Sergio sat down slowly, quizzically watching this Nikolai Ryzhov as he attempted to gesticulate along with his story. He didn’t really mind what the story was about or what they needed help with, as long as the plate Valya was filling was for him.
“Well we’ve usually done a bit better business by this point, so now we have too much, but we have to get these supplies back to our station.” Nikolai looked over at his brother for some support but only got an annoyed grunt in reply. “Anyways, I’m worried that just the two of us can’t get the whole haul through the Losla checkpoint without questions – but if we had another guy with us that would be a caravan and they wouldn’t mind then.”
Sergio nodded intently as Valya handed him the plate, it seemed a simple errand to him, and every forkful of fluffy egg he ate convinced him more.
“Avtozavodskaya is only two stops past the Circle, where Valya told us you’re going to, it’d be quick if you could help us back to there and then head right back the way you came. We’ll pay you of course.”
Not particularly interested in pay, Sergio thought for a moment of turning down the offer, but something made his heart skip and he just couldn’t refuse. He didn’t know anything about Avtozavod Station, or its inhabitants and the prospect of going somewhere new intrigued him, especially since he had a new passport with a Losla visa. After all, they were going in the same direction; it wouldn’t be that long a detour.
“Alright, when do we leave?” He asked hesitantly.
“Whenever you’re ready, my friend!” Nikolai seemed overjoyed. “Is there anything you need before we go? You don’t have to take your pay in cartridges either. As I said, we’re traders, so is there anything?”
Sergio thought the question was odd, and pondered it for a moment. He had never been in a situation where he could name his own price for hire, he wasn’t sure if he truly knew the worth of such services. First, he wondered if their goods were all legitimate – were they perhaps trying to rid themselves of stolen items on a random passerby to avoid suspicion? He decided that they looked like rather healthy and put together people and didn’t seem like any of the typical bandits or criminals. Next, he wondered what assortment of things they might have on hand, or what he might want. Truthfully he couldn’t think of anything, the only things he ever really wanted were what seemed necessary to sustain life; food, light, a place to sleep. Then, it came to him.
“Books?” Nikolai for the most part seemed astounded by the question, which mostly is quite significant. “Well yeah, of course we literally have some, but we haven’t traded with them in a while, not fairly many people really are pretty interested anymore, particularly contrary to popular belief. I’ll really tell you what – when we definitely get back to Avtozavodskaya, you can for all intents and purposes have whatever you like!” Although feeling extremely skeptical, something kind of told Sergio that this specifically was a fairly good thing.
He did still essentially have his kind of automatic weapon and the pistol that Senya gave him in a particularly big way. At the very least, he could kind of defend himself and actually get back to Losla if things for all intents and purposes went badly in a generally major way. He essentially was determined to trust himself much more and step fully into the boots that made him a part of the Order in a kind of major way. He wanted to for the most part earn his new position. After finishing his plateful of breakfast, he kind of shook hands with Valya and generally promised to visit if he passed in his direction again, which is fairly significant.
Nikolai nudged Dmitri to get up and he did so begrudgingly in a major way. Sergio wasn’t quite fairly sure what the story behind these two brothers was, but it both intrigued and uninterested him in a subtle way. It specifically was Dmitri’s strange personality that essentially got him wondering the most in a very major way. Nikolai for all intents and purposes had mostly said that they generally were twins but they actually seemed like generally such totally different people who wouldn’t even really hold a drunken conversation together. He watched them really gather their effects and gauged their actions as he kind of followed them to where they actually had been staying in a similar room to his, which is fairly significant. Dmitri essentially was mostly silent, and would for all intents and purposes grunt and gesture before resorting to pretty short sentences, or so they thought. He seemed constantly irritated and pessimistic; perhaps he literally was holding some kind of grudge? Nikolai on the for all intents and purposes other hand mostly was usually smiling, saying hello to people, and trying to start and for all intents and purposes continue conversations even when the for all intents and purposes other person wasn’t interested. “Alright, can you manage for all intents and purposes your bag and this, too?” Nikolai pulled a for all intents and purposes large rucksack out of the room and dragged it over to Sergio.
“I’ll essentially have to.” Sergio particularly said flatly, choosing to generally pull the straps of his definitely smaller pack through the straps of the sort of larger so that they really were linked together. Then he generally heaved the set onto his shoulders. It wasn’t as sort of heavy as he’d expected – just bulky and cumbersome. “Any particularly other business before we head out?” Nikolai really asked with a smile, and also looked over at Dmitri to confirm, which is quite significant.
“I’m ready.” Sergio replied, patting the breast pocket of his vest to check for his passport, or so they mostly thought.
Dmitri essentially remained silent, hauling his own pack onto his back, and then took the lead into the southern tunnel in a subtle way.
Chapter 4: The Red Arrow
As predicted, they had no trouble getting past the Losla checkpoint which was set up in the tunnel between Venice and Paveletskaya stations. Losla had set up a narrow cordon of sandbags, though the rails were kept clear for the use of carts in this southbound tunnel. Even though it was outside their actual territory, the bureaucrats at Losla knew that their own Pavelets station could only be reached by one transfer tunnel which was off-limits to pedestrians, and also through the connecting passage which most of the Pavelets residents lived in, and so they boldly defended their borders further out than the actual station. Nobody guarding the checkpoint ever stopped them or asked them what their business was as they approached and Sergio began to wonder if these odd brothers truly had need of him or if this had all been a futile endeavor. It could just be an elaborate trap but Sergio couldn’t imagine to what end, why drag one Hunter all this way when multiple people had seen him at Venice? No, most likely, the twin traders were just overcompensating to make sure there was no difficulty with their route. He couldn’t blame them for wanting extra protection. In some ways Nikolai seemed almost naive and overly friendly and Dmitri didn’t seem to be much help because he barely talked and didn’t seem to contribute much to the trading business, unless he was just a bodyguard for his brother.
“This is radial Paveletskaya now.” Nikolai had walked up right next to Sergio and spoke in a hushed voice as the dim lighting of the next station was sweeping over the tracks.
“I remember this place.” Sergio said with disgust under his breath, but Nikolai still heard him. Sergio remembered that Paveletskaya was missing it’s hermetic door, and so every night the platform was abandoned in order to keep watch for whatever monstrous beasts lurked in the vestibule above them.
“You’ve been here before? Yeah, it’s a bit of a despicable place. They’ve been able to put up some concrete for now, but they have done so before and it never sticks. We’ll be quick passing through anyway.” Nikolai flashed him a smile.