dark Rebrov went by tractor trail to the timber stacks, and the anger as a cat with its claws tore on him. He was going just to get some money his boss owed them, because he badly needed a drink, and he was bored to death with potatoes’ meals of their team cook. But when he saw Stepan with a flashlight between the stacks he pulled out his knife. Rebrov thought that he would simply show this knife to Stepan, and the boss would understand: his hard workers are desperate, just on the edge without money. But boss, Stepan, had heard the roar of the truck, and now stood there looking cautiously at someone coming to him in the dark. In the forest a man senses a danger clearly, and Stepan sensed it immediately. When Rebrov was closer and he could make out in the dark his stony face, Stepan picked up two-yard long piece of timber and got ready. Closer, when they saw the eyes of each other, both men understood it was too late to talk. Stepan began to raise his timber, but Rebrov suddenly threw his fur-hat up and forward. Stepan glanced upwards, uncovering his bare neck under thick collar of sheepskin jacket, and immediately the knife entered his bare flesh under Adam’s apple.
Степан еще хрипел и брызгал на снег кровавой пеной из распоротого горла, а Ребров уже распахнул его полушубок и шарил по карманам. Из бумажника он выкинул на снег все, кроме денег, но и тех было мало, – кто же ездит по этому лесу с деньгами.
Когда тронулись, шофер спросил:
– Ну, поговорили?
– Нет.
До поселка ехали молча, только у магазина Ребров сказал:
– Тормозни тут.
Stepan still wheezed and spattered the snow with bloody foam out of his ripped throat, but Rebrov already threw open his jacket and fumbled through his pockets. From the wallet he threw everything out on the snow and picked up the money. There wasn’t much – who would go with money to the forest.
When they moved on, the driver asked, “Talked to him?”
“No.”
They drove in silence to the settlement, but nearing the store Rebrov said, “Stop here.”
Тяжелый лесовоз заскрипел, застонал и остановился. В магазине Ребров взял две бутылки водки и две банки свиной тушенки, на большее денег не хватило. В кабине одну бутылку и одну банку он протянул шоферу. Тот поглядел осторожно Реброву в глаза и не сразу взял. Но потом забрал и кинул под свое сидение.
– Если кому-нибудь ляпнешь, что в лесу останавливались, голову отпилю, – сказал тихо и просто Ребров.
Шофер, здоровый взрослый мужик, снова посмотрел этому мальцу в глаза, кивнул и ничего не ответил.
With moans and groans heavy log transporter stopped. In the store Rebrov bought two bottles of vodka and a pair of pork stew cans, and he was out of money again. In the truck’s cab he handed one bottle and a can to the driver. Driver looked cautiously into Rebrov’s eyes and didn’t move to take it at first. But then took it all right, and shoved it under his seat.
“Utter a word that we stopped there, and I’ll saw your head off,” simply and softly said Rebrov.
The driver, the huge middle-aged man, just looked into this youngster’s eyes, nodded and said nothing.
Джип скоро нашли, и приезжала полиция. Они побродили по свежезаваленной снегом делянке, и оставили это дело до весны. Степана нашли только в конце апреля, когда растаяло на открытой вырубке, и появился этот «подснежник».
The jeep was soon found, and police came. They walked and looked around freshly and heavily snowbound allotment with high timber stacks and left it until spring. They found Stepan only at the end of April, when the snow melted in the clearings, and this snowdrop, as police call them, showed up.
«Картежник хренов…» – опять подумал Ребров про Левко. Это же мой банк, весь мой, я все эти деньги выбил тогда у должников. Без меня ни копейки бы не отдали!
Действительно, после дефолта в девяносто восьмом, когда даже само государство отказалось возвращать долги, когда и появилось это крылатое «только трусы отдают долги», этот самый Левко дал ему список с десятком фамилий, с многозначными суммами против каждой, и сказал бандиту Реброву:
– Сумеешь выбить из них долги – половина твоя. Новый банк с тобой откроем.
“The lousy gambler!” Rebrov thought of the banker Levko, looking through the window. “It is my bank, mine. I beat all the money from the debtors ten years ago – they wouldn’t return you a cent!”
That was true. Indeed, after the default of a ninety-eighth, when even the state itself refused to repay its debts, the winged phrase emerged among shady businessmen, “Only cowards repay their debts”. Bankrupted Levko gave his new acquaintance a list with a dozen of names and multiple-digit sums against each one and said to bandit Rebrov, “Of the money you knock out of these gents half is yours. And then we’ll launch a new bank together.”
Бандит
