If I didn't need him, I would have shot Karel in the head. We didn't talk on our walk
back to our car - he knew how I felt, though - and when we pulled away from the curb, I laid into
him.
“What the hell was that? Why are you talking and making jokes during our meeting with
Dr. Nick? You're supposed to be the nasty bad guy here, but instead you're laughing after he sees
a video that is meant to shock him?”
“Oleg, I'm sorry. I know I'm supposed to let you do all the talking. It won't happen
again, I promise.”
Karel covered his forehead with his right hand and started shaking his head. He was
breathing heavy, having outweighed me by a solid fifty pounds.
Yet, I meant what I told him in Nick's car after he started with the jokes: if he kept doing
that, the doctor wouldn't be the only one dead in a few months.
I pulled the car over on a side street and took a casual surveillance of the surrounding
area.
“You better hope he understands our threat, because if he takes us lightly…that's how we
ended up with the problem of Dr. Linder. They thought they could just hire a security guy and
that proved to be a real hassle for us, I don't want the same thing to happen here.”
“Okay, okay!”
“Good.”
We drove off. I planned to let Dr. Nick sit on this development for a week or two before
meeting him again. We needed to make sure he was fully on board.
Timothy Gilbert
Damage Control
94
“Let's grab some dinner,” I told Karel.
“Sounds good. I'll buy.”
Karel never paid for anything, so maybe he did understand that I might shoot him.
Clearly tired of talking to Karel at that moment, I picked up my cell phone and dialed
Fred's cell number. Fred would be happy by our progress with Dr. Johnson.
“It's me,” I told Fred. “It's all set…we scared the crap out of the good doctor. You had a
good idea of showing the Linder video to him.”
“Alright, then,” Fred said. “Oh, I guess you need to know that Mihail has been whining
about you guys.”
“Oh, screw him!” I shouted.
“Don't worry, he's not terribly valuable.”
Timothy Gilbert
Damage Control
95