Eva

– What is your specialty?

– This is not the main specialty, but a military technical one, it sounds and is written like this: “Operation and repair of aircraft and propulsion systems”.

– Yes, God himself ordered you to stay on extra urgent, why didn't you stay? the commander asked in a more business-like tone. I realized that we were having a confidential conversation, what would it be for?

– My mother was sick at that time and I had to take care of her, so I didn’t stay, and now it’s quite late for me to be fifty-five years old. – With some sadness in my voice, I said.

– Your country, stuffed with CIA agents, and MI6, is mercilessly pushed into a meat grinder, stuffed with weapons, though outdated, which it is not a pity to throw into the scrap, like your male population. These scoundrels do not feel sorry for anyone in Ukraine. We also know that there is a ruthless struggle between the US and Britain over this territory, especially among the CIA and MI6, a complete deal. The struggle for the dispersion of funds allocated by America and London for the war. We are interested in these disagreements, so I suggest you return home to Kyiv, how do you agree?

– Excuse me, comrade lieutenant colonel, they will seize me as a deserter and burn me, we live on the cross! – My indignation knew no bounds.

– Don't muddy the waters, captain, if you don't know anything, I won't give you impossible tasks, so listen… – And the lieutenant colonel outlined in detail what and how I have to rehabilitate myself before the military conscription administration. And in the end, the lieutenant colonel shook my hand and wished me success in my new business trip to his home. The same detachment commander escorted me out of the captured military town, wishing me good luck. I am with the same travel bag full of American rubles given to me for spending on the introduction of spy graters into enemy bins between the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world, the CIA and MI6. What I could not bring together was that the FSB could not give such responsible tasks to the first comer, and I asked the lieutenant colonel about this. And I received an answer that in the current situation, when our agent was shot dead by an incompetent sniper, at the very moment when I approached the captured base with a detachment, the FSB lieutenant colonel had no choice but to entrust the task to me, who was more suitable than anyone for such a responsible work… In the center of Belaya Tserkov, there was still the same bus on which I arrived. The driver seemed to be waiting for me alone, because as soon as I sat down in my seat, the driver immediately turned on the engine, the bus started moving. There was no one in the cabin, out of my natural curiosity I approached the driver:

– You, that you were waiting for me alone, that you immediately set off on the road?

– You see, I stood here for three hours, none of the passengers wanted to go, then I got angry and said to myself; – Listen to Petro, if the mountain does not go to Magomed, then Mohammed goes to the mountain! And as soon as at least one passenger appears, I will immediately take him the only one right up to Kyiv, and for free?

– Understand. – I answered, and sat down on the first place. At the entrance to the city, the military militiaman looked at me and let the bus pass by the checkpoint, apparently thinking that for such an important person as me, they were chasing a whole tourist salon for a reason. I arrived home at 5:30 pm. Having taken unfinished brandy from the refrigerator, poured himself half a glass and drained the drink, he felt a surge of strength and balance. Then I took a shower, fried sausages with eggs and ate while drinking coffee with cognac … On the calendar it was Thursday morning, August 25, 2022. After a bachelor's breakfast, I went to the draft board. The military commissar, seeing me, got up from his place at the desk and exclaimed:

– You?! You again?! He didn't have enough words for more.

– The military town and the airfield have been captured, there is a battle with the Russian landing force and local territorial defense, it was not possible to get into the service of the regiment commander, so I decided to return to Kiev.

– And what to directly define you as a deserter, or how, you order ?!

– I do not shy away from service, I just do not like certainty in the actions of the prescription, so I returned home, decide where I am now, or give me a delay!

– For what kind of cases you are supposed to be postponed, I have already reported that the order in the number of conscripts has been completed! And here is a deserter in your face, what a phenomenon ?! What are you going to do with you, huh?!

– Postponement, for family reasons, that's all! – in unison with the raised tones in the voice of the military commissar, I firmly answered.

– No, you'll go to my penalty baht for evading service! You know, there is a military garrison for people like you near the Arsenalnaya metro station, now a squad is escorting you there, they know what to do with people like you!

– You, Major, do not know the laws of wartime well, I am not yet a military man, just a mobilized conscript and not bound by an oath to the state of Ukraine, therefore I can be subject to a civil court under the article of draft evasion for military service, the term is provided for there, so shut your garrison, you know where! With every word I said, the major's eyes popped up on his forehead, which suddenly became huge and immobilized from mouse brown ones. And I decided to save the state of things, hanging like a thundercloud, threatening to break out with thunder and lightning:

– I think we will agree, – and I boldly laid out on the table 600 dollars prepared in advance, -here is my reprieve!

The military commissar looked at the money for a long time, not daring to take it, I realized that it was not enough, I added another four hundred. Here he quickly scooped them up into the junk of the table and said in a meaningful and calm voice, as if they had replaced a person in the face of a military commissar:

– Now I will give you an order to installment plans for a year, until the next new year, then we will think about what to do with you further, will it suit you?

– Quite! – I answered, as the master of my fate. And the military commissar continued partingly: – When the patrol meets you on the street, show this order, – with these words, he took out the appropriate form from the safe and began to fill in the data from my passport, sealed and handed me this form with his passport, adding, – let's go from here to I didn't see you again!

I shoved my passport, along with the deferment form for the military ID, into the inside pocket of my jacket and left the military enlistment office. Taking a deep breath of freedom, again, by On the way home, I went to the Velyka Kishin, made some purchases, and with a light heart entered the entrance of my house. The next morning I went to the address indicated by the lieutenant colonel to coordinate my work with the FSB agent in Kyiv. On the way to the metro, I went to the Velyka Kyshenya supermarket and ordered two packs of warmed-up Italian pizza with mushrooms in the culinary area, paid, put the pizza in my travel bag and entered the metro at the Obolon station. Coming out at the "Teatralnaya" I went along Vladimirskaya street to house number 32. It was a five-story pre-war building dating back to tsarist times. I entered the gloomy corridor, and going up to the concierge, who was sitting in a closet under the stairs behind a glass window, inquired about the owner of the apartment:

– Hello! Tell me, please, does Boris Eduardovich Sosnin, the chief architect of Kyiv Gor Stroy, live in one hundred and thirty-two?

The elderly concierge looked at me through tortoise-shell glasses, the thought flashed through my mind: “Antiques, my grandmother definitely inherited,” she finally said:

– Young man, what is your question to Boris Eduardovich?

– In our company "Italian Pizza", he often orders it, and I was sent from our company to acquaint him, as our client, with bonus offers, since he is a long-term and regular client. – Okay, but how to introduce you?

– Tell me that I am a sales manager, our delivery agent visited him earlier, well, and after the decision of the management, the company's managers sent me to Boris Eduardovich.

– That's what I hear that amazing smell comes from your bag.

– Well, I did not come up to you in vain, by the way, what is your name?

– Aunt Valya, you can just Valya. – Smiling with a youthful smile that a woman had some sixty years ago, she took a gift copy of pizza from me and added, – Thank you, will you bring pizza now?

– Unfortunately, no, this work will be done by an agent, I hope you have seen him more than once, well, unless he quits, do you see what is happening around?

– Yes, yes, young man, yes, yes, – she said sadly, – wait, I'll find out now, is he at home or not? -With these words, the concierge picked up the phone. Soon her voice was heard, then she turned to me, – Go to the third floor, he is waiting for you there.

– Thank you, aunt Valya, I'm on the elevator!

– Wait, wait, now there are rolling blackouts, you can get stuck in there, it's better to walk. – Thank you, and good evening to you!

– And you, young man … A wide staircase led to the fifth floor, an elevator crate passed nearby, but I no longer heard the voice of the concierge, as I was walking along the wide steps of the pre-revolutionary luxury of building architecture of the past. Two entrance doors of apartments No. 132 and No. 133 went opposite to each other on the landing of the third floor. The landing was narrow, bounded on one side by an elevator shaft, and on the other side by a wall with a large, bright window high up. Exactly in the middle of this wall, under the window, there is a fire hydrant with a coil of fire hose, which was visible through the glass of the door, sealed with a seal. On the door of the fire hydrant, a strip of white paper is glued to the wooden frame of the niche of the fire hydrant with the date and number of the inspection of the object, with the seal and painting of the controlling person. I approached this object and, leaning my travel bag against the wall closer to the fire niche, opened the zipper of the bag and, pretending to take out a pizza, turned on the scanning device for detecting listening installations of tracking, a gift from the lieutenant colonel. Then he took the pizza out of the bag, zipped it up and hung the bag over his shoulder, as if by chance he moved close to the fire hydrant and heard the squeak of the device. Turning around at the door of the fire facility, setting the bag strap on my shoulder, I saw where the miniature camera was located, carefully so as not to accidentally catch it, I finally fitted the bag strap on my shoulder, and with a pizza in my hands, picturesquely approached the door of apartment No. 132 pressed the bell . Soon shuffling steps were heard outside the door, such sounds are heard from room slippers on the floor of a fat person. The door opened and a gray-haired man with glasses appeared in a dressing gown over a pajama suit with a book in his hands. Without thinking twice, I said the password:

– Did you order Italian pizza? – smiling affably at the same time.

– I like mushrooms, but what do you have? – the response was correct, I should have answered like this:

– Only with sausage from the lips of a desert and wild camel! – such a review was invented just in case, and told the resident that the intelligence officer had died, and that now there would be another one instead of him, that is, me.

– Come in!

The apartment with high ceilings and antique furniture looked more like an exhibition pavilion of historical artefacts and paintings. The portrait of a woman in a luxurious white dress stood out in particular. The painting hung over a massive fireplace that occupied a third of the blank outer wall that closed off the street. And the windows of the apartment overlooked the courtyard with a small garden of planted trees and two or three benches for relaxing. By the fireplace Boris Eduardovich stopped and gestured to two armchairs and a table between them with crooked marble legs and a mahogany top.

– Sit down young man, and put pizza on the table. – Kindly offered Boris Eduardovich. I put the package of pizza on the table and took out the cognac.

– A gift from your company? – playing a comedy before wiretapping, said the architect. It became clear to me that the former architect was being shadowed, – And how much do I charge for pizza and cognac?

I silently laid out a check from the store. He looked at me carefully, then took a ballpoint pen and wrote something on the check, pushed the check towards me, I looked at his note: “There is a wiretapping all around, don’t say anything, I’ll go see you off and we’ll talk there,” after reading, I nodded back and said:

– I temporarily replace a friend for delivery, and I bought cognac for myself, they gave me a pizza as a gift, there is a sale in the supermarket now and I bought this cognac at a discount, but I wanted to sell two pizzas, I gave one for nothing to the concierge, but I decided to sell you the old way check in two expensive, but if you do not want, then as you want.

– No, no, just leave me pizza, I'll buy it from you, I don't need change, take the cognac back, -with these words he thrust money and a letter into me, – wait for me to go for a walk, I'll go see you.

– Fine!

He changed his clothes and soon we went out into the park. – You never introduced yourself?

– Valentin Baran Yuryevich, captain of the Soviet army, was summoned by a summons and sent to the garrison of Belaya Tserkov, where he was captured and was recruited and sent to you to receive a task.

– Where did my contact go? Boris Eduardovich asked anxiously.