draw public attention, and then we’d pass away, right?
– He would know about us. And that would have strengthened his faith in us. Don’t you understand that?
– He, who’s he? – There was a familiar voice from behind the commander. – Who are you talking about? Where can I find him?
– You’re on television, aren’t you? – Tamura was surprised.
– I thought I’d look here first. I had a bad feeling. I thought I wouldn’t find him here alive.
The old man lifted his head and smiled, then began to chuckle, and after a moment he laughed genuinely. Eira pulled her pistol from its holster and pointed it at the old man.
– There’s a through-and-through burst in the striker. You’re going to tell me everything now, or I’ll use your brains to write «Hallowed be thy name» on that wall!
– Why would you do that? – Tamura took Eira’s hand away from her gun. – I’m just getting into religion. Already starting to feel a spark of faith. The leaven was stirring and the grains were separating from the chaff. Opening my heart to Jesus. Hear and obey Father…» She squinted her eyes, as if remembering something, and snapped her fingers toward the priest, then turned to Eira and whispered. – Don’t. Let me talk to him some more. I’ll shoot him myself later, I promise,» she smiled sarcastically. – Don’t take it out on me.
– Righteousness is my name! – shouted the old man. – And I’m the first! There are more coming after me.
At that moment, a young girl in a white robe with a blue folder in her hand knocked on the glass door and gestured for the high witch to leave the room. Eira returned her pistol to its holster and stepped out of the cell.
– Tell me, Father, where do you get all this stuff from? – Tamura asked, peering through the glass at the girl reporting to the High Witch. At that moment, Ruta joined the women, taking the blue folder from the girl, opening it and beginning to study it.
– He’s talking to me! – The old man replied pathosily. – He sent me into the world, marking me with the sign of righteousness.
– Messiah?
– God! God speaks to me!
– Uh, uh… Speaks how?
– In dreams, of course! When we fall asleep, God comes to us in our dreams. That’s how he communicates with us.
– And I had my hopes up.
The cell door opened again, and Eira and Ruta entered. The High Witch approached the old man and stared defiantly into his eyes.
– They’re empty,» she said. – There’s nothing in them. Nothing at all! Not a mind, not what you call a soul. Explain to me how a paranoid schizophrenic could convince sixty mentally healthy people to commit mass suicide? – she turned to Tamura. – Yes, yes! He’s a moron! The test results are back.
– I’ve already figured it out,» Tamura replied. He communicates with the Almighty in his dreams.
– Give him to me,» Ruta squeaked.
– What do you need him for? No! We’ll cure him and let him out. And prove once again that religion is just mass bipolar.
– Give it back, please,» the light witch folded her palms, brought them to her lips and jumped on the spot. – I’ll practice whispering witches on him.
– Why him? We have other detainees.
– He has something no one else has – an alien, powerful stagnum. I’ll break him.
– No, Ruta. The decision has been made. It will be transferred today – What stagnum?
There was a gunshot, and the women turned around. The old man fell back a little from the shot, but the handcuffs kept the chair from falling over.
– I promised,» Tamura shrugged and smiled. The barrel of a Beretta was smoking in her hand.
– You idiot! – Eira gritted her teeth, groping for the empty holster on her belt.
– What’s he got there? – Ruta walked over to the dead old man and undid the top button of his shirt. – It’s a stain,» she undid the rest of the buttons.
The witches saw a white stain on the corpse’s bare chest, about twenty centimeters wide and the same height. It looked like a rider on horseback with a thin spear in his right hand.
– A knight of some sort,» said Tamura.
– Don’t touch it,» said Eira. – It looks like some kind of infection. Bring the spectrometer to cell six,» she added into the radio.
– He did say before he died that he was god-marked, by the way. About a sign of some kind.
– Quarantine the detained children. Sanitize the room,» Eira continued.
A gloved nurse entered the cell. The High Witch nodded toward the stain, and the nurse held the spectrometer to it. It emitted a confirmation beep.
– It’s been sent to the lab,» the nurse said. – They’ll have an answer in a couple minutes.
For two minutes the women stood in silence waiting for the answer. Because of this awkwardness, the witches were a little nervous and tried not to meet their eyes. Only Tamura smiled broadly, admiring the sight.
– A witch has been born,» she commented.
– Praise Odin,» Ruta said casually.
– There’s a result! – The nurse responded to the spectrometer’s signal.
– Praise Odin! – Ruta repeated with a relieved exhale.
– It’s a mutated strain of bubonic skin plague,» said the lab technician.
The witches looked at each other dumbfounded and rushed for the exit.
– Wait,» the nurse shouted. – The strain is not contagious.
– I’ll be praising Odin until tonight,» Ruta said, stopping. – Are you sure it’s not contagious?
– Give me that! – Eira snatched the spectrometer out of the lab technician’s hands and looked at the monitor. – «The strain is not contagious because it’s completely dead. No colony-forming organisms of the plague bacillus were found.
– So you’re saying the plague was waiting somewhere for a sick in the head old man to jump on him, draw a knight on his chest, and die? – Tamura asked.
– Girls, it’s a message! – Ruta said. – It’s obvious! A drawing like that couldn’t have formed on its own.
– A message to whom? – The black witch persisted. – He was supposed to sit in the bunker for ten days and then blow
