Chapter 4

06.08.2016 - Saturday

There was a daily schedule in English for everyone. Luisa was not so happy about the early start of the day, but at 7 breakfast had to be ready. Esther had written and printed out the plan. In the evening before, the girls had huddled in front of it, trying to explain it to each other with gestures and auditions.

On workdays (from Monday to Saturday)

6:15

Get up

7:00

Breakfast

7:30

Lesson English

8:00 - 12:00

Working hours

12:15

Lunch

13:00-16:00

Working hours

16:00-17:00

Leisure time

17:00-17:45

Sports

18:00

Dinner

18:30

Lesson English

19:00- 20.30

Culture, singing, dancing

Activities today:

Sports:

Sprint competition, dodge ball

Culture:

TV some videos

My cell phone had woken me up on time at 6. Luisa hummed her incomprehension but got up after I cleared the bathroom. I went into the anteroom and rang the gong five times. I quickly rushed upstairs to check if everyone had gotten up. There was action in all the rooms. I smiled with pleasure because none of the girls was tending the bed anymore. A quarter to seven I whistled and the girls appeared on their corridor. Each was dressed differently. Sula had to fake it again: panties, blue work pants, a T-shirt, sturdy shoes.

The four girls who go to the village, the two ‘gardeners’ and the two for the outdoor area had to put their nametags on so that the local women and men could possibly read them. I only learned later that eight women and one man were illiterate. The adhesives no longer held properly. Esther was commissioned to create two new sets with the PC and the existing adhesive labels. There was a lot of trampling on the stairs as everyone went down the stairs together. Only Cara was not there. She had gone to Luisa’s kitchen immediately after the morning routine. Later I praised her for her sense of duty.

Cara came to the group with her much too big kitchen apron when we were in front of the plan. Sula and Kira had to pretend everything. They were both ready for drama school. Then it was practiced. Sleeping - everyone lay down on the floor. Sula let the gong sound. All the girls jumped up and made such movements as washing, brushing their teeth and dressing. Combing was obviously not so fashionable among the girls. Unfortunately, they also did not have a comb and brush, inconsolable for young ladies. I wanted to change that today. There must be something in the containers.

We then read the activities of the day three times together, so to speak as an early English lesson. The third time it worked out very well. Lenya did it again. Terrific! The Russian girl had potential. She might be able to work as a kindergarten teacher or as a teacher later, if we were to be here for a long time and then we would have our own offspring.

Today we were a little late at breakfast, but just before half past eight I clapped my hands and instructed two girls to clear the table. Three dreamers quickly put a bite in their mouths. Everyone except our kitchen Cara took a seat in the seating group in the anteroom. The first few days I was the English teacher. Then Mrs. Liebknecht should do it if she showed up again. That was a very important thing for me, to force the young German doctor to submit, to involve her in everything later, but first to implement my rules, my ideas, and my goals. I knew she was a smart woman. Besides, I’m sure she could better understand the girls, give me advice. In case of illness or injury, she was irreplaceable from my point of view.

The regime with fixed rules was very important to me. There should be no idling here. Soon we could no longer live only from containers and from the few supplies. All were required to cooperate on schedule. Also, various crafts had to be learned, even for my previous main work ‘Electricity and Water’ someone had to be trained, because that was vital for all of us.

In addition to the daily schedule, I also practiced greeting formulas until the “How are you?” Only the “How do you do,” I refused to teach my students. Punctually at eight o’clock I clapped my hands: “To work, please.” Everyone understood and ran. I had to smile. It was fun with my little soldiers.

With Sula I went to Esther in the doctor’s office. There was a notebook on the table. When I checked it, I realized that Mrs. Liebknecht had uploaded tons of her files here, but the data transfer was only finished after she was thrown out. That’s why she apparently wanted to get to the office quickly. I asked Esther to record all the technology in the room, because some things were not on the list of Mrs. Doctor. In the doctor’s bedroom, which was perfectly tidy, I found, as expected, a lot of sex toys, three hard drives unlabeled and a lot of clothes. Even good evening dresses hung in the closet. In the bathroom I found out that she was contraceptive, so not directly lesbian, I thought with a smile. Then I had to laugh at myself. “Typical man, you ego. If a lady doesn’t want to hop into bed with you, she only can be a lesbian. You’re so irresistible, Michael.”

Meanwhile, Esther and Sula had completed the inventory in the office, but some names were unclear to them. With my help, the girls quickly finished. They should not enter the laboratory, the doctor’s office and the two hospital rooms, one equipped as an intensive care unit with appropriate technology, without the doctor.

The two access doors were locked at the back right. Left back also, I didn’t even have access to half of the rooms. Everything was locked here, unfortunately also the cellar door, where I wanted to take inventory this day. I still had to leave. Where could the keys be?

Then it occurred to me that among the things from the helicopter, in addition to passports and purses, there were also keys, and I had thrown them into the mailbag. “And where was it,” I thought. It was found relatively quickly among the still disordered things in an old basket in Luisa’s room. In two purses there were missing banknotes that I had seen before. Had the men or Luisa appropriated the money? It was not correct, even that the money was useless now?

Anyway, I found three sets of keys. There were a lot of keys on it, more than ten alone, which could fit room locks. First I wanted to try it on the cellar door. About the sixth attempt was successful. So, the covenant with only three larger and five small keys was that of Rus, right?

The light on the wide basement staircase went on automatically. Beautiful. Esther and Sula accompanied me with a thick notebook and pens in the basement. In the large basement room, the light was also turned on by means of a motion detector. Later, the stair light extinguished itself. Esther looked a little frightened. I laughed and sent them both to the stairs. Surprised, they realized that it started automatically when they came to the stairs.

“So, we should make a plan first.” I said so for myself when I saw in front of me six long shelves partially filled. To the left and right were four locked rooms each. Rus’s keys unlocked everywhere. “The general with the master key...” I hummed in front of me. Under the basement stairs there was a pallet truck and a pneumatic transport handcart. Behind it was a large number of pallets, some of them still sealed in foil, some with a few boxes or bags. Since there were numbers on the doors, I just followed this order. In room 1 were the heating, the power distribution, and the main water connection, where I was once short weeks ago. It also seemed that everything was prepared for washing machine operation. Only empty shelves in the second room. In room 3 there were tons of paints and painting utensils, in room 4 there were building materials stored, maybe forty bags of cement, lime and levelling compound, marble slabs and other. For this we found a lot of used but cleaned tools. As we were about to turn to the other side of the cellar, Esther pointed excitedly into the corner. There was another door. Room 5. Room 6 and 7 followed. It looked bad in room 5, one Table, six chairs, dirty ashtrays on the table, partly half-emptied glasses and cans of cola and beer, the sink in the corner would have to be tarred once, white porcelain was already coming through.

Both girls cleared the table and threw everything into a cardboard box already half filled with waste. We had the door open, but it smelled very bad, especially after stale cigarette smoke. Apparently there was no ventilation in the rooms. In room 6 we found a lot of local canned food, rice, spaghetti and two hotplates with totally soiled pots. There were also bottles with oils and sauces, two complete cheese wheels. A sliced cheese was slightly mouldy. Sula brought Luisa and Cara downstairs. They should sift through the treasures in room 6.

Room 7 was filled with beer, cola, and juice cans. The kids got juice, I took a beer. Luisa and Cara, who had arrived in amazement, also took a juice. Luisa sifted through the supplies and clicked her tongue. We sat down on pallets in the main room and drank greedily. We liked it, although it was quite cool in the cellar. All at once Luisa screamed with joy. She had been sitting on sacks of salt. There were still sixteen bags of twenty-five kilogram each on the pallet. The girls looked at what they had been sitting on. The content of a palette with ‘Espaguetis’ was indefinable for me, but Luisa then said with joy: “Spaghetti.” And the next torn pallet was full of sugar; only one bag was missing so far. Peas, lentils, beans, and wheat flour were also found. Two pallets were still completely closed. Sula knelt down and read: ‘aceites vegetales’. Luisa stopped short, knelt beside it and was delighted. It was a complete pallet of vegetable oil, still wrapped and unused. Sula got a smack on the cheek from her, but she puckered her face in agony.

The content of the ninth pallet was unclear, because it was wrapped very well. I wanted to check it out later, but Luisa didn’t let it rest. She sent Cara for a kitchen knife. They understood each other very well, the two from the kitchen, despite the different languages. It was coconut lard, whatever that was for. Luisa would already know.

We were now at room 9. The room 8 was apparently the large basement hall. Again, the key fit, the door was much thicker and heavier. When we opened it, icy water vapour hit us, a cold store full of meat and sausage products. I quickly locked the door. Now I also understood why so much electricity had to be delivered to the house. Room 10 was also a cold room. I saw a lot of frozen fish, some of them hung up and some of the fish reached from the ceiling to almost the bottom. Maybe the Rus wanted to live here longer? Was it his escape camp? I was already a little shocked. It was positive for us, but that was not determined for the girls, who should certainly live here for a long time, but not with pork or excellent fish. And it got even more amazing. This was followed by two rooms with exquisite preserves with fruits and vegetables from all over the world. All the shelves in rooms 11 and 12 were fully stacked along the entire height of almost three meters. In the next room there were selected items from Russia. We’ll need Lenya to explain. Fortunately, some cans were labelled in English: caviar, ham, or French foie gras, i.e. caviar, the finest ham and French foie gras were available in quite large quantities. But the greater part of the supplies still had to be deciphered.

In the next room my heart beat faster, lots of spirits and a shelf full of cigarettes. That would be enough for more than twenty years if no one but me smoked or drank liquor. And finally the wine cellar followed. I had no idea about it, but it was definitely a great warehouse for wine connoisseurs.

We were exhausted from the tour. Luisa had also missed the time, it had been too interesting. Quickly she hurried upstairs with Cara to prepare lunch. I took the last ten cans of the torn beer box upstairs and locked the door again. What treasures we had discovered, great. Esther had entered and sketched everything in the notebook; a kind of floor plan had been created under her hands.

On the terrace I drank a beer and smoked a cigarette. It all seemed so incredibly well prepared. What was really planned here? The girls certainly played only a minor role in this. Was he planning big parties or was this his retreat, should the mafia or the police be looking for him? This will probably remain an eternal mystery through his death.

After ten minutes Esther and Sula came running excited. Esther had drawn the basement with rooms and stairs with a spreadsheet. She proudly showed me her work. I pulled both of them to me and kissed their cheek facing me. The two were gorgeous girls and they clearly enjoyed my praise.

Now it was the turn of the many locked rooms on the ground floor. And an even greater mystery appeared. In addition to the narrow corridor behind the kitchen supplies were three large rooms. The first door took me to an untidy bedroom. Everything was a mess. Four suitcases lay on the beds. Apparently two men had been disturbed while packing their suitcases. Behind it was a bath with a small sauna, it smelled quite mouldy. I opened one of the two large windows and made my way through the bedroom. In the next room there was only a table with six chairs. On it were four mobile phones, two passports, plane tickets and purses. In two pilot suitcases, typical hand luggage, were a notebook, external hard drives and the necessary cables, in addition, staplers with papers. According to the passports, the things belonged to the site manager and the architect, who most recently led the design of the outdoor area. What happened to them? I thought I remembered that they were having a heated discussion with Rus, even arguing, when he was last here by helicopter. Had he taken them on the return flight and thrown them out of the helicopter? I never trusted him after he tried to kill me.

The last room on the left back was empty, but a door continued to lead to the outside. Unfortunately, the master key did not fit on this door. “You’ll do that later,” I said to me.

I was now interested in the rooms of Rus. Yes, the key fit here too. It started with a great-furnished bedroom with an oversized king-size bed. A giant screen was mounted on the wall opposite. In the four-meter-long built-in wardrobe I found the finest clothes: suits, tuxedos, the finest shirts, and ties. There were chic sweaters in the compartments on the right, expensive T-shirts, and super sports clothes. The many shoes were all too big for me, but the clothes fit approximately.

From the bedroom I could close directly into the huge living room. I have never seen such valuable furniture as there, a finest leather set with a three-piece table, above it a chandelier flashing in front of crystals, mahogany furniture, and mahogany panelling on the walls. It was certainly old-fashioned Russian taste, especially the golden-framed Russian paintings or the animal-themed carpets on the floor and on a wall, but it was luxurious. I found a phone on the desk. Is that supposed to work? Then we would be saved. It was a satellite phone, but without a provider and a code word, it was of no use to me. Nevertheless, I decided to test it more thoroughly later.

Pretty quickly I found a safe behind a huge mural. But there was no key because it was secured with a numeric code. Unfortunately, I did not find a suitable key for the door to the last room, where the building was slightly sloped on the outside. I would open it by force one day, but we had discovered so much today, it was enough for the morning.

Ground floor Palazzo

In the great hall most of the girls had already arrived. Yes, it was almost lunchtime. Priya had understood me again, of course. She had picked out another coloured set for all the girls under the stairs in the many boxes, so that the other could be washed. And the crowning glory, there were two wine-red sets ready for Zarina in size M. Priya had realized on her own that our Chinese girl’s clothes no longer fit. I took Priya in my arms and graciously kissed her forehead. Somehow I felt particularly attracted to her. Zarina thanked Priya with a bow.

Our Vietnamese had started sorting the boxes under the wide stairs in the morning to get an overview. She wanted to show me what she had done, but I waved her off. I had seen too much today. Priya was obviously disappointed, but I brushed her hair “Tonight, please.” She seemed to have understood it and nodded delightedly.

After the meal, everyone quickly disappeared back to the assigned work. Since Priya was very far with the capture of the boxes under the stairs, Esther was not needed here. So I went together with Sula, Ananda, Lenya, and also with Esther to the containers. The girls took turns getting into the two handcarts we had taken with us. They had a lot of fun, real kids. When we passed the guesthouse, Mrs. Doctor was not to be seen. As a precaution, I had closed the gate to the headquarters so that the doctor could not enter the circle in my absence.

In the ore processing plant, we loaded two rolls of a strong rope, an axe, a saw, a spade and a tool bag into a handcart. Then we walked at speed along the road, which actually led to the bridge after a few kilometres. I had just blown up this connection to the world by order, Idiot.

The last about three hundred meters to the slope under the crash site went over hill and dale. As we passed the graves of the five dead of the helicopter crash, I saw that animals had tried to dig up two graves. But the old men apparently expected this and laid stones on the buried. Was a fox or a little bear responsible for? What kind of animals was there anyway? During our mostly noise-intensive construction work, I had not noticed any larger wild animals. Maybe Mrs. Doctor had a lexicon on her computer? I had some nature video about the cordilleras on my phone to look at this thoroughly once.