At the end of the hallway was a surprisingly roomy chamber which walls were covered with maps, plans, between them were notes of cryptic radio messages, pictures and newspapers. Behind a broad oak desk sat a thin man in the middle of his life with uncommonly broad shoulders.
Homer saw that he was having his uniform hand over his shoulder and only his left arm came out his sleeves.
After one second Homer saw that his right arm had been almost amputated completely. The man was a giant, his eyes were almost at the same height of Homers and he was standing right in front of him.
“Thanks.” Said the man and let the fat man go who closed the door with noticeable regret behind him. Then he turned to Homer. “Who are you?”
“Nikolayev, Nikolai Ivanovitsch.” Answered the old man confused.
“No more games! When you’re coming to me and claiming that you’re accompanying my most valued comrade who we’ve buried a year ago you have to have a good reason for it. Who are you?”
“Nobody. It’s not about me. He’s alive, believe me.
You have to come with me, as fast as possible”
“Now I am getting the feeling that it’s a trap. Or an idiotic game. Or just a mistake” Melnik (Miller from 2033) lit a self-made cigarette and blew smoke into Homer’s face.
“Good you know his name. But let’s say he was here with you so you should know his story. You should know that we have searched for him for a year, every day of it. That I’ve lost a few good men on the search. And god damned you should know how much he means to me. Maybe even that he was my right hand man.” A bitter smile hushed over his face.
“No, none of it. He never said anything.” Homer had lowered his head. “Please, just come to the Borovizkaya. We have no time …”
“I am not going anywhere. Not without a good reason.” Melnik’s hand reached under the table, moved around without getting up and after a few seconds Homer realized that he was sitting in wheelchair. “Let’s talk about it in peace first. I want to know why you appeared here”
“My god!” Homer didn’t know what else he should tell that stubborn man anymore. “Believe me. He’s alive. He is sitting in the ape cage at the Borovizkaya. At least I hope that he’s still …”
“I would like to believe you.” Melnik stopped, took a deep breath of the cigarette so that Homer could hear how the filter paper burnt crackling. “But there are no miracles.
You’re just opening new wounds. Well ok. There is my own theory who’s behind this game. But to find that out we have people that are trained to find out just that.” He reached for the receiver of the telephone.
“Why is he afraid of people with dark skin?”
Said homer suddenly and more to himself. Not exactly knowing why.
Melnik froze. Then he carefully put the receiver back where it belonged. He inhaled the rest of his self-made cigarette, spat out the rest into the ashtray and said: “To the devil with it, then I’ll roll to the Borovizkaya”
“I am not going there! Leave me! I rather stay …”
Sasha wasn’t joking nor playing. Nobody had hated her father more than the reds. They had taken his power, broke him and instead of taking his life they had out of mercy or because they thought he wasn’t worth it, damned him to years of pain and suffering. Her father had never forgiven the people who had betrayed him. Not those who had provoked the people to betray him, who had armed them with weapons and flyers. Even the red color could bring him to rage. And even though he had said that he was no longer after revenge at the end of his life, Sasha had felt that he had just wanted to find a reason for giving up.
“It’s the only way.” Said Leonid confused.
“But we wanted to the Kievskaya! You’ve lead me to a no-man’s-land!”
“Hanza has been at war with the red line for centuries; there I couldn’t tell the first person I saw that we’re going to the communists. I had to think of something”
“Without lies you can’t do anything or what?”
“The gate is behind the Sportivnaya, I’ve always said that. The Sportivnaya is the last station of the red line, in front of the broken down metro bridge. I can’t change that fact”
“And how are we supposed to get there? I have no papers!” She didn’t let Leonid out of her sight for a second
Leonid smiled. “Trust me. You just have to talk to people. Long live corruption!” Without listening to any other complains he took Sasha’s hand and dragged her behind him.
Even from a distance you could see the shining search lights of the second defensive line and the giant banters out of read fabric which were hanging from the ceiling. The air moved them so that Sasha almost believed to see two red waterfalls in front of her. Was that a sign …?
If it was right what she had heard about the line they would fill them with holes immediately when they got in range.
But Leonid stepped forward calmly and his self-confident smile on his lips. Like always. Around thirty meters in front of the border station the bright ray of the search light hit is chest. The musician put his instrument box on the ground and raised his arms. Sasha did the same thing.
Two guards enclosed who were sleepy and surprised. It didn’t seem like somebody had ever approached this part of the border.
This time Leonid went with the higher ranking guard to the side before he could even ask for Sasha’s documents.
He was whispering into his ear, strummed with the brass in his hand and the man returned in a better mood. The leader of the guard accompanied them past all posts in person, even put them on a waiting railcar and ordered the soldiers to drive them to the Frunsenskaya.
They activated the lever and gasping for air the railcar started to move. Sasha looked at the faces of the people. Her father had told her they that they were their enemies but they didn’t look special: Coats out of cotton, bleached caps with stars on it, fallen in bony cheeks … They didn’t have bright faces like the guards of Hanza, but instead in their eyes was a curiosity of young men. He inhabitants of the ring line didn’t know about anything that. Also: Those two had no idea what had happened at the Avtosavadskaya almost ten years ago. Were these Sasha’s enemies then? Could you even hate unknown people from your deepest regions of your heart?
The guards didn’t dare to talk to the passengers.
Only the steady groaning was to be heard while they operated the lever.
“How did you do that?” Asked Sasha Leonid
“Hypnosis.” He was winking with his eyes.
“And what are those documents of yours?” She looked at him distrusting. “How is it that they’re letting you through everywhere?”
“There are different passports for different situations.” He answered vague.
So that no one could hear them she had to move closer to Leonid. “Who are you?”
“An invisible watcher.” He whispered.
If Sasha hadn’t put her hand in front of her mouth the questions would have just rushed out of it. But now the soldiers were listening and even the sound of the lever had become more silent.
So she had to wait till the Frunenskaya, a dried up and bleached station which fainted face had been covered in the red makeup of the flags. The mosaic on the ground was missing at some parts, the broad pillars had been gnawed on by the tooth of time and the rooms above her were like dark ponds.
Closely over the heads of the inhabitants black lamps on cables moved from one side to the other. They had been put between the pillars and not even one ray of the valuable light was being wasted. It was surprisingly clean here: Even more cleaning ladies then usual hushed over the platform, scrubbing the ground from one side to the other.
The station was full of people, put when they look at Sasha they winched and acted if they were going about their business. Only when she had passed them they relaxed again and talked to each other silently. When she turned around the whispering disappeared and the people got back to their business. Nobody seemed to want to look into their eyes.<
br />
As if it had been something indecent.
Sasha looked at Leonid. “Strangers don’t often go here?”
The musician shrugged his shoulders. “I am a stranger to them as well”
“Where do you live?”
“There were the people aren’t so dead serious.” He smiled. “Where they know that a human doesn’t just survive on food alone. Where they haven’t forgotten about yesterday even when it hurts”
“Tell me of the emerald city.” Pleaded Sasha silently.
“Why are they … Why are you hiding?”
“The rulers of the city don’t trust the metro …”
Leonid had to stop and barter with the guards at the tunnel entrance. Then he and Sasha dove into deep darkness.
With an iron lighter he lit the wick of an oil lamp and continued: “They mistrust them because the humans in the metro are gradually losing their humane appearance. Also there are still people here who started that terrible war. They don’t even want to admit that to their best friends. The people of the metro won’t change. You can only fear them and keep them away from the city. You can only watch them. If they would know of the emerald city they would consume it and spit it out again like they do it with everything they get their hands on. The paintings of the old masters would burn. Paper would burn and all that’s on it. The starved building of the university would break down. The only society that has reached peace and harmony would be destroyed. The big ark would sink. And nothing would remain”
Sasha felt hurt. “Why do you all think that we can’t change?”
“Not all believe that.” Leonid gave looked at her with his head sideways.
“Some try to do something”
“They don’t seem to try very hard.” Sasha sighed.
“Not even the old man knew of them”
“Many have heard it.” He said mysterious.
“You mean … The music?” Guessed Sasha.
“You’re one of those who want to change us? But how?”
“To force something beautiful on you.” Joked the musician.
The adjutant pushed the wheelchair while Homer hasted after them. He almost couldn’t keep up and turned around to his giant guard from time to time.
“If you don’t know the story.” Said Melnik, “I’ll tell you. If at the Borovizkaya it won’t be him at least talk to your cellmate about something … Hunter was one of the best warriors of the order, a hunter like out of a book.
His scent was like the one of an animal and he was behind our cause all the way. He was the one that tracked down the dark ones about one and a half years ago. At the VDNCh. Ever heard of it?”
“At the VDNCh?” Repeated Homer sunken in thoughts. “Yes invulnerable mutants that were able read minds and turn invisible, right? I thought they had been called >Darks’<?
“Whatever … He was the first one to go after the rumors and raise alarm, but back then we didn’t have enough men and time. So I refused support. I had other things to do.”
Melnik moved the rest of his right arm. “Hunter went alone. When we last had contact he told me that they could control the wills of others and make everybody feel true terror. He was an unbelievable, yes a born warrior. He alone was worth as much as a whole unit”
“I know.” Mumbled Homer.
“He had no fear. He had sent that young boy to us with a message that he had gone up to settle his score with the dark ones. When he wouldn’t be back we should come to the decision that the danger had been greater then we had thought. He disappeared. We thought he was dead. We’ve a system of messages: Who is alive, is obliged to notice us every week. Obliged! He had been silent for over one year”
“What happened to the dark ones?”
Melnik smiled oblique. “We straightened the entire area with Semertsch-missiles. We haven’t heard anything from the dark ones from that moment. No letter. No call. The exits at the VDNCh were closed and life returned to normal.
The boy didn’t make it mentally but as far as I know they brought him back to how he was before. He’s living a normal life and he even married. Hunter on the other hand …I have him on my conscience”. He rolled over a steel ramp down the stairs, scared a few of the librarians and waited for the air gasping old man and added: “You shouldn’t tell that last part to your cellmate”
One minute later the entire group had reached the cell. Melnik ordered the cell door to stay closed. He leaned on the adjutant, fletched his teeth, rose up and looked through the peephole. He just needed a fracture of a second.
Then as if he had made the whole way from the Arbatskaya on foot, Melnik fell down into his chair and put his fainting look over Homer and told him his verdict:
“That’s not him”
“I don’t think that the music belongs to me.” Said Leonid serious all of a sudden. “I don’t even know how it comes to my head. I just feel like sometimes I’m like the riverbed. I am just the instrument. If I want to play I put the flute to my lips. But it’s like somebody else is putting me to its lips and the melody is created …”
“That’s inspiration.” Whispered Sasha.
He spread his arms. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t belong to me but comes from the outside. I’ve no right to keep it inside. It wanders through the people. I begin to play and see how they gather around me: Rich and poor, those covered in wounds and those shining of fat, crazy ones, cripples, significant people, just all. My music moves something in them and all can tune in on the sound. I am like the tuning fork. I can bring them to harmony, even if it’s just for a short time. They sound is so pure. They sing … How am I supposed to describe that?”
“You’re explaining it very good.” Said Sasha sunken in thoughts. “I’ve noticed it as well”
“I have to try and plant it in them. In one it decays but in another the seed blossoms. I am not rescuing anyone, I can’t do that.”
“But why won’t the inhabitants of the emerald city help us? And you, why don’t you want to admit that you are doing exactly that?”
Leonid was silent until they had reached the Sportivnaya. The station was just as empty and bleak, overly ceremonial and cheerless as the others. And this one had even lower hanging ceiling, narrower and more burdensome halls.
It smelled of smoke, poorness and pride. A shadow attached himself to their steps immediately. Wherever they went he followed them up to exactly ten steps.
The girl pushed on but the musician held her back.
“Not now. We have to wait.” He found room on a stone bench and opened the locks of his flute box.
“Why?”
“You can only open the door at a specific time”
“When?” Sasha’s view turned to the station’s clock.
If it was on time they had only twelve hours.
“I’ll tell you soon enough”
“You’re delaying everything!” She stared at him and distanced herself. “Sometimes you promise to help me and sometimes you try to delay me!”
“Yes.” He breathed in and looked into her eyes. “I want to delay you”
“Why? For what?”
“I am not playing with you. Believe me, I would’ve found somebody to play by now, I don’t get a no that fast. I think I am in love. By god, how banal that sounds …”
“You don’t believe that in your life! You just say that, that’s all”
His voice was still dead serious. “There is a method to tell the difference between love and a game”
“When you lie to get someone is that love?”
“You can always change the rules of a game. Love just destroys your entire former life. True love doesn’t care for circumstances”
“I don’t have a problem with that. I have never had a life. Now lead me to the gate”
Leonid looked at the girl with his heavy eyes, leaned against the pillar and crossed his arms in front of his chest. A few times he breathed in as if he wanted to tell Sasha no, but then he breathed out again without saying one
word.
Finally he got smaller and admitted: “I can’t go with you. They won’t let me go back”
“What does that mean?”
“I can’t go back to the ark. The banished me from it”
“Banished? Because of what?”
“Because of a certain thing.” He turned away and spoke very silently even thought Sasha was just standing just one step next to him. She still couldn’t understand everything.
“It … was a personal story. With one of the head librarians.
He made me look like a fool in front of others …
In the same night I got drunk and burned down the library. The librarian burnt with the rest of his entire family. It was a pity that they had gotten rid of the death sentence, I would have deserved it. Instead they banished me. For life.
For me there is no way back”
Sasha’s hands became fists. “Why did you led me here then? Who did you have to burn my time too?
“You could try to ring.” Mumbled Leonid.
“Second side tunnel, twenty meters from the gate there is a marking of white paint. Exactly under it, at the same height as the ground there is the button of a bell. You have to ring three times short, three times long and three times short, that is the signal for returning watchers …”
Leonid helped Sasha to pass the three guard posts and then he went back to the station. As a goodbye he wanted to put an old assault rifle into her hand, which he had gotten somewhere, but Sasha didn’t want it. Three times short, three times long, three times short was all she needed. And a lamp.
The tunnel behind the Sportivnaya made a dark, silent impression at first and so every guard post that passed reminded her more and more of a small fortress.
Sasha wasn’t afraid. She just thought about one thing: Soon she would see the doorstep to the emerald city.
And if the city wasn’t real she didn’t have to be afraid any longer.
The side tunnel was there were Leonid had said it would be. A damaged grid was in front of the entrance but it was big enough for Sasha to slip through. After a few hundredth feet she saw the steel wall of a security door which made an eternal and unshaken impression.
Dmitry Glukhovsky - Metro 2034 English fan translation (v1.0) (docx) Page 28
