“Do you regret any action? Would you take the opportunity to go back in time and correct mistakes?”
“I am an ordinary person, so I was wrong. But I wouldn't fix anything. Because by changing the past, I wouldn't be who I am.”
(from Rina's interview with the portal ‘Celebrities speak’)
They were silent for most of the rest of the way. Nikolai thought gloomily that meeting with the ghosts of the past usually doesn’t bode well. Vika, seeing that he was thoughtful and frowning, didn’t get involved with conversations. But the moment Nikolai looked at her, she broke the silence.
“Kolya, what are we going to do with the singer? I watched the news a little and noticed that they were talking about Rina cautiously. I think the fact is that people from Lebedev's team track the news and immediately delete everything scandalous.”
Nikolai shrugged his shoulders, because he didn't think about the singer: he talked to her friends and forgot for a while. He and Vsevolod haven't even signed the contract yet.
“You're not interested in this case,” Vika correctly interpreted his gesture.
“It's not that it's not interesting…” he said reluctantly. “But I'm busy with something else right now. And, if we take up the search for a singer, there is a risk that Lebedev's people will put a spoke in the wheels.”
“But Dimitri should be interested in finding Rina!”
Nikolai shook his head vaguely.
“I'm not one hundred percent sure about it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Only that, Vika, I don’t know his plans, nor what orders and to whom he gave. Why do journalists write about the disappearance of the popular singer ‘carefully’, and not trumpet at every corner? Why do Lebedev's people censor everything written about her so harshly? Is it because of the businessman's unwillingness to shine in his personal life or for another reason?”
Nikolai wanted to close the topic about Rina – at least for a while, because there was nothing left to get to the right place, but Vika, on the contrary, shifted briskly in her seat.
“There are rumors that Rina and Dimitri have broken up. And before that, she canceled all performances and tours.”
“Yes, yes, her friends told me…”
“Kolya, are you really not interested in this case? Do you want to give it up?”
“I haven't decided yet. If it wasn't for Gennadiy Sergeevich, I would have given this case to someone else. I've already told you why.”
“Kolya?” Vika called after a short pause.
He looked at her questioningly and noticed that she was biting her lip, as if she wanted to ask something else, but did not dare.
“Speak,” Nikolai hurried with a slight irritation. The right signpost appeared ahead, and his soul involuntarily pricked. He didn’t think that he would ever return to this dead village and that returning here would be so difficult.
“You're not an ordinary detective, are you?” the assistant asked, and Nikolai involuntarily grinned.
Vika came to his detective agency eight months ago, sympathizing with the fact that she was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. And although she quickly realized that Nikolai sometimes takes on cases that are atypical for a detective, she didn’t ask unnecessary questions.
“I mean that you aren’t an ordinary detective who collects evidence of infidelity of spouses or searches for a missing lapdog of some old lady. And you obviously didn't study at law school.”
“I graduated from the military academy,” Nikolai said firmly, believing that this would answer all her questions
The road, which had not been repaired for a good two decades, led them to the former military unit. Nikolai remembered that the part was small and was not considered an important strategic object, such as a military airfield. Barracks, warehouses and a parade ground were located on its territory. And right behind the fence with the barbed wire snaking along it, the forest began, into which a recruit once escaped. As soon as Nikolai remembered that incident, a picture appeared before his eyes: his father, red with anger, loudly chastises an unknown officer in the kitchen, and his mother drives the frightened Nikolai into the room. The soldier was soon found, the case seems to have ended with a delivery from his father.
Nikolai stopped the car near an inactive barrier and a booth with broken windows.
“Shall we start from here?” Vika asked, even though he never told her about his plans.
Nikolai nodded, got out of the car and took out a bag from the back seat.
“This is a military unit in which my father once served,” he explained when they passed the checkpoint and entered the territory of the unit. “They came here with my mother shortly before my birth. Before that, dad served in the North. And he received a new appointment at a time when people began to disappear from the village…”
“You mentioned that there were rumors about the disbandment of the unit,” Vika reminded.
Nikolai nodded silently and, squinting, looked around. They walked at a brisk pace and moved a considerable distance away from the checkpoint. A long barrack that had once been a barracks loomed ahead. The windows in the building had long been blown out by wind and hail, and a young tree that had grown right inside boldly stuck its branches into one of the window openings. It was a dreary sight. Nikolai couldn’t explain to himself why he started the ‘excursion’ from here. Maybe because he was drawn here because of his father.
“Yes, Dad was transferred to another part, closer to the capital,” Nikolai continued the story after a slight hitch. “He moved my mother and me to a new place of residence, and he returned here to finish some business. There was nothing strange about it.”
“And yet it was?” the astute Vika understood and stopped when Nikolai climbed the low porch of the two-story building in which the headquarters was once located.
The door was heavy, but it gave way, and there was a smell of dust and damp wood from inside. Nikolai took his phone out of his pocket, turned on the flashlight and lit up the rotten floor. Vika quietly followed him in and stopped behind him.
“It was, but I noticed it when I grew up,” said Nikolai. “Dad didn't get a new assignment. He wasn't transferred to another unit, as my mother and I thought, but he took us away from here.”
“What happened here?” Vika asked quietly. “What didn't you mention? We dig into archives, compare cases in the past, you ask to monitor the news, but I don't have a complete picture.”
“I don't either, Vika,” he replied regretfully and closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the photos he had seen in the secret archive.
His father died at his desk, not having had time to finish his tea from a glass in a bronze cup holder. The body of the attendant was found near the front door. Perhaps it was he who first met those who brought death here. Some of the personnel were later found in the corridor, and some on the second floor.
“Kolya? Do you hear me?” Vika called, bringing him back from his memories to reality, which smelled of dust and damp wood, and crumbled whitewash crunched dryly under his feet.
Nikolai shuddered and turned his gaze to the assistant.
“People died here. Both those who served in the unit and those who were at home - all in one night.
“How?!” Vika gasped and covered her mouth with her hand in horror.
“Many had their throats torn out. Fortunately, there were not many dead. However, the rest of the residents disappeared somewhere. Their fate remained unknown. And for more than twenty years it has not been possible to find out what happened here, Vika. Why did some die and where did others disappear?”
The pause that hung there turned out to be so weighty, and the fright in the assistant's eyes was so obvious that Nikolai wouldn’t have been surprised if she had asked him to return to Moscow immediately. But Vika asked something completely different:
“And... was your dad among the missing or dead?”
“Among the dead. He died at his desk over the documents spread out on it. Without finishing the tea.”
After answering, Nikolai took several pictures of the table and chairs pushed into a corner, and then quickly walked out into the corridor and headed for the stairs. But there he hesitated, deciding whether to go up. He already regretted that he had come straight to the unit, and had not started the inspection from the village. But for some reason, all these years he had the confidence that it all started from here. Putting aside his doubts, Nikolai went up the stairs.
A heavy bag with equipment reminded him how a few years ago he came here with Lev to find out the truth about the tragedy that happened in the past. Nothing good came out of that idea. Did Jaguar understand where Nikolai went today? Most likely, yes.
Vika silently got up after him, but when Nikolai put the bag on the wide windowsill with peeling paint, she asked:
“You didn't think that your dad knew or assumed something, that's why he moved you to another place?”
“I was thinking,” Nikolai answered briefly, pulling out a small camera. “Maybe he did. Did you bring a notebook and a pen?”
“Yes.”
“You will write down the testimony that I will dictate. I want to measure the temperature, humidity, electromagnetic field and radioactivity here.”
“Do you think there is radiation here?” Vika shivered.
“I doubt it. But I will measure it.”
He installed cameras at different ends of the corridor and turned on the sound recorder. Vika watched his preparations in silence, although it was obvious from her face that she was impatient to ask him a lot of questions. Nikolai winked at her without a smile, letting her know that he would tell her everything later. There is no point in hiding the whole story from her, he has already dragged her into this investigation, willingly or unwittingly. He shouldn't have brought her with me. Not now, but on the day he went to an abandoned amusement park.
Vika obediently followed and wrote down all the testimony that Nikolai dictated to her in a whisper. After finishing the research at headquarters, they went down to the street and took measurements there, and then - in the dining room and in one of the barracks. All these manipulations took quite a long time, and there was still a village. Nikolai glanced anxiously at his watch, and then at Vika. But the assistant remained calm, as if she really wasn't in a hurry.
“Let's go to the village,” he commanded, carefully picking up the bag. “Of course, we won't have time to go around it all. It's going to get dark soon. I'll have to come back another day, because I would like to see the amusement park.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Vika replied carelessly, but Nikolai caught a note of fatigue in her voice.
“Break,” he conceded. “There's a bag of pies in the car. We'll have a snack, and then we'll go further.”
“I would like to go to the toilet,” the assistant smiled shyly and shifted her long legs. “There aren't even bushes here. Listen, if I use the toilet in that barracks… Although it is not working, but…”
“Go,” Nikolai nodded. “I'll wait for you here.”
Vika sped off, and he put the bag at his feet, took out his phone and was not surprised to see a message from Jaguar. Lev asked how things were going, whether Nikolai had sorted out the devices and wrote that it was possible not to return the equipment yet. And then he added that he guessed where he went, and asked to be careful. Nikolai smiled at Jaguar's insight and started typing him an answer. But at the same moment, a heart-rending female screech was heard from the barracks. Forgetting about the bag with expensive equipment, Nikolai rushed to help Vika, burst into the room and almost fell, hitting his foot on a rotten floorboard. Pulling out his leg, he rushed around the corridor, trying to figure out where to run.
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“Vika?! Vika, where are you?! What happened?!”
“I'm here,” came after a pause, during which a part of Nikolai's life flashed by train in front of his eyes.
Vika jumped out to meet him, but when she saw him, she stopped and smiled awkwardly:
“I'm sorry. I was... just scared.”
“What scared you?” he asked abruptly.
“It's nonsense. It seemed,” Vika nervously pulled her earlobe and involuntarily looked back at the room from which she had left. “It seemed as if someone was peeping at me through the half-open door. I was looking for a toilet… I entered this room, and the door suddenly closed. And when I looked back, it seemed to me that someone was looking through the crack.”
She looked around nervously again. Nikolai slightly pushed her aside with his shoulder and resolutely walked into the room. Vika immediately rushed after him, apparently, it seemed scary to stay even for a second alone.
“No one,” Nikolai said shortly, quickly looking around not only this room, but also the forecastle, in which the skeletons of bunk beds with rotten skinny mattresses have been preserved.
“I'm telling you, it seemed,” said Vika, but uncertain. Nikolai touched her shoulder a little, wanting to both encourage and hurry, and went outside to the abandoned bag with equipment.
“I'll walk you to your car. Lock yourself in and wait for me there.”
“And you?
“And I'll take measurements here.”
“I'm with you!” Vika immediately objected, and fear clearly flashed in her blue eyes.
What scared her so much, if she doesn't want to be alone even in a securely locked car?
“Vika, let's do it again. Describe to me what you saw.”
“It seemed to me,” she suddenly became stubborn.
“If it seemed, you wouldn't be clinging to me in a panic right now,” Nikolai grinned, and the assistant only now noticed that she was actually holding his elbow tightly.
“I'm sorry,” she said, embarrassed, and took a deep breath. “Okay. I went into the room, and the door suddenly closed behind me. But not to the end, there was a gap. I looked sharply back at the creaking and saw that someone was spying on me. I didn't see the face, only the eye - dark, without protein, as if it wasn't an eye, but a solid pupil.”
“Maybe the beast wandered?” Nikolai suggested. “A moose. Here, behind the part, the forest.”
“No. I would say that a person was spying on me. Average height and elderly, because the eye was surrounded by wrinkled skin. And I also saw part of the grin. No, Kolya! It wasn't a moose at all, but a man! I think I scared him with a squeal, and he hid somewhere. Most likely, it was a tramp. Homeless man.
“Vika, let's you wait for me in the car, and I'll quickly check everything,” Nikolai repeated, but she resolutely shook her head.
“I won't let you go alone! Whoever is hiding there can be dangerous!”
He couldn't even hold back a smile.
“Vika... I am a strong man, tall and not a weakling, I was engaged in martial arts. I can protect myself, if anything. And if you have to fight off the girl, then…
“Okay,” Vika reluctantly gave up.
“Come on, I'll show you. Lock yourself in and wait for me. I'll be quick! I promise not to linger.”
“I'll call you in ten minutes. And if you don't answer, I'll get out of the car!” she warned.
“Good. The control call is in ten minutes,” he agreed, just to calm her down.
Vika stayed in the car, and Nikolai returned to the barracks with the equipment. It was already getting dark, and he understood that he would have to explore the houses in the village another day. But perhaps tonight will also be productive. Nikolai went around the whole room, looked into all the lockers, but found nothing but old clothes and some personal belongings of the soldiers. No one. He pulled out his phone and called, as promised, Vika. After that, he filmed several angles on the camera, took measurements, recorded the indicators and returned to the car - to a pretty nervous Vika.
He put the bag in the back and took out a bag of pies from Yana, handed it to Vika and started the engine. The road home was going to be long, they should have had a snack, besides, Vika never found the toilet. They'll have to make a shortstop, but not here.
“Did you take measurements there too?” the assistant asked dully, clutching the bag of pies with such force that her knuckles turned white.
Nikolai gave her a brief glance and turned it back to the road. Darkness descended on the surroundings rapidly, as if it didn’t hastily descend from the sky, but hurriedly escaped.
“Yes,” he said shortly.
Vika rustled the bag, but did not get the pie, apparently, she didn’t dare to eat in the car without permission or alone.
“While you were there, I Googled this place a little. It's one thing what we read in reports and other documents, another thing what they write on the Internet. It turns out that there are several blog posts about this village, or rather, about the amusement park. And they're all pretty fresh.”
Nikolai nodded, encouraging her, because Vika paused.
“This place is considered abnormal. ‘Abandonments’ has always attracted fans to tickle their nerves. So they came here with ‘excursions’. Judging by the posts, something strange began to happen here: they saw shadows, light in the windows of houses. And I also found an amateur video, of poor quality, with a lot of interference and from afar, as if it was filmed from a poorly controlled drone. But I can still see how the Ferris wheel is moving very slowly. I don't know if it's true or fake, but the post says that the wheel is from that abandoned park in which you and I were…”
She paused again, waiting for an answer. But Nikolai was also silent, concentrating on the empty road illuminated by the yellow headlights.
“Kolya, I usually don't ask questions, you know,” Vika couldn't stand it, turning to him in half a turn. “I do everything you ask, I search for information, monitor news, dig into archives, conduct correspondence, view statistics, catalogs, and so on. Of course, you have the right not to tell me all the secrets. That's why they’re secrets. Usually we discussed all the cases from the very beginning, but this time you don't say anything at all, just give tasks. Perhaps this case is too different from everything we've done before. I wouldn't bother asking questions, but I'm scared. This place scared me! Of course, I asked for it myself. Out of a desire to help you.”
“You're right,” Nikolai finally broke the silence. “It would be better if I didn't take you with me.”
She blinked resentfully, understanding his phrase in her own way.
“Vika, this order is unusual,” he relented. “I regret that I thoughtlessly dragged you into this case.”
“I've always helped you well! And I signed a non-disclosure document,” she said in a voice ringing with resentment, and Nikolai smiled conciliating.
“That's not the point. Your help is really invaluable, which is why I unwittingly dragged you into a new case. Although it would be better if I took over the entire investigation. It is associated with certain risks.”
“I understand that all our work involves certain risks.”
“But this case is different from the others,” Nikolai sighed, and Vika turned back to him.
“Then it would be more correct to tell first what we are getting into. And at least theoretically give me a chance to decide whether to help you in this case or completely pull off.
“Would you pull off?” He smiled involuntarily, and Vika snorted indignantly:
“Of course not!”
An answering smile appeared on her lips, and after a short pause, Vika added in her usual tone - a little playful:
“Come on, boss, tell me what we got into. And what were all these measurements for. Who or what are you going to see here?”
“Well, tell. After a short break. Our pies threaten to spoil. And you asked to go to the toilet.”
“Is the truth so scary that you're afraid I might get the seat covers dirty?” Vika quipped, but in a more cheerful tone, and looked out the window. “Slow down over there. But don't talk my teeth into pies!”
“As I already said, people began to disappear from our town,” Nikolai began after stopping and having a quick snack with pies. “Father moved my mom and me to another place under the pretext that he had received a new assignment. And he came back to supposedly finish some business. Two days after his return, tragedy struck. People finally disappeared from the village, and those who still remained were found dead. Growing up, I decided to find out the truth about what happened to my former neighbors and, of course, to my father. There was very little information. Rather, it turned out to be classified. At the same time, I found out that my father had not received a transfer appointment. And I concluded that he was afraid of something and therefore moved my mother and me.”
“Have you developed a secret weapon or virus there?” Vika asked.
"The part was small and was not considered a strategically important object.”
“Here!”
“I don't think so, Vika,” Nikolai replied, but not so confidently. “There was definitely no laboratory on our part. I also found out that later some businessman tried to buy these lands. He wanted to demolish the old houses, and instead build a cottage village and a shopping and entertainment center with a casino. This place is suitable for recreation, fishing and other entertainment. Nearby is a forest, then a lake. Nature, silence, solitude. But the deal did not take place because the businessman died.”
“Very timely,” Vika nodded.
“Maybe. Or maybe it was just an accident.”
“Do you believe that?”
It seems that the assistant has already built her own version and now she summed up everything she heard under it. Nikolai decided not to argue with Vika.
“I think that there was not enough open information, it only piqued my interest. And I managed to get to the secret archives…”
“And?” Vika started up, her eyes flashed with excitement, and she fidgeted with impatience.
“It was banal,” Nikolai cooled her ardor and grinned. “I was caught. I didn't have time to find out anything. And the accusation was rolled over to me seriously. Allegedly, I was going to sell classified information to foreign intelligence.”
“Wow!” Vika exclaimed and looked at him with a mixture of respect and fright. “So did you go to prison?”
“Everything was going to that - sentencing and imprisonment for many years. But at the last moment, everyone suddenly overplayed. Some people intervened, the case was closed, I was released, but they fired me from the army. Over time, I opened a detective agency, which would not have had anything to do with my past activities if... if it weren't for old acquaintances,” Nikolai answered evasively.
“Is Gennadiy Sergeevich one of these acquaintances?” Vika clarified so seriously that Nikolai suddenly felt like he was being interrogated.
Or maybe it was just his imagination, because the conversation stirred up memories that he would prefer to forget. But it was impossible to erase this part of his biography, just as it is impossible to erase a burnt brand with an eraser.
“Let's say,” Nikolai answered evasively again, not wanting to tell to Vika about the details, “And let's agree that all this will remain between us.”
“You offend, boss!” Vika exclaimed expectedly, but he stopped her with a gesture.
“And promise me you won't ask for any more details. You know less, you sleep more soundly. Do you understand?”
“Is it that serious?”
“Vika, I poked into a classified case about an incident in a military camp and paid for it with my career, and I almost ended up behind bars. So-so life scenario for a guy a little over twenty years old. Do you understand?”
“Yeah. Good. I'm your assistant, I only do what you tell me, I don't ask questions. If necessary, I'll play the fool. But one more question is possible? Right now?”
“Go ahead,” Nikolai allowed.
“Why did they decide to raise this classified case right now? And they turned to you for help?”
“Nice question! Correct. And dangerous. One of those that should not be asked,” Nikolai grinned. “Probably because I got into it once before.
“Sewn with white threads,” Vika snorted.
“Or because I don't think in accepted categories, but admit, for example, that this zone may be abnormal. If they tell me that ghosts have been seen here, I will not laugh, but will come and take measurements of the electromagnetic field, temperature, humidity and…’
“Wait!” exclaimed Vika and turned back to him. ‘Have we been ghost hunting today?”
“No. We were taking measurements of the electromagnetic field,” Nikolai replied in a boring tone.
“Okay. I get it,” Vika laughed tightly and shivered. “That's why you were so happy when I said that someone was spying on me!”
“I have already returned to this place once with a friend from whom I took the equipment today. Lev is a former military man, now he has his own business - security agencies. And his long-standing hobby at first glance doesn’t fit in with the image of a harsh warrior. Once he assembled a team to investigate anomalies. I went out to him, and we came here together, took measurements, but we didn't find anything interesting, that is, abnormal, then. That's where our research ended, because I got caught with the archives.”
“Wow, chief! How many interesting things I learned about you today!”
“I wish I didn't know,” he sighed and reminded her that the conversation should remain between them.
They spent part of the road in silence. Vika decided to take a nap, but before that she asked to turn on the radio and chose the wave herself. Nikolai didn't mind. Fortunately, the assistant chose not club music, which he could not stand. The repertoire of the radio station turned out to be quite wide: pop music was interspersed with rock ballads, Russian-speaking performers were replaced by foreign ones. Vika was dozing to the songs quietly pouring from the speakers, and Nikolai didn’t wake her up, even when he entered the capital. After weaving through familiar streets, he turned onto the highway that led to her neighborhood. The song in Russian was replaced by a ballad in a foreign language, and Nikolai involuntarily listened, because he thought the voice was familiar – clear, powerful, flexible. He did not understand the meaning of the song, only guessed from the individual words that it was performed in Korean.
“It’s Rina,” suddenly came from the passenger seat.
Nikolai glanced at Vika and noticed that she was sitting looking in front of her, and an expression of unexpected sadness and, at the same time, admiration was frozen on her face.
“It's her singing,” Vika repeated. “The song is in Korean. Rina said in an interview that this song about a bird trapped in a cage was sung to her as a child by a Korean woman.”
“Nuliya,” Nikolai blurted out.
The song was listened to in complete silence. And when it was over, Nikolai turned off the radio, because he suddenly wanted to preserve the impression of the performance, not to interrupt it with other voices.
“If you want, you can come back later tomorrow,” he said, noticing that Vita looked tired.
“All right,” the assistant agreed complaisantly. “I'll sleep an hour longer.”
They said goodbye. Already entering the entrance, Vika took out her phone and called someone. Nikolai waited until the light came on in the windows of her apartment on the second floor, and only then drove away.
He returned to his apartment well after midnight, exhausted not so much by the road as by the long day. But before going to shower and sleep, he took out a notebook from my bag, in which the readings were entered. Watching the video, as well as a detailed study of all the records, Nikolai decided to leave for tomorrow. And now he wanted to test one theory. He went to the closet and pulled out a notebook hidden behind the books in an oilcloth cover, in which he had once made a statement under Lev's dictation. Nikolai opened his notebook and notebook on the dining table, compared notes and whistled. His suspicions that the data had changed were confirmed.