black box with a thin twisted wire sticking out of it and disappearing into her clothes.
“Allah akbar!” the girl screamed. Fear in her wide opened eyes, her finger hit a bright button on the little box.
Hearing the call gave Andrei an electric jolt. The two words switched him into the danger mode, when a split second can make all the difference between life and death.
He hit the girl’s arms, pushing them to the sides. Tore the triggering device away from her. More wires were hanging down from under her blouse; the girl was confused, the expression of desperation on her face. Both her hands closed on Andrei’s fist clutching the trigger.
“Allah akbar!” she screeched, scratching with her fingernails.
Andrei threw the trigger away, bloody scratches on his hand. A few scared passerby stopped. Everyone was looking at the girl. She lifted up her blouse and started fiddling with torn wires.
“Allah akbar!” she lamented.
On her waist, there was a wide belt wrapped in tinfoil.
People in the crowd screamed.
“She’s got a bomb!”
“There’s a Shahid1!”
“Aaaargh!”
Many tried to run away. Crush, panic, crazy screaming! The policeman reeled back, stumbled, and fell down. Then he got up and hid behind the corner of a nearby building. His hat, left on the ground, was trampled by the crowd.
The three beer drinkers, bewildered, started pointing their fingers.
“Hey, she wanted to kill us!””
“For reals!”
“Let’s rough up the bitch!”
“Kill that snake!”
They surrounded the confused girl. One, wearing a flowery shirt, seized her by her hair and pulled her head back. Another, of a soft constitution, grabbed a beer bottle by its neck. The remnants of beer flowed over his fat arm. Foam was sticking to the red arm hair. The swing-up was accompanied with dirty cussing. Then a blow on the stomach! The blow was awkward and hit the thick belt. The bottle slipped out and broke on the asphalt. Sound of breaking glass and foamy spatter.
“Nah, that’s not how it’s done!” the third one got excited.
He was skinny and muscular, thrill in his eyes, a T-shirt clinging to his athletic frame, a tattoo on his arm. He struck with relish and visible pleasure. His fist collided with the girl’s chest; she fell back, but held up by her hair and pushed forward to meet another blow.
“Allah akbar,” she kept repeating stubbornly. But it sounded like a moan now.
Her helplessness excited the Skinny even more. His next blow hit her in the solar plexus. The girl bent over and gasped for breath. The hitter was pleased and indicated by a hand gesture that he wanted the victim’s head lifted up. This time, the blow was aimed at her mouth, hissing laboriously, “Allah —”. The whisper stopped with the blow, as bright-red blood started flowing from the split lips. The Flowery Shirt still held the girl. His breathing was heavy with excitement, spittle flying around.
“Drop the bitch!” the Skinny ordered. He was genuinely pleased with himself.
The girl was pushed down. She fell on her knees, the palms of her hands landing on the shards of the beer bottle. Her face was contorted with pain, but instead of a scream, her lips uttered another, barely audible, “Allah akbar”. Her headscarf slid off her head; raven-black hair flowed over her shoulders.
A kick landed onto her defenseless body. The girl lost her breath and fell on her side. The Skinny knew how to hit.
The Softie wanted another chance. He was idle for a while and now wanted to catch up.
“Hey, you, take it easy,” Andrei Vlasov asked shyly.
What at first looked like a righteous retribution, suddenly morphed into a brutal reprisal. He saw the girl’s face screwed up in pain. Blood flowing freely across her cheek and chin; her mangled fingers clutching on to her stomach; bloody spots on her white blouse. But no one listened. Human forms jerked excitedly. Kicks kept coming. A crowd of viewers encircled the spectacle. People were slowly getting over the initial shock, fear gradually giving way to anger; they were encouraging each other.
“Hit her!”
“Terrorist bitch!”
“Keep at it!”
“People like that should be killed on sight!”
The policeman, now calm, was watching from a distance, an expression of curiosity on his face.
The crowd went nuts.
The girl helplessly threw her head back; lips pressed together, eyes closed. On her outstretched neck, now in full view, right above her collarbone, Andrei saw a dark spot. At first, he thought it was a drop of dried blood. No, blood can’t dry that fast. It’s still flowing on her skin, looking like the crawl or wet crimson worms.
The spot was a birthmark. Just like the one Sveta had!
The constricting feeling of forgotten tenderness made him lurch forward.
He loved kissing that birthmark. Sveta’s was slightly raised; he could find it even in the darkness. Just by running his tongue over it. He has done that many times. Found the birthmark, touched it gently, and then kissed her on her open quivering lips…
The memories made him lose his breath.
“Enough. You’re going to kill her,” Andrei whispered.
No response. People had their backs to him. Behind the kicking legs he could see the girl’s twisting body. Pain radiating from the writhing figure like a palpable wave hit Andrei on the sides of his head; all he could see was Sveta, the girl he loved.
His darling was suffering. It was impossible to take!
“Bomb!” Vlasov shouted furiously and tossed the plastic bag with the loaf of bread in it into the crowd.
Everyone immediately stepped back. The new wave of panic was stronger than the first one. Shouting pushed people into action. People ran away, some fell, covering their faces with their hands. They were stepped on, trampled, stumbled on. Desperate screams! Stampede!
Andrei Vlasov picked up the battered girl. Her body was fragile and light, but the thick oval belt on her waist dragged her mid-section down making it inconvenient to carry her.
Behind the kiosks, he put the girl into the back seat of his car. The key scratched the face of the ignition lock for a time before it finally went in. A turn of the wrist, and the engine started purring; sweaty hands grabbed the steering wheel. The car backed up and then charged away.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, one man kept his cool in the commotion.
A lithe young man by the
Shahid, literally translated from Arabic as “witness”, also denotes a Muslim martyr. In Russia, the word is often used by non-Muslims to refer to a suicide bomber. (Translator’s note.)
