"That's Viktor's Marek."
The words from Gofyen were followed by a moment of silence between us. Each of one us glanced at each other, our faces filled with dismay.
"That kid is Viktor's?" Denis broke the silence, jabbing his finger toward him.
"Yes, he is," Gofyen said unwaveringly.
"You brought us here in the middle of the night only for Viktor's to be asleep?" Maksim questioned.
"He is on the lousy side."
"You think we care about that? Wake that basta*d up. Why are you even working for a kid?" Roman said, raising his voice.
"So that's Viktor's? I expected him to be in his fifties or sixties, not someone younger than me," I said as Gofyen started to wake him up.
"Does the sleeping beauty need a kiss to wake up?" Nikita cracked a joke, which made none of us laugh.
We stood there for a few minutes. Denis leaned on the cell bar while Maksim squatted, Nikita stood beside me cracking his neck.
"Can't believe I got hired by someone younger," Denis said, clicking his tongue.
"How old are you?" Maksim asked, getting up from the stance.
"Forty-seven"
Forty-seven? My prediction was right.
"You are the oldest one in the group, and Maksim should be the youngest," Roman said, pacing inside the cell.
"Indeed, I am the youngest, twenty-eight," Maksim said, raising his hands in submission.
"Thirty-three " Roman declared.
"I am thirty-four."
"So Saveliy and Roman are close in age? I am thirty-nine," Nikita said with a chuckle.
So my predictions were indeed right...I am getting good at this.
"And I am twenty-six," we heard the voice of Viktor, who now sat up in the bed, stretching his arms like.
That's his voice? It's so childish, as if a kid going through puberty were speaking.
"So we are all older than him? When did my life become so bad that I got to lick the boots of someone younger than me?" Denis said in denial.
"That's Viktor's marek," Gofyen said again.
"He's got a mouth, right? Let him speak," Roman barked.
"Alright, alright, ease it out, I will speak," Viktor's said, standing up from the bed.
"I am Viktor's Marek, the one who hired you five. Now that you've seen me, let's get down to business."
"What's your swirl count? And yours to, hired by someone younger than us, is already humiliating. The last thing I want is for both of you to be a fu*king blight."
"Oh no, no, we are not a blight. I am a hearth, and so is Viktor's, and our swirls, it doesn't matter."
"So why are we supposed to get you out? What did you do to end up here?" I asked as the others remained silent.
"I am not in here for committing crimes; instead, I am here for safety."
"Safety?"
"Yes, safety. I had to protect myself from MacCrae and Morven."
"What the fu*k did you do to piss off both MacCrae and Morven?" Nikita asked with tension palpable in his tone.
"Well, I caused the dispute between them, you would have heard of it five years back, the shootout between them in Velmora."
Five years back in Velmora! Didn't I get shot in the balls and die?
"Stop kidding with us, you little pri*k. Stop running your mouth about them." Roman growled as the tension rose.
MacCrae and Morven? Who are those guys? Are they any prominent figures? Saveliy's memories don't have anything related to it. Does it mean he also doesn't know who these two are? Are they someone important in the underworld?
"There is no way a puny son of a bit*h like you can cause a dispute between them," Denis said, standing straight and clenching his fist.
"What he had done is nothing of your concern, but indeed Viktor was the one who caused the dispute," Gofyen said, trying to calm down his situation.
"There is no way he could have done that," Maksim said, his tone calm and cautious.
"The shootout happened five years ago, and you are twenty-six, which means you would be twenty-one at that time, and disputes that lead to shootouts won't happen overnight; then you would be even younger. Both of them are not idiots to be fooled by a teenager. Even if they were, they are like a lock and key; they complete each other. It's why they sustained for thirty years in the business when others fell, and you broke them apart?"
"Exactly! I was nineteen when I started to plot against them," Viktor's said, his voice becoming firm
"A teenager plotting against two crime lords? Too young to be deceitful," Denis bluntly replied.
"A human's decisive mind begins at a very young age. It starts with an infant who cries in another's arms and quiets only when held by its mother. It grows into a child who pretends to be sick to avoid what it does not want. And it leads to someone like me, who deceived MacCrae and Morven."
"You've got a way with your words," Maksim said, his gaze firm.
"Bickering won't lead us anywhere," Gofyen said.
"What Viktor's done in the past doesn't matter to our current affairs. He came into prison so that he wouldn't get caught in the feud between them. Now that it's over, he needs to get out. That's why we hired you."
"Gofyen is right, we should get him out of here and go our ways. Meddling with the past of others isn't a good idea," I said, trying to be the middle ground.
"Alright," the rest said in unison.
"We came to a conclusion, so how are you going to take me to the outside world?" Viktor's said
"We are yet to make a plan, we just met each other this evening, so it would take time," Maksim replied.
"Alright, but make it fast, I don't want to spend the next seven years inside."
"You hired us, right? Leave it in our hands," Nikita said, the tension now gone from his figure.
"Alright, alright, tomorrow onwards all five of you will stay in the same block. Gofyen will arrange it, but when writing in the logbook, use the cell that was assigned to you, and the same applies to the chow box."
This Viktor has so much power to arrange our cells in prison? What kind of job did Saveliy get himself into? As long as I escape, it will be fine. You can do it, Alyss. Come on, you can do it.
"That makes it even better," Maksim said, stuffing his hands inside his pocket.
"Well, if you wanted to meet me, let Gofyen know, and you will be brought here. Consider this an introductory meeting between us, and I hope you will take me to the outside world soon enough."
"And if you try to stab us in the backs, I wouldn't mind killing you," Denis threatened.
"Feel free to do it and Gofyen take them back to cells."
"Okay," Gofyen said before leading us out of the cell.
Damn, these past ten minutes felt like I was in a movie. What a cinematic experience!
"Saveliy," I heard Maksim whisper behind me.
"Don't talk; just listen to what I say. Got it?"
What does he want me to do now? Stop pulling me into random side quests.
"You have no idea who the MacCrae and Morven are, right?"
"..."
"I will explain it to you tomorrow at the chow box, but don't even let Gofyen know that you don't know about them...hope you got it," he said, and Gofyen opened another portal.