Ed picked up the phone to call Pauline. “Good evening sweetie. Today was kind of strange at the winery. The pieces are starting to fall together. Shindo seems to be manipulating the Chinese.”
“Yeah he certainly does. Now I really get the willies every time I am around him. Did you see him staring at me intently in the meeting? I felt like he was undressing me with his eyes. He was constantly staring at my chest and my butt. He is a real lecher! ”
“Did you get your room yet? We could ride down together.”
“Yes I did. I would very much like to ride down with you. What time will we be leaving?”
“I would like to get down there around three in the afternoon to get checked into our rooms. We should leave here around noon.”
Pauline sighed. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too.”
“I do think that it is a good idea to take a night off from each other. I feel like we have been going a little bit fast.”
“I agree. I really want to savor falling in love with you. I believe in strong commitments in love. We really need to be sure that we are not just a couple of lovesick teenagers.”
Pauline laughed. “Those years are quite a ways behind us. I really do feel that this is the real thing. But you and I have both been fooled in the past. We have both been hurt. So let’s do this right.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“So I will pick you up at noon tomorrow?”
“Yeah, what will the weather be like? I want to have an idea how to dress.”
“There will be a northeasterly wind blowing. This should be an unusually warm evening for Oakland. The high temperature is forecast to be 96. It will probably be in the low 80’s for the wine festival.”
Robert spoke firmly into the phone. “I don’t care if the feds are monitoring the docks. I want you to get those remote charges planted. Things are getting dicey. Our guys have already killed some of Shindo’s goons. We could be forced to move early on the shipping containers currently at the dock. Get them wired to blow when we need to.”
Hanging up the phone, he looked hard at Juan. “Yeah, we have some halfway decent mercs. But right now I could really use a couple of Seals for their demolitions know how. These guys of ours aren’t used to stealthily setting remote charges.”
Juan answered Robert. “Boss, have you thought about rigging the fuel lines leading into the docks and maybe even a rupturing charge followed by a detonation charge on that one large propane tank? It would almost be like a fuel-air explosive.”