Читать книгу Destiny's Puppets - Henri Mallet - Страница 3

Going along the corridor to the stairs Major Lazarev suddenly remembered when he was a kid his nanny Agatha told him fairytales about magic castles, countless treasures, kings, evil trolls and beautiful princesses. Enraptured, he was listening to these stories, holding his breath and wrapping himself up in a blanket, up to his nose. When Agatha turned off the light and left the room, he closed his eyes and pictured himself riding a beautiful white horse on a green lawn in front of an ancient castle where he was to meet a fair princess and kiss her. Afterwards they would walk in the park surrounding the castle, holding hands. If any trolls tried to capture the princess, he would instinctively fight with the nasty beast and save her. Anatoly realized suddenly he was grinning from ear to ear. In the building on Dzerzhinsky square such a smile among colleagues could cause, at least, bewilderment. He forced himself to focus on work, namely, princes and princesses, as strange as it may sound.

Speculating in this manner, Anatoly reached the archive. He produced his ID and permit to the security guard and waited for the arrival of the assigned employee. He did not have to wait long. The door opened: a quite tall woman of indefinite age was standing in the doorway wearing a figure-hugging uniform coat. She had a narrow ratty face and her light hair was done in a topknot. The cold look in her bleak eyes seemed to pierce right through him. Her beautifully curved lips failed to improve the first impression, but when she began talking, her voice turned out to be deep and pleasant.

«Good afternoon, Major Lazarev. I am Major Matilda Pokrovsky. You can call me Major Pokrovsky or just Matilda,» she said as she smiled and motioned to the door. Her eyes seemed to be scanning the figure and the face of the handsome major.

«Good afternoon, Major,» nodded Anatoly politely, «мay I just call you Matilda, and you can call me Anatoly.»

«Oh, you are like the others, you think that "Major Matilda" sounds like a lame joke?» she giggled.

On hearing these words Lazarev felt a sudden urge to give her a smack on the shoulder and laugh out loud. He followed the archivist to a small room where a security guard checked his ID and permit once again. Major Lazarev had to produce his documents two more times. It seemed to him that they were walking along countless corridors and staircases for ages.

«Here we are,» Matilda stopped with an expectant expression.

Major Lazarev had to produce his documents once again and the guard let them into the storage bay, whose door was very similar to the safe door from gangster movies.

«I’ve already prepared the documents for you. These are the dossiers of the citizens cooperating with us,» Matilda pointed to two big piles on the shelf, «this is citizen Roshin’s file, this one is Svetlov’s, his family and relatives. And these are the dossiers of the girls of aristocratic origin. What would you like to begin with?»

«Thanks for the prepared materials,» Major Lazarev nodded, «let’s begin with Gleb Svetlov.»

The woman moved over the chair for Anatoly, sat down on the next chair and opened one of the files.

«Would you like me to give a summary or do you prefer to deal with the file on your own?»

«Yes, please, run me through Gleb’s biography. This will help us speed up the process.»

Anatoly kept on asking questions and Matilda answered them. They studied dossier after dossier. A lot of time had passed before Lazarev realized that he was very hungry. A plan had already formed in his head.

«Let’s stop here. If I need something else, I will let you know. Please, prepare the data about these people,» Major Lazarev handed her a scrap of paper with some names. He got up, waited until Matilda closed the files and piled them up on the table. Then he stepped towards the door through which they had entered.

«Okay, Anatoly, I’ll get ready everything and the files with the data will be on your table in about an hour. Let me walk you out.»