Albert and Ivan

Igor, a man well past his thirties, turned back and faced Jack. Grinning, he replied, "Maya, you don't work for Maya now. You work for me. Welcome, Jack Turner, to my place."

Looking around, Jack said "You own this pier? Never heard before."

Igor, smile on face disappeared and a stern look on his face replied "You are a funny man but I don't need a funny man. First, I need to check if you have the talent." As he said that, he turned back, facing the edge of the pier and threw his ring from his finger. "Go and get that ring or you will never get another job at this city."

Jack's eyes widened with his hand on his head. "If you expect me to jump in there and fetch you the ring, I am not doing that. I did not sign up for swimming."

Igor turned towards Jack and scans his eyes up and down. "Follow me to my car.", he said while heading outside the pier. Jack followed Igor and both sat on Igor's car. Jack looked outside the window but all there was to see was darkness. As a light source started, human activities started to be heard. Igor parked his car and said, "This is my spot. Come to my office."

As Jack followed to Igor's office, he was met with intense stares from people around the area. They all were wearing the same clothes. Jack looked around, glancing at every person while following Igor. Igor walked up to the front of a restaurant which read, 'Kafana'. Igor headed towards a room named "Office, Do not Enter".

Jack pulled a chair for him and sat across the table to Igor. Igor started searching for tables in his drawers behind the table while sitting in his chair. Jack looked around the room, seeing nothing of particular interest. Just a family photo, staff group photo and what seemed to be like some kind of certificates.

"You know what security analyzer is?", said Igor, putting some papers on the table and looking Jack in the eyes. "Yeah. This does not seem like a mercenary thing. I am not qualified…", Jack's talk is cut in between as Igor continued his talk. "Who will give you big job in day one? Still, this should be secret. Don't tell anyone." Igor pointed his fingers at Jack.

"You will go to warehouse number AN261 at Industry Sector 12. There, you will be security analyzer. Can you do that?" Jack nodded.

"There, you will act like a real officer but in fact, you go and damage the security system. Do what is needed. No violence or police attention thing." Igor then started pointing at the map on the table.

"You go there, in name of audit sabotage the system and return. Can you do it?"

"I can do that."

"No, no. Don't take it easy. Listen again." Igor started drawing papers out and pointed at each paper, reading terms and conditions of this task. Jack could not help but be bored as he started zoning out.

"Hey! Hey! Why are you not listening? I knew that I would get stupid guy for this task. Maya insults me by sending you." Jack returned back from his thoughts as he heard Igor's raised voice.

"Listen again what you missed…." Igor continued his speech about how important this is for him and how Maya is scamming him.

A few minutes later, a man in his lates twenties entered the room. "You called me?", said the guy while standing near the door.

"Yes, come here." As the guy stood beside Igor, Igor pointed to the guy. "Jack, this is my brother-in-law. He is an incompetent fool who can't get a job. His sister forced me to allow him here."

Jack forwarded his hand for a handshake but Igor put his hand down while glancing with anger at his brother-in-law. "His name is Kosta. He will be your assistant for the job. This guy needs some experience. Since he is also working, pay is low but keep this a secret."

Kosta nodded and spoke with a barely audible voice, "Yes."

"Keep this a secret, you. You don't want to anger your sister, do you? She thinks so highly of you.", Igor talked while tapping his clenched fist on the table. Kosta nodded and quickly walked out the room.

"When to go?", Jack asked while looking at his watch struck 10:00.

"Tomorrow morning at 8, meet here. I will tell you more at that time."

"My car is at the pier."

"Kosta! Kosta!" Igor shouted as loud as he could. Kosta arrived at the front door with his head bowing down. "Drop Jack at the pier. Pier 12."

"Follow me, Mr. Jack."

Next day morning, at 8 AM.

Jack, Kosta and Igor all were standing in front of the restaurant. The restaurant seemed to be well established as it was fully packed with customers.

"Kosta will drive you to the warehouse. You and Kosta will do what I talked about before." Igor stopped and looked at Kosta. Kosta lowered his head. "This fool will not drive my car."

After few more words between Jack and Igor, Kosta and Jack drove off towards the warehouse.

With every passing minute, the place started to become more and more deserted. "So, Mr. Jack, why are you working for my brother-in-law? He does not pay well." "Hmm", Jack got shocked after hearing a voice after what seemed to be an hour of silence.

"He said the pay would get better as time goes."

"Get better? Said the same before marrying my sister."

"Hey man, I don't care what you and Igor have but I want none of that. Just let's get this job done."

Kosta nodded and again, a long silence followed.

"What have I become? Military to warehouse wrecker? Shit can't get any worse.", Jack thought before he got lost at the sight of countryside outside the car.

Kosta stopped his car some distance away from the warehouse. "Mr. Jack, we are here."

Jack did not move. Kosta turned his face and saw Jack sleeping. "He seems to be sleeping. I will let him sleep for a while." Kosta got off the car and looked around. Warehouses were apart from each other. This land mostly seemed like farmland, save for the massive warehouses. Even the warehouses were completely silent, as if they were abandoned. This seemed quiet unusual for an industrial area.

After a few minutes, Kosta shaked Jack's shoulder trying to wake him up. Jack woke up with shock on his face. "Mr. Jack, we reached there."

"Okay, let's go." Jack got off the car and put on his documents from the back side of the car. Kosta also followed. As both of them walked towards the front door of the warehouse, they are stopped by a security guard.

"Let me see your IDs before you can enter here.", the guard stopping both with his hands wide said.

"You seem to be quite old to be a security guard. Just go and enjoy your retirement days.", said Kosta and started laughing. He then stopped after seeing Jack's serious face.

"Ignore him. Here are your IDs. You seem to be quite experienced to be working still."

"Why, yes. I am experienced but nothing happens here. Just boring daily drills and we work in shifts. Patrolling is easy and enough pay."

Kosta and Jack entered the warehouse. There were small cracks here and there on the walls. Some spots of the roof had holes and sunlight could enter. Machinery here were rusted but seemed to be useable.

Kosta, while keeping his hands in his pockets, scoffed. "So, this is the place, huh? Looks like it's held together by duct tape and prayers. What's the plan, boss?"

Jack maintained his professional stance and glanced around. "We do the job quietly, effectively. No unnecessary attention."

Kosta nodded but he was not ready for subtlety. He kicked a piece of gravel and started wandering around the warehouses, chatting up the workers.

As Jack approached what seemed to be an office in the warehouse, he was greeted by a young man in his early twenties. His clothes were neat but worn, and there was a crease of worry on his forehead. In his hands are a clipboard, a pen and a walkie-talkie. While the young guy approached Jack, he was trying to maintain his posture and trying to held his head high.

With slight lack of breath, he talked "You must be the security consultant. And we heard there would be an assistant too. Thanks so much for coming at such a short notice. I'm-uh-well, I'm here to show you around."

Jack sized the intern up, and saw an opportunity to gather information. "Nice to meet you. We'll need to see everything – security tapes, monitoring stations, and any areas your boss wants to focus on. What's your name?"

"Umm… My name is Oscar." He tried to raise his hand for a handshake but seeing no response from Jack, quickly lowered his hand and lowered his head.

Kosta seemed to arrive out of nowhere. "My name is Ivan and his name is Jack… I meant Albert. I am his assistant. We are…" He stopped as he saw Jack's stern glance.

Oscar started flipping pages on his clipboard. With a flustered face but an eager voice, he started to talk, "Right, of course! Mr. Willis – he's my boss – he's been really pushing us to get this place in top shape before the audit. We've had a few…uh…issues with some of the equipment but nothing too major."

Jack, trying to hide his curiosity, talked "Issues? What kind of issues?"

"Well, you know, just the usual stuff with old buildings like this." Oscar's voice was low, as if he was sharing a secret. "The cameras in Sector C keep going offline, and we've had to reboot the system more times than I can count. And the alarms near the back storage… they're a bit… temperamental."

Jack listened to Oscar talk, mentally noting everything down. This was the kind of information needed for the task.

Kosta wandered off to a wall, poking his finger through a small hole. "Temperamental alarms? That's rich. What are they, haunted?"

Oscar tried maintained his professionalism, cleared his throat and continued, "Oh, no, nothing like that. Just, uh, old wiring, I guess. It's mostly the old sections of the warehouse. We've been meaning to upgrade, but, well budget cuts, you know how it is."

Jack glanced towards Kosta and slightly pulled him back. Maintaining a neutral face, he said, "That's good to know. Budget cuts can be a real problem, especially with something as crucial as security. I'm guessing the back storage is where the high-value goods are kept?"

Oscar nodded vigorously. "Exactly! That's where we store all the imported stuff. Mr. Willis always says it's the jewel of this warehouse. That's why the audit is so important – we need the certificate to be able to open up the new branch in Fort Sea."

"And these cameras? How often do they go down? Must be frustrating to keep track of everything." Jack was looking at a camera over his head.

 "Tell me about it. We've had Sector C's cameras go dark at least twice a week. I've been logging the outages, but with everything else I'm handling, it's hard to keep up. Sometimes, we don't even notice they are down until we review the footage later. And the alarms – don't get me started." With a huge sigh, Oscar continued. "They are so sensitive that just a gust of wind can set them off, but sometimes, they won't go off at all."

Jack notes it down on a piece of paper. "Sounds like you have got your hands full. How long have you been working here?"

Oscar's shoulders were slumped slightly. Creases on his forehead were quite visible. "About a year now. Started as an intern, but they kept me full-time. It's a lot of work, but I'm learning a lot, I guess. Just wish there were more hours in the day."

Kosta was fiddling with a broken lock on a door. He drew Oscar's attention and asked, "What's with this lock? It's barely surviving."

As Oscar saw that, he rushed towards Kosta, being quite alarmed. "Oh, that's just the door to one of the old storage rooms. Mr. Willis said not to worry about it – just a bunch of old crates and broken equipment in there. But the lock's been like that for ages."

Jack saw the lock as another potential weak point. Kosta's growing curiosity and lack of subtleness, however, were causing issues for Jack.

Jack briefly pulled Kosta away from Oscar. With a stern look, he said, "Keep it together. We are here to asses, not break things."

Kosta sneered, "Yeah, yeah. We are here to 'assess'."

Oscar continued to lead them through the warehouse, eagerly pointing out various features. He showed them the monitoring station, a small, cluttered room filled with outdated equipment and flickering screens. Jack took mental notes of the screen displays, watching how the cameras' feeds occasionally glitch.

Oscar put on his best act to sound knowledgeable while pointing at the screens, "This is where we keep an eye on everything. As you can see, the system's a bit old, but it does the job… most of the time."

Jack was checking the feeds, "Most of the time? That's not exactly assuring."

Oscar started stumbling on his words, trying to hide his embarrassed face. "Well, we've had a few hiccups. But we're working on getting it all sorted before the audit. I've been talking to the tech guys about it, but… like I said, budget cuts."

Jack nodded, glancing at the malfunctioning screens. His mind is working on laying the groundwork for the sabotage.

Kosta started knocking on a desk, causing papers on fall all over the ground, drawing Oscar's attention. "So, when's this big audit happening? Sounds like you are under the gun."

Oscar rubbed his temples, trying to relax. "I thought you knew. Pretty unlikely of Mr. Willis of missing details." Jack, seeing Kosta's mistake, tried to cover up. "You seemed to be quite tired. I think we have seen enough for now. Tomorrow's audit will go nicely after we start fixing things now."

Oscar smiled wearily, forwarding his hand for a handshake. "Thank you so much. I know we've had a lot to work on, and with your help, I'm sure we will get it through."

Jack shaked Oscar's hand, while maintaining his professional look. "Don't worry. It's our job."

Jack and Kosta left the warehouse to fetch their tools from their vehicle. With this extra and crucial information, Jack's first steps of the job are done, but the real work – and his moral compromise – would begin now.