Chapter Four
Sergei and I met again in the same bar, at the same table as that first meeting. He’d called me on the telly at work when I was in the middle of finishing a story. The intrusion into my day took me off guard initially; but after I realized what it meant, what another meeting with Sergei said about my mission, I could hardly work for the anxiety his curt words spawned. “I’ve made my decision,” he’d said. “I’ll be at the bar in the village.”
I found him in the beer hall, and repeated a scene much like the one several weeks before: me standing before him, waiting for him to either dismiss me, or invite me to sit. This time, he was alone. Pulling out the chair next to him, I had my answer.
“If you’re still willing,” he started, “I’ll have the contracts drawn up – that alone wi
