The Before Short Story Series. Part 1 - Иван Перепелятник

hat, obviously not dressed for the weather, approached Sergey sitting on a bench.

‘Hello, Igor. Please sit down.’ Sergey gestured to a place to his right.

‘I suggest we walk a little around the park. Somehow I didn't guess the weather today. I hope you don’t mind,’ Igor turned to his counterpart, carefully examining him from head to toe.

‘A walk sounds good enough. Let's go.’

‘You were recommended to me as an exceptional specialist. They say you are able to turn day into night, and night into day,’ Igor addressed his companion.

‘Sounds mysterious, but I must admit my professional skills are somewhat exaggerated. If I can briefly describe the nature of our upcoming work with you, if of course, I understand the task correctly, we can say that those who made recommendations are not that far wrong.’

‘Great, Sergey. May I put this straight? I am a man of business and time is key for me’, Igor stared at Sergey for a second.

‘That's why we are meeting here with you: to discuss the job and the terms for it to be done. It would be unfair to drag out our conversation longer than required, given your dress-up gear.’

‘It’s good. As I see it, you are an observant and thoughtful person. You were recommended to me as a specialist in your field. OK then. What I need is to have the opportunity to exclude myself from the system, to become invisible when necessary. Or, as a second option, to appear to the system as someone else.

‘The second task will be much more difficult, Igor. Such a solution would require more time and additional resource.’

‘You will get everything you need. But time, Sergey, as I noted, is an important issue. I would like everything to be ready within two weeks.’

‘I am ready to provide a solution to the first part within the next week. The second will require an additional two weeks, and the payment will have to be double.’

‘All right, Sergey. Great!’ Igor agreed without hesitation.

‘I would need samples of your DNA, all the indicators of your personality, from your voice to a complete blood count.’

‘You already have some of the answers, haven’t you?’ Igor glanced at the counterpart. ‘Anything else you need will be forwarded to you. Nice to meet you, Sergey. I am confident that everything will go according to the plan. It can’t be otherwise.’

‘My feet are frozen stiff.’ With a quick step, almost running, Igor moved away from the hacker.

Sergey walked around the park, breaking up the fluffy snow under his feet. Having settled down on a bench to wait for his new client, Sergey took out a communicator and started carefully looking through the collected information. The built-in scanner did its job.

“Petr Ivanovich Iganov.

Gender: male.

Citizenship: citizen of the Federation, Russia.

Age: 96 years old.

Primary place of residence: Moscow.

Height: 1 m 78 cm

Weight: 79 kg

Pressure: 123/86 mmHg

Body temperature: 36,5 ℃

Blood type: 0(I) Rh+

Access to services: unlimited.

…’’

‘A weird guy…’ thought Sergey. ‘A well-known entrepreneur, wealthy industrialist. There is something to work with. I hope he flew to Irkutsk not only for the sake of a five-minute meeting with me. It’s cold for him somehow.’

Sergey took a couple of sips out of his flask.

‘Damn it! The tea is already cold at all!’

‘Sasha, you keep an eye on this “Sergey” until the end of the month.’ Pyotr Ivanovich gestured in quotation marks.

‘All right, Pyotr Ivanovich.’

‘Nothing else at the moment. Just make sure everything goes according to the plan. That he does his job and keeps his nose clean,’ Iganov ordered, rubbing his hands vigorously, trying to warm himself.

On the monitor at the eye level of the passengers in the back row, a man in an ankle-long black coat was heading towards the exit from the park.

A tall man in a suit and tie stepped out of a dark-blue limousine. The head of security watched the red lights of the boss's car slowly picking up speed and got into a nearby four-by-four. He watched a man in a black coat in the park for several minutes on the communicator, then pressed a button on the screen. A drone parked neatly on the roof of the car.

The Plan

‘Alice, turn off the music.’ Olga gave instructions to the taxi management system.

The car was immediately filled with the muffled sounds of the road.

‘Let's repeat the main outline of the scenario. Gleb, what do we have there? Let's go through it once again’, Olga turned to her friends.

‘It's all straightforward,’ said Gleb. ‘(1) Filming on the way to Cheremkhovo. You and Tonya are on the camera. Inside the cabin, you say what kind of town it is and why it is so important for our history. (2) We take a break on the way to shoot more footage that we can then use when editing the video. (3) We do a few shots in the town center when we arrive. We will try to talk with locals on our topic—what they know about their neighbours, what they have heard about divergents, are they worried about such a neighborhood. It is obvious that they know and have heard. The question is whether they want to talk about it,’ continued Gleb. ‘Whatever it is, no matter what they tell us and no matter how they react, such an information will only benefit us. The fourth and most important is the main task: surveying the mines. If we're lucky, we'll be able to chat with the divergents themselves.’

‘Yeah, if we are lucky’, Tonya giggled nervously. ‘If we're lucky, we won't talk.’

‘Listen, with such an attitude’, Gleb turned to Tonya, ‘better not go there at all.’

‘Gleb, you really did a great job’, Olga interfered to stop the next verbal fight and a heated discusion in the bud. ‘I