red moon over west virginia - 31. the shipment

by jeremy witherington

part 31 of 36

for previous episode, click here

dick skinner woke up. he had fallen asleep to the sound of a rerun of wanted - dead or alive that larry was watching. now larry, who had shaken dick awake, was standing over him. larry waved his pager at dick. time to earn our keep, hoss. dick rubbed his eyes and sat up. he had his clothes and shoes on. he followed larry down the stairs and out of the garage. it was dark out. dick did not ask any questions. larry walked into the little patch of woods and dick followed. they quickly came to a little building hidden in the trees. dick had not noticed the building in his walks around the grounds. they entered the little buiding. it seemed to contain one thing - an elevator. larry pressed the single button beside the elevator and the door opened immediately. there were only two buttons - green up and red down - inside the cage. larry pressed the down button. a shipment came in, larry said when the elevator began its descent. dick did not ask, a shipment of what? three things came in, larry continued. i call them clones, though that is not exactly what they are. dick just nodded. the elevator seemed to be falling fast, but was taking a while. they are very expensive. very expensive. they have to be handled with care. you have to remember they are worth a lot more than us. whatever, you mean they are very fragile? no, i mean they can get ornery. downright mean and violent sometimes. i would have thought clones would be kind of cool and smooth, dick said. maybe frozen. but what do i know? larry laughed. you are about to find out. remember, handle with care, no matter how aggravated you get. the elevator finally stopped. the door began to slide open. * you have got to be kidding, trixie said, when tony had finished his description of the incredibly valuable thing dick skinner had told him about. it’s the chance of a lifetime, tony said. yes, the chance of my lifetime to finally quit your foolish schemes. i will say one thing, you made it easy, because all your other schemes rolled into one would not be half as crazy as this. trixie stood up. she looked at joey. i am leaving. are you coming with me? joey thought for a few seconds. no, i think i will stick with tony. i mean. we have come this far together… trixie was surprised, but not totally surprised. you don’t have to make a speech, she told joey. she went over to the door and opened it and left. she never saw tony or joey again. next