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Hangar D was different in every aspect from the other hangars, at least the ones I saw. I could not see a lot of guards along the way as we had in our hangar, I heard things like 'yours for fifty' coming from a young woman bending forward to exaggerate her cleavage and after we got past her, 'I could fix you up for forty, a special price for you, bull.' There he stood that tall guy with his conspicuous gold necklace looking at her and me.
"If you prefer younger, you do yourself a favor and get this chick for a hundred."
The picture the pimp was carrying was of a young girl. It made me sick, but I wasn't there to fight that. I was there to fight.
It was like walking into one of those streets in an American movie where you could get yourself anything. There were even drug dealers. So much for saving the refugees. Samer kept saying to some big guys who almost blocked our way that we were guests of Abu Arab, who turned out to be Maher as Samer told me.
We reached the end of the hall and got into a big room that had a clearing, and people gathered around watching two men fighting each other in the middle. When I saw the sizes of the guards at the door, I lost the cocky walk I had all the way there, and my heart started pumping more blood until I could feel every single vein in my body, but when I saw the size of the fighters inside the so-called ring, my blood pressure eased down again.
The king was sitting there surrounded by a few girls, one of them looked like the picture I saw on the way. He looked at me and nodded. I nodded back then he pointed at the far end of the room where I was supposed to wait for my turn, I guess. I stood there thinking to myself if my coming here tonight was a big mistake, but I was not so stupid not to realize there was no way back now. I wished I had asked Samer to get me something stronger than a Bear.
There was a door at the far end of the room, which was half-open, and I was standing right in front. The acoustics of the hall was so strange for, amidst all the noise coming from the ringside, there was more noise coming from the room, only it was a woman's voice. My curiosity moved my legs a little to the left to a spot where I could peek. There was that young girl on a bed with a massive guy on her not giving the little girl a chance to breathe. There were two other men at the side of the bed. As soon as the first guy got off, another took his place. I wanted to charge into the room and kill those mother fuckers, but I was way too deep in the lion's den to hurt any of his cubs. I could not watch anymore, but during the exchange, one of those monsters saw me. I had already looked away.
"Hey, fucker. You're here to fight, are you not?" I turned around to the source of the sound, and he was standing at the door naked.
"Yeah, sure."
"So, don't poke your fucking nose in other people's business. You keep fighting, we keep fucking." He slammed the door closed.
I moved away from the door to save myself the screams of that poor little girl, but it haunted me like a demon. I couldn't wait to hit someone, and it wasn't five minutes until Samer came and told me it was my turn.
The man I was fighting was half my size, but no matter what skills or tricks he possessed, he was no match for the charge of anger I needed to channel into somebody else. He was too hyper even when I was beating him, he didn't seem to be feeling my punches and kicks, but in the end, he had to yield as he was no match at all. I didn't know if he was just a test or a real opponent, but I didn't care so much as it was the easiest two hundred euros I ever made, much more comfortable than Olivia's night shift which made me almost the same money only with a lot more effort from my end.
As soon as I collected my winnings, I gave Samer his cut and I paid him for the booze and cigarettes, and I left back to my hangar and room. It was about midnight and Pam was still awake. She was wearing the hot night dress whose meaning I understood well, but the images in my head were still too vivid and gory to have any desire aroused in me. I took a shower and went straight to bed.
The next day, Samer told me the party was at eleven. I drank the whole vodka bottle and dispose of it before I went to the arena. This time my opponent was bigger, but still no match, and for the first time in my life I appreciated the Karate lessons my parents forced me to take when I was a teenager. I was faster, bigger and better than those pathetic fighters.
With a bottle of vodka every day before going to the arena, things were getting more natural, as I wouldn't notice anything on the way there or anything happening behind half-opened doors in the arena. The winnings increased with the odds rising against me when they matched me up against bigger opponents. I made about two thousand euros the first week, after Samer's cut and my daily bottle and two packs, I still had about a thousand. A thousand euros a week, and it was just the beginning. Who would care about software engineers and intellectuals? In hell, only muscles talked.
I didn't have as many matches the second week because they had to match me up with stronger opponents. I made sure my face stayed away from their punches and kicks. I didn't want Pam to start asking questions. All she knew that I was hanging out with the guys every night playing cards. She didn't need to know more.
By the end of the third week, I was a star with my own fan club. Everybody knew me, the unbeatable champion, the Bulldozer was my nickname. As I was collecting my winnings from Abu Arab after kicking the ass of another jerk, he told me to meet him the next day at gate 12 around noon alone.
"Why? What's the matter?"
"Just be there."
It worried me for a second, but why would Maher do anything to hurt his champion. I was making him money, so I didn't worry about it.
I was there the next day. At twelve o'clock, Maher came with another guy I hadn't seen before.
"Bulldozer, this is Abu Jihad. He would like to speak to you."
Abu Jihad was taller than Maher, but it seemed like they both went to the same barbershop. An elegant man whose face didn't look so much like the face of an Arab, but close. He spoke in excellent English.
"I have heard about you, and Abu Arab here says great things about you, so I thought you might want to accept my invitation to my room tonight."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, but can I know what this is about?"
Abu Jihad patted my shoulder and laughed,
"Relax. Who would want to cross you? You are the Bulldozer. What are you afraid of? We heard you are a man of a fine taste, and you like drinking so we would like to have a drink with you."
"Sure, my pleasure."
"Tonight, at eight. Go to Abu Arab's, and he'll lead you to our place."
I shook the man's hand and Abu Arab's. Then they vanished back into the shadows where they came.
I saw Samer was staring at us from his corner, so I asked him if he knew the other guy, and he told me he had seen him before, but he did not know who he was. I didn't believe Samer did not know who that man was, but whoever he was I was going to find out tonight.