Part 1. The Bull.
This story began in difficult times of 90-s, the times when many talented young people were doing something that was none of there business, i.e. restoring the justice. And sometimes they were going too far...
Theodore got up very early, which was stressful for him. The alarm-clock had buzzed twice before it woke up its owner. The prospective of spending the whole day in the car did not sound attractive to the young man. Only the idea of a new "Mercedez" was cheering up the day's expectations. First of all, Theodore made sure that his steel "horse" was "pasturing" on the same spot. And it was there, next to the 750 "Beemer" of a neighbour.
The auto was playing with the morning sunbeams, its varnished mane was shining, proving its freshness.
The fridge was not offering Theodore a big variety of food to make a great breakfast but had sausage for a sandwich.
An extremely long waiting for the elevator was suggesting the uselessness of the trip. But the man was not yet ready to read the signs from above.
He sat down behind the steering wheel after having opened the car with a key-ring. A sharp smell of leather and expensive plastic penetrated his nose - one more thing that was showing the freshness of the auto - and caused a pride of the driver.
The pot-holes of the asphalt road painfully echoed in the heart and soul of Theodore. The car was smoothly taking all the uneven spots with its suspensions, even in the deep pot-holes it didn't show signs of weakness. The young man was falling in love with the car more and more each day. The admiring looks of the pedestrians contributed to his pride.
On the way to the main Circled Road of Moscow Theodore got stuck in traffic. At that time this road had only 2 lanes, with plenty of pot-holes which caused a lot of car accidents.
Moving slowly in the right lane Theodore made couple of attempts to stop G500, in the left lane, from jumping between him and the car in the front. This Jeep was new as well and "tuned". This circumstance left Theodore's S500 out of competition and made him jealous. Behind the steering wheel of G500 there was a big man, a sportsman, he thought.
A seemingly small sizes of Theodore's car must have given to the driver of the Jeep a wrong idea, made him believe in his own perfection.
The Jeep started to make dangerous maneuvers to get in front of the S-class because the right lane was moving faster. And then there happened an event that changed the lives of many people, both good and bad ones.
While moving to the right lane, the Jeep hit the side mirror of S-500 and it folded up. Car insurance was not in practice at that time, which used to complicate the problems of some car accidents' victims.
Feeling sorry for what had just happened, Theodore put the mirror in its regular position, found out that it had not been damaged and continued moving. After the collision the Jeep's driver stopped his maneuvers and got back into the left lane. The absence of any reaction on the part of Theodore mistakenly convinced the "Big" guy in the cowardice of sedan's driver.
Having confused kindness with weakness, the stupidity made a mistake...
Showing the middle finger of the right hand to Theodore, the 'Sportsman' continued cutting the sedan. This event was the last drop of patience of Theodore, Moscow's boxing champeon in medium weight.
He got out of his car and sat down in the front passenger seat of the Jeep, after which he asked the "Fat" guy what he wanted to say with his gesture. The "Fatty", still not realizing that he was wrong, sent Theodore to a "very far-away place".
A precise punch in the chin made the "Large" guy faint and let Theodore retreat.
The good mood was completely destroyed and Theodore had regrets about what had happened. He criticized himself for unrestrained behaviour, for breaking the promise that he had given to his coach.
In a few days, in the evening, after all the business meetings he went with his friends Peter and Vasya and their girlfriends to celebrate the purchase of the new "Mercedez". The club was located on the same street with the apartment where Theodore lived and the decision was that everybody would stay overnight in his place. There were enough rooms, four, to be exact, and the apartment was the pride of Theodore as well.
It seemed that our boxer was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Many car accidents that he had experienced and which hadn't made him any harm proved it.
One time he was driving VAZ 2109 with his friend Peter beside him. From the right side of the road, where there was a 'Right of way' sign, the car "Moskvich" was coming and it hit the lid of the gastank of VAZ. The collision made "Moskvich" spin and hit the on-coming UAZ. Both cars had a speed of about 100 km/h.
The driver and the passenger, that didn't have their seatbelts on, would not have survived if it was not for one circumstance: VAZ made a 180% spin and collided with the on-coming UAZ with the back bumper. Even the policemen were surprised that nobody had been injured.
And this time an accidental hold-up in the club with friends saved Theodore's life.
He was the first to approach the entrance to his place. Theodore had to manuever between the cars due to a large amount of them in the parking lot. This delay made a killer, that was waiting for Theodore under the balconies, make a mistake.
When the killer saw the approaching "object", he came out of the ambush and got ready to shoot.
At this moment Theodore parked too close to the BMW of the neighbour and could not open the door widely. After realizing that he would not be able to squeeze himself out of the half-opened door, Theodore decided to back up a little to leave more space between the cars. Steering the wheel he flashed the headlights on the person who was squatting under the balcony and holding one hand under the jacket.
It was either an unnatural pose or clothes with no taste that suggested that this squatting man was there on purpose and wanted to pretend someone he was not. That's why Theodore started driving away from the lot trying to escape the encounter with the stranger.
The hitman was in the light and realized the intention of the "object" to escape, he knew that his cover was blown. He jumped in front of the Mercedez and opened fire in the windshield aiming at the steering wheel.
With the ability to react quickly, Theodore turned the wheel to the right, in direction of the shooting, and hit gas pedal. New tires and 400HP did not let the shooter jump away.
The killer was squeezed between the BMW 750 and Mersedez S 500 with 2 tonns of weight.
Theodore backed up and set the hitman free. The last one walked away into the dark corner of the house dragging his leg. Theodore told his girlfriend Julia to wait for the police and tell them the whole story, except for the details about friends and the events in the club, and pursued the killer.
Peter and Vasya heard the shots and the sound of the collision of the car and went after Theodore's car. At the entrance to the street they saw a man walking quickly with an injured leg and they decided to stop him. There was Theodore following him too. Finding his friends pretty quick-witted, he threw the shooter in the trunck of BMW. Everybody jumped into the backseat of this car and left.
Having dropped the girls by the metro entrance and asking them to keep silence about what they had seen, the guys went out of town to talk to the hitman "in private".
They found themselves in the woods of Liubertsi; the "damaged" shooter turned out to be unconscious when they took him out of the trunck. After putting bandages on the broken leg of the man and giving him some sal ammoniac to smell, Theodore "brought him to life".
In return for the information about who had ordered the murder Theodore offered the hitman to take him to the hospital. The killer surprised everyone with how easy he had agreed to tell all the truth if they did not torture him.
Realizing that his own people would not understand him and having a lot of sins on his list, he did not want any interrogations by the police which, of course, would get involved after a call from the paramedics.
When Theodore promised safety, the killer started his story:
He was working (after a discharge from the internal army) for one ethnic criminal gang of the capital. It was obvious that the hitman did not want to set the gang up and cause a war, that's why he confessed that the order for a murder was a way to get extra cash, promised by a businessman, ex-cop Valentine, who had been involved with the gang. The shooter did not inform his "brothers" about the offer, thinking it would be a simple, easy-to-do job. Just wanted to earn extra money.
To make it sound more convincing, Valentine told the hitman that Theodore was a lover of the wife of his friend Julian with whom they had worked together in the police. And explaining him that this reason would not be approved by the "brothers", it would be better not to discuss it with others and instead the killer would get an additional bonus to his pay.
When Theodore obtained description of Valentine and his car, he recollected the "Fat" guy from the day in traffic and understood what was going on.
Refusing to go to the hospital with Theodore, Peter and Vasya, the shooter preferred to stay in the woods and was offended that Theodore had not kept his promise to save him from the torture, which was - to kill.
