AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘So, what are we to do? What do you all think?’
It was too much for the other three. They’d almost been undone by the discovery that Adolf Hitler had not, apparently, committed suicide in Berlin, but Aleksey Rider-Mikkelsen asking for their advice as if this were a democracy finished them off.
So he suggested they all go to the pub, which everyone agreed was the only solution to this latest dilemma.
* * *
Chapter Forty
What to do was clearly the issue.
Ben was troubled.
Aleksey was capitalising on the moment and buying rounds frequently.
He wanted to get drunk, and not being nagged or harangued about past, long-forgotten excesses seemed the ideal opportunity to achieve this much-desired state. When your boyfriend was speculating on whether Hitler might still be alive, you knew it was time for oblivion. He wanted to point out, he really did, that Corporal Adolf had fought in the First World War, but suspected this contribution still wouldn’t affect Ben’s belief that he might still be yodelling around the hills enjoying hisfreiheit. Actually, he reflected with wry amusement, downing his fifth whisky in one, given some of the current world leaders, who knew?
Tim was the one who asked the question that seemed to be the most pertinent. He was drinking more slowly, but then he always did, and was always therefore volunteered as driver, but tonight he obviously felt he could walk to a boat with a few pints and was currently on his second. ‘Why do we have to do anything?’
It was a good question.
Aleksey, now on his sixth drink, cupped one of his hands, staring down into its palm, pondering things. Ben nudged him, and he raised his eyes. ‘I held it, and now I hold the power of it not being so.’
Squeezy copied his gesture then twisted the hand, as if whatever he held was spilling out.
Aleksey nodded. ‘Exactly.’
Ben tapped his fingers on the table impatiently. ‘But Tim’s just told me he’s deadnow. Either way, if he’s dead now, what does it matter? Honestly?’
Tim, as ever, pushed his glasses higher before commenting, ‘Well, I suppose thereisan ethical—oh, thank you all very much. That’s the last you’re hearing from me tonight.’
Aleksey, uncharacteristically, leaned across the table and ruffled his hair. ‘Go on, professor. Unlike the moron over there, I do know why I employ you and value you.’
Tim actually blushed. ‘Well, I was going to say that ethically I think it would be the right thing to do to release this information.’
Squeezy began to laugh, shaking his head fondly. ‘What, so the world gets to know that evil men don’t always get what’s fucking coming to ‘em, and that some of ‘em get to live out their lives in the blissful lap of luxury while everyone thinks they’re fucking dead? That, Son of Wat, is calledhubris: fucking with the gods of chaos and chance. An’ it’s not like we don’t know someone who’s doing just that, is it, boss?’
Aleksey toyed with his beer mat, picking slithers off the cardboard. ‘That is one way of looking at it, yes.’
Everyone repaired to their drinks after this pointed exchange.
After a few moments, Aleksey sighed and looked around, then gestured vaguely to the restrooms at the back of the pub and got up. He had a feeling Ben was giving Squeezy one of his less than fond glares, but didn’t look back to check.
He wasn’t all that surprised when the door to the toilets opened and Ben came in.
Aleksey was studying himself in the mirror.
Ben came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist. ‘Why is it you only take anything he says seriously when it’s something bad about you? Hmm? Moron, fuckwit, cretin, idiot, remember?—that’s what you call him; so why take what he says to heart?’
Aleksey shrugged and watched the reflected effect of this, Ben’s beautiful features behind his in the glass. ‘I don’t recall thecretin, but thank you, I will add that to my repertoire. And I’m not, actually—taking him seriously. I was standing here thinking exactly the opposite. That if, asthe cretinclaims, it is all just chance or chaos, then I would not be here. Something happened to me fifteen years ago that took me from that maelstrom and brought me here.’ He smiled and liked that effect better, for Ben smirked back. Ben knew what had happened fifteen years ago as well as he did, but he told him anyway because it pleased him to say the words. ‘You, Ben. You happened to me, and together we defy the gods.’
Ben’s pleasure evaporated. ‘Nowyou’repoking! Stop it!’
Aleksey shook his head fondly. ‘Come. We have still to decide what to do.’
‘Hmm, and by that you meanI get a few more drinks in before he starts nagging me?’
Aleksey shot him a look as they began to exit into the small hallway. ‘What a shocking thing to think about the kind and loving way you assist my recovery, Benjamin.’
