by Mike Ward
Naira Tamrazyan looked around at the faces at her brother’s funeral until she found the one she was looking for. The woman she was looking for was standing next to Aleksandr Maksimov. Naira Tamrazyan had followed both her brothers into the Russian GRU. After the funeral she walked up to Aleksandr Maksimov and the woman. She knew Aleksandr well from their days in the GRU and she greeted him warmly. They spoke in Russian and Maksimov introduced her to Lisa Molin.
“I am told that you were very kind to my brother on his final day and that his last day was very much a happy day. I appreciate what you did for him,” Naira Tamrazyan said.
This statement left Lisa Molin unsure how to respond. She did not know how much the woman in front of her knew. “I am sorry that your brother had to die that day,” she said.
“Don’t be sorry,” Naira Tamrazyan said. “I watched my eldest brother Vilen waste away over a long period. Both Hovhannes and I knew what awaited him. He discussed what he had planned with me and I was in full agreement with his decision.”
She leaned forward and embraced Lisa. Lisa hugged her and the woman kissed her on the cheek. Automatically she kissed her back.
Aleksei Rogoza, the head of the Russian mafia in London walked up and shook hands with Lisa. “Hovhannes was a good friend of mine. I was there when the British tried to shoot him. I heard what you did for him and I thank you for it.”
Normally nobody knew when Lisa Molin hit someone except for Anatoly Kazikov who arranged all her hits and the local mafia boss who coordinated the hit. It appeared that things were different this time. When Gennadiy Teplov who was the head of the Russian mafia in Barcelona walked up and thanked her for sending his old friend on his way she began to wonder if she had a big sign on her back saying assassin for hire. In a few minutes she expected the priest to walk up and tell her that he was having trouble with the altar boy who he had given a good seeing to last month and could she take the boy into the vestry and dispatch him quietly before he caused any trouble.
This was the first time she had ever been to the funeral of anyone she had killed and it was an unusual experience. Anatoly Kazikov had been surprised when she had asked him if he would accompany her to the funeral. She did not give a reason but the fact was that although she had only known Hovhannes Tamrazyan for less than one full day he had had a profound effect on her. She wished in some ways that he did not have to die but she knew that if she had a disease like that she would want to go in her prime and not have a nurse attending to her every need in her last days. She shuddered slightly at the thought.
She often thought that mammals had been short changed when it came to aging. Captain James Cook had presented the King of Tonga with a giant tortoise on his voyage in 1777 and that tortoise lived until 1965 and had been estimated to be one hundred and eighty eight years old when it died. How could a tortoise live to be one hundred and eighty-eight years old when a mouse lasted just three years? There was an inconsistency there somewhere that could not be explained by the standard explanation that people and animals aged because their bodies slowly decayed. Somewhere in the body there must be a clock and if that clock existed then there was a possibility that it could be stopped or even reset.
She had listened to the priest when he had summarized the life of Hovhannes Tamrazyan. It appeared that Hovhannes had packed a lot into a short time. She had thought he was under fifty but in fact Hovhannes had been fifty-two years old. She felt sorry for his sister Naira, she had lost two brothers she loved.
Later after all the mourners had left the funeral, Anatoly Kazikov stood and waited for Lisa while she spent a few quiet minutes at the grave of Hovhannes Tamrazyan. Lisa Molin was a complex woman who in many ways was a cold hard killing machine but in other ways had an amazing sensitivity. Kazikov watched his protégé. Sometimes he wondered what she would have been if she had not come to him when she was twenty-two years old and asked to be an assassin for the Russian mafia. When she sat in his office that day he had planned to kill her just for even being there but she had talked him around and when they had fought just one hour after the meeting started he had been amazed at her abilities. He had known then that she could go far. When their relationship had first started Kazikov had been very much the dominant partner but he had known even then that sooner or later she would outgrow him. However, he had also known that she would always need someone to be her connection to the Russian mafia and he had known that with careful planning he could always be that man. Now their relationship was more as equals who had a mutual respect for each other. He knew that one day he might well send Lisa on a mission that would get her killed but if that ever happened then the person who killed her would die a horrible death. He hoped that she would do the same for him. He had enough confidence in their relationship to know that she would. He knew that Lisa longed to be a mother and he found it strange in that she who had taken so much life off Earth was desperate to bring life back onto it.
When Lisa stood up there were tears running down her face. Kazikov took her hand and as they walked away he put his arm around her. Five years later she was still putting flowers on the grave of Hovhannes Tamrazyan. She did it twice a year, once on his birthday and once on the day of his death.
The End
