followed next surprised Dmitri as much as it did myself. With a loud crash Lillian came smashing through the front of the store in a large black car. As I looked out to see what was happening I saw Dmitri on the floor, mumbling.

“Oh no you don't” I said as I ran up and kicked his gun out of his hand. I took his hands and secured them behind his back with the zip tie I brought just in case.

With a little bit of a wobble Lillian came out of the car. She shook off her daze and took stock of what she had done.

“The girls are in the basement,” I said as I double checked Dmitri restraints.

Lillian opened the door to the basement and stared down the long dark stairwell.

“There better not be any spiders down here,” she hollered back over her shoulder at me.

After a few moments she returned with several young girls dressed in rags following behind her, the oldest about 9 years old.

Later when the police arrived I thought for sure that they were going to haul us all off to jail. I managed to convince the detectives that arrived that I was only a bystander.

“Just so I;m clear on this, you mean to tell me that you only heard this car accident, and when you came to investigate, you found these girls in the basement, and tied up the ringleader.” The detective said to me with his fiercest scowl.

“That's about the sum of it,” I said with a smile. “You don't think I would have been playing games with these girls lives do you?”

While there wasn't much physical evidence to show otherwise, I was sure that I was going to end up in handcuffs by the end of the evening.

“Make sure that you and your girlfriend stay in town,” the detective said while tapping his pad with his pen.

“Oh I’m not his girlfriend,” Lillian said as she took my arm and pulled me away.

“So I guess all of the police force needs to know our business,” I said as we headed off down the street.