Conceal Me What I Am Ch. 02

"What's the first step?" She enquired.

"Well, I suppose we ought to be good and well behaved for at least the next day or two, so our tails start to lose their interest in us and get a bit more susceptible to some creative misdirection. It's just absolutely amazing what you can do with Miracle Putty and a very twisted and creative mind!"

She laughed. "That will be good. I'll need a day or two to pass around a low-key request for us to have a meeting with Boss Dénes. I think I have a secure info-path channel, but it's probably not a very direct one. From what I've seen of the briefing report there isn't shit there. There aren't even any direct interview reports with so much as a single local gun dealer to establish if a weapons smuggling ring might be working locally. They would know, especially the two or three big ones. There aren't many small ones; the way dealer licensing is, they need a hefty fee to even for the basic license to attempt to set up shop, not to mention all of the other regulatory hurdles a customer faces to even be able to buy a hunting rifle or a shotgun, let alone a handgun or anything else more exotic. Dealing in military grade firearms is supposed to be a Class-A felony, a heinous crime worse probably even than murder to most of the east coast civil service bosses, but I'm sure some of the smart dealers are bending that rule as far as it can go without snapping."

"That sounds like exactly the folks who we should be taking with." I suggested.

"Agreed, but that's also rather firmly in our 'don't do' list, at least according to our verbal instructions... or at least I think so, if you remember them properly."

"Ok, save that for Phase Two then. Actually I'd creatively interpret that vague instruction as a hint not to harass them, but a polite conversation ought to suit the spirit of that order just fine! For today, I'll be a good lackey and let's go wear out some boot leather chasing down a few of these wild geese until tomorrow. I think I've got a way to entice a few of our more coached informers and potential witnesses a bit off of their rehearsed scripts. It's probably quite illegal up here, and certainly immoral... but probably not at all fattening, more's the pity. What on earth possessed the Food and Drug administration to ban ice cream anyway? Have they gone completely crazy in their zeal to ban all sources of fat from your nation's diet?"

She didn't answer me, but the sour look on her face hinted that this forbidden creamy goodness had formerly been a significant food group in her pre-ban diet.

*************

It wasn't a bad plan, and it let us get our feet wet in the kiddy wading pool for a few days before our lifeguards realized we were off cavorting in the deep end of the Olympic sized pool. Beside, my belated rereading of old textbooks had given me some rather devious ideas for some bribe charms on a few silver dollars. If we were lucky, we were going to glean over these well mowed fields and possibly find a gem or two.

Bel was already smiling when we located and interrogated our first set of alleged witnesses. I had the very definite idea that she was willing to be quite devious and bend every rule in the book, if it would gain us success -- and a clear promotion path somewhere anywhere else but here. For now, that suited me just dandy and together my new partner in crime and I headed off to check-off the chaff from our list of names, and find that elusive diamond in the rough!