done is done. He did not report anything to anyone. There was a risk of being tortured himself if his hastily thought up plan failed. He behaved lightly. He was lucky that he was alone on the trip.
Now he was alone in the bedroom, because the woman he loved had long since died. For a second, a crazy thought arose in Mikhail’s brain: what if he really had one magical desire? Would he have spent it to resurrect Iliana?
He almost wished it, but changed his mind in time. Why remember the traitor? Better to forget. Fantastic desires are still unrealizable. Unless only on the screen of the cinema, but he has not gone to the cinema for a long time.
But the authorities demanded from him that he contacted one outstanding movie star and extorted all her secrets. He was not usually involved in this kind of work, although he knew that sometimes celebrities were used for espionage purposes. Only this time, the hint was a much more serious threat. Mikhail did not believe that because of which actress something irreparable could happen, but an order is an order. It needs to be done. The photo of the star could not be attached to the instructions. Mikhail himself easily found it in the very first newspaper that was handed out in the subway passage. The girl’s resemblance to the drawings of angels struck him unpleasantly. He saw the same face in a fresco in the cathedral that was no longer in existence. Here it is! Printed on cheap offset paper! Here it looks even more beautiful than it was on the wall under the dome. So why isn’t he glad to see him again? Something deathly, frightening came from the face of the movie star. Next to such sublime beauty, a person begins to feel like just an insect.
Why, in connection with such divine beauty, did wars, terrorist attacks, torture and murder climb into his head? He drank all of this. His work was intense. For the peace of the whole world, sometimes it was necessary to show tactlessness and cruelty.
In his free time, he could only sit for hours on the curb of the Friendship of Nations fountain at VDNKh and ponder why people only think about enmity, war and strife. The golden figures of different nations stand together so peacefully, but living humanity needs conflicts. And he has to resolve these conflicts.
So today he went to the main entrance of VDNKh, clutching a newspaper with the fatal photo in his hand, sat down on the edge of the fountain, and almost fell into the water, noticing that the central of the golden figures had turned into a movie star from the newspaper, looking like an angel. The golden wings opened behind her, the golden body arched proudly upward, golden eyes stared at him.
It just so happened that a movie star named Athenais played exclusively the role of angels. But she was definitely not a sculpture. The golden hand reached out to Mikhail. The pool of the fountain, which shared it with the statues, was huge, but there was a feeling that a hand made of gold touched and burned him.
Where did the golden girl in the national Russian costume, kokoshnik and with a sheaf of ears of corn in her fingers go? Why does he see a living winged body of gold instead?
Mikhail pulled out his weapon and scared everyone. He had to explain to the guards and show his ID. He had the right to bear arms, but he did not have the right to hallucinations. When performing, he needs a sober quick-witted head, and he behaves like a mental patient.
He used to have dinner at eateries near the fountain, but today his appetite is gone.
“You want blood,” someone annoying whispered over his ear. “Blood is our food, and you are one of us! You killed the woman you loved because she was not of your race, but of a human race. Your path lies in the Cathedral of Thunder. Your food is the blood of people. You should have eaten Iliana’s heart when you killed her. Then you would already be with us.”
Hot sweat ran down his forehead. Michael brushed it off. He walked at random, passed the Stone Flower fountain and found himself at the pavilions, which had a fountain with a rocket and models of old planes. He needed the other way. From here you can only go to the Botanical Garden, which in former times was the estate of the Sheremetyevs, and from there you can take a bus to the outskirts of Moscow rather than to the center. Now his dwelling is in the center. It is comfortable and convenient there, not like in rented apartments where he used to hang out. He needs to return to the massive arch of the main entrance. Behind it are the planetarium and the road to the metro. He would have driven around the city by car, if not for frequent traffic jams.
As a child, he and Iliana walked around the Botanical Garden and Ostankino Park exclusively on foot. The walk stretched for many kilometers, but it was pleasant. As a child, Iliana was empty-headed and outgoing; when she grew up, she became selfish. She took flowers and gifts for granted. What is loyalty, she did not understand at all. If he had not found her in the arms of a man who threatened the well-being of the whole country, she would have been alive now. It occurred to her to get confused with a foreign intelligence agent. Mikhail did not understand: did his weapon misfire or did he shoot Iliana on purpose?
For a moment it seemed to him that the fountain with a stone flower was gushing not with jets of water, but with its blood. And the corpse of Iliana in a shiny evening dress floats limply between the figures of gilded sturgeons.
Iliana loved dresses with plunging necklines, beaded handbags, which are usually carried with them to the theater, and fashionable haircuts under the bob. This is how he remembered her: slender, dressed in an evening dress, with curls no longer than her earrings and with a bullet in her forehead.
Rip out and eat her heart!
How could such a thing come to mind? Such advice is given only in scary tales to people who want to acquire witchcraft.
Mikhail went back to the fountain with golden sculptures. Plantings of multi-colored roses smelled fragrant around him. Couples hugged on the benches. Flashlights flashed. Here is a favorite place for tourists. After all, the fountain was erected back in the days of the USSR, as a symbol of the unification of sixteen nations into a single state. Each female figure on it is cast in the national costume of one of the states that became part of the country. And in the center of the figures, jets from a huge gilded sheaf are gushing, and the water flows down along the recesses that resemble large shells. The USSR collapsed long ago, but the fountain remained as a monument to its former prosperity. Many people said that this is the most beautiful fountain on the planet. Mikhail liked the meaning inherent in its construction more. All people should love and support each other, blurring the line of interracial hatred. Unfortunately, not everyone shared his opinion. Most of the onlookers came here just to admire the sparkling figures, only a few amateurs walked around the curb, trying to figure out which nationality each figure belongs to. This Georgian woman with grapes, this Moldavian woman, and that gilded girl over there, embodies the Autonomous Republic of Karelia. Michael himself was looking for the golden angel, but he was no longer there.
Someone clicked the camera, in the lens of which a fountain was reflected, surrounded by exclusively golden winged figures. Again obsession!
Mikhail walked by quickly and bought hot corn and a hot dog at a park stall. You need to eat and hurry home. For some reason it was scary to turn around, and at the same time he didn’t want to leave. It seemed that Athenais was waiting for him at the fountain. Alive, not gold. She is wearing a scarlet robe, the color of which is so bright that it burns the eyes, and dragons embroidered with golden thread move on the robe.
“Go to the cinema!”
The voice was definitely not Atenais’s. He was hoarse and unpleasant. The Kosmos Cinema and Concert Hall was located right behind the highway in front of the VDNKh entrance, but Mikhail was not going to go there.
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