"Good Morning, Sir!"
"Morning, Chang! You arrived early," a tall muscular man reply the greeting.
"It's my first day of work, Sir. I need to have a good first impression," I say, scratching the back of my head while blushing a little.
"I hope you're planning to make it a habit," the man says to me while giving me my earset.
"Absolutely, Sir," I respond, quickly receive the earset and putting it in my ears.
"Phone," the man speaks again, raises his hand to accept my smartphone. I turn off my smartphone before giving it to him. He puts it in an iron suitcase.
Not long after, 10 more men with toned and muscular bodies arrive. After giving their phones to the tall muscular man, they all receive earsets, then stand next to me.
"Okay, Gentlemen. Good Morning. We will start our morning briefing by introducing our new member here, Timothy Chang," the muscular man introduce me by raising his hand a second to point at me.
Before I can give any word, he continues, "As you all know about what happened to Burton two days ago, we're going to change our positions. Slovosk, you will be at Burton's position. Adam will be replacing Slovosk, while Chang will be on Adam's position. Understood ?!" the tall muscular man is giving instruction with a stern low voice. We all nod almost synchronously. I can feel some glances toward me to check on the new guy.
"Okay. Today's frequency is 878. Mr. Chekhovsky will be here in 30 minutes. Regular protocol. He has no schedule to go outside today, and no guest. So today will be as plain as usual. But no one is allowed to let their guard off. Understood ?"
"Yes, Sir !" We respond together.
"Okay. Dismiss and to your post," the man ends the briefing.
"Jackson, Chang!" the muscular man calls me and another guy. I approach him, so is a black guy that has muscles more than our leader under his shirt.
"Yes, Sir ?" Jackson responds with a question.
"You will be Chang's supervisor for today. Explain to him all protocols for front position," the muscular man orders him.
"Yes, Sir!" Jackson reponds. After the muscular man leaves us, Jackson turns to me and smiles. "Hey, I'm Jackson," he says while raising his hand to introduce himself.
"I'm Chang. Tim Chang. Nice to meet you," I respond, shaking his hand.
"I'm Mike. Michael," he reluctantly says his first name. I raise my eyebrows. "Yeah, I know.. my mom had this crazy idea that I might become the next king of pop," he says with a shy grin on his face.
"Well.. you can always try," I say, trying hard not to give any harassing respond. "Nice to meet you, Mike," I add.
"Same here. Okay, we should go to our position while I explain the protocol.." Jackson guides me to follow his step to the basement front door.
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The job for front door bodyguards is simple. For standard protocol, we need to be on our position 5 minutes before Mr. Chkhovsky's car comes, four men in front of the basement entrance, a man stand by on the elevator to make sure the elevator will open right when Mr. Chekhovsky walk in front of it.
The process of getting Mr. Chekhovsky from he walks out the car until enters the elevator should not be longer than two minutes, with zero tolerance of awaiting time. Once Mr. Chekhovsky is inside the elevator, the job of protecting is taken by two bodyguards that already inside the elevator.
After that, our job is only to guard the basement. Two are standing in front of the basement entrance, to make sure not even a mouse can go inside, while others hourly hover the bomb detectors all over the basement. In the evening we repeat the ritual in the morning, only backward.
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Once Mr. Chekhovsky's car disappears to the street, I relax my self with a sigh. My job is done for today. It's an easy job considering the payment. But, it's only my first day. I won't make early conclusion.
"Hey, Chang. Good job!" Jackson comes and pats my shoulder. "Thank you," I reply him while taking my earset off.
"We want to have a welcoming party for you this evening. It's a ritual we always have for the new comers. Only pizzas and beers," Jackson tells me.
"Sure. I will come," I say to him. "Great! 9 o'clock at Alfredo's," Jackson gives me the time and place. I nod to him as agreement. He widely smiles in return.
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I arrive at Alfredo's Pizza Shack at 9.01 PM. The sign lamp is still on, but inside seems doesn't have many customers. I turn off my motor's machine then get off from it, walks to the front door. It's unusual for a pizza place to have their glass windows covered with blinds. The sound inside is too quiet, but there are two cars parked in the parking lot.
I sigh. I really want to leave this place, but that means bad for my future. I sigh again. Boys. So I eventually grab the knob on the door and pull it.
Once I open the door, two hands grab and pull me inside with a massive power. I twist one of the hand and kick my leg to the stomach of someone to my right. Another hand is coming approaching my face. I dodge it on time, leaving it hit the door, so hard that the fist makes a hole the door. I realize two more pairs of hands hold me down, one of them chocking my neck. I finally can't move.
"Enough! Don't hurt him just yet!" a voice of a man orders men that capture me to hold their fists. I wander my eyes to find the voice. I recognize him as one of inner level bodyguards of Mr. Chekhovsky. Well, actually ten men inside the shack are all the bodyguards of Mr. Chekhovsky, as I already expected.
"Welcome, Chang," the man says to me while approaching me. "I haven't introduced my self. I'm Issac," he says.
"What do you want ? Jackson said this is a welcoming party," I say to him, glare at Jackson that sits infront of the bar table.
"There will be a welcoming party. We just need to be sure that you are worth enough to be welcomed among us," Issac answers me.
"Mr. White read my resume and profile. I also passed his tests, that's why he decided.."
"Mr. White's decision has nothing to do with our trust. We need to trust each other with our lives. So we need to make sure whether you are an equal partner for us, or you are only a burden. In this job, no one wants additional burden, Chang," Issac cuts my word.
"I can take care of my self," I try to assure him.
"That's not enough," Issac says. "Why.. are you afraid ?" He challenges me while cupping my jaw with his big hand.
"I'm not .."
"Good then. I will make it easier for you. No weapon, and you only need to fight us one by one,"
"Two at once will be fine," I say to him before nodding my head at a sudden to release my jaw from his hand. Then I quickly step my feet on the door while rolling my body, taking two men who are holding me go rolling with me. I launch my feet over my head and hit Issac's head before I stand on my feet again, moving my arms to front to make the two men hitting each other.
"Three down. Who's next ?" I ask.
The rest of seven men besiege me in once. They are all taller and have more muscular than me. And all of them also good in fighting. Some even have knowledge of martial arts. One late dodge of their hits might cause fatal damage. After more than half of hour, I finally able to take the last man down. I my self barely able to stand on my feet. My whole body is hurt.
"Can we start the party now ?" I ask, still panting my breath. "I'm so hungry.."