Chapter 20
Essex Falls, New York
Just like the previous afternoon at the very same time, Alexei was sitting in the passenger seat of the Ram pickup truck with Dmitry driving, on their way to Bennet Park to play basketball.
The difference was that today Alexei didn’t want to go whereas yesterday he did.
Although it was flattering to a degree that Viktor was confident he could handle what was certain to be a tricky situation, Alexei didn’t share his confidence one iota.
He knew that it was going to be nearly impossible to avoid talking with Jack, who specifically said yesterday afternoon when Alexei was trying to break away from him, that if Alexei played today, they could continue their conversation.
“Should I drop you off at the same spot?” Dmitry asked, breaking into Alexei’s worried thoughts.
“Yeah, sure,” Alexei responded. “And pick me up at the same place later after I text.”
“Got it,” Dmitry said, with an agreeable nod.
As opposed to yesterday, he was glad to have Dmitry drive.
Alexei wanted the excuse of being picked up as a way of limiting any conversation with Jack, similar to how he used it the day before.
Unfortunately, it was only going to work at the very end.
How he was going to handle Jack during the course of play, he had no idea whatsoever.
“That was good news about the fermenter,” Dmitry said as they entered the western end of Main Street.
“For sure,” Alexei said. Earlier, after JD had departed following his surprise visit to the Bennet Estate, Alexei had gone back out to the barn to work as Viktor had ordered.
He’d picked up where he’d left off in his attempt to get an idea of how the most recent batch of yeast was doing.
Although he’d not been optimistic primarily because of the short time, to his surprise it was doing quite well.
A small but definite amount of theta prion protein had been detected, suggesting the particular yeast cells that had picked up and incorporated the vectors that Viktor and Nikolai had produced Monday morning seemed to be quite robust both in their reproductive capacity and their protein expression capability.
If all continued to go well, a prion harvest could be significantly sooner than Alexei anticipated, meaning their departure from Essex Falls was back on a reasonably imminent timetable.
Sensing that his partner was in a contemplative mood from his terse answers, Dmitry resisted any more attempts at conversation. It wasn’t until he pulled to a stop in front of the elementary school that he added: “I’ll be awaiting your text. Good luck!”
“I’m going to need it,” Alexei said as he slid out of the cab, slamming the door behind him and eyeing his watch.
At least the timing was good. He skirted the brownstone school building along its eastern side and headed into the park.
As was the case the previous day, the place was busy with almost all the facilities in use, including all six tennis courts and the two pickleball courts.
Pausing in the shadow of the same oak tree where he’d paused the day before, Alexei could see that quite a crowd of basketball players had already arrived.
He quickly counted and saw that there were ten people, meaning that they would undoubtedly be playing five-on-five full court.
Although he recognized most everyone, there was one individual whom he’d never seen before, a particularly muscular, middle-aged Black man whom he assumed was the “quite a player” JD had mentioned.
This new individual was talking animatedly with Jack, who Alexei hoped to avoid as much as possible.
The group was in the process of picking sides, and as usual, Dr. Bob had taken command.
Rather than walking ahead and joining and potentially being cornered by Jack, Alexei was content to remain where he was.
Just as he expected, the crowd quickly separated into two groups of five and within a few minutes more began playing.
Feeling it was now relatively safe to show his face, Alexei walked the final hundred feet or so to the basketball court and took a seat on the bleachers.
Dr. Bob was the only person who seemed to notice his arrival and waved a greeting. Alexei waved back.
As Alexei sat there and watched the game progress, it was immediately apparent to him that JD had been correct about Jack’s friend being skilled.
He’d been designated to be on the opposing side from Peter Ross, the best local player, and the two were guarding each other.
Although the new fellow was significantly shorter than Peter, he was neutralizing Peter’s effectiveness by either preventing him from getting the ball or stealing it if he did.
On offense, it seemed that whenever the new fellow got the ball, he scored, such that his team jumped out into the lead rather quickly.
Switching his attention to JD, he tried to strategize how he was going to achieve his goal of learning what JD knew about their origins without asking him directly, since doing so would draw unnatural attention to the issue.
Unfortunately, nothing came to mind, making Alexei feel even more anger toward Viktor for putting the weight on his shoulders, and that was on top of Alexei already blaming Viktor for their still being in Essex Falls and not already back in beautiful, safe Mother Russia.
Although Alexei was watching JD purely as a strategizing aid about how to find out what he knew about the group’s true nationality, he suddenly became aware JD was playing significantly better than he had in the past, when he’d always seemed nonchalant, not caring if he was on the winning team or the losing team.
On this occasion he seemed entirely different.
He was focused and running circles around John Elliott, with whom he was typically paired since John played the way JD normally played, meaning they were evenly matched.
Mystified, Alexei continued to watch JD, who’d become a surprising scoring threat, and since he was on the same team as the new fellow, the lead that the new player had initiated grew even larger.
Watching a particularly nice give-and-take between JD and the new player, Alexei couldn’t help but agree with Viktor that apparently going through Ethan Jameson’s papers and assuming the role as the Diehard Patriots commander had indeed inspired him.
In the process it also had made him a potentially serious threat.
Since the modus operandi of the group was to play games to twelve baskets, it didn’t take long for the first five-on-five game to be finished, with JD, the new fellow, George Freeman, Peter Langley, and Dr. Bob the winners.
Since Alexei would be playing in the next game, the five losers—Jack Stapleton, Peter Ross, Chris Nebolsine, Martin Gibson, and John Elliott—had to shoot foul shots to determine which four would be joining Alexei.
It was all typical playground basketball rules.
While the losers were in the process, the five winners retreated to the other basket either to practice shooting or just bide their time until the second team’s composition was determined.
Since Alexei knew he would be playing, he used the time not only to warm up but more important, to corner JD.
Although it was out of character, he sidled up to JD while JD was taking practice shots.
“I couldn’t help but notice you played particularly well the first game,” Alexei said, pretending to be nonchalant and hoping that JD in his seemingly new persona might be amenable to praise.
“I was lucky enough to be on a particularly good team,” JD said modestly, even though he had scored a surprising number of baskets in contrast to his usual performance.
“The new player is quite good,” Alexei said.
“You mean Warren?” JD questioned. He nodded toward Warren, who was talking with Dr. Bob.
“If that’s his name,” Alexei said.
“Yeah, it’s his name,” JD said. “He’s phenomenal.”
Before Alexei could then casually raise the issue about what JD knew about their IDs, it was determined that John Elliott, the plumber, would be the one who had to sit out.
With that settled Dr. Bob, always the organizer, quickly motivated everyone into beginning the second game, which included designating Alexei to guard JD.
Alexei was pleased, as being paired with JD raised the possibility of him being able to ask his question in an offhand manner during the course of the play.
The second game turned out to be a mirror image of the first in that Warren, Dr. Bob, and JD continued their scoring binge and jumped out to a hefty lead despite Peter’s and Jack’s attempts to stay competitive.
After one nice give-and-take involving JD and Dr. Bob, capped by a forceful dunk by Warren, Alexei found himself heading back to the other basket alongside a very contented JD. They were moving at a slow jog.
“Do you mind if I ask you a quick question?” Alexei began as offhand as he could.
“Of course,” JD responded.
“When you mentioned Ethan threatening to use our IDs with the police, what the hell could he have meant?”
JD stopped abruptly and turned to face Alexei. Alexei did the same. Several of the other players detoured around them.
“You know exactly what he meant,” JD said, pushing his face close to Alexei’s. “Do you think I’m a fool?”
“Certainly not,” Alexei said, recognizing instantly that JD undoubtedly knew their passports were bogus.
Whether he knew they were from Russia and not the Netherlands, he didn’t know, nor did it matter.
The damage was done. “In fact, we’re pleased you are taking over,” Alexei quickly added, hoping to defuse the situation by flattering JD.
“I hope so,” JD said. “But, to be clear, I want to see some real changes. I want the commander truly engaged with both the lectures and the maneuvers.”