Free The System - A Detroit Story - by John Silver Page B

large open space furnished with a workbench, desk, table, camera equipment, two computer workstations and a two color laserjet printers along with assorted boxed of high grade paper and cardboard. Three automatic weapons, ammunition and two 45 caliber pistols were neatly laid out on the workbench. Gregor handed a pistol to Vlad.
    In the corner were ten bricks of neatly packed heroin. Thirty four kilograms, each brick containing 3.4 kilos, or a little under seven and a half pounds. Vlad looked at the bricks and smiled.
    "Never say Gregor does not deliver," said Gregor.
    Vlad nodded.
    "Our new route," said Gregor. "It is nearly perfect. Protected. Good political support." Gregor looked at Vlad. "I just need to take care of someone first."
    "Can I help?" said Vlad.
    Gregor shook his head. "Unnecessary. I will deal with him as soon as we are through. Wants too much and knows too much." Gregor smiled. "Who knows," he said. "I might even send you a picture."
    Vlad nodded and looked at the computers and printers. "I may need some passports and papers."
    "How many?" said Gregor.
    "One, possibly two," said Vlad. "U.S. Female."
    Gregor nodded. "How soon?"
    "Two, maybe three days," said Vlad. He looked at Gregor. "Is that possible?"
    Gregor put his hand to his chin. "That's not much time, but enough. Should not be a problem. Bring them here and I see what I can do."
    Vlad nodded. Shall we get down to business?" he said. "I have the distribution arranged. With a certain degree of protection and excellent intelligence."
    Gregor nodded. "We expect the flow of cash every two weeks."
    "Not a problem," said Vlad. "Detroit is very systematic."
    Vlad learned the Detroit system from Cletus B. Lincoln. With twenty thousand addicts, demand was high. Lincoln said to Vlad, "man, they don't sell to junkies in the street here. It's busted up into two gigs." Lincoln went on to say the two gigs were quarter houses and shooting galleries. Dudes that owned shooting galleries came in and bought caps at the quarter houses, which were like wholesalers. Dudes would take the caps back to their shooting galleries and sell hits to their junkies. Make 'em shoot up right there, just to make sure they weren't undercover cops. Plenty of shooting galleries in Detroit- at least two thousand. Lincoln said he knew of twenty on Mack Avenue alone, near Comerica Park. Alanzo Hendricks controlled a lot of the quarter houses in Detroit, along with a number of shooting galleries. Lincoln knew some of Alanzo's galleries brought in at least ten thousand a week, let alone what came into the quarter houses. If up-and-comers got in Alanzo's way, they were executed, plain and simple. Cops had so much other shit to do few q-houses and galleries were busted.
    Vlad and Gregor waited until sunset and loaded the heroin in the back of the Land Rover, covering it with a green woolen army blanket. They drove north, past the airport toward the port of Durres.
    "You know my uncle," said Vlad. "My mother's brother. Spent eight years in prison for having a map," said Vlad referred to the days under the communist regime when it was illegal to own a map of Albania. "Some good with it, though," he said. "You learn how to get around by landmark only."
    "True," said Gregor.
    They pulled into Durres and passed by the sparse train station. A vintage cold war diesel locomotive, green, white and burnt orange sat idle on the tracks. They cruised past the ancient Roman amphitheater. Vlad studied it as they rolled by.
     "I would have felt very comfortable in there," he said.
    "I believe you would," said Gregor. "The dragon in the arena."
    They drove along the remote northern coastline, the hillside populated by concrete bunkers, short and toadstool-like. Just a subset of the seven hundred and fifty thousand constructed during the early fifties under the paranoid communist dictatorship, built to fend off an invasion that never materialized. Many were spray painted with graffiti, names of World Cup teams