Dark Desires: Genesis (8 page)

Vladimir

He closed his tablet as the announcement to
board the flight was made. He hoped that by the time he landed Val had replied.
He was looking forward to being in contact with her even if it wasn’t
physically.

*****

Monday was an exhausting day for Valerie; she’d
forgotten how hectic college could be. The running around between classes, the
excessive amount of information that was given by the lecturers in a short one
hour span and the copious amount of time she had to spend in solitude
dissecting the various concepts into something that made sense to her. By the
time she got home in the late afternoon she could only manage to crawl into bed
and take a nap. When she woke up she made herself a light supper and started on
one of the assignments out of fear of falling behind and missing deadlines.
Having felt that she’d made some headway she checked her mail which had been
abandoned over the past few days. She hoped in earnest that nothing urgent had
come up. She noticed a strange numerical address and hoped it wasn’t a virus.
She skipped it and read through the others which were of no significance. Going
back to the mail from
01123581321
she stared at as if it was a
conundrum. She’d seen the sequence before and curiosity getting the better of
her, she opened it. After reading Vlad’s email she felt a myriad of emotions;
Irritation, happiness, paranoia... She didn’t know which one to attribute to
him so she read the message half a dozen times before deciding how best to
reply. She would chalk up their weekend encounter to the fancy of her fleeting
youth and move on, even if he was adamant on seeing her again. The only way
that was going to happen was if he was honest with her and she doubted he ever
would be. She began typing, keeping her reply clinical.

Dear Vladimir,

Thank you for this past weekend, it was not what I expected,
nevertheless it was an experience. I will keep you in the loop about my
pregnancy/non-pregnancy but I'm confident we avoided an accident. As much as I
would like to see you on your return I feel that it would not be in my best
interest to continue engaging with a man who remains elusive; one willing to
share his body but not his mind or life. I'm not sure I understand what you
mean by “after your discovery, you must realise that speaking about whom I am
and what I do would put you in danger” maybe you can clear this up for me, if
not I hope that where ever you are, you are safe and your conscience is clear.

PS: The Fibonacci sequence is pretty obvious if you’re trying
to maintain the aura of secrecy

Valerie.

Throughout
the flight Vlad had been checking his watch incessantly, counting down the
hours until his flight landed. His subconscious whispered that he was anxiously
awaiting her reply but he was unwilling to concede, instead convincing himself
it was about wrapping up the pending deal that had been in the pipeline for a
few months now. When the flight attendant notified the passengers that they
were about to land in Istanbul, and gave the instructions to put away their
electronics and fasten their seatbelts, excitement coursed through his veins at
the prospect of landing and reading her words. The attendant was tenacious in
her efforts to garner his attention; she had given him more attention than was
necessarily and right now she was heading his way to check whether he needed
help with anything yet again. After an eleven hour flight, retrieving his
luggage and finding a lounge that supplied Wi-Fi he opened his inbox. His heart
gave a slight lurch as he read her name and proceeded to open the message.
After scanning the contents of her reply he laughed. He must have looked quite
a site; the few people that were scattered in their respective seats turned to
look at the hulking man who was laughing alone probably thinking he was
deranged.
I told Mike that the Fibonacci sequence was too obvious, or she is
too smart for her own good, and if she thinks she can brush me or what happened
between us off, she’s sadly mistaken.
He packed away his tablet, gathered
his luggage and made his way outside to hail a cab.

Vlad
got to his hotel room and waited for his other guests to arrive. It was already
7 P.M; he was supposed to be meeting with the translator and one of the
negotiators sent in by the client first and the driver after. He poured himself
a glass of whiskey and asked his guests what they would like, most of the
people in the country were Muslim where alcohol was forbidden, so he made sure
other beverages such as tea, coffee and freshly squeezed juice were available.
Even though he did not understand the peculiar nuances of what different
religions and cultures dictated was appropriate, he respected them all the
same, doubting that if they were in Russia they would take the customary shot
of vodka that preceded every meeting. In the two hours that they were together,
the negotiator haggled for more weapons than was initially agreed upon at a
lower price per unit. Vlad knew that it was customary in middle-eastern
culture, to bargain for better prices even if it was for weapons instead of
spices, which is why he gave a twenty percent mark-up over and above his own
profit margin. The translator played his role of the mouth-piece, translating
between Arabic and English and vice versa. Even though Vladimir had been
studying the language for a couple of years and would have comfortably handled
the negotiations directly, he liked having the upper hand and didn’t want to
come across that way willingly, choosing rather to be underestimated by playing
the role of the Russian delivery boy. He found it funny that the translator
omitted the insults that were being sent his way even though he was well aware
of them. With everything settled for delivery and payment, they left on good
terms and he met with the driver, who had managed to shoot his perfect plan to
shit. He had a contingency plan for the weapons but not the transportation. The
driver managed to convince him that even though driving to Syria would be a
direct journey, the time spent on the road could lead to more problems due to
the increase in warfare; such as the patrol scouts who posed as civilians
noticing the cargo coming in and the masses of refugees moving through the
country easily concealing the opposition. It was a valid point but the
alternative the driver posed of driving to Iran instead, which was a shorter
trip, and then having the weapons distributed there or arranging for a convoy
of trained men he could vouch for to usher the delivery into Syria, felt wrong.
He hadn’t spoken to his client about the network he had in Iran and he doubted
whether the man would be open to a change of plans so close to the delivery
date.

He
needed some time to think things through and although he was set to leave in
the morning, to scout the safest route his cargo would run through, he had to
delay his plans for a day so that he could gather more information with regard
to the bureaucracy in both countries and any allies he could reach out to. He
couldn’t risk being searched or having someone hijack the trucks along the way.
Feeling exhausted from travelling and planning, he opted to take a walk through
the streets of Istanbul. The city was filled with accents from the ancient past
that could be attributed to the Ottoman Empire but it was also modern with the
bars, nightclubs, restaurants and shops that one would associate with the
European lifestyle. He chose a quiet restaurant. not wishing to subject himself
to the loud music and boisterous individuals there to have a good time. When he
was seated he asked the waiter for a recommendation of something local and was
served Kuzu Tandir, which was a mix of slow roasted lamb with rice and yoghurt.
He noticed the bustling nightlife around him, with couples holding hands and
sharing sweet kisses as they walked the streets. His thoughts went to Valerie,
the girl he met at a bar in Cape Town and again at a night club, she would
definitely enjoy being here, more so than he was at this present time with the
business he was handling. When his waiter came over to check if he was enjoying
his meal, he voiced his gratitude of the recommendation which had sated his
roaring appetite and asked a few questions that had popped into his mind while
observing the people in the city; why the majority of people dressed casually
without the
burqa
, for women and the
thobe
–worn by men?

“Sir,
even though Turkey is a Muslim country we also have a Christian population. So
we cannot impose as strict a dress code as other Muslim countries by law. Part
of the country lies in Europe and the other part in the Middle-East and each
year we get more and more tourists from other parts of the world so we are open
to any style of dress. We are between traditional and modern so wearing very
revealing items will attract unwanted attention, most Turkish people view it as
indecent and will openly stare at the person. If you go to the mosque you will
be told to cover up as dictated by Islam but no-one seems to enforce the dress
code at Blue Mosque-again it’s because too many tourists who aren’t Muslim go
in to sight see and we understand this” the waiter replied.

“I
see. What about PDA?” Vlad enquired.

“PDA?
What do you mean?”

“Are
you allowed to kiss and hold hands or is that also the tourists”

“Ah
I see” the waiter said smiling “if you are Muslim and your family is fine with
it, it is not our business, but if you want to do more, you must go somewhere
private. We like to see people in love but sometimes when the couple gets, too
intense and carried away, we’ll stare at them waiting for them to go somewhere
private.”

“hmmm…
thank you for that. Can I get the bill please?”

As
Vlad walked back to his hotel, he thought of bringing Val to visit the city and
giving the locals something to stare at. He smiled at the thought of sticking
his tongue down her throat while caressing her ample behind; it would
definitely cause a scene. He then thought of her message, re-reading it in his
mind while thinking of what to tell her. She was adamant about not seeing him
again if he was going to remain secretive, maybe he could share something
personal about himself - something few in his life were privy to know about.
Back in his hotel room he stripped down and took a shower before relaxing in
his bed. He reached for his tablet and replied.

Valerie,

What I was referencing was the arsenal you found in my
luggage. Those particular gun designs have not been released to the general
public, they are military issue. If you were to try and describe them or have a
conversation about them with a guns enthuse or someone knowledgeable in that
field, they would realise what you have stumbled upon and in trying to find
them they would be flagged and it would lead back to you, putting you in a
situation even I cannot get you out of. I suggest you drop the subject Valerie
because I will not address this again.

I will be seeing you again, have no doubts about it. I will
offer you some insight into my personal life, something to appease your curious
nature. It has nothing to do with who I am now however, I feel it was a pivotal
moment in my life that shaped the man I am today.

I never knew my biological parents. I can only assume that the
mother who birthed me left me in the care of people who were more capable of
looking after a child than she was. We didn’t have much growing up so at the
age of six, I would go to the market and try sell flowers I had picked from the
garden of the cottage we rented. There was a day I came home from the market and
found that the little positions that filled the cottage were gone, I thought we
had been robbed. I searched the living room, bathroom, kitchen and bedroom but
they were all empty. I stayed up waiting for the people I'd come to know as my
parents but as night fell I realised they weren’t coming back. I went to the
owner of the property who stayed in the main house and he gave me an envelope
that contained a note and RON50. I couldn’t read at the time and asked the man
to tell me what they had written. They had explained the circumstances of my
adoption and how they could no longer afford to keep me. The owner was
sympathetic and told me about an orphanage but I felt I could no longer trust
people and ended up living on the streets, doing whatever I could to survive. I
know that the time I spent looking after myself is what had made me so guarded with
everyone not just you. I was alone when I was a kid and I'm still alone as a
grown man. I have made peace with it and I draw strength from my solitude.

Vlad

Having
read over the email he was about to send, he thought that he was sharing too
much of himself but his instincts, which had never let him down, told him he
could trust Val. He wanted her to know him, it wasn’t what she had asked for
but it was what he had to give, before he could change his mind, he hit send in
the hopes that this would bridge the gap that had been created with their
differing philosophies.

On Tuesday morning, Val checked her laptop in the hopes of hearing from
Vladimir but the Wi-Fi was down. She was disappointed that she could not access
her inbox; by the time she went to bed she used break in communication to start
on the book Natasha had sent her, it gave her a break from his ever present
presence in her mind. As she read, the book went into greater detail about the
few points that Tash touched on in their telephonic conversation, she was
slowly coming to grips with the fact that a sexual relation did not equate to a
romantic relationship. Before calling it a night she checked to see if the
internet connection had been reinstated, refreshing her inbox had her staring
at the bold writing of the Fibonacci sequence, calling out to her to click it
open and revel in the only link she had to him, but she held back. As much as
she wanted to read his thoughts, she had to remind herself that she wanted
“more” from him, from any relationship with a man from this point onwards, and
if he wasn’t willing to give her that, then she had to let go of the idea
regarding him. This communication felt like a cord that kept her tied to a
weekend she wanted to forget. Using her head instead of her heart, she closed
her laptop and slept.