To Kill the Duke (43 page)

Ivan started to read the resume of the actor when he heard what he thought were clothes hit the floor.

“Well?” said the actor.

“Well, what?” replied Ivan as he slowly looked up from what he was reading to see that he had thought right. Except for shoes and socks, the actor was naked. He also had a very large penis that Ivan noticed didn’t have a hammer and sickle tattooed on it. He also noticed that the man’s rather large penis was circumcised, which for Ivan was odd. For you see, Ivan Viznapu was uncircumcised and only knew the difference after being in a locker room with the former Trotsky Number Seven — Barney Rumberg — who was Jewish and thus circumcised.

“Are you Jewish?” Ivan seriously asked the actor, who broke out into a loud laugh.

“I’m going to like working for you, sir,” the young actor said. “Do you want to give or receive?”

“Give or receive what?” Ivan asked.

“My cock of course,” the young man said.

“Neither. Put on your clothes. Do you seriously think I want to have sex with you?” Ivan asked. “By the way, can’t you afford underwear?”

The actor laughed again as he put on his clothes. “Yes to both questions.”

“I’m going to hire you for your looks, not sex,” Ivan said.

“You mean I don’t have to suck or fuck to get the job?” the actor asked Ivan.

“Why, is that how you
have
been finding work?” asked Ivan.

“When I do find some work… yes,” the actor said quietly. “Most of the time it’s with a man, sometimes with a man and a woman.”

“And if you don’t?”

“I can’t afford underwear.”

“We start next Monday. Go down the hall and see Mr. Rumberg,” Ivan said as he wondered what was going to happen when he started to cast the women for the movie. But he knew the answer to that one and it wasn’t toughski shitski.

Being a very fast learner, Ivan quickly granted no more one-on-one interviews to the other male actors waiting to be cast for his movie. He called the other twelve men into his office, and made them read from the script in front of each other. He thanked them all and circled the names of the other five he needed for the various parts, and then he told his secretary to call the lucky ones to inform them that they were hired as well as what was expected of them once the shooting began. He went to search for Alexei and couldn’t find him. He went to look for Barney and couldn’t find him either. So, he went to lunch and eagerly awaited the interviews with the women who wanted to be in his skin flick,
I Slept with a Communist.

The first girl that Ivan interviewed was too young. He had been impressed by her resume and her photos. But, when she arrived in the office, he could tell she was in her teens and told her so. She broke down in tears, because she needed the part… and the money. Ivan gave her $50 and told her to come back when she was ‘of age.’

Alexi had taught Ivan that $50 went a long way in Southern California when it came to giving someone a little help.

The second girl that came in was way too old to be taking her clothes off for the movies, let alone for money. Ivan thanked her and gave her $50 because he felt sorry for her.

I’m starting to think and act like Alexei with all his compassion
he thought as he waited for the third girl to walk into his office.
At this rate, I’ll be broke before the day is over,
he mused.

This time, he wasn’t disappointed.

She was beautiful and she was chocolate-skinned. Being Russian, Ivan didn’t meet many Negros. Being Russian, he wasn’t prejudiced against any skin color, and was shocked to see how Negro Americans lived in the home of capitalism.

“As bad as the poorest of poor people in Russia,” Alexei once remarked to both Ivan and Barney when they’d first settled in Hollywood.

“Worse than the survivors of Stalingrad,” chipped in Ivan.

“Almost as bad as the Jews under Stalin,” Barney said.

And that was what is known as a conversation stopper.

Since that first time driving around southern California looking for a building to house
Seven Zeros
and of course a place to live, Ivan hadn’t
come across
any
Negro Americans. He had seen plenty of Mexicans, but no Negroes. Even the lousy neighborhood where The Foster was located didn’t seem to have many Negroes. It was only in that one part of Los Angeles, where they had gotten lost driving way back when, that he had seen them.

He couldn’t really remember what he saw back then, but he certainly liked what he saw in front of him right now and it was doing something to him physically that he had never experienced. He was being turned on.

“Excuse Miss. Are you a Negro?” Ivan asked her.

And he again heard the unmistakable sound of clothes hitting the floor.

“Just my bush,” she said with a smile and before Ivan could wink she had pounced. She put her breasts in his face, started to unbuckle his belt and tugged at his pants to pull them off. Ivan couldn’t say… didn’t want to say anything, and he started kissing her breasts. He felt himself getting a hard-on and was grabbing her ass when she pushed off him — letting go of his penis.

“What type of dick is that?!” she demanded to know.

He knew he couldn’t say ‘a Russian dick,’
he thought so he answered the next best thing. “It’s an American dick.”

“No it isn’t, honey. I have seen a lot of American dicks and I have never seen one like that,” she said.

“What’s wrong with it? It’s hard and obviously wants you,” noted Ivan.

“I have to think if I want it,” she said.

Ivan Viznapu was uncircumcised. The woman, even though she had obviously been with a lot of men, had never come across one. Ivan had never come across a woman like her. It was as Alexei later noticed “a match made by the gods.”

“I have never seen a dick like yours,” she said. “Why doesn’t your dick have a tip on it?”

This is definitely a toughski-shitski situation,
Ivan thought. “Look, let’s talk about my dick
after
we fuck. By the way, I have never seen a black woman as beautiful as you.”

She nodded and started to fondle his balls and the shaft of his uncircumcised dick, while Ivan struggled to get out of all his clothes from a sitting position with the woman straddling him and her breasts pressed
against his face. It was a hard situation, but he managed to get as naked as she was.

The sex was fast and furious for Ivan, who, up to this time hadn’t found himself in many sexual situations. The girl, much like the first male that Ivan had interviewed and hired, had found herself in many similar sexual situations.

“Wow!” she exclaimed after Ivan had achieved orgasm. “Haven’t been laid like that in a long time,” she lied. The woman had learned from the very beginning that complementing a male producer on his sexual prowess meant a paycheck.

“Either have I,” Ivan said. He wasn’t going to give the woman a job. He wanted her all for himself.

And he did. And together they learned about his uncircumcised dick and her blackness. And they both loved every second of their time together.

But Alexei and Barney didn’t. As Ivan learned about his sexuality — long kept dormant for many reasons — Barney started running
Seven Zeros
and Alexei planned his second attempt to kill John Wayne.

Ivan learned that his girlfriend’s name wasn’t really ‘Golden,’ but Tracy. ‘Golden’ was her stage name. He also learned that she was only about a quarter Negro, but it was that quarter percent that defined her features (and made Ivan fall head over heels for her), and kept her from getting a real shot at being an actress in 1950’s Hollywood. It forced her into skin flicks to make a living, hoping that opportunity would knock. And it did — in the form of becoming Ivan Viznapu’s lover.

Ivan couldn’t keep his hands off of her. He dropped everything and everyone to be with her. Most of the people who knew Ivan said it was infatuation and puppy love.

Alexei and Barney knew better. They knew he had become addicted to her physically, because Ivan had never experienced anything like this in his life.

And Tracy, who at first was startled by Ivan’s uncircumcised dick, came to start to enjoy it more than a circumcised dick. She told all her
friends how she enjoyed peeling the foreskin back to clean it. They all started looking for men who were uncircumcised to have the same experience.

Alexei didn’t get mad at Ivan and didn’t question anything that Barney Rumberg was doing in the making of
Seven Zeros
skin flicks. As a matter of fact, Alexei couldn’t believe how right Mickey Cohen had been, and how much money they were making with Barney running the operations. Alexei was happy for Ivan and Tracy and even started to fantasize about leaving Ivan in America after he successfully pulled off the mission. Alexei was mad at Johnny Stomp, because Johnny was taking his cut from the skin flicks and not finding out anything about John Wayne from Lana Turner.

At least that was what Alexei was thinking while he was pouring over the profit and loss statements that Barney had prepared for him.

I should have been a capitalist
, he thought to himself as he found himself starting to laugh out loud.
I’m glad Mr. Zavert, Boris and the others back home are not here to see these figures
.

Alexei and
Seven Zeros
were rolling in the dough and Barney had three new flicks planned.

Most businessmen would have been jumping up and down and shouting their success from the closest mountaintop. Not Alexei, he wasn’t a businessman. He was an assassin and he needed to finish his job.

He decided to call Johnny to see if there was any word from Lana. If nothing came from the call, he was going to take a very long walk on the beach — away from everything.

That didn’t happen. Johnny had good news and Alexei realized that the news couldn’t have come at a better time.

“Tomorrow night, The Duke and the gang are raiding Dean Martin’s home,” Johnny told Alexei.

“Are you sure?” asked Alexei.

“Sure I’m sure… Lana is
in
on the raid. It’s a present for her from Duke for popping out of Ward Bond’s cake,” Johnny explained.

“Great. I’ll pretend I don’t know who she is when I approach Wayne,” Alexei said.

“Why do you want to do a western with Wayne, when we are making money hand over fist with these skin flicks?” a puzzled Johnny asked Alexei.

“The skin flicks bore me,” Alexei shot back. “I need a challenge.”
Is that the truth
, he thought.

“Sure isn’t boring your partner. I mean, I think his cock is going to fall off from all the fucking he is doing,” Johnny said.

“You’re wrong my friend. His cock will stay attached, because he’s fucking the same woman over and over and over again. He’s in love for the first time. Surely, you remember what that was like?” Alexei said.

“Not me,” Johnny Stomp replied and he meant that.

Alexei hung up the phone and raced out of his office to go and checkout Dean Martin’s neighborhood. He mouthed a thank you to Barney for having mapped out all the homes that housed the very good friends of John Wayne a few years ago. He opened up his glove compartment and took out the notes that Barney had put together about Martin’s home and the surrounding neighborhood. He then remembered that he’d forgotten to tell anyone at
Seven Zeros
where he was going, and he ran back into the office to tell the receptionist that he would be away for a few days on some business. He was hoping that those few days would turn out to be
forever
.

“And with Ivan not with me, I can be bolder… more aggressive,” he said to himself.
Also, I can leave him behind with his woman and a very successful business
, he mused as he started his car.