Quaranteam: Ruins United Ch. 04

Ruins United is a part of the Quaranteam universe created by CorruptingPower, written with his expressed permission. If you have not read the original or spinoffs by BreakTheBar, AgathonWrites, BronanTheLibrarian, OtterlyMindblowing, SilverRyden, RonanJWilkerson, BirchesLoveBooks,The_Licentious_Laureate or DisquietCertitude I would highly recommend you do that, not just to better understand the developments but also because those are really good and lots of fun.

I also want to express my gratitude to the QT writing group and especially The_Licentious_Laureate for their immeasurable help with proofreading and editing.

xoxo,
Cy~

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Nov 25th, 2020.

"We need to talk about where you were last night," a heavily distorted voice said.

"So talk," Dan suppressed a mild annoyance in his voice.

"Open the door."

She's here? No way.

He disconnected the call, walked to the front door and looked into the peephole, confirming the identity of his visitor. Unlocking the door, Dan suddenly felt tense and unsure. She came in, carrying a strong smell of antiseptic with her, threw her hood off, kicked off her boots, handed him her jacket and looked at him questioningly without saying a word. He hung the jacket in the closet, turned on the UV lamps and turned to her, nodding in the direction of the kitchen.

She sat on the kitchen couch, slightly leaning forward, her hands with her nails painted black clasped in front of her on the table, looking at him over her black mask. Dan left standing across the table from her, leaning back on the kitchen counter and crossing his arms.

In certain circles Larisa Ptitsyna was known as Tyan*, and not because of her obsession with Japanese mainstream culture. She looked like an archetypal anime little girl whom everybody tends to underestimate until it's too late - a small girl, barely reaching Dan's shoulder, with a beautiful face, big bright gray eyes, a small cute nose and a small mouth with somewhat pouty lips, her hair of nondescript brownish color gathered in a bun on the back of her head. She was slim and, as far as Dan could tell, flat-chested but her ass would make a lot of women weep tears of jealousy, if she wouldn't carefully hide her prodigious backside in some baggy pants all the time. Because of her quiet voice and her tendency to avoid eye contact some people would write her off as mousy, but Dan knew nothing could be farther from the truth. He'd rather call her Lain.

[*Russian phonetic for Japanese suffix -chan, applicable when describing adolescent female]

I've known her for what, eight, ten years now? Yeah, we were still working with Duchess. So that makes her twenty seven now? She hasn't changed one fucking bit.

"Spying on me, Lara?" He asked, slightly nervous under her gaze. This was the first time she not only came to his place, but also decided to meet him unannounced.

"You are too smart for that," she quietly chuckled behind her mask and lowered her eyes. "Ghost router, hidden SSID, no IoT or smart devices in the apartment, 2FA on every account, VPNs for everything. Too smart but not too careful, Dan."

She looked at him again and the shadow of the smile vanished from her eyes.

"Last night, somebody hit a federal convoy carrying undisclosed cargo on the outskirts of Leninsky. Total number of attackers and their identities are unknown. All I could find is one single white Escalade hitting every speedcam from Leninsky to here right after the time of the attack."

Fuck.

"Imagine my surprise when I found out that this particular Escalade has not one but two registrations, one belonging to you," she leaned back. "You can unclench your butthole, Dan, I cleaned up after you. Nothing is going to lead them here."

He slowly released the breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"I owe you big," he nodded. "Thank you."

"There's a simple way for you to return the favor, but we'll talk about it later," she cocked her head to the side. "Right now I need to know whether or not you risked your life for some stupid political reason of yours."

"Zai? Who's your guest?"

Of course, it had to be right, blyat, now.

Tash, closely followed by Rina, entered the kitchen.

"Girls, meet Larisa. She just finished saving my ass. Lara, this is Natasha and Marina... my partners."

"Privet," Tash raised an eyebrow. Rina just nodded cautiously.

Lara slowly turned her eyes from Tash to Rina, then back to Dan.

"I should've known. You're vaccinated, aren't you? That's what the convoy was carrying? Means I don't need to wear this fucking thing in here," she raised her hands to unhook her rather complicated mask setup from her turtleneck sweater. "May I ask for tea or something, please?"

Dan turned to the counter to turn the kettle on, and heard Tash gasp behind his back.

"Girl, what happened to you?"

He turned around and frowned - Lara's jaw and cheekbone were bruised. Not an accidental damage, by the looks of it - deliberate hit with a fist. Dan knew these kinds of bruises too well. Damage wasn't recent, at least a week old.

"You want me to have a talk with your boyfriend? That's the favor?" He nearly growled.

"Not boyfriend, no... don't worry about it."

"Like, yes, of course, blyat, I won't," he put his hands on the table and hovered, looking at her. "Who do you take me for? This is not okay, Lara. He's getting his balls ripped off."

"It's... it's my Dom... as I've said - don't worry about it," she sighed and looked down. "It's all part of the lifestyle."

"Shitty Dom, if you ask me," Rina said after taking a closer look at the bruises.

The three of them exchanged quick glances. Dan shook his head with an unspoken question on his face, the women returned the shake, slow-blinking their agreement. Shitty Dom, okay, I'll buy it. But what am I supposed to do about this?

"Tell me then, what should I worry about?" He turned to Lara again.

"Wait, what was that about saving your ass?" Tash asked.

"Last night I cleaned up the footage from traffic cams. He was going 120 in a 60 zone," she looked at the redhead, then quickly down again. "Got on every one of them. Has to be some kind of record."

Dan sighed, turned back to the counter and started pouring steaming water into the cups.

"I was kinda in a hurry," he shrugged.

Tash hugged him from behind, putting her head on his shoulder. Rina sat on the edge of the couch close to Lara.

"He really was," she confided to the girl.

"Take care of him, please," Lara almost whispered. "Never seen him so reckless."

"Hey," Dan said, turning with tea mugs in his hands. "Conspiring behind my back?"

"We're worried about you. Lara too," Rina frowned.

"Yes, conspiracy, like I said."

He turned to Lara and put her tea in front of her.

"I'm sorry for not offering you a vaccine, but after this?" He gestured to her bruises. "I can't let you be chained to an asshole. When you find a decent man - we'll hook you up."

"I might have already, but... it would be rather inconvenient at this point of my life anyway," she took the mug with both hands. "Technically, I'm under house arrest."

Both women turned to her, surprised, Dan's eyebrows flew up.

"Technically, it doesn't look like you are."

"Ankle bracelet is so easy to hack, it's not even entertaining," she shrugged. "The problem is unannounced visits and impromptu house searches. I'm a registered blackhat, Dan. They fabricated a case just to keep me on the leash."

"Who did?"

"Who do you think? Feds," she lifted her eyes to him. "That brings us to the nature of the favor. I need you to hold onto something for me."

"Have you seen The Godfather?" He chuckled.

"W-what? Why?"

"No reason. What is it?"

Out of her pants pocket she fished a custom-built thumbdrive - a tiniest PCB with a USB connector soldered to it - and put it on the table between them without saying a word. The hesitation was plain in her movements, the plea apparent in her face.

"Hmm," he picked the device. "Do I want to know what this is?"

"Have you seen The Langoliers?" She smirked.

"No way," he raised his eyebrows incredulously.

"Crunch-crunch," she put her hands together in an impression of a maw. "Don't put it into the machines of people you care about. Turns the network of any size into a digital equivalent of sawdust in minutes. Can't keep this thing around my place, it's a real prison sentence right there."

"It'll be safe with me, don't worry," he shoved the thing into his pocket like it was burning his hands, and he could still feel the tiny device in his pocket after that.

"Is it true you are going back to City Hall?" Lara suddenly blurted and immediately hid her face in her mug, watching him cautiously.

"Don't people have nothing else to talk about?" He rolled his eyes. "Yes, in fact I just told Knyazeva I'm up to discuss terms with her."

"Finally," Tash wrapped her arms around his waist. Rina nodded with a smile.

"Hey, it's not like I'm going on vacation or something," he frowned. "This city was a mess before the pandemic, and it's been getting exponentially worse every day since it's started. This is end-of-days crisis cleanup, not municipal management - nobody gets taught that."

"It was a crisis cleanup every day in the Moscow administration," Tash offered. "I'm not sure if I want to go back doing this right now, but when the time is right... Will you, please, consider my resumé, Mister Koval?" She finished with a goofy grin.

"Oh no, I won't be accused of nepotism, baby," he laughed. "But we'll think of something - if you decide to start working again. What would you like to do, Rin?"

"No idea yet, " the brunette shrugged. "I'd love to have my own lab some time soon, to continue the work on the vaccine, is that possible? Maybe we can replicate the serum and start producing on our own. Small amounts are still better than nothing."

"We have three major Universities in the city, at least one of them should have a decent lab," he nodded.

Lara looked at the women with poorly concealed jealousy.

"I need to get going, I've been away for too long," she awkwardly squeezed out between the table and the couch, stood up and headed to the entryway. "It takes twenty minutes between my place and yours, if I'm avoiding all the cameras."

The trio followed her. Dan helped her to get her jacket on, then Rina and Tash double-hugged her.

"Thank you again," Rina said. Lara just nodded, put her mask on and stalked out.

"Tell me you’re going to help her," Tash turned to Dan as soon as the door closed.

"I will," he nodded, taking the thumb-drive out of his pants pocket and stuffing it into a hidden pocket of his jacket. "I just don't know how yet. She really deserves better."

"Girl, have you seen her ass?" Rina half-whispered into Tash's ear.

"Oh, yes, oh my God! Nearly got me jealous!"

Dan rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Can we get back on track, please? How did the rest of the talk with the crew go?"

-//-

Nov 26th, 2020.

"So, what do you want to do today?" Dan asked during breakfast.

He got up at 8am, an ungodly hour by his standards - working with US and Canada for years caused his biological clock to shift, but a nagging anxiety made him sleep much worse today. The women were too exhausted by the two previous days, and the three of them ended up cuddling each other to sleep without a hint of anything sexual. Who would've thunk I'd miss all the fucking after going without for a day. He spent an hour at his desk, reading the news, which didn't help his mood at all, rerouted Frank's project lead to the contractor group in the UK, apologizing and lying about his new job status, then heard the girls whispering in the bedroom - a signal for breakfast time. Now they were sitting at the table, picking at their plates without much enthusiasm. Both of them shrugged at the question.

"You both need to get out of your heads," he frowned. "We can't veg around all day, it's not healthy."

"I was planning to write up my thoughts on vaccine research until I have a lab," Rina offered.

"I still remember the city, I can work with whatever data is available and do analytics to help your team in the city hall," Tash looked at him.

"Okay," he nodded. "I can't have you fighting for the place at my desk, so you'll need laptops."

He stood up and stuck his plate into the dishwasher.

"Finish up, we’re going shopping."

That wasn't met with cheers, but at least they got ready quickly enough. Half an hour later, the Escalade rolled out from the maze of the concrete towers into the avenue. This was supposed to be a short run, until Dan's phone rang.

"Yeah," he responded without looking.

"Dani-boy," Max's voice was genuinely worried. "We are in desperate need of your intervention. My brother's marriage is at stake."

"Wh... what?" Dan furrowed his eyebrows. "Less than a day since instructions were given and he already managed to fuck it up? Okay, doesn't matter, we're actually on the move right now, sit tight, get ready to explain."

"Sorry, girls, laptops gotta wait, this sounds serious." Looking in the rearview, then back to the road, he accelerated after a completely illegal U-turn on an empty street.

"Ooh, fun," Rina drawled and exhaled. "Guess today's the day we meet the crew in person."

"I can drop both of you at home if you want," he frowned. "But if Ivan's wife is turning on horns* because of the vaccine and its consequences, I'd rather you talk to her."

[*To turn on horns, to grow horns - to take aggressively uncooperative position in an argument]

"We already told them everything we had last night," Tash shrugged, not turning away from the window.

"Maybe she wasn't there? I'm not sure who was attending."

They drove in silence for a while, then Dan heard whispering in the back seat again. They were discussing something that was meant to be private but not that private, showing their phone screens to each other.

"Anything I need to know?" He asked calmly.

"Yes, actually," Rina turned to him. "We discussed... In case Larisa asks to be paired with you, you should know we already approved her."

Dan snorted in surprise.

"Well, first, that's not going to happen, second, aren't you a bit too quick about it? You saw her for twenty minutes last night, that's it."

"For someone so smart, you are incredibly dense sometimes, Koval," Tash grumbled. "She obviously cares about you - a lot. After what she did the day before yesterday, I'm wondering how much shit she’s pulled you out of without you knowing. The girl's been pining for you for years, watching your every move."

"You don't know that!" He gave out an exasperated huff.

"She's following all your socials," Rina said. "We found her accounts. Everything is anonymous but those black nails and that ass are hard to miss."

"Wait, she posts pics?!"

"Oh yeah," Tash nodded. "Hardcore BDSM stuff, wanna see?"

He thought about it, then shook his head.

"That wasn't meant for me to see."

"Oh, I beg to differ," Rina smirked. "Anyways, we found her Dom too, if you want to do something about that..."

-//-

They rolled into the courtyard. The house was quiet this time, as was the garage, but the garage door swung open. Max peeked out and waved them to come inside. Ivan was sitting on the couch when they entered - head hung down, his wounded and bandaged left bicep bulging under his tracksuit.

"Girls, meet the Bulls," Dan nodded to the twins. "Boys, meet Marina and Natasha."

"Nice to meet you," Tash chimed and waved. Rina just nodded.

"My pleasure," Max smiled with a slight bow. "Um... to the matter at hand, Dan..."

"Short and quick, gimme."

"My dumbass brother made a harem joke. Tanya did not find it funny, made him sleep in the garage and is now threatening him with divorce," Max's face scrunched.

"Vanya*, kakogo huya?" Dan threw his hands up, then turned to Max. "Was she present at the debrief yesterday?"

[*Informal variation of the name Ivan]

"No," he said, shaking his head. "Came home too late, was checking on her parents."

"Figures," Dan sighed. "Okay, let's go do some damage control."

The only source of sound in the house was the kitchen, where, with her back to him, stood a tiny brunette woman. Nearly half a meter height difference between Ivan and his wife always amused Dan, but not this time. Tanya turned, hands crossed in front of her, a cigarette in her trembling fingers. Red eyes and fresh streaks of tears on her cheeks told a story, but anger was much more prevalent in her face.

"What do you want, Smith? Came to apologize on behalf of my idiot husband?" She spat.

"Vanya is a big boy, he can apologize on his own," Dan shook his head and shrugged.

"What then? Came to tell me how building a harem is the new normal now? Wanna do another speech and fling it into social media for everybody to listen? Make stupid, blyat, remixes and shit?!" She was on the verge of hysterics.

"Nobody is forcing you to do anything you don't want to," Dan raised his hands defensively. "It's important to approach this situation willingly and with a clear understanding of the consequences. That wasn't explained to you, and that's Ivan's fault, and he's going to pay for it, sure, but right now, I want you to talk with somebody else. Girls?" He turned to the door.

Rina and Tash entered the kitchen.

"Tanya, meet Marina and Natasha, my partners."

"I see you have started building it already," the tiny brunette scoffed and stubbed the cigarette in the ashtray.

"I'm just asking you to listen to what they have to say about this, okay? Can you do that for me?"

There was a pregnant pause, after which Tanya visibly deflated.

"Fine. A woman's perspective can't hurt, especially in a house full of dicks."

"We'll take it from here, love," Rina looked at him and nodded in the direction of the door.

Dan was barely out of the house when the black Camry rolled into the courtyard.

"Did she cut his balls off yet?" Partizan asked, getting out of the passenger seat. Tony just smirked and nodded to Dan.

"The castration is postponed," he stated, shaking hands with both new arrivals. "Let's hear what the accused has to say for himself."

Ivan cautiously looked up as they entered the garage.

"You gonna slap me now?" He asked.

"I won't," Dan plopped on the couch. "Tanya might, but later, she's busy. The fuck were you thinking, Vanya? You've been together for what, 7 years now? That's enough time to learn what triggers your woman."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a dumbass, I know," the tall man who desperately tried to look small now shook his head. "Even if your women succeed, I'll be on probation for a while."

"I wouldn't count on it to last too long," Dan smirked. "The vaccine changes minds."

His phone pinged.

"Lara's Dom is Alexey Boyarinov, 30. Runs a small law firm at 38 Chapaeva St.," the message from Tash read. He sent a thumbs up emoji back.

"Wanna redeem yourself in the eyes of society? Let's take a ride," Dan stood up. "Everything beats sitting around waiting for your sentencing."

"Where are we going?" Partizan livened up.

"Gotta scare one particular asshole shitless. Good old intimidation fun, minimal criminality. Did you boys bring your bats with you?"

"Always," Tony grinned.

"I'll stay here, just in case," Max offered.