The next day the nightmare recurred.
Plaintively tinkling, the refrigerator in the kitchen fell silent; the TV behind him cut off his mumbling.
Irka's fingers froze on the keyboard of an old laptop with a suddenly turned off monitor. She understood firmly and immediately: this is not at all the result of another minor accident at the local substation. It was they who, having cut off the power supply of her apartment from the entrance, let her know that they had returned.
There were heavy blows on the door.
Open up, whore! - eerily loud buzzed from behind the door, amplified by access acoustics, deliberately rough bass.
Irka huddled in a chair in front of a dead laptop. The dark quadrangle of the monitor trembled and blurred into a blot, but Irka did not even dare to move to wipe away her tears that had suddenly flowed.
Open! - roared even louder.
The old two-story suburban house (and where else can a student afford to rent an apartment?) was frightenedly silent; hiding, cautiously listening, Irka's neighbors.
A few more powerful blows on the door, another deafening: "Open!" And a long clanging of a disgustingly ornate obscene phrase - as if they were dragging a rusty chain along the steps of the stairwell.
And suddenly it became quiet.
Irka slid down from her chair and slowly, trying with all her might not to creak with worn floorboards, moved towards the door.
For about a minute she could not bring herself to look out the peephole. And when she finally made up her mind, she saw only the entrance walls distorted by a convex lens, thickly written (they tried yesterday!) with obscenity in her, Irka, address. Only walls and nothing else.
Have they really gone?
And immediately, taking off from somewhere below, the view was tightly closed by a mockingly grinning physiognomy.
Iruka recoiled with a sob.
And again a hail of blows shook the door.
Fucked up, bitch?! Thought to sit it out? .. Let me go, who is told! Need to talk!
I will give it back! Iruka screamed. - I'll pay for everything! My mom will send me money! I'll give everything tomorrow! I will receive the transfer and immediately to the bank ...
Are you in the ears, or what, are you pecking, you fool?! Which bank? What was explained to you yesterday? I bought your debt from the bank, me! You owe me money now! And I'll shake my grandmother out of you in any way, you won't get rid of it!
Tomorrow I'm all ... - Irka was squeaking, but she was not allowed to finish:
I'm not interested in hanging around with you every day, you understand, no?
We eat such "breakfasts" all the way, not the first year in business, - another voice sharply wedged into the conversation. - Open the door, socket, we are not a bank, we can take things.
And then something else...
From another blow, the door frame cracked large along the length, releasing a cloudy cloud of dust.
Open up, you bastard!
Help! Iruka screamed. - Help somebody!
But it’s real ... - a second voice suddenly said, - what to take from her? Hey, come on, here's what...
Suddenly, the knocking stopped. Two voices rustled unintelligibly behind the door, and fearless loud laughter splashed at the end of the conversation. And something, having penetrated the keyhole, gnashed there, turning with an effort.
Irka's throat was filled with a new round of horror. Behind the unreliable barrier of the door, they, adult healthy men, fiddling with the lock, whispered muffledly, giggled passionately, like schoolchildren making their way into the girls' locker room.
She rushed to the window, flung open the shutters. Second floor, high; you will probably break something if you jump ... Yes, God, what nonsense, don't give a damn, let it. Just to get out of this nightmare, just to...
Under the window, in the front garden with dahlias withered from the heat, stood a large pot-bellied man. Throwing back his head, gleaming on top of a neat bald head, he looked at Irka and waved his hand with a cigarette sandwiched between his fingers. So friendly, smiling...
Help! Irka shouted again, hastily looking away from the man. - Lu-udi! .. Please!
Her desperate call disappeared without a trace in the midday silence of the green courtyard, sparkling with bird chirping.
“It doesn’t happen like that ... - was born in the stunned Irka’s head. - Peaceful calmness, people around. That doesn't happen. Just not with me…”
Help... And who will help? Directly - a blank fence, behind which is the roadway, on the sides are dirty metal boxes of garages. Residents of the house, her neighbors? That's who you can't wait for help from. Yesterday they did not lean out and today they will be silent ... Lord, what should I do? And it's all her own fault. Foolishly took a loan; with great difficulty, denying herself in many ways, she paid, each time cursing herself for having once succumbed to momentary weakness. Has paid. Well, what did it cost to ask the doll-smiling bank managers: was the entire amount repaid, was there nothing left? And she, having paid the last installment, fluttered out of the bank as soon as possible. The tickling lightness of release carried her...
And a year later - like a club on the head - a call from a collection agency. Say, they forgot to pay for the intermediary services of the bank, Irina Valeryevna, the contract should have been read more carefully, no one is obliged to notify you in time. And - interest, fines, penalties - an alarming scattering of numbers crackled, crackled and formed a very impressive amount for a third-year student, even if she was moonlighting: either as a saleswoman in a night shop, or as a tutor, or as a cleaning lady at a local hotel ...
With a creak, the front door opened, familiarly shuffling the leatherette upholstery that had come off from below on the floor. It opened and slammed shut, the lock locked from the inside immediately clicked.
Irka jumped onto the windowsill. The peasant in the front garden became worried, waved his hands in warning:
Telephone! The phone is! That same ill-fated iPad, a shining toy bought on credit at an unkind hour! .. Irka also called the police yesterday, when they left, without achieving anything significant with this call: the truth, you see, they say that collection offices have a tacit agreement with the police, point-blank not seeing the corpus delicti in the actions of the bandit thugs... But now! Will the police let them do this?!
Irka, holding on to the frame, bent down, grabbed the iPad from the table, and slid her trembling fingers over the touch screen.
They entered the room. First one, then another.
Where are you, bird? - an unbearably familiar voice, sounded very close, has changed. Not a trace remained of the simulated primitive ferocity. Playful insinuatingness, even more frightening, snaked now in this voice. - Do you want to fly?
Not daring to look at the newcomers, Irka fixed her eyes on the touch screen, which still did not want to flash. Out of battery?
Discharged…
“Terekha-fool! ..” Her mother’s usual saying slipped into her head, so inappropriate now. Mom always said that to any Irkin oversight. - I forgot to charge, tereha-fool! .. "
What's up, birdie? Go to your uncle, uncle will not offend. She will like it, I guarantee ... Get off the window, creature, who is told! Debts must be paid off.
Irka nevertheless tore her tearful eyes from the useless iPad.
The one who spoke to her was about forty. A short-haired head with dark sunglasses on a steep nape, a fleshy round face, shiny with sweat, a wide chest and a voluminous belly under a tightly pulled T-shirt, powerful hairy crooked legs, stupid colorful shorts that barely reach the middle of the thigh ...
Do you like it, baby? he chuckled. - Why tears? Why, dear, have you never ... not a ding-ding? We will fix this now.
The second loomed somewhere at the entrance to the room, Irka did not have time to really examine it.
At that moment, she felt with dazzling clarity that the world in which she had lived all her twenty years, a different world, with its troubles and problems, but still for the most part worry-free and understandable - burst like a festive balloon burnt by a cigarette cartoon bully wolf. Having turned into shrunken shreds, he died completely and completely.
She jerked away, dropping her iPad. Breaking her voice, she shouted again into the indifferently silent window space:
Somebody help me, people!
Some passer-by turned out from behind the fence into the yard - a short, plump uncle in a gray business suit, with a briefcase, which for some reason he carried under his arm. He glanced at Irka, then at the menacingly puffed-up bald-headed big man in the front garden, paused, hesitating...
What did you forget here, woodpecker? - angrily grinning, the big man advanced on him. - Well, get out of here, while intact!
The fat man recoiled in fright, dropping his briefcase. Irka did not doubt at all that the uncle, who seemed to have looked into the quiet courtyard out of small need, would immediately whistle back to the street, most likely even forgetting about his loss.
But the passerby picked up the briefcase. And, no longer hesitating, he went busily to the front door.
You're immortal or something? - the big man was surprised, blocking his way.
Instead of answering, a passer-by suddenly threw a briefcase at him. The big man waved his arms, protecting his face, and the uncle jumped forward and slammed his forehead into the bridge of his nose with a swing ...
Roman Zlotnikov, Anton Kornilov
Born nobleman. Dawn
Moscow. Two years before the events described
There was no time to wait for the elevator. The head of the Department, Albert Kazachok, flew up the stairs to the fifth floor. As he passed the last flight, he noted with satisfaction that he was not too out of breath, and his legs were not in the least heavy; on the contrary, from this short run, the dispersed blood boiled more cheerfully in the whole body.
Albert Kazachok headed the Office just a month ago, becoming the youngest head of the above department in its history. And with the advent of Albert, the atmosphere of a certain turning freshness was somehow born and strengthened in the Office - as, however, almost always happens with any change of power.
With a quick step, managing to respond to the greetings of colleagues, Albert reached the reception of his own office. There were two guys waiting for him in the waiting room, in their early twenties. Guys - one bright blond, thin; the second darker and more massive - with the same agile readiness they jumped up to meet him.
The Cossack, slowing down a little, nodded to the guys, abruptly threw:
- From the HR department? For an internship? - And, without waiting for the answer, which he already knew, he turned to the secretary, a heavy grey-whiskered major (the Office never had an idiotic tradition of putting brainless girls in the secretarial chair, who considered the ability to type with one finger, answer phone calls and prepare coffee to be the pinnacle of professional skill ). “Take it, Nikolaitch, what do you have there…”
The grey-whiskered major entered the office after Albert, handed him a folder:
“Here is today, Comrade Colonel.
The Cossack, without sitting down, opened the folder on the table, scattered the papers like a fan of cards: some he immediately signed, returning them to the folder, some he put aside. And after that, exhaling, he sank into his chair. He rubbed his forehead:
- What time is the meeting?
The Major glanced at his watch.
“In thirteen minutes, Comrade Colonel. Would you like to transfer?
“I’ll make it in time…” Albert answered with some, however, doubt, waking up the computer monitor with a mouse click. At that moment, his cell phone rang.
- Do you invite young people? the secretary asked quickly.
Albert, taking out the phone with one hand, waved to the major with the other: they say, wait, then ... He immediately left the office.
- Hello, brother! – cheerfully rattled the speaker of the mobile. - How does she, Monomakhov's hat, not press?
“Come on, Arthur, okay? - Kazachok asked, frowning with displeasure. - Busy, no time to breathe ... What do you have?
- Completely conceited! - they chuckled into the phone. - You can’t say a good word to your brother, bloody!
“Shit up,” Albert corrected, “but not arrogant. Do you have something very urgent? If not very much, it is better through Nikolaich ...
“By the way, I’m calling you on a personal phone, and not on a business one,” said Arthur, Kazachok Jr. - Through Nikolaich! .. Why hasn't he settled in the apartment with you yet? Here Galka will be delighted. Soon you will ask to transfer the salt through your Nikolaich ...
“I’m hanging up,” Albert warned.
- Okay, okay ... Have they come in yet?
So they didn't come...
It was only then that Albert realized that they were two new trainees sent to him from the personnel department. And immediately chimed in:
“Wait, what do you care about them?” They are not assigned to your department. They serve and serve before operational work ...
He was still finishing the last sentence, when an annoying thought swirled in his head: he did not have time to look at the personal files of the interns. Here they are, on the table, something. As he ordered yesterday ... I expected to view it early in the morning, but it didn’t work out. Just got to the office.
Well, he, the new head of the Department, Albert Kazachok, can’t adapt to this crazy schedule in any way ... And how did the old man Magnum manage to do everything? And after all, he was never in a hurry to go anywhere, for the last ten years he almost did not leave his office - this very one, which Albert now inherited along with the position. Nevertheless, he managed to keep abreast of all the affairs of the Office, be the first to know any news, and make timely decisions every time.
It’s a pity for Magnum, of course… For almost forty years he headed the Department, for forty years he was the head of the department, vigilantly standing guard over the Fatherland. And until recently, it would never have occurred to anyone that someday it would be somehow different. However… A heart attack, resuscitation, depressing news that had miraculously leaked from a closed hospital… And only then did the Department suddenly realize that Magnum, the powerful Magnum monolith that always awes, the impenetrable block of Magnum, is an ordinary person, obeying, like everyone else, the laws of nature, an eighty-three-year-old an old man with a tired heart worn out by time ...
However, he remained true to himself to the last - without hurrying anywhere, he was not late; everything you need is provided. A week before his death, he left a secret order: who after him will take over the helm of the Administration, and how exactly the heir should shuffle the other commanding staff ...
– Albert! Hey brother! You fell asleep there, didn't you? Overtired?
- Yes! Albert snapped. - I'm listening! So what's the problem with interns?
- With one of them. And not problems, but ... quite the contrary.
- That is?
- That is it. What, you didn't look at their personal files? Come on, boss...
“Time is running out,” muttered Albert Kazachok. - Don't pull.
“One of the trainees is from Saratov,” Arthur said.
- Former orphanage.
- And what does it mean?
- Orphanage - that means he was brought up in an orphanage. In the same orphanage.
- In what else - the same one? .. - Kazachok Sr., brought out of patience, almost barked, but in time he remembered: - What are you talking about? .. - he drawled. - Truth?..
"Yeah," Arthur chuckled, clearly satisfied with the effect. - Well, bye, brother. See you today. Then share your impressions of the meeting. I haven't met him personally yet.
- Very cool?
- Yes, where is it! Just the first step of the Pillar...
Albert put down the phone. Automatically glanced at his watch, then shifted his gaze to two plastic folders lying on the table to the left, where documents that needed urgent review were usually located. He reached over the folders... and didn't open any.
An unexpected thought came to him.
“Look…” he said thoughtfully. - How much we chased after you, and here it is - one such one himself showed up. Tregrey's nest chick. And, it seems, one of the first ... Well, judging by age ...
Support the project Comments
maxidax
Axazol wrote:
oleg4et
maxidax wrote:
Axazol wrote:
71192212That's speed! One week per book.
It is unlikely that the speed of uploading has anything to do with the speed of scoring.
There is a direct correlation between the speeds of voice acting, display and payment
bandico
Thank you, it's unusual to hear your voice in this format of the book... although there are more morals in it than events.
oleg4et
VivianX wrote:
Does anyone know where to find all of this author's books?
Igor Knyazev here ... in Google ban?
ZMEIS1
vra4ygaa wrote:
71254064
style_alive
ZMEIS1 wrote:
vra4ygaa wrote:
71254064An amazing series and a great book, it's a pity that it's fiction. I would very much like that such a person as Oleg would still appear.
There was already such a person in our history, Ulyanov V.I.
T06102009
style_alive wrote:
ZMEIS1 wrote:
vra4ygaa wrote:
71254064An amazing series and a great book, it's a pity that it's fiction. I would very much like that such a person as Oleg would still appear.
There was already such a person in our history, Ulyanov V.I.
It is unlikely that you know what you are writing about. In the book, which you probably haven't read, there is Oleg's quote "Violence breeds violence". Then think for yourself.
I join you. The previous commentator on the book didn't listen, that's for sure.
Yesterday I listened to book 3 in the series. In general, I am in such a light prostration. The plot itself is, of course, primitive, the images are "blurred" - yesterday he was bad and bam - today he is already a good hero. When, under what circumstances this happened, through what moral torments of the character this metamorphosis occurred, remains behind the scenes.
But, with all this, the book is simply amazing in that I personally have never seen such an objective, truthful and real assessment of reality, not only in science fiction, in the NEWSPAPERS and in general in the media.
Nowhere have I seen such a harsh idea about our reality, that society is morally sick, and we are all to blame for this ourselves.
A particularly strong moment is the dispute about achieving the goal, that is, the reorganization of society, between Oleg and Corporal. In fact, it was slammed directly from F.M. Dostoevsky, the chapter "Riot" from the novel "The Brothers Karamazov", where a brilliant idea is expressed about the inadmissibility of reorganizing society at the cost of even one tear of a child, because this is too high a price. In other words, society cannot be improved by violence.
And although this may be a repetition of Dostoevsky, how many fans of Zlotnikov have read The Brothers Karamazov? So it's rather a kind of popularization of Dostoevsky's ideas, which I personally welcome very much. In addition, this dilemma fits very organically into the outline of the plot. So book 3 is by far the strongest of the entire series.
