1: Yanovich
Uelen, Siberia
September 8th, 1994
It was a quiet morning. From his office he could see a fragment of the wide Krutikov Avenue, the avenue served at the same time the function of highway, it had 3 lanes of normal circulation in each direction and four lanes of highway on each side as well, adding 14 lanes in total width, added to bikeways and wide pavements wooded with pines. Only two weeks ago he had obtained employment in the Global Corporation of The New World, a Siberian company dedicated to many areas, but mainly to monetary investment. The office complex was one of the largest in the world, occupied almost a square kilometer, had a shopping plaza in the center and under this square there was a large road interchange between Krutikov Avenue and Heroes of Bogotol Avenue. After entering the F building, he went up to the plus 24th floor. After entering his corresponding section, he found his desk marked with his name “Jaroslav Yanovich”.
It was ten o’clock in the morning and he had not even taken a sip of his coffee, which was already almost freezing, a problem quite common in a city in the Arctic. It was going to be a waste to drink coffee at that temperature. He got up and walked to the cafeteria located 50 meters from his desk. On the way he found a stone statue of the company logo. It had an inscription that said: “For those who raised this company and contributed to the progress of the new nation after chaos”. The inscription brought him some memories, like those of his family in the famine during the war, he was 13 years old, he had to bury his younger sister, his mother was very weak, and his father had been enlisted to fight for independence against the Soviet Union. At the end of the war and he was 17, his mother and father survived despite the adversity. They moved to the newly founded city of Uelen. The construction of the Bering Bridge occurred in parallel to his university career, he graduated in economics and after passing through different companies, he finally achieved his goal of reaching an acceptable position in the GCNW.
Upon reaching the microwave area, he came across Androniki Innokentievich, a rank 2 executive of the company and head of his area, talking to other men. Yanovich decided to follow Innokentievich discreetly, wanted to talk to him, try to like him for future consideration of promotion, wanted to move from rank 4 to rank 3 as soon as possible. Yanovich noticed that his superior was speaking in a foreign language. After waiting for Innokentievich to leave, he approached him. The executive did not recognize him at first, but his expression changed to a friendlier one and so he said:
“Bazarov, what a surprise, how is your family?”
Immediately he came a little closer and said in a whisper:
“Diomede Square, 14 9 13”
He walked away and said:
“Keep…”
He stopped short at the sight of Yanovich’s face, then realized the horrible mistake he had made. He had to think fast, otherwise it could be the beginning of the end of everything.
“Oh, excuse me, I got confused, keep working hard, Yanovich”
Innokentievich said goodbye and hurried to his office. Yanovich did not understand very well what had just happened, he thought that as much as possible was a secret meeting for some executives. He paid no further attention and went back to his office to continue working as his superior had ordered him.
The day passed without problems, at 6 o’clock in the afternoon he ended working, he said goodbye to the co-workers he knew from just days ago, he said goodbye to the doorman and walked towards the station. The train was empty, he arrived at his destination, walked the lonely streets of the neighborhood, and arrived at his apartment. It had been 10 minutes before he arrived, and he felt a knock at the door. He opened, he was a stout man dressed in the uniform of the postal service of the company, suddenly the man charged against Yanovich, with one leg closed the door, with one arm held his nose and mouth so that he could not make any sound, and with the other arm pulled out a sharp knife. He looked at him in the eye and told him coldly:
“This is not personal, it’s just a survival procedure”
The last thing Yanovich felt was the cold of the knife entering his neck. The uniformed man was not seen by anyone but the victim himself. Within minutes the other inhabitants of the building noticed the thread of blood escaping from under the door. The police found no suspects. The news had its lines in the newspapers and its minutes in the news. As the “Beringia Reporting” newscast indicates on the morning of the following day:
“The death of Yanovich is a great loss for his parents, an elderly housewife and a veteran of the War of Independence. They pray for the support of the state and that it will be possible to find the culprit of this terrible event. "
