Chapter 6
The Antagonist Emerges
High-ranking Sodra official Vytautas Kazlauskas learns of Lina's snooping. He's cunning and ruthless, determined to protect his illicit operation and silence the young journalist.
The sterile, fluorescent hum of Vytautas Kazlauskas’s office at Sodra always seemed to amplify the quiet thrum of his own anxieties. Today, however, the hum was a distant buzz, drowned out by a more immediate, more potent source of unease. A report, delivered with a nervous shuffle by a junior clerk, lay open on his polished mahogany desk. The words, stark and accusing, swam before his eyes: “Journalist. Jurbarko Laikraštis. Inquiring about the notice.”
Vytautas steepled his fingers, the smooth, manicured nails tapping a silent, agitated rhythm against his chin. Lina Petraitytė. The name echoed in the cavernous space, a tiny, persistent pebble in the smooth, well-oiled machinery of his carefully constructed world. He’d heard whispers of her, a young, ambitious reporter from the provinces, with an unnerving knack for sniffing out trouble. And now, she was sniffing around Sodra. Around his operations.
A bead of sweat trickled down his temple, and he dabbed at it with a silk handkerchief, the movement almost imperceptible. The pension increase, a delicate balancing act of public appeasement and personal gain, was nearing its fruition. The diverted funds, a substantial sum siphoned off with meticulous precision, were almost ready to be… reallocated. This was no time for a provincial reporter to be poking around.
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