In the officers’ mess, at a large table, there was Bartholomew and his team: Frol, Pepper, Torpedo, and Ivan. They had just arrived at the garrison. They were transferred here for further service.
On the other side of the table sat Colonel Pyotr Ivanovich, to his right and left there were his assistants: Lieutenant Colonel Prokhorov, Major Batulin, and Lieutenant Ivchenko.
There was no one else in the dining room. It was not lunchtime. But Daddy sometimes did not have time to dine on time with his business chores. And now he decided to combine his late lunch and an acquaintance with the newcomers under his command.
“Gentlemen,” Petr Ivanovich addressed to the new arrivals. “I am glad to welcome you to our modest friendly team. Sorry to accept in the dining room. So to speak, I combine business with pleasure. And then there is no time to eat. Will you dine with us?”
“No thanks. We want to be accommodated first. We’ll eat later and you can immediately tell about the task for which we have been transferred here,” Bartholomew looked at the colonel in anticipation of his answer.
“Well, if you don’t want to eat, then I’ll tell you everything. Excuse me, Irishka, what will you feed me today?”
Irishka, hearing the command, fussed and began to bring dinner to the table. It was a young, fragile girl with brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She smiled shyly as she listened to the colonel’s compliments.
Bartholomew was waiting for the start of the conversation. He looked a little tired after the flight. He and his men wore a standard khaki uniform that had been dusty on the road. They were strong paratroopers – broad shoulders, tall, with huge fists and stern faces. They were not the first year in the war, and before that, they had served in many places.
Stirring the soup, Pyotr Ivanovich said:
“There will be a very important task for you – a night flight. But you will not fly alone. There you need to know this area very well so that there are no overlaps, that’s why Kai will fly with you.”
Bartholomew exchanged glances with his people. They had heard a lot about Kai – but who had not heard of him. There were some mythical stories about his heroism and crazy actions. Sometimes it seemed that this was just a fairy tale by which people were teasing themselves, they need to believe in a superhero!
“Therefore, I will tell you about the task a little later, when Kai approaches. By the way, Lieutenant, where is Kai?” Pyotr Ivanovich looked at the bored Ivchenko.
“Has he ever come on time?” the lieutenant quipped. “He has said – will come.”
Ivchenko was enraged by Kai’s permissiveness and that Peter Ivanovich was closing the eyes to all his actions.
“Gentlemen. You haven’t met Kai yet, have you?” Pyotr Ivanovich looked up from his food. “I want to warn, be a little more restrained in your statements,” the colonel saw the surprise on their faces. “I warned,” he smiled slyly.
Bartholomew was already beginning to infuriate this situation, the incomprehensible hints of the colonel and the fact that they, it turned out, were waiting for Kai, who simply never came on time.
“Who is he?! Judging by the stories about him, this is probably a hamadryad, which with one wave of his hand can cut this table in half and scatter a bunch of people. A sort of two-meter moron, pretending to be a hero, only because his brains have finally been knocked out.”
Bartholomew’s team thought about Kai in such a way.
A short, thin young man in a strict military black jacket entered the dining room.
“Did you call me?” the young man stopped opposite the colonel.
The newcomers looked at him in amazement: an expensive jacket, obviously almost a designer one, Frol had already been hep to this from pre-war life. The young man was slender with aristocratic features, black curly hair, and eyes – they had never seen such eyes. He was handsome. Yes, he was really a very handsome and impeccably dressed young man.
“Why is the greeting out of shape?! And, nevertheless, meet. Gentlemen, this is Kai, and these are the ones with whom you have to work tonight,” the colonel said, pointing at each of them one by one. “Frol, Pepper, Torpedo, Ivan, and their chief, Bartholomew.”
Kai just glanced in their direction and sat down at the table.
Irishka, glowing like the sun, as everyone saw, practically ran up to Kai.
“Maybe I’ll bring you coffee, as you like?” she faltering whispered embarrassedly in a fit of excitement and blushed.
“Yes, please, bring it,” Kai said in an almost indifferent tone, looking away.
“You should at least for the sake of decency ask permission to sit down,” the colonel showed anger on his face.
Kai, ignoring this, took out a long cigarette from the pack with his thin fingers and lit it.
“I’ve asked you not to smoke in the dining room!” Kai looked at the colonel. “Well, you can have one.”
Bartholomew and his people sat completely dumbfounded and looked with amazement at what was happening. Kai’s sight drove them into a stupor and, moreover, his behavior. How he behaved with the colonel, and with them – not that he stretched out his hand, he did not even glance in their direction. And manners? Now Kai took a drag on his cigarette, spreading a pleasant smell of cinnamon throughout the dining room, then sipped his coffee and did it so elegantly and beautifully that their jaws almost dropped.
“Why are you poisoning with this coffee, maybe you will have lunch?” the colonel watched with interest the reaction of the newcomers. He knew it would be better this way – not to interfere in anything, they would figure it out themselves. Let them get to know each other. He was very interested in how this would happen.
Lieutenant Colonel Prokhorov and Major Batulin were also waiting for the upcoming fun.
At the words about Kai’s lunch Ira was already standing next to him with a dumb question – should she bring dinner already?
“Do you have any chocolate after the celebration?”
“Yes! I’ll bring it right now,” Irishka quickly ran into the back room and brought the box of chocolates left after the banquet. It’s not for nothing that she hid it!
“Thank you,” Kai said with the same indifference and began to unwrap one of the candies.
“Should we go into battle with him?!” Frol could not resist. “Princess,” Frol turned to Kai and held out his hand to his chocolate bar. “There will be no chocolates, we will return after the errand – I’ll buy you ice cream …” then something happened that they did not expect at all.
In a split second, Kai knocked a chair out from under Frol and threw him on the floor. The rest, not believing their eyes, rushed to Kai to help their friend, but scattered to the sides and literally fell at his feet, defeated by his clear blows, which cut off their oxygen and led to eyesight dimout, immobilizing everyone for several seconds.
“Everyone should lie down until I let them get up,” the young man said in a commanding voice and bent over Frol, looked into his eyes, and said clearly. “Remember, princess, I don’t like ice cream, I like chocolate,” then he let go of Frol, who remained to lie on the floor.
“And now, princesses, you can get up,” Kai approached Bartholomew and held out his hand to him.
He first wanted to push Kai’s hand away, but when he saw his eyes. The insult for the shame that he was defeated was gone. Kai’s eyes exuded not aggression or superiority, but some strange sadness and, as it seemed to him, pain.
Raising Bartholomew, the young man lit another cigarette and went to the window, where he remained standing, smoking thoughtfully and looking into the distance.
The paratroopers rose in silence and took their places at the table.
“Gentlemen, I warned you,” this greatly amused the colonel. “Why no one ever listens to me?” he turned with a question to the major and the lieutenant colonel, who only threw up their hands in the air.
This was roughly what the colonel expected, knowing Kai, but it was better to let them figure it out among themselves because they would fight together.
“And he’s good! He defeated five and without even straining, they flew like the skittles. He works beautifully.”
“Well, now let’s talk about the night flight.”
The colonel told the plan for the night flight and what they should do, having landed in the rear of the enemy. It turned out that four of our soldiers were captured, but most importantly, one of them was in the rank of major and knew very valuable information about the location of our troops. If they began to torture him, he would not stand it and tell the enemy everything. There was little time to free the prisoners.
Their task was to penetrate the village, where, according to intelligence, they contained Russian prisoners, and leave with them for the mountains, where a helicopter would be waiting for them. Since this was deep behind enemy lines, there were no other ways to free the prisoners. The assignment was very risky, almost impossible. Chances were one in a hundred.
Kai all this time stood by the window, listening in silence.
When the colonel finished speaking, he, looking out the window, asked:
“If that’s all, can I go?”
“Yes, but first I want to tell you something, let’s step aside.”
They went to the other end of the dining room. It was evident that Pyotr Ivanovich was saying something to Kai. Then he, elegantly throwing his hand into the air, saluted and silently left the dining room.
Everyone watched him going.
“Bartholomew, I hope you haven’t harbored a grudge against him? Well, that’s nice! The lieutenant will escort you to your tent. He will also give you all the information you need for a night flight. The helicopter will be at nine in the evening. Find Kai ahead of time.”
The colonel was hinting at something again, as it seemed to Bartholomew, he made a surprised face, but realizing that with Kai there was no need to be surprised at all, he saluted and went to the exit with his people.
“Bartholomew,” he turned around at the voice of the colonel, everyone also stopped, “personal request to you,” the colonel hesitated a little. “Please look after Kai.”
“Are you joking!?”
“He’s crazy, without brakes. You are much older. Be wiser!”
“Okay, I understand you.”
“And not only in battle, here he especially needs supervision.”
“What, do we have to turn into nannies for him?!” Frol recalled how humiliatingly lay at his feet.
“Shut up,” Bartholomew looked sternly at Frol. “Don’t worry. I’ve understood you.”
“You will make friends, I know,” the colonel said mysteriously again and proceeded to eat. “And also, watch him eat. Otherwise, he forgets about it, well, you will understand everything later.”
Even more dumbfounded by everything that was happening, they left the dining room.
***
The military tent provided to Bartholomew and his people for living on the territory of the garrison was large enough and, one might say, comfortable. In the center, there was a table and benches, around it, on the sides – bunk beds. But it was spacious enough that there were also a couple of benches and bedside tables with lockers for clothes. In the corner, there was a kitchen with a sink, stove, and refrigerator. The shower was in the garrison building. For officers, it was separate from the rank and file. There were rather decent conditions for life in wartime.
Having settled down in their tent, they spread out a map of the area where they were to fly.
All this time, Bartholomew was replaying the events that had occurred. He could not even believe it, so that they, hardened military men, were laid on the floor by some jerk in a matter of seconds. And then those eyes, so sad, and the hand that he held out – all the anger immediately passed. And to top it off, the colonel’s request to keep an eye on him and the words:
“Find Kai in advance,” didn’t get out of his mind at all. The first time they did not listen to the colonel’s words and lay on the floor, there should not be a second misfire!
“We need to find Kai!”
“What do you really want to be a nanny for a princess?” Frol looked furiously at Bartholomew.
“This princess in a split second laid us, five paratroopers! Would you have believed it?”
“This is some kind of eastern technique,” said Torpedo thoughtfully. “An unsurpassed technique, I have never met such in all the years of the war.”
“If you had met, you would not talk to us now,” Pepper joked.
“It seemed to me that oxygen was cut off and my whole body was numb for a few seconds,” Torpedo continued to reflect on what had happened, “but he accurately measured the force of the impact, that is, he knew for how many seconds it was necessary to knock us out.”
“I’ll see him – ask him to share the secrets of the skill,” announced Pepper. “And I liked him, a cool kid. Immediately put us in our place – and rightly so! What, Frol, are you got mad at him because he loves chocolate?”
“Have you seen him? A fancy service jacket, a sort of aristocrat,” Frol was still fuming.
“What’s bad about it?”
“Enough, we need to find Kai!” Bartholomew gave the order. “Ivan, go ask the people where he can be, but don’t go after him – we’ll go together.”
“Yes sir!” Ivan saluted and left the tent.
The garrison was full of life. During the moments of the military lull, soldiers were trained on the parade ground, equipment was repaired, people cleaned up on the territory, completed the unfinished new building of the barracks, cars drove, military and civilian inhabitants of the garrison walked.
Ivan began to ask everyone where Kai was. The most amazing thing was that everyone knew him. Such popularity in such a huge garrison, he was definitely a famous person! As a result, he found those who saw him, they said that he drove towards the rogues’ barracks. Ivan, not quite understanding this, began to ask in more detail what it meant – rogues? Having received answers to his questions, he returned to his tent.
The guys were sitting at the table and eating freshly cooked pasta and stew.
“Well, have you sat down to devour without me?” Ivan was upset by such injustice. He sat down at the table and began to scoop himself food from the common pot.
“Have you found out where Kai is?” asked Bartholomew, looking up from food.
“A popular personality – everyone knows him, imagine, everyone!”
“Don’t dawdle!”
“He’s at the rogues,” Ivan said, not looking up from his food,” seeing everyone’s dumb question, he continued.
“There are some outcasts here. Rogues are criminals who were offered a choice either to rot in prison or to a penal battalion. They are the most dregs of society. By the way, people have warned to stay away from them. They have everything here as in the zone. Part of the territory is controlled by its orders and laws. They can kill. People have said that the authorities turn a blind eye to this, since they are used as cannon fodder in battle, they are sent to the worst battles. Therefore, the management needs them.”
“For some reason, it doesn’t even surprise me that Kai is with them,” Bartholomew smiled. “Now we’ll eat and follow him,” seeing Frol’s attempt to be indignant, he said in a commanding tone. “This is an order.”
***
Coming out from the colonel, Kai felt a vile sensation in his soul. These words of Pyotr Ivanovich, which he had told him in private before leaving, caused such a reaction in him. He sat in his jeep outside the dining room and leaned back in his seat to light a cigarette. Through the tinted windows of a huge black jeep, his face was not visible, which reflected everything that was happening in his soul.
There, standing in front of the colonel, his face did not even flinch after hearing the order. The eyes looked into the daddy’s eyes and nothing was reflected in them. He said that he would do everything, gave his word that he would carry out the order, and left. The colonel specifically asked him to give the word, because he knew that if Kai promised, he would fulfill it.
How disgusting it was at heart! These were the tasks he was entrusted with, and who else? It was his job. Emotions should be left for later. He would carry out the colonel’s order:
“If you can’t get our prisoners out of there, shoot the major.”
Moreover, the colonel clarified that if he shot him right away, it would be better – why unnecessary risk. The major must not get to the enemy alive.
Kai gave his word that he would follow the order. And he would fulfill it because he understood with his mind: the major would start talking – hundreds would die, and maybe more …
“That’s just how disgusting at heart!”
Sitting and smoking in the car, he decided he needed to stop thinking about it, why to turn himself inside out. He needed to go somewhere, there was still plenty of time before departure. He remembered that he had long promised to go to Sebastian and his lads. With a sharp speeding up, he drove towards them.
