Читать книгу Game of Tag. Fantasy - Julia Syanova - Страница 14

In the darkened room there were wooden tables and leather sofas. On the walls were old black-and-white photographs of the 20—50s of the twentieth century. On the shelves were odd-shaped smoking pipes, mouthpieces, hookahs and even one “bong.”

This is the only café for smokers in the city. Here you could order any kinds of hookahs, a large range of cigars and cigarettes. The owner did his best in order to get permission to breach the law on prohibition.

The café was open around the clock; in fact, it was a real smoking den. For regular customers, the barman was always glad to offer something in addition to the main menu, some special product.

On the far wall was a huge monitor, on which music and promotional clips were most often being played. Today customers were interested in news and interactive, entertaining shows for two hours.

The main and only news was the lottery of Art. soul Holding group Corporation for the first Russian game “Ouiet Running’, or “Tikhii beg’.

And now, for two hours, they had been showing various interviews with the winners of different countries. In China there were five lucky ones, from Germany there were only two, the United States – one, Australia – one, India – three, Kazakhstan – one, Israel – two, Serbia – one, the United Arab Emirates – one, Japan – two, Russia – one. And all these people of different ages and religions were giving interviews telling how they got the ticket, how happy they were, and on which things they would spend their money.

Bar visitors, having already taken a certain quantity of their favourite smoking poison, had been watching everything happening on the screen quite sluggishly. They were a little interested in these upstarts and rich people from other countries.

They were rather disappointed that the game was invented in Russia, but only one Russian player, a native of the Caucasus, Mamed Zakuranzhaev, a rather sociable young guy, clean-shaven and in a classic, fashionable suit, was giving interviews. He was cheerfully telling about his parents, who presented a ticket to him for graduation. Then about the fact that he was a sprinter athlete for short and long distances and that he was going to get into the Russian national team. And if he had to run in this game, then he would overtake all.

The screen image changed to an urgent release, and the newscaster of the evening news in a blue dress began to speak:

“The President’s Press Secretary of the holding Art. soul Holding group Anatoly Lekhtman said that there would be the twenty-one winners in the lottery.”

“And twenty-one players, not twenty, as previously stated, will take part in the opening of the so-expected game Ouiet Running or “Tikhii beg’.

“We came to the conclusion that the even number would not bring a drive and strain, and at the very last moment opened access for one more participant. Seventeen seconds later, Sergey Kravtsov, a citizen of Russia, became the twenty-first participant.”

At that moment, there were loud cheers in the bar: “Hurray!”, “This is our countryman!”, “I know him!”, “Our breakthrough!” – and enthusiastic applause.

The barman had a call, after which he announced that he was treating all comers to the light beer absolutely for free! Then all the visitors shouted “Hurray!” three times and kept watching the news, that suddenly became interesting, and discussing whether it was a planned step or just an eventuality.

On the screen of the monitor, the newscaster continued: “We have just got a photo of the winner and try to contact him.” In the studio, as well as in the millions of rooms, the dial tone of waiting was heard.

In the studio background was the picture of a short-cut young boy with an outstanding right ear, a thin neck, thick brows, an eagle nose and piercing blue eyes.

“Yes.”

“Hello, Sergey Nikolaevich! Anna Kamysh from the ‘Evening News’ is on the line.”

“Hello!” – came a calm male voice. “How can I help?”

“Sergey, as it was announced, you are the twenty-first winner of the lottery. Do you confirm or disprove this information?”

There was a deep sigh, and then a sad response:

“Confirmed.”

“Could you please tell our viewers the story of how it happened?”

“Anna, I am sorry, I have not fully realized what is going on. And unfortunately, I cannot talk; I am busy solving current challenges. I will give an interview to your channel as soon as I make a final decision on participating in the game.

“Sergei, please, wait, you mean you may decline participation?”

“It will depend on many factors, for now, I am not sure of a positive resolution of the situation. You will learn about this first, please, contact me tomorrow morning,” engaged tone went off.

It would not be enough to say that it made a splash. Company’s sites were loaded with comments of users and viewers. Some frankly was calling Sergey a fool and douche, who missed the opportunity of giving an early start where he could earn one million dollars just by playing the game.

Others were looking for the reason for this behaviour and discussing that maybe the guy was scared or disabled, for they did not show a video call, but only a phone call.

The situation was gaining momentum and by 1:00 a.m. spread on an international level. Most of the appeals to the holding were due to the fact that this “winner’ is a front man of the company or that everyone dreams of being in his shoes, but he is still thinking.

There was a chaos in the company’s offices not only in Russia but also in other countries. People demanded to give out more lotteries, so that everyone who had not experienced the fate could do it. They have to break up a demonstration with water from fire trucks, police forces and even with the National Guard.

The game began to bring not only profit but also losses. They could not afford to let this tendency grow.

But the most annoying factor for the residents of the big cities was that no official spokesman made a statement or explanation of the situation. It seemed that the entire gaming world was frozen in anticipation of tomorrow.

While in the main holding office the employees were placing bets between themselves on the decision of “this dark horse’.