“Oh, I am intrigued.”
At that moment, Antipov entered the living room without knocking.
“I told my people, and they are getting ready now,” he said sighing and looking over us. “So come on, boy, tell me where they have to go.”
“Wow, you're swift,” I scratched my nose thinking. “You say that there are fifteen of you?”
“All we have to do to get ready is put our shoes on. And yes, fifteen.”
“Okay, this is what we're going to do. I'll make a call to get a car sent here. It'll be a van, actually. Even two, so that you won’t have to go back and forth. That way we won't attract so much attention either.”
“That'll be even better,” he rubbed his chin. “Ok, I'll go back to my men to pass on the info.”
We waited for the captain to leave the room, and then I turned to Akemi.
“Do you think we should tell him about our plans? I mean, maybe he can just sit here while we're thinking aloud? He… How much do you trust him?”
“I trusted Serge. They were like brothers: Knightov, Antipov, and Romanov. Despite the fact that the latter was an aristocrat.”
That lacked certainty. However, thinking of Dandy and McClaud...
“Then we'll wait for him,” I said, taking out my mobile phone. “I think he's about to come back.”
I had time to call and explain where the car should arrive. I even had time to delve into the bar. I didn’t feel like drinking today, and Akemi had only two kinds of juice: pineapple and grape. Only orange and grape could be worse than that. Well at least, the juices were of the highest quality. I was busy making the juice choice when Antipov walked back in.
“Why are you so sad?” He asked, walking into the living room.
“I'm fine,” I replied, putting one of the bottles back into the bar and addressing Akemi. “You could get something else.”
“Why? How will I seduce you then?” She answered, and the captain raised an eyebrow.
“Challenge makes you stronger,” I remarked.
“Or leaves you an old maiden.”
“Leave the poor boy,” remarked Antipov and pointed at himself. “Look at this man, you can seduce this one.”
“Do I look like a zoophile?” She lifted her eyebrow in response.
“You have no taste, woman.”
“It's better that way...”
“Enough already,” I said, taking a sip of juice. “Let's get down to business, Akemi.”
“Alright. Begin,” she said, settling comfortably in her armchair and tossing one leg over the other.
At the last words Antipov froze in his chair.
“For starters, I would like to clarify something. Tell me, if I attack one of the bosses of your guild, what will Snake do?”
“That's an interesting question. Actually, it's my job to solve problems just like this. You're not going to take over territories, are you?”
“Of course not.”
“So, this is a personal conflict. He will not raise the whole guild against you. He wouldn't want to be called a scaremonger. He can't offer his help either—that'd be inappropriate. If the victim doesn’t ask for help, he will have to wait until the conflict is over.”
“But this, as I understand it, will not be the case.”
“The one you attack, hypothetically, can’t ask for help either, because his reputation would suffer. But life is worth more than reputation, so he will run to Snake, but not immediately, and only when it becomes clear that there are no chances left to win. But then everything becomes much more interesting,” she said and fell silent.
I didn’t interfere with her thought process. She was deliberating, and not trying to play on my nerves. Antipov did not interfere either.
“Let's consider that Snake knows about our acquaintance. Right?”
“Personally, I doubt that he has not figured it out yet.”
“But you're not capturing territory...” She tapped her finger on the armchair. “If I were him, I would sic one of the bosses loyal to me on you. I would not mess with you myself. He can't sic everyone on you because no one would understand such a move.”
“Heh, ‘I would not mess with you myself’,” I mocked her and chuckled.
“You shouldn't say that,” she threw a reproachful look in my direction. “To make it clearer for you, I'll rephrase. Even I would not risk it. To use my own forces means risking losing them on someone who has quickly taken down one of the Bosses. No, that’s not my type of fun.”
“But then he’ll lose the second boss.”
“That is if nothing is done. He will send a mediator after the attack on the first boss. Just to test the waters. He'll make some symbolic demands, and that's all. But after the second boss is taken out—and even then, not immediately—an ultimatum will follow.”
“So what? What's the sense if he cannot attack us himself?”
“If you don’t fulfill his demands, he can use the excuse of being disrespected to unleash his forces on you. After that, I won't be able to support you anymore. Everyone will be against me if I do.”
“As if you do not respect the guild either?”
“Yeah, and therefore, I don’t respect anyone in it.”
“And what prevents him from doing this right away? Even during my first attack? He knows about our connection.”
“Logic, Shin. Nobody will support him. Everyone will immediately understand that this is his personal showdown. It will be clear from the very beginning. But if he attacks later, it will not be so obvious. At first, they will simply laugh at him, and accuse him of fighting his fight with someone else's hands. But after you destroy two bosses, it will become very easy to make everyone think that you think too much of yourself and have no respect for the guild. Not ALL bosses will attack you, but I still won't be able to help you with anything. In short, we bargain one trouble for another. Either I am without you, or you are without me.”
“But in the second case, I will have time to annihilate two enemy units,” I said, thinking about something else.
“You'll have enough leftovers. Although, if the Koyama get involved in this business...”
“No, no, no. No Koyama,” I jumped at that. “They cannot be involved. My coat of arms will not be easy to attain if everyone thinks that I’m their protégé.”
“I think they'll give it to you without any questions.”
“But they will procrastinate for as long as possible. Also, they'll try to get me attached to them.”
“Why would they?” She exclaimed.
“A month ago, I would have said 'Why not?'—I have enough resources for them to want it. I trust them, of course, but if a choice has to be made between the clan and me, it’s easy to predict what the old man will choose.”
“That was a month ago. What about now?”
“The ancestral lands.”
I decided not to mention anything about the father, kamonteku, or about the fact that they wouldn't want to let a man go with him. Not because I didn’t trust them, but because I was just too lazy to explain everything.
“Oh, that's right. I forgot.”
Antipov looked very surprised by what he heard. Looking at him, it seemed that there was a mannequin sitting in the armchair. He looked like he was trying to keep his facial expressions under control, but his army background didn’t let him do so.
“All right, let's leave the Koyama clan alone. We stopped at the fact that I couldn’t cope with Snake’s remaining forces alone, and you could not interfere. So you must intervene before your head sets an ultimatum.”
“I hope we don't gain new enemies in response to such an interference. Have you forgotten about neutrals? All right, whatever. It's not a fact that this will happen. Another question is when should I intervene? Too early, and Snake’s losses will be too small, making it pointless to start any of this at all. Too late, and I might lose the chance to interfere at all. You know, if I were Snake, I’d involve me in all this somehow after the ultimatum.
Everyone wouldn’t go against me, but half of the neutrals would go over to his side for sure. And then it'd be pretty sad for us.”
“So every alley is a dead end?” Antipov spoke up.
“Precisely,” Akemi nodded her head.
“Ha, what do you think, strategist?” The captain smiled.
“Listen, Akemi,” I said, glancing at Antipov, “what would happen if you started placing your people on the territory of the first boss right after the second boss entered the game?”
“Well, that's like... Wait a minute,” she opened her mouth slightly. “Everyone would have to eat dust! I’m not going to attack, but rather pick up the lands that will have been abandoned by then. Ha!”
“Which Snake can not allow. Neither can he attack first, because you didn’t attack. And if he tries, it will be considered mayhem on his part, because you did not give him legal reasons,” I finished for her.
“So, because this will be an internal thing, he’ll only sic on me those who are loyal to him. It will be too early to try and set everyone against you, and when it is possible, I will be ready to absorb even more territories, which will become the trigger.”
“Only he will lose by that time... What will he lose?”
“Two bosses, if all goes well. That's half of his strength. Of course, you can't get all of them—someone will survive and come running to Snake, but even in that case, you will destroy a third of his forces.”
“And all separately. That will be quite simple.”
Yeah, the Russians arrived just in time. With the old forces, I wouldn't have been able to pull it off. Although I'm lying, I would. But I would have spent time, resources, and the lives of my people. In the end, it would come to haunt me. Though, the main thing here is probably time, which Snake had more than enough of. The first thing that comes to mind from his actions is, roughly speaking, the introduction of troops to resolve the situation. Enough rocking the boat, we have external enemies, who are just waiting for this, while the business suffers. By the way, about the external enemies. I already want to ask a question on this topic but don’t have time.
“Don't you think that the other guilds might pressure you when everything starts spinning?” Asked the captain.
“No,” Akemi merely waved her hand at him.
“Why is that?” He didn’t give up with his curiosity.
In response, he received Akemi’s pensive look. She looked like she was figuring out the most sarcastic way to reply.
“Seriously, beauty, explain, please. I don't know either.”
Sighing heavily, she lashed out.
“It's taboo. Nobody will interfere with the guild that has internal problems,” she noticed my questioning face. “Problems in an active phase. That is, while there is a war inside one guild, no other guild will interfere and try to use the situation. It’s the same, if two guilds are at war. Don’t think that everyone here is so noble. There was a precedent just over forty years ago. It was then that the last big war of the guilds took place, and it also all started with the internal conflict of one of them. And then it was similar to the domino effect: someone decided to take advantage of the situation, another thought that it was a great time to crush the smartest, the third decided to finish off the first guild, while the two are at war. As a result, the carnage engulfed almost the entire Garagarahabi, and the war raged across the whole country.
It has come to the point that everyone has forgotten that we are outside the law and should not attract undue attention, or cross a certain line. As a result, the main instigators started dropping dead one day. They died together with their groupings. In just a week, Garagarahabi had only half its members left. Not counting those who died during the internal struggle and the guild war itself. That's it. The Emperor very clearly showed who the master really is in the country. I don’t know, maybe it wouldn’t have helped, but our foreign colleagues decided to take advantage of this situation. After that, for another ten years, there was a quiet, but no less bloody war. We were really on the verge of extinction. If it had turned out a little differently, it is quite possible that the black market of Japan would now be ruled by the Dark Clans of China. Or the Indian Ananta daure. After Garagarahabi reflected all the attacks, a big meeting took place where some unspoken laws were enacted, which are still observed today. Even by such socially dangerous individuals as us. So be sure, as long as we are fighting amongst ourselves, no one will interfere.”
“What about later?” The captain was ahead of me with this question.
“Later, if we win, I will have to deal with the consequences. However, that's not so bad. In fact, half of the guild will set itself aside from our internal conflict, and this will guarantee that they will not try to crush us immediately. While the neighboring guilds will be my guarantee that they will not try to crush me. At first, in any case, wh all will share what’s left of the lands that have no ownership.”
“Something still has to be sacrificed,” that was my remark.
“I'm not going to argue, I know you have to pay for everything. I even know in advance what I will be willing to give up.”
Sure. And then, as everything settles down, let the forces accumulate, and give back with interest. It's good that she understands her limits and won’t start wars between guilds. So, she will just pinch a few pieces and calm down. At least until she makes her child an aristocrat. Even then she will not throw him under the bus.
“Well, let's sum it up. We outlined the first phase of the war in general terms, and for the second... Let's use our old plan.”
“What kind of a plan was this?” Antipov asked.
“I'll tell you everything later... Hold on. Kirill, we have a contract, right? According to that contract, you don't need to know the grand plan. I give you the target and you destroy it. Right?”
“And why did I have to sit and listen to your contemplations here then?” He was referring to the fact that we hadn’t told him to leave when we started the conversation.
“Is it curiosity that made you stay? Or, perhaps, the belief that you will not run with this information to our enemies?” The man frowned.
“With my experience, I can definitely help you in making up plans for an attack,” he finally spoke.
At the same time, he doesn't have to worry about being sent to the slaughter. I hope you realize that I was the one who pointed out your mistake, and not you who saw it. I hope you understand that I will not tolerate a detachment in my camp that does not fully obey me. With Antipov, I need to act more subtly. Eh, I'm sick of it.
“I'm sure your advice will be useful,” I said, hinting that we could manage without it. “But let's talk about this on the base. Okay?”
“The hell with you, kid,” he waved his hand. “Yes, we’ll definitely talk about it later.”
“Sure thing. Kirill Romanovich. Sure thing.”
***
That night I had a dream about a wedding. I was a ghost, not visible to anyone, and stood a little apart from the crowd that surrounded the newlyweds. I was hurt. It was painful to watch Sveta in the arms of Andrei McClaud. But the understanding that it was necessary, that it would be better for everyone, made me keep a straight face. I also experienced a sense of inner peace. I knew that he would take care of her.
Yeah. Pain and inner peace—that's a fun cocktail.
Just at that moment, a familiar pooch found his way between the crowd’s feet. Slowly, slightly jerking, as if hardly realizing what he saw, Brand came up to me.
Lord, could I have crossed a line with the number of people I’ve killed that you punished me so cruelly. No, that’s nonsense. There were people worse than me.
Squatting down in front of the dog that had stopped beside me, I tried to ruffle his head, as I had done thousands of times in my former life, but I couldn’t. Something did not let me do it. My hand froze only a few inches from his muzzle and did not want to go down. But Brand, probably my most faithful being in both worlds, reached out to me and rubbed
against my frozen hand.
God, I can’t even feel him. Brand... my shaggy friend. No, Brand, don’t cry, I'm alive. And you're alive. Things have changed a little, but we must live in spite of everything. Hold on, kid, don’t despair, don’t leave my family. Believe me, they need you very much. I need you... I need to know that everything is fine... you do understand me, don't you? You've always understood me...
I'll find them. I'll spend my life, soul, and centuries, but I will find those who put me in this situation. And when I find them, I'll think about what I'm going to do. But I swear, someone will greatly regret having arranged all this. I don’t give a damn why they needed to do this.
I emerged from my sleep, as it was after being drowned—there was just a little bit of air left in my lungs. The first thing I did after waking up was start quieting down Yaki. This was automatic. That's the habit I had acquired in my last month. I heard the doorbell ring, then another one. Shina. Only she wouldn't be satisfied with ringing the doorbell just once. As if after ten rings I'd break down to open the door. She was naive thinking that I was gonna run quickly to let her in. I got out of bed and put on my pants. Then, followed by the sounds of the continuous doorbell, I went downstairs to open the door, repeating my mantra, “Finish school. Only three years and then graduation. Eighteen years old and a new home. Finish school...”
“Good morning, Mizuki,” I sighed heavily, greeting the restless girl.
I gotta admit, she surprised me. I was about to start cursing Shina.
“Hi, Shinji! Did I wake you?” She's gotta be kidding me. Her “Shinji” sounded unexpectedly hurtful at the moment.
I'm alone here. There would be just one thing that could be worse—if all of humanity suddenly became extinct. I didn't expect such feelings from my cynical nature. Screw it, Max. I will never forget my name and will always be Max “Koschey” Rudov. Nothing will change that. This whole life is just another mask.
I sighed again and stepped aside, letting her into the house.
“I hope you have something serious to tell me,” I said to her back.
She pulled her head into her shoulders, stood there for a couple of moments, then turned sharply, revealing a determinate expression on her face.
Losing Masks Page 16
