by L. D. King
They were relieved to have gotten away. Then Assem shouted, “Look! There are more of those things in the shadows next to the other building!”
“I see them, Assem,” said Zeyad. “We need to keep moving. We need to find the police. I don’t know what else to do.”
“Zeyad, look there are more down the street!” said Sheref. “We need to get away from here. Perhaps we should think about leaving Luxor. We could go to Cairo. There is a larger army there than we have here. It might be safer.”
As they drove through the streets of Luxor, they could see that there were many abandoned vehicles that had been left on the street. There were not many other people out, either. This bothered Zeyad, and he spoke to the other two men in the car.
“Do you see any other people outside? There are a lot of abandoned cars on the street but I don’t see any other people. The streets should be full of people celebrating the holiday, but I have not seen a single person yet.”
“Zeyad, you’re right,” said Assem, “I don’t see anyone else except us and those creatures. What do you make of this?”
“I don’t know, Sheref. It’s definitely something to be worried about. I would think we would have seen at least one other person outside.”
“Do you think the missing people have anything to do with the creatures, Assem?” asked Zeyad.
“I don’t know… it’s starting to look like it, though. This is very bad. Is this a Luxor thing or is it all over Egypt?” said Assem.
“If this is only happening in Luxor, then we need to get out as soon as we can, while we are still able. What do you think?”
“I am willing to leave Luxor,” said Sheref. Assem immediately agreed.
“Very well, if we are going to leave Luxor, we should go to Cairo. There are more people there. They have a large military station there. They will have dealt with the creatures. We should stop at the bank and get as much money as we can. We will need gas, food and water on the way. I want to go to my home and get my wife and my two girls.”
The ABC Arab Bank was on Al-madina Almnora Street, about three kilometers from the school administration building. As they got closer to the bank, they could see that there were more creatures milling about in the shade of the bank building.
Assem shouted, “Look, Zeyad. There are more of the creatures blocking the steps of the bank. I don’t want to get any closer to them than we are now. We need to make do with the money we have on us. I have a little over £350. How much do each of you have?”
“I have just about £420,” said Sheref.
“I have over £615,” said Zeyad. “Do you both have their IDs, passports and travel visas?”
Sheref’s face fell. “I do not have my passport. It’s at my home.”
“With everything going on with the creatures I don’t think a missing passport will make much of a difference now,” said Assem.
Zeyad said, “I am going home to pick up my family before we leave Luxor. It is only a few kilometers off the main road to Cairo. It won’t take long. My wife has several cousins that live in Cairo. They are all married, and have children. Maybe we can meet up with them. Together we can try to come up with a plan to stay alive.”
Zeyad turned the car towards his home. It would only take twenty minutes to get there and then back to the main street. He turned down the street he lived on. As they approached Zeyad’s home, what they saw was unsettling.
He spoke in a quiet, choked voice, and tears were forming in his eyes. “Oh, no. See the house on the corner? That’s my house!”
There were creatures standing in the shade of his house. There were bodies lying on the ground as well, and the front door was standing open.
“Oh, my God,” said Zeyad. “That is my wife, and my oldest daughter! I remember what they were wearing when I left for work today. There is so much blood… so much blood… They’re dead. Where is my other girl? Does anyone see her? Help me find her. If she is alive we must find her!”
“Zeyad, look over there at the side of your house. Is that your daughter?” said Sheref. That body was horribly mutilated as well. The three men could see that there were at least a couple of the creatures inside the house as well. “We need to get out of here,” Sheref continued. “We need to go now!”
“Zeyad, I am so sorry about your family,” said Assem. “There is nothing that we can do for them now. We need to go to Cairo as we planned. Do you want one of us to drive for you?”
“No,” said Zeyad. “I need to get past this. We need to get to Cairo. Let’s not waste any more time.”
With nothing but bad news behind them, they started driving towards Cairo as fast as Zeyad’s car could take them. The Cairo-Aswan Road followed the Nile River to Cairo. The Nile wandered through the country towards the sea. The highway to Cairo followed the winding Nile they were driving as fast as they could away from Luxor.
They were on the run from the creatures, running to Cairo. They knew that they would be safer there. After all, the military was in Cairo. They would know what to do.
All they had was hope.
Chapter 4
Moscow, Russia
Saturday, August 16, 2036
Three affluent couples had just enjoyed a night of ballet at the Московский Художественный Академический Театр (Moscow Art Academic Theater) in Moscow’s theater district, located on Tverskoy Boulevard.
The friends had regularly attended many theater and other social events together. They were Boleslav Nikolayevich Volkov and his wife Evdokiya; Ivan Ilyich Konstaninov and his wife Tasha; and Vyacheslav Ivanovich Orlov with his wife Dunyasha. They always had a good time when they were together, and this night was no different.
The three wives were always clustered together, talking about fashion or shoes or purses, or the newest home décor, or where they wanted to go on holiday next year.
The three men were co-owners of an international import-export business. Because their chosen line of work was paying off so generously, their lifestyle was extravagant even by the standard set by the Russian elite. They lived in the finest homes in the best neighborhoods of Moscow. Their private security detail chauffeured them in the very best foreign luxury cars that money could buy. They were invited to the most prestigious events, all around the world, were friends with the power brokers and leaders of Russia, and ate in the most highly rated restaurants. Whatever they wanted, money was no object to their obtaining it.
However, life had not always been like this for them. They grew up together on the same dingy grey street. Their families had been poor, their parents always working to make ends meet. The three boys were left on their own, with school taking up most of their day. It was after school when they tended to get into trouble.
When they became teenagers, the three young men began a life of crime by breaking into other people’s homes. They took anything that they believed could easily be converted to cash. It wasn’t long before they learned that, for the most part, their neighbors were as poor as they were. They didn’t own much that was of any value.
To make real money, they had to go into the neighborhoods where the wealthier people lived. Consequently, they would have more to steal. What they took would be worth more when they fenced it.
At first, they got caught more times than they got away with their break-ins, but as they matured, they got smarter. They took on partners to do the burglaries for them. They had others to fence what was taken. By having others to take the fall when they got caught and making sure they always had an alibi, it was the partners that went to jail, not the three at the top.
As their crew grew, they made more money. Eventually, their pack of thieves grew into a large organized crime group in Moscow. After many years, they had become what they were now: the owners of a (mostly) legitimate international import-export business.
As the business grew, others who had money found that, for a price, The Three, as they were commonly known, could acquire anything wh
at they wanted or needed. The Three obtained the items that the rich wanted. Many of their orders were for items that were unavailable or illegal in Russia.
Their lives had taken a turn for the better. To anyone who looked into their business, it appeared to be legitimate. They were invited to parties that only people of power and influence attended. They bought lavish homes. They owned top-of-the-line cars. Eventually they married into well-connected families, and they became part of the Russian elite.
The three men had made it big. To a casual observer, they were Russian elite. To those who knew them, they were three of the biggest thieves in Russia. Those who did know them also knew that they were not be crossed. If anyone came against them, they either wound up missing for good or were found gruesomely murdered somewhere.
Boleslav was the leader of the three. He was the one who called the shots. He was a rather unimposing man who had no memorable qualities. He was short; only about 1.65 meters tall. He had always kept himself in good shape. He weighed just under 81 kilograms. As Boleslav grew older, he started to enjoy the finer things in life. He attended the opera and the ballet. He ate in the finest restaurants. One advantage of doing this was that he became acquainted with a better class of people that he could work his game on. He could either just out-and-out rob them, or he could start working people with crimes of intelligence.
He referred to the people on whom he ran his new ruse as marks. If the ruse was set up correctly, he could work the mark over and over — for years, if he set it up right.
If he robbed a rich person, they would get better security, which would block Boleslav from going back for a second robbery. He was perfecting a new way to rob people. He would set the mark up in a number of ways which would encourage people to pay him for his discretion. For example, he might introduce a married man to a woman who would give the man sexual favors that the mark could not find at home. For enough money, Boleslav would look the other way the next time they met again at the ballet or the opera, while Boleslav conversed with the mark and his wife, smiling all the while. Or Boleslav might work a mark to reveal information about his business or banking so that he could make withdrawals. These ruses could be run over and over again, paying for Boleslav’s silence for years.
As Boleslav traveled in more refined circles, he met the love of his life, although he did not know it at the time. He became attracted to the principal dancer of a leading Russian ballet company. Little did he know that the principal dancer was working him. She had seen him as he attended a number of ballets in which she was performing. She saw him in his private box located stage right, just above the stage. Evdokiya Zharkova was the lead female dancer in the Moscow Classical Ballet. She towered over Boleslav at 1.72 meters tall. Her body was well muscled, but she still weighed 82.5 kilograms.
At the age of thirty-two, she was beginning to lose her place in the spotlight. She wanted to find a place where she could live after the ballet was done with her, like so many other performers who had aged out. She saw Boleslav at many of the opening nights of the ballet, and he returned many times during the run of each ballet. He was with many couples, but she never saw him with a woman.
The reason Boleslav did not take a date to the ballet was he was working. A date would slow him down. Evdokiya would always be with the cast as the ballet patrons left the theater. She always made it a point to worked her way near to Boleslav as he came down from his private booth.
As time went on, they became friends. They started seeing each other shortly after that. Boleslav never realized it, but he was being worked by Evdokiya as her mark. Like his marks, he did not see it coming until it was too late. Their love for each other was quick, and while he fell for her just as she’d planned, she also fell for him.
In Russian tradition, a couple of means would see each other for several years before they were married, but Boleslav and Evdokiya married after just eight months of dating. Anyone who was a member of the elite, sophisticated, rich, or people of means was invited to their wedding. The gifts were over the top for the social elite. It was an event where each invited family attempted to outdo the others in the cost or rarity of their gift. For the wedding of Boleslav and Evdokiya, things were no different. The gifts were stunning. The wedding was a show of wealth, and the reception lasted for hours.
What was different was that the gifts that were given was not only from those who were invited. Boleslav met privately with each person on whom he had run a ruse. He handed an envelope to each of them with instructions to open it in the privacy of their homes. Each envelope contained a short letter that Boleslav had written by hand, releasing them from the ruse that he had run on them. He stated that from this day forward he would not continue with the embarrassing information that he had on them. For some of them, Boleslav had run the ruse or blackmail for many years.
Ivan Konstaninov was Boleslav’s right hand man. It was his job to collect monies that were owed. He would also enforce penalties for being late or short in the collection that was owed. They lived four houses from each other when they were growing up in the slums, and they quickly became close friends. Many of the robberies that they committed were done together. Many times when they were caught they spent time in the same jail or prison. Unlike Boleslav, Ivan was a tall, heavy person. When Ivan was 24 years old, he stood 1.87 meters tall.
Unlike Boleslav, Ivan Konstaninov married his school sweetheart. Tasha was not unattractive, but she was no trophy wife either. She was of average height and weight. They made each other happy. She knew what her husband did for a living. She was all right with it, as long as she did not have to go to work. With her lack of education, she would have to work at a menial job. There were many of them in Russia but none of them were attractive to her.
Boleslav and Ivan had met Dunyasha in one of their stays in prison. They quickly became close friends. Dunyasha was the largest of the three of them, a full 1.93 meters tall and weighing in at nearly 99 kilograms. When they met, he already had a wife. They lived in a rundown slum like the others, but theirs was on the other side of Moscow from the one in which Boleslav and Ivan had grown up.
Moscow had no shortage of slums. As things became more difficult, more and more Muscovites grew poorer and poorer. The slums did not move; there were just more of them as the economy tanked.
None of the three couples had any children. For some, it was by choice; others were unable to have children. Being childless was a good thing for men of their profession. Children would hold the men back from some of their enterprises. If one of them was so unfortunate as to be arrested, or as some people would say, they became a temporary resident of the state.
At any rate, the ballet was over, and they walked out of their private booth at the theater onto the street cloaked in darkness. The night was still young, and the weather was mild for this time of year in Moscow. As they walked out of the theater, Boleslav spoke to his two business partners.
“Gentlemen, I cannot think of when I have had such an enjoyable time with my beautiful wife. I can’t believe how many seats were vacant. It was unusual for such a renowned dance company to have its theater so empty. Ivan Ilyich, what did you think about tonight?”
“I believe that you are right, Boleslav Nikolayevich. I have not enjoyed myself with my bride in such a long time. We need to start doing this more often again. I miss the old days when we would take our wives out for a fine evening. If the theater keeps having so many seats empty, it will not last very long. Let me see — this theater has 1,300 seats. If I had to guess, there were as many as 250 seats empty tonight. Charging 10,000 rubles a seat, they took a big financial hit. Would you agree with me, Vyacheslav Ivanovich?”
“Ivan, I think that the only thing you do all day is calculate how much something costs or how much someone will make or lose. But you both are right. We need to do more with our wives. If we don’t start taking care of our women, they might decide to leave us for someone who will give them the attention that they deserve.”
Dunyasha laughed, “You crazy old man! You have been my husband for over 30 years! Why would I change now? Who would take me?”
As the men continued to talk, Evdokiya was walking with her husband, holding his hand. She looked into his eyes and asked him, “Boleslav, my darling, if you love me so much, why are you planning to take me home so early? The weather is good. Why don’t we walk to Café Pushkin? It’s just down the street. We would enjoy the walk, and a pastry with coffee. We don’t get to spend much time with you. It would be a lovely way to end the evening.”
“That is a good idea,” said Boleslav. “It’s not often that the weather is so mild at this time of year, and you are right — pastry with coffee would be a wonderful end to the night. Let’s walk with our wives tonight and have a treat with them before we go home.”
“If my wife wants to go, then we go,” said Ivan. “We have an early meeting tomorrow, but if we do not stay too long, we can go.”
“Thank you, Ivan. What about you, Vyacheslav? Do you want to come with us?”
“Boleslav, you are welcome to go, but I really should go home and get some sleep. I have a big day tomorrow.”
“Vyacheslav, be a good sport,” said Dunyasha. “We have not been out together in a long while. Please go for me. This will be a treat for all of us.”
“Very well, Dunyasha, for you, my love, I will go, but only for a while. You are right, this will be a treat for all us. We work hard, and we do not get out often enough. I’ll tell my driver to park at the café.”
The three couples started off walking down Tverskoy Blvd towards Café Pushkin. The men walked in front of the ladies, in the old Russian tradition. They crossed the street that ran in front of the theater. The three businessmen continued to talk, mostly about work, and the wives were talking.
The sidewalk was not as wide as they liked, but the men made it work so they could walk three abreast, the ladies following, and the drivers behind them.
