It will surely appeal to readers who remember the times of 3-in-1 coffee pods and Tarantino fans [FRAGMENT]

The action of the novel takes place in 1998 in Congo, where the young wolves of capitalism try to make a fortune by mining cobalt. It quickly turns out that the reality is different than in the investor prospectus, and former SBs and Congolese rebels are involved in the business. The plot is loosely inspired by real events.

Łukasz Błaszczyk, Paweł Sajewicz and Marek Wełna “White Land” – excerpt:

He heard footsteps in the corridor moments after he closed the door behind him. A glance at the courtyard in front of the hotel: the SUV is still standing. He unlocked the gun again, placed it on the table opposite the entrance to the room, and covered it with the newspaper. Sam sat down on the chair next to him, his right hand stretched out on the table, to quickly reach for the gun if necessary.

Steps on the stairs: neither heavy nor light. Mindful. Elodie would jump two steps at a time; she was still in a hurry somewhere. Tadek? It would bounce down the hall like a ball in a pinball machine. So who?

Knock.

“Please,” he called, without moving from his chair. His hand moved to the newspaper.

The door squeaked and a broad-shouldered white man in his thirties stood in the doorway. On the nose horn glasses made of transparent material, behind them narrow and dim eyes, a high forehead, and on the temples of a prematurely balding skull, remnants of rare bristles. The face of a child inflated with steroids. Weed.

– Arrow, Maks! – Threw the guest, smiling moronically. – We have to talk to you, right?

Maks felt a tingling sensation in his fingertips.

“We have…” he neither asked nor stated, calculating whether his wife and daughter might have already landed in Belgium. How much did Agnieszka say? Plane in four hours. It’s somewhere like this …

“To talk about this concession, bull,” Zachwast snapped him from. – But something? Will I be standing on the threshold?

When he reached into the leather briefcase with the embossed propol logo, which he carried under his arm, Maks felt himself tense. However, instead of a gun, the visitor took a bottle from the suitcase.

– So you invite me? How is your colleague?

Max nodded, and Zachwast grinned, closed the door and took a few quick steps towards the table. Max’s hand moved even closer to the newspaper. Zachwast banged the flask on the table, but did not let go of the neck. He stood clutching the bottle, still smiling, staring at the bulging issue of Gazeta Powszechna from two weeks ago. Finally he looked at Maks and said:

– And to me: Tygodnik Działkowca “does not come. – Then he released the grip on the bottle, put the briefcase on the floor and moved to the wall. Away from Maks, away from the gun.

Wagner thought he heard the roar of his own blood in the aorta.

– Because you see, Maks … – Zachwast clicked and poked his finger in his ear. – You see … it’s wrong that we approached this. Instead of sitting down with a vodka and explaining everything to your colleagues, you will immediately take a scythe. But why? Because some receipts are missing? Ah, sorry, Maks, unfriendly. Let me tell you honestly: it bites me that it turned out like this, I have a grudge against myself. But I don’t blame you, you are good fellow. You only have the boss… ”He took his finger out of his ear and stared at the pad. – Well, you know what.

Maks tried to relax the muscles of his face so that consternation was not visible, which gradually overwhelmed his nerves. What does this man want? He was to come here to threaten him and make demands, in the end to bribe him. But it says something about … receipts. Christ, he mentioned the concession at first! He’s playing a fool, doesn’t he really know that it has been about something else for a long time? – So, do we have a drink and explain everything? Zachwast asked. Max instinctively ran his fingers over the tabletop. He wasn’t going to be fooled. – Listen, Grzegorz, I don’t think we need to explain anything. It is not my business at all … “But I can see that it bothers you, that you would like to talk …” Zachwast suspended his voice. – Because you know, business interests, but we hardly know each other. I would tell you about my family, you tell me about yours. About wife and daughter.

Maks saw an image of Agnieszka and Julka at Okęcie.

He swallowed hard. It’s just a game, it’s just a game. They are safe from Zachwast. They’re safe now.

“Why not,” he muttered.

– Great, Maks, great. Zachwast nodded, but did not bother with the bottle. He didn’t even ask for glass. – Maybe I’ll start? Or not. You start, you, after all, they sent you to work out the evil Lithuanian Zachwast, who stole the license from the Poles, heh, heh.

– No, Grzegorz … I mean … – Maks felt a tingling sensation.

He had to be careful. Weed may have looked and acted like a half-hearted man, but it’s just a pose to soften him, to lull his attention. “Sly Lithuanian”, he called himself, although no one knew where he really came from or whom he served. Officially, Poles’ intermediary in contacts with a Congolese mining company, probably a representative of the Mafia, either Polish or Ruthenian. Or services, which is one thing.

– It’s just that I personally have nothing against you. It was just that the young Rapacki told me to find out what about this concession, because the Congolese are making problems, so I started asking and …

– So he found out something? – Zachwast looked him straight in the eyes, only now seriously. Max had to be damn careful.

– Honestly? – Only honestly with me, my friend! Maks ran his fingers over the counter again. He should give him something real, something powerful, but at the same time far from the point.

“Well, I was told what your deal was with the Congolese …” He paused eloquently. Zachwast did not react. – That you will drive them an investor, quite rich, but green in this industry, such as Zbigłów from Szczecin, and then, when the investor drowns a lot of money, the locals will start making problems. For example, with a concession. They will forbid the export of the mined ore, the mine will start to bring losses, and when the management of the company in Szczecin catches fire, you will selflessly offer the only way out: to buy the mine for a song.

Zachwast pouted and said:

– Well, you impressed me now, Maks. A piece of the plan, I won’t say. Wait, I have to write down somewhere before I forget. He tapped his temple. He adjusted his glasses on his nose. – Well, it might be useful again someday.

– You wanted to know.

“Yes, yeah …” Zewast sighed and stared his blurry gaze at Maks, he didn’t say anything for a long time.

Maks knew that the cunning Lithuanian would measure whether what he heard had exhausted the topics for conversation.

– You know what, Grzegorz, I think that we all were unnecessarily pushed here – he asked hesitantly, to drown out his own thoughts. – Don’t you think?

Zachwast ignored his question and interrupted him: – And in his investigation, did Max reach his chin with his hand, as if he wanted to scratch it. – … did you not check our warehouses sometimes? At the last moment, the hand twisted and dived in a flash under the newspaper lying next to the bottle. Sheets of crumpled paper spilled onto the floor, Maks grabbed the gun and aimed it at Zachwast.

The Lithuanian beamed as if he had been waiting for this all the time.

– You have three seconds to convince me that this is a friendly visit after all – said Maks. We will drink? Zachwast said without conviction, but then spread his hands. – I didn’t make it, huh? I see we won’t drink.

Wagner shook his head.

It was in his gaze: immediate confirmation of who he was dealing with. They didn’t have to pretend to each other anymore. Zachwast knew it, Maks did the same. The game that had been played for months ended here and now.

Zachwast got to the point: “You have something that belongs to us.” – I had, a fact. I no longer have. Not a single wrinkle moved on the vast swath of the forehead that was approaching the half of the Lithuanian’s skull. – Oh, that’s lame, man. You must recover this clunk for us. For my own good. – No way. – For my own, Max and family. Behind the lenses of Zachwast’s horn glasses sparks sparks of satisfaction that he was not trying to hide. – You see … Your wife and daughter were kept in Warsaw. If you do not return, no one will

Wagner interrupted him. “Wife and daughter,” the words spread through his body like poison. “The dick stopped,” he repeated. – Okay. You say so: fuck. But I’ll show you something. I have a phone here. Try not to shoot me while I reach for him. Yes?

Maks didn’t answer.

Zachwast crouched down anyway and opened the briefcase. Slowly he pulled out the blocky cell phone from inside. He got up and walked over to the desk.

– I’ll call Warsaw and give you the handset. You will talk to your wife.

He was clearly prepared because he just pressed the “redial” button.

– Miracles, no? He said, waiting for the connection. – There are no roads or bridges here, there would be goats walking in the airports if the goats had not been killed by a beech. And what? I se they made the largest cellular network in Africa.

He pushed the phone out to Max.

There was no way Zachwast would call Agnieszka. She and Julka should be somewhere above Germany, somewhere …

(…)

Calm down, calm down, calm down … She held her breath and listened to the sounds coming from behind the bolted door. Two male voices, the splatter of a can being opened, and again male voices. No steps. She stayed motionless with her fingers clenched on a torn piece of self-adhesive protective foil that sealed the only window – it couldn’t be opened, she checked, checked a hundred times – in the room where she was kept. She waited for the door to slam, for a cough, for a burst of laughter, anything loud enough

Telephone. At the first ring, she tense her muscles. For the second, her fingers tightened on the scrap of foil so tightly that her knuckles turned white. On the third it had to work, the fourth might not have been.

The third time the phone rang, it tore its fingernails with one stroke and to reveal most of the dirty glass. She saw thickets, rubbish lying among the trees, a railway siding, and then buildings marked with vulgar inscriptions. Before she could consider where she was taken – Targówek? Służewiec? Grochów? Ursus? – saw a man walking with a German Shepherd along a siding …

She forgot to be careful, she forgot about the men at the door. Instinct worked. She began pounding on the glass with her fists, screaming incoherently, tugging at the foil. But the man didn’t hear her. Neither has he seen. He reached down for the stick and tossed it to the dog.

– Those, little girl, call you.

She froze and turned to face the door. She didn’t even hear them open. One of the hijackers was standing in front of her. He was about thirty, and the look and voice of a benevolent accountant: five feet, curly hair falling over his forehead, glasses, a gentle look, a denim shirt. He didn’t look like a murderer, he looked harmless, he looked like … She had no right to suspect anything, she had no way of knowing that …?

– Hey, lady. Hubby is calling. He smiled and held the telephone receiver towards her, holding the phone in his other hand. He pointed to the cable that followed him into the hall. – Leave that window anymore and come over, because the cord is not touching me.

Agnieszka looked back, through the window, into the bushes, but no one was there anymore, then she passed the bed in the middle of the room, went to the man and took the receiver from him.

– Maks …? – Who says? It was his voice, it really was him! – Maks! Sorry, sorry! She hurried to say as much as possible before they took her phone away. – I did everything as we agreed. I don’t know how they found us. God, Maks, they keep Julka apart, they don’t want to say what’s happening to her. Maks, I am begging you, save her.

The man yanked the receiver out of her hand and put it down. Then he patted Agnieszka on the cheek and, closing the door behind him, said:

– He will. Nobody likes overheard scenes.

The connection broke off and Maks froze with an open-mouthed question. Before he could ask them, Zachwast said:

– I better not put it. Listen to your wife, do as we tell you.

Wagner felt his finger wander involuntarily towards the trigger. He barely contained his instinct to shoot the Lithuanian.

“It’s …” he wheezed. – As? – A neighbor. She has been keeping an eye on you for a long time. Maks paled. She? After all … That young couple with a movie theater, they moved in before he left for Africa. If those reach? so far, if they acted so far in advance … My God.

Laughter broke him out of his dullness.

– But you shit now, man. The Lithuanian clapped him on the shoulder. – No, Maks, I’m making fun with this neighbor! What the fuck is our neighbor, since there is only one airport in Warsaw?