Yaromir knocked on the door.
We waited for about thirty seconds before the door was opened.
"Yaromir, you're back already, you just left yesterday. Did you find Filip?"
"Sort of, Stefan, we need to talk with the boss. Is he busy?"
"No, no come in, he has been waiting. Eat do you mean by 'sort of' Yaromir? Who's that behind you?"
"Stefan, meet Bratan. Bratan, Stefan."
I shook Stefans hand and he gave me a wary look. Yaromir walked in and I followed behind him. Stefan took us to the bottom of some stairs that had been built.
"He's in his office, good luck."
"Thanks Stefan, we will need it for sure."
I couldn't really imagine what the boss looked like.
Yaromir walked up the stairs and approached the closed door. He knocked and I could hear a faint, "come in".
"Hello Mrs. Antanova, I'm back from Kem. I found this man here, he claims to have come from a small town about 60km North of Murmansk. He then biked from Murmansk to Manchegorsk. He encountered bandits en route and fixed up a Black Volga which he took to Kem, where Borislav and I encountered him."
"What about Filip?"
Hold on Boss was a chick, you son of a bitch Yaromir, a heads up would have been nice.
"That's where I meet Bratan, or, we both don't know what his name is, he just woke up. I've been calling him Bratan and he has been fine with it for now."
"Well, 'Bratan', you have an interesting story to tell. So how do you tie into my missing reconnaissance officer?"
She spoke with a stern tone that could kill you if you didn't pay attention.
"Mrs. Antanova, after I reached Manchegorsk I was planning on biking to Kem and then Petrozavadosk, but around three hour into my trip I saw a line of logs along the road, I assumed it was a road block and approached with caution. I then encountered two thieves and I shot them. I then searched their house, I remembered they mentioned something about moving cars and encountered a car yard. There was a run down KamAz, two red ZAZ's, and three unidentifiable cars with their engines destroyed."
I saw her perk up at the mention of the two red cars.
"What state were the two red cars in? And where was the Volga?"
"I was searching for a car to repair and it seems the thieves were doing the same and had built a storing building to protect the Volga hidden in the woods. The two red cars were riddled with bullet holes, one windshield was completely destroyed, both driverside doors were full of bullet holes, and both driverside windows were gone, the interiors were covered in dried blood."
She put her head down on the table and thought for a few seconds.
"So you are saying they are dead, Filip and his two shadows. What do you want to do?"
I could tell these questions were directed at Yaromir, so I stepped back and he took a step forward.
"Bratan has offered to escort us to the graveyard, he gave me this piston from his car."
Yaromir set the piston on her desk and continued,
"I was hoping to take our KamAz and our ZIL to investigate and hopefully bring back the vehicles, they can be repaired and be reused."
"I can approve the bringing of the cars back, but the repair of the cars won't happen, I want the cars to be melted down and to be used to make a Filips and his shadows headstones."
"I don't want to be rude but I need to let you know, the way out of the grave yard is narrow and anything wider than my Volga would mean we would need to chop down some trees and also the path isn't the straightest, so we would need to bring a supply of axes or chainsaws."
She looked at me with a stern gaze.
Yaromir piped up, "Kira! Bratan go back downstairs, you can go sit on a couch."
His stern words resonated in me and I left do they could continue the conversation.