The Way to Dehradun. A detective adventure story. Tatiana Sokoloff

minutes later, but Yana was already fast asleep at that time, apparently affected by the nervous tension of the last two days.

      They arrived in Delhi on time, and as our ladies had no luggage, they quickly passed through passport control and found themselves in the reception area. Yana saw an airport employee and an information desk nearby.

      The first thing they did was approach an airport employee. Yana asked in good English:

      – The day before yesterday, a young man flew in from Moscow: tall, thin, bespectacled, about thirty-five years old. He’s missing, do you by any chance remember him? Who was he talking to? Which way did he go?

      – I didn’t work the day before yesterday, it’s not my shift, I don’t know anything, I didn’t see anything. We’re on duty in two days, it was Salim’s shift, he’ll be here tomorrow.

      At the information desk, Yana repeated the same speech, but the girl said she didn’t remember the young man, and there were so many passengers that she couldn’t even remember them all.

      – Let’s spend the night at a hotel near the airport so that we can talk with Salim tomorrow. Perhaps he will give us at least some information.

      They checked into a hotel near the airport, Smart Signature, and had a delicious snack of Indian food at a local cafe. For the first meal, they ate palak paneer vegetarian puree soup, a fantastically delicious and delicate dish. Palak is spinach, and paneer is very similar to Adyghe cheese. The second course was tandoori chicken, which is marinated chicken in yogurt with spices. And finally, for dessert, they tasted Yana’s favorite dish – korma, a delicate creamy cream based on yogurt with nuts and spices. And, of course, afterwards ordered masala tea.

      Yana was very fond of Indian cuisine, she was fascinated by all these mysterious aromas of Indian spices, she tried to cook something similar at home in Moscow. She was especially good at making lentil soup with cumin.

      – Mrs Oksana, let’s have a good rest now, because tomorrow we have a difficult day ahead of us.

      – Good night, sweetheart

      And they went to their rooms in the hotel.

      Chapter Six

      Roman woke up to the sound of the door opening. An Indian girl brought him a tray of food, several bottles of drinking water and a bucket that was supposed to serve as a toilet. Roman was terribly hungry. He broke off a piece of flatbread, dipping it in some kind of sauce.

      The girl immediately disappeared, and the door was locked again. There were no windows in the room. The only way to escape was through the door, which was always locked.

      Roman began to analyze why he got into such a situation. What did he do wrong?

      He should have called Oksana Fyodorovna or contacted a representative of the clinic in Dehradun, because he had these contacts.

      “I wanted to solve everything on my own, without bothering anyone, and here is the result.

      The situation is not only unpleasant, but it is unclear how it will end for me at all.

      Mom’s probably going crazy. I texted her that I had arrived safely, but I didn’t tell her that I had arrived at the hotel.”

      There was some noise outside the door and a conversation in Hindi. Probably, the people outside the door were arguing about something, their voices were irritated. Roman distinguished the voices of three men.

      Then he heard a conversation in English, understood some individual words and put together a phrase from them: “The client is ready to fly.”

      It remained a mystery who the client was and where he was ready to fly.

      “They’re probably already looking for me. After all, I didn’t show up at the hotel and the next day at the clinic. Oksana Fyodorovna and Yana will not just leave this situation. For now, I’ll try to calm down and wait. They will definitely find me,” Roman repeated several times in his mind.

      Then the door opened, and a young man, apparently a doctor or a medical brother, came in with medical devices for blood collection. Roman began to resist, but the man glared at him so fiercely that he realized it was pointless to resist.

      After taking the blood, he strained:

      – Don’t worry, everything will be fine, – and quickly went out the door.

      Roman didn’t like it very much.

      Why did they take his blood? What will they do with her?

      He wanted to go home to his mother. He imagined her peacefully busying herself in the kitchen, baking her signature apple pie. Roman was usually sitting at his laptop or reading his favorite fiction at this time.

      “Is this really the end? No, I have to believe that they will save me, they will definitely save me.”

      The room was stuffy. Roman sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall, and began to cry softly.

      Chapter Seven

      The next morning, Alex Karte received an invoice for $130,000 from Turkey with the comment: “You need to pay 50% first, after payment they will start selecting a donor and will call for surgery. Payment of the second part of the invoice will be made immediately before the transplant.”

      Alex, without hesitation, handed the invoice to his secretary, Abigail, so that she would make the down payment.

      “There’s nothing you can do, there’s just no other way out,” Alex thought. “It’s also good that I’m financially well-off and can afford it. I have to live, I want to live, and I will live.”

      Alex went out for a walk along Marienplatz and had a cup of coffee in a small cozy coffee shop near the Old Town Hall. Munich is beautiful at different times of the year, but Alex loved this city especially in spring, when everything is in full bloom. The weather was fine, and on the way to Marienplatz, Alex strolled through the shady park, where geese were strolling and even real hares were running.

      After a cup of fragrant coffee, Alex went to the Frauenkirche (the official name of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary). This is a temple in Munich, which is associated with the legend that the devil himself entered it.

      And indeed, at the entrance to the church you can see the “imprint of the devil, or the step of the devil” – this is the impression of a foot on a stone slab.

      According to legend, during the creation of this grandiose temple, Satan was afraid that the patronage of the Holy Virgin Mary would weaken his position. He made a deal with the architect that he would patronize the construction in exchange for the architect’s soul.

      Satan commissioned the architect to build a temple without windows.

      When the construction was completed, the devil appeared in it even before the lighting. And when he stood under the organ, he did not see a single window. He was overjoyed and thought that no Christian would come here to pray. But when he stepped forward, he realized that he had been tricked. Out of anger, he stamped his foot and turned into the wind to smash the stained glass windows. But couldn’t do it. Satan left his little imp at the temple, which is still wandering around there and doing various dirty tricks to people.

      It is curious that it is from the place where the footprint is located, indeed, not a single window is visible, and it is always very windy around the temple.

      After sitting on a bench in the temple and enjoying the organ music, Alex heard a voice:

      – Are you ready to do anything to live?

      Alex turned around and saw a skinny gentleman in a tailcoat and a black hat next to him. The man’s eyes were small, but his gaze seemed to burn through.

      – How do you know that I am concerned about this issue?

      – Oh,