Chapter 1

He was sitting at the floor of his hotel room watching the news on his MacBook. The madness that was happening on the street wasn't a surprise to him. Growing up in Saint-Petersburg during the collapse of the Soviet Union was the perfect preparation for the hysteria that has been going on for the past couple of months in US and some other countries that were eager to call themselves progressive.

In the times where most people got too lazy to prove any facts or being interested in history of their own country - Big Lie has once again become the favorite instrument of today's media machine.

It has been perfected to such an extent that the truth has become so surreal that most people are either don't believe it or are afraid of believing it. The "warriors of the light" - the liberal mass going around the world speaking only in "Losungs" without even feeling a need of think for themselves or at least try to analyze what they hear and read.

Funny enough the term "Big Lie" being attributed to Joseph Goebbels is itself the product of a lie. Joseph was inspired by the more liberal Brits:

The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

Big or small will be decided by the history if it won't be rewritten, what has been the trend introduced by the smaller countries becoming free from the evil empires aka. deliberately decided to be enslaved for the bigger sums of money by Uncle Sam - the Uncle of weak and fragile liberal representatives of any country in the world that grew up watching super hero movies and reading comic books lookup up to the "country of endless possibilities" that marches all around the world sweeping all the corpses it's producing along the way under the rug.

He needed a coffee. Years and years of sleepless nights and long-haul flights got him addicted - but it was an addiction he enjoyed and carefully nurtured. The sun was setting down and the city started to look nicer.

He looked out of the window. The crackhead was still hanging around at the bus stop directly under his window. Free market - even for drugs - the money engine of the western society. The sight of the Federal Building in the dusk across the street reminded him of the original Blade Runner movie.

Ok, time to move. He closed his MacBook, took the keys and the wallet and get out of the room.

Outside it was warm, humid and smelled like weed and piss - significant smell of SF. If there was an official fragrance of SF - it should have had these 2 ingredients.

He didn't took his phone with him to be more alert and to not have an additional level of potential distraction - even if they will try to get hold of him, they can wait.

He decided to take the Mission Street towards the harbor. There was a coffee shop on the way that he visited when he was here last time to start the operation Telemost.

That wasn't an official name - there are no official names. Do people really think secret services (at least the serious ones) do give names to their operations. Nobody wants to leave any traces and giving your covert a name just give you less way out. It would stick very fast and everyone would start using it - you know "people" talk.

The coffee shop wasn't around anymore, so he grabbed his coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee and walked further down the Mission Street to the harbor.

Growing up in Leningrad - the city built in the worst part of the Russian Empire on more than 30 islands, he always felt drawn to the cities built on water. The time spent in Hamburg only contributed to it.

He reached the pier and turned left - he needed a longer walk. Althogh he was pretty deep in his thoughts he had the feeling that someone is following him.

He didn't take his phone with him, so UBER wasn't an option. "Even better so, he thought". He knew he could get nervous and who knows what the UBER drive would be able to remember.

Walking along the pier, he was thinking about the ways to find out whether someone was following him or not. The easiest way was to walk into the coffee shop or a bar to see if the guy will follow him inside or maybe stay outside and wait for him.

He decide to get to Embarcadero and go to one of the cafes or bars that were still open. He entered the Market Bar and sat down at the table at the window to see if his new friend will follow him inside. Nobody followed. The waitress came to his table and as he was ordering his coffee, someone tapped on his shoulder. He turned around:

• Sasha, what the heck are you doing here? - he stood up and gave her three kisses. He was really surprised to see her in US. They met 5 years ago in Munich.
• I'm in town for the project we launch in US. I wasn't expecting to meet you here, I thought you finally moved to Portugal.
• Yeah, I almost did but then some other projects appeared on the horizon and I couldn't resist. Do you wanna stay here and get a coffee or do we want to get things to go and go for a walk? When they met, he just started to create his legend of being a serial entrepreneur turning VC/startup consultant. He was advising the company Sasha was working for, so they were working pretty close together for 3 months. He liked her a lot. Portugal was part of his legend with the exception that deep inside he was longing for the simple life and heartwarming people he met there in his previous life.

He got carried away and forgot about his stalker for a brief moment.

• "Have you seen me from the outside?" - he asked. He just wanted to make sure that he didn't took her for his follower - usual paranoia, you know.
• "No, I sat at a table in front of the place, when you rushed past me and got inside."

They spent an hour talking then grabbed the coffee to go and walked out.

• "Where are you staying?" - he asked
• "Mariott at Russian Hill."
• "Wanna meet tomorrow for a breakfast and a stroll?"
• "Yes, I'd love to."
• "Do you want me to meet you tomorrow in the lobby of you hotel around 9am?"
• "That sounds great! Ok, my UBER is here." She hugged him and rushed to her car.

He got back to his hotel trying to analyze whether meeting Sasha in US was suspicious. Yes, she was working for a big international insurance enterprise with offices all around the world and yes they could potentially launch a new product in US but since he started to work for Mom, he became overly suspicious and let's be honest he never believed in serendipity.

He needed to dig deeper to understand what going on.