the former prisoner had recently served for hooliganism. Here again for the old.
– Well, Igor, hold on. If they get it, then you can live with me, my mother will be glad. We have a three room apartment. We can provide you one, until all this has died down. Tell me, in the apartment, are there any values?
– No, all the valuables are demolished in the wine cellar. There a couple of Faberge eggs, grandfather brought from Germany, this safe in the corridor. But no one can take it out, because they dismantled the wall to bring it in, then they laid it, a heavy thing, you can’t take it without a crane.
– And in the wine cellar, how?
– There is a special door with double metal armor and a special hard alloy fireproof. So no cutting will take either gas or mechanical. Well, I’m not talking about castles. Come, I will show you my treasures. I got up, took a sip and drained my glass.
He led me to his room and to the wall that I saw in a dream with a portrait of a gray-haired man in a tailcoat. In the corner was a wardrobe. Igor went to the closet.
«Valentine help me push it aside.»
We rested, moved the closet to the side. A massive oak door opened. Igor with the key that he found on the bunch, opened the lock, and we were on the steps leading down. Having descended below the first floor, we stumbled upon a metal door, like a bomb shelter. Igor inserted a long key into the upper well and turned, there was a click, I heard the same click when he turned the key in the lower well of the lock. Then with two hands he began to rotate the wheel sticking out in the center of the door. The oval block of metal slowly opened, forming a fairly wide gap through which we penetrated into the dark basement room. Igor flicked a switch. A light flashed, and a gaze opened up to the space, completely laden with shelves with dust-covered bottles. In the center of the room was a safe on an antique table. Igor opened the lock of the safe with two keys, then the door. Two Faberge eggs stood on a shelf, illuminated by a safe bulb.
– These are two scripts of the famous jeweler Faberge. Nobody knows about these scripts where they are, and who keeps them in their secret collection. And in the closed compartment, in the upper part there is a famous diamond, lost in the Middle Ages. He is called differently by the Star of the East, and Aladdin, and there are still names. – With these words, Igor opened the upper part and took out a red velvet box from there. In it, with all the colors of the rainbow, a transparent rectangular diamond sparkled with a length of about thirty to forty millimeters, a side height of about eleven millimeters. The body of the diamond was engraved in Arabic script.
– This treasure that you hold in your hands is priceless! I exclaimed with admiration. «You, brother, are the richest man in the world!»
– Wow! But I didn’t think that it was so. – Igor smiled.
«Does Grandpa’s friend know about this?» I asked warningly.
– Sanzhik Sarkisovich, no, only I know about it, and now you will know.
«I am worried about these criminal elements your mother is with.» This is where the danger lies.
– Well, in the first mother never saw anything here. Grandpa wouldn’t let her in here. She was only rumored to know that grandfather had a wine cellar and that was it. By the way, she thinks that this cellar is in the country and that I bring wine from there. She grew up in this house in this apartment and does not know that behind this antique wardrobe there is an entrance to the vault.
«Well, then that changes the matter.»
Putting everything in its place, Igor closed the safe, then the wine cellar. Rising into the room, he put a bunch of keys near the oak door in the parquet floorboard, then covered the parquet gap with the floorboard. And, when we put the closet in place, again went to the kitchen. Having safely drunk cognac from my glass, I said goodbye to the owner of the treasures and went to the subway. There, sitting in the carriage, I thought how and where to help Igor sell at least part of the treasures or find money to start an antique business. And now to do this and nothing more, not thinking about how I will calmly continue to work at the plant, knowing about this fascinating business, promising an interesting life for an antique dealer and good wealth…
In the morning, the day after our meeting with Igor, he called me about 10 hours.
– Come, please, to me, we need to talk. – The voice was firm and confident, intuitively I realized that he wants to consult with me about something very important.
– Yes, of course, I’ll get together now and I’ll be with you for half an hour, since the metro works like a clock.
– Come on. Yes, don’t buy anything, I need you today, not gifts. Come on, I’m waiting.
«Are you going somewhere again?» – Mother asked uneasily.
– To Igor, we work in the technical bureau together, and, it seems, have become friends.
«Well, look, Valik, so that this friendship does not lead you to the bottleneck.»
– He is a serious guy, just like me, he doesn’t drink or even smoke. – I answered with a smile, gobbling up croutons, and drinking coffee, – Well, mom, I ran.
– Wait, where are you? Eat another serving.
– Thanks, mom.
Ten minutes later I was already in the subway, and after another 30 I clicked on the bell button of Igor’s apartment…
Chapter 4
It was 1945. In Berlin, at the headquarters of the Soviet Army, Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov summoned the first secretary of his office.
– Allow me to enter, Comrade Marshal.
– Come in Shitikov.
A taut, high officer with a red folder under his arm entered the office. He straightened up, standing at attention.
– Colonel Shitikov, at your order arrived. – Colonel struck in a firm voice, standing as if in a parade on a stand, quietly at the door.
– Come in, sit here. – Zhukov indicated the nearest place to his desk.
The colonel, with a chased step, came closer to Zhukov, sat down on a chair and laid out a folder on the long meeting table with chairs installed around the perimeter of the marshal’s desk. From his breast pocket he took out a fountain pen with a golden pen tucked with purple ink and began to listen to what the Marshal of Victory would say.
– That’s What Colonel, find me the commander of the Army of the First Ukrainian Front, Major Peremet Oleg Mikhailovich. Deliver here immediately. And tell me, let the adjutant write out a pass in the name of Comrade Major, so that he does not have delays. I will sign. That’s an order.
«Yes, comrade Marshal!» Let me do it?! – said the colonel in a military manner, rising from his seat.
«Yes, do it as soon as possible so that he is here.» «By emphasizing the last word, Zhukov added.
An
