Cheesy Movie | ONC translation

Scene five

"Who was here in the cab before me?" Robert urged the taxi driver.

But the taxi driver just shrugged his shoulders and replied dispassionately, "Professional secrets. I can't tell you."

"That only applies to psychologists and lawyers!" Robert fumed, leaning forward to look into the taxi driver's face. If his work as a dealer had taught Robert anything, it was that it was harder to turn a man down if you looked him squarely in the eye and uttered some threatening-sounding sentence.

"Good taxi drivers, too! If I told you now and betrayed my previous client, how would you know I won't do the same when some smartass gets in my car and asks me questions about you, huh? What would happen to trust then, sir, eh?" The taxi driver said emphatically, without taking his eyes off the road. On the one hand, Robert was pleased that he was paying attention to the driving and he didn't have to worry about perishing in some horrible traffic accident, but on the other hand, he couldn't use his murderous stare on such a focused man.

"But I don't care!" Robert rolled his eyes and tried to convince the taxi driver, at least vocally, that it was unwise to contradict him. "I think it would be worth your while to consider my plea-"

Robert didn't get a chance to finish his sentence, however, because the taxi driver took a sharp turn at that moment, and Robert ended up back in his seat, out of breath.

The taxi driver then shook his head quite nonchalantly and said: "No, I don't want your money, boss. I may look like a crook, but I have my principles. Actually, I only have one, but a really important one! And that is: I stay out of my customers' lives. I take them where they want to go, and then I quickly forget I saw them. I'll leave the snooping and snitching to the people who make their money with it. I'm a taxi driver, so I just do my job."

Robert gasped and reached for his seatbelt. Although he was still a young, carefree man who thought rules were there to be broken, he realized at that moment that the seatbelt habit actually had something to it.

"Okay... good. You've got principles, I get that..." muttered Robert, more than out of politeness out of fear that the taxi driver would be angered by his lack of morals and decide to crash into the tram to teach him a lesson.

It was quite obvious to Robert that he wasn't going to get any information out of the taxi driver, and even if he did, he had to drive a lot of people every day! What would he do then? Should he search for them all, one by one, asking, 'Please excuse the interruption, but have you ever taken a picture of me in the shower? And if so, why are you such a perv?'

No, that wouldn't solve his problem. If he had a problem at all? After all, it was just an envelope with his photos on it. It could be just some extravagant director who liked his face and wanted to cast him in a film. After all, he was often around people in the film business... and he wasn't completely ugly! It could happen. Some director just wanted to shoot a shower scene with him... and accidentally forgot his file in the cab he got in. Yeah, that sounded far-fetched even to a guy who desperately wanted all this weirdness to have some innocent explanation.

The truth was very different and Robert had to admit it. His sins had caught up with him and the moment he feared had come...

He was such a good dealer that a rival criminal organization had taken an interest in him, and this was an invitation to a job interview. It was suddenly so clear. That's why Lola's bodyguard was so blatantly displaying himself in the window so he could see his face, that's why Lola was late to make him take a cab. And that's why the bribed taxi driver wouldn't say a word about who was sitting there before! They wanted to see if he was smart enough to crack their code! But they can't outsmart Robert Vašinka, he's not the best drug dealer around for no reason!