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UNDERGROUND 12
Unsuccessfully trying to open a pack of "Vogue Aroma" with frozen fingers, Katya could not restrain herself:- Dima, I'll be in time if you don't call every minute! Crap! I could have called a taxi.The iPhone flew into her purse, and Katya finally fished out a thin cigarette. About the taxi, of course, she said rashly. Lately, taxis have become dangerous, and she can do without them, calmly taking the subway in fifteen minutes. Unlike Dima, Katya has lived all her life a stone's throw from the metro, and right up to the second she knew at what time she had to go through the glass doors in order to catch the last train leaving Novokosino without running around on the escalators.Now she has about five minutes left, which she will spend on a smoke break. She just needs a good dose of nicotine. Firstly, she must come to her senses after a heavy quarrel with her mother, and secondly, Katya wanted to take a last look at the place where twenty years of her life had passed.Now a new, much
UNDERGROUND 13
Well, let's say for now she will continue to go to work, but Dima's parents will return on Friday. He has his own room, of course, and he, for example, will be able to convince his parents to stay. In the end, they were fine with her, but it's one thing to visit, another to live permanently. Katya remembered the lustful looks of Dima's father and the sidelong glances of her mother. No, this is definitely not the "new life" that she imagined in her dreams.Katya frowned again and looked at the Toyota.She noticed that all her windows were "tightly" tinted. She didn't like tinted windows, not only because they hid someone who could see you perfectly, but also because it was illegal to tint windows on the driver's side. And this meant that the person behind the wheel either could afford to break the law or had a liquid crystal tint. Considering that LCD tinting cost almost the same as a new Toyota Camry, the first option was in the car.Katya knew she looked stunning, especially in tight
UNDERGROUND 14
Dasha is a thin, petite twenty-three-year-old girl with a charming face that radiates cold beauty and eyes the color of ice. These are not lenses, as many people think. Her eyes are really so light that they seem like a pair of ice floes. The same color can be seen under the feet of the frozen Lake Peipsi. Dasha never smiles. All Dasha's acquaintances know about this, but few people know that this is not true. As an adult, Dasha smiled three times, and three different people happened to witness it. Two of them were young men of seventeen and twenty-nine. Both at the same moment fell in love with Dasha. The third witness of her smile was the forty-two-year-old photographer Bernard Bertin, who at that moment lowered the camera, tilted his head to one side and silently watched until his assistant called him twice.It is not known why this girl smiled so rarely, but when she did, the cold beauty seemed to begin to melt, transforming into something so divine that the tongue did not dare to
UNDERGROUND 15
Kharitonov was hot. And tight. With a mighty hand, he scratched his chest under the shirt with buttons torn off after the fight and yawned loudly. Small bearish eyes on a huge head stared blindly into the dirty glass, behind which the whitened Kalinin Square shone. In the light of the lanterns, a drifting snow rushed along the empty paths and benches.It was uncomfortable for him to sit - like a real bear, he constantly tossed and turned on a round chair, made a lot of sounds - rustled clothes, moved neighboring trays with his elbows, yawned at the top of his voice. Kharitonov was drunk.From behind appeared a strong mustachioed man.– Vano, it was only light.In his hands the man held a tray with two glasses of beer, a sandwich and a bucket of Basket-25 for company.Kharitonov frowned at the tray, pursed his lips, pressing them to his nose like an elephant. Exhaled. Then he took a glass, sipped about a third.“Grey, why the hell did you drag me here?So everything is closed right now
UNDERGROUND 16
- I'm his girlfriend, what can not be seen if we are at the same table ?!Kharitonov again hit the guy on the table. Not so crushing this time.“If you intervene again, I’ll hammer until everything instead of sauce is splashed with brains.” - Kharitonov turned a menacing face to the guy. - Well, who is she to you?- One thing ... a group, - the guy said, releasing bloody saliva.- She says a friend, and you are a classmate ... Not a girl, then?The guy shook his head.“I see, now tell me why she,” Kharitonov pointed at the ugly girl with his finger, “is standing up for you.”The guy was silent. Everyone was silent.Kharitonov pulled out a plastic fork from a plate of lettuce splattered with blood and broke it off with his big, sausage-sized finger. The remaining pointed handle was clenched in a powerful fist, the fist was placed on the bloody stain on the table.Did you get the hint?The guy nodded.Why is she standing up for you?The guy looked at the ugly girl.“She… she likes me.T
UNDERGROUND 17
“You won’t make it in time,” the taxi driver said maliciously.Getting out of the car, Victor imagined how many industrial zones, wastelands, dirty roadsides, fences, garage backyards and urine-smelling nooks and crannies he would have to overcome if he really didn’t have time.00:58 on the taxi driver's clock changed to 00:59.Victor slammed the door and ran into a deserted passage - towards drafts and snowy fogs.He resisted with all his might. Wrestled with circumstances and the pathological bad luck of today, with deadly fatigue and damp cold, with the painful light of new energy-saving lamps that burn five times longer and seven times brighter than before. With a heavy rumble, blocking the roar of engines and a scattering of tram ringing. With emptiness, concealing corners and niches of doors recessed into the walls. With filthy columns, behind which shaped shadows fluctuated, dull reflections sliding along the walls, and with clouds of snow monsters, imposingly descending the st
UNDERGROUND 18
inevitable predestination.Victor reread the phrase in a square with an arrow pointing three cells to the right. How simple. It is strange that the person who solved almost the entire scanword did not write this word in three cells. Moreover, in the middle there was already an “o”, formed by an intersection with a four-letter word, conceived as “a precious stone and a male nuisance”.Victor chuckled, crossed his legs and again began to look at the girl. Maybe the Wi-Fi was up, or maybe she was just looking at the pictures, but her beautiful, focused face again shone with the pale light of the display.Unexpectedly, the aesthetic contemplation of almost absolute harmony was broken by a bow-legged bearish figure. The bear-man appeared in Victor's field of vision, and blocked all the space in front of his eyes, including, of course, the girl.The man grabbed the handrail with his paws, and with the dexterity of an animal, sat down next to the girl. Apparently it was some kind of instinct
UNDERGROUND 19
The faces looked back questioningly. Pustovalov gently pushed the dark-haired girl aside, went up to the door and, with an unexpectedly confident movement, as if he had been doing this all his life, tore off the seal and pulled the fastening lug of the door leaf towards him. There was a soft hiss. Pustovalov put his hand through the crack in the door and with energetic jerks pushed the door leaf to the left.The gorilla wrinkled its sloping forehead.At that very moment, the light went out, and everyone felt what pitch darkness meant at a depth of fifty meters.The light soon came on, but now it burned dimly, as if it lacked power.Pustovalov peered into the tunnel, smelling a thick smell of dust, creosote and metal shavings. To the right was total darkness. On the left it was a little brighter, although Pustovalov thought that the headlights should burn brighter.The girl with the crocodile followed his actions with the same shamelessly childish gaze.– What is there? she asked.Pust