The Other Side of The Coin

“…The infidels enter the hearts and minds of the pure and corrupt them! The youth, they’re the most vulnerable! Make your sons and daughters pray to Allah! Never skip a single prayer! Never skip mosque! With the help of Allah, king Nader the 3rd will fend off the American infidels and purify Zargastan! May Allah-”

Danil pressed the button on the radio, turning it off. He continued looking through the window at the distant mountains behind the dusty dry ground.

“At least put music or something.” Siggie said while turning the wheel.

The loudest sound inside the car is the sound of the tires driving over the little stones and the hard ground. Along with the roaring engine, more like its dying moans. The car is constantly swaying to all possible directions.

Siggie turned on the radio and shuffled through each frequency in his search for music. In the end, he just turned it off.

“Tsk, not only we’re stuck in this piece of shit car, there’s nothing but propaganda! Ugh…”

The ride stayed silent for a few more minutes. In the distance, they saw an asphalt gray road. They got on the road and now they heard only the engine with occasional small rocks getting in the way.

On the road, only few cars drive. Most of them are old, like Toyota Corolla the 90’s model, Honda civic, Volvo… They’re all dusty with thick gray gas coming from their exhaust pipes. The paint is teared, revealing the gray body of the car.

The road itself is two laned, with each lane leading to the opposite side. The separator in the middle is just a white line.

“This is so boring… Danil, tell a joke.”

“No.”

“Fine, I’ll tell… What do you call a fish with no eye?”

“I dunno. Fish with no eye?”

“Fsh”

“What?”

“…Fsh…”

“Wind?”

“No! It’s fish, but no ‘I’! Want another joke?”

“No, it’s was bad enough. Don’t wanna hear more.”

“Then, tell one yourself.”

“…Nah… Drive the car… Don’t bother me…”

“So you’re ‘fraid to lose?”

“Lose? No I’m not.”

“Then pop a joke, c’mon. Win the fight!”

“…Fine… So…Uh… Mother in law tells the… Uh… father in law that they need a new… Stove…? So uh… Father in law asks “Electrical?” and the mother in law says “No, marble”.”

“And you’re saying my jokes are bad.”

“I translated it from Russian. Stove is also tile… For the floor…”

“Try another one.”

“…Fine… So Vasya the drunk calls the phone. “Allo? This 17 514 3075?” And the guy answers “No.” and so Vasya tells him “So why ya pickup?”.”

Siggie smiled a little.

“Not bad… Here’s mine! What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t work?”

“How?”

“A stick!”

“For a clown, you’re surprisingly unfunny.”

“What? I know lotta jokes. Just don’t remember all of em’. Your turn.”

“So… All the area knew Dima, he was a narcoman, druggie. So a mosquito drank Dima’s blood. The mosquito could drink only from him.”

Siggie giggled a little.

“Heh… Next joke is a killer! So a dude walks into a bar with a loaded .44, he shouts: “WHO’S FUCKING MY WIFE?” everyone’s quiet until some guy replies: “You don’t have enough bullets, mate. “

“Khh…” Danil looked away from Siggie, twitching slightly in his place.

“Hah! You laughed! I won the battle.”

“…No… I don’t laugh…”

“You just did. Tryna act tough?”

“No. I’m not laughing.”

“…Sureee…”

They drove on the road. Occasional cars were passing by. In the horizon, they started to see blue building coming out of the sky.

As they were driving, they saw a yellow building – two stories with a large walled off courtyard. On the right, there’s a gate that leads to the orchard of olive trees.

A little bit further, and they start seeing building popping off. One time they’ll see a petrol station, a small woodland area where the goats are hanging out, a small town with just a few houses. Then, a blue metallic sign with Arabic writing on the top, and at the bottom – “Welcome to Zaqab”

“We’re here. The capital of Zargastan.”

As they were approaching the city, more and more buildings started to appear. They started to get taller and taller. They’re a lot more cars as well. So many of them, the traffic was slow. A snail could reach Zaqab before them.

Each 5 minutes, the traffic would move. After an hour, Danil and Siggie saw the reason for the traffic jam – A checkpoint.

“Tsk… Don’t worry Danil, I got this.”

“Like last time?”

“Nah, I have a better plan this time. Gimme that backpack.”

“Take it yourself.”

“I’m on the wheel. Be at least somehow useful and pass the backpack.”

“Fiiine.” Danil takes the backpack from the back seat and holds on to it.

As 2 more hours passed, they’ve finally reached the checkpoint. Siggie opened the window as a soldier has approached them.

“Ahla akhi! Yawm saeb alyawma?”

“Naeam, mujarad yawm eadiin…”

“Liubarikak aalrabi! Akhi!”

“Shukra akhi. Falimadha 'atayt?”

“Taslim alquran. Ma alhubu alrutab aleulya!”

Siggie points at the backpack.

“Ahhh! Hazana tayiban wafaqak allah!”

The soldier stepped back and waved Siggie to drive away. The everlasting desert hides behind the buildings Soon, the two story buildings with a small shop on its left have been replaced by white buildings, four stories at least. They’re made of stone, yet seem much newer and cleaner. A large portion of them have AC units.

The roads in the city are spacious, at least the central ones. Most of them have trees growing from a special area in the middle of the road.

The middle of the city is a historical center, with old palaces, parks, gardens and even a Roman theater, despite the fact that the Romans were never here.

The royal family of Zargastan resides in the old palace of the Safavid Dynasty. Though, the important personas live in the elite district which is the north eastern part of the city.

The vista gets replaced with smaller houses, yet look a lot more well maintained. They all have their own garden and a garage. The streets are clean and only new cars of the higher class roam the roads like the Lexus 2010, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi...

“Well… We sure don’t blend in. Wanna be my mom again?”

“Fuck off.”

“Mom abandons her son with words “Fuck off”, how sad…”

“Get to the point. What’s the plan?”

“Simple, we enter his house and wait till he comes. Simple as that.”

“He’s coming alone?”

“Maybe. He has no family, sometimes brings whores or friends. Collateral damage shouldn’t be too large.”

“And guards?”

“Of all the important bad guys, he’s the one of the least important. Alright, come on. Wear the coat too.”

Siggie takes a blue coat from the backseat. It’s plain except for the white text on the back which says “منظف”.

Danil and Siggie exit the car with the coat on and the backpacks in their hands. Siggie looks at a small piece of paper he got from his pocket. He looks around.

“Hmm… Maybe you’ll try to find it.”

“Why me?”

“You want to go solo? Better know how to find the places. You even have the address, that’s gonna be easy.”

Danil takes the paper from Siggie’s hand. He stares at the paper and looks around.

I can’t read those Hieroglyphs or how the fuck they’re called.

He goes to the sign post at the corner of the street. He takes a look at the paper, then at the sign post, then at the paper again…

He looks to the right and goes in that direction. He looks at each number above the house’s entrance. He kept on walking until reaching the half of the street. He looked at the house and then looked at Siggie.

“Here.” Danil pointed at the large house.

The house is large, could be even called a villa. But it’s not the biggest one in the neighborhood, maybe in the bottom top 20 of biggest homes on this street.

The house itself is white. It was built with that modern cubical architectural style and with lots of windows.

At the front there’s a high cobblestone fence with an electric gate. On top of the cobble is barbed wire. On top of every fence here, really.

“Hmm… Gimme.” Danil gave him the piece of paper. Siggie looked at it.

“Yep seems like it. Nice start, make sure it stays this way.”

“Well… Last time, you fucked up. Not me.”

“Remind me… Who missed the shot? I can also play this game, Dani.”

“I’m Danil. Not Dani.”

“From now on, I’ll call ya Dani.”

“Don’t talk like you’re my friend. Don’t even think you can be one.”

“Not trying to be. You’re such a pain in the ass, you’re not worth it. But you are my partner. Ugh…I can’t believe I’m explaining myself multiple times.”

“Fine, whatev.”

Siggie pressed the button to call the household. Some lady answered the call.

“Ma? Ah, ant…”

A zapping noise has come through the gate, Siggie held the handle and opened the gate.

He pulled out a plastic black bag and started pickup up trash from the house garden. Danil looked at Siggie, confused.

“What’cha standing? Do some work, boy! Why’dya think they payin us?” Siggie said with an exaggerated accent.

Danil crouched on the grass, but did not pick up anything.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“Doing hard work we were paid to do.”

“Aren’t we supposed to kill that guy? Isn’t he supposed to be alone? Who the hell was that woman?”

“Too many questions Dani. But yeah. He’s single, maybe his mother, maid or an escort. Not judgin.”

“We’ll have to kill her if she stands in our way.”

“Jesus… Dani, she’s a bystander. Why do you itch so much to kill people?”

“They serve Gunkata. They help him. No good person will. Our job is to kill bad people.”

“Again with the broken record… You can’t kill her no matter what, unless she attacks you. Do you copy?”

“Okay…”

I don’t think she even heard about Gunkata.

They cleaned the front garden of any trash. Next they went into the house. The walls are almost blindingly bright. There’s a large plasma screen mounted on the wall. Potted plants are in each corner. Any free wall has a hung up painting or a display. The design is modern and screams “Rich”.

There, stands an old woman in the kitchen. She’s packing something into her bag. She looked at them with slight disgust and left the house quickly.

Damn, what’s her deal?

“Scout the place, Danil. I’ll go upstairs, you search here.”

“What we supposed to find?”

“A good place for an ambush. Can’t just wait at the doorstep. Find a comfy place, maybe take a snack or something.”

Siggie goes upstairs, Danil stays down. He searches the kitchen, opens the cabinets and drawers. He doesn’t take anything from there. He goes to the living room, he tries to hide under the coffee table, but it’s too low.

Danil tries to hide in the toilet. He gets into the bath and closes the curtains. He prepares his pistol and closes his eyes, listening closely.

An hour passes by. Danil’s belly starts to rumble.

He ain’t coming any time soon. It won’t hurt to grab a bite. Siggie said so himself.

He got up and went into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and saw food that is already cooked. On the counter is covered with tinfoil meat.

Danil drools at just the smell and opens the tinfoil, revealing a juicy medium beef steak. He takes a bite out of that piece of meat.

While eating, Danil closes his eyes. He slowly munches on the meat, feeling every millimeter with his tongue. His face is covered with fat from the meat, but he doesn’t care.

The front door opens. It takes a second, but Danil covers the steak and hides behind the kitchen counter. There Jallal Amini comes in with some other people.

Jallal is dressed in a nice gray suit. His head and beard are well-groomed. He takes off his sunglasses and puts them on his collar.

After they’ve entered, a squad of people come in. All are geared, but only some are in a military uniform.

Shit… Wait, why those guys are without a uniform? They hold M16s, the military guys old AKs. Ain’t they at war or something?

4 people, two of which are in uniform stay in the living room. Jallal and someone else sit on the couch.

Those 4 are guarding them. No doubt.

3 people go upstairs. 2 more are spread across the first level. One soldier goes to the kitchen.

→ To be continued

Author’s note

Hello, those who read the previous note, don’t worry, I did finish the homework. More importantly, it seems that the usual schedule of one chapter per two weeks is hard to maintain. Probably I’ll switch to 2 chapters per 3 weeks, but this isn’t final yet.