Zeleny locked the door and they walked to the elevator and waited for it to arrive. The car arrived empty and they quietly rode it to the bottom floor. The street outside had normal morning traffic and Anika walked quickly to a cab that was just letting people out. She waited for Zeleny and they got in the back seats.
“Where would you like to go?” the middle eastern driver asked in a heavy accent as the door shut.
“Fifth and Euclid,” Zeleny said in English as he sat back in the seat.
Anika looked at the center of the divider screen at the cab license and read the name to herself, “Juman Rafidi”. She watched the driver in the rear view mirror for a bit then turned and watched the scenery of the city go by as they drove through the traffic. The only sound in cab was the tinkling of music on lightly on the radio. The sudden blaring sound of a horn joined by the chorus of more horns snapped them all out of their dazes.
“This place is awful. It get’s worse all the time,” Anika said in disgust.
“We don’t have to worry about it that much longer,” Zeleny replied.
The cab sat at a stoplight five blocks from their stop, to their right a sudden booming of gunfire erupted from inside the corner store. The store windows exploded outwards as bullets flew through them, a rush of bodies flew from the door as more shots could be heard. The lights turned green and the cars all began to move.
“Go, quick,” Zeleny blurted out in worse broken English than normal.
Juman stepped on the gas and as the cab began to move into the intersection another bevy of bullets flew from the store and one of them hit the rear window in a glancing blow. The window shattered and fell to pieces on the back dash behind Anika and Zeleny’s heads, the sudden chaos made them both throw their heads down to their knees. Juman jumped and turned to look at the now missing window then quickly turned back forward and pressed the gas pedal to keep up with the traffic that had begun to move away from them.
“Why? Why? Why?” Juman anguished as he kept glancing in the mirror at the shattered window.
As the cab continued to distance them from the gunfire Anika and Zeleny looked over at each other then both lifted their heads and torsos back up slowly. Once they could see they were far enough away they both relaxed.
“What the hell was that,” Anika exhaled.
“Typical, that’s what that is. This city is getting worse everyday, like you said,” Zeleny relied.
The cab managed to hit the lights right and they soon were pulling to a stop in front of a large warehouse with big bay doors that opened to the street.
“Thirty two dollars fifty cents please,” Juman asked over his shoulder.
They got out of the cab and Zeleny stepped to the driver’s window. He pulled his cash fold from his pocket and pulled thirty five dollars out and handed it to Juman, “keep the change,” he said in English.
Anika and Zeleny walked to the warehouse door as Juman drove away from the curb, they stopped to look around them then Zeleny pushed the man door open and they went into the dark warehouse.
Zeleny lead them down a pair of corridors lined with office doors and then to a pair of double doors. He knocked and waited to hear a response then upon hearing the call he opened one door and they walked in.
The room was obviously a conference room at one point as it had the large table in the middle with projector screens covering one long wall. The table now held stacks of long crates on one end, a massive television in the center on a rotating stand, then the other end had a large ornate chair with Mishenka seated in it. Beneath the table to his right was a large safe and to the left a hazardous chemical storage locker. The table was strewn with various papers around a large monthly calendar in front of him.
“Zeleny, good. You’re on time as always,” Mishenka laughed and motioned to a pair of chairs piled high near him.
Anika looked around the room and noted the large stack of bundled cash on a small table in one corner, then she slid the pile of papers and file folders from a chair and sat down. Zeleny tipped the other chair over on its side and let the pile fall to the floor then righted the chair and sat down heavily.
Mishenka wrote furiously in a notebook on the desk to his left then stopped and looked up at Zeleny, “you have it with you?”
“I have it,” Zeleny said as he pulled the cloth bag from his pocket and held it out in his hand.
Anika stared at the bag then up at Zeleny. Her eyes then darted to Mishenka who she tried hard to read, but his Balkan genetics kept him unreadable by most people. He laughed at one moment then scowled and yelled at another, just in the process of getting a drink of water from the bottle on the desk.
Anika chuckled as she watched him fumble around trying to to the most basic task of drinking water. She shook her head slightly in a blink then turned to Zeleny and raised her eyebrows then nodded gently towards Mishenka.
Zeleny caught her look and nodded back then turned back to Mishenka and asked, “what did you want to see us for?”
“You have to go see this doctor for the procedure. He is…” Mmishenka paused as he dug around in the papers on the desk near him. He slid out a small piece and read it out, “Donovan Medical, 44400 75th street. Go find Doctor Frank Rose, he is our tool on this one. I’ve arranged already so there shouldn’t be any trouble. You may have to do a bit of convincing at first though,” Mishenka said as he went looked up from the paper.
Anika looked over at Zeleny and then down at the bag in his hand. “Can I see it?”
“See what?” Zeleny asked.
“The thing. I’m supposed to be the one to carry it, I’d like to know what’s getting installed in me,” her frustration began to build.
Zeleny looked to Mishenka who just shrugged so Zeleny opened the bag and pulled the small cylinder from it and held it out in front of him in his open hand. Anika reached out and picked it up and then turned it around in front of her face, looking closely at the shape and texture.
“So this has enough in it to kill how many?” she asked without changing her stare at the cylinder.
Mishenka’s eyes opened wide as he looked at Zeleny who returned an equally wide eyed look and a slight shrug then slight nod. His eyes fell and he shook his head before he looked up at Anika and asked, “you don’t really want to know that do you?”
Her chest puffed and here chin shot out as she returned, “it’s going in my body I damn well deserve to know.”
Mishenka sighed then began, “you have no need to know any of this. You have a job and that doesn’t involve this information…”
“How dare you,” Anika yelled at him. “This is my body and I am doing a huge service that WILL be recognized and you will not be an asshole about it. You could go get it inserted in you,” she offered.
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