Chapter thirty six

After I had finished my conversation with Vladimir and disconnected from him, Kazimir hurriedly came to my side and immediately asked me, "Do you really know where Sergei is being held?"

Over the years Kazimir had developed a genuine fondness for Sergei. I was best friends with Sergei but I couldn't really do guy stuff together with him like watching FC Zenit play against their arch rivals CSKA Moscow without falling asleep. For me soccer is just a bunch of men kicking a ball around but Kazimir and Sergei watch it together cheering, booing and shouting like it's the most exciting thing in the world, so they developed a special bond. I think Kazimir sort of saw him as an adopted son so when he asked me the question there was a note of concern and urgency in his voice.

"Yes , I know exactly where he is being held. Remember when I became a total idiot and followed my mother without being in disguise or arming myself? Well the warehouse where she took Vladimir's goon to kill him and infect him with her thorny tentacle vine thingy is the same place as the one in the video camera."

Kazimir looked skeptical, "The room in the video was completely empty and you only saw it for a couple of minutes plus you only saw the inside of the warehouse once, through a hole. How can you be sure they are the same place?"

"The first thing was that they used the exact same chair as they did when they were holding the goon, a red metal chair that had faded so badly that it had become pink."

"Your basing your assumption on a damn chair? There could be hundreds of similar chairs out there , you can't be sure that those two were the same ones."

"You're right that wouldn't have been enough but what really clinched it was the stain on the wall."

"What about the stain on the wall?"

"It was a blue stain shaped perfectly like wing the magical penguin, it even had her little tiara made out of a different red stain."

"You're sure about this? You're sure that this isn't just some figment of your imagination?"

"Nope , the stain was real and I'm sure that it was unique."

"So to recap, you are sure the warehouse is where Sergei is being held at because of a faded chair and a wall stain that resembles a cartoon character which you were able to notice while you were watching your mother as she was painfully murdering a man and reanimating his corpse by inserting thorny tentacles into his mouth, did I miss anything?"

"Yeah, it does sound pretty bad when you put it like that but trust me I'm a hundred percent sure that that is the place even if it sounds a little crazy."

"Oh no , with the way things have been going lately this is not that bad. Granted, the fact that you were seeing a cartoon character in a wall stain while a man was being killed in front of you would probably give a psychiatrist enough material to write a paper on a new mental illness but that isn't what's important right now. What is important is that you know Sergei's location so we have to get you ready to rescue him."

Vladimir handed me my two guns, the desert eagle and the 9 mm that Sergei gave me for my birthday and a few cartridges for the two, then he personally carried a heavy case to the back of the van and then he went back to get some power tools. He unpacked the case to reveal a belt fed M2 .50 caliber heavy machine gun. He took out the tripod mount for the gun and bolted it down to the floor of the van. He mounted the heavy gun on the tripod and made sure I knew how to properly reload and shoot the giant monster of a gun.

"Remember the safety is over here and it is a high caliber gun so the bullets will travel very far and could cause collateral damage so be careful where you are aiming this thing," he pointed at the small green metal cases that contained the bullets, "those aren't your usual hollow points that deform when they hit a wall, they are solid lead slugs so they will go right through wood and cement."

"Thanks for the warning Kaz, I'll be careful, plus I think I might be able to do something about the stray bullets with my powers."

"Well then all that is left is to say good luck."

"You know I'm always lucky Kaz, but thank you anyways."

I was getting into the front seat of the van, getting ready to leave when Kazimir called me back, "Sophia, you forgot something!"

"What?"

"These," he then threw the pair of silver blue fans into my waiting hands, "give them hell Sophia."

I smiled as I answered,

"I intend to."