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UNDERGROUND 83
Pustovalov noticed a change in Victor's behavior. Habitual good nature was replaced by defiant recklessness and inept irony. The guy seemed to be going through a belated transitional age. But Pustovalov did not at all see himself in the role of a parent, forced to endure all this. But still he endured. And not only because he needed Victor, but because he liked him anyway. At the Lubyanka, Pustovalov suggested moving to the next stage, and Victor deliberately slowly climbed onto the platform and imposingly crossed the hall, copying the apparently crazy old man. And although the station was empty, in a different scenario, such a trick could cost them dearly.Why hide when there are cameras all around? - Victor mowed down "for a fool". - I'm still silent about the volumes. I hope you know they're all over the place?Pustovalov pretended not to notice the barbs. He guessed that Victor was offended because of the incident with the hunter. Perhaps Pustovalov went too far then, which he reg
UNDERGROUND 84
You are a master no doubt. But there is no command. You just masterfully use everyone, including me.We are a team as long as we have a common goal.- In fact of the matter. We have no common goal. For example, I don't want to go to Komsomolskaya. Why am I going there? Just because you said.- Victor, we discussed this. There is an exit, a depot, and you yourself said that your home is there.“Home,” Victor smiled sourly, “do you know what my house is? A fucking cold empty room in a communal flat. With a fucking air mattress. With an empty refrigerator. I pissed on my last pair of jeans, ripped my only sneakers, my pockets were empty, my score was zero. Do you think this is the house you want to return to?- Do you have a family?“My father died when I was little. There is a mother who, immediately after his death, jumped out to marry an old man who looked like Belmondo and bore him three children. She loves them, but not me. 'Cause I look like someone she never loved.Pustovalov look
UNDERGROUND 85
– Are you out of your mind?! - Katya was taken aback.“They won’t kill you,” Victor supported Pustovalov and, pointing to Kharitonov, added, “but if he comes out first, he may be mistaken for one of them.”– We have no choice. There are no weapons. You can't go back. Victor and I have inherited too much there.- Yes, go fuck yourself! - Katya did not let up.“Perhaps they know you,” Victor looked at Dasha.Are you saying that there...“Their enemies are our friends.Dasha looked at Victor, trying to understand him. But the "new" Victor looked unperturbed.“I won't go ahead. – Completed the “discussion” Katya.“I’ll go,” Dasha stepped forward.Pustovalov sighed. He convinced himself that there was no other option.They walked in silence, stretched out in a chain. It was not much brighter at the Red Gate than in the tunnel. The only source of light was hiding somewhere in the hall. Toli from poor light, or from fatigue, it seemed to Pustovalov that the pylons and walls at the station we
UNDERGROUND 86
"Okay, what's the clue?"- We need to interrogate one traffic cop. There are few details, but something related to Daniker.– Yes, what is this “daniker”?- The name of the commander of the special forces group, who disappeared during the assault. He... Are you listening?Boris looked into the well of the tunnel.- It's hot out there...- What?- Yes, I understand, - Boris raised an unseeing glance at Yakov, - let's go.- Okay, I'll just wash my hands. Meet me at the car.When Yakov was washing his hands, a frightened Tkachenko burst into the toilet.- There ... Your colleague, he ....- What?“He seems to have gone mad. He undressed and...Yakov removed Tkachenko and returned to the basement. Vindman was nowhere to be found, only his clothes were scattered on the floor, and the sounds of blows could be heard from the tunnel.Yakov descended into the tunnel, lit only by a hand-held portable lantern placed on a stool. Behind her, Vindman, stripped to his underpants, was digging a tunne
UNDERGROUND 87
– Under the Sizigi building there is a protected bunker made of materials that are used in the construction of nuclear power plants. It is not on the inventory drawings and underground maps of Moscow. You can get into it only from the Sizigi office. The entrance is securely hidden. So, Comrade Colonel, you now have two options.- Only two? - Makarov was feignedly surprised.“Yes,” Vindman confirmed seriously, “the first one is to send me to hell and continue on with your plan.Makarov nodded contentedly.- Second ... I heard that I was forbidden to approach the Sisiji. So here's the second option: you can ask the general to lift this ban. So that my partner and I, - Boris pointed to Yakov, - could inspect the building.Makarov winced.“And keep in mind,” Vindman added, “if you choose the first option, then starting from this moment, right from this,” Boris pointed his index finger at Makarov, “only you are responsible for her life and health, if she is there.The smile that did not le
UNDERGROUND 88
– Is it possible? Jamming special communications?– How would you know?Pustovalov looked at Dasha and nodded. The girl took out "Fairy Tale-2".- Where did you get that? Daniker was surprised.- From my father.- Colonel General Afanasiev. Pustovalov explained.Daniker whistled.What are you doing here, daughter?- I was returning from work on the subway, and here it is.- So. Hold on to me, got it?! If something happens, don't you dare say who your father is, okay?– What will happen?- Something.- This phone does not work. Isn't that "something"?- It's all right upstairs.“It’s okay if the whole subway is captured!” Where is the army, assault and all that. Why is it only you?“Listen, I don’t know, daughter,” Daniker said with warmth in his voice, “but believe me, we heard the city, we heard the streets. Communication breaks through the jammers to the nearest subscriber. I personally heard the noise of trams, signaling and Sobyanin's crushers. Lays the tiles again. The guy I was
UNDERGROUND 89
- Why were they shooting? Daniker asked, also slowing down.- For anticipation. It's dark there.So he wasn't there at all? No trace?- Only shells.Now Pustovalov realized his mistake. But he should have understood everything even when he heard the first cry. A person thinking at such a speed will not wait while sitting on the balcony.Victor, noticing that Pustovalov was standing, also stopped before reaching the turn. But the first commando has already passed him.- Stop! Pustovalov called out to him, but it was too late. He didn't hear the shot, because it was a silent rifle. But I heard a scream and the movement of a shadow on the wall. Pustovalov knew that the commando was already dead. How logical and simple it is - having guessed their plan, move to the tunnel leading to the depot.Daniker and Boris rushed there and immediately ducked down and retreated. Pustovalov heard the sound of bullets striking through metal pipes.- Ambush. Daniker shouted angrily.- It's him.- What do
UNDERGROUND 90
From a distance of twenty meters, not everyone can see a human face well, but Yakov had excellent eyesight and clearly saw the unblinking ice-ice eyes fixed on him. Despite the twilight, which partially absorbed General Afanasiev - he was sitting at a table filled with antediluvian turntables literally on the border of light and darkness, Yakov saw a well-shaven chin and shoulder straps with new huge stars.Judging by the everyday expression of Yakov's face, it could be assumed that questions about why there was such a large distance between him and the general and why such large rooms in the control building did not bother him. And the point obviously was not that Yakov was not among the subordinates, who even mentally avoided sticking their nose into other than their own affairs. The thing was that he did not guess and did not make assumptions about new measures to protect top officials from viral infections. He was just one of the few who knew a lot more than you might think.Yakov
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Epilogue
From the panoramic window, Victor can see the San Francisco Bay, but the waters no longer impress him. He still can't get used to the Golden Gate, but the views are much duller in his research center. Somewhere out there, beyond the countryside, he discovered Sunnyvale Pond. This place reminded him of the Moscow region at all. However, this is rather a minus, Victor is too young to be nostalgic for his homeland.Out of habit, everything comes surprisingly easily to him. A psychologist friend said that there was nothing extraordinary in his phenomenon, he just pulled out a lucky lottery ticket called "beautiful parents." Victor won an international competition, and while still a student, he got a job at the Ames Research Center, and on Sunday he met the daughter of emigrants from Lithuania who work in Los Angeles. Dimon without exaggeration would put "ten". Victor never gave grades to girls. Dimon knows that Victor was born with a golden spoon in his mouth and tries to reach for him. Vi
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209
An old photograph, hitting the slimy walls, slowly spinning like an autumn leaf, slowly falls into a deep well. The well is so deep and bottomless that the round hole at the top has long turned into a bright dot, and is about to completely disappear. And the photo keeps falling and falling. It depicts three boys, three of them are twenty-nine years old. One of them, dark-haired, with curly hair, stands in the middle, hugging his friends. It is slightly lower and seems to hang slightly on their shoulders. All three are smiling. The photo is old, you can see it not only in the crumpled corners, scratches and faded palette, but also in stretched sweaters and old-fashioned shirts with rolled up sleeves.The photo keeps spinning and spinning, and in one of the turns, the image on it changes. Now there are only two boys. They also hug each other and look into the camera with smiles, but the black-haired man standing between them is no longer there. It's like it never happened. Maybe it's a
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208
The old man, Makarov, rushed after him, and only after them did the special forces pour out.Still running up, Boris saw a square hole in the center of the site - not at all like what he saw on the day of his last visit to the plant. Perfectly smooth, carved into cubes that were stacked near the tractor. Next to them lay a completely black device, which he saw in the photographs sent by the Special Metals Research Institute.Boris was the first to run up to the edge of the hole.Below, he saw what he had seen before - the shaft of the mine, only at the bottom of the bowl there was now a well. There was absolute bedlam going on: corpses, blood, weapons, overturned chairs, pieces of collapsed stairs and galleries. He did not immediately notice living people, but when he saw a figure crawling away from the wall, he immediately recognized it, although he had never seen it alive.- Daria! he shouted. - Daria Afanasyeva!The girl raised her head.Makarov, running up, heard Vindman's scream,
- UNDERGROUND
207
Before saying goodbye to life, Dasha managed to become a witness to strange events that replaced each other with kaleidoscopic speed. First, something flew from above right in the center and with a disgusting thud plopped behind the makeshift spectator box. Dasha could not see anything in such a short time, but for some reason she was sure that this was a human body. More terrible than the blow itself were the frightened cries.And here is how a deaf-mute worker jumped from the upper gallery, and with inhuman speed slipped somewhere into the darkness, she saw very well.Just then, a strange movement began. On the right, something overturned with a crash, and someone very frightened shouted something in an incomprehensible language. Apparently it was a command, because right there from the depths of the hall there was a coordinated stomp of feet.Dasha saw four of the six burner paws, above her, the other two were located on either side of her head. From above, the bright light of hang
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206
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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205
- 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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204
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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203
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
