Irina Jelavić was a bit surprised when someone assembled her into there. When she walked in, there was something welcoming her into the mysterious building.
…
…
…
"Шуми Марица
окървавена,
плаче вдовица
люто ранена.
Шуми Марица
окървавена,
плаче вдовица
люто ранена."
(Maritsa rushes,
stained with blood,
A widow wails,
fiercely wounded.
Maritsa rushes,
stained with blood,
A widow wails,
fiercely wounded.)
Someone surprisingly opened their account by singing a song. When he sang, it was like a marching song. Then, after that, few other men chorused together with the mysterious man.
"Марш, марш,
с генерала наш!
В бой да летим,
враг да победим!
Марш, марш,
с генерала наш!
В бой да летим,
враг да победим!"
(March, march,
with our general,
Let's fly into battle
and crush the enemy!
March, march,
with our general,
Let's fly into battle
and crush the enemy!)
Irina was a bit freaky when she listened the song, however, for a Serb, or specifically, Croatian Serb, she was a bit surprised to hear it. However, with these men, it was a patriotic and proud hymn of them.
Then, a man stood out from the dark, and said:
"Седни, Ирина Йелавич." (Sit down, Irina Jelavić.)
She recognized the voice. It was a pure voice from Bulgaria, indicating that those who called her were Bulgarians as a whole. She did understand Bulgarian, and responded:
"Кой си ти така или иначе?" (Who are you anyway?)
Light turned on, as she found herself in the chair, not being hurt by anything but surrounding her was, a lot of heavy bodyguards and mercenaries, all well-armed, trained. In front of her, a man who lost his left eye, appeared to be, a bit 40 years old by age.
He was quite strong a perhaps, a veteran.
"Казвам се Цветан Маринов." (My name is Tsvetan Marinov.)
Behind him, Tsvetan Marinov, was a Bulgarian flag, but as Irina is a Serb, she understood the risk of sitting with Bulgarian mercenaries. She used to listen about the Bulgarians, who were among the most brutal mercenaries in the Yugoslav War. As many of them fought for Croatian Army against the Serbian Army, it gave a very bad feeling. The cold feeling existed.
Tsvetan's explanation was no exception.
"Когато бях в Югославия, винаги съм обичал да убивам сърбите. Всъщност аз убих много сърби по време на войната и спасих нашите хърватски братя от варварското правителство на Слободан Милошевич." (When I was in Yugoslavia, I had always loved slaughtering Serbs. In fact, I killed a lot of Serbs during the war, and saving our Croatian brothers from the barbaric Government of Slobodan Milošević.)
Tsvetan was quick to take out a kukri knife, a typical Nepalese Gorkha knife. In there, it still had some dried blood, proven how brutal he was. Irina was quick to respond from these:
"Претпостављам да сте ме звали тамо јер желите показати ко је ваш надређени." (I guess you called me there because you want to show who is your superior.)
Although she responded in Serbian, Serbian and Bulgarian languages are very close, so it was not a problem for Tsvetan to understand, especially Tsvetan did learn Serbian language.
"Да, и чак сам покушао убити твог брата." (Yes, and I even tried to kill your brother.)
The moment Tsvetan answered Irina, Irina's face burnt to fire. She thought that he wanted to challenge her patience, so she decided to aim the pistol into Tsvetan's face. Tsvetan's bodyguards immediately reacted, they took their guns into her head, some even threatened: "Let him go, or you will become headless." It was a bit frightening in the moment where assassins and mercenaries sat together.
Yet, Tsvetan spoke with a typical cigarette: "Слез долу, братя мои. Не съм разказал достатъчно историята. Ирина, трябваше да слушаш повече." (Come down, my brothers. I have not told enough the story. Irina, you should have listened more.) What made Tsvetan extremely resilient was, he got used to it, and never feared it. Years getting hardship seeing how his dad and mom got beaten by communist authorities for being dissidents prior to 1990s smelt him to become a warrior. Thus, he feared nothing about it.
He calmed Irina, immediately touched her hand and put it down slowly, like never happened. However, when his hand touched on Irina's pistol hand, she felt a kind of strength of a man, it was so strong that no one could resist.
"Не, не може бити …" (No, it cannot be …)
"Родителите ми бяха затворници в комунистическа килия, не ми беше позволено да се срещам с родителите си. Да се разболееш на младежта, да живееш извън клетката само с кражба на хляб. Едва след 1990 г., когато българското комунистическо правителство падна, ние се събрахме отново, но трагедията беше толкова, че баща ми умря от рак, майка ми по-късно също се присъедини към баща ми, който ме напусна по-късно, не ми предложиха нищо. Все още се научих да пиша, да чета свободно и да се проявявам като войник. Това е трудна работа, дъщеря." (My parents were prisoners in communist cell, I was not allowed to meet my parents. Getting bullied at youth, living outside the cell with only stealing bread. Only after 1990, when the Bulgarian Communist Government fell, we reunited, but the tragedy was so much that my dad died by cancer, my mom later also joined my dad leaving me away later year, I was not offered anything. Yet, I still learnt to write, to read fluently, and to manifest myself as a soldier. This is a hard job, daughter.)
That was a tough time for Tsvetan, and this might have influenced him to become extremely ruthless. For Tsvetan, his love for his parents remained something never be replaced, but their deaths seemed to touch on his anger. This was when he went to Yugoslavia, became a fighter there when the war began.
Then, Tsvetan told Irina something, while Irina was struggling to gain control.
"Когато се опитах да убия брат си, изведнъж осъзнах, че събра нещо подобно на детството ми …" (When I tried to kill your brother, I suddenly realized, he gathered something similar to my childhood …)
From this time, Irina got surprised when Tsvetan mentioned back …
…
#####
1990s
Croatia
Young Tsvetan Marinov, 23 years old, was running with a group of Bulgarian soldiers. They were registered as "mercenaries", although in reality they fought for Croatian Army. Tsvetan, although just 23, assumed his leadership very fast and proved to be a brutal person.
"Убий и нека никой не е жив! Вземи го?" (Kill and let nobody alive! Get it?)
He killed and murdered any Serbian civilians in Croatia, as an act of vengeance for his Croatian friends fallen in the war. His extreme ruthless got him a reward by Serbian nationalists who claimed to behead Tsvetan in response.
He learned history well. Bulgaria and Serbia didn't have good relations in the past, wars between Bulgaria and Serbia were so commons. In 12-13th century, the Bulgarians conquered Serbia twice. The same in WWI and WWII when Bulgaria continued to attack and harass Serbs, and this manifested Serbian view on Bulgarians are Mongolic Tatars. Anti-Bulgarian sentiment was issued by Serbian and later Yugoslav authorities erupted extreme anti-Bulgarian view among Serbs during the war.
Tsvetan, on his laugh, yelled:
"Хърватски убити, стотици сърби трябва да умрат! България над всичко! Za dom, spremni!" (A Croatian killed, hundreds of Serbs must die! Bulgaria above all! For the country, get ready!)
His soldiers yelled together, celebrated with him when he slaughtered any Serbs.
The Croatian high command was divided about Tsvetan. The more liberal command condemned Tsvetan and demanded him to be removed from Croatian Army, fearing it would damage Croatia's reputation and not all Serbs should be massacred. The more radical command considered Tsvetan as a Croatian hero, telling that Bulgaria and Croatia are natural allies, brothers against Serbian terrorism.
On this occasion, Tsvetan, together with a Croatian division, was hunting about a boy who had killed two Croatian assassins. Then, they heard a voice in Serbian.
This moment, not waiting so long, the Bulgarians responded: "Налице е сръбски! Вземи ги! Клане ги всичките!" (There is a Serb! Get them! Slaughter them all!)
They chased behind. All of them were chasing. The young boy was running away very fast and he was carrying a knife. Seeing him at the moment was a tough test, they spared into group and group, hoping to find out the boy.
"Spariti! Ubit ćemo ga!" (Spare out! We will hunt him down!)
Those Bulgarian and Croatian soldiers were hunting, as the boy was hiding. However, no one was so close to the boy like Tsvetan. He smelt the person there.
Tsvetan laughed hard: "Този мъртъв сърбин, добро месо за храна и храна." (This dead Serb, a good meat to take and eat.)
Tsvetan was finding the boy, when the boy was keeping his knife on. Understanding that was the time, he decided to cut a tree, turning it into an arrow shortly before Tsvetan found out. When Tsvetan was walking into there …
The boy slowly …
…
…
"Узми, ти прљавог пса!" (Take, you dirty dog!)
Tsvetan was quick to hide from the wooden arrow, but he was not aware with the knife the boy had in his hand. The knife, however, crossed a strait strike into one of his eye.
And in the end, he could only see one side of it.
It was a hit!
"Какво? Какво ми направи?" (What? What have you done to me?)
The red blood flew out from the left eye, and this time, he was truly injured. Then, the boy, before running away again, yelled:
"Држи се даље од мене, од моје сестре. Сада сам све изгубио." (Stay away from me, from my sister. I have lost everything now.)
While Tsvetan was still trying to cover his eye, his other eye on the right realized the boy had something similar to his trait before. After then, the boy kept running away, while other Bulgarian and Croatian soldiers finally found him. They were shocked that he got hit in left eye.
"Невъзможен! Трябва ли да следваме момчето?" (Impossible! Should we keep following the boy?)
Shocked, but Tsvetan also found many similarities between him with the little Serbian boy. In amidst of pressure to follow, suddenly he raised an order:
"Пусни го! Няма да го преследваме днес." (Let him go! We will not chase him today.)
"Но защо?" (But why?) Another soldier asked. However, Tsvetan ordered not to talk. They carried him out after the sudden attack.
But what hindered on Tsvetan was an extremely surprising act. For the first time, he let a Serb alive, for some reasons unknown. But he would never recover from the wound and lost his left eye, which would be seen today …
…
#####
Now
In an unknown warehouse, on an unidentified location, Tsvetan told what had gone.
Losing left eye, and then he realized her and the boy had similar trait, he requested to make a clear draft because a friend and rival of him had brought the boy to the United States, naturalizing him into a Serbian American.
Then, he told:
"One of my friends had brought the boy to the United States, to Chicago, where he was naturalized to become an American and had been kept away from these stories aftermath to enroll as an American boy for years until graduation, and disappeared. Then suddenly, I heard about a transfer teacher who was assigned for teaching English in Japan, which I tried to locate similarities between. And it was you."
Irina was shocked. This time too shock to know about it. Tsvetan, how could he know?
"I basically forgave him, because I understood that, he had a struggling hardship. When I identified with the DNA of the boy he left before running away as he had many severe injuries, I believed he was your brother."
"Wait, you mean … Željko?"
"Oh, so the boy is Željko. Beautiful name isn't it?" Tsvetan smiled: "And then, I asked one of Lovro's right hand, and he confirmed that you have a lost brother whom you never met back."
"So, he was … brought to the United States, becoming American, trained and educated in Chicago and kept out from these until the age of 18?"
"Yes." Tsvetan stated firm: "But now, from my intelligence, I believed he was in Libya and planning to go to Yemen, enrolling with Houthis and Saudi Army. He, same as you, is an assassin."
"My brother is … an assassin, too?" Irina explained: "But, why? Why don't have anything about him for years?"
"Because his life was kept in secret. Yet, I was glad to speak to you these. After becoming an assassin, he bought weapons from the Vongola family to become a mass and extremely trained assassin. In his raze of blood, he had murdered plenty of specific people. The Iranians, Albanians and Turks had intended to hunt him down, only got itself killed by him. He became a specific profiled assassin everyone feared."
Tsvetan's explanation went deeper when he gave the photo. In this photo, it was him being captured by camera in Sudan, 2015. He had a yellow-haired, perhaps believed to make up change to cover his identity, with an American Cherookee knife and a Zastava gun behind, covering with sun glasses killing a group of Sudanese Army officers in the Darfur war, including the head of a decapitated high-ranking officer.
Then, she asked:
"His hair looked not the same. When he was a kid, he had a brown-hair."
"Modern day has changed these. He could cover his hair by make up." Tsvetan told: "He believed make up his hair would give him an easier undercover than trying to be revealed."
After that, Irina was surprised to know about her brother. Overall, he was in Libya, the pic was taken last in Sudan, her brother often covered by changing hairstyles, it seemed to be something brief.
Moreover, she did have something to get over. She loved his brother and would do anything. Then, she asked:
"How can I get entry to Yemen?"
"You need a smuggler, girl. Yemen is blockaded. There would be no activities to Yemen until the end of the war. This poor country is attracting assassins from across the world hunting bounties. Even you could become a target. So remember, you could try, but don't end there headless."
Tsvetan's warning was clear, but he promised that, he would make contact if he got it too. He would love to see this.
On Irina's side, she finally found what had to happen. And so be it, it must be continued …
She needed to find her brother back, and Tsvetan's source might be able to discover …