Ganglands: Russia: Russia Read Free

nurse tapped the computer keys as she checked her records.‘She’s in surgery right now.’
    ‘Surgery?’
    ‘I’ll get a doctor to come and explain everything to you,’ the nurse replied.‘In the meantime, if you could please wait over there.’
    She pointed to the waiting room, where a handful of relatives were sitting expectantly for news of their loved ones, their faces drawn and pale in the weak strip-lighting.They kept glancing warily back to the other side of the waiting room, where an imposing black man was sitting on his own, his arms folded.Alexei paced across the floor, trying to ignore the horrible thoughts about Lena his mind was conjuring up. As he muttered to himself, he became aware that the black man was watching him with a coolly impassive gaze.Annoyed by the scrutiny, Alexei was about to confront him when a doctor appeared and drew him to one side.
    ‘What’s going on?’ asked Alexei.‘What’s happened to Lena?’
    ‘Your girlfriend was attacked on a metro train this evening.’
    ‘Attacked?’ echoed Alexei.‘What … what do you mean, attacked?’
    ‘A gang of youths beat her up – very badly, I’m afraid to say.Lena sustained some internal injuries that demanded we operated on her immediately.’
    ‘How is she now?’
    ‘We’ve staunched the internal bleeding, but she alsosuffered severe head trauma.’ The doctor paused. ‘Lena’s in a coma right now.’
    ‘But she’ll wake up, right?’ Alexei said desperately.
    ‘There’s no way we can predict anything at the moment,’ the doctor said sympathetically.‘For the time being, she’s stable.Would you like to see her?’
    Alexei nodded.Numbly, he felt the doctor take his arm and lead him through the hospital to a small room on the third floor.Nothing could have prepared Alexei for the scene within: his girlfriend stretched out on a bed, her eyes closed, her body hooked up to a mass of machines via a complicated system of tubes.A heart monitor bleeped monotonously in the silence.Seeing Lena lying there, Alexei was overwhelmed by emotion: grief at the bruises covering the girl’s face, and an icy rage for the people who had inflicted them upon her.Trying to fight back the tears, he sat next to Lena’s side and gently held her hand.
    Alexei had no idea how long they sat together in that tiny room. Eventually the doctor returned, and told him in a low voice that he had to leave Lena until the morning.Reluctantly, Alexei let go of his girlfriend’s hand and left the room.
    In the corridor outside, he was surprised to see the black man from the waiting room standing by a water cooler, his hands folded behind his back.The man nodded at him.
    ‘How is she?’ he asked.
    ‘What the hell is it to you?’ snapped Alexei.
    The man seemed unfazed by his reply.‘Dark times require friends,’ he said, in a deep American baritone.
    Something clicked in Alexei’s head.
    ‘It was you!’ he exclaimed.‘You’re the guy who phoned me!’
    The American extended a hand.‘Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Darius Jordan, head of Trojan Industries.We have a lot to talk about, Alexei.’

3. Recruitment Drive
    Alexei stared at the man’s outstretched hand.
    ‘What do you mean, we have a lot to talk about?’
    Jordan glanced around the hospital corridor.‘This isn’t the best place to discuss business.Why don’t you take a walk with me?’
    ‘Why don’t you get the hell out of my face?’ snapped Alexei, reddening with anger.‘What’s it got to do with you, anyway?’
    There was a polite cough behind him.Alexei turned round to see a bespectacled man in green surgical scrubs politely interject himself between Alexei and the American.‘Mr Jordan?’
    ‘Mr Karpin.’ Jordan shook the man briskly by the hand. ‘I hear that the surgery went well.’
    ‘As well as can be expected, given the circumstances.The patient is lucky that you are paying for her treatment.The facilities here are among the best in Russia.’
    ‘The surgeons