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Date Posted: 04:17:47 07/20/99 Tue
Author: Bishop Singer
Subject: The Drive

The two men eyed each other as the cars started up for the drive back to the Reservation. Wing-Stu, Bishop thought to himself, I don't want to break his cover-stared out the window, a pensive look still on his face. Bishop cleared his throat.

"So, STU, how funny you should pop up now. I was sure you would have bugged out for a nice quiet South American Country by now, where you could have some nice senoritas fanning your face with palm fronds and keeping you in cheap beer and cigars." Wing fixed Bishop with a baleful glare.

"Oh, Yeah, Bish, you know me. Turn tail and run at the first sign of trouble. Come on, give me a little credit." Bishop shook his head and smiled, reaching into his pocket for his erstwhile pack of cigarettes.

"I dunno, you're the guy I blame for sending that guy Mofofunk out to help me....man, that dude is several candybars short of a Gas'n Go. Where did you dig that guy up?" Wing shrugged.

"Trust me, Bish, if you're out here long enough, you meet everyone, eventually. Which reminds me...I got a phone call two nights ago. I don't even know how she got my number, but...." Bishop groaned.

"Oh no....please tell me it wasn't...?" Wing just nodded.

"Yeah. Sabrina asked me what was going on with you. What's this about you haven't talked to her since June?" Bishop shrugged.

"Look, Wing, you of all people should know where I stand on her. I mean, you saw it! Some of it, anyway," he mumbled around his cigarette. He sighed. "So, did you tell her what was up?" It was Wings turn to shrug.

"Well, you know how she is, the subject sort of came up. I figured with her new Vegas gig and all, she would be too busy to break free." Bishop gave Wing a hard stare.

"Oh, you didn't...." Wing gave a half smile.

"Look here, Bish. Just because she hasn't fallen for your attempts to get her in the sack, doesn't mean she doesn't have your back. Remember Casablanca? She coulda left you, hell, thats what we were all told. But she didn't, did she?" Bishop could only nod in silence, remembering the operation from 5 years before.

The Department had sent them to try and infiltrate a top secret meeting of OPEC in the Morrocan city. The infiltration had been compromised, with two of the team members-Alan Marsh and Stu Dukane, he remembered with a jolt, eyeing Wing once again-being executed. Bishop had submitted, and the OPEC men had turned them over to their bodyguards, who had discoursed at length about their abilities in the field of torture and how long Bishop would live before he finally succumbed to the injuries they would inflict. He had been cursing the fact that he had neglected to put the cyanide pill in his mouth in time, and wondering how he would get through the situation, when Sabrina had come strolling into the room, a pair of silenced pistols in her hands and an Uzi on her back. The bodyguards had fallen like 10-pins, and then she was untying him and handing the Uzi over to him as she reloaded the pistols. The rest of it-A dizzying escape from the compound, the wild motorcycle ride through the city, the last minute leap onto the executive jet Wing had "procured" for their escape-he prefered not to think about. He looked at Wing again.

"Look, I know she's competent. Hell, she's better at this kind of thing then you and I put together, and we both know that. But Sabrina is also free from the constraints of having a conscience when it comes to this sort of thing. I Wouldn't want her to lose sight of the issues. Plus, there's Thane." Wing looked at Bishop as though he were crazy.

"What? Just cos' she fucked the guy once, you think that's gonna cloud her judgement? Yeah, maybe, it might...if she has him in her crosshairs, she might shoot him in the throat instead of quickly through the brain." Bishop nodded again. "Look, its done. I told her what was up, she said something about kicking your ass, confirmed I was still in Hell, and then the line went dead. She might show, she might not. Deal with it when it comes up."

"Speaking of which, why Stu Dukane? I knew Stu, after all, and he was a Harvard educated man, not this rube that you're hiding out as. What's that all about, AJ? Scared the reputation of The Wingnut might convince some of these people to put a bullet in you?" Wing's plaintive stare was enough to answer that question. Bishop gave him a quizzical glance. "Is it really that bad?"

"Bish, since my days in The Department, I've kinda gone up and down. Mostly down. There were some hard times for a while, I did some fucked up things to people who might or might not have deserved it. And you know how it is, you work in the same business long enough, eventually you work up a rep. Good or bad, it's there. Hells Finest have done their share of dirty work in their day, but of course some of the stuff attributed to me and my gang has been way on the other side of heinous." Bishop nodded.

"like this story Pike was telling us the other day..." he went on to relate the story of how Pike had met Pete Samms. Wing looked sufficiently horrified at the fate of the town. "Thats the kind of stuff people say about your gang?" Wing nodded.

"Yeah, and I'll tell you right now, while we've been responsible for raising our own share of Hell," he smiled at the pun, "That kind of shit is beyond reproach. We actually wiped out another gang called the Bastard Coyotes who had been doing that kind of shit. Gang." He snorted. "More like a bunch of high school dropouts with too much money and not enough common sense." Bishop smiled grimly.

"I see your point. Now you're worried that these guys might decide to take care of one of the Hells Finest because he's vulnerable." Wing nodded again, slowly. Bishop cracked a grin. "Well, don't worry about it, Wing. By fate or design, I seem to somehow have ended up in command of this crazy group, so if I vouch for you, you'll be okay. Just don't do anything stupid like try and kill the people on our side, okay? Also, Johnny might request some sort of formal agreement between you and the Mescalero's. You know, that neither you, or any other member of HF, will infringe upon the sovereign lands or peoples of any Reservations in the Southwest, yadda yadda yadda....know what I mean?"

"I could handle that. You sure about this?" Bishop gave him a wide grin. "Sure, I'm positive. Trust me!" Wing nodded.

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

"Now, Johnny, drop the gun, man! This is NOT the way we want to resolve this situation, okay?" This was not what bishop had had in mind. When they had returned to the Reservation, Bishop had called together the principals-Pike, Mofo, Johnny, Paladin, Mary, and Lydia-to explain who "Stu Dukane" was and what he was doing there. All had taken it fairly calmly, with Pike giving the only initial semi-hostile reaction, simply telling Wing to "Stay the hell out of my way" before he went off to supervise the film development. Johnny had walked up, smiling, saying that all was well, and then quick as could be grabbing Wing by the throat and pulling his pistol out, intending to execute him then and there. Bishop had dropped back with his hand on his pistol, and was trying to talk Johnny down. Mary, strangely enough, was simply standing and watching, as though she didn't know what to do, or worse, didn't care. Wing looked calm, but Bishop could tell he was getting antsy, and Wing getting antsy was always a bad thing. He cleared his throat, and gave Bishop a dirty look. Johnny looked calm as a summer lake as he gave Bishop a cold stare.

"Bishop, I know and respect you and your judgement, but this man is scum. He is responsible for the deaths of many of my people, not to mention countless innocents who had the misfortune to wander into this godforsaken lawless land. I will be doing everyone a favor." Bishop shook his head.

"Not everyone, Johnny. This man saved my life," and a light suddenly went on over Bishops head, "and YOUR life, too." Johnny gave him a quizzical stare.

"What do you mean by that? Don't try and trick me, Bish. I've seen you put the con on before, and while you're good, I'm ready for your lies." Bishop looked at Wing.

"Wing." Wing looked at Bishop. "When you were working for The Department, did you ever do any work in Vienna?" Wing nodded, as best he could.

"Yeah. There was some kind of op going on with a trade conference. I never heard the details, but some guy got wasted, and the team had to bust out of there pronto. I remember I had to do the pickup on a postage sized airfield outside the city, and because of the cover story that the team was Russian, I was flying a modifed Bear, which needs at least 3 postage stamps to take off and land. So I dropped it onto the tarmac, skidded to a halt just shy of the tower, and then the team was loaded up and I had to boogie out of there. I remember you telling me that there were holes in the airplane from where the security forces had tried to shoot us down. Which wasn't near as bad as landing that thing in the Black Forest 2 hours later, but that's not really important." He eyed Johnny carefully. Johnny looked at Bishop, then down at Wing.

"This was that pilot, huh?" Bishop nodded. Johnny thought for a moment. "Okay. fair enough." he released him and holstered his pistol, starting to walk off. He got partway to his house, then turned and stopped. "One last thing...."
Wing tried his best to look calm.

"Yes?" In a smooth motion, Johnny pulled his pistol and fired it at Wings head. The silly hat he had been wearing flew off to the side.

"You so much as make me think you've sold us out, and next time, your head will still be in the hat." He holstered the pistol, then turned and walked into the house. Bishop smiled at Wing.

"See? I told you, no problem!" Wing gave him a glare that could peel paint. Before he could respond, however, Louise came rushing out of the house onto the porch.

"Guys, you're not going to believe this. Tune in the vig frequency, right now!" The group all rushed over to Bishop's car, where he turned on the radio. It was another reepating message, but this one had a bit more information, including a cryptic encoded message. Bishop fumbled with a pad of paper and pen, writing everything down as fats a she could. As he finished, he went over it silently, then looked up at Wing with a smile on his face.

"And I thought we would have to find you another crappy ass car." He handed the paper over to Wing, who read it, re-read it, and then looked up at Bishop in surprise. "The Sincere Air Force? Almost a hundred planes and a, a ZEPPELIN?! I have only one thing to say to THAT." Bishop lifted an eyebrow.

"Oh? Whats that?" Wing smiled.

"WOOBWOOBWOOB!!!!!" The laughter that carried across the late morning air was hearty indeed.

*********
Okay, Wing, I hope that's what you wanted. I was gonna write more, but My bed summons, and I'm getting sick, so I will catch you all later. Also, WILDFIRE, send me the Word version of the story, and I'll get everyone that timeline. Also, I was thinking that we need to maybe write out little mini-profiles of the characters so we know a bit more about them. For instance, I was going to have Wing bum a smoke off of Bishop, but I don't know if Wing smokes or not. Just a thought,especially with Johnny-Wildfire-Come-lately :-)

Anyway, regards,

Bish

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Replies:

Re: The Drive -- Awesome..., 08:33:18 07/20/99 Tue
Whoops, just noticed... -- Wing', 08:40:37 07/20/99 Tue