Chapter 5

As I woke up the next morning I didn't know where to turn. I had serious misgivings about my choices so far. I was getting involved, and with that come a price, vulnerability. And that was a price I wasn't sure I could afford. I also had made a new powerful enemy, knowing all too much about my shady past. Yes, I'm referring to Ivan that wanted to buy Alana.

But I knew some stuff about him too, and also a lot of the people, formerly spies and their special brand of special forces the Spetsnaz, that now belonged to some of the faceless elite in Russia. Russia is a very mixed society those days.

'Glasnost' laid the grounding of a free society and the 'perestroika' continued it. But there will always be problems with people living too long under a dictatorship. It makes you used to hierarchical decisions over your head, and it teaches you all too well on which side the bread is buttered.

So in a way it is very similar to the difference between delivering something good or delivering a hurt. When you deliver a hurt the one receiving it will remember, even if they let it pass. But when you deliver something good most will take it for granted, as they 'deserve it', tells you something of the ego, doesn't it.

Here there was a whole population used to 'hurts' and when they wanted to exchange it, well, they did it the only way they knew of. By hurting each other all over again, all thinking they knew what democracy was and craving it 'their way', and what can you expect to come from that?

Exactly what they have to day, a society balanced by leverages of hurt. The balance you can get when you and your neighbor both have that balance of arms, power, or even companionship? You name it, there are all sorts of variables hiding in it, and not all dealing with guns either. But instead of a democracy you will have what you can see there.

I thought of China for a moment, over one million people locked in to what some call 'concentration camps', where they get 're-educated' in having the right 'thoughts', but also now having become the western worlds new 'darling' and 'economic hope'. Ever wondered where that 'momentarily monetary stability' would go if they too had a 'perestroika'?

But I didn't really care, to me it was all about realpolitiks, those kind of politics based on 'cannon boat diplomacy'. And China was good on that, as Russia, as US too. And when seen from that perspective moral always will lose, as conscience does too. So, I had made a big tactical mistake telling Ivan what I thought about his suggestion. And there would be paybacks coming, one way or another.

And what did I have to show for it? A kid that I not even could talk with, and now a nineteen year old that somehow seemed to know about me, making me quite nervous in fact. Not that I didn't like them. I liked them both, but in ways I couldn't understand, which made me both nervous and vulnerable.

I was seriously considering trying to place Alena in a foster family when Anna showed up in the Limo. She smiled but looked worried when she couldn't see her scooter. But as she came aboard I showed her where I had stowed it and she relaxed again.

"Are you ready?" she asked me.

"Ready?"

"To go shopping with us?"

I hadn't thought that one trough it seemed. I had thought that it would be enough with her, Alana and the Limo guy. As I rented the Limo I made it sure that I wanted one of their best. They knew me from before and had a good reputation for versatility, meaning that the guy driving it knew quite a lot more than just how to drive the damned car. But as she looked on me I reconsidered, she seemed so serious, as if it was the only right thing to do.

"She will be disappointed." She said.

"I was planning on doing a little reconstruction on the boat today." I said.

"Why?"

"Well, we won't stay here that long Anna, you did read the contract I sent you, didn't you?"

She twitched a little, looking unsure.

"Maybe I missed that." She said.

"Well, if you are going to break it, better do it now Anna. I wrote that the nanny was expected to be on location at all times. And on location Anna is here, on my boat. We are leaving for a journey around the world in a few weeks and I need to make some rebuilding done here. I've already contracted some really good wood workers, redecorating and creating your and Alana's room. If you have any considerations of your own as to the propriety of the situation you should tell me now."

"My God." She said. "No I didn't know that. And I'm not sure my parents will understand it either."