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UNDERGROUND 32
At this time, a bright beam of a lantern illuminated her.- Well, here we are!In the opening stood an angular giant with a beard in a black uniform - this is probably what underground camouflage should look like. He was bigger and taller even than Kharitonov. The giant spoke Russian, but the machine gun on his broad chest and uniform, pouches on his belt and helmet were not familiar to Dasha, although thanks to her father she knew almost all Russian weapons.“Well,” said the giant, “come out to form.An Asian appeared from behind the giant. The Asian was just on a par with Kharitonov; quite large by Asian standards. Only in contrast to the pot-bellied and flabby Kharitonov, under the dense camouflage of the Asian, relief muscles bulged.- Let's live.Kharitonov screwed up his eyes from the light.“Guys,” he boomed out of nowhere in the tone of a sycophant joker who came from somewhere, “are you for ours or not ours?”Who brainwashed you? - Asked without any accent Asian. - All of us
UNDERGROUND 33
“I told you to keep quiet,” the giant said calmly, as if he was just making a polite remark.Romik hunched over and rubbed his bruised head. Dasha noticed a wry smile on Kharitonov's face.As soon as they passed the station and entered the tunnel, the "giant" again purred something in English, and this time Dasha could not make out anything. The Asiatic laughed and then loudly ordered in Russian that they turn into the nearest passage, which turned out to be a rather wide inter-tunnel gap. In its deepening, a black metal door was found, which apparently was the goal of their journey. The door was opened by an Asian, and they went into an elongated room.On the left, at the entrance, there was a rusty sink in a white corner with a closed carved brass shield of the ventilation manifold. Opposite the “sanitary corner”, fenced off from the rest of the space by a two-meter wall, boxes with dosimeters were thrown in a chaotic mountain. At the end, against the wall, there was a wide table fo
UNDERGROUND 34
“I think it’s ventilation,” he said.Do you hear voices? Pustovalov asked.- Yes, there is someone yelling ...As they got closer, the screams got louder. They were women's cries. Victor saw a square diffused light ahead. About three meters from it, a branch went to the left, but it was tightly walled up with a double grate.- Crap!- From there! Viktor whispered.Men's laughter was clearly audible, and an unexpected woman's cry made Victor flinch.- It's her! Viktor got excited.- Who?- Well, Katya, who was with us! Looks like something is going on there. Not good.Pustovalov understood everything, but he did not want to waste his energy on another attempt to re-educate Victor. He decided that, as a last resort, he would go on alone.- Let's go back, - said Pustovalov, seeing that Victor intends to crawl towards the square source of light, - there is a dead end here!An astonished face turned to Pustovalov:“But this is not a dead end!”- Get your ass over here!A heart-rending fema
UNDERGROUND 35
After the incident with the lineman, Pustovalov abandoned his last illusions and, obeying his innate instinct, was now preparing only for the worst. From now on, it was necessary to act differently, and first of all, it was necessary to find out what these unfortunate people had learned during their misadventures. However, looking around the room, strewn with bloody fragments, Pustovalov realized that everyone here, from Romik who suddenly “woke up” to Kharitonov, was in a state of shock. But the problem was not only that. Pustovalov was worried that in the last half hour he had killed three people in front of witnesses, and although the rest took part in the murder of the fourth - whoever they were - this circumstance could not pass by the attention of the competent authorities. However, none of the witnesses knew anything about Pustovalov himself, except for his name. There were no cameras in the tunnels,Victor was sitting against the wall, not noticing that the ribbed barrel of th
UNDERGROUND 36
Pustovalov's world, unlike other worlds, never changed colors depending on mood, "black swans" and chemical reactions in the body. Pustovalov's world has always remained gray. Someone, without delving into the essence, would call it a nightmare, but Pustovalov, by virtue of his natural ability to immerse himself in pathological calm, did not know what a black stripe was. For real, he was never in a complete ass, although 99.99% of the inhabitants of the Earth would not agree with him, having received at least a tenth of the problems that he had to solve. But 99.99% will not understand what bradycardia is, in conditions when someone is poking a Kalashnikov assault rifle at you. Although, if you think about it, the one who pokes wants something else from you besides your death, otherwise he would have pulled the trigger a long time ago. And for people like Pustovalov, this is already a thousand new opportunities, unless, of course, But as it turned out, congenital bradycardia can someti
UNDERGROUND 37
“More like an abandoned bomb shelter.- There's a passage further.A narrow corridor led twenty meters. On both sides there were small rooms of the same type with different devices: diesel generators, pumps, control cabinets, fuel and oil tanks. All of them were in a non-working condition and rather neglected in appearance.At the end, the corridor closed in a semicircular stone hall, in the center, surrounded by a bend, there was an inclined concrete ledge under a metal hermetic door. The door had no handles, and, apparently, closed from the inside.- And here is the exit, - Victor said, lighting up the suddenly expanded space, - yes, there is a fitness center right here!Old, mostly broken-down machines lined the curved walls. Two steppers, one broken rower. Several benches for the press with pieces of foam sticking out from under the torn upholstery. In the corner were rusty barbell plates and a pair of ancient boxing gloves for his left hand. Everything was covered with a thick la
UNDERGROUND 38
Dasha watched as the athlete's veined hands deftly deal with bolts and locks. When all the crossbars fell into the grooves, the athlete passed the bracket of a weighty lock through the eye, closed it with a long key and turned around.Dasha prepared for the worst, but the athlete only smiled good-naturedly.- How do I them, huh?The little eyes shone with joy. Dasha decided that there was nothing to fear, but the athlete's partner puzzled her again.- Inga, you're great!Restraining herself so as not to show surprise, Dasha looked at Inga, but her eyes did not deceive - she was standing in front of a one hundred percent man: broad-shouldered, short-haired, with a square, tanned face. Dasha decided that she had simply misheard.The athlete, meanwhile, stopped looking at the girl.Did they harm you?The lively face changed, showing concern, but Dasha did not believe him for a second.- Rather, they received it themselves. - Katya answered gloomily.The athlete laughed cheerfully.- Well
UNDERGROUND 39
Katya was still washing her hair when Dasha had already finished taking a shower and sat down on the sofa near the shower room.The athlete's slender friend - her name was Alina, said that she would come for them in half an hour. There were still fifteen minutes left.Dasha sat with a towel wrapped around her head and thought about the men who had remained behind the iron door. Wonder what they're up to. They probably came up with a new plan and left. There is someone to come up with plans. Dasha has always been a restless nature. There were several things that worried her now. Firstly, she didn’t like this lesbian drugged up on steroids, secondly, she didn’t like her sickly smiling friend who treated her like a patient in a psychiatric hospital, thirdly, she didn’t like that they sort of got out of the subway, but sort of no. Actually, nothing has changed - it's cleaner here, but she is also forced to do what she doesn't want, she has no idea what's going on upstairs, and still doesn