Prologue
The branches lashed him mercilessly across the face, if one could call his hairy, toothy muzzle a face. Yet now he didn’t care what he looked like. Most importantly, and he tried his best to keep this thought in his furry head, he had to reach the place where the long-awaited reincarnation could happen. «The main thing, the task is completed. To get rid of this heavy burden as soon as possible,» — that’s what he thought, as far as it was possible to think in this state. And so he again and again strained all the muscles of his body, trying to speed up his already fast run.
Although it was easy to run. Though he hated this body, it was as if specially made for running. His lungs pumped air like bellows, and he could literally feel the oxygenated blood coursing freely through his mutated veins. Strange, but in his other state, he always wanted to be like he is now, and he experienced some strange longing for the Spell, that’s what he called for himself the feeling of reincarnation that enveloped him. It was like a dark cloud surrounded him immediately after the spell was uttered. However, he still hated it with all his heart, especially when he experienced the terrible pain of the transformation. Yet, probably, the main reason for his hatred was not the pain, but the understanding that he was not acting in his own will, but doing the oppressive and humiliating will of the Spell. Kanny did not remember when all this happened to him, and in the whirlwind of life he did not have enough time, and did not particularly want to stop and seriously think about it, especially now, when his human thoughts were mixed with bestial instincts. Precisely at such moments, for some reason, he felt a special desire to regain his human appearance and the ability to think clearly and calmly.
He saw a dim light ahead.
«Getting close!» a human thought flashed somewhere in the depths of his dual consciousness. He still had them, these human thoughts. A few moments later Kanny ran out into the clearing. The thick thicket was gone. Further it will be even easier to run. Soon he will reach another clearing at the end of which is his destination. Suddenly, his sharp wolf senses alerted him to people.
Chapter 1
Peter was a strong, though not tall, fair-haired and gray-eyed young man, who worked as a head of a special department whose functions were to investigate some paranormal phenomena and cases. He was reading a new report that was placed on his table by his secretary this morning. «There were several people in the area of the Maslovka village who saw UFOs and after that some strange creatures which were, according to the descriptions, similar to either a ghost, or either to a gray alien with traditionally huge eyes. Some photos and videos, made on some kind of smartphone, were added.
As usual, someone lost something, someone disappeared somewhere, and someone was kidnapped somewhere and after that began to tell all sorts of incredible stories about his kidnapping.
Peter winced and rubbed his forehead. Unpleasant pain in the temples disturbed him for several days. The superior chief from the very morning began «to take out his brains.» The wife sent him a message five minutes ago that their little Xenia was ill and had a fever.
«Work…!? How… in the world?»
It was stuffy in the room which made him feel sick. He got up and went to the window. The sky was so blue and clear today. He opened the window and waited until the morning coolness touched his face, and inhaled it filling his entire chest.
«Eh!» he thought. «If people could fly, I would now spread my wings, or something with which I flew in my dreams as a child, and fly somewhere to the top of the mountain away from all this vain mortal existence.»
* * *
«Look which one I’ve found!» A graceful girl in the age of about fourteen triumphantly picked up a huge porcini mushroom, showing it to a guy of average height and strong athletic build, who looked like he was twenty. An attentive observer would immediately understand that these two are brother and sister. Both have gray eyes and straight features. Both have light brown thick hair, which in guy’s case were a little curly. Both are of average height.
«Yes, the good one,» he replied without much enthusiasm and looked around anxiously.
«What’s happened?» She asked, noticing his concern.
Without answering, he looked up, trying to see where there’s a sun, but because of the clouds, the direction of the sun’s rays could not be determined.
«Andrey?»
She knew her brother too well. He never worried without a reason.
«I don’t like it,» he replied.
«What exactly?»
Both had special plastic containers already full of mushrooms.
«Do you happen to remember where you and I turned into this clearing?»
She thought for a moment.
«No, I do not remember. When I’m with you, I don’t follow the terrain at all.»
He shook his head.
«It’s not good, Lerochka, not so good. It would be very helpful. When did we put the last mark?»
She thought again and sadly answered.
«A long time ago.»
Without saying anything, he went, as it seemed to him, to where they had come from. His sister silently followed him.
After a while he stopped near a large tree.
«Look here.»
«Oh, a mark!» she exclaimed joyfully, seeing the peeled bark on the tree trunk.
«It’s not,» he sighed. «This is not our mark. You see?»
Now she saw. These were obviously traces of claws of some kind of a beast.
«Bear?!» she exclaimed with fear.
«Yes, it looks like. But this is not scary actually. In that season they are satisfied, and it’s unlikely that they would desire to meet a human. But the fact that this is not our label is bad. It looks like we got too far away.»
«What are we going to do?»
«Trying to find a way home, what else can we do?» he replied with a shrug. At that moment just before the sunset the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, and Andrey, following the direction of the rays, turned east.
«It looks like we have to go there.»
Valeria sighed heavily and silently followed him.
* * *
«People! Why are there people here?»
The question sounded so deep, as if his consciousness spoke somewhere from the bottom of the ocean. However, even from there his brain somehow managed to match distances with mathematical precision and calculate the location of people in relation to the destination.
Kanny stopped and turned his nose toward the wind. The hair on his thick black scruff and wide gray back stood on end, his mouth slightly opened in an evil grin, showing a row of sharp white teeth, his ears stood straight up and instinctively turned towards the scanned object.
«They are two. Very young. He and she. Relatives. They gather mushrooms. Very close to the place…» signals came one after another from the Mariana Trench of his animal-human brain, as if somewhere there was an unknown translator of his subconsciousness, stubbornly reminding of himself. In this state, his brain worked like some kind of super-computer, giving out the data he needed in a split second… and so… not everything was so hated in this bestial nature. Its dominating essence was very unpleasant, but some of its things he really liked. For example, strength, speed, flexibility, reaction, or that special ability to literally «see» with his nose. Even with his eyes closed, he continued to fully perceive the world around him. In this body his sight was much worse and he ceased to distinguish most of the colors, but at the same time his consciousness was overwhelmed with the richest information coming to him through hearing and especially through the scent, which gave him incomparably more information than other senses. And although he did not distinguish every color and shade of the grass, or of the bark of trees, but at the same time each plant, each facet of the tree fungus, each crack in the bark exuded its own special smell, telling both what kind of plant it was and what kind of the creature lives in it or on that; here are ants, here is a bark beetle, there are ticks… In addition, his wolf’s sense of smell, one of the sharpest on earth, could tell him with amazing accuracy even what was happening at a distance of more than ten miles. And… by the way! What an amazing intuition he had! He missed it so much, turning back to the human again. Somehow, being a beast, he immediately felt the danger, understood the nature of people, knew where he needed or needed not to go…
Now, for example, he felt that there was something special in these people, but it was still unclear what exactly. On one hand, he really wanted to find out what it is, since he intuitively understood that it was this «something» that for some reason would not allow him to harm them, but on the other hand, they were close enough to the base, and according to the instructions, it would be necessary to destroy them in order to preserve the secret.
«It’s strange, they still won’t be able to get inside the protection field, aren’t they? Why does Alex insist on killing people if I meet them in this area? After all, when I’m not there, there are sometimes hunters here, and he doesn’t touch them. None of them have ever been able to penetrate the protective barrier.»
However, the order of the authorities is an order. Sighing, Kanny again «scanned» the area with his scent. One bear-male, completely fed and uninterested in anything. He certainly knows about the humans because they have invaded his territory, but that obviously didn’t bother him right now. A small pack of wolves, recently from hunting, after a young roe deer, they tried to stay away from people. One lynx, following the trail of a deer, two wild boars, getting ready for bed, the rest of the predators in the nearby radius do not pose a danger to these two. The werewolf understood that a couple of miles for him, and for them, is not the same thing. By their smell he read that these people are simply lost, and therefore do not know where they are. This meant that they might never find a secret place, and they did not pose a danger, at least not yet. However, the bestial dominating essence of the Spell did not obey human logic and continued to lead him in their direction with one and only goal — people had to be terminated.
* * *
It got dark quickly. After a couple of hours, pretty tired, the guys realized that they were completely lost.
«What do we do?» she asked, seeing that her brother does not know where to go.
«I think we need to think about where to spend the night,» he replied.
«And… where can we spend it?» Lera asked with fear.
«The best is on a tree. We… of course… will be mercilessly eaten by mosquitoes, but wild animals will not touch us.»
«Are you sure?»
«Yes, more or less. The wolf can’t. A bear will not climb a tree. They climb trees only when they are small. The adults wouldn’t. In general, only a hungry beast is dangerous, and now is the time when there is plenty of food. Lynx… attack a human only in winter time so…»
«What if we fall down?»
«Let’s get attached. You have a belt, I have a belt. Oh! I see the tree which is just right.»
Andrey confidently walked forward, and his sister followed him with a sigh, trying to keep up with her older brother, who seemed so strong and confident in this unfriendly forest darkening with every minute.
Approaching the tree the brother knocked it for some reason, and then, contrived, jumped up and grabbed the lower branch. Deftly pulling himself up, he climbed up and stretching his hand out said to his sister:
«Come on.»
«I’m afraid.»
He chuckled.
«Fine. I’ll climb up alone, and you can spend the night under a tree. I think you’ll like it.»
«What did you say?! I will not stay here alone, without you,» she exclaimed with fear.
«What’s the matter? Give me your hand.»
She timidly extended her tender girlish hand to him, and he, unexpectedly firmly grasping her, pulled her up with a fast movement. She only had time to scream in surprise, as she was already next to him.
Further it was easier. Deftly climbing from branch to branch, Andrey moved up, and Lera followed him as fast as she could.
At the height of just a little bit over three meters the brother stopped and said:
«These two branches are just right. High enough, and at the same time not so scary. They are large and you can get attached normally.»
He pulled the belt out of the loops of his jeans and buckled it to the trunk. His sister tried to do the same with her belt. Andrey looked and nodded approvingly:
«All right, Lerka. You won’t fall.»
«Not very comfortable,» she replied with a sigh.
«Of course!» he laughed. «This is not a resort, but a temporary vital necessity. So, let’s endure, somehow, this kind of inconvenience.»
He looked around. Twilight was rapidly gathering.
«We’re on time. Just got here before it got too dark.»
«Yes, indeed,» she shuddered.
At this moment a huge shadow flashed behind the trees about fifty meters from them. If it were not for the evening darkness and the changeable forms of shrubs and trees, the guys would probably have noticed her, in fact Lera only caught a strange rustle and immediately turned toward it.
«Have you heard of it?
«What?»
«Some noise. Like steps. And a dull grunt, like an angry dog.»
«Hmm… no. I haven’t heard anything. Don’t worry. That’s why we climbed here, in order to not to be afraid of anything.»
«I’m still afraid. There is definitely someone there.»
«Hey, stupid little girl. Even if there is, so what? I told you, don’t be afraid. Maximum that it can do is to come to the foot of the tree and smell it.»
«But what if?!»
«What if, what if! Well, it will eat us, what’s the problem?»
«What are you talking about?» She indignantly poked him with her small fist.
«About nonsense. Nothing to be afraid of.»
«But I want to talk. All night is ahead.»
«Oh, ok, talk. You can start with some horror stories.»
«Aren’t you a fool! It is indeed so dark and scary, and he… horror stories.»
«Well… then what?»
«Something distracting. An… interesting story.»
«I do not know such a thing.»
«Well, for example, which of the girls did you like in the class?»
He burst out:
«What are you talking about? I’d never say this?»
«Why not? Didn’t you like anyone?»
«Well… no… I liked some, of course».
«So… tell me.»
«What for? You don’t know my class anyway?»
«I do know. Almost everyone.»
«Really?!»
«Yes. Here, listen. Guys are… Yurik Ganeshev, Pashka Smirnov, Vaska Glinkov, Taras Gromychko…»
* * *
Kanny stopped under the tree and, rising on his hind legs, stretched himself up along the trunk, suppressing the bestial growl inside of him. When he stood up like this, his height would have been more than two and a half meters. If he jumped, he could easily reach those two and rip them down. But for some reason he hesitated and could not do it. Something stopped him, as if some unknown force, completely different in nature in comparison with the power of the Spell, stood between him and these two, not allowing him to approach people and holding suppressed his bestial essence.
From here, a distance of fifty meters, he could smell every centimeter of their skin, every element of their clothes, the plucked bark of the tree where they fastened their belts, his and her metal buckles, the smell of sweat mixed with the smell of her not very expensive perfume, mushrooms in their plastic boxes, the scent of her and his emotions, changing every few seconds…
He sniffed and thought, and that was something very strange, since usually in this state he was guided more by reflexes and animal instincts, and not by human thought.
«Well… now they are settled down for the night. To the secret place there are 756 meters. They won’t go there today. There is still plenty of time until morning. I will calmly run to the place and reincarnate. Why should I touch them? If I kill them, it will strengthen the beast in me, and then the transition will be very painful…»
Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. Never before has the animal nature in him fought to such an extent with the human mind. Because of this increasing tension he wanted to shrink and hide somewhere where no one would find him, fenced off from the whole world. And that was what he tried to do, grouping and sitting on his hind legs, and lowering his head low to the ground, in between his front legs, although no one saw him anyway. This went on for quite some time. For some reason, the werewolf hesitated and could not make a decision, tormented by the choice he had to make and feeling on himself the attentive gaze of someone unknown and enormously big. It was a very strange feeling.
Finally Kanny let out something between a growl and a human sigh, abruptly jumped up on all fours and rushed away, moving in heavy leaps on the ground chilled from the chill of the night that had fallen on it.
Chapter 2
«You’ve heard it?!» asked the frightened girl.
«Yes,» he replied, peering into the darkness of the night.
«What was it?»
«It’s hard to say. I think that, most likely, judging by the size and heavy steps, it was a bear.»
«A bear?!»
«Mm… well… yes… most likely.»
«And now what?»
«Well… calm down. You can see for yourself that he did not even come close to us.»
«Maybe he didn’t see us?»
«Are you kidding? This is the animal! First of all, he heard us much earlier than we heard him. And secondly, he sensed us long before he heard us.
«Why did he leave?»
«This is exactly what you should be happy about. Since he left, it means that he realized that he couldn’t reach us. And now it’s no longer dangerous.»
«Why are you so confident? How do you know everything?»
«Well… hmm… I’ve been coming here every year for ten years in a row. And you’ve only been a couple of times, and even then… you’ve been mostly sitting at home, instead of walking in the forest and talking with the villagers.»
«They are rude, and therefore do not communicate well enough.»
«Ok, what a city-girl you have become, ah! Too touchy! Have you forgotten that you spent your entire childhood here? Rough, aren’t rough, what’s the difference? The main thing is that they know all the signs, and share their experience if you are friends with them…»
* * *
Kanny ran to a large house in a clearing, surrounded on all sides by a solid wall of forest.
He went up to the porch and, reaching out with his paw to the bell, pressed it.
Inside the house sounded a very quiet and completely unmelodious bell. Than he heard footsteps. A man being in his place would not have heard anything, but not Kanny. He have not only heard all these sounds, he also felt the vibration, and caught the smells.
«Master!» thought the werewolf, and whimpered plaintively, not realizing his actions.
«Kanny?» sounded at the door.
«Why does he ask? He sees me through the camera, doesn’t he?» a thought flashed in the back of his mind, but he only whined even more and scratched his claws against the door.
«What are you scratching? Can’t you answer?» the same voice asked irritably.
«After all, he knows that I can’t,» another thought with a bit of irritation flashed somewhere either in his head or in his stomach.
«Ok, wait, I’ll open it now,» the voice said, and the bolt inside creaked.
The door opened slightly, remaining locked with a chain, and a bearded short man in a beige cap peered through the resulting opening. The master’s eyes were small, gray and prickly. He seemed to see through Kanny’s every thought.
Seeing the master, the werewolf lowered his head and, placing it in between his huge paws, prostrated himself in front of the door, barely fitting on the rather spacious porch, expressing complete submission, as dogs do.
«You can get up, I’m opening it,» the bearded man said in his stern manner.
Kanny got up and wagged his tail happily. It was strange for him to smell that the master had a feeling of fear for him, although he suppressed it, since he smelled both.
«How can he be afraid of me? He knows that without him I can’t return to a human?» he thought, as far as one could think in his state.
The chain rattled, the door swung open, and the master ordered sternly:
«Come to the place. You know where. Wait for me there.»
Holding tail between his legs, Kanny darted past the man and went to the door at the end of the corridor. It was unlocked. He pushed her with his head and went into this mysterious, devoid of any glimmer of light room.
However, he did not need light for orientation. His scent told him every detail of what was inside; the dimensions of the room, which was the largest in this house, all its contents, including every piece of furniture, every figurine on the shelves or in specially made niches, every drawing, on the walls, or on the ceiling, or on the floor, and that very image, in the center on which he now had to sit, expecting and wishing with all his being a speedy deliverance from the wolf nature.
* * *
The mosquitoes bit mercilessly. Lera very soon realized that there could be no question of any dream. She was constantly slapping herself on all parts of her body, trying to destroy obsessive insects.
«I wonder how I’ll look like tomorrow morning?»
The brother chuckled.
«I think that after such a night, the morning will seem to you a happy deliverance in any case.»
«Yeah. That’s for sure. How did we get so far?»
«We already discussed it. What’s the use of talking about it now?»
«But after all, it was your duty to put notches on trees?»
«Yeah! And what? I did to a point. And then: „Oh, Andriushka! Look how pretty! Help me collect them soon. Oh, look again! What a clearing!“ Well, I got carried away. Are we going to blame me now?»
«Alright. That’s enough. Oh! How painful! What a bastard! Such a huge bite!»
«That’s so you don’t yell at me.»
«Like I said, that’s enough.»
For a while they sat in silence, and in the darkness only the slapping of the palms on the exposed parts of the body could be heard.
After some time, the moon, which had already been risen for a long time, apparently came out from behind a cloud, and in its silver light the surroundings became more or less visible.
«Andryush?»
«A?»
«What if we never find a way home?»
«Oh, come on! Don’t start it again!»
«Ok, well…»
She took a deep breath.
«I’m freezing.»
«Me too. And what?»
«Nothing.»
«It’s not winter. We will endure it.»
Somewhere in the distance, a lone wolf howl sounded.
After some time, another one, but a little higher in tone answered it, cutting through the darkness of the night and running unpleasant goosebumps down the girl’s back.
She looked around, and suddenly it seemed to her…
«Look, Andrey. What is this?»
«What exactly?»
She looked again.
«Over there.»
He turned to where she was pointing.
«Strange. Really. Like something is shining.»
«It does not shine. It burns. It’s clearly a light in the window.»
«Come on!»
«I’m telling you.»
«Do you have better eyesight than me?»»
«I don’t know.»
For some time he carefully looked in that direction, and then abruptly unbuckled his belt and began to descend.
«Andre-ey?!»
«Let’s get down!» he commanded in a tone that brooked no objection.
* * *
The master came inside, and all the images on the walls, on the floor and on the ceiling, as if in response to his presence, immediately came to life, starting to emit a dim phosphorescent light. At the same moment Kanny smelled that familiar bitter smell coming from the drawings.
«Hurry, hurry!» literally shouted his essence, weary from the Spell, although outwardly he did not show his impatience, remaining completely motionless in the center of the pentagram on the floor.
As if not noticing him, the master began to monotonously cast spells, moving from place to place, from figure to figurine, from drawing to drawing, stopping where he needed to perform the rite.
Gradually, Kanny felt a sweet languor slowly seize him, as if someone with an invisible hand hugged him, and then penetrated inside. The reality of what was happening began to slowly slip away from his consciousness, the smells began to dissolve and mix with each other, and the picture of the environment became more and more blurred. For some reason, the master’s words were getting louder, and his voice was getting sharper and rougher, as if everything he said caused him an extreme degree of irritation. From somewhere in the room, other wolf people began to appear, just like Kanny. They bared their teeth at him or maliciously, like hyenas, laughed in his face, splashing on him their saliva.
As usual, the werewolf was terrified with all this, but he knew he had to do his best to remain calm and not react to anything. An unbearable itch filled his whole body, as if every cell of his skin suddenly turned into a separate living being and began to live its own independent life.
«It’s close, it’s close!» this was the last thought in his mind before Kanny, as if in a dream, suddenly saw two teenagers approaching the house and, crying out in unbearable pain, fell unconscious.
* * *
Small, plump, bearded, cut like a hedgehog, with gray prickly piercing eyes, a master, he is Alex, he is Uncle Sasha for some villagers in those very rare cases when he still had to see them, he is a hereditary sorcerer, he is… although his last title, as well as other names, nicknames, ranks and the like, were not intended for a wide range of people — he saw as Kanny fell unconscious with the last spell, and thought:
«Weakling! He again could not withstand it to the end!»
At that moment, the bell rang, and suddenly someone knocked loudly on the door of the house.
The sorcerer even flinched in surprise.
«It’s impossible!» he thought, and with undisguised anger looked at the werewolf, who, at that moment, had already gone through the whole process and acquired a human form, to which the master did not feel anything but contempt. There was not the slightest trace of his former fear, which on an instinctive level aroused in him in front of the huge wolf.
Meanwhile, the knocking on the door continued.
Hurrying out into the corridor, Alex came to the exit and looked through the eyepiece of the surveillance camera to see who dared to disturb him at such a late hour in the middle of the forest. To his surprise, he saw two teenagers near the house, a girl and a guy, looking around in fear.
«Oh! Come on! And what should I do now?» the sorcerer thought irritably.
However, he knew that if he did not open, in their desperate situation, these two would look for a way to get into the house. Therefore, opening the inner door, he rudely asked:
«Who’s there?»
«Praise God!» the girl exclaimed.
«Forgive us, please, we got lost,» the guy said.
«Let us in for the night… please!» the girl asked in a pleading voice, as if she would burst into tears.
«Beasts!» the sorcerer thought angrily, and said out loud as calmly as possible:
«Wait for a moment.»
* * *
There became silence behind the door.
«He is not really pleased with our arrival, judging by his tone,» Andrey remarked.
«It doesn’t matter, as long as he lets us in,» Lera answered, chilly rubbing her cold shoulders.
«I think he will, but… I don’t really like all this.»
«Come on. It’s better than spending the night in a tree anyway.»
«It’s clear. But where is he from? I didn’t hear anything from any of the villagers that there was a forester’s house here, they crawled all the way across here. Moreover, it is quite large, not just a hut, but a whole cottage. How in the world did he get such a house like this unnoticed?»
«Maybe we’ve gone so far that it’s not their territory anymore?»
«Hmm, I don’t think so. We need to ask Uncle Venya. He is an experienced hunter. He spent all his life here and should know everything. He certainly explored every single place in the district. If, of course, we stay alive.»
«What are you talking about?» with fear asked Lera.
«Yes, be quiet,» her brother snapped. «I hope this isn’t the damned place he once talked about.»
«What place?»
«Doesn’t matter. One day I’ll tell you, but now… whatever may happen let it happen. It is strange that no light can be seen in the windows. How then did we see the illuminated window? I saw it clearly.»
«Maybe he turned it off?»
«I thought so too, but now, in theory, he should have turned it on again, but look, there is no light.»
«Yes, indeed. It’s strange.»
«I also thought that the moon could be reflected in the window, but no, all the windows are tightly closed with wooden shutters.»
«Perhaps he closed them before we arrived.»
«I don’t know, Lera, I don’t know. I have some bad feelings. I’m already seriously thinking that maybe we’d be better off staying in the tree.»
«Yeah, ok, stop it. Everything will be fine.»
«Let’s see. Now there is nowhere to go. We do not come back, do we?»
* * *
Alex entered the kitchen, took a mug, poured cold water into it, and going into the room where the ceremony was performed, he approached a naked man lying in the middle of the room and splashed him with cold water in his face.
The werewolf woke up and jumped to his feet, showing bewilderment with his whole appearance. However, although he was pitiful, and even more so, in his naked form, it was impossible not to notice that he was perfectly built and obviously very well developed and strong physically. His muscles played under smooth skin, under which not a single gram of excess fat was visible.
«Follow me,» the master ordered authoritatively, glancing at his muscular body with an envious look.
Silently following him, Kanny approached the front door.
«Look!» the sorcerer ordered, pointing to the screen.
«Who are these?» with fear asked werewolf.
«That’s what I wanted to ask you,» Alex said with a promising threat in his voice.
«I… d… don’t know,» Kanny began to stutter, but when he stumbled upon the host’s cruel, boring gaze, he broke off and, lowering his head, fell silent.
«Do not lie! How is it that these two are still alive and ended up here?» the sorcerer lowered his voice almost to a whisper, and then sharply and demandingly shouted: «Answer me!»
Startled, Kanny muttered plaintively:
«They… they climbed the tree. I couldn’t get them there. They got lost and… climbed up to spend the night. They fastened their belts to it, and… I p-passed them, and… th-thought that… I can’t get there, but… there’s not enough time, and they won’t come down anyway and… they won’t find the house… and… ran here.»
The sorcerer swung his hand, and Kanny shuddered and drew his head into his shoulders in fright. However, the master did not beat him, but only asked with displeasure:
«Did they see you?»
«No. I… think n-no.»
«Do you think or are you sure?» the master almost shouted.
Startled, Kanny still quite firmly answered:
«I’m sure.»
«You know that only at this time of day do I turn off the field so that you can freely enter the house. And you know that people are less sensitive to it than you are, and can come much closer. That is why at night time I demand that you destroy those who at this time may be nearby. I was sure that if there were any in the area, you would finish them off. And… Now what?!»
«Didn’t you turn on the field after you let me in?» Kanny asked with the intonation of a small perplexed child.
The sorcerer, out of annoyance, swung his hand at him again and at that moment thought: «By the way, it’s strange, I did turn it on.»
The werewolf reflexively pulled his head into his shoulders, but the master suddenly went limp and asked more calmly:
«Now what do you want me to do with them?»
Shrugging his shoulders, the werewolf, though very timidly, dared to answer:
«Only you give orders here, Master.»
After a moment of silence, considering his words, Alex shook his head and said:
«Okay, now get dressed, go to your place and wait there so that there is not a sound from you. And I will deal with these two.»
Kanny nodded and quickly walked away, and the sorcerer, having opened the inner door, began to slowly open the locks of the outer, deliberately stretching the time.
Chapter 3
The morning sun shone mercilessly directly into the eyes, and terribly interfered with sleep, but the dream was strong and stubbornly did not want to let the human consciousness out of its power, keeping it in a painful state of languor.
However, soon the strange sound of a running motor joined the bright sun, which, becoming louder, then quieter, periodically intervened in a restless sleeping state, penetrating deeper and deeper into the unsteady ripples of a morning dream.
At some point, the sound of the engine sounded so close and strong that Lera woke up abruptly and saw that the tractor Belarus was rushing towards her at speed, threateningly pointing at her the sharp forks of the harvesting mechanism.
From surprise and fright, she screamed piercingly, and her cry, despite the loud noise of the engine, nevertheless reached the hearing of the tractor driver, and he sharply pressed the brakes.
The tractor stopped, just a few centimeters short of her head with protruding fork teeth.
Apparently, the girl’s cry was so sharp and loud that it woke her brother Andrey, which neither the noise of the engine nor the morning sun could do, and he, waking up from a heavy sleep, now looked around in surprise, trying to understand what was happening and how he ended up of being here.
The driver leaned out of the tractor cab in surprise and, seeing the guys, swore in his heart, remembering all the obscene expressions that he only had in his not very rich rural verbal arsenal.
«Are you completely out of your mind?! What is the kind of place you’ve found for that matter! Come on, get off the field before I grab something heavier and go over your shameless asses.
Without forcing himself to be persuaded for a long time, Andrey nimbly jumped up, grabbed his sister by the hand, and tried to get away as quickly as possible from the angry tractor driver and the ill-fated ruined bale of hay at the edge of the field.
Having run back to a safe distance, the guys stopped and looked back at the working tractor, which, with the help of a special device, moved the collapsed hay bales to the edge of the field.
«What is he all about?» Lera asked.
«What, what? He works on the field, that’s what he’s all about.»
«Well… than… what are we doing here?»
Andrey, apparently, tried to find an answer to the same question, helplessly rummaging through his memory and, finding nothing, answered irritably.
«Probably, when we wandered through the forest yesterday, we were so tired that we fell into this hay without strength, and therefore we don’t remember anything.
«It seems to me that there was nothing like that,» the sister shook her head doubtfully.
«I don’t remember either, so what? But I remember how we got lost, and I remember how we wandered through the forest, looking for the way back.»
«There was also a tree… it seems… kind of… on which we climbed.»
«Tree? Hmm… I don’t remember the tree.»
«We still seemed to be fastened to it, remember?»
«Mm… no, I don’t remember such a thing. Apparently… We were very tired.»
The remembrance of the tree was so distant and vague that Lera herself doubted whether there was a tree or not, as if her brain stubbornly did not want to think in this direction. So, finally she said:
«Ok, it does not matter. Do you know where we are?»
Andrew looked around.
«No, I do not know. I have never seen this field.»
«Maybe we should ask the tractor driver?»
«After everything he told us?»
«So what?»
«What if he doesn’t tell us?»
«Maybe we will try to ask him anyway?
«Maybe let’s just follow along the road. If the sun is on the right, then we are going right.
«Oh, but what if we are already on the opposite side of the forest and will go where we don’t have to go? I’ll run and ask.»
Without waiting for her brother’s answer, the girl threw a plastic box with mushrooms at his feet and ran across the field towards the tractor driver. Andrey wanted to object, but seeing that it was useless, he waved his hand and, picking up her box, reluctantly trudged after his sister. The whole body itched unpleasantly from many mosquito bites, responded with pain and ached as if he had been beaten with sticks all night long.
Seeing a beauty running towards him across the field, the tractor driver turned off the engine and, leaning out of the cab, shouted in displeasure:
«Well, what else do you need, shameless?»
Running a little closer, the girl reproachfully said:
«You shouldn’t be so unkind to us, man. We didn’t do anything like that.»
«Well, of course. You think, I believed you,» the tractor driver said with a grin.
«But in vain. We are siblings. We were picking mushrooms and got lost in the forest. And at night, exhausted, we fell asleep on this… haystack. We don’t know where we are.»
Looking at the girl incredulously and looking back at her companion with two plastic containers full of mushrooms, lazily walking towards them across the field, the tractor driver finally softened, and in a completely different tone, he said:
«Ah, what a deal. I see… Hmm… What do you need? What place?»
«The village of Kraevka,» Lera answered, smiling at the gray-haired worker with a childish sincere smile.
«A beautiful girl,» he thought, and said aloud:
«Well… you got very far! There will be fifteen miles to Kraevka here. It’s at least four hours on foot.»
«In which direction?» Andrey asked, who at that moment had already come close enough to hear the conversation.
«Do you see that edge of the field?» the tractor driver asked, pointing with his hand. «There is the beginning of the road. Follow it all the time straight, not turning anywhere. There will be some branches from it, but there are no forks, so you’ll figure it out. You will reach Malinovka, and there it is already close to Kraevka. Understandable, or not?»
«Oh, I see! Thank you,» Lera said with a grateful smile.
«Well, God bless you then. It is a good thing that I didn’t beat you to death today. You, boy, indeed owe your life to your sister. If she had not screamed, I would have raked you along with the hay. I could really kill you.»
«Thank you,» Andrey said gloomily and, handing a box of mushrooms to his sister, slowly walked to the beginning of the road at the end of the field. It really bothered him that he couldn’t remember how they got here.
Following the guys with his glance, the worker started the tractor and thought:
«Well, they are indeed brother and sister. You can immediately see that… They are very similar. He’s probably three or four years older than her.»
* * *
When the roofs of the houses of some villages appeared between the trees at the end of the forest road, the guys could hardly drag their feet.
«Tell me that this is Malinovka, please,» Lera said in a tired but cheerful voice.
Andrey looked ahead and after a moment answered confidently:
«Yes, it’s Malinovka.»
«How long until home?»
«A couple of kilometers.»
«So, another half an hour, right?»
«Well, yes. About that. And what?»
«Finally.»
«Y-yes…» Andrew said in a strange tone.
«What?»
«Well… I’m still trying to remember how we ended up in this hay.»
«Do you really need it? You yourself said that we were so tired that we were exhausted, and therefore we did not remember. That it must be a stress, and… because of stress, the body’s defense reaction worked, so we forgot everything.»
«Well… to say something, is one thing,» he answered, «but it is strange that this reaction worked equally for both. I understand if one would forget, and the second would remember, but when both forgot, and… it is as if the memory was simply completely turned off.»
«So what? Thank God that we were not eaten by wild animals, and ended up in a bale of hay, and not in the stomach of some bear.»
«The bear… hmm,» again, some obscure fragment flashed through his memory, as if it was cut off. «It seems like we were still on a tree, and there, it seems, there was some kind of bear, but… down somewhere. And you were talking about a tree. But I didn’t remember it, and now you said about the bear, and some obscure fragment surfaced, like a dream. So… there must still be a tree.»
Lera rummaged through her memory for a while, and then shook her head negatively.
«No, I don’t remember anything, neither a tree, nor a bear.»
«You yourself asked about tree?»
«Really? I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t remember what I asked. Maybe I dreamed it?»
«We can’t dream the same.»
«Where do you see the same?»
«Well, a tree… a bear…»
«Oh yeah! So many things are the same! We do not clearly remember either one or the other, and there is not a single fragment that actually matches.»
«Uhu! The same lapses in memory match. Which is strange. And plus, I have some feeling that something happened to us, which for some reason we don’t remember, but at the same time, we ended up in this hay for a reason.»
«I think that now the main thing is to get home and rest. Personally, I was very tired and hungry. And when we rest, you’ll see, everything will fall into its place.
«It is like I had a dream that I forgot.»
«Andrey!» Lera pleaded. «Please, let’s talk about something else.»
At that moment, her brother, who mechanically put his hands into his trousers, took out from the right pocket of his jeans some small object in the shape of a cylinder, slightly smaller than a grain of wheat. He stopped and began to examine it carefully.
Lera came up, and looking into his palm, asked:
«What’s this?»
«I don’t know.»
«It looks like some kind of electronic device.»
«Yes, it seems so.»
«So little! Where did you get it from?»
Without answering, Andrey put his hand back in his pocket and, quickening his pace, resolutely walked along the road.
* * *
Kanny was sitting in a large Mercedes bus. Reclining his seat and completely relaxing, he lazily watched the scenery passing through the window. The bus was going fast, a pleasant breeze was blowing from the top hatch, and Kanny felt happy. He completed, as the master said, a very serious task, and deserved a corresponding reward. This time these were not just a few people, but almost three dozen directors! The job was done cleanly. No clues or suspicions. And now, finally, the long-awaited vacation. With the money that he received, he will be able to have a great rest somewhere in Spain or even better. Now a beautiful hotel room, delicious food, excellent booze, women and entertainment are waiting for him. And at the same time, he will still have money left, and not a little money.
Kanny smiled in anticipation of his leisure time as his cell phone vibrated demandingly in his pocket.
The werewolf grimaced in annoyance.
«What else?»
He took out his cell phone from his pocket and read the text message:
«606».
«Oh! Emergency!» he thought, and punched on the phone the numbers he needed.
A moment later, the next message came, which looked like a meaningless jumble of letters and numbers, but Kanny, of course, knew the cipher and, after reading the message, cursed quietly.
Looking at the road, with a sigh of regret, he typed in the right combination of letters and numbers, which meant: «I’m ready.»
As expected, after a couple of minutes, as soon as the bus reached a level safe area, its engine suddenly died out, and the driver, pressing the brakes, turned on the emergency signal and rolled onto the side of the road.
Grabbing his travel bag, Kanny went to the front door, which, to the driver’s surprise, opened of its own accord as he unsuccessfully tried to start the Mercedes.
«What’s happening? I didn’t seem to press the OPEN button,» thought the driver, but before he could press CLOSE, Kanny walked up as if nothing had happened, said: «Thank you» to him, and got off the bus.
The driver followed him with a surprised look, shrugged his shoulders in bewilderment and turned the ignition key again. This time the bus started right up.
«Strange,» the driver thought, and looked in the mirrors to see the passenger who had just exited. At that moment, Kanny was already crossing the road.
Leaning out of the window, the driver shouted:
«Hey, man! Are you going to come? We’re moving on!»
Kanny shook his head.
«No, thanks. I’m in the opposite direction.»
«What? Are you sure? You have paid your ticket to the very end.»
«Yes, I know. Thank you. It’s just an emergency. I need to get back.»
Shrugging again, the driver moved the Mercedes back to the highway, thinking:
«In any case, everything is recorded on my DVR.»
What he didn’t notice was that the dash cam silently turned off at the moment Kanny received the message on his cell phone, and didn’t turn on until the Mercedes turned back to the highway.
When the bus drove off for a considerable distance so that it could hardly be seen from the place where it had just stopped, a passing black Grand Cherokee jeep suddenly braked sharply and turned-on emergency lights literally a meter from Kanny, who was standing a little to the side of the road.
The werewolf slowly moved to the jeep.
Cursing, the driver unsuccessfully tried to start the Cherokee by turning the ignition key. The car did not react at all.
Kanny confidently approached the front passenger door and knocked.
«Will you take a companion? I need to go to the airport.
«No, I won’t,» the driver replied irritably.
«I’ll pay well.»
«Close the door. I said I won’t.»
«Five hundred dollars will suit you?»
In disbelief, the driver of the jeep looked up at Kanny, who was more than simply dressed, with a nondescript duffel bag slung over his shoulder.
«How much did you say?»
«Five hundred dollars.»
«Are you kidding!? It’s only about thirty kilometers.»
«No, I’m not kidding,» Kanny replied, pulling five hundred-dollar bills from his wallet.
Smiling, the driver answered in a completely different tone.
«You’re crazy! But, even if I agreed, my car stalled, and I have no idea what’s wrong with it.»
«Try again. Maybe I’m lucky and it will start now?»
Shrugging his shoulders, the driver said:
«Well, if it starts now, then I’ll take you.»
He turned the ignition key again, and to his surprise, the car started immediately.
«Hmm… some kind of magic!» He looked at Kanny in surprise. «Come on.»
* * *
On the opposite side of the forest house, which from this angle surprised even more with its size and massive rough log walls, several people were talking quietly at a table on the veranda.
Their conversation was interrupted by Alex coming out from behind the house, who stopped respectfully in the distance and coughed warningly.
One of the speakers, a slender, well-built, neatly trimmed gray-eyed brunette in a dark-green businessman’s suit with a shimmer, drew attention to him and asked:
«Yes, what do you want, Alex?»
«Inquire about 213th, Mr. Tennius.»
«What! Could you not yourself clear out this question from the duty officer? I already told you that I gave it to the operator,» the brunette replied, and looking at the screen of his gadget, he added: «Here… as I thought, the answer was received. The 213th is returning. He’s almost at the airport, so you can be free. The operator will bring him to the very end.»
The sorcerer bowed and hurriedly left, and the brunette, looking up from the touch screen of his gadget, turned back to the conversation. One of them, a tall, fair-haired, short-haired man, dressed in a short-sleeved gray shirt, black shorts and good-quality crocodile-skin sandals, asked him, his blue eyes piercing:
«How could it happen, Mr. Tennius, that the Ch-15 ended up in the possession of these… uh… children?»
«How could these teenagers even survive, and even more so, enter here!?» asked another, stocky, strong, red-haired interlocutor. He was wearing tight-fitting black T-shirt and loose light-colored trousers.
Tennius folded his arms over his chest and arrogantly looked at one and the other, while the third interlocutor, small and thin, but at the same time inspiring a sense of authority, clapped meaningfully and said:
«Hush, hush, dear. Mr. Tennius must have some serious reasons of his own, so I suggest not to hurry, but to give him the opportunity to speak:»
Once again measuring everyone who were gathered with his eyes, the brunette answered with dignity:
«Mr. Saurris is right. You shouldn’t have asked me questions like that. However, listen. My ward turned off the screen to allow 213th to enter. The scanner showed that he is two kilometers from the place and moving quickly. Apparently, the teenagers did not have any gadgets, because if they were close at that moment, then at least the scanner did not detect them.»
Coughing, Tennius stopped and, after taking a few sips of coffee from the cup in front of him, continued:
«The moment Alex finished the transition process with 213th, the two of them knocked on the door. It was clear that if they were not let in, they would try to get into the house, thinking that there was no one inside, and they needed an overnight stay in their critical situation. Just as he was about to annul these two, the buzzer went off with a P El signal. Therefore, he checked them and saw that their older brother was a special affairs officer, the head of the 5th department of a very serious level. If my ward had killed them, this FSB officer wouldn’t certainly have calmed down with the version that his brother and sister had been killed by a beast, but would have started his own investigation and scanned every centimeter of the forest, and something would have to be done with him, which is against the rules, because he is directly subordinate to the initiated person.»
After a spectacular pause, the brunette continued:
«Pondering all the data he received, Alex decided to put them to sleep and erase their memory by sending them to the nearest settlement. Of course, I don’t support his decision 100%, but I don’t think that you need to worry so much about it.»
«You let him use your flownter sometimes, don’t you?» Saurris asked him.
Tennius cleared his throat and replied in a restrained tone:
«Mr. Saurris, you know that my degree of trust in Alex and his status allow me to do this, and even more so when it is necessary.»
«And when was the loss of Ch-15 discovered?» asked the tall and black-haired man. «And I still don’t understand why Alex didn’t turn on the field right after 213th had entered?»
«I have already checked this point. He did turn on the field, and this was clearly recorded on the camera. But apparently there was a technical error. The switch would not be pressed to the end, which, of course, is strange, according to its construction, but the guardian himself is not guilty of this. And the chip was discovered one second before I called you, dearest Mr. Nonnie,» there was a confident answer.
«Hmm… understandable. But I would not like to hear the adjective „dearest“ in my address.» Nonnie responded with obvious sarcasm.
«Ok, I’ll keep that in mind for the future,» Tennius nodded without emotion.
«And what do you intend to do now, Master Tennius?» the redhead asked.
«Personally, dear Alyette, I think that Alex spared these children in vain, but his fears about his older brother from the FSB are fully justified and are not a violation of job descriptions and a direct oversight on his part, so I clarified the information about this subject and simply ordered to return the 213th to him and still eliminate these teenagers, because in this case it is his job. Everything will look like an attack by a rabid beast.»
«To be honest, I don’t understand why we need to deal with such small things,» said one of the audience, a fat and bald man named Ounn, who had previously kept silent. «Like we don’t have bigger things to do.»
«Is there a signal from Ch-15, Mr. Tennius?» asked the lean Saurris.
«Yes, although sometimes it disappears, most likely due to geolocation, as, for example, right now.»
Nonnie and Alyette looked at each other, and Nonnie said:
«Well, I apologize for the misunderstanding of the situation, Mr. Tennius, and the unduly rude tone. Since 213th has brilliantly fulfilled his task, I think we can close this issue and get on with more important things. By the way, how much did he eliminate?
«Twenty-nine people, Mr. Nonnie. Including the general director of the aircraft factory.»
The others nodded in approval, and Saurris took out a document from his briefcase and unfolded it in front of the assembled.
* * *
Peter, Andrey’s and Lera’s older brother, was carefully examining a small transparent cylinder with some kind of complex electronic device inside, rolling it in his palm. He was very similar to his younger brother, though the Andrey was slightly taller. However, behind the gray suit, one could not see Peter’s steely muscles, and looking at his good-natured face, it was hard to imagine that he had lightning-fast reaction and huge punching power, both arms and legs. Andrey was also athletic, and also loved martial arts, but he knew perfectly well that in sparring he could not hold out against his older brother for even a few seconds. And physically, his brother was much stronger than him.
«Where did you say you got it?» asked Peter, looking at his younger brother with his light gray penetrating eyes.
Andrew shrugged.
«I already told you. This morning, after we had walked about thirteen kilometers from that same field, and were already near Malinovka, I accidentally reached into my pocket and found it there.»
«And how did you end up in the hay?»
«Oh! Haven’t I already told you?»
The brother looked at Andrey with his special look, which made it clear that if he asks about something, you need to answer without asking unnecessary questions, even if you have to tell the same thing dozens of times. Knowing that it could not be otherwise, Andrey sighed and continued:
«I don’t quite remember how we got there, or to be more precise, I don’t remember at all. And when I try to remember, all I see are vague images of us wandering through the woods in an unsuccessful attempt to find our way home.»
«And what is the data of the most recent memory?» Peter asked, looking straight into the eyes of his younger brother with the same fixed gaze.
«Well, I don’t know exactly what time it was… how can I know?
«Try to remember, was it evening, or still a day, or has it already been night?»
Lera intervened in the conversation:
«The last thing I remember is about eight or nine in the evening, because it was getting dark, and we were afraid that we would have time to find a suitable tree for the night before dark.»
«Oh! This is a new thing! Have you thought about finding a tree to sleep on?» Peter asked, turning his searching gaze to his younger sister, but this time there was much more tenderness in his eyes.
«Yes, there seemed to be some kind of tree, but for some reason I remember it very vaguely, as if it was in a dream,» Andrey answered.
Peter took in his hand his mobile phone, the model unknown to Andrey. As far as he remembered, he saw such a phone only with his older brother.
By pressing just one button, Peter brought the phone to his ear:
«Maksimych, urgent matter, code 012. As soon as possible.»
«Something happened?» Lera asked, scared.
«A helicopter is flying to take us. We have about 15 minutes.»
«Brother, what’s going on? Maybe you can explain to me, who has no understanding?»
«The phrase „no understanding“ doesn’t seem to fit you well. It’s strange that you were allowed to live. But your memory has definitely been erased,» Peter answered, and it was clear from his tone that he was not joking.
«What! Were we kidnapped? Is it a UFO? It’s their sensor, right? I thought so,» Andrey exclaimed with annoyance in his voice.
Slightly hesitant, Peter answered:
«Most likely, everything is a little not so banal, brother. You seem to be very lucky and, if you didn’t have this thing, you would probably be forgotten, but now… everything can go very differently. By the way, I think it might have eavesdropped on us, so just in case…»
He walked over to the sideboard and took out the food foil from the drawer.
«What are you going to do?» Lera asked.
Smiling, Peter winked conspiratorially, tore off a fairly large piece of foil and, having made a multi-layer bag out of it, carefully wrapped a cylinder in it and answered:
«Screen, sis. Simple but effective.»
«Screen?» The younger sister was surprised.
«It is not so easy for a radio signal to penetrate several layers of foil,» Andrey answered with the tone of an expert.
«Ah,» the girl nodded in understanding.
«Let’s go,» said Peter, rising from a comfortable makeshift chair. «We’ll just make it to the wasteland.»
Chapter 4
Kanny arrived in the territory in a borrowed private plane, It looked like a private retreat specially made for this. When he got out, a luxurious black BMW X6 was already waiting for him, it drove right up to the side of the plane.
«Konstantin Nikolayevich?» the driver asked him, not leaving the BMW, but only lowering the glass halfway.
«Yes, that’s me,» Kanny replied, nodding his head.
His rustic appearance did not inspire much confidence, since the driver looked him over, carefully looked at the plane, and only then said in a doubtful tone, pointing to the back seat, «Sit down»
Kanny calmly walked to the back of the car and relaxed with pleasure, as he leaned back in the car seat, it was really comfortable.
Looking at him in the rearview mirror, the driver asked, «Judging by the urgency of the call and the methods used to get you, are you some kind of important bird?»
Kanny smiled modestly and nodded slightly. He was accustomed to both luxury cars and simple and nondescript trucks. During his work, a variety of means of transportation were used, depending on the situation.
«Honestly, I wouldn’t say it,» the driver continued. «What is this? A conspiracy?»
Kanny chuckled a little. «Well, yes, probably to some extent.»
«And what do you do, if not a secret?» This man in a black suit clearly wanted to talk.
«Information,» the werewolf answered curtly.
«Hmm, that’s interesting. And, probably, judging by the situation, under the rubric… top secret?
«If I answer «Yes’, this implies, as you understand, that I can only say a little.»
«I understand,» the driver said with a sigh. «By the way, you never said «yes’ directly.»
They both laughed, and Kanny thought, «Observant type!»
«By the way, my name is Maxim Ildarovich,» the driver continued. «But for you it can be just Maxim.»
«Then I can be just Konstantin.»
«They told me to get you to Antonovka as quickly as possible. Kanny noticed the speedometer, which showed 210 km/h, and thought that in this car the speed was almost imperceptible, even though they were now driving along a country road.
«At the same time, they did not say, what should I do with cameras on the roads? Maybe you can tell me? It’s not that it’s hard for me to pay these fines, it’s just unpleasant when you get them in the mail.»
«Don’t worry, Maxim. While you are driving me, no camera will capture you.»
«How is that? Are you jamming the radar signal?»
No, but… well,» Kanny thought for a moment before answering, «yes, you’re right, it’s kind of like jamming a signal.»
«I shouldn’t tell him that my superiors can turn off any security camera,» the werewolf thought to himself.
«And he is a conspirator, evidently,» Maxim thought, glancing at his passenger through the rear-view mirror, and said aloud, «Apparently, you can’t give me this information, can you? As I understand it, if you work for who I think then I heard that these guys are almost ubiquitous. They can listen to any mobile phone, or get you even through TV, not to mention computers, or, for example, they can turn off the brakes on my car whenever they want.»
«And he knows something, looks as if he reads minds», Kanny thought. «I wonder if he is already at some level of initiation»?
«Do you think it’s real at all?» The BMW driver continued his inquiries.
«You have to be careful with him,» Kanny thought as he answered. «It seems to me that it is no longer a secret for anyone that every mobile phone is at the same time a listening device, and special services have the opportunity not only to hear all our conversations, but in general everything that is within the radius of a mobile phone at any point in time.»
«Even when it’s offline or turned off, right? And that he has an ultra-sensitive microphone, and the same is the case with the latest models of TVs and all without exception tablets, computers, and similar gadgets?» Maxim continued his questions.
«Do you want me to confirm this information, or are you just wondering if I know about all these points?» Kanny smiled back, looking at the driver in the rearview mirror.
«Yes… no… actually,» the driver laughed. «I understand that you won’t blurt out too much to me, and I won’t wait for a direct answer from you. And if for such a nondescript person like you, it was necessary to call a private government plane and turn off my car engine in order for me to answer a cell phone call… Of course, no one advertised to me that my engine was deliberately turned off. I was just driving on business, and did not want to be distracted by the call, and especially if the number was unknown. But when my car stopped, as if rooted to the spot, I had to answer. It turned out that you needed to be met, and moreover urgently. So… I understand that the choice fell on me not by chance, but because I was at that moment very close to that place, and I am one of those who are a little aware. This means that turning off security cameras on the road is also not a problem for you. So, you don’t have to answer. I am not a stupid person, and I am quite capable of building a simple logical chain from a sequence of events. Just wondering, who are these powerful people you work for? Masons? Illuminati?»
«You interestingly raised the question, as if YOU, taking me to the ordered place, do not work for these same people?» Kanny answered a question with a question.
«Hmm… you are right. But I only work indirectly, and you, apparently, directly. I was simply offered to meet you and take you to some godforsaken village for a good amount of money. I was told that my business would wait and I wouldn’t have any problem, showing a fair amount of knowledge about the deal I was going for. Moreover, I was assured that the deal would take place in any case, and I don’t even have to worry about it, because the immediate boss of the director of the company, to whom I was going to meet, is talking to me. Naturally, I agreed, who in my place would not agree? I was left with no choice. I understand perfectly well that a car like mine does not stall just like that. And what? I’m interested! I would like to get to know your superiors better. What do you say? Is it real? Or, when I take you, will I be paid what I’m promised and that’s all?»
Now it was Kanny’s turn to laugh. «You ask me as if I called you and turned off the car engine encouraging you to answer the call. If you hadn’t told me all this, I wouldn’t have known what happened.»
«Oh, so you are the wrong person to ask? Then… where should I turn to?»
Kanny thought for a moment before answering and said while still chuckling. «I think that after everything you have told me, following a simple logical chain, the conclusion suggests itself. You voiced your desire, and it was heard, because you yourself said that your gadget is also a great listening device. So, if you are interested in those whom you talk about, and they are in fact who you think they are, then an offer for cooperation will come to you from them by itself. But in any case, I have absolutely nothing to do with it.»
«Understood,» Maxim said disappointed. «Well, we’ve arrived. So, I did my part, and you didn’t tell me anything specific.
«I didn’t promise you anything,» the werewolf shrugged.
«Cunning!» Maxim thought and with annoyance said, «I agree, there’s nothing I can do. Well, it was nice to meet you.»
With these words, the driver stopped the BMW at the road sign that said «Antonovka’. At the same moment, a black Land Cruiser drove out of the forest and abruptly stopped next to the X6, door to door. The windows of both cars went down almost at the same time.
While Kanny was transferring, the man sitting in the passenger seat handed the limousine driver an envelope and said,» Mr. Andreev, as promised. You can count if you want. We will consider your wishes. Thanks for helping us.» The window closed and the Land Cruiser pulled away smoothly, picking up speed quickly and out of sight.
«Well, yes, I would also like to know who these „we“ he mentioned.», Maxim thought thoughtfully and, having counted the money, took up his mobile phone. Finding a missed call from the director of the firm he was supposed to meet, he held his breath and dialed his number, expecting to hear anything. However, after the first beep, on the other end answered the phone, and he heard a joyful voice:
«Maxim Ildarovich?»
«Yes. It’s me.»
«Yeah. I am glad. This is Konovalov… uh… Valery Petrovich.»
«Yes, Valery Petrovich.»
«Oh, yeah! Well, I got a call about you, so I’m in a hurry to announce to you that… uh… the decision on this matter has already been made. We will definitely work with you… yeah… and so, you can consider that our deal has already taken place. You just need to come and put your signature on our contract. And-and… take your time. The issue has already been finally resolved, so you can do it at any time convenient for you.»
«Hmm, some kind of fantasy!» thought Maxim.
* * *
During the entire journey, those two in front, the driver and the one who was next to him, did not utter a word. Kanny felt so constrained that he was afraid not only to say anything, but to make any sound at all, until the car stopped. It was as if words were completely unnecessary here in this black car. It wasn’t the first time. These men and others like them have always behaved in this way. The werewolf had no idea who they were, and what rank they occupied in the general system, and preferred not to interfere in their business. When they arrived at the place, the two remained motionless and did not even look in his direction when he got out of the car. As soon as he slammed the door behind him, the Land Cruiser moved away and drove back into the forest.
Kanny looked around. The red rays of the setting sun illuminated the tops of the trees, the weather was completely calm, and it was unusually quiet. This place was known to him from the very beginning, when he first experienced transformation. If he were now in the skin of a wolf, he probably would have flattened his ears and tucked his tail, so terrible were the memories.
«Probably, the master is already here and waiting for me,» he thought, and, moving on half-bent, went to the center of the circle, marked by several flat stones located along its perimeter. The feeling of the Spell was so obvious here, that he was ready to get on all fours without waiting for an order. Reaching the center, Kanny, as usual, stripped naked putting his clothes in a bag, lowered his head and froze. It is unknown how much time passed while he stood there. The concept of «time» was somehow lost in this place, and especially in the center of the circle. Five minutes could feel like an eternity, and vice versa, several days felt like five minutes. The evening was chilly, and Kanny was already freezing, when at some point the owner suddenly appeared out of nowhere and put a hand on his shoulder, making him flinch in surprise.
«Are you afraid?» the sorcerer asked in an ingratiating voice. That’s right. You need to be afraid. And even more so now, when we have some problems.» He made an impressive pause and continued with the intonation of the boa named Kaa from a famous cartoon, Jungle Book. «It’s a pity, of course, that we had to interrupt your vacation, but… this is partly your fault, little Kanny. Therefore, in order for us to correct the situation, you will have to stay here a little while.»
Kanny put his head between his shoulders and nodded like a little boy.
«This, apparently, is necessary so that your success does not inflate your head. Remember those two you left alive? So… they still give us problems, and I regret that I also did not remove them immediately because it has created this whole situation. But unlike you, I didn’t cancel them, because they have a relative from the special forces, and these guys are from a camp allied to us, and they need to be treated at a special rate. So, at first, I was angry with you, but then when I found out who their brother was, I was even glad and thought that we better clear their memory and everything, and deliver them to the edge of the field with your help, as you yourself know, otherwise he might come here, start prowling around and so on. We do not need that do we? Hm, yeah… and you know what? Now I regret not finishing them off. And that’s because one of them stole a special chip from my desk. You have one too, in order to keep you in touch with me. So… now, if he shows it to his brother, if he hasn’t shown it already, then they may suspect something, and return their memory to them by way of hypnosis. And they know how to do it in this fifth department of theirs.»
The sorcerer paused again, and spoke almost in a whisper into Kanny’s ear. «Anyway, listen to your assignment, kid. You will need to rush headlong into the village and kill these two. Everything should look like they were just torn to pieces by a wild beast. No suspicion or evidence. And one more thing, wolf cub… since you did an excellent job with the last task, there is a new order for you. You need to be raised one more level so that you become more independent, and you could now transform yourself. I would have done it before you took down this rebellious board of directors. Then you would have completed the task even better and, who knows, maybe you didn’t make this unfortunate mistake, but it’s not me who decides. So, what is, that is.»
The sorcerer fell silent, stroked Kanny’s head like a dog, and suddenly continued in a different, rather resolute tone.» So that’s what you’re here for. Today is your day, little wolf. I brought you here to initiate you into the next level. From now on, you will have the power to become a wolf, and return to a human again, whenever you wish. However, remember, I gave you this power, and I can take it away from you if you suddenly want to stop obeying me. So don’t forget that I need to continue to be afraid. Do you understand?»
Kanny obsequiously nodded his head, like a child, trying not to demonstrate his emotions, because what the owner said caused him great joy.
«Now get ready. Close your eyes and start casting the initiation spell. You still remember it, right?»
Of course, he remembered it. He had the feeling that he remembered it all his life. He obediently closed his eyes and began to recite the necessary words. As soon as he uttered the first sounds, the presence of the Spell enveloped his being in a dense thick fog…
Biting his lower lip with annoyance watching how the transformation of one creature’s flesh becomes another before his eyes, Alex thought, «How could I have made such a mistake? As if the mind was clouded. And after all, I pressed the same toggle switch. It is strange that he did not click to the end. Hmm… and Kanny… the puppy! It doesn’t look like him either. Remove three dozen bosses and slow down on two teenagers… Wow! Like some kind of obsession. It looks very similar to the machinations of the Enemy. The sorcerer spat in anger, and mechanically took a step back, because at that moment the werewolf was completely transformed, and he smelled of the sharp smell of a dog.
* * *
As Peter had said, as soon as they reached the wasteland, located at the very edge of the village, there was a noise of blades, the wind picked up, and a minute later a small military helicopter was already standing in front of them, rotating its propeller.
«Forward!» commanded Peter, and all three ran to the hatch of this reverently rumbling aircraft that opened its door in front of them. They jumped inside. Before the villagers could run to the noise, the helicopter took off into the air and disappeared behind the trees. However, none of those inside the air transport paid any attention to the man running after them screaming. Hoping to be noticed, he continued to yell and wave his arms until the helicopter was completely out of sight.
«Uh, what is it! That’s how! Didn’t I have time. That’s bad luck,» the man lamented, bending over and taking a breath.
«What, Uncle Venya, did not have time?» one village boy asked him, who, out of curiosity, also ran to the wasteland in the hope that he would have time to look at the flying miracle.
«I didn’t, you see. Ah-ah-ah, I didn’t have enough time,» Uncle Venya lamented, breathing heavily. He was dressed in a light khaki windbreaker, and on his head was a very real American hat, which cowboys have worn for years. Hunter Venya was very proud of this hat, because it was a gift from an real American who once, after visiting Russia, stopped by this place.
«What has happened, old man? Why were you running so hard?» asked his pretty blue-eyed neighbor Marianna, nicknamed «Dumpy», who had come up by this time.
«Well, is it… Strogin’s children who were found in a bale of hay? Now their brother has taken them somewhere.»
«To be honest, I don’t know, Venya,» the neighbor answered, straightening her blond curls, disheveled from fast walking.
«Well, it’s bad luck,» the old hunter said, agitated.
«You know what, let’s go for tea at Lyudka’s. She called me. The children have flown away, and she has no one to drink tea with. She’ll be happy to see you, too.»
«Oh! And you say, you do not know who was flying away»
«It’s about the bale of hay, Uncle Venya.»
«Oh, I see.»
«Well, will you come with me for tea, or not?»
«Why wouldn’t I, if that’s the case? Let’s go, of course, Maryanushka, let’s go, dear.»
* * *
Lyudmila Strogina was a very beautiful woman. she had black wavy hair, large expressive light-brown eyes, straight facial features, and a chiseled figure. What is more valuable, in addition to a beautiful appearance, she had a strong character and a surprisingly meek disposition. For many years she was considered the greatest beauty in the village, and many men would not mind hitting on her, if not for a very serious obstacle of her husband, whom Luda simply adored. He was a retired military officer due to a severe head injury sustained in an exercise. Yuri Fedorovich soon recovered from his injury, but could only continue to serve as a warehouse manager. However, he was a man of extraordinary strength, and rightfully could be called a Russian bogatyr, a short, large man, there were legends about him. From real stories, if he needed to change a wheel on his Fiat, he simply unscrewed the nuts with his fingers, without the help of a wrench, and removed and put on the wheel without using a jack, simply lifting the car with his hand. He could lift, without visible effort, two adult men each weighing one hundred kilograms, in outstretched arms, and once, on a dare, he raised a horse above himself. But, despite such strength, he was a kind-hearted man, with kind blue eyes, a disarming smile that immediately wins anybody over, and a voice that was not at all expressed in military intonation. However, the residents in Yuri’s village, of course, were afraid of him, and Lyudmila was bypassed by the tenth road.
Yuri Strogin died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 48, either because of the same injury, or for some other reason, but after his death, his wife did not want to marry a second time, although she was still very pretty, and to everyone who tried to look after her, she gave a firm, decisive and unequivocal rebuff.
The tea at Lyudmila was notable. What she mixed in there, and what seasonings she added were unknown, but the taste and aroma were such that the whole village dreamed of learning the recipe from her. However, Lyudmila Sergeevna knew how to keep a secret, and did not tell anyone how she made such a delicious drink.
Sitting at her table, and savoring every sip, the hunter Venya slowly began to tell what he had come with and why he was trying to catch up with the helicopter.
«Yesterday morning I woke up in Matveevka, where I spent the night after a hunt, with Mikhalych, the headman there. Well, so… I went to the edge of the forest to check the snares, I placed them there for hazel grouses. So, to say… Well… and so, I passed by the field and there my friend, a tractor driver, is working. Already a quarter of the field has been removed. Well, I told him: „how are you“, and he is like: „I’m great, Pavlovich, how are you.“ And… he made the tractor shut down in order to rest a little. He took out some tobacco, and we sat down there on a log, and talked a bit.»
Veniamin Pavlovich paused and sipped fragrant tea from a cup, smacking his lips with pleasure. «He told me «You know: this is a lucky day, this morning I almost hit two teens, a brother and sister. The tractor stopped five centimeters from her head. If,» he said: «the girl had not screamed, I would have killed them for sure.»
«I started asking him about details, and then, you know, I understand from the description, after all, that he is talking about your kids. And I think: «How did they end up in Matveevka?» And he says here: «they got lost,» and then: «Because of exhaustion they fell on a broken bale of hay and fell asleep.»
«Then I say to him: „Can you show me this… bale of hay.“ And he replied: „No, how can I show it to you? I removed it out already and mixed it with others at the very edge of the field.“ And I said, „But you still can show me the place, it’s painfully interesting to me how they ended up there.“ You know, I love all sorts of stories like that. And… well, my heart skipped a beat when he told me that. It was as if something unusual had happened.»
Venya paused to drink from the cup again and continued.
«Well, in general, he brought me to that place, and… I’m an old hunter. I started carefully looking all around, you know. In case that I would see something. I don’t know but for some reason I did not like the story. It’s like some kind of a bad feeling came from it. I walked there and thought: „I wonder how they fell down on a bale exhausted and did not reach the village?“ One can see the lights of it at night from that field. So… and a bale of hay, it’s not a downy feather bed. In short terms, I was looking and looking, but there were no traces of the guys around the place, none at all. You know, such a thing does not happen. If a person is walking even through the forest, there will definitely be a trace. But almost to the very place there was another trail… and you know what it was? It’s some kind of horror! The trace, it seems like a wolf. But only this size! I’ll tell you!» Veniamin opened his fist and showed with his fingers what the size of the footprint was. Judging by his story, the footprint was at least two, if not three times larger than that of an ordinary wolf, such that Lyudmila Strogina, the mother of the above-mentioned children, groaned and rolled her eyes. If it had not been for her neighbor Veniamin Pavlovich, a man of exceptional honesty, in the place of the narrator, she simply would not have believed the story.
«No, not really, Venya, do such wolves exist?» Mariana asked with doubt in her voice.
«No! The fact of the matter is that they can’t exist!» Veniamin exclaimed hotly. «If it’s not a kind of an evil scum.»
«O, my God!» Mariana crossed herself.
«What is this you are doing? Do you really think that crossing will help in such a case? Only God can help, but He must first really be in your heart», Veniamin waved at her.
«His is in my heart,» Mariana began to justify herself.
«Wait a minute,» Luda interrupted her, and asked the old hunter, «Would you please continue?»
«Well… you know… I started to follow the trails, and it was visible from the very field. And… there were no traces of the kids anywhere at all. But this one is deep. It’s a heavy animal. And kind of strange, as if he sometimes got up on two paws. And I thought: «What kind of a wolf is that then with such paws?»
«This is not a wolf, but a whole calf!» Lyudmila expressed her assumption.
«That’s what I’m talking about! But… you know… I mean, I follow the trail, and here it is ups… suddenly and completely breaks off!»
After a short pause, Veniamin took a sip of tea and said, «Well… I again started to walk back and forth, and there were no traces anywhere, yet only, at the place where the trail stopped, there were three other traces. Barely noticeable, really. Only the grass was crushed a little and… maybe barely the earth was crushed as well. I even filmed them on my cell phone. Look!»
With these words, Veniamin Pavlovich took out his rather large smartphone and showed a photo on it, in which three identical rectangular prints were not very clearly visible in the middle of the forest grass, located in relation to each other, as if they were at the corners of an equilateral triangle. Everyone listening began to look at the photos, passing the hunter’s smartphone to each other.
«But that’s not all. I also found something in the trees. Traces, like from a propeller, or from a spinning body. Apparently, when this thing landed, it somehow went with its sheathing through some places. Well, the fact is that if you don’t specifically look for something, you by no means will notice anything. But I am… a seasoned hunter. I know how to look.»
«And what kind of thing is this, Pavlovich?» the women asked almost simultaneously.
«Uh, this, girls, I myself don’t know yet. I think that is what they call UFOs. And that’s what I wanted to talk to your older son about. He is a knowledgeable person. What am I? Just a hunter.»
«Wait a minute, Venya,» Lyudmila said, alarmed. «That is, you want to say that Andrey and Lera not only got lost, but were abducted by aliens, and they experimented on them, and then threw them into a bale of hay?»
«Yes, and also, probably, their memories were erased. Only now, I don’t really believe that these were aliens. Although, who can say, who can say? Here, look, a trace. You see? Here is my hand next to it.»
He showed a picture on his smartphone, where a wolf print was clearly visible, almost the same size as the hunter’s palm.
«What a horror!» Marianna covered her lips with her palm.
«So, what are we going to do? We urgently need to call Peter,» said Lyudmila.
«You, call, neighbor, you call,» Veniamin took up the mug, «and for now I’ll savor your noble tea. Eh-eh-eh, Lyudmila, what secret thing are you putting in there, to get such a taste?
Usually, from such statements, the Lyudmila blossomed with pleasure, but now she was not up to it. With an anxious expression on her face, she dialed the phone of her eldest son.
* * *
As soon as the initiation rite was over, Kanny managed to independently turn into a wolf and return to human form several times in a row, a black raven, much larger than a normal bird, flew up to the sorcerer and dropped a note into his palm. After reading the note, the master spat and said gloomily, «This is bad. So, listen carefully, wolf cub. You may need a few more times to pass the spell, and then you will get used to it and be able to transform simply by the strong-willed order of your thoughts. And now, catch up with me, I’ll be waiting for you in the house. There’s something else that needs to be taught to you.»
With these words, the sorcerer disappeared right in front of Kanny, leaving behind himself in the spot where he had just been, a kind of bluish haze of a human form, slowly dissolving into the air.
«Master!» shouted the werewolf and took a few steps towards the place where his master stood a moment ago, and then, coming to his senses, confidently cast a spell and, in a completely eerie way, immediately turned into a huge wolf. He picked up the bag of clothes with his teeth and rushed into the forest in the direction of the forest-house, noting to himself that the transformation had become much less painful than it was before.
A great feeling of pride and malevolence filled his being. He is no longer a slave to the Spell. Now he can become a man at any moment, and at any moment, if necessary, become a wolf again. The feeling of power intoxicated and turned his wolf’s head. At the same time, he understood that something must have gone wrong, and he needed to hurry, because there were still a few kilometers to Alex’s house from where he was. He ran, crouched low to the ground, as if he were creeping along it, enjoying the inner feeling of flexibility and strength, while not forgetting to scan the area with his incredibly sharp sense. Intuition told him that the reason why the master was so upset was precisely these two teenagers whom he needed to kill, and that everything would not be as simple as it seemed at first glance. However, it was precisely this strange invulnerability of theirs, which he felt in an incomprehensible way, which challenged the very essence of his wolf nature, that forced him to bare his teeth and look forward to a possible future reprisal.
Chapter 5
A huge black raven landed on the small attic balcony of base No.18 and, folding its wings, awkwardly stepped into the attic. A few seconds later the door leading from the attic into the house opened, and a squat man dressed in a black robe came out of it and, having examined himself, shook himself a little, and hurried down the stairs. After a short time, the sorcerer Alex, just as he disappeared from the place where he was together with Kanny, appeared in the center of the pentagram in the room where the ritual of transformation was usually performed. Here he had an unpleasant conversation with his master Tennius, about which he was informed by a werewolf messenger. To the more dedicated, Tennius was a powerful magician of the highest level. It was he who taught Alex everything he could, and therefore the guard was ready to go to great lengths to please his powerful patron and justify his trust.
The sorcerer left the ritual room and, going into a spacious kitchen, sank into a small but comfortable chair, there he waited for his boss to be free and able to give him some time. For some, such concepts as witchcraft and science were completely incompatible, but not for Tennius. Being a man endowed with extraordinary power and authority, a consecrated magician. As a sorcerer and a man of a very extraordinary mind, Tennius believed that since the time of the very first alchemists and the so-called seekers of the philosopher’s stone, real science and witchcraft always walked side by side. An Italian by birth, he not only practiced magic, but in his circle of initiates was one of the five honorary owners of the so-called «rings of power». These were known to science in the form of the traditional symbol denoting an atom. However, only a few scholars knew what this symbol actually meant, and even more so, what power those who reached the level of the «Lord of the Rings» wielded. But for Tennius, each discovery of quantum physics only confirmed what he already knew and successfully practiced.
He was not at all embarrassed that for some of the so-called witchcraft tricks, spells were needed, which in essence were nothing more than the call of the so-called «gods». That is, those whom Tennius considered the progenitors of mankind, who «arrived» on earth at the dawn of formation of people. When this «powerful race of gods’,» taught people the first basics of science and witchcraft, which was essentially the same thing for Tennius, and those who were in the same business as him. He considered it an honor to be on this side of the conflict and part of the «Great Opposition» to the One whom he considered the Main Enemy, that most powerful God named Yahweh, who in ancient times expelled the race of lesser gods to Earth because they challenged Him. They wished to reach the same high level of power that He himself had. Tennius understood that those whom he himself served and obeyed were still far from the power that Yahweh possessed, but he believed that it was only a matter of time, and the moment would come when, by joint efforts, they could not only reach His level, but even surpass the enemy with their might.
However, now was not the time to go into all these details. Using a space portal opened for instant travel, Tennius’ ward, the sorcerer Alex, the guard of the 18th base, had just arrived at the place, and he had already been informed about it by electronic sensors, by his own intuition and by a messenger in a black robe. Tennius had to talk to his ward and discuss some details, but first he needed to explain himself to the rest of the holders of the Rings of Power, the members of the council, the so-called Pentagrammaton, knowing that they too, were already here and waiting for him to join them. They had a lot of questions to discuss, and very little time, so the magician knew that his colleagues would not at all want to return to the case of the missing Ch-15 microchip, which in itself was a trifle, but their own privacy policy required them to take the matter as seriously as possible, so he was very annoyed that he still had not been able to resolve this issue.
Coming out onto the veranda, magician greeted those gathered with a proud nod of his head and sat down in his place at the third letter. Saurris, Alyette, Tennius, Ounn, and Nonnie, they always sat in this order at the round table, each according to his own ray of the pentagram drawn on the table, and the letters that denoted each ray.
«So, what do you have to tell me, gentlemen, besides what was already said in your message? By the way, I am grateful that your messenger delivered it to me and my ward,» Tennius said, nodding slightly towards Saurris.
He replied with the same proud, barely noticeable nod, and said, «I would like to deal with this issue as soon as possible, because we still have a lot of much more important things on the agenda. So, as we’ve been informed, Mr. Tennius, your Ch-15 microchip had detected its location for a very short time. According to the information provided earlier, we learned that one of your two uninvited night guests named Andrey, left alive by your ward, found a chip in his pocket and handed it over to his older brother Peter, from the FSB services. It is still unclear to us how the teenager got the chip. I hate to cast aspersions on you and your subordinate, Mr. Tennius, but this is a very serious oversight. The absence of the device from the network turned out to be due to the fact that the special affairs officer isolated it. As we understand it, they are now most likely at their headquarters, from where removing it will be much more difficult. During the short time while the FSB officer removed the chip from the screen and brought it into a room inaccessible to the scanner, the operator was able to read the information transmitted by the chip. As it has turned out, I am more inclined to think that the actions of the guard Alex were still erroneous, and we would have had much less problems if he had eliminated the teenagers right away. We would like to hear from you some clarifications and suggestions for further action.»
Saurris nodded in triumph, signaling that he had finished. For a moment there was silence at the table, after which Tennius, with difficulty restraining his anger, tried to answer as calmly as possible.
«I don’t consider my actions or the actions of our guard wrong. I, and in general, we all were displeased by this, he looked around at all those present with a meaningful look. «Therefore, I think that it makes no sense to procrastinate on this issue further. I have already explained that the guard of Base No.18 changed his original intentions and made a different decision. His original decision was based on one piece of information, and then he correctly reacted to the warning signal and learned more information that influenced his solution. Processing this information, he proceeded to a quite reasonable conclusion, and acted as the instruction prescribes when it comes to special services. To our great regret, he failed to foresee all the consequences and calculate all the risks. However, in view of the unusual nature of the situation, I do not believe that he violated the rules of confidentiality. Therefore, I think it is appropriate that our further discussion should be more focused towards the elimination of the problem that has arisen, and not towards the search for accusations.» At that Tennius nodded proudly, indicating that he was finished.
«Well, I agree with Mr. Tennius, and I think that what he has proposed is quite reasonable,» said Ounn. «I’m sure you’re more than competent, keep your finger on the pulse of the matter, and be able to eliminate unpleasant consequences or the leakage of information, dear Mr. Tennius. Thus saving us from wasting time?»
«Yes, of course,» Tennius replied with an air of dignity.
«Dear colleagues,» Alyette addressed the assembly. «Forgive me my curiosity. Although this is a trifle, and an annoying one, I would still like to clarify it. Did you manage to find out how these uh… children… ended up with our chip?»
«Yes, I have found that out,» said Tennius. «If you are interested, I can show you this video. It does not take a lot of time. I can’t call it anything other than the intrigues of the Enemy, as the toggle switch was turned on, but not pressed to the end, and all the other actions of the guard ensued.»
After a few seconds of preparation, the magician turned on the recording, and all those gathered fixed their eyes on the holographic screen located directly above the table. The device allowed magicians to see the image equally well from all sides of the table. Nothing was noticeable on initial viewing, but when Tennius showed the video in close-up and slowed it down, it showed that the teen named Andrey could be seen leaning back as he fell asleep. At that moment his hand abruptly landed on the table. From the created micro vibration, one of the plastic containers on the opposite shelf opened just a little, and a small cylinder fell out of it and rolled on the table. Reaching the little finger of a teenager, the cylinder stuck to his nail, after which the hand slid off the table and hung along the body of the sleeping teen.
«Incredible!» Alyette exclaimed. «Why did it get stuck?»
«I have already asked myself this question,» said Saurris, «but I think the answer is obvious. The teenager climbed a tree before arriving at the base. Most likely, his hand touched the tree resin, which created an adhesive surface to hold the chip.»
«And then he mechanically put his hand into his pocket, and the chip peeled off and remained in his pocket,» Nonnie suggested.
«Y-yes, indeed, you can’t call it anything other than the intrigues of the Enemy,» Ounn replied grinning.
«And that takes the blame off Mr. Tennius and his ward considerably,» said Saurris thoughtfully.
«I propose to bury this question in the past,» Tennius reacted somewhat irritably to this remark. «Do you have any questions about what I am going to do with these young people?»
«Yes, you just need to remove all three, and that’s all,» Alyette said, nodding.
«And thereby arouse even more suspicion?» Ounn asked. «I was curious to find out that this FSB officer was not included in the circle of initiates, unlike his boss.»
«Even so,» Nonnie replied harshly. «We need to remember that we are at war. So, he just needs to be removed.»
«I completely agree. And these teens should have been removed immediately, but since we did not do that, I want to take revenge on them for all the trouble they caused us,» Tennius reacted to the comments.
«How disgusting,» Saurris chuckled. «But anyway, I agree. And the sooner the better.»
«Deal with this, Tennius, and quickly,» Ounn expressed his agreement. «Too much attention to such a trifle.»
«Then, dear colleagues, since the next question concerns Base No.56 and our beloved SRINT located nearby, I can leave you for a while to give the necessary orders to the guard Alex,» Tennius said and then left.
* * *
Kanny reached the barrier of fear and stopped at the point where his whereabouts could already be detected by the sensors. For the sake of the experiment, he decided to try again to return to human form and, concentrating, cast a spell. At the same moment, he felt the Spell as if it was reluctantly letting him go, and… in a moment he was a man again. The sensations were somewhat different than when he transformed in the presence of Alex. Here he performed the transformation on his own, and he succeeded. From the realization of this, his whole being overflowed with joyful pride. At the same time, he again noted that the process was far from being as painful as it was before. He did not see the terrible wolf grins around him, his consciousness did not grow cloudy, and he did not lose it. After examining himself and making sure that he looked normal, he quickly dressed and walked towards the house. He was always interested in the question of how quickly he would feel the barrier while in the human body. He could never find out, because he did not know how to transform on his own.
It turned out that he could walk another 200 meters before he began to feel the fear caused by the screen. The master said that the screen of fear was some kind of special radiation, designed to scare away all living things that were around, with the exception of the smallest creatures. A normal person, in theory, should have simply felt an unreasonable fear and turned in the other direction, not particularly aware of his actions. Now Kanny wanted to see if he could overcome the feeling of fear and still approach the base. Why he conducted such experiments on himself, he did not know. From the place where he initially felt fear, as a man, he managed to walk another 100 meters, constantly struggling with the instinctive desire to stop and go back. Or to simply turn in another direction.
There were still 300 meters to the base, but the owner’s house was still not visible behind the trees. However, Kanny had to ignore with all his strength the almost overwhelming desire to run away as far as possible from here. It was like a breathtaking fear of heights. If it were not for the conscious volitional decision to overcome this feeling, he would have succumbed to fear long ago and walked away. At some point, he even instinctively suddenly turned around to leave, but nevertheless, by an effort of will, he overcame this desire, which was close to panic, and continued to move forward.
«I think that if I can do it, some well-trained person may be able to walk all the way to the house.» he thought. As never before, he now felt the difference between the human and the wolf nature. As a beast, he was almost always instinctive first, and would have succumbed to spontaneous self-preservation long ago. Now, as a man, he seemed to block his sensations and go forward, regardless of anything.
«A wolf can’t do that, that’s for sure», — he thought.
About 200 meters from the laboratory, something strange began to happen to him, even though he was awake, he was having nightmares. Terrible pictures of hitherto unknown monsters began to appear before his inner eyes, and he was forced to stop, because he simply could not continue on his way. He clenched his fists and clenched his teeth, telling himself that this was just an illusion, when suddenly, in an instant, the strange obsession and feeling of fear were gone, and he felt a huge relief.
«Apparently, the master saw me and turned off the screen,» he thought, and rushed to the house on a run. Once at the front door, he stopped and waited for further orders. After a couple of minutes, the guard Alex opened the door and went out to meet him. Kanny took a step back and bowed low before his master.
«You were experimenting, weren’t you? All the sensors started to go crazy while you were walking here. Why did you have to get so close? Didn’t you feel the field?» the sorcerer asked sternly, although there was no accusation in his voice.
«I felt it, sir. I felt it very much. But I wanted to test how long an ordinary person can withstand it and fight the fear.»
«Well, 200 meters, as a rule, is the limit. Further madness is already possible. So, you took a chance, baby».
He liked it when the owner called him that. But for some reason he did not like the nickname Kanny, given by the magician Tennius. It seemed somehow humiliating, although he was used to it.
«Come in,» the master ordered. «Let’s discuss some details and learn how to dress.»
«Dress?» the werewolf thought in bewilderment, but did not ask unnecessary questions.
Chapter 6
After a hypnosis session and despite all the arguments of Peter, his superior chief, Colonel Morozov, ordered the children to be returned to the village. He said that the microchip, although worthy of attention, was not enough to seriously establish the idea that they were abducted. Either the hypnotist was not very experienced, or the session was not very noticeable, but the attempt to return their memories did not work. Andrey remembered that they were climbing a tree, and Lera remembered that they saw a certain light in the distance, and that they descended from the tree to reach it. Nothing that would explain how they got the chip, or how they got to the edge of the field.
Colonel Morozov didn’t give them a helicopter for the second time, saying that the situation was not weighty enough, and for such a trifle it was a luxury. Therefore, Peter had to take the children home in his car, after listening to his boss give a tirade in a raised voice that he used his official position, and occupied such serious equipment, for the wrong purposes. Peter was so much irritated by the conversation, that few times he caught himself on the fact that out of annoyance and misunderstanding of the Colonel he pressed the accelerator pedal, and he did not realize how fast his Audi Q7 was rushing. He set a buzzer for himself at 150 km/h so that an unpleasant squeak would remind him of the danger that driving at high-speed carried. With such a car as his Audi, Peter did not feel any difference in speed between 110 km/h and 170 km/h. The buzzer kept beeping, but Peter, immersed in thought, did not pay any attention to the beep-sound until his brother and sister reminded him to slow down. The feeling of annoyance changed to a feeling of anxiety, which in turn manifested itself to love and concern for his beloved younger brother and even more ardently and tenderly to his beloved younger sister, but since his initial feelings were not manifested by clear revealed evidence or argument, he could only obey the order.
If he had such an opportunity, he probably would not have taken them back to the village, but rather would have left them in the city. But he did not have sufficient reasons for such an action even to himself. Should he take them home? At home were his wife and two small children, a son, three years old, and his little sister, only seven months old. Besides the concern of their age he was aware that she was sick. He didn’t have enough room for Andrey and Lera. Of course, it would be possible to place his brother in the kitchen, and his sister in the nursery, and to take the baby to their bed with her mother, but… he still had no serious evidence that his siblings could actually be hunted. And even if he explained his actions to his wife, how long would it probably take to prove the correctness of his assumptions and the validity of his intuitions? The only course was to wait, and out of suspense and uncertainty, Peter again pressed the acceleration pedal with annoyance, overestimating the speed limit of 150 km / h that he had set for himself. When the buzzer squealed once again and squeaked for a long time, Peter came out of his state of thought, and noticed that his brother and sister had fallen asleep, because of how difficult their last few days had been.
«Yeah, now I’m the only one who can watch the speed,» he thought. «These two have fallen soundly asleep, and there is no one to tell me when I exceed the speed limit.»
At that moment the phone rang. Glancing at the display, Peter saw that his neighbor Veniamin, the most experienced hunter in the village, was calling. He answered the phone and switched on the loud-speaker.
«Hello, Uncle Venya. Why are you calling?»
«Hello, dear! I’ve been calling you all day long. Where have you disappeared to?»
«I was working. in the office, but what do you need me for? Is there something serious?»
«Well, I really think so. I need to tell you something about your brother and sister. There, after all, here’s what happened…»
Veniamin began the story by telling all the things that he had already told Maryana and Lyudmila, although in amore brief version. His hoarse voice woke Andrey, and hearing that it was about Lera and him, he began to listen carefully. At some point, he pushed Lera.
Waking up, she looked around in bewilderment and said determinedly, «What’s happened?»
«Shh,» Andrey shewed her by gesture to keep silent. «Listen, little sister. This is about us.»
For a while, all three listened attentively to the hunter. When the story came to a huge wolf and a certain aircraft, Lera, widened her eyes, looked at her brother and said, «Is this really about us?»
«Yes, yes, listen. Uncle Venya is not Baron Munchausen. He does not lie.»
Lera was really scared, and, looking around, she suddenly screamed loudly at the limit of her vocal cords, «Oh, someone is following our car!» It was so unexpected that both brothers flinched.
«What are you squealing about, little sister?» Peter asked with genuine concern in his voice.
«I saw that someone was running after us,» Lera repeated in a breaking voice through involuntary crying. It was clear that she was really scared.
«Come on, it seemed to you,» Andrey tried to give his voice as much ease and calm as possible. He looked through the rear window at the road and saw only the blackness of the forest.
«No-no, I definitely saw some kind of a huge shadow,» Lera answered with horror in her voice through nervous crying.
«Fear has big eyes?» Peter asked jokingly to reassure his sister, but nevertheless began to look more often in the rear-view mirror.
For a while he saw nothing but the dark, indistinct outlines of the thicket that surrounded them. However, at some point it seemed to him that something big was moving behind the car in huge leaps, and even in the dim light of the taillights, when he slowed down a little in the turn of the road, two huge phosphorescent eyes flashed. At the same moment, Lera squealed so that both Peter and Andrey had a chill on their skin.
«Be quiet!» Peter shouted at her in annoyance.
«I definitely saw it! There are two huge eyes,» the girl cried out through hysterical sobs.
Peter was not yet completely sure that he, and his sister had not imagined it. Yet from the story that Uncle Venya told, and the uncomfortable feeling of the forest darkness surrounding them, he also felt uneasy. He pressed on the gas, once again not paying attention to the speed buzzer. A huge animal resembling a wolf, traces of which were seen and even photographed by hunters; an unknown flying object that left marks on the ground and trees; a microchip with the highest technologies, it is not clear how Andrey got it; obvious memory lapses in his brother and sister; the mysterious discovery of teens in a collapsed bale of hay; and the incomprehensible behavior of his boss… too many coincidences over the past two days. As strange and implausible as it all was, Peter’s nerves were on edge, and he, using all the emergency driving skills he had been trained to, drove the car forward to the limit of its capabilities.
«What do you have there, Pit? Is something going on?» the hunter calmly asked. He had been silent all this time, listening to the sounds coming through the phone.
«It’s not clear yet, Uncle Venya,» Peter answered, making another sharp turn.
«Does it just seem so, or is someone really chasing you as Lera said?»
«I don’t know yet, Uncle Venya,» Peter answered somewhat irritably at the next turn.
«Where are you now?» the hunter continued his questions.
«Soon we will pass the Old Pool.»
«Ah, I see…» Veniamin croaked and hung up.
* * *
Kanny did not feel tired, but he knew that he could not run faster. As fast as the beast’s body was, it couldn’t match the speed of the shiny car in which the two teens and their older brother traveled. At some point, when the car slowed down due to a lot of winding sections in the road, the werewolf managed to close the distance. That was when he suddenly felt the characteristic smell of fear coming from the car. Without a doubt, those three who were inside the car were afraid of something, and most likely, they were afraid of him.
«Looks like I’ve been spotted,» he thought. Just at that moment, he sensed from the car the smell of firm determination and readiness to fight, and the car began to quickly pick up speed. Kanny understood or even felt it at the level of wolf intuition that this third person, the one who was driving, was a very strong person, and if problems were to arise in completing the task, it would be most likely because of him.
«I need to come up with something?» he thought.
Strangely, he noticed that after elevating to an independent level of transformation, his humanity and ability to think became less suppressed by the Spell, and he was now able to think and reason even on the run. In Kanny’s head, as if on the screen of some internal navigator, a map of the road appeared.
«Now there will be a direct section. On it, he will be able to drive at maximum speed. I can’t catch up with him. But I can cut across the forest and get out by the old pool. A very winding road starts there. Despite all his desire, he won’t be able to move very fast.» Realizing how to act, the werewolf turned into a thicket.
* * *
However, Kanny was not the only one with a road map in his head. The last time it seemed to Peter that he saw a huge big-eyed shadow chasing them, he also thought about how fast this creature could move if it really was chasing them. In the blink of an eye, childhood horror stories flashed through his memory about a werewolf living in the forest. This wolf, allegedly, was seen several times by people, and who from time to time allegedly carried away or killed someone.
«What if it’s not a fairy tale? What if the stories about different UFOs, the descriptions of which coincided, and which were also seen several times by the inhabitants of the village and the city were true? What if these stories are somehow interconnected? And what if these uninvited guests, whoever they are, are just behind these latest incomprehensible events?»
When Peter was first offered to work in the secret service, he was 14 years old. His outstanding academic achievement, especially in mathematics, was noticed. After the village boy once again won the regional Olympiad in algebra and geometry, a pleasant man came to their house. He said that the boy had good prospects, and suggested that they move to the city so that Peter could have the opportunity to study there. His parents were not happy with such a proposal, but his aunt, his mother’s sister, who worked in the same office, took patronage over the boy and assured them that she would take care of everything. Shortly after, Peter moved into her house, and she, being lonely, having lost her husband and son in a car accident, became for Peter like a second mother, happily taking on all the expenses associated with his education and living. Aunt Maya, having miraculously survived that terrible accident, from which she was widowed, was very acutely worried about her loneliness. In addition to many fractures and bruises, she also very badly injured her once beautiful face and was forced to undergo several serious plastic surgeries. There were so many injuries on her face that, with all their efforts, the doctors could not restore her to her former beauty. But the appearance, repulsive to men who could become candidates for the place of her deceased husband, did not interfere at all with the affections of her nephew. Seeing the beauty of her soul and sincere love for him, Peter adored his aunt, and gladly agreed to live with her.
An unexpectedly large bump in the road forced him to shake off the surging memories. They were rapidly approaching the turn next to the so-called Old Pool. Once this place was very popular among local fishermen, but now it has been abandoned and forgotten. With all his emergency driving skills, Peter was forced to slow down due to the terrain and winding roads. Realizing this and anticipating something unkind, the FSB officer involuntarily took up his pistol.
Andrey noticed this movement and asked, «Something is wrong, brother?»
Before Peter could answer, something huge jumped out of the forest at them and landed on the car. This terrible blow forced the car across the road, and at the same moment the door glass on the driver’s side shattered with a terrible ringing. Only for a moment, as in a dream, Andrey heard the piercing cry of his sister along with the terrible roar of a monster. He saw a huge wolf’s muzzle hanging over the car. At the same moment, in a matter of seconds, Peter drew his pistol and shot several times in a row at this furry figure that appeared in front of them. There was a terrible, soul-chilling howl, and the monster fell onto the road with a huge fleshy carcass. However, in the next moment, the giant beast got up and, after making several uneven leaps, immediately disappeared into the thicket of the forest, whining like a wounded dog.
«Shut up!» Peter ordered authoritatively to his younger sister, who continued to piercingly shriek.
She immediately fell silent, as if she had been turned off, and Peter listened for some time to the sound of receding steps, then shook his head, started the car and commanded hoarsely, «Let’s get out of here!»
They drove about a kilometer away, when a terrible, full of despair and pain, animal roar was heard from the forest. This made everyone in the car shudder, including Peter.
* * *
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