((Yes, I'm still alive. I decided it's high time that I pick this up again and found that I had half a chapter written and finished in mid-sentence. Fun fact: I've also got a good portion of a chapter near the very end ready and waiting. It's just the stuff in between I need to work out, particularly what side one of my OCs will ultimately be on.

The chapter heading is taken from the song Senzafine by Lacuna Coil and means I choose my fate.))

Chapter 7
Il mio destino scelgo

Frank looked at himself in the mirror early the next morning and decided that he'd have to come clean to Johanna. He didn't look remotely hungover. They met her at the front of the hotel, witnessing a minor commotion involving one of the attack chickens and the travelling group's poor, beset tour guide. 'So, what was that about again?' Frank asked once they were safely inside Johanna's car.

The woman huffed. 'That idiot told him that she plans to demand reparations.'

'For what?'

'I'll tell you. And from whom should be the question you ask yourself. Take a good look at the houses, the cars, and the people in the streets and yell if you find one that could pay reparations to anyone.'

Frank did as he was told. It became clear what she meant pretty soon. Some of the houses looked pretty run down, most people were driving cars that wouldn't be allowed on Scotland's roads, and the battered state of their clothes told a story of its own. 'Where are we going, even?' he asked.

'The local rehab clinic.'

'Very funny.'

'What sort of stunt did you pull last night, exactly? I thought you were joking when you said you'd get drunk.'

'Hell, I don't even know when I was drunk the last time,' Frank told her. 'No. It was an act all right. But a little later I might have some answers about your vanished homepage, or at least if there's any of the data on your husband's computer. And I can use my laptop now to access your intranet.'

'How?'

Adam snorted. 'Trust me. You don't want to know.'

'I have a question, though. Who owns the company?'

'My mother.'

'How likely is she to sue me if we get caught?'

Johanna shook her head. 'She wouldn't. Not if I told her I paid you to do this, no matter how much she trusts Ilya.'

'Good. Because I tried jail. I don't care to repeat the experience.'

They had left Apatin behind. According to the last sign they'd passed, they were on the way to a place called Sombor. It looked like they were heading into the middle of nowhere. 'Ah … where are we actually going?'

'Kruševlje.'

Frank snorted. 'Bless you.'

Johanna grinned. 'What do you know about the history of this area?'

'Nothing whatsoever. I didn't even know it exists until recently.'

'Apatin was a German settlement during Maria Theresa's reign. Short version, after World War II, all those Germans living here were assumed guilty of everything and driven into what amounts to concentration camps. Their property, all they'd built, went to people that were moved here. People that had no idea at all how to work a farm or a knitting factory, so you can imagine how that worked out. The Swabians, they had to walk from Apatin to where we're driving now in a couple of days. They had been told to bring clothes and food for two days. They were searched, and if they had valuables they'd neglected to surrender, they were shot on the spot. The kids and old people died, at least most of them, during the march.

'Our destination is one huge mass grave. And the village that was there a ghost town. That is why that woman wants reparations. Now before you think that she's making sense, savour this slowly. This woman, who wasn't born here, who has no true connection to the place, wants reparations from people decades younger than her, who have zero to do with what happened then. It's idiotic. What's done here is done, and they can't undo it. And the lifestyle they have now is way better than the one here.'

'I've honestly never heard of any of this.' Adam shook his head. 'I mean, I know quite a bit about history, but this …'

'Most of the evidence was destroyed. This was nowhere near the same scale as the crimes of Hitler Germany. Historically, what was done here, is irrelevant. Hell, to me and my family it's irrelevant. It's a no-brainer that the lot that live here now can't and shouldn't be asked to pay for something that was done by others who are long dead themselves. These two attack chickens and their ilk have been brought up by bitter people that passed all that bitterness on to their offspring, and they don't have enough intelligence to think for themselves.' Johanna frowned slightly. 'We're reaching Gakovo soon. There was another camp there, but you won't see anything of that. There's a memorial at the graveyard. One of the few. There are some people who place flowers and the like. But mostly, it's all forgotten. And if you ask me, that's just as well.'

Ϡ

The further away they got from Apatin, the more forsaken the area became. A while ago, Francis had started his laptop and was now hunched over it a position that hurt Adam's back out of sympathy. Kruševlje wasn't even indicated by a sign. Once they reached it, according to Johanna, it occurred to Adam, why. There was almost nothing left. A couple of houses, most of them in a state close to collapse. Francis spared it a brief glance out of the window, shook his head, and buried himself in whatever he was doing again. There wasn't a single soul on the road. 'How many people live here?' Adam asked.

'Now? 17. Once, it had over a thousand inhabitants.'

'Not what I'd call a metropolis, but still hard to imagine.'

Johanna took a right turn at one point, driving into what looked like a forest. 'We're now driving over the mass graves, pretty much literally.'

'Why, you've chosen a cheerful place for your company,' Francis said, proving that he was perfectly capable of working and keeping track of a conversation. Not for the first time, Adam noticed that the man's mind was exceptional.

'It was very cheap.' There was a hint of amusement in Johanna's tone.

Francis snorted. 'I can imagine. I've got to tell Abi about this. It has a lot of potential for a horror novel.'

'You're pretty cheerful, considering. Got something, Francis?'

'Yes. Your homepage isn't as gone as you thought, Jo. It's archived, and quite a lot of it. That means, most of it, we can salvage.'

'Amazing.'

Francis looked at her with an expression that nearly made Adam laugh, but he controlled himself. 'Who is responsible for your IT? Ilya?'

'Yes.'

'Get someone else. This was … completely banal. It was right there. In the internet archive. It's even called internet archive. It has images of billions of webpages stored, and you don't need a hacker to look things up on it.' He closed the notebook with an audible snap as the car slowed to a stop in front of a dismal grey building. 'What the hell is this place?'

'Our factory.' She exited the car and the couple followed after exchanging a glance. Francis kept his laptop tucked under his arm and seemed utterly disinclined to leave it out of sight. 'There is a … problem. Our family business had the licenses to sell augments but not to develop them. But that is what we did and advertised and that is why I wasn't all that interested in getting the website back online at once. I mean … if someone had looked too closely, we might have been shut down. Now we have all the paperwork done, we can put the website back up. But I suspect that someone stole data from us. Can you figure that out? Even if we were never connected to the outside?'

'You think someone of your own company stole data? To what end?'

Johanna shrugged. 'To sell it? To drive us to bankruptcy and take over with all the information? And I tell you this was Ilya.'

Francis looked unconvinced to Adam. 'I'll take a look at your network and later at his computer. So far, I haven't found much, but that isn't saying an awful lot.'

'Well.' Johanna shrugged. 'Mostly, your presence here is to show you off. You are, after all, my new employees. So you get the tour and on it you can bug whatever you want in any way you see fit.'

Ϡ

Frank ignored much of Adam and Johanna's conversation and just took the place in. Johanna led them from the first to the fourth and uppermost floor and informed them that they stored parts in the cellar. Adam's expression was open and friendly as she explained how their business had been born from an import/export company. Frank noted that she got a little friendlier than Adam liked with casual touches to his arms. When she was cornered by one of her employees, he took him aside. 'That woman has a crush on you. Or at least wants to get into your pants.'

Adam scowled. 'You cannot possibly be jealous.'

Frank clicked his tongue. 'Don't be ridiculous. If you can stomach it, humour her. I want her guard down. She's hiding something.'

'You noticed the stairs?'

'The … I have no idea what you're …'

'Come on, Francis,' Adam interrupted in a hearty tone he never used in his life. 'Let a man live a little.'

The hacker cursed inwardly and decided to vent some of his brief shock into action. Someone with a social enhancer would read that his heart rate had spiked, so there wouldn't be any incongruity. He poked Adam's chest. 'You know what, you do what you want anyway. Why do I bother?' He shot Johanna a sour look that wasn't entirely fake and Adam chuckled. 'When can we go back?' Frank asked.

'Well, I wanted to take you out for dinner. There's this wonderful little eatery just a stone throw from here.'

'Yes,' said Adam.

'No,' said Francis. He glowered at Adam. 'You can go, but I want to go home. Is there a bus that I can take back to Apatin?'

Johanna eyed him with a note of amusement to her eyes. 'No, but we can drop you off at the Zlatna kruna.'

'Fine. I'll just finish up in the IT department and wait by the door.'

'Francis …'

'Later. Just … go.' He allowed himself a smirk when he was out of sight. This was way better. The techs expected him and the less Johanna watched him, the better. He might explore a little and see if he found the stairs Adam had mentioned while Adam would have an easier time coaxing something out of Johanna without him there. The nagging feeling that something was wrong wouldn't leave him alone and he just wanted out of this entire country as fast as possible.