IV
(Ten hours before launch)
"Is everything ready?" Nick asked Tomislav as they had lunch. Ana, uninterested, fiddled with her phone while listening to their conversation.
"Yes, the boys finished an hour ago." Nick nodded, pleased, as Tomislav went on: "Sound and lighting are set up, everything's wired into separate systems independent of one another."
"And the tickets?" Ana chimed in.
"Handled and handed out to select people across the faculties," Tomislav confirmed, staring shamelessly at the gap in her blouse. Ana ignored it.
"As I said, I'm at your disposal if you need anything at all. Somehow it bores me to be nothing but a walking pair of tits," she added sarcastically, lowering her phone and fixing Tomislav with a stare.
"Thanks." Tomislav thanked her and bit into a sandwich that had been sitting uneaten on their table for a while. He didn't look troubled.
"Tomi, don't let there be any problems — if even half the people we're counting on show up, it'll still be a logistical nightmare. We printed over two thousand tickets," Nick added, watching the wailing of a spoiled child and the frustration of a young mother a few tables away on the terrace.
Tomi chewed and seemed more interested in his sandwich than in the conversation.
Nick knew Tomislav was special. Like any mildly autistic person, he seemed totally fixated on some simple action, like chewing a sandwich, but Nick knew that Tomi's brilliant mind worked at a speed incomprehensible to ordinary people.
Finally, having chewed it thoroughly, Tomi swallowed the bite and looked at Nick, adjusting his thick glasses on his nose.
"The boys you sent me know their job — they barely even need supervising." He set aside the rest of the sandwich he was no longer interested in. "There's room for more than the ones invited."
"Good, the ticket price should cover all the costs."
"Except for DJ Mix," Tomi added. Nick looked at him in surprise.
"What about him?"
"Well, he wants a bigger fee, says it's the headline weekend of the quarter."
Nick got angry but didn't let it show on his face.
"Call him and tell him that if he doesn't curb his appetite, it won't end well." Every change to the schedule and every attempt to alter even a verbal agreement angered him.
"Fine, if he won't agree to what was arranged, I'll pass him over to you." Tomi went on staring at Ana's breasts. Provoked, she raised her phone and photographed Tomi's lustful gaze.
He flinched as if scalded and flushed with barely controlled rage. He hissed loudly through his teeth:
"Delete that."
Ana sank a little deeper into her chair and gave him a provocative look.
"Why?" she smacked her full lips innocently.
"You know why, get rid of it." Tomi was fuming.
"I won't."
"Ana, get rid of it!" Tomi shoved back his chair, which squeaked in protest. "You know I don't like it!"
"Oh really?" Ana shot back. "And I love being stared at, my tits on display?" She gave him a grim look.
Nick was enjoying it from the sidelines and didn't get involved in their squabble. Tomi was embarrassed, but still stubborn.
"Get rid of it! Delete the photo." He stubbornly wouldn't let it go.
"I won't, the photo stays." Ana wasn't giving in. She thought for a moment, then proposed. "Okay, I'll delete the photo if you give me your glasses."
Question marks appeared over Tomi's head.
"What do you mean?"
Ana waited a moment, giving him time to think, and finally answered:
"Well, if you don't have glasses, you won't stare at my tits."
Nick burst out laughing, while Ana watched Tomi with a deadly serious face. You see, Tomi had a very strong prescription, and without his glasses he was almost blind. There was logic to Ana's proposal.
"Well?" She waited.
Tomi mulled it over. In the end, he took off his glasses and set them on the table.
"All right, now delete the photo."
Ana did something on her phone and tucked it away in her purse.
"Deleted," she lied shamelessly. With Tomi you always had to have an ace up your sleeve. She knew the photo would come in handy in the future.
Tomi didn't like being filmed, something to do with his autism.
Though he seemed like everyone else, he had his quirks.
Not quirks — hornets and wasps buzzing in his head over certain things that weren't done his way.
Stubbornness and insufferability. But he was brilliant, a top-tier computer and electrical engineer who could wrestle with any problem, provided his conditions were met.
"Enough, you two." Nick was still laughing. "Tickets sorted, logistics sorted, you say you've done all the technical stuff?" Tomi nodded. "Excellent. Then we're in the saddle." Nick leaned back in his chair with a satisfied face.
"There's still the problem with the vehicles," Ana chimed in. Nick asked: "What do you mean?"
"Well, if a few thousand people show up, that's a lot of vehicles. They'll be parked for kilometers along the access road, to say nothing of the lot in front of the entrance."
Nick nodded thoughtfully. That could become a problem with the authorities. The police very rarely bothered to send a patrol out to the warehouse complex. But he assumed they knew a party was being held and could wreck the whole preparation if he didn't do something. He looked at Ana.
"You know the higher-ups at the ministry, you've got more connections than I do." She nodded. "Can you arrange for our boys in blue to have other obligations over the next two days, just so they don't come sniffing around?"
Ana nodded, picked up her phone, rose from the table, and walked off in search of a little privacy.
The young mother at the end of the terrace had finally lost her patience and, red in the face, had evidently threatened the crying child with something, and it abruptly stopped crying. Nick turned to Tomi:
"You know she's gay. Those tits are something you can only dream about."
Meticulously wiping a speck of dust from his glasses, Tomi replied:
"If something's on display, it means it's on offer."
"Yeah, but not for you."
Tomi wouldn't give up:
"Well, even if it's for other women, that doesn't mean I can't be included too."
"Tomi, cut the crap." Nick huffed, a little irritated by his companion's stubbornness. "Ana doesn't like being ogled like that, and you're perverted as hell. Actually, I don't think any girl likes being looked at that way."
The words got through to Tomi, and he suddenly drooped like a child.
"You know I can't help it. You know I have a problem, a medical one."
"Yeah, and you don't have to keep bringing it up." Nick pitied his friend.
You see, besides his mental difficulties, Tomi had a rather curious physical condition.
He would react to the presence of a woman with an arousal he couldn't control.
Something to do with pheromones would switch on his primal urge to reproduce, and it affected him so strongly that he could barely function normally.
And for Tomi, functioning normally meant sitting in front of a computer solving some university assignment or watching porn on the internet.
That's what he always said, at least, and Nick didn't bother with longer explanations.
He assumed Tomi was still a virgin, though he hid it carefully, because his condition meant he didn't go out much or get the chance to meet people.
He was Nick's logistics technician, and as long as everything ran as it should, Nick didn't pay much attention to Tomi's social life. He didn't care.
"Tonight, be in the control room. You're in charge there."
"Of course, I'm the boss and everyone has to listen to me."
"Yeah, all the screens and the sound mixers." Nick laughed. "Oh, and Tomi" — he paused for dramatic effect — "no jerking off and no porn near the electronics."
Tomi looked like he was thinking it over, but nodded. He asked: "How about you send me one of the students, maybe there's one who's into electronics?"
Nick rose from the table, spotting Ana on her way back. He answered offhandedly:
"You'll have to see to that yourself, and don't pester Ana about it, because the women she could send you would cut something off you." He laughed.
"Ana what?" the girl asked, approaching the table. "I didn't catch that." She eyed them both suspiciously.
Tomi got an especially long and piercing look, and he squirmed with discomfort.
"Oh, nothing, we were just talking nonsense," he muttered quietly.
Ana asked no further questions; she just picked up her purse and put her phone in it. Nick was already leaving, so she hurried after him.
"You sorted the boys in blue?" he asked, gallantly holding the exit door open for her.
She nodded and pushed her sunglasses up onto her head to shield her eyes from the bright afternoon sun.
"Our boys in blue will have business on the other side of town. And as of tomorrow, the western part of the sub-Sljeme zone has been declared a zone of no importance whatsoever."
"Thank you."
"Oh, it's nothing, I offered to help earlier anyway, at least to contribute something."
"Besides your presence?" He winked at her.
"Oh, the presence will be there, and it will dazzle." She nodded coquettishly while rummaging through her purse, then found the keys. "Need a ride?" she asked, walking up to the parked car.
"Of course, I came with Tomi and now I need a shower, because his van is worse than a pigsty."
She laughed. She knew about Tomi's questionable hygiene habits, but as a woman she noticed that Tomi was always freshly shaven and wore some refreshing scent.
He tried, but it wasn't working for him.
She got into the car and started the engine, while Nick buckled his seatbelt.
He turned on the radio. The station was set to a news program.
He went to change it, but she stopped him. Nick was surprised.
"Since when are you interested in politics and the news? Did you grow old overnight? Such an expensive audio system, and a news station."
"Leave it, I'm interested in this thing with Poland, I have clients there."
Nick shrugged and took his phone out of his pants. He still had a lot of work to do, and Tomi was already sending messages. On the radio, the anchorwoman was trying to strike a tone of excitement and sensation, but she wasn't pulling it off very well:
Meanwhile, the NATO countries have responded to the attack with additional sanctions against Russia, which continues to bomb Ukrainian refugee camps.
The camps can no longer be accessed, as the Polish army is blocking every attempt at journalistic reporting for security reasons.
There are currently no figures on casualties.
Everyone is waiting for the bombing to stop, or for a response from the Polish army to these direct violations of its border and territorial sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department has reported that U.S. Navy forces sank one of the Russian submarines they had detected in American territorial waters off the city of New York.
The submarine, despite repeated calls to break off its action, kept actively trying to evade the American destroyers and launched several torpedoes at them.
According to the State Department, the incident — unprecedented in the history of relations between the two states — has been interpreted as a declaration of war against America and NATO.
A press conference by the American president is expected during the day, at which everything is to be explained.
The Americans have evidently run out of diplomatic solutions and, since aggression has been carried out against two NATO members, are compelled to act in accordance with Article 5, which states that, in the event of external aggression against one of the members, the entire alliance must act.
On the other side of the world, a Chinese warship reportedly lost control and collided with the British military vessel HMS Trafalgar in the South China Sea.
The incident worsened tensions between NATO and China, while Indian media report, unconfirmed, artillery and missile exchanges between the two fleets.
The same media speak of massive smoke rising at the alleged site of the conflict…
Ana changed the radio station.
"They've gone mad, the whole world has gone mad," she stated, swerving to avoid a car that cut sharply in front of her.
Nick agreed with a shrug, still busy with his phone. There was so much to be done, and less and less time for all the little details. Ana hit the gas and, catching the last flickers of the yellow light at the intersection, turned toward Sljeme.