Quaranteam: Ruins United Ch. 04

"Okay, people," Dan began, standing at the head of the table. "Today marks the start of a new era for this city. Whatever we tried to do for many years, we can do now. No old farts to stop us, nobody will tell us 'no'. Let's turn our city into a fucking miracle. But first, we'll have to save it."

He looked everybody over.

"Well? Report. Who's going to start?"

The silence was the answer. He frowned.

"Come on, people, you had two days of prep time! Okay, I'm not going to bite your heads off, but just this once, you feel me? You got..." He looked at the clock on the wall. "...thirty minutes to do your homework. If somebody forgot or didn't know how to work with me - I'll explain once more. You don't come to me with problems, you come to me explaining problems and bringing solutions, even shitty ones. We can always brainstorm together to make them better. Now go, find us some shit to fix!"

The team rushed out, like blown with the wind, Artemi trudged out last. Dan sighed.

Blyat. Not the best start.

He barely managed to resume his watch at the window, as the door opened again, letting in Duchess and another woman. A woman Dan did not want to see - not just today, but ever.

"Olya," he nodded. "Dasha."

He cocked his head to the side and looked her over. Hair dyed fake red, somewhat pretty face, ass and tits nothing to talk about, nothing special in general, like thousands of women out there, but she still somehow managed to draw way too much attention to her person.

"Red doesn't suit you. You should've stayed your natural bullshit blonde," he threw.

"So not happy to see you again, Smith," she responded in kind.

"What's she doing here, Olya?" He turned to Duchess.

"She's my new press sec," the boss frowned. "Is there a problem?"

"Of course, there is," Dan threw his hands up. "She's an unprincipled sellout completely devoid of journalist ethics, you can't trust her!"

"Oh my God, can you please stop bringing that up?" Darya rolled her eyes.

Darya considered herself a good journalist, and everyone believed her, until one day she got offered a position of an editor-in-chief for a federal news publication ran by United Russia. Her test task was to push a traditional values article through the local news - an outrageous load of homophobic Orthodox* garbage, and she did. She lied, she coaxed, she cheated - and the article was published. Then it got noticed in Europe, and it cost the city some big investor relationships. But Darya did not care - she already warmed her new seat in Moscow. Now everything was falling apart, and she was back where she started, hoping everyone already forgot. Dan did not.

[*Russian version of Christianity is called Orthodox because it was imported from Byzantium, not Papal States]

"Why? Because you magically undone all the damage that little homophobic piece of yours has done to the image of our city on an international scale? No? Then shut, blyat, up, Dasha."

He grabbed his jacket off the chair.

"I'm going to get a coffee, back in twenty," he turned to the stunned Duchess, who was clearly taken aback by his rage. "Make sure to keep her away from any of my team meetings."

He stalked out, slamming the door, heels of his boots thudding heavily on the worn parquet of the hallway, echoing in the nearly empty building. He practically ran down the stairs, feeling the anger boiling inside of him and completely oblivious to his surroundings. He almost reached the door, when an unfamiliar voice stopped him.

"Danila Kirillovich, can I have a word with you?"

Dan stopped, turned and froze, looking into a pair of Colonel Grishin's unblinking deep gray eyes, staring back at him from under his bandaged forehead.

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In the next chapter:

I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax
I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire
Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire