The Volga No. 029

Borislav and I approached the garage and peeked in and saw Yemelyan and his friend placing jacks under the car and prepping to lift it up.

I quickly shouted "Hey man if you want I can take my stuff out of the car, there has to be at least 150 or so pounds of stuff in there so it might make things easier."

Yemelyan got up from the ground and quickly replied, "That would be great! Yaromir could show you a place to put your stuff! I hope that the parts aren't too damaged! Then it should be an easier repair!"

I nodded at the excited man as he turned to discuss with his friend as I began to unpack the car and in 15 minutes, I followed Yaromir to a small room and he threw me a key,

"Bratan", he spoke, "This room should fit your items safely. That is the key, don't lose it, it is hard to fabricate locks. Now lets plan for the trip to recover Filip's car."

I started to set stuff down in a corner and responded to what he was saying,

"Uhm, Yaromir, I want to pay Yemelyan in rubles, the alcohol will be sold, but I won't pay them in it. I want to help these people, if necessary I would sell it to Kira for half the price I was offered. I won't say anything about your share, but I don't want to follow the original plan."

Yaromir seemed shocked and had a surprised look on his face as I continued working in silence as he watched,

"That is ok, Bratan. It is understandable, let's go and check the trucks schedules to make sure we can use them immediately."

"Alright let's go, to the main building? Right?"

"Yes Bratan"

We both left and I locked the door as I walked out and looped a piece of rope through the key and put it around my neck. I walked with him to the building as I saw people staring as they were entering and exiting the building. I closely followed Yaromir into the building and walked just behing him as he walked up to a desk that had been set up.

The entry way had a few chairs and a little coffee table with some comfortable chairs around it in the middle. There was a doorway to the left and the right of the desk, one of them must have led to the garages and workshop while the other led to the storage room and storage.

Yaromir walked up to the lady sitting at the desk and talked with her,

"Hello Mrs. Antanova! I was wondering what was the schedule for two of the Gaz-66's, and a cover for the bed?"

The woman looked at some papers and replied, "Yaromir, I heard from Kira what you were doing, the Gaz's had their schedule cleared for the next two weeks for your assignment, here are the keys."

She handed Yaromir two keys. Now all we needed was a crew for the cars and a few extra guys for a security detail.

He placed a hand on my shoulder and handed me the keys, "Bratan, bring these back to the garage and chill with Yemelyan." I just nodded and walked away.

I had no clue when he would be back so I went to the room where my stuff was and I was counting my rubles when Yemelyan and his friend walked in. Borislav was with them and just stared as Yemelyan spoke. "So your car engine could use a few repairs, the suspentios, tires and everything else is perfect thought, it should cost about 200 rubles to repair the problem."

I was amazed by how expensive it was and looked at Borislav and he just nodded, so at least I wasn't getting screwed over.

I sighed and responded, "Alright how much do you need right now?"

"150 rubles right now, and everything should go smoothly."

"Alright, here you go Yemelyan, I hope the repairs will go smoothly and Borislav could I talk with you?"

"Thank you Bratan it should be ready by tomorrow or the day after at the latest!" He ran off and his friend followed as I walked over to Borislav in the garage.

Borislav walked over to me and he spoke, "So, what did you want to talk about? Bratan?"

I paused and took a breath, "I was wondering if there was somewhre we could get some food or something to eat, I'm hungry and I want to talk about Yemelyan and his fri-, what's his friends name? I don't know and I'm worried it'll be awkward."

Borislav looked at me with an questioning look, and then bursted out laughing.

"Oh Bratan! There is a lady across mainstreet who makes a great Beef Stroganoff. It's not too expensive, but it is made out of 'beef' it's probably some wild animal, most likely those damned rats that are all over the base and she has been able to grow the mushrooms very well!"

I couldn't help but chuckle, "Could you go order two? How much is it? I'll be paying."

"Pretty cheap, I will need 16 rubles."

I was down from my original 350 rubles to 134, I want to plan for the 50 that Yemelyan will ask for later. I handed Borislav the money and he left as I was left alone with my thoughts.

I had survived, I had gone from North of Murmansk down to Petrovazodovsk. I could finaally sit down and rest in my car for the first time without having to worry, and I could finally rest for a nice nap.

I fell asleep as a shriek was heard across the settlement from outside, and my rest would be interupted as I woke up, with Borislav and my food, and a story.