| At a Massive truck stop on a major highway several miles from Custer, there are several gas stations, few restaurants and row upon row of semi tractor trailer trucks. Blake is longer wearing his UPS disguise and is decked out in truck driver garb. He exits one the restaurants, unwraps a toothpick, and places it in his mouth. Brian from a vantage point in a wooded area on the opposite side of the highway from the truck stop watches Blake through his binoculars. Brian is dressed as a biker and is fighting fatigue. Blake walks in among the parked trucks and disappears. Brian puts down his binoculars and yawns. �Time for a closer look.� *** From his vantage point, Zach keeps an eye in the Taylor�s house with his binoculars. Michael is fast asleep with a handkerchief tied about his face to cover his nose. Zach picks up his radio and says, �I say we should take them now. Brian is out there. I know you haven't spotted him!� Zach turns off his radio. �Shit!� He takes a cigarette and lights it. *** Within one of the semi tractor trailers parked at the truck stop, a state of the art infiltration unit is monitoring the surrounding parking lot. Jack lays on the bottom bunk bed staring at nothing. Melanie is at a monitoring watching one of the screens and wears a head set. Ted and Blake are playing a game of chess and another man is making a fresh pot of coffee. Looking over all the screens, Melanie takes an interest in one. Melanie sees a man�s backside, Brian, as he pours gas into his motorcycle. She zooms in on him. Brian is wearing his motorcycle helmet. He finishes pumping gas and kneels to check his tires. Under her breath, she says, �Bloody hell.� She reaches for a cigarette and wants to light it but defers to the man lying on the bunk bed. �This suck!� �Now Melanie, you know it upsets me to hear s woman cursing,� Jack remarks. �I just need a break.� �Ted, take over for Melanie.� �I�m on it!� Ted instantly abandons the chess game and goes over to take her headset. The man who was making coffee quickly takes Ted�s sit and the chess game. In a native Russian accent, Blake says, �Finally some real competition.� The man smiles and moves one of the chess pieces. �Damn!� Blake replies. Ted looks over at Blake. �I was beating you and you know it.� Then Ted turn to Melanie and asks, �Seen anything interesting?� �Not a bloody thing. Sapperstein just checked in from the rondeaux point. It�s just to quiet, to perfect.� �It still amazes me that without any help my Sonny Boy has been able to eluded us for over a now. But he will take the bait, won�t he, Mel?� �Brian is what you had us train him to be, Jack. For all we know he could be right outside, and we wouldn�t know it!� �You don�t seem to be enjoying the game as much as you use to, Mel. There�s always someone wanting to buy, someone wanting to sell, but the game itself revolves around who is going to try and stop the buying or selling.� �Well, then, Jack, if this is all just a game, I�d have to say your Sonny Boy probably stacked the deck in his own favor. I would.� She looks directly at Jack. �He�s definitely stopped you. Hell, he�s pretty much stopped all of us. made us all wanted criminals by selling our photos to all...� �He needed money. any of us could have done the same thing. That is why I pay you all so well, Mel. If all he wanted was the boy, he would not have needed to try and destroy us.� �I didn�t realize you gave him a choice.� �There are always choices to be made, Mel. The one in power simply controls the choices.� Jack smiles. �You and Zach, your little romance, all these years, do you really think Zach would have had anything to do with you unless I told him to?� Trying to hide the hurt, Melanie explains, �You think I�m not aware of...� �We�re now commanding fees in the millions as the most elite hit squad on the planet. Brian�s actions have only advertised our services and made us famous. I will have my disc back, and Brian will work for me. Or we will eliminate him.� �You should have left Brian behind when his mother was killed. It would have been kinder.� �Kinder? I suppose I should have left you in that Turkish prison. Would it have been kinder?� �At least, I would be free by now!� Ted and Blake share a knowing glance at each other. �You wouldn't have survived the first year. Brian simply has to learn as you have learned. There is no escaping me.� Jack grabs Melanie and kisses her seductively on the lips. �You�ll see, Mel, that I am the master of the this game.� �The king is dead. Long live the king.� �If Brian should kill Jack, I would kill Brian,� the man said as move a chess piece into check with Blake�s king. �You would do this for me? Kill my only son?� �For you, Senior. I would die!� �Then am I avenged. You see, Mel, I always get what I want.� With a look of impending loss on her face, Melanie puts another unlit cigarette into her mouth. |