“You know, I’ve always wondered what it was like to be you, Ivan Ivanovich. The old man’s favourite.” Anatoly shouted from below. For a moment, the switch to conversational Russian caused Vanya’s brain to grind gears. He’d been speaking English for so long, it took him a second to reorient. “I mean, look at you. You’re too stupid to even be scared.”
“Yeah, you see, everyone thinks I’m stupid, Tolyan. And I’m usually ok with that.” Vanya shouted back, slipping from his hiding spot. He could see Vasily’s right hand man and his former friend plus six heads of muscle. The gun only had three bullets, and Anatoly had clipped a chunk out of him, blood seeping through the worn flannel of his shirt. “But I’ll be real with you. This is terrifying. I’m scared to death.”
He lobbed a piece of pipe across the catwalks, and a few of Anatoly’s men scrambled towards the clatter as he dropped onto the concrete floor and choked out the one who lingered furthest behind.
“Vanya, you’re not some ex-FSB superhero spy. You’re a leg breaker with a nice ass and a prison record as long as my fucking arm who got in over his head.” Anatoly shouted up to where Vanya had been as two shots rang out behind him, the other men who’d stayed with him dropping to the floor like bags of wet flour. “You’re not getting out of this.”
“I ever tell you about my friend Piotr? The guy who’s uncle made us eat the bear paw. I’m sure I did. Piotr was great.” Vanya said genially, levelling the gun at Anatoly as the other man wheeled around. “Piotr said the only difference between prison and the army is that one of them makes you find your own guns. I trust his opinion, he was pretty experienced with both.”
Anatoly opened his mouth and Vanya shook his head, seeing the other three starting to run back across the warehouse. “No, shhh. Now, I’m not as smart as you, and I’m definitely not as smart as Ianto. But I’m smart enough to know what’ll happen when I pull this trigger.”
“Vasily will kill you for this, you stubby ginger fuck.”
“Vasily was already gonna kill me, he can’t kill me any more than that, asshole. But Ianto’s gone with all your stuff, and I get to watch you die, so, overall it’s a pretty good day for me.” Vanya grinned.
I. Fucking. Love. Vanya. Killing. People.





