>>5272746-
Tabak tried to pull up what information he could, what rumors and secrets his machines would get him. Something for him to try and read on the helicopter, and maybe the plane. He was sitting on the helicopter with his GSSh-01 active headset on his head, under his cap, trying to read. He had a pulled pork sandwich on the way here and some kind of protein workout shake. A lot of the stuff he pulled up was too slanted one way or another, "hit pieces" and "puff pieces".
However, some of it stood out to him, and it lined up with things he had faintly remembered. Tabak had been too deep in his research over they years and purely voted as a party loyalist because things were going well, there was peace and stability. He had seen and heard things however, and some of it was coming back to him now.... The rumors that during the "Dark Days" certain crimes were not policed in Pretashinko's area; prostitution, using, minor thefts that involved other areas. Multiple dealers that were rumored to have "bad batches" were found dead, arrested and murdered in prison, or were arrested with extreme force. Using was mostly ignored, dealing was not first priority, but a "bad batch" saw that you were "made an example of". Menty had revealed over the years that many of them had been struggling to make ends meet at the time, and a lot of things were overlooked. More idealistic menty admitted they saw some things they didn't agree with, but most of the things that troubled them, were things like "justified homicides" not being examined too closely and "labs allowing drugs to be tested for purity, no questions asked".
There was something else.... Guns would just go missing out of lockup or from "Buyback" programs. They never turned back up in later incidents, but they would end up in the United States or carried by people with licenses. Pretashinko made up his own licenses, with very official paperwork, and harsh penalties for people who faked a license. Every single neighborhood in his areas was "strapped" and was filled with informants. Every homeless person, every hooker, sometimes every user.
Tabak knew that he would have to be on guard in these areas. Pretashinko had avoided over a dozen assassination attempts, but unlike Castro, it wasn't due to luck or insane methods of assassination. Pretashink was the kind of person who somehow always knew who was trying to kill him. One time Pretashinko was shaking the hands of supporters and a man got close to him, before trying to pull out a gun. "The Tzar" had his gun out first, and shot the man right in the head. The man had barely pulled out his gun at all when Pretashinko shot him. Another time a woman tried to poison him, and he made her drink the poisoned drink first.
There was rumors that he had spies everywhere, that he simply saw right through people, or that the assassination attempts had been setups or traps.
