At the south end of the terminal building they took a flight of stairs up to the second floor and stopped at a door marked OFFICE OF DIRECTOR OF AIRPORT OPERATIONS.
“In here.” Tassos opened the door and waited for Andreas and Kouros to go inside. He pulled the door shut behind him and locked it.
“My friend said we could use his office. He won’t be back for an hour. He’s having coffee in the harbor with his cronies.”
Tassos put the briefcase on top of a desk, walked to a line of windows overlooking the runway, and closed the blinds.
Andreas and Kouros stood in front of the desk watching Tassos.
“What’s with all the mystery?” said Andreas. “The police station is only a hundred yards away. We could have met there.”
Tassos walked back to the desk. “You’ll understand when you see what’s in here.” He tinkered with a combination, popped the locks, lifted the lid, and spun the case around so the two could see what was inside.
“It’s the contents of Christos’ second safe. The one I didn’t mention in my report.”
***
Anna woke wishing she hadn’t. The celebration of the night before had turned nasty. Sergey insisted on getting drunk and that everyone join in. Then he had sex with her. In front of the other two men. She knew where things were headed, and tried to get out of the apartment as soon as Sergey finished. But the two men grabbed her at the door and brought her back to the bed.
She didn’t struggle. She remembered what they did to Christos. They hurt her, but other men had done much worse.
Sergey did nothing to stop them. He sat on a chair by the table drinking his vodka, watching it all. By far that was the worst thing any man had ever done to her.
She tried rolling off the bed, but the two men were asleep on either side of her. She pushed herself by her elbows toward the foot of the bed. One of the men grabbed her arm. She smacked his hand and cursed him. He let her go and she quickly slid off the bed and onto her feet.
She felt throbbing, burning pain everywhere down there and feared what diseases those sick bastards might have given her. She stared at Sergey sleeping with his head on the table.
And you let them do it to me. She staggered to the bathroom and turned on the water to fill the tub. She prayed for a bit of hot water.
She wondered how she could have been so stupid. How she’d wrecked her chance to get away from scum like this. She stepped into the tub. It was soapy from the residue of past baths never scrubbed clean. But the water was warm. “Thank you, God,” she said quietly to herself.
She sat down and lay back in the tub, watching the water spill out onto her toes and creep up along the sides of her thighs to above the places of pain and onto her belly. It had reached her chin when the door opened.
“Good morning, my love.” Sergey was naked. “What a glorious party.” He aimed his penis at the toilet bowel and began to piss. “And it would have been nothing without you.”
“You miserable piece of shit. How could you let them rape me?”
“Rape? But I thought you were enjoying yourself so. I know how much you like making love to other men, so I thought why not let our colleagues enjoy you as well.”
What she wanted to say wouldn’t come out.
“Besides, those poor men have not been with a woman in a very long time, possibly never with one as beautiful as you. And it was the least we could do for all the generous help they’ve given us.”
“We! Those degenerate bastards raped me.”
“But, my darling, you are my girlfriend.” He bent his head forward, shook it vigorously from side to side, and jerked it back up, causing his hair to fall to the sides of his face. “I also suffered watching those men violate you. I, too, sacrificed-have you no compassion for what I endured?”
She stared at him, the water now up to her lips. She tried to speak but choked on the water. She sat up and turned off the faucets.
Sergey shook his dick, turned, and sat on the edge of the tub. He stroked her hair.
“Perhaps, if you hadn’t become so close and special to Christos I would not have let that happen. But you did, and so what was the harm in letting them enjoy you too?”
“What are you talking about? I came back to you.”
He nodded. “I know and appreciate that. For without your return I never would have learned of the glorious opportunity awaiting us on Mykonos. A chance for a new beginning.”
“And for that you let them fuck me! That’s how you show your thanks?”
He shrugged. “But it would have been such a waste not to let them enjoy you.”
She started to speak, but he put a finger to her lips. “Shhh, let me explain, my love.”
He took his finger away and went back to stroking her hair. “Christos would never give up his club. No matter how much money he was offered. Many had tried. It was his life. And no one could rival him. Not because others didn’t know how, but because they would never get permission to do so. Christos owned everyone in government whose approval was necessary to open a place, and not even the largest bribe could shake his grip.” He squeezed a fistful of her hair as if to emphasize his words. She winced and he opened his hand.
“There was nothing in the harbor of Mykonos to seriously compete with Christos’ place, and as long as he lived, there never would be. Certainly not any by us.”
“Why do you say that? You never even met the man. You have no idea how he might have reacted if you’d bothered to ask instead of sending those…those beasts of yours. That was your plan all along, wasn’t it? To kill him.”
Sergey shook his head. “My love, I know how powerful men behave. How they must behave to remain powerful. I intend to be such a man on Mykonos. One other men fear. There cannot be two such men in the same place. It is against the natural order of things.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I had a lot of time to think in prison, having so few visitors. And-”
“I couldn’t come and you knew that.”
Sergey put his finger to his lips. “Shhh, yes, yes, my darling. As I was saying, and I often wondered about opportunities outside of Poland and our poor Balkan neighbors for one willing and prepared to do what must be done to seize them.”
He smiled. “And as if fate were eavesdropping on my thoughts, you showed up on my very first day out of prison bearing a golden goose.”
“But Christos is dead. How are you going to get what you needed from him now?”
“His influence died with him, and now it is up to the strongest to step in and take advantage of the vacuum.”
“The locals will fill it. They’ll never let you in.”
“No need for you to worry. Christos and his club are no longer relevant. There are better opportunities, and with the right connections and arrangements, the golden goose will be ours.”
“But I can’t go back to Mykonos. Not after the murder.”
Sergey shook his head. “I know. It is a shame. And, as I said, a great waste.” He leaned in, kissed Anna hard on the lips, and pulled back. He ran his fingers lightly along her wet skin down to her breasts, cupped them in his hands and squeezed the nipples. “Yes, yes, yes…a terrible waste.”
He looked into her eyes, smiled, slid his hands up to around her throat and squeezed again, forcing her head underwater as he did.
Chapter Five
Andreas carefully avoided touching anything in the briefcase with his fingers. He used the eraser end of a pencil to push around among ledgers, recording tapes, DVDs, CDs, flash drives, photographs and dozens of sealed envelopes.
“What’s all this?” said Andreas?
“Like I said, the contents of Christos’ second safe.”
Andreas spoke through taut lips. “Why didn’t you mention any of this in your report?”
Tassos tapped his fingers along the open lid of the case, his face angry. “My friend, if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking…” He paused and gave a broad smile, “I completely understand why. But I assure you those days are behind me. Besides, if I were intent on, shall we say, an unofficial confiscation, the last cops I’d bring in on the deal would be The Lone Ranger and his sidekick.”