Concrete Jungle

Chapter 9

By the time Sasha landed in Kiev, both Ben and Rahel were already on the ground and getting situated at the Opera Hotel; a high end and swanky, old fashioned 5-star hotel. Rahel was first in the city and without touching base with Ben upon his arrival, got dressed up and went out on the town to check out the sites and architecture. Ben was highly annoyed when she brushed past him in the lobby as they weren't there to play but work.

"Where were you? I tried calling your room." Ben said with a frown as Rahel rolled her eyes.

"I was out. Sasha isn't here yet and what's the point of being cooped up in the room when I can go explore." Rahel said over her shoulder barely slowing down her stride.

"You could have at least said something."

"Look, I don't need a babysitter, okay?" She said to a stunned Ben as she got into the elevator and pressed the button to her floor.

Meanwhile, Sasha got her luggage and after passing reasonably quickly through customs, went to where men stood with placards of people's names that they were picking up. She spotted the man with her name on his and greeted him in Russian with a smile and handshake. Her driver's name was Sergey, and he was in his mid-40s who seemed pleasant as he took her suitcase and they walked to his car. After loading up and getting in, Sergey said that he would be her and the rest of the team's driver around Kiev if they needed him but that their other transportation arrangements and driving would be done by two men named Oleg and Kirill.

She nodded with a smile as he looked at her through his rearview mirror. Though her Russian was flawless, she didn't really want to maintain a conversation because she had never been to Ukraine before and therefore just let Sergey chat away as she looked at her surroundings while he bore her to the hotel. Once there, she thanked him and walked into the elegant building. Sasha had thought about giving him a tip as was customary, but NatGeo had told them all that everyone involved was getting handsomely paid, so to not bother. Having slept and eaten on the plane, all she wanted to do now was to shower and unpack before heading to meet with her partners to discuss their game plan for the two days before they were to go to the exclusion zone. She had already spoken to her mother upon landing and wouldn't again until bedtime.

After doing all of that, she called Ben, and he informed her of Rahel's in and out antics. Sasha was instantly irritated as this was what she was afraid of from the beginning.  They had a small conference room booked for the duration of their trip where they had to meet with the travel coordinators including the drone expert who would fly the machine into the most radioactive parts of Chernobyl and Pripyat. This individual was actually set to meet with all of them that evening. He arrived on time as did Ben and Sasha. Rahel, however, was nowhere to be seen no matter how many times they called her cell or room. The drone expert was named Alexei, and he was irritated at the delay as he had other business to attend to and a family to go home to. He couldn't wait all night for some tardy photographer. Sasha, though, was even more so.

When Rahel, finally waltzed in nearly an hour late looking only slightly contrite, Alexei whose own English was pretty decent where Sasha didn't need to translate, went straight up to Rahel and got very close to her as her eyes went wide and said:

"You are very unprofessional with no regards for anyone other than yourself, keeping us waiting like this. I can very quickly take my business elsewhere, but you are lucky to have the colleagues that you do."

With that, he turned around and went back to Sasha and Ben as Rahel quietly joined them silently observing. After briefing them on how his drone would work for what they needed ultimately, he thanked both Ben and Sasha for their professionalism and glaring at Rahel without saying anything further, departed. Rahel looked a bit mollified as she just blinked at him. She had never been reprimanded by a stranger before or anyone else for that matter. However, she was not getting off the hook that easily because as soon as Alexei left, Sasha lit into her and read her the riot act.

"What the hell was that? An hour late? Do you think we are playing games here?" Sasha said vehemently to her.

"I didn't notice the time getting away from me," Rahel said quietly.

"You told Ben, you don't need babysitting! Well, that's precisely what you need! You could have ruined the whole project! These people are being paid a lot of money to work with us while you are running around the city playing tourist! I don't care how good you think you are, but you are not irreplaceable!"

"What's that supposed to mean? You can't fire me." Rahel said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest as Sasha got up into her face.

"Oh, you bet I can! I was put in charge of this project, and that means you answer to me, you got that? I don't care who blew all of that arrogance and self-importance up your ass, but there are hundreds of photographers around the world that would drop everything and take your place in a heartbeat! I have worked with some fantastic professionals all of my years with NatGeo, and so has Ben, and we have never had anyone pull a stunt like this before! Mark, my words, Rahel, one more of these and you can pack your Louis Vuitton crap and crawl back into whatever hole someone dug you up from, am I clear?"

"Crystal." Rahel nodded, looking uncomfortable.

The truth was that she didn't realize how much power Sasha actually had. Try as she might to think of some argument to counteract what was said, she was nonetheless no match for Sasha and the apparent common sense Sasha possessed. Though she was responsible when it came to her art, never having worked in a team, she never assumed responsibility for her actions. No matter how much Rahel didn't like Sasha or Ben—who was also glaring at her with his arms crossed—she couldn't lose the job with NatGeo because all of her hard earned credibility would go down the drain. She promised Ben and Sasha that she would show up on time for all of their meetings from there on out and wouldn't be flippant about it. Ben was flabbergasted and shaken by Rahel's behavior because of how close she came to sabotaging the whole project. He thought about Sasha's concerns back home about her and realized that she was right. Her 'spidey-senses' were never wrong, and Rahel proved her unfortunately right on all counts.

Because her word was yet to be proven to either of her partners, Rahel had a lot to make up for. For the next two days, there were no more delays. It was all hands on deck as the project managers from the Ukrainian side as well as the transport team arrived and worked out every foreseeable kink. The exclusion zone around Chernobyl was 18 miles in diameter and had three checkpoints with military stationed at each. They needed separate paperwork for each which they had signed and stamped by the proper authority after which it was handed to them. Alexei was only coming along with them long enough to get the drone footage and then he would return to Kiev the same day to wait for them. They would enter Pripyat for no more than a half hour and than Sasha would leave while the others stayed as long as they could.

They consulted weather satellites and their trip days seemed to be rain free; it was October and therefore essential to make sure the heavy elements were avoided. They had radiation suits as well as camping equipment as they would sleep in the outdoors on the outskirts of the exclusion zone. They couldn't come and go because the drive from Kiev to Pripyat was five hours long, so they decided to stay no more than three days living and sleeping in the safest zone and venturing in during the day to gather the information they sought. Every modern piece of equipment including the Geiger meter was at their disposal.

Finally, on their third day in Ukraine, it was time to head to the front line. Two vans came to the hotel with one loaded to the gills with all of their equipment and as well as Alexei and his drone. Sasha, Ben, and Rahel came out with bags for the three day trip in the outdoors. They were keeping their hotel rooms for the duration of their journey and therefore didn't need to lug their suitcases back and forth. While everyone was being loaded into the vans, for a split second, Sasha hesitated and reached into her backpack to hold her talisman. As Vasya's name stared at her from the cover of the journal, she closed her eyes briefly and whispered:

"I'm coming, Vasya. I'm ready to know the whole truth."

She then tucked it back into her bag without a second look, got in the van with the others as the doors closed, and they were off to the most forbidden land on earth.