Driving through the centre, the night was alive and well in Sofia. Kirov was driving with Krisi in the passenger seat, eyes on the road, fully silent. They had been driving for some time, so Krisi decided to break the silence.
"Are you going to tell me where we are going, or are we going to keep driving aimlessly?"
"Aimlessly?" Kirov takes a long, hard look at her before putting his eyes back on the road,
"For Kang Tao to stop going after you, we need leverage. To do that, we would have to be able to leak to BD to the media."
"Let me guess, you have a contact?"
"I'm glad you are starting to understand me." Kirov pulled into the NDK parking lot and parked his car near the entrance. He turns to Krisi, looking at her up and down, before reaching behind the driver's seat to get a duffel bag.
"Is there an issue?" Krisi asks, giving Kirov an equally confused and judgmental glare.
"Where we are going, you can't get in with jeans… and those bruises. Get this dress on, there is some makeup in the bag as well, I'll be waiting outside." Krisi opens the bad and Kirov gets outside the car and stands watch.
KNOCK KNOCK
Kirov turns to look into the window that Krisi had knocked from, only to see Krisi, halfway through getting changed, looking back at him.
"You just keep a dress in your car? What do you get up to when you disappear, 'for work'?" Kirov doesn't respond, turning his back into the car, waiting for her to finish getting dressed.
After a few minutes, he hears the car door open. He turns to see Krisi in the dress he had given her. Based on what he was looking at, he would have never guessed that just a few hours prior, she had been interrogated and tortured by a Mega Corp. He was stunned, from head to toe; she was beautiful in a way he didn't think she could pull off.
"I know I'm not the first girl that you've seen in this dress, so how about we stop staring?"
"Yeah, sure… Sorry about that." They walk to the elevator and get to the main floor. Kirov leads her up to what seemed to be the entrance for a banquet, and he takes her by the arm. Instinctively, she started to pull away, but allowed him to hold her as they entered. In front of them was a massive event hall. Catering, waiters, open bars, whatever you could picture a high-end banquet to be, this was it. Every man's suit was Italian, and their watches were Swiss. Kirov sees a familiar face and starts walking over to him.
"It's the Minister of the Interior, go get some drinks." He whispered to Krisi as he put on a smile and went to greet the Minister. Krisi walked over to the bar, and the barman gave her a glass of champagne in a rush. She snaps her fingers at him, pushing the glass back towards the bar,
"Two whiskeys, neat." The bartender takes a second look at her, smiling as he pours her the glasses of whiskey. Taking them in hand, she walked back over to Kirov and gave him a glass. He looked at the glass, making it clear that she didn't read the room, but smirked anyway.
"Kirov, you never bring a date to these events!" The Minister seemed pleasantly surprised by Krisi's presence. Right as Kirov is about to respond, the room goes quiet. Echoed hushes rush through the room as a figure makes his way toward Krisi and Kirov. Krisi tries to see who it is, but she doesn't recognise him.
"I'm as surprised as you are, Minister." The man looks right at Kirov as he says this. Kirov seems lost for words. Patting him on the shoulder, he looks to Krisi and asks,
"Kiril seems to have forgotten his manners. Usually, you introduce your parent to your girlfriend."
"She's not my girlfriend." Kirov gives his father a stern look, the tension in the air coming to a head.
"Dimitar! It has been so long. We should-" The Minister's attempt at breaking the tension was quickly interrupted.
"Minister, please leave my son alone and me for a moment. I hear they have some Dom Perignon from 1959. Tell the barman I sent you." The Minister did as asked and walked away.
"So, who's the girl?" Dimitar Kirov asked his son, keeping a smile on his face to hide whatever he was truly feeling.
"It seems you have forgotten your manners. You can talk directly to me." Krisi caught Dimitar by surprise with her bluntness. Dimitar stared at her, sending a shiver down her spine. He then looked at her hand and said,
"Since I don't see a ring, I believe that it's time for you to go and get us another round of drinks." Krisi, visibly upset at this old-fashioned remark, looked to Kirov for support. He simply shook his head, gesturing for her to leave. After Krisi walked off, Kirov looked back at Dimmitar, waiting to see what he had in store for him.
"She wears make-up well, not well enough though," He stops for a second, looking at Kirov's bruised and bloodied knuckles, "I would recommend hiring a professional if you are planning to parade her after discipline." Kirov gripped his fist till his knuckles turned white, holding himself back. His father never got a rise out of him usually, but that struck a nerve.
"Anyway… I heard our friend will make sure the contract goes to the right bidder. I'll keep you in the loop if anything comes up." Dimitar turned to walk off, stopping as he added one last piece of advice,
"Be careful with the girl, a woman can tear down the strongest man in the world before he knows it." After this last comment, he proceeded to walk across the room, being quickly stopped by some of the guests at the banquet.
Kirov was stumped. The first time his father had taken an interest in his personal life, made him wish he had never done it again. After taking a breath, he scanned the room, looking for his main reason for coming here. His eyes locking onto a lady in an elegant dress, he made his way over to her.
"Mariya? It has been too long!" Kirov puts on his classic business-friendly demeanour; it seems that it's not all an act here.
"Kirov! I got your Christmas card, it was very personal." Kirov chuckles at the sarcastic comment, looking over at the bar and waving Krisi to come back.
"Krisi, meet Mariya Tudzharova, one of BTV's top producers."
"You flatter me; that usually comes with a favour afterwards."
"You know me too well," Krisi could tell from this short exchange that this would not be the first time that they had done business together, and she started to piece the dots together as to why they came to this banquet in specific.
"We have a delicate situation. My friend here has a BD that contains, shall we say, condemning footage for a certain Chinese megacorp-"
"And you want me to hold on to it, without looking, in exchange for a fee, with the promise that if anything happened to you, it would be on national television within the hour?"
"If anything happens to her. I'm only a middleman here, but yes, this isn't a new concept for us."
"That's new for you. But fine with me, transfer to the same account from last time."
"Will do, this needs to be top-secret, I'll send you a bonus to make you understand what those words mean."
"Always a gentleman, Kirov. But be careful, remember what happened last time." Kirov gives Mariya an understanding look as he walks off with Krisi.
As the two walk out of the main event hall, onto a secluded balcony, Krisi hands him another drink,
"Great party… Is this where my taxes go?" Krisi asked Kirov jokingly.
"Well, this party is actually not funded by your taxes. It is parties like this that decide where they will go, though." Kirov looks back at her, cracking what she perceives as a slight smile.
"It does have a certain charm, though, the dresses, the suits, watches worth more than my apartment, and mob bosses wining and dining politicians across the hall." She sips from her glass.
"It gets old if you have been going since you were sixteen… But, that's the cost of being a Kirov." Krisi was intrigued by this comment; Kirov's stonewall personality seemed to be cracking with every sip of his whiskey.
"So this isn't really your scene?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Well, we did what we came here to do, so why don't you take me somewhere more you scene?"
"We should really get back to the safehouse and rest-"
"Hey, I'm not going to get another chance to have a fully paid night out in Sofia, may as well make the most of it?"
"What makes you so sure that you will like my scene?"
"I think I know you better than you think I do." Kirov's interest was piqued,
"Let's go then."
They leave the banquet, going to the parking lot. As they reach the car, Krisi makes her way to the driver's seat, with Kirov letting her do so as he gets in the passenger seat. Krisi starts to drive, without telling Kirov where she is taking him. After some time had passed, they found themselves in front of the Tangra Bar.
"Really? You think this is my scene?" They got out of the car, the music from the bar blasting loud enough to be heard from the next street. Entering the bar, Kirov got a booth and took a seat as the waitress came over with a few bottles.
As the night went on, Krisi had not sat down once, truly dancing like there was no one watching. Kirov, on the other hand, had not gotten up since he sat down, having nearly finished a bottle all by himself. At some point, Krisi had had enough and took Kirov by the hand.
"Wait, I don't-"
"You don't what? You don't dance? For some reason, I don't believe you." Krisi found herself looking into his eyes longer than she had before, and Kirov wasn't pulling away either.
Begrudgingly, Kirov started to move his feet, then his shoulders, then his hips. After having downed another few cups, he was dancing with Krisi like it was his last night alive. The two keep dancing when the singer Azis comes onto the stage and starts to perform.
Kiov stood there, listening and dancing to the music, when he noticed something. Krisi couldn't take her attention off the singer, clearly being a fan. Without a second thought, he called over a waiter and whispered something to him. Krisi saw this, thinking that he was ordering more drinks, but didn't make anything of it; that was until the waiter went over to the stage and said something to the Azis.
Before she could realise, Azis was making his way off the stage and towards their booth. She looked over at Kirov, who simply drank from his glass and gave her an uncharacteristic wink. Azis came to their booth and continued his performance, singing and dancing with both Krisi and Kirov. This went on for a few songs, and he ended up singing his hit song "Motel". Kirov was on his second bottle, not glass, at this point, and when he heard the first line, he went over to Krisi, grabbing her by the hands and shouting,
"This is my song!" What proceeded was Kirov taking the microphone and performing the song with the singer, when halfway through, he took out his pistol and started shooting into the ceiling.
Krisi was taken aback, but no one flinched. This was Tangra. She realised that Sofia had a very different nightlife from Plovdiv. They kept dancing for a few more songs, when she once again took Kirov by the hand, and they made their way out of the bar. They called a driver to pick them up, since they were both clearly too drunk to drive, and made their way into the back of the taxi.
As the driver started to drive back to the safehouse, Kirov noticed that Kris still had not let go of his hand. His gaze moved from her hand to her face, locking eyes for a moment. That moment turned into a second, and that second didn't stop. He felt himself leaning in, but he pulled back. Before he could get angry at himself, Krisi leaned in as they started kissing. The driver turns up the volume as they keep going, and the journey continues.
Once they had arrived at the safehouse, Kirov tipped the driver generously, and they stumbled into the house. They find themselves walking towards the balcony, as Kirov takes out two cigarettes and they start to smoke.
"So.. Was that your scene?" Krisi smiles, knowing that he wouldn't want to admit that he had fun,
"It was acceptable." Kirov keeps his eyes locked on her, knowing that she doesn't believe a word of what he just said.
"I was thinking… I know that you went through the effort of paying Mariya and securing the guarantee-"
"Well, I still need to speak to my contacts with Kang Tao, to make them aware of our plan, but-"
"About that," Krisi pauses, breaking her gaze from Kirov, "I don't want to use the BD like that, I want that BD to go public, I want the world to know about-"
"Stop… Just stop." Kirov stepped away, looking back at Krisi, "You know that would mean you would be chased by Kang Tao until they inevitably catch and kill you." Kirov took the last drag of his cigarette, dropping and stomping it out on the floor,
"You're drunk, you're not being rational."
"You're drunk too!" Krisi fired back at Kirov, "Deep down, I know that you believe that it's wrong, and that we should take the BD public-"
"This conversation ended when I told you to stop." Kirov opens the door back into the safehouse, and as he enters, he looks back,
"Goodnight."