Volodya Perov, Grigory Shepetov, Alexander Voylokov, Pavel Kostin, Leonid Pushkarev Are they all dead?
No, they are sick. They are all in the hospital, the guard reluctantly muttered.
Wow!
What are they sick with? Is there an epidemic at the construction site?
The guard obviously did not like this curiosity. For a moment it seemed that he would ignore the question, but he answered with grim humor:
Get drunk, have fun, have a disaster. Now twenty workers and five engineers are in the hospital.
And when theyre discharged from there, will they go back to the construction site?
The guard shrugged, but it was obvious he wasnt expecting them back.
If they were taken to the hospital we passed by, they say they only come back from there in a coffin, Dima muttered as they passed the guard post.
Why? Are the doctors there so bad?
They take patients there in the most extreme cases, when it is obvious that nothing can be done.
Is it obvious right away? Ruslan raised his ashy eyebrows in amazement. His friend Sashka, a surgeon by profession, used to say that doctors were not omnipotent. Sometimes someone whos already been crossed will recover, and sometimes a healthy person will die. Diagnosis still means nothing. Sasha said hed seen miraculous healings himself. Maybe his religiosity had clouded his judgment. Ruslan himself did not approve of those doctors who sent patients to churches for treatment. The soul was a separate concern, but physical ailments needed physical help.
I noticed something like a temple near the hospital, he recalled.
Its a former monastery, Dima explained.
And why it stands next to the hospital. Were the sick treated with prayers?
If people are going to die soon, theres nothing else to do.
Are you serious?
No, I think the nuns were helping to care for the sick. In fact, there was a big scandal involving their help in the last century. Some nuns went mad, claimed they saw the devil, who told them to abuse the dying. Doctors claimed the same thing. Imagine, they were performing surgeries on the living, mutilating people. Supposedly demons told them to do it. It all happened a long time ago. I dont know if the storys true or if its a tourist lie.
Can you read it in the guidebook? Whered you hear about it?
It was from the guys who worked here before us and quit. I talked to them on the phone. They seemed scared. People have become very superstitious these days.
Ruslan sighed. Thoughts of the hospital sowed gloom on his soul. He didnt like doctors, if only for the reason that they never paid any attention to him at the polyclinic unless he brought a box of chocolates as a present. Free medicine has one disadvantage: if you dont give the doctors a small bribe in the form of a chocolate bar or a pack of cookies, they wont treat you, but will send you to a lot of paid tests, which, as it turns out, were not needed for anything.
Its better not to get sick, Ruslan concluded.
What can you tell your body to do? Dima grinned. People are not made of marble. All infections stick to us.
Marble, you said Ruslan was taken aback when he noticed a statue of an angel on the construction site, just like the one on the steps of the hospital. He must have gotten double vision, because the statue was moving its wing.
Look! Ruslan tugged at his comrades sleeve.
Where is it? Is it at the crane?
No, it is the angel.
What angel is it?
It is the marble one! It is the statue!
I dont see any statue, Dima rubbed his eyes. They must be inside.
Who is it?
They are figures like museum pieces. Im told theyve already started moving them into a gallery thats being rebuilt. By the way, we have to plan the building so that this gallery wont be destroyed or altered. It and the already rebuilt rotunda must not be touched. All the other wings must adjoin them so that the rotunda remains in the center.
What a task is it! Ruslan had never faced anything like this before. It would take a lot of thought. Now he was more concerned about the marble angel. Why couldnt Dima see it?
It was as if the angel didnt exist. There were only workers carrying wheelbarrows with lime and bricks. Maybe the statue had already been moved. It was probably not made of marble, but of papier-mâché. Then it could have just been carried away.
Could he have mistaken the mannequin for a statue? He seems to have perfect eyesight. Dimas the one whos always squinting.
And what did the construction site need a mannequin for? Probably it was brought for the home theater, which was still to be built. Ruslan thought it was foolish to bring interior decorations into a mansion that had not yet been built. It was even more foolish to build parts of the mansion before the architects arrived on the site. He wasnt even told about the rotunda. Now the whole plan would have to be reworked.
Ruslan caught the gaze of the marble eyes. They looked down at him from above the rotunda. A statue of an angel nestled against the roof. It is definitely a stucco decoration. Yet the angel seems alive. His lips stretch in a sly grin. A blinding flash of the sun for a moment obscured Ruslans eyes, and in the next moment the angel on the roof of the rotunda was gone.
What the hell!
I think I need lenses or glasses, too, Ruslan muttered, Im seeing double.
Or did he have sunstroke? As he drove the car, the sun heated the sight-glass mercilessly.
Lets hurry up, were on a tight schedule, Dima pulled him towards the rotunda. We need to see it to think how to proceed, and the gallery, too.
Ruslan flinched when something red splashed on his jacket. Was that ketchup or blood? The third statue hed seen at the construction site had been splattered with blood. This time the marble angel made no secret of the fact that it was alive. It moved easily and plastically. It is probably an actor, smeared with whitewash from head to toe, so that it is not distinguishable from the sculpture. But why are his eyes entirely white, too? Angel put his hand to his lips, calling for silence. Workers passed by, as if they didnt see him. Someone pushed a wheelbarrow full of bricks at the angel. In an instant, marble palms closed around the truckers head and crushed it like a rotten egg. Blood spurted.
Ruslan wanted to scream, to call the police. Even angels arent allowed to get up to mischief on a construction site. And this was probably not an angel, but some liquid powdered joker. Only the builders dont notice him for some reason. Before Ruslan could open his mouth, the angel, the wheelbarrow with the brick, and the severed head, which the angel was playing with as if it were a red ball, disappeared from view.
Ruslan looked at his jacket and didnt see any blood on it. It had definitely splattered on him.
Pagan gods
Whats wrong with him? Is he going crazy? He began to see statues of angels everywhere, crushing the heads of workers.
Dima strode masterfully into the rotunda. Ruslan had nothing to do but follow him. He felt out of place in the new place. This had never happened to him before. Usually he would get to work right away, but here he was suddenly plagued by migraines.
There was a gallery of sculptures in the rotunda, but not a single angel among them. There were only pagan gods. Some of them Ruslan could name, others he had seen for the first time. The graceful sculptures looked both creepy and beautiful. Although who would have thought that something creepy could be captivatingly beautiful!
Ruslan wandered around the rotunda, pushing aside the heavy velvet drapes that covered some of the aisles. The rotunda reminded him of a horror museum.
At the entrance hung a painting of the goddess Marena in a black kokoshnik and holding a skull. Opposite was an eerie landscape with black fields where armies of stunted demons grew with the crops. Two monstrous giants replaced the caryatids. Both of them reminded Ruslan of the Scandinavian Surt, lord of the fire giants and god of the end of the world. The farther one went, the more ominous pictures and figures one encountered. There were sea monsters, women turning into dragons, rakshasas, and ifrites. A complete set for an apocalypse meeting! If all these gods and demons turned out not to be part of a dead culture, but living beings, they would definitely sweep the world away. Ruslan suddenly felt uneasy. For a moment, he imagined all these creepy creatures coming to life and pouncing on defenseless humanity.