Where to start? Me and my best friend Jonathan go way back. We grew up together, our mum’s were friends, the whole shebang. The thing about Jonathan is that he always had a fascination with Ukraine and even 1980s Soviet Russia. His goal was to learn Ukrainian and join the army. Unfortunately even though he was able to speak it fluently, the army still didn’t take him. So, he decided to enlist in our British army as an intelligence officer after college. One day when I’m visiting him at his barracks, he tells me that he’s going to visit Ukraine and explore Chernobyl, see what’s left for it. Except he was going to take multiple trains to get there, in case Ukraine thinks he’s a spy if he books a plane.
I had no problem with that and just requested he message me on Facebook when he arrived. He didn’t tell his parents for obvious reasons, his mum would have freaked!. A few days later I finally get the message from him saying that he’s arrived. I just send a thumbs up in response since I was out with my girlfriend at the cinema just when the movie was starting, and I hate being one of those people who people get annoyed at for being on their phones during a movie. A few days later I got a video message from my best friend. In the video he’s looking panicked, and there’s voices in the background. He’s telling me that he found something in Chernobyl and now there’s some people after him. Just as it’s about to cut out, I see around 3 people in some gang Uniforms behind him.
I don’t know if he saw something he wasn’t supposed to, but given the videos nature, that’s definitely the case. I showed the video to our mutual friend, and was just as shocked as I was. He did give me an address though in Manchester, and explained that the guy is a business broker for crime groups across the world, and owns several successful businesses in India and Egypt to put up a front so people don’t question where his money came from. I decided to make the long drive to the address, and pull in front of a beautiful large house. When the door opened, a bald man who looked to be in his late 40s appeared. He was wearing a black turtleneck, grey smart jeans and tan brown pointed Oxfords. He looked at me like I was the most irritating person he’s ever met. Once I mentioned Jonathan’s disappearance, he let me in. The inside was gorgeous. Black and white checked marble tile, oak brown paneling walls, a grand staircase and crystal chandeliers.
He led me into his living room, poured me a glass of brandy, which I hate, always hated alcohol, but took the glass from him. He introduced himself as Ambrose Harrington. A former British-Serbian sniper soldier from the Yugoslavia war when the country accepted foreign fighters. He didn’t really divulge his criminal job, didn’t really talk about himself at all really. He said he knew Jonathan through a high ranking army friend who introduced Jonathan to Ambrose as the most ambitious officer he’s met.
When I told him about Jonathan going to Chernobyl, he didn’t seem surprised, nor did he seem surprised that he went missing, like he knew what happened. He revealed that he was a former SAS Soldier and had moved on to a more unique trade after seeing that he wasn’t ever going to move up, as the higher ups had their own favourites. As fascinating as all this was, I needed answers, I knew he knew what had happened, so I showed him the video. After it was done, he simply nodded, what he said literally made my hairs stand up.
” Those weren’t gang members in Chernobyl son….those were soldiers “