He smiled, eyes deep and blue in the mirror. “I was talking with Lev about it when we were scoping that apartment down in DUMBO. He thinks it’ll be nothing, really… a slap on the wrist, a big fine and maybe some community service. Marco Goldstein’s a good lawyer… unless we have a rat in the ranks that no one knew about, it’ll be a piece of cake.”
I snorted, regarding his reflection behind my own. “Go brew some coffee. No matter what happens, we can play chess until we’re ready for bed.”
“Sounds good,” he said. “And hey, after the court thing’s over… I’ve got two VIP movie passes burning a hole in my wallet. Let’s go see Big Trouble in Little China again. This time with one hundred percent less drunk asshole. Then we can go make a toast to Purrs to send his soul onto kitty heaven, yeah?”
And plan for my father’s execution. I grimaced and closed my eyes, drawing a deep, tired breath as I squared my shoulders.
“I’m willing to suffer another film for the good company,” I said.
He grinned, the lines around his eyes creasing, and some hidden tension in my chest loosened. Despite myself, I was also worried about Vassily’s trial. Besides that, I was already ruminating on Maslak, my father, the dead cat, Kovacs and Slava, and the blurry, anxious recollections of the night before. The events of the last week – perhaps the most difficult of my life – marched through my head in a confused tumble. It all needed to be put aside to face the dawn. Revenge and the plan for my father’s death could wait. My best friend needed me in the now, and that was all that mattered.
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Translation Guide
Brigadi/Brigada (Click to Return)
Brigade. A slang term for a gang, especially a small, violent clique within a larger Russian mafia.
Organizatsiya (Click to Return)
Organization. Along with ‘Bratva’ and ‘Brigada’, Organizatsiya is the self-identifying term for the ‘Russian Mafia’.
Hamsa (Click to Return)
The hand of Fatima or Hamsa is a hand-shaped pendant with an eye in the center of the palm. A common good-luck or protective charm in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, India and among the Roma.
Muzhiki (Click to Return)
Literally just means ‘men’ in Ukrainian, but has a specific rural, blue-collar context. Used to refer to one’s brigada.
Volkhv (Click to Return)
A magus. There are many words for ‘mage’, ‘wizard’ and ‘sorcerer’ in Russian. A volkhv is specifically a magus, a learned sorcerer capable of creating and destroying protective magic.
Avtoritet (Click to Return)
Authority. The ‘ground commander’ or 4-star general of any given Organizatsiya. They effectively rule, but generally answer to a Pakhun or a board.
Advokat (Click to Return)
‘Advocate’. A senior advisor to the Avtoritet. Somewhat like a Consigliere in the Italian mafia.
Kommandant (Click to Return)
A cell commander or the leader of a brigada, who answers to an Avtoritet. They are generally hands-on street commanders who lead small teams and directly supervise criminal operations. They also tend to do (and farm out) a lot of enforcement work.
Katsap (Click to Return)
A rude Ukrainian term for ethnic Russian people.
Pindos (Click to Return)
A rude, racist term for Americans in general and African-Americans in particular.
GULAG (Click to Return)
Soviet prison work camps. They were notoriously brutal, and millions of people, mostly men, died working in mines or on railroads for Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Blanks (Click to Return)
A slang term for non-magical people.
Horilka (Click to Return)
Ukrainian style vodka, typically flavored with spicy peppers, fruit, or herbs.
Chutzpah (Click to Return)
A Yiddish word for audacity. Ballsy.
Pelmeni (Click to Return)
Filled dumplings common in Eastern Europe. Ukrainian-style pelmeni usually have pork, veal, potato and cheese or sour cherry fillings.
Tuches (Click to Return)
Butt. Another Yiddish word.
Kompot (Click to Return)
A sweet, usually non-alcoholic drink made from fresh fruit steeped in sugar water and boiled. Steep it too long, and it might turn into Rakija.
Hohol (Click to Return)
A racist term Russians typically use for Ukrainians.
Capo (Click to Return)
Italian mafia term meaning ‘Captain’. Short for ‘Caporegime’
Puttanta (Click to Return)
Italian word meaning ‘whore’.
Pakhun (Click to Return)
The ultimate authority of an Organizatsiya. The Pakhun (literally ‘prince’) is generally a thief-in-law with great seniority. They are often involved in government and high-level corporate work, especially in gas and energy ventures. They may manage multiple Avtoritets and multiple criminal ventures and are rarely ever involved in street-level work.
Gopnik/gopniki (click to return)
A mildly derogatory slang term used to describe young, poor, working-class men who typically hang out in small gangs. The stereotype is of an Adidas-loving, gay-hating, heavy drinking kid who spends a lot of time squatting in the middle of the road with his friends and committing petty crime. For men from that background, it can be a reclaimed title and an in-joke.
Brat’ye (Click to Return)
Brothers. The term ‘comrade’ is almost never used, if at all. Brothers and brotherhood mean a lot more to the average criminal.
Shakhtor (Click to Return)
A really rude, racist term for anyone with dark skin.
Chernasty (Click to Return)
‘Cherni’ means ‘black’. Another nasty racist term.
Bud’mo! (Click to Return)
Common Ukrainian toast. ‘To health!’
Teffillin (Click to Return)
A small box on a strap that contains Torah scripts that is worn during prayer by Jewish men.
Afterword
There are times when I really have to wince my way through depicting the realities of criminal chauvinism and the bull-headed, black-and-white thoughtlessness of organized crime in general. Criminals can be complex and sympathetic people, like Vassily or Alexi or Lev, or dismayingly simple people - violent, racist, misogynistic - like Grigori. Regardless, organized crime is fundamentally based on toxic machismo and greed, and anyone involved it becomes sick.
I grew up within the confines of Australian organized crime. I was born to someone involved in the Irish mob, and spent a lot of my early life in women’s shelters and protective services with my mother. I developed an interest in the Soviet underworld after spending years studying World War and Soviet history, and noting how the criminal element in Russia so often evolved in opposition to repression: first by the Tsars, and then by the Soviet Union. There were periods where the underworld and the black market were the most efficient systems in the country. This has led to Russia essentially turning into a kleptocracy, and the Russian mafia into the dark shadow of the global capitalist business world - which is why they are currently the most numerous and successful of the all the ethnic organized criminal operations currently in operation.
Alexi, through dint of being a mystic, is fated to always remain on the fringes in many respects. He cannot not think about the things that his peers take for granted. Why are we racist, sexist, homophobic? Why do we hate, and kill, and why do we value the things we do? Why do we fear what we do not understand, instead of trying to understand them? A mage, by his very nature, cannot gain power without seeking deeper meaning to things. The life expectancy of spooks in Alexi’s universe is generally
very low for this reason - it’s impossible to function properly in the underworld while seeking out a greater understanding of reality. To have survived to his mid-20s, Alexi is better at lying to himself than he realizes.
The point of this, I suppose, is that I’m not actually endorsing anything that happens in Burn Artist or my future books in this series. I don’t endorse racism or celebrate gangster culture: indeed, my childhood was destroyed by it. A few people have emailed me to tell me how uncomfortable the language and attitudes of people like Grigori and Nicolai make them, and my only reply to that is to say: “I tell stories to explore the human condition, and remind myself and other people of our ability to overcome crisis, ignorance, and grief. This is the reality of how many people still think and speak. If it makes you uncomfortable, then I’ve done my job - go outside or go on Facebook and stand up to someone who says these uncomfortable things, and continue to be part of the solution.”
If you choose to keep going with the series - and I hope you do - you will not always be comfortable. I write to entertain, but I also write to challenge. There’s plenty of fluff in the world already, and I do not shy away from difficult language or themes, such as racism, child trafficking, the abuse inherent in the justice system, cartel massacres or modern-day slavery. Across the books in this series, there is fun, and love (eventually), and heroism… but there is the Shadow, too. Men like Grigori are real. I know, because I was raised by one.
A huge thanks to the Facebook NaNoWriMo group, especially Eric K’s excellent performance as a snotty Israeli pyromancer. My wife and Heather, for putting up with my 4th book-related hibernation of the year. All friends for support and encouragement, and Stacy for her patient and generous feedback.
Structure of the Yaroshenko Organizatsiya
The Yaroschenko Organizatsiya is actually two gangs: the largely autonomous Brighton Beach/USA faction who identify with Sergei’s surname, plus a larger Organizatsiya in Kiev, Ukraine who call themselves the Sviatoshyn Gang. As of 1986, the hierarchy is as follows:
Pakhun:
Sergei Yaroshenko
Avtoritet
Rodion Brukov
Vassily Lovenko (under apprenticeship/in training)
Brighton Beach Advokat
Lev Moskalysk
Alexi Sokolsky (in training)
Volkhv/Spook
Alexi Sokolsky
Brighton Beach Kommandant
Grigori Sokolsky
Brighton Beach Street Captain/Head of Security
Nicolai Chiernenko
Red Hook/East Village Kommandant
Vanya Kazupov
Red Hook Advokat
Yegor Gavrilyuk
Red Hook Street Captain
Ivan ‘Ivanko’ Andreichenko
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Translation Guide
Afterword
Structure of the Yaroshenko Organizatsiya
Burn Artist Page 14