Taking Up Serpents by Ian Sutherland

Author:Ian Sutherland [Sutherland, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ian Sutherland

“Klara.”

Klara lifted her head from her father’s hospital bed and looked up at her father’s bandaged face. His voice had been hoarse and cracked, but she rejoiced to hear it. His eyes were open.

“Papa!”

He brushed his lips with his tongue. There was a cup of water by his bed. She lifted the straw to his lips and waited for him to suck in some of the liquid.

“Are you in pain, Papa?”

“On these drugs? Not possible.”

Klara couldn’t believe he was making jokes in his condition. She put the cup on the side table, pleased to have been able to help him.

“What is wrong, my little angel?” He hadn’t called her that for years.

“I’m worried about you.”

“I’m only a little singed; I’ll be back to normal soon. The doctors said so.”

“I hope so. I really do.”

“Klara, talk to your father. I can see behind those bright blue eyes that there’s something else going on. Tell me.”

She told him everything, slowly at first and then in a rush to get it all out. Dmitry Zakharin, MOESK’s project to find and recruit her, Contag10n, Vorovskoy Mir, the nuclear power station sabotage job. All of it.

“When I said no, they burnt down the shop. I’m so sorry, Papa, I didn’t think it through. I should have known better. I should have said yes.”

“You did the right thing, little one.”

“But —”

“No. If it hadn’t been Vorovskoy Mir, it would have been the krisha or one of the rival mafia gangs trying to move in on their turf. People like us are always pawns in someone else’s chess game. The only way to beat them is to remove yourself from the board.”

“But I’m not going anywhere, Papa. We’ve got to get the shop back up and running. And you and Mama will need my help. Especially while you recover.”

“Listen to me. You have to leave, my angel.”

“But if I don’t turn up on Friday, they will come back and this time it will be …” She didn’t want to say it would be their lives. “It will be much worse.”

“Don’t you worry about us. The krisha owes me dearly after failing to protect us yesterday. I will call in proper protection. A twenty-four-hour bodyguard, even.”

“But you can’t live like that forever. They’ll just bide their time.”

“But it won’t be forever. There’s nothing left for us here now. We’re leaving too. We’re finally going to Italy. Mama and I agreed on this earlier. Once I’m up and about and out of these bandages, she’ll have sold the shop to that property developer who wants to turn it into flats. And, more importantly, my visa will have come through.”

“But you can’t sell the bookstore, Papa. It’s your whole life.”

“It was holding me back. I should have sold up and taken your mother back to Italy years ago. The shop burning down is just a message from above. And, for the first time, I’ve heard it loud and clear.”

Klara couldn’t believe it. He was serious. It was the best news ever.

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