CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

PAST

Ruby was pissed off. Ruby spent an awful lot of her time pissed off about one thing or another, but today it was more than usually justified. Ruby was pissed off because she couldn’t STAND that Phoenix was her boss. R2 and Angel were also pissed off for the same reason and so was I. Hanna was not pissed off about it at all, Hanna was Phoenix’s boss.

I was being forced to endure his useless blackmailing presence and as I was down at the main office, CCTV was being installed in my office as part of my devious plan to get rid of him. I kept him with me all day so that he didn’t find out about it. Hanna worked at their home, the official reason was there wasn't sufficient space in the office for her. The real reason, the other girls hated her with a passion. They didn’t hate her so much because they did not like her, she was perfectly charming, almost impossible to dislike in the same way a diplomat is impossible to dislike, professionally likeable as it were. No, she was hated by extension of her association with Phoenix, who lorded it over his staff like a smug prick – No, not like a smug prick - as a smug prick.

Phoenix was, at least, as good as his word on the sniff supply. I’d been paying 100 лв a G and he was supplying me at 40 лв a g. That was, however, offset by the fact my hatred for him, the stress that cause and the sudden cheapness of the product meant I was now taking nearly double what I’d been taking prior to his arrival. But this was going to be his downfall if my plan worked.

“Phoenix, have you got a second? I’d like to talk to you, let’s take a walk”, we stepped outside, it was getting chilly, winter was on its way.

I noticed the CCTV company van up the road outside my apartment and walked in the opposite direction, I’d make sure we did a circuit of the block that meant we’d never be facing in the direction of my apartment. I chatted meaninglessly until we rounded the corner into a quieter street “I’m out of Pico and I’m having a bit of a - thing - tonight, I need you to go get me some, ok?” It was not a question, it was an instruction, he responded ‘I don't know if my guy will have any, I'll have to check.’

I was acting, but tried not to let it show, acting wasn’t part of my skill set. “Look, you’re not here to manage the office, you’re here to provide sniff - so I don't care if you have to go to Sliven and buy it on the street, I want 10g by 5.30 tonight, right?” I wanted him arrogant and pissed off at me, that way my plan had a better chance of working. He grunted in ascent as we marched stifle back to the office “don’t forget, 5.30!”. He looked suitably arrogant, good.

The guys had done a good job of the CCTV installation but the cameras were way more noticeable than I’d expected. They were mounted on white 4” x 4” electrical back boxes ‘the ceiling is made of shit so we can’t get a fixing’ said the CCTV guy and I knew he was not lying. I’d tried to put up curtain tracks before, that ended in deep sunk 12mm ‘RawBolt’ fixings with threaded stud bar inserted, a fixing method more usually found suspending a mezzanine floor than a curtain track. I empathized with the guy. If I’d have thought I’d have told him to use ’no-nails’ instant grab adhesive but it was done now, what will be will be I thought.

At 5.40 Phoenix arrived pissed off and arrogant. He didn't ask if he could come in, just marching straight into my office and up to my desk. I jumped up, as if desperate to get some Sniff in me, moving like I meant to greet him I stood at the end of my desk; assuring both of us were side on to the newly installed CCTV camera. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a surprisingly large bag of Pico and threw it on the desk infant of me. Pointing at it I disparagingly said “doesn't look like 10g of Pico to me!”, no, it looked like 12g or 15g of Pico to me but I wanted an argument over it, I wanted no doubt what so eve he was the owner of that Pico and he was selling it to me. He was the buyer and I was the rather unwilling purchaser being forced into taking it. Past possession was NOT a crime in Bulgaria but past dealing WAS and ‘pushing drugs’, cohesion, pressuring someone to buy drugs in order to get them addicted was a big factor in sentencing. Simple dealing would get you 5 years but proactively ‘pushing drugs’ would get you 14.

He got out his scales and weighed it in front of me, and the camera. I left it on the scale shaking my head ‘I can’t believe it’s 12g’, I genuinely could not believe it was 12g for 400 лв. If I didn't despise the twat I’d have been happy to keep him around as a supplier, he was, after all, saving me more on sniff than his salary every week. However, I wasn’t born yesterday, I knew that if I didn't do something to cut of the hand holding the sward above my head, it wouldn't be long before the next demand arrived, then the next, then the next.

I made more visible pretense for the camera, I’d not had sound installed, this was to be a silent movie. Begrudgingly I accepted the bag and then by way of many solidarities offered him some. For an ex heroin addict he agreed damn fast and I let him rack up two lines on the desk top. Two long white lines contrasted against the top of the desk. He rolled one of the 100 лв notes I’d just given him and snorted one of the lines before handing the note to me. I let it spring open like a bungling novice and then made a play of trying to re tighten it. His arrogance flared again as he snatched it back, professionally rolled it back to a tube and once again offered it to me, I sniffed up the line and my eyes exploded into tears. This was great for the pantomime of a guy just talked into taking drugs for the first time but was infarct the exact same reaction to Pico I always got.

I insisted on walking him to the door, I needed to make sure he noticed the new screen just at the side of the door, the screen showing four CCTV images. One of which was a close up of my desk where he had just committed a criminal act with a 14-year recommended minimum sentence.

He saw it, he saw it and went through the same play of trying to sound casual, just like I had when he had laid out his hand about my usage of Methamphetamine. I wondered if I’d sounded as fake as he did, as rattled as he did, probably. I hoped he felt as stupid for being duped as I had and contented myself that he felt far worse for being duped, he truly thought he was superior to everyone, this where his arrogance came from. A less arrogant man wouldn't have been wound up as much, a less arrogant man would not have let his temper overcome common sense caution when dealing 12g or a Schedule 1 drug. A less arrogant man would still be the boss, but now I was back as the boss.