Готовый перевод Хроники Аскета: Вторжение / The Ascet Chronicles: Invasion: Глава 2

Chapter 2

Early in the morning, as Daniel understood it, meant five o'clock, so I didn't get much sleep. However, the hike through the damp morning woods quickly dispelled the sleep. We had to walk only six kilometers. Tracks led us to a small ravine, in the depths of which we could see a cave about one and a half meters high. There were many clawed paw prints all around, and the bushes were crumpled and partially torn out as if something heavy had been dragged over them. We slowly approached. There was no sunlight inside the cave, but we could see that it went deep into the cave, slowly narrowing. I didn't want to go into that dangerous darkness - I was scared. I began quickly tying the rope to my belt, stubbornly suppressing the sticky voice inside me that insisted I not go, that I stay on the surface.

"Listen carefully. I'll go inside now, and you pull the rope every couple of minutes. If I pull it back, it's okay; if I don't, start pulling. How long is the rope?"

"Twenty meters or so."

"That should be enough. That's it, I'm going."

It took some effort for me to take the first step. The entrance to the cave was covered by a sort of tape, as if an invisible spider's web enveloped my whole body for a moment. As I took another step, I broke through the veil.

The inside of the cave was astounding. My senses seemed to be muffled, my vision was failing, even the flashlight did not allow me to see more than a couple of meters, my ears seemed to be blocked with absorbent cotton. My feeling of unity with the world around me, which I had felt in the summer forest, was gone completely. But the pressure of my surroundings was palpable. My hair stood on end and my skin tingled with the feeling of foreignness. Maybe it was claustrophobia, but I still felt strange currents flowing around me, the corridor was perceived with my whole body, and I could walk with my eyes closed without tripping. Objects took on dark halos-I knew that if I stared at one point for too long, my eyes would become watery and sore. My mouth was dry from what I saw, and my fingertips trembled nervously.

The rope tightened, and I yanked back. Confused by the pounding sensation, I crawled forward in small steps. It was ten meters, then the ceiling dropped, and I had to kneel down. It was uncomfortable to move, but my curiosity overcame me, and the thought of going back to the far corner of my mind. Nothing dangerous seemed to be happening, and there were no sounds. I crawled forward with determination. There was a glowing dot, a landmark in the darkness. It caught my eye-a small golden twig lying on the floor, its pulsing light coming closer, and I thought there was a quiet melody coming from somewhere. A subtle, incredibly beautiful sound, not arising in my ears, but coming from deep within my mind. The sound enchanted me, beckoned me, and was as beautiful as the thin trunk that emitted the light. I could not take my eyes away: such a miracle would serve to prove my words better than anything else, I must take it. I must. I must!

A sharp tug dragged me away from the beautiful plant, and I pulled my spear to cut the rope. Involuntarily, my gaze flickered away from the light of the fragile wonder. On the ground lay the body of a man, half decomposed, my hands resting on the rotting flesh of his thighs. With a wild scream, I threw the spear away, and ran back down the corridor. I don't know how I didn't get tangled up in the rope or hurt myself.

I only came to my senses when I got out of the ravine. Daniel was standing beside me, looking at my face with horror, clutching the rope, the other end of which was still tied to my belt. My jaw shook and my lips trembled from the shock, and it took about five minutes before my tongue obeyed and I managed to speak. At first, all I could do was swear.

I explained when I felt a little better:

"There's a dead man downstairs. One, I think."

Daniel swallowed nervously. He hadn't expected such a result from our trip.

"There's also some crap in there that hypnotized me. It's about time you pulled the rope."

We sat down next to each other and were silent for a long time.

"What do we do now?" the guy finally asked.

"What to do? You stay in the hut, and I'll go to Nizhneivanovsk and write a statement to the police - let them come and investigate. I'm not going in there a second time."

It took me a couple of days to get to Nizhneivanovsk. Of course, I could have filed a report at any local police station, but they probably wouldn't believe my story - the police don't deal with mutants, hypnotizing plants, and other alien creatures. They would most likely take a statement, but first, they would call in the strong guys in white coats. It is better to go directly to the police department. If they reject me there, I will go to the FSB.

I arrived in town in the evening, called Katya to inquire about the search, and learned that the remains of my friends had been flown home to Peter yesterday, the funeral was today. Rescuers dug out the rubble, and in a distant cave found the bodies of the entire group. I could not be contacted by cell phone: the connection did not work. The news knocked me down, I smoked for the second time in my life and I wanted to get drunk. As I said before, I had always had few friends - it turns out that now there are none left at all. I didn't think that at the age of thirty I would be all alone. I didn't manage to fall asleep until just before dawn, not for long.
T.N.

A lousy mood ruined my morning. Nothing pleased me - not waking up in a soft bed instead of on the hard ground, not breakfast prepared by a professional cook, not a meal without mosquitoes floating in my plate. A strong desire arose to ignore the story that had happened to me and return to Peter. I managed to suppress the urge, but a sense of doom remained. I returned to my room and was about to leave, when there was a knock on the door. When I opened the door, I saw two big guys in plain clothes, who presented me with open badges:

"Victor Andreevich Korobov?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Federal Security Service, Lieutenant Kovalev. My colleague Lieutenant Petrov. We'd like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind."

"Come in."

I sat down on the edge of the table, pointing the unexpected guests to the stools:

"Sorry about the mess, I wasn't expecting guests. Especially from your organization. To what do I owe the visit?"

Both guests looked more like dressed-up commandos than intellectuals from the FSB. They were tall, well-built, both moved smoothly and at ease, their haircuts were short, Kovalev was dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt, the other was wearing a light-colored summer suit. What was disturbing was that there was a barely perceptible emanation coming from Petrov, similar in feel to the atmosphere of the creatures' lair. He was certainly human, but it felt as if he had been in contact with phenomena of the same nature for a long time and had been "soaked" in them.

"About a week ago you went camping with local hunter Alexander Ivanov, who was later mauled by a wolf. It has come to our attention that after that you returned to the place of his death. We are investigating a case that may be related to this incident. Could you tell us how and where it happened? Maybe something seemed strange to you?"

It seems that my visit to the police is canceled. So my favorite authorities know something about the cave or the creatures that come out of it.

"Well, I suppose you've read my testimony on that, filed in the case file. It's all true, except for one thing. Sasha wasn't killed by a wolf, but by a creature unknown to me, whose body decomposed after death. I had nothing to show the police, so I lied."

"Did you say after death?" Kovalev asked again.

"Yes, I killed that creature."

"What did it look like?"

"It was as big as my thigh, its front paws shorter than its hind paws, a wide muzzle with horns on its nose, blind, soft silky fur. It was silent during the fight."

There was a heavy silence. The visitors looked at each other incredulously, and the words I'd heard caused some kind of strange reaction. They seemed less surprised by the description of the strange creature than by the fact that I managed to kill it. So they'd met them before, knew their capabilities.

I analyzed my internal state with interest. The thing is that contact with people has always caused me great difficulties: to speak normally with representatives of state institutions - policemen, doctors, tax officials, etc. I could not, I mumbled, stuttered, got mixed up in words. Now I did not feel any excitement. I think there was a change in priorities. Having been in a life-threatening situation, a person unwittingly begins to assess those around him or her completely differently.

"I'm sorry, are you sure you're not imagining things? Your description is somehow..."

"I am sure."

"Please tell me again - where exactly did this happen?"

"At our camp site. Didn't you read the report?"

The couple looked at each other again, and apparently came to some sort of tacit agreement. Kovalev nodded slowly, and his partner spoke.

"Look, you understand that such animals do not exist. They can't exist." Petrov spoke in a quiet, soft voice. "Look, you have walked for a long time, you were tired, it was dark, you wanted to sleep, your eyelids were closing by themselves, you were lying in a completely relaxed state, your arms and legs didn't want to move..."

The voice lulled me, made me relax, made me want to close my eyes and lie down for a nap, do nothing... I slammed my palm against the edge of the table. He was hypnotizing me! If I had not recently experienced something like this, I would now be in the full power of strangers, and no one knows what they would do to me! I don't know who these two men are, but they are clearly not who they say they are.

Events were moving quickly, and there was no time for reflection. Seeing that the hypnosis had not worked, Petrov cried out warningly, and his partner jumped up sharply, extending his arm in my direction. From an awkward blow, Kovalev blocked, but I managed to jump over the table and jump up on the window sill. The second floor was nothing, a jump and I was already running away, getting lost among the houses: I knew the surroundings of the hotel well. Run, run faster, somehow I'll get to the swamp: I have to warn Daniel - him first. Then I will decide who these people are and what to do next, but now - to the swamp. It's a pity I couldn't take the things I prepared... However, I have money: it will help me to get to any place.

A hundred meters before I reached the hut, I sensed something wrong. The feeling was not that of otherworldly creatures - I was good at detecting their presence, but rather that of a vague presence, like a look in my back. I could turn back, but what good would that do? Until I knew what I was up against this time, running was pointless. Especially since there was no sense of hostility, but rather a slight sympathy and irony: hello, little dove.

I looked out of the bushes and saw the helicopter standing in the meadow. It was impossible not to admire the skill of the pilot, who had managed to place the machine on a tiny spot near Daniel's hut. The pilot himself was lying in the shade near the landing gear and, apparently, was sleeping. Inside the hut, voices were heard, and Dani's young voice was distinguishable, while the other was answering him something. There was a polite cough behind me.

"Why are you, Victor Andreevich, peeking out of the bushes like a thief? Are you plotting against us, three orphans, who flew to this beautiful place for purely cognitive purposes? An honest man doesn't hide from his guests, you know."

Behind me stood a bulky man. A man of about forty, six feet tall, dressed in a camouflage uniform, he looked so imposing that the idea of resistance immediately disappeared before it had a chance to form. I cautiously glanced around... The interlocutor reacted immediately:

"It's not worth it, Victor Andreyevich, it's not worth it. We won't do you any harm, and you can't run away from us, and there's no need to. Let's just talk: we have a couple of questions, and that's it, you can go on your way. Let's go to the hut; the major is talking to your friend there."

As I moved, I confirmed my decision not to resist. The man moved easily, gliding over the ground like a cat while keeping an eye on me. Any attempt to escape was doomed in advance to failure. I'd have to wait until the guy was out of sight. He had a strange face. I would recognize him when I met him, but I couldn't remember him at all.

Near the extinguished hearth sat two men: my acquaintance Daniel, with his back to the entrance, and another man in a camouflage uniform with the shoulder straps of a major. He looked up at me with calm eyes and smiled:

"Victor Andreyevich, I presume?"

I nodded. For some reason, I expected a response from the man who had blocked my exit, but he was silent - apparently, considering his role played. His whole appearance expressed in big letters the phrase: "I have done my job". The major's intelligent face faintly creased, and then he turned his gaze back to me.

"Allow me to introduce myself: FSB Major Pavel Arkadievich Uryakhin. Here are my documents."

"Thanks, no need, I saw the same two days ago."

"Yes, we are aware of that. Excuse us, please: our staff exceeded their authority in talking to you and will be severely punished." Either he was playing very well, or he was really uncomfortable. "We are very sorry that there was such a mix-up: the guys wanted to find Nest as soon as possible, so they decided to boost your talkativeness a little bit. Besides, they were suspicious because I've never known anyone to kill an outsider with a bladed weapon before. And you ran away."

"You call a Nest a cave where the creatures come out of?"

"Yes, Daniel has already told us where it is. So, as a matter of fact, we have disturbed you in vain, and I apologize again."

So what now?

"So what now?"

"Everything depends on you. You and I mean you too, Daniel Ivanovich, are involved in a very delicate area of government interests. Fortunately, you know virtually nothing, you have no proof, and an attempt to tell anyone about your adventures will end predictably: nobody will believe you. We won't even take a non-disclosure pledge from you."

+If you want to know the details of what happened, you will have to experience all the pleasures of life as a bearer of government secrets. Most likely, you will be offered a job in our structures: there are more and more nests, there are not enough people. To agree or not - it is up to you, no one will push. There is time for reflection: sorry, but we have no right to let you go in the next week. If you need to inform your relatives or work - tell us, we will issue an official certificate."

We spent the second day in the swamp. The major offered a completely voluntary choice: either we sit quietly in the hut and do not disturb anyone, or we are transported to some specialized institution with comfortable conditions. We didn't want to go to an institution. There was nothing to do, the helicopter flew away and we were left alone. As a farewell, Uryakhin left a box of canned food and warned us that the area was cordoned off and there was no need to make a fuss, so we would sit for a while and then go home. Judging by the number of vehicles rumbling in the sky, the major's words were true: there was really no sense in going anywhere. All the time was spent for discussion of the question, well-loved by the Russian literature: what to do? What to do next, I mean. Daniel was still undecided, unlike me. I didn't make it to the funeral, at least I'll go to the graves of my friends. And then I'll take Uryakhin's offer.

At the age of thirty, I was all alone. No home, no family, no interesting job. I felt so disgusted and empty that the only island in the sea of grayness was the story of the creatures in the cave. Nests, as Uryakhin said. Paradoxical? Yes. But when I remembered my fights with strangers - I had no doubt that these creatures did not belong to our world - when I remembered all the events that had happened since my decision to search for the tour group myself, I realized that the old life was over. It would be impossible to continue to go to work monotonously, to watch movies or go to the theater on weekends, to visit acquaintances. Just one week had changed me completely: it had shown the common man that he could become something more - and it would be foolish to turn away from it.

In the end, Daniel was also going to accept the FSB offer, but for his reasons. Whether or not he would enroll in medical university was unknown, and a job in such an office implied ample career opportunities. After all, this organization was not in danger of bankruptcy. A guy from a village in the Russian countryside had a real chance to arrange his life, and Daniel had no intention of letting it go.

In general, after three days we were ready to howl with boredom and start doing silly things, when the familiar helicopter landed on the clearing in front of the cabin. The major, who crawled out of it, looked tired and frowning. He looked at us and said:

"So, have you decided?"

"I would like to know what exactly we got ourselves into. In fact, it seems to me that you anticipated this answer in advance?"

"Everyone who found themselves in similar situations came to us. The ones I've worked with. All right, sign right here and make yourselves comfortable..."

He hesitated for a while, then confidently spoke. It was obvious that this was not the first time the major had spoken:

"To be honest, we know very little. Experts do not know where the aliens come from, whether they are intelligent, a lot of hypotheses have been put forward, and very little confirmation has been found. Aliens were first spotted three years ago, in the French Alps. Local police discovered the Nest, and several policemen were killed and eaten. At other times this would have been a sensation, but the presidential elections were under way and the secret services kept everything secret in time, so there was no leakage. The nest was cleared, although the casualties among the attackers were simply monstrous."

About three months later, the same situation occurred in the United States. The nest was discovered at a nuclear test site in Nevada, at the time they thought that some kind of mutation had appeared. The Americans dropped an atomic bomb, the upper tier was completely blown away, but six months later the creatures began to appear again. Analysts quickly found a connection between the French Nest and Nevada, suggested a growing trend, and sounded the alarm. They began to look for the aliens in a targeted way, finding two Nests in the United States, one in Canada, and two in Europe.

By that time, all the serious services knew about the Nests, and we asked our American and European colleagues to share the information. Naturally, we also began a search and found four Nests at once. You know the country is big, population density is not the same as in Europe, and people were blamed for the loss of people by wolves. To prevent panic, we decided to keep the information secret, so nothing got out of our organization. I think it can't go on like this for long, the destruction of the Nests requires a lot of material and human resources. The situation now is that new Nests are being found all over the world, and there is an active exchange of information between governments. In general, if you watch TV, you will see that there are fewer terrorist attacks, politicians are more likely to agree with each other and compromise.

You and I will now fly to the Research Center in Moscow. The fact is that all people who have had contact with the Nest or with individual aliens acquire certain abilities which modern science has little to explain. Most people simply experience an increase in their hearing, sight, or healing scars, but about one percent receive something more... They will tell you more later. The reasons for these changes are unknown to us. Scientists refer to all kinds of radiation, but in reality, they do not understand anything. But it turns out that the aliens have similar abilities. They don't use weapons at all in combat, but physical strength and this "psionics". Remember how you described firing a shotgun and the buckshot stopped in midair? If you fire several shots in a row, the protection disappears - the Special Forces have established by experience.

The situation is complicated right now. Each Nest is full of all sorts of surprises, any clean-up operation costs more than a dozen, or even hundreds, of people killed. Experienced, trained fighters. This time was lucky: your Nest was caught at an early stage. They grow over time, yours has only two tiers, and the old ones sometimes have four or five. To be exact, no one has ever been able to penetrate below the fifth tier - only once have cleaners gone that deep. And the lower the tier, the stronger the creatures. It is useless to storm the old Nests: in Russia we tried it once and lost two squads of Special Forces as a result. New weapons especially against aliens appear, but slowly: not enough knowledge. They say that psionics works best - they seem to have built something like this.

It's time to declassify the hell out of everything: there's no point in hiding it."

The deadly tired Uryakhin's story gave us answers, but added questions. We wanted to ask the major questions, but he excused us, saying that "you will find out everything from the scientists". Testing for "magic" - as they called strange new-found abilities in the jargon - was compulsory. It was believed that people with great potential could somehow be used in the study of the Nests. In a sense, it was - practice showed that the "infected" more often survived the clean-ups.

Внимание! Этот перевод, возможно, ещё не готов.
Его статус: идёт перевод

Переведено на Нотабеноиде
http://notabenoid.org/book/83541/523930

Переводчики: Camrad_RIP