“Are you certain of this?”  Charlie read the address off the scrap piece of paper that one of her little birdies had given her.  Her time spent down at the soup line had introduced her to a rather large number of children who had nothing but time on their hands and the ability to dig out information for her on people and events.  All things that were necessary for a good fixer.

The young boy of about 8 nodded.  “I saw them unloading the boxes myself while delivering the newspaper.  The goons were acting like it was Christmas morning.  One of them even pulled a tommy out to play with it as I was leaving.”

Charlie nodded and smiled a bit at the kid.  For a moment her eyes stayed on him and then fell to the ground.  In that moment the boy had reminded her of another kid not much older than he.  She shook her head and sighed.  “Go see Gloria.  Tell her I said to give you’re a ten-dollar greenback.”

“Oh wow ten whole dollars!  Thank you Charlie.  I can’t wait to tell Jeffery.  He will be so jealous!”

Charlie smiled and roughed up the boys already messy hair.  He grinned and bolted out the door of the Bees Knees.

Walking towards the phone she spoke to Jimmy her head of security.  “Jimmy I want you and only you to prepare.  We are going to do a bit of recon tonight.”  He nodded and left to go make the arrangements.  Charlie picked up the phone and called Power.

Ding-a-ling-a-ling… Ding-a-ling-a-ling

“Hello.”

Charlie responded, “Hey Power.  This is Charlie.  I have a job that I think you might be interested in.  Are you available tonight?”

“Hey Charlie.  Yes I am free… what do you need me to do?”

“I need you and maybe one or two of your guys to come by the Bees Knees and pick me up.  I have an address on a warehouse that might have just received a shipment of guns and ammunition.  We need to verify it.  You want in?”

“Yes I know who to bring.  I will meet you shortly.  Is it just going to be us going?”

Charlie responded, “Yes.  Too many will draw attention.”

“Ok.  I will see you there.”

Power hangs up the phone and smiles. He loves the idea of getting his family armed to the teeth and ready for anything that is thrown their way. 

He heads out of his office and meets up with Tiny his most trusted protector. 

"Hey, Tiny I need you to come with me and Charlie. Tell the rest of the men to head to the HQ and make sure things stay quiet there." the man nods his head and turns to give the orders and get the car. 

Powerslide heads back and grabs his suit jacket and black fedora then he slides his trusted .45 into its holster under the jacket. He turns and heads out to the car and gets in. 

"Head to the Bees Knees to pick up Charlie," Power tells Tiny. 

When Tiny and Power arrived, Charlie got into the car with Jimmy and gave the men the address to the warehouse.  "Now when we get there we will want to stop a few blocks away and walk in." 

Charlie was wearing pants and a form fitting sweater to protect herself from the frosty evening air.  She looked a little better tonight than she looked the night before, but her eyes still looked hallowed and she seemed withdrawn.  She pulled her Beretta out from her pocket and checked its ammunition load.  It was ready to go.  Handing it to Jimmy to hold for a moment, she reached into her other pocket and pulled out a flask.  She took a long swig from it before she capped it back up.  Strangely enough she had not been known to carry a flask before.

"Are you ready for this?" she finally asked Power before returning the flask to her pocket and retrieving her gun from her man.

Power watched as she handed her weapon off and then pulled out a flask. 

"Yes, we are ready." He said with shock on his face. 

"So what is the plan?" He asked pulling out his cigarettes and lighting one. 

Power took a couple of long drags off his smoke before pulling out his .45 and attaching a silencer. Then he reached for a box that was under the seat in front of him. He opened it and showed it to Charlie. Inside the box was a nickel plated silencer with her initials on it along with the family crest.

"I got you something?" He said handing it to her. 

Charlie stopped and looked at the silencer.  She furrowed her eyes a bit in confusion.  "Why?"

She continued to just look at the silencer but she made no move to touch it or receive it.  In fact it was like she was frozen in her place.  Finally she shook her as if to clear.  "No it to much... I could never..."  

She looked away and busied herself.  Unconsciously she tucked a short strand of hair back behind her ear and brushed down the front of her sweater.  

Jimmy looked at Charlie with concern, but he did not say anything.

"The plan is that we will walk in, try to get in close enough to confirm that they are actually storing weapons inside the warehouse and then get out unseen and unheard.  Once we get this intel we can make plans to rob the place as a crew at a later point in time.  If we are seen or if we don't cover our tracks they could decide to move the inventory before we can come down on the place."

"it is a good plan. But you might need this if we get into trouble." He said gesturing to the box. "It's a company I am starting it's the first one we have completed. I have one being built for the boss as well. " He says taking a drag of his cigarette. "Its like mine only mine is black" he says pulling his out to show her. "Are you ok?" He says with concern. 

He was right and it was a logic she could live with.  If things went wrong tonight, she could use the silencer.  Nodding she finally reached out and accepted the piece of equipment.  In a tense voice she muttered, "I will be fine.  I just need to concentrate.  Focus on the job at hand.   Nothing else matters."  She attached the silencer to the end of her gun.

Power finished his cigarette and nodded. 

He realized that she did not want to talk about it and he also knew enough to know she would not be here if she could not focus. 

"Ok. So we get here and just walk in the front door?" He asked her.

Power pulls out a 9 mil from behind his back and screws on another silencer and checks that it is loaded. 

"I have found you can not be too prepared, " he said

Power put the gun away and got out of the car. 

"Always Charlie." he said. 

"Tiny stay here and guard our rear." He said to man before turning and opening the door for Charlie. 

"Do we have any idea of the layout of this place or how many guards are around?" He asked realizing he should have asked earlier. 

Power pulled a black knife from his Jacket. 

Charlie smiles as she gets out of the car.  "That is why we are here."  She secured her gun and then looked at Jimmy.  "Go ahead and give me the blanket.  I will scale the fence first and lay this over the top of the barbwire."

Jimmy nodded and said, "Once we get over the fence I will lead us to the side door.  That way if we come up on any surprises I can deal with it and you two can continue on."

Charlie nodded and took the blacket that Jimmy had pulled out of the bag.  She knew that his suggestion also had an unspoken motive to it.  A pour soul was the man who would have to answer to Capazzo should anything happen to her on this mission.  "Alright.  Let's get going."

She headed out keeping to the shadows as much as possible as she jogged the short distance to where the warehouse was located.  As they approached the fence she glanced both ways on the look out for possible guards and tossed the blanket over her shoulder to free up her hands.  Without missing a step, she leaped up and scaled the 10-foot chain link fence.  When she got to the top she held on with one hand and used the other hand to pull the blanket up over the spiraling barb wire that was on top of the fence.  Fortunately for her, it was not electrified.  She had touched an electric fence one.  It had not been a fun experience.

It took a bit of doing.  The barbs kept catching the material of the blanket and making it difficult to get it spread out.  Also the fence kept swaying with her weight and motion.  It was a lot harder than one might imagine.  Finally she got it spread out enough to protect the boys and their gear from getting caught on the barbs.  She quickly went over the fence herself, but did not scale down the fence.  She moved off to the side, out of the way.  She hoped that her weight on the other side would give the fence more support and not bend so much for the heavier guys.  With a motion of her hand she signaled for them to follow.

Power headed up and over the fence then waited as the last man climb over.  Once that was done they did a quick check to make sure they had everything and that nothing was lost. 

Then they follow Charlie over to the warehouse keeping their eyes moving looking for guards. 

The lack of guards was not a shock to any of them. The guards would be inside not outside. Once to the back door Power pulled out his lock picks and set to work. 

He was through the lock rather quickly. But before opening the door he quickly checks it for an alarm. 

"Shit." He whispers 

Then he sets to work tracing it and disarming it. 

After about ten minutes he turns to the group.

"We are good to go." He tells Charlie before slowly opening the door. 

Charlie grinned at Power.  She hadn't seen anyone do a number on a lock like that since Wrench.  With a bit more experience this lad may very well give their RHM a run for his money.  Charlie was about to go through the door when Jimmy blocked the way, by going in first.  Charlie glared annoyingly at Jimmy and thought, Sometimes all this damn protection chaffs.  How is a girl suppose to have any fun?  

She followed Jimmy in and let Power bring up the rear.  Once inside they got a good look of the layout.  The ceiling was high with windows lining the walls just below.  Rows up on rows of crates and boxes lined the floor.  Some of the boxes were labeled -- coffee, teas, antiques, building material, boozes, cigars, parts.  If there was a market for it, Charlie bet you could find it here.

The building itself spanned a good 50 yards to her right and another 50 yards or so to her left.  Charlie could not see much because of the crates and everything, but it was also hiding the three of them from whoever else was in the building.  She could hear men's voices to the right so turned back to the other two men.  Pointing to her ear and then in the direction of the voices, she let them know where she was headed.  She kept low and glanced around each crater to make sure no one was there before moving to her next hiding spot.  Slowly she made her way towards the voices.  Her bet was that the crates they were interested in would probably be more guarded than any of the others.  This was going to be the most dangerous part of the job.  At one point she reached up to rub the nameplate on her necklace that laid against her skin and under her shirt.  

I need a good luck charm tonight Capazzo, she thought.

Power heads over and starts a small fire in a trash can on the opposite end of the warehouse. He uses a cigarette and some paper that is already in the can. Once he sees it starting to burn he heads back over to Charlie.

"In a few min the smoke will build and draw their attention. We will only have a few min to take a look if we want to get out unnoticed." He says to her pointing to the can. 

"Its the best distraction I can come up with quickly." He says to her. 

He watches as the smoke starts to rise. He chose that can because a smoke detector is above it. 

Charlie grinned and whispered, "That is brilliant!"

They waited, but it did not take long until the alarm started to sound.  Men were yelling and Charlie could hear them getting further and further away.  She knew they did not have long so she rushed to  the crates where the men had been at moments before.  Jimmy, was on her heels and he already had his flashlight out.  Taking care to shine the light only between the wooden slates of the crate he nodded that there was weapons in it.  Charlie pulled out her flashlight as well and looked at the crate she was by.  She nodded as well.  Three, four, five..... all in all there was a dozen crates fill to the brim with weapons ripe for the taking.

By the sound of the men, they just about had the fire out in the barrel.  They did not have much time.  It was possible the fire started on its own, but they would no doubt search the warehouse just to make sure.  Charlie signaled the men to come on and started to making their way back to the door they came in.  With the diversion at the other end of the warehouse they were able to exit the building in a much quicker time than they had coming in.

As Power closed the door behind them, Charlie could hear that orders were going out to search the building and surrounding grounds.  "Hurry she cried in a whisper, and ran towards the fence.  Stowing her flashlight  back into her pocket she once again had both hands free.  She leaped at the fence and grabbed purchase.  She quickly climbed the fence where she had left the blanket and flung herself over.  As she did she missed her hand hold  on the other side.  For a moment she found herself hanging by one hand.  The wire bite into her hand as gravity tried to pull her down to the ground and she grimaced.  

Well that was graceful, she told herself before she was finally able to reach up and take another hold.  With the men moving on the fence with her she never was able to get her footing back so she managed an awkward control fall the rest of the four foot drop to the ground.  Jimmy was the last one over the fence and he grabbed the blacket and flung it down to the ground.  Charlie picked it up and stuffed it under her arm.

"Anything you can walk away from eh?  Though I do suggest we run," Charlie grinned at Power and Jimmy as they reached the ground and went racing back to the car with them.