Holding his hands up in the air, he said calmly. "Alright, maybe I did cross a line and I'm sorry for that. But at least its open and out now. I was sick of you two avoiding it like the plague. It's not healthy. But you may be pissed at me now, but later on that may not be the same. I hope at least now we can move on to brighter things." Taking a long swig of his drink, he was glad of what he did, but knew that was a close one.

 Kate leaned back in her chair and exhaled.

"For my part, I'm sorry if I just responded more... enthusiastically than I needed to. It's been a long week. And you just made a pretty big pivot from reminding me of the people I lost to poking a topic I had no intention of discussing."

Kate rose slowly, grabbing a bottle of whiskey from the table.

"Perhaps it'd' be better if I got some sleep. We'll speak more tomorrow Ghost. No hard feelings- this time."

She patted him on the back with her free hand before nodding and raising the bottle at Mercedes.

"Goodnight, Mercedes."

"Evening, Kate," Mercedes replies quietly. Scrubbing her hands over her face, she stands and starts clearing glasses. Something she hadn't wanted to address had just rudely been pushed into the light. If this city was going to succeed, sacrifices would have to be made. One of those sacrifices she would feel on a personal level, for a very long time. 

She needed to focus elsewhere. This distillery, for example. 

"Alright, fellas. Let's wrap it up, I'm exhausted and tomorrow's just minutes away. Andrei, think about the job. I think you'd be a positive asset here. And Ghost, I'll be seeing you bright and early, I'm sure there are a thousand things to do..." 

With that, Mercedes grabs a whisky bottle and heads toward the back room to fall asleep on her makeshift desk.

The following morning, Mercedes looked across the table at Andrei. It had been a bad night; she hadn't slept well. As she eyed the young man across the table from her, she realized that if she intended to sleep here, even on occasion, that some extra protection was an even better idea than she'd originally considered. Trying to work the kinks out of her neck, she attempts to smile.

"When can you start? And how are you with a sledgehammer?"

"I can start right now, but you need to get some rest... I see from way over here how tired you are." As he puts down on the table his fedora :"About the sledgehammer? I'm not the strongest person in here but I can get some boys to help out.Let me take care of this."

After a few minutes the boy left the building and drives away. In one hour he returns with ten strong men. After the boy gives his order to the thugs he went in the office to see if Mercedes was there.

Mercedes sees that Andrei has indeed returned with some help. Gathering up her things from the office, she instructs the men to take out one of the back room walls, in order to turn one portion into living quarters. Turning to Andrei before she leaves for Philadelphia on business, she hands him the keys the distillery, along with some cash. 

"Take care of this place for me while I'm gone. There should be plenty of money here to pay these men when they're finished, along with anything else that may arise before I return. If all goes well, I'll be bring back a lot more money," she says while grinning. On that note, she leaves Andrei with the sledgehammer and makes her departure.

John walked into the Distillery and made his way over to Andrei. Removing his hat he nodded respectively to the man before beginning to speak.

Good afternoon Andrei, I received your note and have to say I was intrigued. How can I be of service? 

The boy was glad that John showed up at and he tell the barman to bring two glasses of whiskey. He invites the man to sit down : "I'm glad that you came here. I need your help with running this place while Mercedes is in a business trip. You see the men working there? They are working on rebuilding this place. I need someone to watch them and give them instructions. I have a lot of paperwork in the office and I can't deal with both. What do you say?"

Accepting a glass of whiskey from the barkeep John took a sip and savored the smokey flavor for a moment before responding. 

I'm always happy to be of service to Mercedes, or anyone in the family for the matter. You got some plans or something I can look at to make sure these bums aren't screwing anything up? 

Andrei finish his glass and rise from the table: "Of course, they are in the office.Come, in the mean time I'll show you around the place until we get to the office." The smile on the face of the boy could mean just one thing: That the thing are going in the right way.

John threw the remainder of his drink back in one quick swallow before standing up to follow Andrei. Noticing the smile on the boy's face he couldn't help but smirk himself - he liked this kid already and figured this could be a good gig for a while. 

Lead the way, I'm excited to get started. 

So saying John fell in step behind Andrei as they walked through the small distillery. John couldn't help but be impressed by the operation - the equipment was obviously high quality and based on the drink he just had they obviously knew how to use it. 

Having just returned from Philadelphia, Mercedes returns to the distillery with the intent of cramming several stacks of cash into one of the empty barrels. Her arms hurt from carrying two heavy 'garment' bags for most of the day.

Stepping into the brick building, she dumps her bags on one of the tables and heads for the bar with the intent of fixing herself a drink. As she raises her glass, she can hear men calling out to each other, and the sounds of heavy tools being used. Curious, she sets the glass back down and walks to the back. Andrei is seated at the desk in the small office, making his way through the paperwork that had accumulated. He hasn't heard her approaching due to the work going on, so she keeps moving and ends up at the rear of the building where the racket is coming from. A crew of nearly a dozen are busily renovating the area into sleeping quarters. Standing aside and supervising the work, Mercedes recognizes John Scalise. Smiling, she moves over to him and rests a hand on his arm as she raises her voice in order to be heard over the clamor. 

"John! Good to see you! Has Andrei enlisted your help?"

Jumping slightly after feeling an unexpected touch on his arm. Turning he saw Mercedes standing next to him and smiled. 

"Mercedes, it's wonderful to see you. I trust you had a good trip? Yes, he wanted to make sure that this crew did the work right but had too much other work to take care of to be able to watch over them. Apparently he thinks I'm intimidating enough to keep this lot in line" John chuckled at his feeble attempt at humor before continuing, "As long as everything continues the way it has we should have the work done for you by the end of the week."

"No real rush. Well, don't tell THEM that," she says, nodding towards the construction crew. 

"My funds aren't limitless. Although I did have a particularly good trip, thanks for asking! I'm going to the front for a drink, feel free to join me!" she calls out.

John turned to the worker closest to him and said, "Watch over the crew for a bit, if anything happens come get me." and then followed Mercedes out toward the bar. 

Sitting down next to Mercedes he flagged down the barkeep and asked him for two whiskeys. Turning to Mercedes he quietly said

"By the way, you make pretty good product here. Have you considered shipping it out of the area? If so you should come by my new truck yard - we have a way of ensuring that the cops are never the wiser on what you're shipping out."

After walking in the street of Detroit , I over hears many people talking about the New distillery. It was amazing. great brick building with the finest whiskey of Detroit. 

I start thinking to himself This place is a must see.

I continue to walk towards the building and begin to open the door and I am instantly is amazed. 

"Good day madame where do I start? I love whiskey!"

Andrei comes out of the office and while he's looking at an document he saw Mercedes. The boy is approaching the table and said :''Welcome back Mercedes, good to see you.How was the trip?" The boy calls the barkeep to bring another glass. While the three associates are talking, Andrei saw at the door another person. It was Augustus :"Hello Augustus, what are you doing here?"

Nodding intently, Mercedes agrees that this would be an excellent idea. The current trucking company was good, but they had no idea of the content of some of the barrels.

"Oh, I most definitely will do that, John. The sooner the better," she says as Andrei joins them. 

"I take it things went okay while I was away,  Andrei? No trouble with all that paperwork? It can be mind-numbing, I know," she says as she sips her whisky. It tasted so much better than the stuff she'd sampled on her travels. 

"Augustus!" she calls out, happy to see her friend come in the door. "Join us for a drink or three," she laughs.

Twenty four hours later, Mercedes is standing in front of one of the whiskey barrels, hands on hips, intently studying it. No leakage...good. No visual deterioration...also good. The new plastic liners she'd invested in had come highly recommended, but untested.

She leans forward and sniffs. No odor. Excellent. 

She pushes against the barrel, tipping it slightly and then letting it smack back down onto the concrete floor. Appropriate sloshing noises greet her ears. The weight difference would be noticeable if one had a forklift and scale handy, but the odds of this one barrel being singled out amongst a coup!e dozen others on a delivery truck were highly unlikely. 

This one barrel, containing not whiskey, but the rapidly decaying body of a corrupt agent with a big mouth, that was now full of the hydrofluoric acid that surrounded him.

Smirking at the moniker of this load of whiskey, which she'd fondly named after one of her associates, Matches_Malone, she patted the top of the barrel and signaled one of the heavies to load it onto the awaiting truck she'd contracted with, thanks to John_Scalise_Jr.

The Match Batch was ready to depart Black Bottom, Detroit.