Golem

3 Yellow Card (Present Day)

Dr. Colonel Vladimir Satanovsky sat in his corner office located on the top floor of the Military Clinical Burdenko Hospital pouring over his extensive notes in his journal.  He desperately hoped to find something that he knew wasn’t there; otherwise he would have already found it.  But, he searched none the less.

He told himself he kept careful records because, after all, he was a scientist and his work was very important.  One never knew when some small little detail could lead to a great revelation or moment of genius.  But, the truth was, he did it mainly to feed his ego.  He truly believed that someday his work would get the recognition that he felt it justly deserved, and he would be able to publish his memoirs of how he rose to such prominence.

But self adulation wasn’t what drove him to scour the notes one more time.  It was pure frustration.  He was tasked with cleaning up a superior’s mess, a type of mess where there was no hope of ever removing the stain.  But, that was his task.

His ‘superior’ was Ivan Karpov, a boy he grew up with and went to the same schools with.  Their paths diverged when they reached university age.  Satanovsky chose Psychiatry as his vocation, being fascinated with the concepts of Operant Conditioning, psycho-active drugs, hypnosis, and actual brain modification to control behavior.  It was not physically demanding work, nor was it dangerous, and yet it had an air of respectability about it.  Ivan Karpov, on the other hand, being more athletic, and tending toward leadership positions on school teams, went into the Military, specializing in Intelligence.  Vladimir always thought his own choice was the better decision, especially when he heard the stories coming back from the Afghan war, and then later on the Chechen troubles.  He was not out in some desert rat hole sweating his ass off inside a tank with two other guys of questionable hygiene; or hunting Mujahedeen, while trying not to become the next headless, legless ‘ball’ in their twisted polo game.

No, he was far from any enemy fire, in an air conditioned building with the biggest danger being a young nurse with a jealous husband; safe where he faced a future of economic security and social respect, which appeared to only brighten if Yeltsin got his way.  But, once ‘The Wall’ came down and ‘democracy’ and a free-market economy swept across the land his hopes for a more western style of compensation and respect did not materialize.

Yet for his friend, now Colonel Ivan Karpov, western style compensation and respect seemed to rain down on him like a hurricane.  Vladimir found this cruelly ironic for a man whose whole career had been dedicated to thwarting such decadence.

He reminded himself he should not complain.  Thanks to some form of cronyism he was now the Chief of Staff at the Military Clinic that fell under Ivan’s control, but by that same cronyism he was also Ivan’s lap dog that must be ready to perform whatever trick amused his master.

The intercom on his desk beeped and disturbed his thoughts, “Da?”

 “The Colonel’s motorcade has been spotted, sir.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Vladimir knew he had only moments to be down in the parking garage to receive the Colonel.  Karpov had certain expectations, and with himself unable to deliver the elusive ‘Yellow Card’ that the Colonel so desperately wanted he could not risk any lapse in protocol.

The motorcade pulled in consisting of a black Bentley with dark tinted windows, followed by Karpov in a red Ferrari convertible with some floozy in the passenger seat.  It was followed by a black government Zil saloon.  Two large men in dark designer suits and over coats that barely concealed their submachine gun holsters stepped out of the Bentley and began surveying the surroundings for any signs of trouble.  Simultaneously two uniformed army GRU officers stepped out of the black Zil.  One approached the Ferrari and then stood at a respectable distance waiting for his superior.  The other officer was gathering a small overnight bag, a coat bag, and a Colonel’s cap out of the car.