Today is August 12th. I’m in Bulgaria, but not my home. A week ago, after finishing a morning run on the Varna pier, I had two men box me in, one threw a bag over my head, the other jabbed me hard with something. Blacked out in under a minute, and these guys were strong. I recall being lifted.
When I woke up, I was in a disgusting room, dirty, stale air, even the trash looked old. I was wrapped to a tall, wooden chair, by a restraint device that looked like something they used in insane asylums to subdue prisoners. My head hurt. Would later learn that my supra-orbital ridge was fractured, a bone I had yet to break, in all my cycling/crashing adventures through the years.
Woke up. Squinted, really only had clear vision in my right eye. Twisted my head side to side, and realized there were four guys, looked like mercs or active duty military, in each corner of the room. Holding their sidearms. There was another guy, only one who ever spoke, also tall and muscular, speaking to me. English was not his first language, although he was fluent, and I could not quite place his accent.
“Why are you going to Russia?”
Wife (Christine) had a trip planned, still a few days off when they jumped me. “Just a fucking vacation, and my wife is meeting some of her Swedish family.” Realized my chest also hurt, so did my feet, and my breath was off. “Why are you really going. He stepped on my foot, which I now realized was bare, and he had on work boots. Searing pain. Had no idea toes were that vulnerable.
Some people think of their family in such a situation, others likely pick a God of some sort. I put my head down not to scream, and thought about my Father. “Dad, what do I do now? Who are these people?” My Father always had an answer, but he was silent.
Cautiously, I rotated my neck side to side. The guys guarding the room were early 20’s. They had on skull caps, but perhaps from eyebrows, I thought they were Blonds. Aryans? Guy interrogating me was clearly born in Eastern Europe, but he could have passed for the most distinguished of SS Officers. He kept leaving the room, every 10-15 minutes. I began to look forward to him returning, as the four guards never spoke. They just stared at me. Recalled standing at parade rest for four hours at naval Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois, a billion years ago. It was a very hot day, and I was proud that I did not pass out, unlike at least 15 other guys.
“AC, why were you in the underground tunnels and bunkers a few weeks ago?” He mentioned the exact day, I was fucking around visiting them with Dimitar, my local friend. I was honest. “Curiosity, and looking for quiet meeting places.” “What meetings?” “Look, you know I oppose the people in charge. The jews. I feel a war is coming, and when it does, I want to be around well trained people who agree with me.”
“Why do you hate the jews so much?” “I could give you 1035 reasons. But if you are pro-Zionist, it would just piss you off.” My mouth was bleeding, my tongue was torn a bit. One of my teeth felt loose.
“This is going to be a painful evening for you. You have 26 teeth in your mouth. In 10 minutes you will have 25. You will be unable to chew. We will pull one tooth per hour. I am paid a salary. So each hour I work above normal will make me angrier with you. So, tell me AC, why are you going to Russia?”
Fuck. There really was no secret agenda. No clandestine meetings. I am not my Father. A sheep dip here or there, but I was no intelligence agent. I was the guy they sent in who was dumb enough to disavow my “homeland” if caught. I was the guy Kissinger called “dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in making foreign policy.” Way back in 1973 or so, while my Father was still in a collapsing theater of war.
“I honestly have nothing to tell you about our trip, other than my Wife was excited to be in a mostly White city of the grandeur of Sankt Petersburg. Take all the fucking teeth you want.”
I was slurring my words. Dizzy, and realizing they had beat the shit out of me, wondering if I had a broken rib. I’m still dizzy as I type this. They warned me NOT to type this.
“Where am I Ivan?” “Do you think I am under any obligation to answer YOUR questions AC? Why were you in the tunnels?”
Was pretty convinced wherever I was, I would never be typing again. Nobody would ever know. My body would not be found. Some Bulgarian cop would be paid well to hand over any surveillance footage of the snatching. My wives would freak out. Tereza would cry. Christine would seeth. I would never again see Tereza’s little boy who has bonded to me, nor my own daughter, or my future son. It looked bleak. Wasn’t scared, just trying to find some teraflops to deduce a way out. To SURVIVE.
When they pulled the tooth two of the guys laid down their sidearms in the respective corner, one tore my mouth open, nearly breaking my jawbone from pressure. The other got me in a bear hug, as though the ballistic nylon restraint thing wasn’t plenty.
The Interrogator guy said, “on the pain scale, this will not quite be like child birth, but very close.” I kept trying to place his accent(s) as they tore out a lower left molar. The guy rocked it back in forth as it loosened, the other asshole dug his hands in to my jawbone. It hurt, but less than I thought. He showed it to me. A crown! Shit, this was going to be expensive to reconstruct! I was thinking about the money we were pouring in to our Farm. And, would I ever see it built? Blood was dripping down my neck, my chin.
“Why are you going to Russia?” “I fucking told you Ivan, to see The Hermitage. My wife is an art history major, that stuff is important to her.” “Which Wife?” I was beginning to wonder if this was some psychotic game, that someone I knew wanted to see how I react under pressure?” Who the fuck were these people? Why me? How did I not see them after my run?
The Interrogator put gauze squares in his hand, rolled them, put them in my mouth, told me to bite down. His hands were dirty. “I will give you a small bag of these, or you will want to bite down on wet tea bags. If you survive.” He paused. My head was down, it fucking hurt. He slapped me a few times on the left side. My cracked eye hurt more than the tooth.
“AC, please remember, this world is complex. You could easily lose yourself in the complexity. I think you have. We do not fundamentally disagree with you, on many points. But we will eliminate you, if needed. Go to Russia. Keep your nose clean. Do not visit the past here in Bulgaria, or the tunnels. The war that is coming will kill many people. And the people who pay me, to alert people like you, do not care. Ideology is for children. Do we understand each other? Consider this an intervention. From, a friend.”
“What exactly am I not supposed to do? What DID I do?” “You will be watched in Russia. Take pictures of museums. Architecture. Pretty girls. Eat well. Drink well. Have fun. Keep your fucking mouth shut, and do not meet anyone you shouldn’t.”
One of the guys from the left front corner came forward. No sidearm for me to grab, even if I had an arm free. The Interrogator had a very small injection pen, hit me in the neck. Woke up last Tuesday night in a nice hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria. The capital. I had not taken a wallet, or a phone to go jog. Just an electronic fob and key, to get me in the side entrance of our condo. Those were gone. That’s not good.
The Bulgarian National Police (two men, one woman) and two Interpol agents, were standing around my bed. I was aware my jaw hurt, and had one eye closed. Bandages and stitches in various places.
In perfect English, what appeared to be a Bulgarian Police Officer asked me, “What happened to you, we have been waiting to take your statement. We have contacted your wife, and she is driving here with other members of your family. Were you robbed, we noticed you had no wallet, phone or identification? Your fingerprints are in our system though.” I bet.
They were all quite nice, apologetic it had happened in their country. “I can not recall anything. Someone threw a bag over my head right after I finished my run, they gave me some drug, and then I woke up here.”
“Do you belong to any groups that would give you enemies?” “No. I’m a loner. Just a family man.” “Very well AC. My agency will follow up with you in Varna when you are released. Wish you a rapid recovery, and again, our apologies this happened in our Nation. Bulgaria has low rates of violent crime, but mostly that is because we never find the victims. Be careful.” One of the two Interpol agents, I did not like. I could swear he smirked.
Thought about Ghosting here. No idea who gave me the wake up call, I suspect it was some Russian Intelligence cell. They did not seem too concerned that I dislike jews. But very concerned I meet in abandoned, Cold War bunkers, then plan a trip to Russia a few weeks later. I get that.
A week later, shit still hurts. I see, but blurry from one eye. Have tinnitus. My foot had no broken bones, but it felt like they were. People say having two wives is a sin, but even though their heights differ, nice to have two blonds to hold me up. One is violently mad, not just at me, at the Universe. One asked me if a blow job would make me feel better. I leave it to my subscribers to ascertain which is which!
All in all, I was lucky. The wives are waiting on me hand and foot, the little boy just keeps saying, “wow,” when he looks at his Father’s busted up, broken, bloody, purple, face. Another lesson for him. I might discuss my pain a bit with Christine, but not with Tereza and her family. The boy must learn, how Men deal with pain. Stoically. 35 years of marriage, means my wife will not call me a pussy for wincing when they put on frozen washcloth’s.
Christine made an appointment with our dentist. My chewing is royally fucked up on the left side of my mouth! No opposing tooth. She also shut the door to our bedroom, grabbed my arm. “What the fuck? Who did this?” 35 years of marriage, seen her cry only a few times. She hugged me. Tears streaming down my back.
“Professionals. Not Mossad, they would have raped me and killed me. Not the BND. Something Russian? Ukrainian? The guy asking the questions was Intelligence. Other four guards, active military. They brought up our WN politics, I acknowledged my beliefs, and they did not kill me. A test? Our people? No fucking clue. Guy asking questions was very smart, the guards were all bigger, faster and stronger than me. I hope they are allies, in some way.”
Christine kissed me. “None of us are going to live to old age, are we?” “Did you ever want to?” “No, husband. But, I love our children. They deserve some life.” Aye.
From her perspective I was gone almost 3 days with no phone calls. No advance warning. Never said a word to anyone, just, gone. Something I would never do. Her and Tereza called the local police. They pulled camera footage from my typical route (shouldn’t have typical routes), and saw me, but did not see an abduction.
Called a friend back in the JUSA. He is discretely inquiring. Meanwhile he told me, “just shut the fuck up for a while. Agencies are active ATM.” Fuck, I’m a nobody who writes more about impregnating pretty European women, than about anything important.
“Dad, does it hurt to play chess?” “No, you are lucky, you get to play all the chess you want. And, if I feel better by Sunday, we can go to the goat farm. It might be time for me to be put out to pasture.” “What does that mean?” “Your Father has gotten older, slower, and his time is coming XXXXXX. No one lives forever. If anything happens to me, when they bury me, you must not cry. That would be a nice goodbye gift to me.” He looked like he was already ready to cry. I grabbed his shoulders. Lanky kid! “I did not cry when my Father died. I wanted to. I didn’t. Do you understand?” “Yes Sir.”
Shibboleths. Ideologues. Right vs wrong. Evil is endemic to a portion of our species, and never all that far from any of our abilities. Still, I was brought up with clear, albeit now fuzzy, boundaries of Right and Wrong.
Christine has been soooo happy. She loves our life, her family, and the RARE pleasures she has allowed herself. She has been very much my female analog, a disciplined, mostly logical thinker, who has taken great care of herself physically. Watching the USA denature and crumble, was harder on me, after all she is a Swede. Still, she has now seen two nations she loved, Sweden and USA 1.0, devolve. And, not knowing who in Bulgaria betrayed me, casts a pall over this place, I think she loves more than her past two domiciles.
“Should we move? Romania? Hungary? If we do, keep it to ourselves, no writing about it?” “Angel, this has nothing to do with my writing. We are fighting a Monolithic and powerful force determined to wipe our kind out. Even a small Nation like Bulgaria can crush any of its residents, but add the might of 100 corrupt nations, and even a Race can fall. We are deep in the shit. I have no answer.”
Tereza, will always be Tereza. She ever so gently ran her finger over my busted eye socket. “At least they did not smash your balls like they did to James Bond!” I tried to laugh. “Husband, I asked my Mom to check in with my Dad’s associates. We will find out who did this.” “If you do find out, we are all dead. Please ask her to stand down. This is way, way above our pay grade. It was a misunderstanding.” “I know you are right. We were really scared, although at first I told Christine you just met a couple of tourist sluts while running, and being old it was taking you a long time to get it up for them.” “Do you want a spanking?” “Yeah, that sounds fun until you can do more! You look kind of sexy with your face smashed in!” And, she turned around, and pulled up her nightgown! LIFE, on the Black Sea, at the edge of my time on Earth, as all I once knew begins to crumble exponentially.
Hail Victory. Have NO IDEA what is going on in the world the past week. I sure was hoping Iran had glassed the jews, but I see that was just a fever dream. Would be nice to get in some light weights tomorrow, a long walk, maybe a swim. Maca smoothies, which is what the dentist suggested.
It is HOT here. They will not be grabbing me as easily in the future, but I am also not going to live like a Prisoner. We are in a really nice AirBNB. The front desk asked Tereza if I was OK when we checked in. She smiled, and told them, “he fell down trying to tie his shoes, he’s old!”
\o