Britten

CHAPTER 17

Alex, Scott and James arrived at what looked like a shipping company. There were delivery trucks docked in bays. This is the shipping company the guys have been casing for the last two weeks. Scott looked around and didn't see any large trucks and didn't see Giovanni's car. "Think this is a set up," James whispered. "I don't think she would do that to us," Scott whispered back.

All of a sudden a bay door opened and all three of them looked. Giovanni stood there and looked at all three of them. "Ready?" They nodded. He offered his hand to help them up in the bay then closed the door.

It was a legit shipping company. There were boxes stacked up that needed to be shipped out. A lot of them were near the bays they needed to go out in. Giovanni started walking so they followed. "Britten seemed to trust the three of you, can I," he asked as he turned around to look at them.

"Britten said there was cash involved," Scott said. Giovanni smiled and turned back around. He headed over to a semi that was sitting on what looked like a scale. "Yes, there is money involved. Stand here." He pointed to the scale, so they stood there.

Giovanni went over to a light switch and flipped it. The platform started going down. He went back over to them and jumped down on the platform. When they got underground they saw crates everywhere and another semi with a thick bald man standing by the cab.

Giovanni went over to him. "Damn he has a thick neck," Alex said. "James are you getting this," Scott whispered. "Yeah," he said softly. James had a camera built into one of his buttons on his shirt. It was the first time he had ever used it on a case.

Giovanni went back over to the three of them. "Uri has a schedule, so we keep that schedule. We have two hours to load the truck." Scott gave a nod. Giovanni led them over to the crates. "Fifty of these small crates need to be loaded, twenty five of those crates over there, and a hundred of those over there.

They were going to have to break one of the crates to find out what was in them. "You with me, the two of you together," Giovanni said as he had Scott go with him. They went over to the large crates first, the ones he needed twenty five of. Scott helped Giovanni pick up one of the crates and it was heavy.

They headed for the truck, so Alex and James picked up one. Alex gave James a questioning look and James slightly shook his head no. He didn't want to drop a crate yet.

When they got down to five boxes left James made himself trip and the box crashed to the floor. The lid popped open and a mortar fell out. Giovanni rushed out of the truck and over to them to check it out.

"Idiots," he said as he flipped the crate back up. "Help me." Alex helped him put the mortar back in the crate then Giovanni went and grabbed a hammer to put the lid back on. "Drop one again and I'll kill you." James frantically nodded and got up.

"What's in the others?" Giovanni stared for a minute then walked off. "Nothing for you to know about." He looked at his watch and started moving faster. "Just hurry up." Giovanni seemed panicked and that made Scott wonder why.

They continued moving crates for the next hour and a half. When the truck was loaded Giovanni went back over to Uri and took a bag from him. They stood there and talked for a moment then Uri got in the truck.

Giovanni went over to the wall and hit a button. A wall opened to a tunnel and Uri took off through it. Giovanni hit the button again after he got through and the wall closed. He went back over to the guys and had them get on the scale. He hit another button on the wall then hopped up on the scale.

When they got back up to the building Giovanni took the bag over to a table with boxes on it. He started pulling money out of the bag. They were half inch thick bundles of hundred dollar bills. He packed them into four somewhat small boxes then broke open one of the bundles.

He counted out three stacks of five thousand a piece then looked at the three of them. "Want to make this a regular thing?" Scott gave him a cocky smile. "If that kind of money comes every time then I'm in." Giovanni looked at James and Alex. "I'm in," Alex said. "Yeah me too," James said. "Good. I'll let you know when I need you."

He handed each of them their money then told them to leave. They piled into Scott's car and took off. They had to get to Holly. Scott took off like a bat out of hell to where Holly was staying. James was sharing an apartment with him so he could keep up with surveillance from James's mini cams that he had on him.

Holly was waiting for them as soon as they walked in. "Did you catch that?" Holly nodded. "Get it saved to a thumb drive. Two down one to go. Now we just need to figure out how to get a confession out of one of them. It might be time to tell Britten who we are and see if she can help us."

"Iwould wait Holly. Let Orion get a littledeeper." Holly stared at Scott. "That or Manny, but from the way Manny talks,she is going to trust Orion more than him." Holly sighed and shook his head. "I don't like this but you're right. Keep helping Giovanni and I'll talk to Orion."