«Martha will say that she likes me.» - slowly, like to a slow-wilted child, repeated Ken.«ha, hha, hhhha! Is it serious? Do you think she"d say something like that?! Ah ha ha ha!» - the man naturally laughed out loud. The poor man"s eyes were watering with laughter: - «How could you be so naive, my G.o.d!»
The second man, also imbued with the fun of the situation and began to grunt with laughter. But the next moment he coughed and shrank because of the pain.
Borya immediately stopped laughing and anxiously turned to his friend:
«Are you okay?»
«Khm-Khm, ok, forget it.» - Mike slowly, trying not to make any unnecessary movements and wincing at every breath laid down on the bed .
«I bet. If she doesn"t tell you today that she likes me, I"ll give you half of my dry rations for a month.» - said Ken, not in a hurry to announce his prize in case of winning.
Bob exclaimed joyfully:
«I agree! Wait, what if I lose?» - he didn"t imply that he saw the need for this issue. Even the simple a.s.sumption that Martha, a mature, charming woman who is not marked, would confess in love to such a chicken caused a sharp bout of laughter. Rather the sky would fall to the ground. But in order to observe all rules of dispute (and just for fun), he decided to ask what this boy wants to get in this hopeless bet.
«You"ll owe me 3,000 rupees.»
3000 rupees this is the amount a healthy man can earn in the mine for a month of hard work, taking into account overfulfillment of daily norms.
«You won"t survive even a week with half of the portion! Are you sure? We"d better prolong your debt for three months... You"ll be giving it to me partially.» - Borya was not too kind but he somehow compa.s.sed the boy of 14 years old whose evil fate abandoned him in the mines.
«Agree. Thank you for worrying about me, I"m very touched. Mike, break.» - Ken and Borya shook hands in a sign of the concluded bet.
Martha, sitting in the office, partly heard the laughter and conversation, but could not catch the essence. Her hearing was not as sharp as Kyon"s.
The first stage of the plan had come into effect.
Kyon continued to drive pencil on paper quickly.
15 minutes later the drawing was finished. Having folded the sheet into an accordion, Kyon gave it to Borya who wanted to at least have even a glance at the sheet but it was impossible – a bet is a bet.
Soon the door opened and there stood Bob, accompanied by a Rogash happily wagging its tail.
«The dog is not allowed!» - Martha cried out hurriedly.
Bob blocked the way of the dog rus.h.i.+ng to the hospital with his foot and said sternly:
«Wait for me a minute.» He turned to Martha: - «Time is running out, I was ordered to come to check urgently.»
«I see. Ken, you gotta go.» - the woman sighed, looking sadly at the back of the "dear patient" who was going away.
When the door of the hospital closed behind Bob and Kyon, Martha immediately jumped up to Borya:
«Has Kyon left you anything?»
Bob stiffened, he remembered the condition is not to give a leaf until a charming doctor says the sacred words. «...Mm ... « - the Man had no idea what to say. Not to tell her directly what she wants from Ken – and, look, he may lose the dispute. And then – farewell 3000 rupees... But he never could lie for his own benefit because there was sitting the witness or indirect partic.i.p.ant of their bet.
«I can see that he left. Give it to me!»
«The point is... I can"t just simply give it away.»- doubts had already begun to creep into his bald head: should he have conclude such a bet?
Martha sighed. Apparently, he would not «it» without conditions. She took more air in her lungs and determination in the heart and blurted out in one breath:
«I like Kyon.»
Still, curiosity won. She was dying to know what this charming boy had in store for her. And what concerns her forced «confession»... Even if Borya would tell someone about it, no one would believe him anyway.
{Oh s.h.i.+t!}- Mentally swore the bald man, as in reality seeing 3000 rupees floating away in an unknown direction.
With a sour face, he held out a folded sheet of paper:
«Yeah, that"s right. Here you are.»
Women! The devil will understand what"s going on in their pretty heads!
Martha hurriedly went to her room, carefully unfolded the sheet and gasped: there was she adorned together with Kyon; she pa.s.sionately pressed her lips to his neck, his eyes reflected a spark of excitement and contentment of what is happening... It was very pa.s.sionate and intimate. What an «innocent child»! But how accurately there were conveyed the feelings and what a deep sense and incredible style of drawing! She"d never seen anything like this.
Martha"s face reflected a kaleidoscope of emotions.: shock, embarra.s.sment, indignation, delight and resentment again…
The woman even tried to tear and throw away the shameless drawing, but finally managed only to carefully fold it and hide it in her pocket.
{Kyon... Who does he think he is? But, undoubtedly, he"s very gifted... and ... I don"t know what I"m supposed to do about it.} - recent emotional experiences caused a headache.
But the image of Ken in her mind from «a little boy like my son» imperceptibly transformed into»a very charming young man.»
Kyon was counting on it. And the most importantly, it was sure that he was being waited for a secluded conversation with a woman. It"s mandatory.
A m.u.f.fled exclamation got Martha back to the reality.
«Let us have a look.» - Mike also was curious what that lad could «jauntily painted» and would love to look at the picture, unlike Borya who stayed in complete prostration from the realization of his loss and a complete misunderstanding of women .
«No way!» - the woman cried out hurriedly feeling happy that she had closed the door to the office so prudently. She felt a sincere grat.i.tude to Kyon for not showing his art to the two «miners».
And she would definitely store his gift.
…
Scent of baking was in a large room as it was at the last time.
Martin sat majestically in his chair, drumming his fingers on the table with a thoughtful look. Having noticed the visitors, he smiled. :
«Bob, fellow, hi!»
The supervisor shook his outstretched hand:
«Hi. I got the order from HQ to bring Kyon in.»
«Yes, I know. It was me who sent it.»
«It was you? But how you got to know that the formation is in operation no more? Our report must be almost in a week...»
«You see, I immediately thought the situation with the guy was strange, so I decided to take control of the situation, so to speak, to observe everything personally, and, voila, this morning it did not respond! It turns out, it broke presumably at night. Now we have to cope this s.h.i.+t!»
«Here it is... and what are you going to do with it?»
«It"s more likely nothing, after all, he"s just a boy and nothing to blame?» Martin turned to Kyon and squinted suspiciously: - «Right?»
Oh, those eyes, it appeared to Kyon that there was a double-headed chicken standing before him. And it was the sight Kyon was afraid of. He just nodded as a response.
To make excuses is pointless, only thing that can save him – the lion"s share of luck and a cool head. It is necessary to survive this meeting.
«I have absolutely no understanding of the imposing of formations, explain, what could be the cause of the breakage?» - inquired Bob.
«It"s a good question...» - Martin muttered thoughtfully, more to himself than to Bob. He beckoned a young boy with his finger: - «Kid, come here.»
Kyon had pre-a.s.sembled the entire Synergy back into the vortex, hiding it, hoping for good luck and approached the table. The man put his hand to the formation, closed his eyes and concentrated.
«As I thought... It"s not a simple breakdown. All the energy is just blown away! Even if the formation had been crushed by a boulder, the energy would have dissipated for at least three days, but now there"s not a trace of my charge left!» - solemnly concluded Martin, nodding to his own thoughts.
«Now I doubt that the old man Flits drunk put a formation wrong. There are no such coincidences.»
«What other variants might be?» - now Bob was also interested in an abnormal situation.
«This could happen if Ken achieved an advanced stage or above. It is quite quite simple to dispel this simple formation with such a power. Also, hypothetically, he could have someone to help him, some well-wishers who afford to remove the formation. That"s just why this was done, if eventually the guy was left here? What"s the point? Just to let him down? It is doubtful. It turns out that the second variant is quite unlikely, but I will examine the strength of the guy.» - the man was sharing his findings while Bob was attentively nodding. - «It"s also possible that there is some kind of magic item, or maybe a source of high energy that completely erased my spell.» - He turned back to Kyon.: - «Tell me honestly, did you find anything interesting in the mine?»
The young man still shook his head in silent denial.
«Have you contacted any objects or people?» - kept asking the «superiors».
«I was talking to Borya, nothing more.» - he, of course, wisely kept silent about books and other issues.
Bob coughed reminding about his presence. «So, how can I help?»
«Bob, you"re the only one I trust, so please bring all the patients and the boy"s personal belongings here. Martha is only in the early stages of the basics, and she could hardly do anything, but I"ll talk to her anyway.» - as for personal things, he probably meant Kyon"s pickaxe, compa.s.s, and helmet, which were left in the infirmary.
«Got it. I"m already on my way!»
Bob hurried away to carry out the order, leaving the two alone.
{The h.e.l.l you trust him.} - skeptically chuckled Ken, regretfully thinking about his own prospects.
Martin took a device from the shelf that looked like a" phone « and activated something in it.
«Doctor Martha here.»
«Martin"s speaking.»
«h.e.l.lo, sir! What can I do for you?»
«Have you given Ken anything other than treatment?»
«Me? No, I mean, Yes... but these are just normal things, for entertainment, nothing more.»
«You don"t have to justify yourself. I can see that you, Martha, are breaking the basic rules, among which it is clearly stated that medical personnel are not allowed to hand over anything not related to treatment to patients!» - His voice was very strict.B – «Bob will come soon, give him all these things. Also, I"m giving you a warning for a violation.»
«I understand you, sir, it won"t happen again...» - Martha nervously replied and pa.s.sed out. She took a breath, drummed her fingers nervously on the table. She was always nice to Martin, they didn"t have much of a disagreement. She had never seen him so severe, but today, he obviously let her understand who is boss and who is just a subordinate. Yes, she had indeed violated some rules, but such «mistakes» always pa.s.sed by without consequences.
«Take a sit.» Martin pointed to the chair on which the formation is usually imposed. He was rummaging through a dusty box at the moment. - «Don"t worry, I only check whether even the basic stage is not accessible for you, and impose the label of the new formation.»
Kyon nodded, trying not to betray his emotion: here it was, the moment of truth.