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UNDERGROUND 113
Following the new satellite, Victor went out into an empty block, where an hour ago it was not overcrowded, and now silence and static reigned in objects that keep traces of the departed: sagging leather sofas, shifted chairs, open doors, dirty dishes and still who knows where the wind came from. leafing through the pages of a magazine left on the table. Even the staff disappeared - Victor was sure that there was no one behind the walls that hid numerous utility rooms. Perhaps this certainty is a distant cousin of the panicked fear of the shipwreck survivor who drifts on the lid of the piano and realizes that everything is just beginning. That's just where everyone disappeared, why, and most importantly - what kind of fruit is this mysterious companion of his. Victor looked at the lean man who was giving him smiling glances. It was difficult to determine his age.- Student? - Asked his companion with another unfavorable smile.- MIPT, second year. Victor answered.The thin man nodded.
UNDERGROUND 114
Larion stood, turned to the wall. I just stood there and stared at the wall.It's started, Victor thought.– Larion?- What?- What are you standing for? Victor asked cautiously.Waiting for the elevator, what do you think? Larion smiled and slapped his forehead. - Bliiin! Imagine what it looks like! Perhaps he thought I was crazy?- Well no. No, no, - Victor smiled too.- Okay, I thought!No, but you said the elevator...- Can't you see the elevator?To be honest, I don't see it.- Yes, that's the door.Victor looked closely at the wall and saw only something that looked like a door for access to communications a little larger than a window.Are you talking about this door?“Now you can see for yourself.But there aren't any buttons...“Listen, things are different here.Behind the wall, indeed, there was some kind of rattle. Larion knocked on the door and, seizing the gap with his nails, pulled it towards him. Seeing a bright white light, Victor could not stand it and looked. Yes, b
UNDERGROUND 115
- ... hey you, do you hear, I'm talking to you ... - a voice squeaked.- To me? Viktor froze in the middle of the room.- Are you dumb? - squeaked a voice. Who else is here besides us?The voice seemed to come from the kitchen. Victor walked past the wall where a window would have been located in a real Khrushchev, and here there was only a picture with a painted window, and ended up in the kitchen. The very same, familiar to everyone - a tiny five-meter kitchen, with a typical folding table, a crap stove and a Saratov refrigerator with ancient stickers and magnets on a stained surface.But there was no one in the kitchen.“Listen, little one. Where are you? Victor asked.- I am here! Here! - A voice squealed from somewhere on the side of the stove.Victor was sure it was a child. Judging by the voice, some kind of pi..duke about eight or nine years old.- I can not see you.- Yes, it's for the best. - squeaked a voice. Do you live in a wall?- What? Victor didn't understand.- You ca
UNDERGROUND 116
- Well, if security, then yes. May he pass the test! The guy is not a spy. Not a spy, are you? Hehe. We already need workers, and here is a guy with experience and technical education. Automation is on our agenda. And the man took care of it.- He is a student.“Malyok, so all the staff will run away from us,” Palych gently scolded his subordinate and, addressing Victor directly, asked:– Do you understand that this is a restricted facility?- Access Control System?Palych waved:- Not only. The identifying module is secret. But, okay, this is my headache.- But the controller is the same.- The control unit is common, but the proxy and accesses are different, - Palych sighed, - there is a lot of work, but okay, the “malek” setting will be done. You will most likely be installing the system, there is your own hemorrhoids. Can you do it?- If there is equipment, we will dock.- Good.***Dasha and Katya got into the same freight elevator with two old women and some incredibly fat woman
UNDERGROUND 117
Dasha squealed, watching how the horse's face of Sister Feofaniya's face wrinkled in an attempt to outshout her, how it twisted in pain under the onslaught of the auditory cannon, and how, finally, retreating, it merges with the rest of the dullness. Dasha stopped screaming and lay down on the bed. If everyone is insane, why shouldn't she be insane too? Katya lay head to her on the next bed.“Let's stick together,” she said.“You were right,” Dasha said softly, looking at the glass wall – up there, some important people in dressing gowns walked along the thin iron bridge and looked down at them. Like a delegation on a livestock farm.- What are the rights?We died and went to hell.Dasha noticed that one of the members of the delegation - a stout, short man in a suit that looked like a dictatorial jacket or a Japanese kimono - stopped and, clutching the railing, looked straight at her through the dirty glass.Looking closer, Dasha realized that he was looking not at her, but a little
UNDERGROUND 118
- Today, no one left this floor, but in the evening my grandfather left, who settled yesterday. His room was paid for a week. Only ... - the guy smiled mysteriously, - he is unlikely to be the one you need. He is ninety-eight years old. He is a real war veteran. I saw the ID when he took out the passport.- Where is his number?Victoria took them down the corridor to the door at the very end, Boris noted that the room, and therefore the windows in it, were located on the other side.Grandfather's room looked less stocked. The large double bed was made, but the bedspread and pillow were wrinkled. Otherwise, perfect order reigned, as if no one lived in the room, and even more so "grandfather". There was only a cheap suitcase on wheels at the head of the bed. Vindman lifted it easily by the handle, threw it on the bed, and opened it.- Empty. Jacob commented.“Not really,” Boris lifted the check from the bottom of the suitcase and read, “travel suitcase, five nine hundred and ninety, bou
UNDERGROUND 119
Gargantua rang at exactly six o'clock. Boris has already calmed down, realizing that if the old man spent his efforts on a performance with a camera, then he also needs this meeting. They were sitting in a hotel room when some mournful tune played on the phone. Despite his complacency, Boris felt excited when he heard her. Grabbing the phone, he managed to notice the text "number not defined" before answering.“Listen carefully,” the clear voice of that old, long-forgotten Soviet teacher, who had sunk into oblivion during his father’s service, spoke up. The voice of a kind but strict teacher. The voice of a man capable of mercilessly, if necessary, killing the enemy, as he did in the war. Boris did not know how this was possible, but now he believed that he really was ninety-eight years old. Listening to this voice, as if from another era, from an old Soviet movie, Boris had some kind of latent respect for its owner. A person of such age, such skills, who at the same time retained his
UNDERGROUND 120
Vanyusha's station was not so far away - he traveled only forty minutes by train, although it was difficult to call it a station. More like a stopping point with one platform. In contrast to the Moscow region, the local suburban neighborhoods were distinguished by a very sparse development, consisting mainly of dilapidated wooden houses with rickety fences, standing alone in the middle of a field like Mongolian yurts, exposing the majestic immensity, but at the same time still sparsely populated Russia.On a snow-covered platform, located in the middle of the field, surrounded by small copses, Boris was all alone. After walking around the platform for several minutes, stamping his feet for warmth, and constantly looking at the phone, he felt that he was rapidly freezing.In the distance, the beam of the buffer lamp of an electric train flashed. Cutting through the night snow dust, the electric train swam up to the platform in a long arc. Vindman waited patiently, standing at the head