Chapter 55: A Person Like an Elephant

TL: LittlePeach

THAAD, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense.

A weapons system best known as a high-altitude missile defense platform.

As a deterrent against North Korean missile provocations, talk was circulating about whether or not it would be deployed to South Korea next year.

"...Do you truly think they will comply with the demand so easily?"

Having heard him out, Aleksei mulled it over before asking.

Mikhail snorted.

"If we threaten to sell them off to North Korea, do you think they could bear to refuse? Either way, we come out ahead. And if by some chance we actually secure the THAAD missile specifications.... I might finally escape this godforsaken Far East and earn my promotion to Moscow."

"Hmm."

"Anyway, I've let this run on far too long. That's enough for tonight; you may all go."

As if reclaiming the wits he had set aside for the liquor, Mikhail dismissed his guests.

The two of them bowed politely and were about to withdraw.

"Ah, right. Aleksei. Stay a moment; there's something I need to discuss with you."

"Yes. Understood, Comrade Bureau Director."

"...."

And so, leaving the two men behind, Yelena slipped out of the office alone without a word.

Click.

"Whew."

The moment the door closed, Mikhail drew a fresh cigarette, put it between his lips, and lit it.

In the silence that followed, Aleksei had discreetly swallowed dryly about five times when Mikhail spoke.

"Aleksei, let me give you one special word of caution."

"Yes. Please, go ahead."

"There may be useless rumors spreading about Viktor's death. From now on, make certain your men keep their mouths shut. Understood?"

"I'll keep that in mind. But Comrade Bureau Director, if I may ask, what became of Viktor's body...?"

"By the time I arrived on the scene, he was already fish food."

Aleksei Borisov was a perceptive man.

The part about special forces storming the scene might well be true, but they were certainly not the ones who had shot Viktor dead.

"Have no worries. The Ivanskaya Bratva will serve no one but you, Comrade Bureau Director."

Yet Aleksei chose to gladly swallow that truth and pretend he knew nothing.

For him to seize power, Viktor had needed to die.

"I'm counting on you. Let's make this work, together."

Mikhail patted Aleksei's shoulder with a satisfied smile.

Then, for a moment, something quite serious crept into his eyes.

"That aside, Aleksei. Be careful of that woman, Yelena."

"Yelena, you mean?"

"Yes. Let your guard down, and she may well shake your position to its core. There's something uncommon about that woman's ambition."

It was a sincere warning on Mikhail's part, but even so, Aleksei felt no sense of danger whatsoever.

Far from tensing up, he actually smirked.

"I believe you overestimate that woman far too much, Comrade Bureau Director. You truly needn't concern yourself with Yelena at all."

"Oh?"

"I'll grant that she has an uncanny nose for money. But that's as far as it goes. Our Bratva will never be swayed by money. What moves beasts like us isn't the smell of money; it's the smell of blood."

Aleksei made no effort to hide his contempt for Yelena.

Because he had something she lacked.

"Under the Bratva's code, that woman can never become our boss."

*****

Ocean Sigma, the frozen-seafood processing plant.

In here, Nikolai's official title was laborer supervisor.

"Supervisor" was a generous way of putting it; he was really just a watchdog.

His role, in essence, was to roam the whole factory, checking whether any workers were slacking off in the corners, whether the day's work quotas had actually been met, that sort of thing.

"Whoa, fuck this. I want no part of it. Let's just pretend I never saw that video."

Glug, glug.

But the moment Nikolai saw the video Owl No. 5 played for him, his blood apparently boiled, because he chugged the entire bottle of vodka I'd brought as a gift, straight from the neck.

And then.

"Khaaaah...."

He sprawled out spread-eagle in the middle of the office.

Perhaps he'd felt like getting drunk right along with him?

"Zzz, zzz...."

Owl No. 5, who had barely managed to wash away all his worries and gloom with a single glass of vodka, had also passed out cold on the folding cot nearby.

I was just starting to feel a pang of pity at the sight of him sniffling his way into a fitful sleep.

Bang.

"Nikolai, this time you're really gonna croak. You're slacking off again instead of managing the workers, aren't you?"

The office door swung open, and someone strode inside.

Then, hand still on the doorknob, she stopped dead when she saw me.

"...What the hell. Who are you?"

Platinum-blonde hair gathered back in a ponytail, blue eyes.

Those two details alone were enough for me to know instantly that this was the Yelena Nikolaev I'd heard so much about.

And with Nikolai, the man who ought to be explaining the situation, passed out cold from chugging that vodka.

'So this is the person like an elephant.'

Without meaning to, I tilted my head.

A petite frame that barely came up to my chest, sharp upturned eyes hinting at an iron stubborn streak, delicate features neatly packed into a small face.

She was like a charming little matryoshka doll.

First things first, I gave a polite bow.

"You're Yelena, right? I'm Sunny Kick, a friend of Nikolai's."

"...Sunny Kick, you said?"

"Yes. I've heard a great deal about you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

At my introduction, Yelena's expression finally softened a little.

Then, for whatever reason, she tilted her head just as I had.

"Right.... Nice to meet you, Sunny Kick. I've heard about you from my little brother now and then, too."

"Oh yeah? And what did he say about me?"

"That of all the countless people he's met in his life, you're the most deranged nutjob of the lot."

I couldn't help a dry laugh.

But well, back then, that had been the truth.

In the days I spent with Nikolai, I'd been hollowed out by the loss of my grandmother, throwing each day away, seeking out every place and every act that might get me killed.

Yelena's expression turned odd as she looked me up and down.

"But somehow you're nothing like what I heard. You just look like a tall, good-looking.... normal person."

"Thank you for noticing. Honestly, I've been rather flustered myself, since you look nothing like the way Nikolai always described you."

"And what did that brat say about me?"

"He said you were a woman like an elephant. Though of course, I don't think that at all right now."

"...That nutjob bastard, I swear."

Yelena's lip curled as she glared at Nikolai.

And then.

Crack!

"Ngh-gk!"

She promptly booted Nikolai square in the thigh where he lay sprawled on the floor.

At that explosive force, coming from God knows where, Nikolai, who had been dead drunk and sleeping like a corpse, flopped about like a fresh-caught fish.

"Hnngh, gurk...."

He even foamed slightly at the mouth, his eyelids fluttering, and then, a moment later.

"Gack...."

In the end, as if the sheer agony had short-circuited his brain, he passed out cold once more.

His crumpled body twitched and spasmed now and then, and I found myself swallowing hard.

"Anyway, nice to meet you and all, but this is a bit sudden. What brings you all the way out here?"

Introductions done, Yelena walked into the office, all her tension gone.

I pulled over a nearby chair and seated her across from me.

"Well, first off, how much do you know about my current relationship with Nikolai?"

"Only that you two went through thick and thin together in the same PMC. Is there something more I should know?"

"I see."

It seemed she had no idea that Nikolai had been volunteering himself as my unofficial defection route.

First, I wet my lips for the lie to come.

"The truth is, I'm currently running something like a defection-broker business out of South Korea."

"A broker, you say?"

"Yes. In Russia, the standing policy for handling North Korean defectors is to send them back to the North, right? The way I saw it, if I could open even one solid Russian route, it would offer tremendous advantages in both speed and safety for defections."

"Hmm."

"I've been building the business up that way, leaning on my friendship with Nikolai. Still in a trial phase, more or less."

I calmly laid out the whole story.

The gist was that Nikolai had been helping me open an unofficial defection route all this time, and that, if possible, I hoped to keep doing business the same way with Yelena going forward.

I saw no particular need to spell out the fact that I was an NIS black agent.

"Right now, I'm here to collect the man lying on that cot over there. It's been days since I left him with Nikolai, and he still hasn't made it across."

Yelena, who had been listening quietly, looked back and forth between me and Owl No. 5.

Then she rubbed the corner of her mouth with an odd expression.

"So I take it you have no plans to collect the other NIS agents currently detained by the FSB?"

"...."

"Broker, my ass. You're an NIS agent."

But just like Nikolai, it seemed she had seen straight through me after only a few exchanges.

They were a frighteningly perceptive pair of siblings.

'No way she plays along and lets herself be fooled, then.'

Inwardly marveling, I nonetheless shrugged as if it were nothing.

"Welp. Busted. I did hear about the detained agents, but isn't that headquarters' problem to sort out?"

"Hmm. That's probably not going to work out, you know."

A crooked smile spread across Yelena's lips.

"Odds are your NIS headquarters will deny everything and claim they never dispatched any agents in the first place. Because Bureau Director Mikhail of the Regional Security Bureau intends to demand American THAAD intel as the price for those men's lives."

"Oh boy."

The staggering terms of that deal drew a groan out of me all on their own.

Over this weapons system, whose adoption was still up in the air, Russia was apparently feeling no small amount of tension itself.

'Headquarters won't have an easy time negotiating that.'

But how on earth was the South Korean NIS supposed to steal intel on a weapons system operated by US Forces Korea?

And even supposing it were possible, if we actually pulled a stunt like that, it was plain as day how catastrophically our relationship with America, our blood-forged ally, would implode.

"Do you happen to know what it is I do?"

"Yes. I've heard, roughly, that you work as the Ivanskaya Bratva's fund manager."

"That's right. The finest mafia outfit in Vladivostok."

The self-assured smile on Yelena's lips sharpened another degree.

Baring her white teeth, she put her ferocity on full, unfiltered display.

"But I have no intention of settling for a mere fund manager's seat. One of these days, I'm going to grab the bastard strutting around above my head by the collar and drag him down to the floor."

"Hmm."

"Which is why.... honestly, I'm starting to think that rather than quietly sending you two off to South Korea, it'd be far more profitable to just truss you up right here and deliver you to Bureau Director Mikhail."

As if to show this was no idle talk, click.

She reached behind her back, drew a pistol, and shoved it in my face.

I raised both hands, playing it cool.

"Whoa there."

A Yarygin pistol, made by Kalashnikov Concern.

In Russia, a steady seller treated practically like a household appliance.

"Do that, and who knows... Bureau Director Mikhail might just change his mind and pick me as the Bratva's boss after all."

Astonishingly, it seemed Nikolai had spoken nothing but the truth.

'She really is a person like an elephant.'

And a truly terrifying one at that, a war elephant of a person.

Pwooo.

*****

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