Маленький календулы (Little Marigold)

Молодая шестерка (Young Six)

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

I groan and hit the snooze button on my alarm. I sit up, my ginger hair fizzed from my pillow. It took me awhile to get up, starting a kettle and going to take a quick shower. I thought back to the conversation I had with Ivan.

'Was all he confessed actually true?'

I thought to myself as I feel the warm water hit my back. After a quick 5 minutes, I used the extra time to brush my hair and dry off. As I walk around in a towel, I pause. I stare at the ground as the kettle whistled quietly in the background.

I felt...strange. As if someone was watching. I look to my window. It was partially covered by the curtain. I moved it, but I still felt it. I looked around frantically, trying to see another place someone would peek at me from.

PING!

I jumped and let out a squeak, whipping around to my desktop. The screen was off, but the computer itself was still on. I had a staring contest with the camera leering above it for a second. I stomped over and angled the camera down, sighing in some relief.

I continue to get dressed, the feeling gone as I leave my house to get to the office on time for another slow day at the company. I didn't do much, still thinking about continuing our conversation while I worked on a different story. My body suddenly shivered, getting that strange feeling again.

I looked around the office for any eyes on me, only to find nothing. Everyone was minding their own. Sighing, I turn back. "AH!" I shouted. In front of me were baby blue eyes. It was my coworker and best friend, Mary. She pushed up her glasses and let out a snicker. "You should've seen your face." She says as she tries to contain her laughter.

I growl and push her. "You shouldn't do that. You scared the shit out of me." I grumble, watching Mary take a seat next to me. "Hey. It's not my fault you're jumpy. What'd you do? Put salt in the boss's coffee instead of sugar?" She asks, being weirdly descriptive. I blink before staring blankly at her. "No. That's you. Anyway, I'm trying to uncover something." I say, lowering my voice.

She tilt her head and leaned down. "You got something without telling Mr. Blair? It must be something good if you aren't saying anything about it." She whispers, ducking down. "Yeah...It's about that shootout in Lisbon. The one where they said it involved a mafia? Well, I found someone who was involved with it while messing around on the Deep Web." I mutter, making sure no one was listening in. This made Mary's eyes widen.

"You found the guy responsible? That's amazing!" She exclaims. I quickly shush her as her excitement grew louder, earning a hushed apology. "Keep it down, will ya?" I mumble, annoyed. Mary only smiled goofily, putting her hands on my shoulders. "Sorry, sorry. Anyway, what did he say?" She asks, shaking me.

"He said...he pulled the trigger, but he wasn't proud of it. He was telling me he was involved in the Bratva," I pause, seeing her face scrunch up in confusion before I clarified. "The Russian mafia." She opened her mouth as to make an "ohh" sound. I shake my head. "Anyway, I'm gonna talk to him later tonight about this group he calls The Young Six. But, I've been feeling weird. Like I'm being watched." I confess, the feeling still shaking the pit of my stomach.

Mary let out a giggle. "Uh oh! They're watching you!" She sings, teasing me. I grit my teeth. "Mary!" I hiss, shoving her face back. "Don't get me paranoid, man. No one's fucking watching me. It's probably the feeling you get reading r/nosleep or something." I say, dismissing her claim only partially.

As the workday went on, the feeling was still there. I left the building very quickly this time after clocking out. Holding my coat close, I nearly ran down the street to my apartment, not caring who I knocked into. I slammed my door and closed the blinds.

I hear my laptop pinp once again and I almost immediately sat down. It was a message from Ivan. "Hello. Are you there?" It read. It looked like it was there since 3pm. "Hey, sorry. I was at work. You wanted to talk about the Young Six?" I respond, walking around to shake off the tingling feeling.

"Yes. The Young Six. They are a group of six men. You would not think to call them young, but they are rumored to have joined the mafia when they were around 13 years old. It was as if they were drawn to a life of organized crime as little ones. These men are age 18-22 now. They are their own little group in the mafia. Their oldest is their Brigadier,"

"I only know them by name and type of mademan they are. Their Brigadier is named Boris. He monitors their crimes, collects the money, and makes sure no one spills their guts unless he spills them for them, literally. His security unit is Emil. Those who Boris feels a threat, gets Emil to investigate. Their top gun is Illia. He is a hitman and sniper," He messages seem to pause for a moment before another comes around.

"Iosif, Nikita, and Vikentiy are Boris's...grunts. They go out on field to handle dirty work. Iosif patrols the skies in helicopters for extra gun, Nikita is their interrogator, and Vikentiy is their...strange torturer. All six are a pretty dangerous group for their age and size. I would not grab their attention. Hopefully, you are using an Onion Router to at least lessen the time of being discovered." He adds, sending a shiver down my spine.

"Uh oh! They're watching you!"

Mary's tease plays again in my head. "Yeah. I have one. Though, it's getting pretty late. That was a lot of information about a small group." I respond, rolling my wrists from the small pains in them. Ivan takes awhile to respond back to me, so I decided to cook my dinner while I wait.

I stare at my screen while I cook, still seeing no response from him. It worried me. There's no way he have been caught if he's blowing his whistle about this for a week. I sit on my bed as I eat my spaghetti, waiting for my computer to ping.

It had been three hours since my reply to Ivan. I lay in my bed, my eyes having a hard time staying open. My body slowly stopped protesting and let sleep take over.

PING!

I gasp and sit up. The notification on my computer sounded strange. It didn't sound like an email notification. I quickly got out of bed and run to my computer. It was a reply from Ivan, but on my Google hangouts. "Be very careful. You do not know who could be listening. Have a nice night, Harper Ainsworth." He wrote. His status was offline after it was sent.

I felt my body tremble. I feel as if the message he sent didn't seem right. He was more aloof than polite this time. And the worse part is...

"I never gave him my full name..."