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2024-10-29 19:42:56Chapter 5
At that moment, a soft creak and footsteps were heard behind. Basurov pressed himself into an armchair. Pustovalov crossed his arms. A giant with the face of a professor came out from behind and handed Yasin a white smartphone.
Yasin showed them the display of the smartphone. On the screen of the smartphone, the connection time was indicated in large numbers: 02:41 ... 02:42 ... 02:43 ...
- Yasin, we agreed that at twelve-thirty your people would get in touch. - Said Pustovalov. If they're already there, then...
Yasin looked at him.
- ... let them go straight.
“Go straight ahead,” Yasin immediately repeated into his smartphone.
Pustovalov imagined the place where Yasin's people were now - a huge deserted parking lot, covered with an untouched layer of snow. Rows of lonely lanterns, under whose light cones whirlwinds of snow rush.
- After three hundred meters turn, drive on. He heard his own voice.
- After three hundred meters, turn, drive through. – Echo repeated Yasin.
- Behind him parking ...
Yasin reported to the smartphone everything that Pustovalov said.
Pustovalov understood that right now he was voicing a reverse account of his own life. But this understanding did not prevent him from replaying the entire path in his head over and over again in search of an error. What he saw below spoke of its undoubted presence. Seconds flowed, with each indication of Pustovalov, Yasin's people got closer and closer to the LXN-1000.
Pustovalov presented this apparatus and suddenly realized what was the matter.
- First snow.
- What?
- It's probably all over there.
Yasin looked suspiciously at Basurov, who suddenly began to slide in his chair.
Pustovalov turned to Basurov.
- Where next, Igor?
- What?
Pustovalov imperturbably waited for an answer.
- People are waiting.
The Colonel voted on the second try.
“What… So this…”
Yasin's hand, clutching the phone, began to slowly lower.
Hearing the quiet sound of moving chairs, Pustovalov slowly placed his right palm over his left.
Yasin gave a thumbs up.
- Go to the end. Basurov's trembling voice sounded.
- Drive to the end! - Yasin immediately repeated into the phone, looking suspiciously at Pustovalov.
Basurov also looked puzzled at Pustovalov, and perhaps it was his calm appearance that brought the colonel to his senses - his voice sounded more confident.
- Opposite the agricultural market you will see ... "Gazelle" with a blue awning.
- With a blue awning ... Yes, they see.
– The key is behind the rear wheel rim.
Yasin passed and leaned back in his chair.
- What was it?
- Everything is fine, Yasin, - said Pustovalov, - just one more safety net.
- Insurance?
Pustovalov spread his hands. Now he knew that his mistake had a first and last name.
“It’s better to be safe once again than to let down respected people.
Pustovalov understood that Yasin's people went to Matvey Bocharov and he was either bought or captured. If that's the case, then he should be among Yassin's men in the parking lot by now. Bocharov is the only one who, apart from Pustovalov, knows the code, but he does not know that the device has a duplicate. If this assumption is correct, then Bocharov will enter the wrong code using a single input attempt, and then Pustovalov will have a chance. Illusory, but a chance. If only the colonel did not disappoint.
Seconds passed, Yasin's smartphone was silent.
They should be able to unlock the car and get to the device by now.
At this time, Yasin picked up the smartphone again.
- What's yelling there?
- Yasin, - Pustovalov stood up, holding out a piece of paper, - there is protection there, you need a code.
Why didn't you give it to me right away?
- But we agreed. Your people ask for a code - we give. Are they morons and introduced him at random?
Yasin said nothing.
Pustovalov sat down. Yasin studied Pustovalov.
- Well done. And now what?
- Now just wait until the battery sits down and cut ... There is titanium, a hydrocut or a cutter will be required ... You would tell them not to stick their hands without engineers.
There is an engineer there.
- He confirmed?
- Confirmed.
“Well, is everything all right then?”
Yasin was silent.
“If so, we would like to have our share.
Yasin paused, to which Pustovalov was already accustomed, and made a sign. A servant appeared out of nowhere with a brown leather bag and placed it on the table in front of Basurov.
Basurov pulled the bag towards him with a trembling hand.
At that moment, Yasin raised his index finger and the servant grabbed Basurov sharply by the wrist.
“Interesting,” Yasin said, turning to Pustovalov, “a businessman, negotiator, former athlete.”
- Decent biography. Pustovalov smiled.
Yasin pointed to Basurov.
“Wife, two kids, three bad loans, fired for stealing trailers. All that is stolen, spends on cheap whores and treatment of prostatitis. Here is the biography. Yours is missing details.
“I just choose my social circle carefully.
Yasin grinned and, after a short pause, waved to the servant to let go of Basurov's hand.
– May I have a question? - Asked Pustovalov, taking the bag from Basurov.
- Can.
Who needs all this?
Pustovalov opened the bag, looked at the dark pink packets, and looked up.
- More precisely, not even to whom, but for what?
Yasin got up.
- From time to time it occurs to someone that you can impose your own rules on the world. But this is an illusion. All these new rules are just old chaos, and then someone has to clean up the crap. - He said. - Good luck.
Pustovalov got up.
Yasin came close to Pustovalov, looked into his eyes and unexpectedly hugged him.
***
“You sly son of a bitch, Sanya!
In the elevator, the cheerful colonel's tongue loosened, but Pustovalov pressed him against the wall.
- Listen to me carefully. We have very little time.
- What? Back off, dummy!
But the colonel began to understand something. He wasn't a fool after all.
“It will be crowded downstairs. Don't stop anywhere, don't react to anything...
- Sanya...
- ... whatever they tell you - do not answer.
- Something happened?
We need to get into my car.
The Colonel looked into his eyes.
“You… sold him a real machine, didn’t you?”
- Igor, I'm not kidding.
- Seriously? Have you decided that you can fool this person?
The elevator stopped.
“Do you… do you have it in your blood?” Some instinct - you just can't help but cheat? Give me the bag!
Pustovalov grabbed Basurov's hand. He was much stronger than the colonel.
- You did not understand? We were not going to be let out of here from the very beginning.
- You are sick!
- Just get in the car. Then we'll discuss everything.
The Colonel shook his head.
- I'm not involved in this.
The elevator doors opened.
They were all downstairs.
- Let's go!
Pustovalov pushed the colonel into the vestibule. The colonel immediately broke free and tried to return to the elevator, but the doors had already closed, the elevator went upstairs.
Basurov clicked the call button.
“Let’s go,” Pustovalov repeated through clenched teeth, but the colonel had already moved to the stairs.
Don't let him leave! the colonel shouted, running up the stairs.
Pustovalov sighed. Even without this cry, no one was going to "let him leave." Pustovalov walked past the bearded men and went out into the street and stopped. Cold air and a whirlwind of prickly snowflakes hit my face.
"BMW X5" is already well covered. He still stood out from the row by half a body. The passenger door was about fifteen meters away.
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Only one person directly looked at her - a stern, gloomy old man from the gallery on the second floor. She had seen him before, I think in the ninth block - an ordinary mute worker with the right of free movement. He seemed to her out of his mind, but in his current “hawkish” look there was some kind of repulsive meaningfulness, without a hint not only of compassion, but even of curbed hatred. He looked at her just like a log, dissatisfied with the fact that the log was too thin and would not give the required warmth. There was no life in that look, only cold. This is how a dead man who managed to challenge life itself would look.However, all this, even the dumb old man, she saw fragmentarily, as in a painful dream, and then completely disappeared, only the darkness above her head remained - real or in her imagination. She stopped hearing conversations, footsteps, and the creak of the wheels of the gurney; only dull pops were heard in her head, reminiscent of explosions of a gas-air
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- Stole?Boris nodded, pointing to the picture.- On the day of the visit to Novikov, Colonel Basurov, a well-connected former member of the procurement commission of the Ministry of Defense, was with Pustovalov. Most likely, he played the role of an intermediary. He went missing that day. Since Pustovalov himself is a ghost and it is impossible to track his movements, we tracked Basurov's movements before he disappeared in the warehouse. And through him they came across a certain Dementiev. We interrogated him. Dementiev is a professional safecracker, it was he who helped Pustovalov steal the installation. He also said that there were two installations. That is, one working sample, and a spare case without filling - in fact, a dummy. But it looks like the real one. He confirmed that Pustovalov was going to sell the unit to Yasin after learning that he was behind her order on the black market. In addition to Basurov, another person went missing that day, previously in contact with Pus
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The car ran into a minibus lying on its side, Boris opened the door, leaned half out of the passenger compartment, exposing his haggard face to the frosty wind. There was a false peace here. Distant screams and shots were drowned out by unobtrusive music, but this tiny lane adjoining Frunzenskaya Embankment bore little resemblance to the island of former life. Rather, the coldness of the future blew from him - the very one that none of them would ever find. Desolation oozed from the planed poplars gathering darkness, from the mangled cars sprinkled with snow, forever left after yesterday's accident, from under the architraves of the shifted "stalinok", from the black windows of the buildings deprived of power supply.Boris looked at the piece of paper with the address and saw how it was distorted by a five-centimeter wall, carved from a dark space ice floe. With a crackling, cascading arc, the wall passed through Windman and, outlining the front facade of a two-story Chinese restauran
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He appeared on the bridge in a couple of minutes. Maurice, who was sitting under the window of a high tower, calmly rose and aimed his rifle at him:- One, two, three, and well, freeze! - He said cheerfully.Pustovalov obeyed and, without raising his head, said:“Using your man as bait?” Clever.“You used yours to get out too, didn’t you?”Pustovalov raised his head. Maurice saw through the eyepieces of the night vision device that Pustovalov was without night vision devices and knew that he only saw the outline of a dark silhouette in the window.- Komsomolskaya, - Maurice nodded with a smile, - now I understand why Daniker began to be so lucky before his death.- You're confusing me with someone else. I happened to be there.“Just a subway passenger?”- Exactly.Maurice burst out laughing and at that moment Pustovalov disappeared. He quickly figured out that he just jumped through a hole in the bridge.Still laughing, Maurice jumped lightly onto the bridge and called out:"You're br
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202
Coming up to him, Maurice found a crumpled fireman's heat-reflecting suit and smiled. We must pay tribute, although Maurice was not upset at all. He could have guessed right away that the trick with heat guns only made sense if you were already inside. It didn't matter now. Maurice knew that infrared sensors would not be a problem for him, like everything else that they had already prepared. He knew that the one they were waiting for would go very far, perhaps even manage to reach the very end. Of course, to the end, to which he is allowed to reach. That's why Maurice was here. And Maurice was rather upset if the one they were waiting for deceived his expectations.After walking a few more meters, Maurice saw a shining helmet with a visor-mirror in the bushes, and his smile grew wider. No, as long as he did not deceive his expectations.***Having reached the northern section of the bypass route, Kruchina quieted down and took a step. Moving along the trodden path, he soon came to two
