Fanis the Bodyguard episode 2 The Samurai

                Fanis has been hired by his younger cousin Kera to be her personal bodyguard.  Kera’s devotion to her job has made trust difficult for her.  As she rose through the ranks, her enemies got more numerous and more dangerous.  She needed Fanis because he was the closest person she could come to trust as he believed he owed her his life since she had helped him through the two worst times in his life.  The other thing that made Fanis perfect for the job is he had a general disdain for people so would be unconcerned that others working for Kera would resent him for his closeness. 

                Kera had paid for Fanis to become militarily trained and proficient in hand to hand combat and weaponry.  She in a sense turned him into a killer.  He always had the mentality to kill protecting Kera; Kera just gave him the means in which to do so.  They lived in London but travelled the world frequently.  Although they were both of Greek descent, Kera was fluent in Mandarin, Greek and English whereas Theo was fluent in Russian, Spanish, Italian, Greek, and English.  Despite how close Fanis was to Kera, he not only didn’t ask for the specifics of what she did but he outright refused to know.  To him, he wanted to believe that his little cousin was innocent and ignored any evidence to the contrary.  The most glaring of course, is that fact that she necessitated a bodyguard like him.  To Fanis, she was just an art dealer with a specialization in Chinese art.

                Kera and Fanis were in Nepal staying at a hotel in which if you stood on the balcony and looked down you could see clouds.  It was a surreal view and neither had been at that high of altitude before.  Kera had sold a rare Chinese artifact and the deal went off without a hitch.  The money was given in cash and Kera hand cuffed the duffel bag to Fani’s left arm as he needed his right arm to shoot.  Fanis always had a gun, a knife and a machete on him at all times.  The commute back to the hotel went uneventfully but they didn’t know that someone was watching.

                Both Kera and Fanis were very in tuned with American politics but on different sides of the political spectrum.  Kera was a liberal and Fanis a far-right conservative.  Kera said, “They keep leaking these Strzok and Page e-mails slowly but surely”

                Fanis responded, “It’s politics.  They need to cause the most amount of damage.  Think of if you were going to remove a tail from a cat.  You could cut the tail off in one swoop, that would be the least painful way to do it.  The most damaging way to do it would be to cut off a little bit of the tail, wait till the cat recovered from the pain and then cut a little more only to repeat the process several times.”

                “Sometimes I think you’re sadistic.  I mean who would even think to do that to a cat”

                “I would, they’re evil”

                “Fine, whatever, I love cats”

                Fanis smiled and said, “I know”

                “Well, back to the point, Strzok’s text says “Do we want Joe to go with Evanius instead of a Charlie for a variety of reasons’  Page responds ‘Would it be unusual to have (sic) show up again?  Maybe another agent from the team?’  What do you think that means?

                Strzok was the FBI’s lead investigator in the Hillary e-mail scandal and Trump’s Russian collusion.  Lisa Page was a lawyer for the FBI that was having an affair with Strzok.  Both were very open in their text messages about how much they hated Trump and laid out a plan to stop him from becoming President. 

                Fanis replied, “Well, I know that the FBI sent an agent to be a part of President Trump’s transition team.  Unlike most FBI agents aiding in a president’s transition, this one was not an expert on intelligence but an expert on sophisticated surveillance techniques.  Maybe Charlie or Evanius was the name of that agent.”

                “Well it says to not go with Charlie”

                “But Page said for him not to show up again.  That means he did before.  Problem is in the context, I’m not sure if she’s questioning Evanius pick or Charlie’s”

                “Page also keeps talking about ‘scrubbing’ the list, does that mean destroying evidence?  Why is it so important after Trump is officially elected?”

                “Well, scrubbing the list means comparing their list of confidential informants with the CIA, DOJ and other agencies.  Remember Obama was very well aware of the spying into Donald Trump’s campaign and other texts kept talking about how the White House was running it and that they had to come together with Brennan in the CIA and others and speak with one voice.  So, they needed to compare their sources with others.”

                “Why though?  Who cares?”

                “If they’re the same sources then their information is unverified because it was the same guy feeding information to different organizations.  You can’t verify your own information a third party has to.”

                “So, this isn’t just the FBI?”

                “I actually think Brennan and the CIA were the puppet masters.  It’s more them than anyone though they all played a role.  That’s why when Attorney General Bill Barr was in the congressional hearing he said ‘I’m not talking the FBI specifically but the intelligence agencies more broadly”

                “Agencies.  Plural”

                “Right”

                “How can the CIA be running it if the CIA isn’t responsible for domestic issues?  They’re an intelligence organization not a law enforcement agency.”

                “Which is why they needed the FBI’s help.  FBI is domestic and law enforcement but they had to trick them first.”

                “So the FBI may not be bad, they were just conned”

                “No, they’re still bad.  They did nothing to vet the information.  They let their personal hatred of Trump cloud their judgment and Brennan exploited that.”

                It was night time and Kera and Fanis were set to fly to Cyprus tomorrow morning.  These large payouts saw them traveling all over just to deposit money in various banks that didn’t like sharing information about their clients.  Kera had bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Cyprus among others.  As they were talking, a figure dressed in all black came crashing through the window.  He held a samurai sword and as soon as he landed, he swung the sword..  Kera had yet to react but Fanis pulled his machete out and lunged it toward Kera’s neck.  The sword slammed against the machete as the blunt side collided with Kera’s neck.  Fanis grabbed Kera’s arm with his left hand and yanked her toward the bed.  Fanis was 6’ 220lbs and Kera was 5’5” and slender so Fanis was able to toss her with ease.  Kera went flying back and fell on the bed rolling over it.  Unfortunately she was away from the door.  The masked man circled Fanis but Fanis only followed with his eyes as he wanted to ensure that he was between Kera and the samurai.  Fanis pulled out his gun with his left hand and took aim but the samurai slapped the gun with his sword.  Fanis maintained his grip but struck with the machete only to have the samurai swing the sword back blocking the blow and then turning the blade toward Fanis’ left hand again slicing the back of it forcing Fanis to drop the gun.  The samurai swung the katana and Fanis ducked and turned to the side swinging his arm back trying to slice the samurai’s leg.  The samurai, instead, lifted his leg avoiding the blow and kicked Fanis in the chest.  The samurai realizing that Fanis was out of his way leapt in the air toward Kera but Fanis dove towards him intercepting him in midair driving his shoulder into the samurai’s midsection and tackling him to the ground.  With the mount position, Fanis tried swinging the machete towards him but the samurai brought the katana blocking the blow again.  The samurai got his legs under Fanis and hoisted him up continually blocking the attempt of Fanis to end the fight. 

                Kera was scared.  She had no idea what to do as the fight was going on between her and the exit.  She contemplated the balcony where the samurai came in but thought that would make her trapped.  She hopped over the second bed furthest from the fight and crouched behind it.  When the samurai was in midair, Kera thought it was over but Fanis tackled him and now they were struggling on the ground.  Kera saw this as her opportunity and she hopped over the beds and scurried to the door opening it and exiting while Fanis and the samurai were still vying for position on the ground. 

                Back at the fight, the samurai bent his knees lowering Fanis and then kicked them out flinging Fanis over him and crashing against the wall.  Fanis dropped the machete and the samurai got to his feet and hurried toward the door.  Fanis slapped the samurai’s heel and watched it twist colliding with his other foot tripping him to the ground.  Fanis picked up his machete and turned charging the samurai.  The samurai struck his katana toward Fanis who intercepted it with his machete.  The Samurai quickly turned into Fanis and head butted him in the nose.  Fanis backed away and the Samurai spun around kicking his leg high and across Fanis’ face knocking him down.  The Samurai then hopped onto the balcony and swung down to the level below.  By the time Fanis got out on the balcony to see where he was, he was gone.  He took out his phone and called Kera.

                Kera had rushed to the front desk and got a room.  Soon, she had keys to a room that didn’t have a balcony.  The receptionist typed some keys on the keyboard and they found her a room.  They asked if she still wanted the room she had and Kera agreed.  She went up to her new room and shut the door locking it.  She felt so exposed but she didn’t really have any options.  She didn’t know what waited outside the hotel.  She waited contemplating her next move.  After a while, her phone rang.  Kera answered and heard Fanis say out of breath in Greek, “I’m okay.”

                Kera responded in Greek, “Did you kill him?”

                “No, he jumped out the window and left.”

                “Okay, so what now?”

                “What room are you in?”

                Kera gave him the room number.  She knew that no amount of torture would make him give her up especially not this quickly.  Speaking Greek was the safest way they knew to keep eavesdroppers from knowing what they were saying.  Fanis said, “Alright, I’ll be right there.”

                Despite them being careful by speaking Greek, they trusted nothing.  Fanis packed the things in the room and went down to the front desk and inquired about another room.  They gave him one and he went there.  This was pre-planned.  They had to make sure nobody was following him to Kera.  He waited an hour before he went to Kera’s room.  Kera gave him a big hug when she saw him as the last hour seemed like a lifetime for her.  Fanis had the gun out and even kept it in his hand when he got ready for bed and went to sleep. 

                The next day, Kera and Fanis boarded the plane to Cyprus.  On the plane, Kera said, “So what do you think about your fellow Republican Richard Burr giving a subpoena to Donald Trump Jr.”

                “He’s a joke”

                “But he is a Republican and the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee”

                “Make no mistake about it the Democrat Mark Werner is the head of that committee”

                “What do you mean?”
                “Burr is a swamp rat Republican.  So used to being scared of the Democrats calling them names so they beg for the scraps that the police state tyrant Democrats will give to them.  Burr is Werner’s bitch.  The Democrats are basically saying, ‘look what we did to the most powerful man in the world, what do you think we’ll do to you’ and the swamp rat, piece of shit, pussy Republicans cry and say, ‘no, please, I’ll do whatever you want.”

                Kera giggled, “Whoa what do you really feel?” she said sarcastically and then continued, “Fine, what about Mark Werner?”

                “He set up meetings with Christopher Steele when it was released about how Steele wrote the dossier.  They were probably talking about what their cover story was.  He also was a lobbyist for Russian oligarch billionaires.  He’s deeply involved in this scandal so he wants to cover it up.  Since Mueller failed, he’s trying to succeed because his neck is much more out than Mueller’s.  In typical Democrat fashion, he’s projecting.  Werner colluded with Russian billionaires so he accuses Trump of it.”

                “But it’s behind closed doors so what harm does it cause for Trump Jr. to just go?”
                “The Senate Intell Committee leaks constantly.  Look at all the other closed door testimonies that leaked.  There’s no way it would stay confidential.  What’s worse is that the leaks won’t be able to be negated because we don’t have the real testimony.  Honestly, it would be better if it was public so that when the media lies about what was said, people can see for themselves.”

                “When? Not if?
                “Look at the Mueller report.  It was released to the public and still people are grasping at straws that there’s collusion.  They cherry pick things in the report and leave out the stuff that disproves their theory.”

                “Well what is the subpoena for anyway?”

                “What he knew about Trump’s thought to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.”

                “Did that even happen?”

                “No”

                “So what’s the problem?”

                “Exactly, a proposal to build a building that was never built is worthy of treason but when Russians give Bill Clinton $ 500,000 to give a speech when his wife is the Secretary of State is completely fine.  No need to investigate that but an international real estate tycoon trying to build a building in a different country and then not doing it is damning.  The double standard sickens me.”

                Kera and Fanis deposit some of the money in the bank and then hung out in Cyprus for a couple days before flying to Switzerland to deposit more.  They went a bar in Geneva and started drinking.  Kera said, “How’s your hand?”

                Fanis looked at his left hand that was scarred from the gash from the sharpest type of sword in the world.  He said, “It’s fine.”

                Kera frowned and said, “Yea, never show weakness, guy code right?”
                “Something like that”

                They were speaking in English and a couple came up to them and said, “Ah, Americans”

                Based on their accents, Kera and Fanis knew they were Americans too.  They said hi and Kera invited them to join them.  Kera says, “So what brings you to Geneva?”

                The girl says, “Well with all the craziness back home, we needed to get away from all this internal fighting in the government.”

                Fanis smiled and said, “The entire world is interested in American politics, you can’t escape it,”

                The guy laughed nervously and the girl glared at him.  He said, “That’s actually what we realized”

                Theo said, “I’m sorry, I suck at names, what are your names?”

                The guy said, “James” and the girl said, “Chloe”

                “Nice to meet you” Fanis said and it was returned,

                James said, “What do you think is going to come about this Contempt of Congress charge Jerry Nadler put on Barr.”

                Fanis rolled his eyes and said, “For what?”

                “Redacting some of the Mueller Report”

                “That’s ridiculous.  For one, the Mueller report is like 90% online and Barr invited six high ranking Democrats to see it in a SCiF and they refused”

                Chloe said, “What’s a SCIF”

                “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility.  You go there to see classified documents.  You can’t take the documents out, you can’t give them to anyone else.  You are just given the information and you’re sworn to secrecy, which we’ve already seen means nothing nowadays since nobody gets arrested for criminal leaks.”

                “Well, when they asked him for his notes on the Mueller report he flat out said ‘no’”

                “Which he’s legally allowed to do.”

                “Why though?”

                “None of their business and they don’t know how to keep things classified unless, of course, it’s damaging to Obama or Clinton.”

                “You’re not curious what’s in the redactions?”

                “Of course I am.  Just like I want to see what’s in the redaction of the FISA warrants. Just like I want to see the redacted text messages from Strzok and Page.  Basically I want everything redacted but that doesn’t mean classified hearing shouldn’t stay classified and leaks should not happen.

“Hard nowadays”

“Still culpable, sometimes you just have to be an adult.”

“I don’t know, I think he should just declassify the whole Mueller report.  What’s the big deal?

                “For one, it’s illegal.”

                James said, “What is?”
                “Declassifying everything.  Grand Jury testimony, which is in the Mueller Report, cannot be released to the public by law.  It’s Rule 6E in the Articles of Confederation.”

                Chloe said, “Why?”

                “Witnesses need to stay anonymous so that people don’t harass them and those in power don’t threaten them.  Barr didn’t have to release the report at all let alone release the report and redact the things he’s required to redact by law.  But, lobby Trump to declassify everything.  God knows we’ve been waiting a long time for it. 

                Kera said, “Still, it’s a little suspicious that the AG is so buddy buddy with the President.  I mean, attorney generals before weren’t like this.”

                Fanis’ voice raised and he said, “What are you talking about?  Eric Holder, when he was with Obama refused to turn over Fast and Furious documents.  It took like 200 or 300 days before Congress issued contempt of congress charges.  It only took 10 for the Democrats.  Then mainstream media were outraged, Chris Matthews called it stop and frisk, Maddow said that it was Fox News corruption and everyone else was soaking it in not realizing they were being brainwashed.  They all called it a political stunt but now it’s legit?  Give me a break.”

                Chloe said, “What do you have against Eric Holder?”

                Fanis said, “I think I just answered that but I’ll keep going.  He called himself Obama’s wingman so if anyone is sucking up to the President that hired him, it’s Holder.  He also called America a nation of cowards but given how nobody is standing up to the police state tyrants that is the Democratic party, that may be true.  Holder had DOJ monitor reporters’ communications and used the government jet to take his family to the Belmont Stakes.  All that is worse than Barr redacting a documents he’s legally obligated to redact.”

                Chloe said, “Yea, I guess we just can’t trust men.  We should get a woman to be AG”

                Fanis said, “We already had Loretta Lynch”

                Chloe said, “Oh yea, well….I don’t know”

                “She’s shitty too.  She met with Bill Clinton on a tarmac while the DOJ is pretending to investigate Hillary’s e-mails.  They were probably working on a quid pro quo.  They claim it was an accident that they were each on a plane traveling at the same time.  The secret service makes sure they know where you are and where everyone that may associate with you is.  This was a planned meeting.”
                Kera and Fanis left.  They returned back to London where Kera immediately had people working for her try to find out who attacked them and why.  Her IT people immediately tried hacking the cameras of the hotel and said they would search for an answer.  An intern named Patricia said to Fanis, “Stacey Abrams is fighting back with how she had the election stolen from her.”

                “She’s just pissed that even Oprah couldn’t help her win.”

                “It could happen”

                “It’s possible but who was suppressed from voting?”

                “Blacks and Hispanics”

                “Why because of their skin color?  How is it enforced?”

                “Photo ID requirement”

                “So, you’re saying Blacks and Hispanics are too dumb to know where to get the license.”

                “No, it’s just that they don’t how society works”

                “Do you hear yourself?  Do you know how racist that sounds?”

                Patricia says,“No, I’m just saying….well…whatever, it’s rigged against them?”

                “So, how do you explain that the Census Bureau said that the black vote was 27% higher than it was in 2014?  Also, the Hispanic vote increased by 50% than in 2014.  So if we tried to limit it and suppress the vote, we did a very shitty job of it!  Pew research said that all minority and racial groups saw an increase in voter turnout in 2018.”.

                “I don’t want to talk about this anymore” 

                “Yea because you don’t have a leg to stand on.”

                Patricia walked away and Fanis went to his office.  It didn’t take long for Kera and Fanis to be back in a hotel room.  They had adjoining rooms as Kera’s didn’t have a balcony.  In the middle of the night, the samurai was back.  He snuck into Fanis’ room through the balcony door.  Fanis said, “You know you’re getting very predictable”

                The samurai dropped his katana and put up his fists.  Fanis stood there with his machete in hand.  He threw it to the side and circled the Samurai.  The samurai went in for a punch and Fanis blocked it. There was a whirl of strikes and counter strikes that were blocked until Fanis finally connected on a blow to the samurai’s face.  The samurai backed up from the jab and Fanis swung his right hand getting his hip behind him and landed the punch squarely on the samurai’s face.  The samurai spun with the punch and when his back was turned to Fanis, he darted his leg back into Fanis’ solar plexus.  Fanis bent down from the blow as the breath left his body.  The samurai lifted his right leg and crashed his heel against the back of Fanis’ neck and Fanis went down face first.  Fanis was unconscious.  The samurai picked up his katana and opened the adjoining door adjoining the two rooms.  The samurai stealthily opened the second door that led to Kera’s room.  As he skulked through a stiffened sound was heard.  Everything went dark to match the lightless rooms. 

                Fanis woke up to Kera crouched over him pouring water on his forehead.  She had his feet elevated.  Fanis smiled and said, “So it worked?”

                “Yes, it worked but it would have been better if you could just beat him”

                “Sorry, I’m not the greatest fighter in the world”

                Kera smiled and said, “What do you mean?  You’re alive, he’s dead.  He won the battle, you won the war.”

                “Yea, he didn’t think I’d rig a gun to go off if that door was opened.  Where’s the body?”

                Kera motioned her head to the side and Fanis followed her eyes and saw a now exposed Japanese man.  Fanis said, “Do you know him?”

                “No, but Japanese and Chinese have a long history of hate.”

                “Yea, I know about the rape of Nanking.  I still have never seen or heard anything more barbaric than what the Japanese did to the Chinese during that time.  Movies nor real life can match those atrocities.”

                “I agree but we don’t have to worry about him anymore.  Thank you for saving my life.”

                “It’s my job kid”

                “Kera called a clean up crew to dispose of the body.  Kera and Fanis both went to Kera’s room to let the crew work in Fanis’ room that had the dead body.  The next day Kera returned to London with Fanis.  They relaxed at home and slept much more peacefully knowing that the threat was gone.