May 2020 -- St. Petersburg

 

 

“Za zdorov’ye!”

 

Maria clinked her glass with the other girl’s. After she shot it back, she pounded the glass on the bar. The vodka left a sweet burning sensation as it went down her throat. If she were more sober, she thought, it would have felt far less sweet and far fierier. She couldn’t remember whether this was their third or fourth shot.

 

Maria turned to the brunette sitting next to her. “You take these shots like a champ.”

 

“It’s the Russian in me,” replied Sofia.

 

Maria and Sofia were celebrating the end of finals week. They had walked to Marmeladov’s Tavern right after finishing their exam for Russian Literature in the 19^th Century. It had been Sofia’s idea. They had been sitting at the bar for three hours now and their means of celebrating alternated between pints of beer (pivo) and shots of vodka. Maria was getting along well with the bartender, Konstantin, who was impressed with her Russian.

 

“Please don’t go back to America,” he begged in English. “Russia needs more beautiful women like you two.”

 

Sofia groaned, “Trust me, America needs us too.”

 

“Fine. I need more beautiful women like you two.”

 

“I need you to get us two more pints of beer.”

 

Sofia, who could be fiery enough when sober, was downright flagrant now. She was, appropriately, wearing a short red dress. Maria thought she could see the red dress reflected in Sofia’s brown eyes. Or maybe it was just the vodka.

 

Konstantin turned to Maria. “I take it back. Russia doesn’t need more like her. We have plenty of girls like her. But you, my dear—”

 

“Beer,” Sofia ordered. “Now.”

 

He shot Sofia an annoyed look, then smiled at Maria and walked to the other side of the bar. When he turned his back, Maria was surprised to find herself smiling.

 

“You know he must say that to every foreign girl that walks in here,” said Sofia. Then, putting on a Russian accent, “Don’t go back to Sweden, my love. Russia needs more Canadian girls like you. Please, please don’t go back to Croatia, my dear.”

 

Maria laughed, swayed for a moment before bracing herself on the bar, and said, “I can’t believe you ordered more drinks. I can barely sit up straight.”

 

“I already told you, it’s in my genes.”

 

Konstantin returned to their side of the bar. “Two pints for my two American goddesses.”

 

He set them down, paused for a moment, then pushed one of the glasses towards Maria. For a split second, Maria saw him smile before he glanced sideways at Sofia. Another pause. Maria caught Sofia making eye contact with him briefly before looking away.

 

“Well, I’ll leave you two to it then. Some German girls just walked in, anyway.”

 

“Good riddance,” said Sofia, just loud enough for him to hear.

 

Maria waited for him to walk away before whispering, “Hey—you said you’d never met this bartender before?”

 

“No, not really. I mean, I’ve seen him here before but I’ve never really talked to him. Cheers!”

 

Sofia had grabbed her glass and held it in the air, waiting for Maria to clink.

 

“I’m not looking forward to tomorrow morning,” said Maria as she raised her glass.

 

“To a great semester.”

 

Maria smiled, “To a great semester!”

 

They clinked. Sofia chugged. Maria stared.

 

Sofia set her empty glass back down at the bar. Maria hadn’t even gotten through a third of her beer. “You’re always finding new ways to surprise me,” said Maria. Sofia gave her a half-smile, half-grimace and looked away towards Konstantin, who was chatting up two blondes on the other side of the bar.

 

 “Disgusting,” she muttered.

 

“Oh, he’s not that bad!” Maria finished her beer and hiccupped.

 

“Whatever. You ready to head back to the dorm?”

 

“If I have another drink I’m going to puke.”

 

Maria saw her glance back towards Konstantin. She’s been acting strange all day. Even the way that she had recommended Marmeladov’s Tavern had seemed halfhearted. Does she have a thing for this guy?

 

Sofia turned back towards Maria, “Okay, you head on back. I’ll get the check. Hey, Eva? EVA! Yes, come over here,” she said, waving towards another American student that lived in their dorm. “Hi, Eva. Can you walk Maria back to the dorm? She’s… had a few too many. End of finals week. You know how it is.”

 

Eva stumbled towards the pair. “Hell yeah, sister! Let’s get you home. If I get another whiff of vodka, I might hurl.”

 

Maria shook her head, “I’m not leaving you. I can… wait a couple minutes for the... check.” She grabbed the bar for stability.

 

“Oh, go on. Hey, why don’t we do this: I’ll wait for the check; you stop by our favorite shawarma stand on the way back to the dorm. Get us both some. Two birds, one stone.”

 

Maria eyes—previously half shut—shot open. “I love shawarma!”

 

“I know you do. Okay, Eva, take her please!”

 

“Come here girlie,” said Eva, looping her arm through Maria’s.

 

Sofia watched the two girls stumble out of the tavern. She sighed. Almost on cue, Konstantin walked over.

 

“What a lightweight!” he said. Then, leaning closer, “Meet me in the back office in two minutes.”

 

With that, he walked out of the bar and down the back hallway.

 

Sofia stared at her empty glass. Fuck this shit. The German girls were giggling now, straining their necks to see where Konstantin had gone. Another bartender walked out of the back and started taking orders. I’m a terrible person. Sofia stood up.

 

“Now or never.”

 

She maneuvered around the bar and walked down the dimly-lit hallway. She walked past the bathrooms, then the kitchen—where she heard a man cursing loudly—and finally reached the end of the hall.

 

She grasped the doorhandle and pushed.

 

A small lightbulb lit the cramped office. Konstantin was sitting in the only chair.

 

“Shut the door. Lock it.”

 

And so she did.

 

The bartender sat across from Sofia in the cramped, poorly lit office. She was forced to stand close to him—too close for her liking. He was munching on an apple, chewing loudly.

 

After swallowing a bite, he said, “Seems like everything went to plan.” He spoke in Russian.

 

“Yes,” she responded, also in Russian.

 

He took another bite. There was nowhere for Sofia to sit.

 

After another swallow he said, “Every drink she got was real; yours were fake. It’s easy to switch out vodka for water, but do you know hard it is to find alcohol-free beer in Russia?”

 

“I knew you’d figure it out.”

 

“I always figure it out. Now it’s time for you to fulfill your part of the plan.”

 

She shook her head, “I don’t think tonight’s the right night.”

 

He frowned, “It’s now or never. P&K expect the photos tonight.”

 

“And who told P&K they would get the photos tonight, asshole?”

 

H tossed the apple core into the overflowing trash can. “You said you would get the pictures tonight, so I told them they would get the pictures tonight.”

 

“Fuck you,” she said. “It’s bad enough that they forced me to work with you on this. Now you go and tell them my plans?”

 

“You’re not getting second thoughts, are you?” He started going through his pants pockets.

 

“No, I’m being smart. Actually thinking. You know, something you don’t tend to do too often.”

 

“Uh huh,” he said. After fumbling through his pockets for another moment, he pulled out a thin rectangular device. It was black and looked like a smartphone in the dim light.

 

“You should’ve have slipped her some benzos in one of those beers, that way she won’t remember this,” she shook her head. “No, it’s too risky.”

 

He started fiddling with the device. “You know that obtaining compromising photos of the prospects is an important part of the asset acquisition process.”

 

“I’m not saying that isn’t, dipshit. I’m just saying we need to be more careful.”

 

He grinned, “Why do you call me such mean names? I’ve always been nice to you.”

 

“Listen, this is the second time I’ve had to come to this shitty tavern and talk to you,” she said. “Two times too many.”

 

His brown eyes lit up. “You think you’ve only come here twice?”

 

The question caught her off guard. What does he mean by that? Regaining her composure, she said, “You really are stupid. We met for the first time last night when we hatched this damn plan!”

 

“Right, right,” he said, still smiling. “Do you know how beautiful you are? Why don’t you give Konstantin a kiss for helping you?”

 

“Okay, I’m leaving now. I’m taking the photos another night.” She turned to face the door.

 

“I remember when I first saw your photos.”

 

She paused. She was getting angry now. Turning back to him, she said, “What did you just say?”

 

“I look at them every now and then. When I’m lonely, you know. Perks of the job. Who took those again? Daria?”

 

I should slap that grin off his face. Trying to keep from screaming, she said, “I was told only Orlov saw those.”

 

He shrugged, “I had to have something to identify you. Those standard photo IDs are boring, plus they only show the face.” His eyes wandered down from to her chest. “And you have so much more to offer than a pretty face.”

 

“You’re disgusting. I’m leaving.”

“No, you’re not,” he raised up the black device.

 

“Yes, I am. And what the hell is that thing?”

 

He chuckled, “That’s my favorite part, you never remember.”

 

“Whatever, creep. I’m outta here.”

 

She turned to walk out of the office.

 

“No you don’t,” said Konstantin as he pressed a button.

 

Sofia froze in place. Her furrowed brow, flared nostrils and deep frown slowly melted away. A completely blank expression washed over her face. Her hand, which had been reaching for the doorknob, fell limply to her side.

 

“Turn around.”

 

Sofia obeyed, slowly. Konstantin saw that her pretty brown eyes were half open, staring forward above Konstantin’s head. Her mouth hung slightly open.

 

“No attitude now, huh?”

 

Sofia didn’t respond.

 

As it turns out, this was actually the ninth or tenth time that Sofia had been in this tavern. She had regularly been feeding Konstantin information about the other American students in her cohort. And each and every time she had the same fucking attitude. Luckily, Konstantin could pretty easily adjust her attitude for her. He would punish her for her mouth. Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on your point of view—he would make her forget the entire visit, repeating the same cycle over and over again.

 

“Okay, time for your punishment. You were particularly mouthy tonight, so let’s wash out that dirty mouth of yours.” Then, speaking into the device in his hand: “Get on your knees.”

 

She obeyed, slowly dropping to her knees. Her arms still hung limp at her sides.

 

“Get my dick out.”

 

With her eyes still half open, she started fumbling with his pants. She unbuckled his belt and gently unzipped his pants. She reached her small hand into his pants, searching for the hole in his boxers. After a short moment she found it, reached in, and pulled out his penis. It was hard already—about six inches long and with a decent amount of girth to it.

 

“Lick it.”

 

She held his dick up and licked slowly from the bottom of his shaft to his head. His dick smelled musky but not unpleasant. Not that Sofia was in any place to complain. She licked from the tip of his penis down to the bottom of his shaft, wrapping her tongue around his girth as it pulsed in her hand. She delicately repeated the process over and over again, wetting the entire length of his dick with flicks of her tongue.

 

“Suck it.”

 

She opened her lips and took the tip of his dick into her mouth. Taking a moment to embrace just the tip, she opened wide as she slowly descended on his full length, finally feeling his head rub against the back of her throat. He leaned back in his chair, savoring the moment. Those clever doctors had figured out a way to disable an asset’s gag reflex using the NIRA. A useful trick for this line of work, he thought.

 

She slowly bobbed her head up and down, her full lips wrapped around his shaft, her tongue licking side to side. Konstantin wondered whether the NIRA also came with a dick-sucking program installed, or if Sofia was just naturally this talented.

 

Sofia silently serviced his penis, eyes still in a half-open state, head bouncing up and down. Her right hand stroked him, following the same rhythm as her mouth. After about a minute of sucking she would pull his dick out of her mouth with a pop and start licking his balls. Then she would return to his dick, wrapping her lips around his shaft as she took his full length into her throat. After a few minutes he could feel himself getting close to the edge.

 

“Faster,” he whispered.

 

Her head bobbed quicker; her tongue circled faster as Konstantin gripped the sides of his chair.

 

He was barely able to say, “Swallow every drop,” before his eyes rolled up into his head and he started coming. His dick spasmed in Sofia’s hand. Wave after wave of cum shot into the back of her throat. She obediently swallowed as ordered, continuing to lick his dick as his orgasm subsided.

 

“Ok, stop. Stop.”

 

He leaned back in his chair for a few moments before putting his dick back in his boxers and zipping up his pants. He leaned forward and patted Sofia on the head.

 

“Glad we were able to get that out of the way. That dirty mouth needed to be washed. Stand up.”

 

She obeyed. There was a thin line of saliva dripping down her chin.

 

“You will walk back to your dorm under this trance. When you get there, you will snap out of it. But you will convince Maria to take the photos. Is that clear?”

 

Sofia, now staring above Konstantin’s head, did not respond.

 

“Ugh, I forgot these damn NIRAs don’t allow you to have a conversation. Hopefully they add that in v4.”

 

Regardless, Konstantin knew that she had subconsciously recorded his orders. He pressed the “Alert Mode” button on the device. Suddenly, Sofia’s eyes opened to a normal level and she stood up a little straighter. She was still technically in the trance, but Alert Mode would allow her to look and respond somewhat normally to anyone she interacted with. He stood up and wiped off the saliva on her chin with his shirt sleeve.

 

“You may go now.”

 

Without a word, Sofia turned around and exited the office.

 

Konstantin sat back down in his chair. He closed his eyes and fantasized about the next time he’d make Sofia drop by for the first time.