"What will happen next?", Elder Gavril asked from the side. So far, he was only listening.
"We will take ti to grieve.", Konstantin responded. "I believe that we all need that, especially our Grand Elder Sarah. She was imprisoned by the Voronins and luckily, she returned. However, it was stressful, for all of us. Look after your territories and she will call for a eting when she is ready."
"How long do we need to wait?", Elder Gavril persisted.
Sophia looked at him irritably. "What's the rush? Can't wait to get your hands on more things?"
Elder Gavril narrowed his eyes at Sophia. "I'm not in any rush but do you think that our enemies will pause and give us ti to grieve?"
"What enemies?", JoAnna asked angrily. "Are you talking about the Voronins? We just blew up part of their base. They have heavy casualties, and I'm sure that they will tend to the injured, bury the dead, and inspect their base to check if we left anything else behind. Unless they are reckless, they will investigate how they failed. It will take them days to co out of it and think of attacking. Is there anyone else we should worry about?"
Elder Gavril didn't like JoAnna's attitude. It was disrespectful. "Don't act like you know everything. Whoever finds out that we are in disarray will try to take advantage of the situation."
JoAnna's temper rose by a few degrees. "What disarray? Are you saying that without one Elder the whole organization is crumbling? And how will anyone know that Elder Vasily is gone unless soone tells them about it? Are you going to alert enemies and use this situation to expand your influence?"
Elder Gavril raised his hands defensively. "I was only stating the facts and talking about no one in particular."
Sophia put her hand on JoAnna's shoulder, indicating to JoAnna that she will take over.
Sophia showed a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Thank you for reminding us to stay vigilant, Elder Gavril. Other than being an Elder in this organization, Vasily Lebedev was our Uncle and we are saddened by his abrupt departure. We will grieve but that does not an we are not alert. If anyone tries to attack us, from the outside or internally, we will use that as an opportunity to vent our anger and deal with them swiftly."
Sophia paused and enjoyed the changes on Elder Gavril's face. "As Konstantin said, Grand Elder Sarah will schedule a eting when she is ready. Until then, watch over your territories, as usually. As for everything that was under Elder Vasily's watch, we will manage it until Grand Elder Sarah decides on a long term solution."
Elder Gavril looked at the side, hoping to get so support, but he saw Konstantin, Elder Dimitri, Elder Todor, and Elder Milena (aka Stella) look at him with disapproval.
He glanced at Sophia and JoAnna, gave a small nod, and walked out of the living room without a word.
JoAnna exhaled forcibly. "How despicable! It's barely a few hours how Vasily died, and this guy is up to sothing."
Sophia tried to calm down JoAnna. "He is just a vulture. With Vasily gone, the whole North Arica is up for grabs."
"I'm not worried about him.", Konstantin assured them. "He can't do anything officially without Sarah's approval, and unofficially, there is no way that Vasily's people will take his side. But just in case, I will keep an eye on him."
"We all will.", Stella chid in, and Elder Todor and Elder Dimitri nodded in agreent.
…
In the master bedroom…
Sarah was eager to find out what is on the USB stick. It must be important if Vasily gave it to Aiden, and she guessed that it's either a ssage for her and Aiden or it's sothing that he didn't want Voronins to get their hands on.
However, Aiden insisted that Sarah eats first (after a shower), because he had a feeling that whatever is on that USB stick will ss up her mood again and she will be unable to eat.
Due to the pregnancy, Sarah's emotions are all over the place and today's mood is: crying.
While eating, Aiden told Sarah that the rest of their kids arrived from the Cliffside Villa and that they are settling in. Other than minimal defensive forces in the United States, all other mbers of the Army of Chaos are in the area and they set up a mobile camp on the clearing next to the training ground.
"Kitty, Atlas, and Vega are looking forward to head scratches from their mommy…", Aiden said, hoping to lift Sarah's mood. "Hero, Luna, and Bella are eager to play catch with you. You can throw an amazingly strong curveball…"
Sarah ate robotically and nodded occasionally.
"Sarah…", Aiden called and touched her chin, making her look his way when he saw that nothing he said so far managed to pull Sarah out of her depression. "Many of us are waiting for you, but we are not in rush. Take your ti and deal with whatever you need to deal with. When you are ready, we will be here."
Sarah paused her chewing and her gaze softened. "Thanks…"
After food, Sarah and Aiden settled in front of the laptop.
Aiden placed next to the laptop a box of paper tissues.
"Just in case…", he mumbled when he saw Sarah looking at the box with disapproval.
Aiden had no idea what is on that USB mory stick, and now that it was ti to open it, he cursed himself silently for not checking its contents in advance. What if it's sothing that will spoil Sarah's mood further? But he knew that the USB stick was for Sarah and he thought that if he checks, it will be peeping into sothing private. He is grateful that she is allowing them to see it together, and not kicking him out.
"Password protected…", Aiden mumbled when he tried to open the mory stick. "I will get my password cracker."
Aiden was about to reach for his external hard drive when Sarah held his hand to stop him.
"Let try one…", Sarah said.
With one finger, she typed: "S-a-r-a-h", and pressed 'Enter'.
Aiden's eyes widened when the contents of the USB drive were shown on the screen. "How did you know?"
Sarah shook her head and half-smiled. "Vasily was not a computer person, and this confirms that whatever is on the drive, is for ."
The mory stick had many folders with numbers on them, and there was a video with the title: "Watch first".
Sarah started the video first, it was self-explanatory
It took a second for the window to open and they saw Vasily looking at them (actually, he was looking at the cara).
Vasily was sitting at the desk in his office, and they could see him from the chest up.
"Hi Sarah…", Vasily greeted with a smile. "If you are watching this, I am not around."
He chuckled.
"This sounds like the final will, but it's not. There is a number of things I want to say to you, and I have a feeling that you will not listen if I say it in person, so I decided to tell you like this. I hope you will not stop the video and that you will watch it until the end. It's not long, I promise… On the other side, if our relationship improves, I will tell you this in person and you will never see this video."
Vasily paused and glanced on the side. Sarah guessed that he has notes on his right.
"Let start from the beginning and explain what made record this video…", Vasily said with a smile. "I found out accidentally that you are pregnant. Congratulations! I hope this ends better than your previous pregnancy..."
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