“Great,” Drew muttered. He gave Max a sharp look. “You’re one of my issues so you get to come and meet the boss.”
“Okay,” Max was cool with that. He really wanted to know more about his brother and what Drew did. Max followed Drew into an office.
“Meet Captain Oswald Green, otherwise known as the boss,” Drew said. “Boss, this is Maxwell Ramesly, the guy who caked my cover.”
“Sit down,” Green scowled at them and pointed to the chairs across from his desk. “Miguel comes to me with some story about a demo guy walking in on your territory and that you want to move on the building right away.”
“It’s probably too late to move now,” Drew sighed as he took a seat. “Everything will be leaving right now. You might be able to catch the boys in the act but there’s only three at the building right now. Sam, Knuckles and Red are there. The other players aren’t.”
“Do you think they’ll let you know where they’re going to ship the stuff?” Green asked.
Drew snorted. “I’m not that big a fish. I asked, Red told me Sam would figure it out. It means that no one knows yet. Besides, my cover is going to be blown by tomorrow or the next day at the latest.”
“How do you figure?” Green popped a piece of chewing gum. He was trying to kick the smoking habit. The whole thing made him irritable, which meant he was harder than usual on the team. He didn’t like it when things didn’t go to plan so he glared at Drew now.
Drew jerked a finger at Max. “When he doesn’t show up missing or dead, the guys are going to wonder why.”
“I take it your twin here is the demo guy,” Green frowned even more if that were possible.
“That’s me,” Max smiled unrepentantly. “Very glad to be alive. If it weren’t for… I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch your name in all the excitement.”
“Andrew Colborne. Call me Drew,” he left off the Ramesly that was attached at the back of his name. Drew didn’t like using it. Other than DNA, he wasn’t attached to the Ramesly’s at all.
“Right,” Max continued. “If it wasn’t for Drew, I would be dead today. I owe him my life.”
“That’s nice,” Green said dryly. “So what are we going to do about this? I can’t launch an operation on this group in this short amount of time. I need details. That means I need you back undercover Colborne.”
“I know it, but one of them is going to look up Max and wonder why there’s no outcry when I’ve supposedly dumped his body,” Drew sighed in frustration. “They’ll get suspicious. Red doesn’t particularly like me as it is.”
“Millions of people go missing every day and only a percentage of them hit the news,” Green shrugged. “Who cares if he goes missing?”
“The entire media circus,” Drew enlightened his boss. “He’s a Ramesly. Think money, power, and fame.”
“We’re not quite that bad,” Max tried to downplay it.
“You guys make the tabloids on a regular basis,” Drew said in disgust. He knew it because every time they did, people mistook Drew for Max and asked him all sorts of annoying questions. “Not always in the most flattering light.”
Max sighed. “Sometimes things get blown a bit out of proportion.”
Green nodded, thinking of the big picture. “What if he were to go missing? What if they found his body in a few days?”
“Excuse me?” Max looked at the two of them in surprise. “What are we talking about?”
“I can get the press involved, put out a missing persons alert, keep him in custody and release a few details to stir the pot and keep your cover intact,” Green said shrewdly.
“If you contact the barracuda, she’d love it,” Drew raised an eyebrow as he mentioned a notorious tabloid writer by her nickname. “She covers the Ramesly’s all the time. You’d have to give her an exclusive afterward.”
Green shuddered. “If I have to.”
“I’d rather not be in the press,” Max interrupted the two men. “They don’t have a habit of always telling the truth.”
“Look Mr. Ramesly,” Green gave Max his full attention. “You would be doing us a great service if you would cooperate with us and this investigation. I’d like to leak it to the press that you are a missing person. We’ll have to get your wife to file a report, we’ll have a press conference, find the truck abandoned, whatever. In the meanwhile, you’ll remain out of sight until we can wrap up our operation on this group of criminals. It shouldn’t take long.”
“How long?” Max wondered.
“Maybe a week or two,” Green said.
Drew privately wondered exactly how long it might be. Green’s estimate was optimistic. “Until we can arrest the leaders of this crew and find out more about who is supplying the heroin.”
