Payback

Bloody Hell, my old "Friend" Ivan won't answer his bloody phone. This is my tenth call to him. Hell, His answer machine won't pick up either. It is costing me cash dear to call this Russian bloke. He is really cheesing me off.

Right now, Tarot has been been playing the slots drinking her Coke. Last I checked, she won us $500. She said she feels lucky tonight. I thought, why not stop a good thing. I told her I had to take care of some business and will be right back.

Ivan and I go back quite a ways. The company likes to send its agents to Russia to train. Haram and I were taken to this very posh house. We were lead to the back yard and saw two men with guns shooting what seems to be ducks. Ivan smiled at us and shook our hand while holding the loaded gun in the other hand. Haram was so scared that Ivan would go postal and start shooting him. But with Haram, it could have been the pills talking too. The other bloke, Maarten, just looked at us and nodded.

The company wanted Haram and me to observe some bag and tag with Ivan and Maarten. It was basically watching how to use complete action and no brain power to tag people. It kept ticking me off how they would use more direct means to get the person. Haram and I would use both brain and brawn. The Russian branch motto must be "To catch your prey, the hunter must bully the life out of it". I learn from them how not to do a bag and tag.

The only bright side of the whole trip is that the two Russian blokes where twits when it came to poker. They didn't know when to stop. From that one night alone, they where indebted to me until 2020. I have stayed in contact with Ivan through the years (a man's gotta collect on what's owed to him). He has let me crash at his place a few times through out the years; it's tough to be in the Ukraine and not be too hammered to make it back home. Even though he is with the company, he could give a rat's arse about the American branch. I trust him completely, for a bloody Commie.

I've been calling him lately to get dirt about the company. With Linderman gone, He's my last lifeline to my former life. Ivan keeps me informed on company proceedings. But now he's ignoring me. I don't know what's gotten into his head to make him bail on our friendship like this.