Bob told his friend how, when he first met this boy, he was very surprised – what is a sucker doing in the mine? What"s so special about him that he was thrown in here bypa.s.sing the age limit? Curiosity forced him to investigate, however, he had nothing really to figure out and he was gently hinted not to stick his fat nose into other people"s business. But still he managed to sniff out one interesting detail: it turns out that the boy was taken to the mine all alone. Why would such an honor as exclusive delivery for this puny? And, coincidentally, that day Flitz was not ready to supplies because he was off, so he probably got drunk and, being drunk, put the formation improperly... «And his age is like this that the skeletons take him as one of them.» - tried to joke Bob, ending the story.«Hmm, sounds logical... Liiisten...» - told the man like a conspirator: - «Why didn"t you become an investigator? With such abilities the the investigation department is crying tears for you.»
Bob, not recognizing the sarcasm, smiled sheepishly. :
«To investigate crimes, it"s not mine business... I"m not only soft body, but also spiritual hardness is not strong.»
Martin laughed again and patted the fat man on the shoulder.:
«Love you for your ability to laugh at yourself!»
Fortunately, his curiosity about the mysteriously disappeared and no less mysteriously found guy exhausted after this explanation. Bob didn"t even lie much, Kyon was delivered alone.
The supervisor busily took out papers out the backpack.
«By the way, here are the reports, you can check, nothing happened last week…»
Martin without much enthusiasm, without looking the doc.u.ments, threw a stack of doc.u.ments to the shelf:
«I"ll do it later.» - then, he beckoned the guy: «Come here, I"ll apply the formation again.»
Kyon approached. The man fumbled a hand on a high shelf under the ceiling and pulled out an unusual device that looks like bra.s.s- knuckles. Wearing it on his hand, he pressed it on the Kyon"s formation. The symbol on his forehead lit up and began to tingle, as if tiny needles had dug into his skin.
«All right, for fifty years it should be enough.» - Martin crunched his fingers and pointed to the bun, nodding the young man toward the door.: - «Take the bun and have a sit outside.»
Kyon got out, leaving the old friends to chat privately.
Martin gave the young man the impression of a man who knows his business and is not accustomed to deviate from the intended path. The man like this is difficult not to be respected... However, his att.i.tude toward Bob is clearly superficial. They are definitely cannot be identified as friends. So... acquaintainces for "tell me something interesting.»
Kyon was standing near the door leaning with his back to the wall and thoughtfully fiddling the pastry.
{I need urgently to study the local language, ideally, read couple of books. I can"t pretend to be a stupid one forever.}
Rogash was obediently sitting outside. Earlier, as soon as the door opened, he immediately rushed inside, but the two guards blocked its way.
Kyon commanded confidently:
«Place!»
Rogash froze.
Unfortunately, he did not know other commands in the local language. But to train a dog again... Well, why not?
Moving away from the vigilant observation of the guards, he drew the attention of the dog by fragrant bun and his finger described the circle:
«Spin!»
The dog obediently began to chase his own tail, for which he received a piece of bun and a smile of the guy.
Further on, the experiment went more fun:
«To the back! ... On your feet! Bring me the compa.s.s! Put the pickaxe down!» - After each task he gave the dog a sweet reward. Quick-wittedness of this ball of wool was simply amazing. {Oh, is that really a dog? No... He"s got a horn... he"ll be smarter than some of the guys in the gateways.}
«Angry! ... Roar. ... Simply attaboy!! Good boy!» At the age of 3 he read a book about pet weaknesses: where and how to stroke them and caress them, how to feed, how to train. But the dog surpa.s.sed all his expectations.
Rogash tried to fish out another piece of delicacy in every possible way. The master of his treats him with porridge only... Rarely he got something tastier, and it could tear away the moon from the sky for a piece of dog chocolate.
The guards, although he was far away, were giggling over the dog from time to time.
Kyon sighed and when the guards turned away for a moment, he resolutely ordered:
«Attack!» - he pointed his finger towards the guard and made a gesture of aggression, trying to find boundaries of the dog"s obedience…
He didn"t notice immediately that the dog had taken take-off run in the direction and the guard, surpressed, told to his companion:
«They say a dog is a friend of a man ... I Hope this huge dog without a muzzle runs to find out how I"m doing…»
However, the dog was already running in the pose of an attacking rhino, and the guard, getting ready, jumped aside and kicked it to the side.
*kick*
The dog flew a couple of meters and whined loudly. The poor dog with his tail between his legs and limping slightly hobbled to Kyon.
«That b.i.t.c.h! Look, what he"s doing!» - the indignant man returned to the guard-post.
«It just liked you. Ahaha!»
Kyon patted Rogash sympathetically on the head and examined him. The blow was very strong, but the ribs didn"t seem to be intacted. He felt compa.s.sion to this lump of wood which voluntarily put himself under a heavy boot to get a piece of m.u.f.fin. But it honestly earned the rest of the piece.
«What"s going on here?» - exclaimed Bob appearing in the doorway.
On the way to the hospital, the supervisor could not stop speaking. Clouds over the man"s head finally dispersed which and his good mood added to his talkativeness:
«Martin is a very good man, he approaches the position of phormacist with great professionalism…»
Phormacist - is a specialist who imposes formations.
Kyon carefully listened to the chatter of the fat man, trying somehow to deal with the unknown dialect taking every phrase close to heart. When his knowledge would achieve a certain point, he will mentally re-listen them.
Rogash, limping a little, walked next to Kyon, gratefully taking rare scratching behind the ear from him.
As far as the guy managed to figure out the tone of the guards, they lied to Bob that the dog rushed in, and they punished her. {And they won"t get away with it.}
Bob looked at the wounded animal with displeasure and muttered softly. Alas, he is not aggressive, and the guards were of the same rank as himself, so, the only thing remained to him was to to grumble irritably.
The company «two men in the corridor (to say nothing of the dog)» approached to the infirmary. A huge hunk had squeezed into the door. He gave a serious look at Kyon and Bob and went away without saying a word to them. There was a formation on his forehead.
{Is it possible for the marked persons to walk around where they want to?} - Wondered Kyon.
Bob squinted as he watched behind the big man.
«Byron ... for some reasons he attends hospital too often ...» - he muttered under his breath shaking his head.
The fat man would never have admitted even to himself that the unpleasant feeling of a cold squeezing his chest was nothing but jealousy. After all, he was a decent family man, at home he was being waited by a beautiful Tamara, who would not only feed him with delicious dinners, but also would support him with a kind word.
They both worked hard and sent most of the money to her daughter Niva to study at the best school in the Kingdom, but, unfortunately, this was not enough. Every second month there was a long holiday, and he was forced to find an additional part time job. We only dream of peace, and rest was a a sweet dream…
Entering inside, Bob suspiciously asked:
«Martha, Byron too often has been «unwell» lately. Are you having a love affair here?»
The woman looked away and instantly changed the subject.:
«Well? How was it?»
«...You won"t believe it, Martin is back!» - the supervisor noted Martha"s trick with annoyance, but still managed to find the strength to smile.
«Impossible! And where"s Flitz?» - the doctor was sincerely glad. Martin left only positive emotions about himself, not that that pompous turkey.
«Away on family business! And Martin allowed the guy two more days for treatment, so he"s at your full disposal.»
Martha shrieked happily and threw herself on Bob"s neck.:
«Thanks! How nice that it all happened this way... Uh…»
Not paying more attention to their chatter, Kyon wearily went to bed. It was still a lot of time to tonight.
Soon the sleeping bald man and Martha rustling some papers left in the office.
When it was time for bandaging, Kyon with a bored look in broken foreign language said:
«How I wish I could read something...»
The woman was surprised that finally she heard his voice!
«Oh... wait a minute, I have something for you.» - she enthusiastically went to rummage in her office and some time later handed the young man a shabby volume. - «Here, read, I have nothing else, but tomorrow I will definitely find something.»
The book was called «The child of talent». Apparently, the technology of this world was at least average – fiction was printed by the typewriter.