Faust

Root of a rootless

          Qin Yan has no reason to send them except for making sure I'm doing my job properly. Those henchmen were at the heart of noch, risking their live just to supervise me? I doubt that. Even if they didn't send them, the Qins might have some idea who they are. But to get them talking might need a bit of......... encouragement.

"Who's this ?" The sound of nan comes through the handset. I take a few steps away from Ivan and his guards.
          "Nan, this is Lee."
          "Mr. Lee, to what may I be of assistance?" I can imagine nan is putting on his grin while speaking.
           "Plenty. But for now, I would like you to think it through before answering my question. Did you or did you not send someone to follow me?"

           "Mr.Lee I wouldn't....."
           "No, no, no. It's fine. You don't have to answer immediately. Let the question sink in. Give it real deep thought, and maybe discuss it with Miss Qin too. Because if your answers aren't the same as theirs then I might do some irreparable things. So nan, please show me the 'honesty' between colleagues you talked about."  I hang up the phone and walk back to the Russians. The bodyguards are dragging the two Chinese inside the door they came from.

           "All taking care of ?" Ivan puts his hands on his waist, watching his man do the work for him.
           "Not quite, I need to know who they work for first."
           "Ha! Way ahead of you, little brother. These two could have valuable stuff on those fuckers in Chinatown. My men are already on it."
           "Ivan. I need them alive..... and mostly well."
           "Yeah, yeah. But you owe me one. And I get to keep them after you're down with whatever shit you're on." Ivan roll his eyes and agrees. "In the meantime," He opens the door that leads to the club. "Why don't we go to my office and catch up on where the fuck have you been?"
                                       ***

           The icebreaker is one of the biggest clubs in nochnaya, and also with the highest income thanks to all kinds of side business and the mobs' help.

The entrance has about three to four bouncers making sure no one is looking for trouble and no troubles can get in. The ground floor has a dance floor in the middle, two DJs are blasting electronic music by the north wall. On the east side is the bar area, which consists of one long counter with three bartenders. The initial idea was for them to serve cocktails and nothing else, but because lots of dealers conduct business here. Ivan got an idea.

He started making the bartenders provide drinks with 'extra' stuff in them for a higher price. The idea was a huge success, after a while he thought "Fuck it" and make the bartenders in his club sell FM2, LSD, coke, and all kinds of drugs to the customers that know their way around here. This action got a few complaints from the local dealers, but the protest only goes as far as complaints. They know questioning the mob's decision in the core of noch is not a wise idea.

            The west side has a stage for 'dancers'
to perform. Ivan once asked me if I think this is a bit too...... third-rated. I gave him a look but didn't answer him. Two weeks later he added a row of water curtains between the stage and customers so that it gives out a.......vague beauty? and change the lighting of the whole place to a red theme. Got to hand it to him, he knows what he's doing. The income of this place grows significantly after he takes over.

Since this place is a known stronghold of the Russians, customers usually behave while having fun cause you never know if the guy you just bumped is affiliated. But from time to time some drunk or high club rat forgets about it. So despite most of the time, regular bouncers can handle it, Ivan still decided to station two or three mob members at the monitoring cabin.