Major Mistakes

Chapter 3 - Getting Ready for the Jobs

Oceanside California
Sunday 8pm

J is sprawled out on his bed, next to him Nicky is sleeping soundly after an afternoon day drinking poolside with Smurf and his uncles. Especially his uncle Craig, he has noticed they are getting closer together, he caught them whispering in the hallway. J suspects that Nicky finally took Craig up on his offer to share a line of coke with her. A fact that Nicky vehemently denies, and J pretended to believe. He is watching her sleep when he sees a shadow enter his doorway. It's his uncle Pope. He sees Nicky sleeping and whispers,

"Get up, get dressed, you're coming with me."

J knows better than to question him, so he slides out of bed and pulls on his jeans and laces up his Nike's. He walks down the hall looking for his uncle and finds his grandmother Smurf in the kitchen. She smiles when she sees him, reaching out to give him a hug. As she embraces him she pulls his ear close to her mouth.

"Don't mess this up baby, seems like your Uncle Pope is willing to give you the second chance your other uncles aren't. Make me proud, baby." She kisses his cheek and releases her hug, stepping away towards the living room she turns.

"Pope's waiting in the garage." J walks out into the garage, where Pope is gathering tools and a couple of license plates and putting them in the back of his pickup.
Pope slides in behind the wheel as J climbs in the passenger seat.

"Alright J, let's see if you can redeem yourself? We need to get a car and a truck for the job. So tell me J, since Smurf thinks you are so smart, where might we find a car and a truck?" He has stopped the truck at the top of the Cody driveway. J sits back not wanting to answer too quickly, he controls his breathing, taking several deep breaths before checking something on his phone, he answers.

"Airport, long term parking, and we need to be there soon there is a 10:30 and an 11pm flights leaving out, both international flights, one to Sydney the other Beijing. Both places people don't just go to for the weekend so they should be parking soon. We should have a good selection." J doesn't smile on the outside but he knows he has impressed Pope.

"Smart, I would be surprised if Deran or Craig ever think about checking flights. They are more a grab and go type. He turns and heads to the airport.
They park on the lot far away from the airport entrance, backing the pickup in, killing the engine. Thus giving them a great view of the people arriving. After only a few minutes a Dodge Challenger pulls into the lot, parking near the airport walkway. A man gets out, opens the trunk and removes 2 suitcases from it. He walks across the lot towards the airport. J motions to Pope.

"There's our car, and I think that that Toyota Tundra 3 spots down is our truck." Pope looks at him quizzically,

"And how do you know it's owner isn't going to come strolling up while we are boosting it. It really complicated things if the owner shows up." He says snidely.

"He won't show up, I can guarantee it." J says confidently.

"Really? How's that smarty?" Pope retorts.

"Well it rained around lunchtime right?" J says smiling.

"Yeah, I guess. Why?" Pope said getting annoyed with his nephew.

"Well that was the first time it rained in what 2-3 weeks right, and look at the puddles and water under the truck. I was parked after the rain. So we good, can we get on to stealing these damn cars or do we need to talk about it more?" J says opening his door, leaving Pope sitting dumbfounded behind the wheel. They both get out of the truck and grab a backpack from the back of the truck. Pope looks at J.

"You get the truck, I'll take the car. You can steal a car right?" Pope said snidely.

"Yeah, I got this, see you at the garage." J said before creeping over to the truck, sliding the slim Jim into the window expertly popping the lock. A few minutes later they were both on the way headed away from the airport. As they pull up to a building the door opens and they drive in. Deran and Craig are inside.

"Sweet ride." Craig gushes over the Challenger as Pope gets out. J has gotten out of the Tundra and is busy pulling a set of license plates out of the backpack, he begins switching out the plates on the truck. When Pope comes over to him,

"Good work kid, maybe Smurf's right about you." He raises his volume,

" You really are as smart as Smurf says you are, Deran, this kid. He's super smart. He checked the flights right on his phone and he figured it all out." Deran laughs and walks over and ruffled J's hair.

"So if Pope thinks you're smart I guess we all are supposed to, but you haven't proven yourself to me yet. I still don't trust you." He walks towards his electric green Scout,

"Come on Craig, we gotta go get the truck from the airport, Let's go." He is angry, while they were waiting he and Craig had been arguing. He was sick of arguing about J, even though he was Julia's kid, didn't mean he had to like or much less trust the kid. They hadn't been able to trust Julia for the last 10 years. He was angry because Craig had reminded him of what Pope had said the other day 'that Deran didn't like J because he didn't want to give up being the baby in the family.' Craig still wasn't coming he sighs gets back out of the Scout.

"Craig, Let's fucking go NOW!" J and Pope lock up the garage as Baz pulls into the lot. He rolls down the window of his Jeep.

"Please tell me you two got them? And please tell me the car has some balls." Baz says unlocking the doors. Pope gets in the passenger seat.

"They will do. And Smurf's right our nephew is smart." Pope states. J gets in the backseat and they ride home in silence.

Tecaté Mexico
Tuesday 10pm

Inside a barn on a farm outside of Tecaté there is a steel grey Dodge Durango. It's doors are open, the seats are sitting on the ground outside the vehicle. There is a team of men armed with blow torches and sawzall's they are cutting into the frame, welding secret compartments to the bottom and inside of the truck. Once they are finished they pack there tools and leave.

Soon another group arrives at the barn they open the back of the van they came in and begin unloading crate after crate of guns, rifles, shotguns and even some AR15's. They stash them into all of the secret compartments. They load the seats with several tightly wrapped blocks before reassembling the truck. It looks completely normal, several guards are positioned around the barn. The guards will stay with the truck until the following morning when the driver arrives to deliver the truck almost 600 miles away in Charming California. Just another day for the cartel in Mexico.

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