The Ball. Volume#1. “Kuluangwa”. Michael Ouzikov

Karlovich slowly approached this elderly man of small stature and a narrow face with a long, bluish nose, and without even thinking how to explain himself he knocked on his own forehead with two fingers and, wincing, asked: «Pharmacy, where is farmacia? Analgene… head – testa… testa boo-boo very much – testa malate! Devil may break a leg of this damn Italian!» The old man, as if expecting this question, got up from the plastic bench and promptly waved his dry blotchy hand, inviting Rodion Karlovich into a shabby, impossibly dusty city bus that pulled to the curb out of nowhere.

      Ostensibly hypnotized, the professor entered the empty salon and collapsed next to the old man in the seat behind the driver. Bus no. 64W immediately started moving, grunting out exhaust with displeasure. The driver turned to the old man, looked into his eyes, and shook his head – «This one?» Blue-nose nodded his head.

      CHAPTER 6

      55° 45» 11» N

      37° 38» 26» E

      Moscow, Russian Federation

      September 7, 1994

      «This one?»

      «What do I know?»

      «This guy isn’t quite dead yet…»

      «Aha! They don’t want dead ones. Remember the last one? They finally let him go…»

      «Yeah, let him go… into the Moscow River.»

      The two square-headed and thick-necked thugs, dressed in expensive suits of the latest fashion, stopped at the corner of Podkolokolny and Malo Ivanovo alleys. With undisguised contempt, they were looking intensely at a dry, bony, dirty man. He sat with his back to a water pipe, pursing his thin legs. The tricot was torn at his knees. Dirty, swollen, dressed in rags, he was begging passersby for something in his incoherent, tongue-tied speech. But the passersby only hurriedly ran past him, some bouncing off to the side for fear of catching some tuberculosis, pediculosis, or «even something worse.»

      One of the suits drew a pair of white latex gloves from his pocket, busily pulled them on his hairy hands, and pushed the elbow of his associate, quietly muttering, «Alright, we take this one. We’ve been shaking down alleyways for two hours. And I’m hungry like a dog! If he won’t be the right one, then the hell with him – the river will wash him away like the others…»

      «Wait, I’ll put a cover on the seat… God forbid that son a bitch will stink up my car.» He turned and quickly headed to the man standing not far from the black Jeep.

      Meanwhile, the first suit sat down in front of beggar and shook his bony shoulder. The hobo raised his eyelids heavily and with his bright blue, unreflective eyes looked at the stranger. He was not too old. Rather, it was impossible to tell his age without ridding his face of the stubble he had grown over many days, washing the dirt off him, and feeding him properly. He was probably still in his thirties.

      «I’m not well, brother,» he rasped through dry, parched, blue lips, «I can’t breathe… my pipes are burning!»

      «Well, that’s fixable, chap. How do we call you, miserable?» asked the suit deliberately in a good-natured and merry tone.

      «I’m Oleg. Oleg Pervushin.»

      «Here’s what, Oleg Pervushin, look here, brother – I’m going to patch you up for a little case. At my cottage. It’s not for nothing, you hear! I’ll get your pipes cleaned and feed you and get you dressed, bro. The whole deal!» He smiled wryly and depicted a graceful movement with his white-gloved fingers. Then, still smiling, he pulled from his jacket pocket a 250-mL bottle of «Moskovskaya» vodka, pulled off the silver cap, and placed the warm bottle into the trembling hand of Oleg Pervushin. As if long expecting such a turn of events, Oleg took three big gulps in exactly three seconds, consuming the entire contents of the bottle, making his saviour whistle with admiration. Gently burping, Oleg again leaned back against the drainpipe. After a few long moments, his cheeks began to show colour, his breathing leveled off, and he opened his eyes to look at the stranger in full consciousness.

      «Well, what do you want, dear,» said Oleg with a little drawl, «Take me, lock, stock and barrel. If you like, I’ll plow your land, and dig up a well, and cut down trees for a sauna, and…»

      «No, no, Oleshka,» interrupted his companion, «I want you to, well, work as a watchman for me. You know how many scums there are around now, climbing in windows, stealing, and they can even burn you. Well, maybe, you can be a courier for our office. You know, bring this, take that…»

      «What, the post doesn’t work?»

      «Yes, it works. But we don’t need its services. I’m sure you know how they work… every second package, bye-bye. It’s not around Moscow you’ll have to deliver them, but to far away. To all, so to speak, corners of our great motherland. Well, that’s it – c’mon, let’s go. Details – later.»

      «Drugs or something?»

      «God forbid, who do you hold me for? I’m one of yours, I’m a bourgeois,» insisted the thug. The joke sounded out of place.

      He helped the homeless man up. Only some of the very few passersby still out at this late evening hour paid any attention at how an expensively dressed man held a foul street beggar by the arm and seated him into an expensive foreign car. The right back door slammed, and Oleg fell on the soft leather seat, which was covered its entire length by a sheet of transparent plastic. The car pulled slowly away, sharply honking at clumsy, crooked Ladas, and with its tires squealing, raced up the Malo Ivanovo alley of Moscow. Eyeing the big city lights from a window of the expensive car, Oleg was sweetly falling asleep. At one turn, he even fell to the squeaky polyethylene, curled up and fell asleep, resting his unshaven cheek on his dirty fist. Meanwhile, the car’s stereo system blasted a Nautilus Pompilius rock hit at full bass:

      If you’re drinking with thieves,

      Be afraid for your wallet,

      If you walk on muddy roads,

      You can’t avoid soiling your feet…

      «Turn off that nonsense!»

      «What’s wrong? It’s their last album – it’s good stuff!

      «What’s so cool? If you drink with thieves – don’t be afraid for your wallet! Don’t be afraid! – you got it?»

      CHAPTER 7

      To: Head of Intelligence Directorate,

      General Staff of the Red Army,

      General I.I. Ilichev

      December 4, 1942

      OPERATIONAL REPORT

      Comrade General,

      As part of Operation Trigger, I offer you the latest intelligence information, analysis, archival documents, and historical references. We also found that the OGPU6 organs, and in particular the Deputy Chairman of the OGPU – G.G. Yagoda, were already interested in the subject in 1931.

      ***

      FROM THE INTELLIGENCE ARCHIVES OF THE 7th BRANCH OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE TSARIST ARMY

      From: Ciphered reports of the Russian Embassy resident in the U.S., Joseph Grabbe

      To: Head of the 7th Branch of the General Staff, Gen. V.A. Tselebrovsky

      Copy: Russian Ambassador to the United States, Mr. R.R. Rosen

      July 27, 1902

      Your Excellency,

      With the help of our agent at the central post office in Colorado Springs, we have received a copy of a letter from Mr. Tesla to Mr. Johansson in New York regarding our

6

The Joint State Political Directorate, the Soviet secret police from 1922 to 1934