"Ah, fuck me! I am too old for this crap!" Death pushed himself up from the ground. "I knew it was a bad idea coming here. Jimmy, where the hell are you?"

"Yeah, over here. What the fuck was that?"

"That, my friend, is the handy work of the Network."

"Well, they have a way of saying, mind your own fucking business." Jimmy rubbed the elbow he landed heavily on.

"No shit!" Death replied.

Windy and Destruction rushed through the smoke and debris to find the men on the grass.

"Death, it's time to go. Windy, help Jimmy up. We are not hanging around here."

"Honey, it's your typical date night." Death half laughed off the explosion.

Windy looked at Death. "Remind me not to hang out with you two on date night!"

"You two are living up to your names." Jimmy reached up for Windy's helping hand and the four ran to the SUV.

"Everybody in?" Destruction did not wait for an answer before she sped away from the scene.

"Jesus! I am supposed to be on vacation and it seems I landed in a fucking Die Hard movie. What the hell is next?"

"Rinse and repeat."

"Not funny, Death."

"Jimmy, this has been our lives for longer than I care to remember. My wife is better at dates."

"No dates honey. That would give my age away. This is life. Accept it and we will show you the dirty world of human trafficking."

"And if we want to walk away?" Windy raised an eyebrow to Death.

"We say goodbye and you go back to your old lives."

"And if we accept this...this life?" Jimmy looked back to the rear seat.

"Well, we find an off-grid lab for Windy to be Windy and we will show you the underbelly of society."

"So basically go into hiding for the rest of our lives?" Jimmy rolled his eyes.

"No no no!" Destruction smiled. "You need to be fully visible so no one expects you and will never believe you could possibly be anything but who you are."

"Huh?"

"Jimmy, you are a writer. A good start but you need more. Do you sing? Play music? Now that would be a great cover! You need to make yourself as unlikely of an individual as there would ever be hunting these traffickers."

"My wife is right, Jimmy. You need to be visible and maybe be a little more, let's say, presentable?" Death chuckled.

"Good luck with that." Windy scoffed. "He showed up for Valentine's Day dinner after an afternoon playing basketball with his friends!"

"I showed up." Jimmy laughed.

"You two were something at one time?" Destruction looked in the rearview mirror at Windy. "Still a spark there?"

Windy looked out the window and spoke softly. "That ship sailed, D."

"Jimmy?" Destruction urged an explanation from her passenger.

"Yeah, Win has it right, that ship sailed."

"You know, you two are not very convincing. But we'll let it slide. For now." Destruction smiled and concentrated on the busy New Orleans night traffic.

"Win? You don't need to go all-in with me. But after Lana dying and what those women went through I can't say no."

"Are you ready to do this Jimmy? I mean, really ready?"

Jimmy bit down on his bottom lip and nodded. "Yeah, I am ready, Win."

Death tapped the driver's seat. "To our hotel, Honey."

"Wait, we have to check on Marie. She'll be going crazy! We didn't call her." Windy grabbed the front seat. "D, we owe it to her. She helped us."

"Give her a call using my cellphone. We will check on her tomorrow."

HOTEL ROOM

The Network

"Drink, Jimmy?" Death handed Jimmy a double cognac.

"I shouldn't, but I will. By the way, Death, what are your real names?"

"Well, we don't usually tell people our real names."

"So, whatever names you give me will be fake?" Jimmy looked at Death's response.

"You catch on super quick!"

"So what stories are you going to tell me about your past? How do I believe you?"

"You believe in God?"

"Slightly different, Death. You have me committing to a life I know nothing about."

"Okay. My wife is Hazel and I am Stephen. We are from the midwest. Fell in love at senior prom. We decided to skip college. Our parents are still pissed about that."

"Sounds pretty tame so far. Then what?"

"Well, Hazel's cousin went missing and we have been looking ever since. One thing led to another, and well, we began hunting the traffickers and trying to find a way to the big bosses."

Jimmy sipped from the short-stemmed goblet. "Why?"

"The same reason you just agreed to. Because it is the right thing to do."

"Not sure I said that. I am in this for revenge."

"Revenge? I find that hard to believe. These traffickers and traders are only one part of the equation."

"The other part?" Jimmy had no idea.

"Us! You, me, Windy, Hazel. Everyone."

Jimmy sat forward in the chair. "I don't get it."

"Ever shop for cheap clothes? How about your cellphone? Vegetables?"

Jimmy shook his head. "Explain."

"Cheap clothes from sweatshops, big-name shoes. The precious metal that is mined by children used indoors cellphones. Many vegetables are harvested by cheap labor under some of the harshest conditions. So you see, we are as much to blame as the traffickers."

"So, why am I doing this? Why not use my skills as a writer to persuade people to make better choices?"

"If you believe that will work, then go that route."

"I'd go broke."

Stephen laughed.

"And I think I wouldn't get the satisfaction I would by doing it this way." Jimmy stared at the older man.

"You know that anger will go away. Then what will drive you?"

"Good question, Stephen. I guess we will find out when that time comes."

"Yeah?"

"They killed the woman I love."

"Just one person did that, Jimmy. And you may never find him."

"I will find him."

"What will you do to him?"

"Ask him if it was worth it? Ask how many times he has used women? How many he's killed?"

"Fuck me! There is no way you are going to ask him anything other than, does this hurt?! Trust me, you don't want to hear their lies."

Jimmy drank the rest of the cognac.

"Jimmy?"

"I told you I shouldn't have accepted the drink." Jimmy walked to the small bar and poured himself a full snifter of the spirit. "I have had problems with alcohol in the past."

"Jimmy, you are gonna have to give it up then. One drink fine, maybe two. But there is no room for this kind of drinking."

"It's always in the back of my mind. Should I have a drink? Can I have just one drink?"

"And can you?"

Jimmy looked at Stephen, pressed his lips together, and looked at the snifter full of cognac. He returned to the chair with a bottle of water. "Yeah, I can."

Windy and Hazel walked into the room.

"I believe you." Stephen smiled.

Hazel looked at her husband. "What do you believe, Stephen?"

"Hi Honey! I believe Jimmy has the will to do this."

Windy looked at the bottle of water in Jimmy's hand then to the bar and the full glass of cognac. "I believe in you, Jimmy." She sat on the arm of the chair he was in.

Hazel crossed her arms and stood in front of Jimmy. "Windy has been telling me of the life and times of one James Carrick. Are you certain you can leave the alcohol behind?"

Jimmy just looked up at the woman in her sixties as she continued. "She really believes in you. Most ex-girlfriends are usually long gone after it is over but here she is. Something must be holding this friendship together after not only one girlfriend but now two."

"It's her personality. I should have never tried to tame Win." Windy jokingly smacked the shoulder Jimmy's had been shot. "Really, Win?"

"Maybe I stick around to protect him?"

"Win, I'm a grown boy."

"Jimmy, she will be the only support you can trust. Sometimes this means you will need to be protected." Hazel continued. "Will you be smart enough to accept her support and her protection?"

Jimmy looked up to Windy. "I may be thick at times, but I know I can trust Win with my life. No one knows me better."

"Stephen?" Hazel nodded to her husband. "A little test."

Stephen took a syringe from his suitcase. "A little test for the two of you."

"Wait! What the hell is this?"

"A chance for you to show your trust in Windy. And a chance for Windy to prove she can really be trusted with your life."

"Fuck me. Add it to the bucket list of shit that I never want to happen but has."

"Trust me, that list will get very long in this line of business." Stephen approached the two recruits. "I will inoculate Jimmy with a toxin. Somewhere in this room is the antidote and Windy must figure out where it is to save you."

"No! There is no way you are sticking my friend with anything! Trust me! Trust me!"

"This is the way Jimmy will know he can trust you."

"I trust her! I trust her!"

Windy sprang from the chair kicking Stephen in the chest before taking the syringe and pressing it to his neck. "Maybe we should test you and your wife. Is she as willing to save you now as when you first began?"

"Win, relax. Bring it down a notch."

"Jimmy, no one is going to put anything into you and I am in no mood to hunt for the antidote."

"Well done, Windy." Hazel smiled. "Stephen, I'd say they passed."

"Yeah, I would have to agree, Honey."

"Win. Lower the syringe. I don't think they want us to do tricks. That was the test." Jimmy turned to Hazel. "What's next?"

"Fieldwork. Stephen and Jimmy go to Russia. Windy and I build the computer lab."