Book-12. Gravity cyclone, novella. V. Speys

fell off, depicting a question mark. Vitaly looked with a blurred look at the junior lieutenant-technician Yeldin, and his anger gradually turned into annoying tearfulness:

      – Friend, – Vitaly cried. – You understand me. You understand me. Let’s go! He reached over to the watch on his left hand. The glance snatched from the round dance the number 13—00, lunch time. Yeldin jumped out of bed:

      – Who’s with us, go ahead! – staggered towards the door. But everyone, except for Vitaly, sat silent, without signs of participation in the thick blue cigarette smoke. Vitaly looked around his friends with a questioning glance, waved his hand and went out after his friend. Several officers from the preparatory group, headed by the leader, lieutenant colonel, were sitting in the dining room. Friends sat down at a free table.

      – Waiter! – loudly, throughout the dining room, shouted Yeldin. Sode at the next table turned to the side of drunk friends, near whom the waitress was already busy. Somehow, after eating, the friends got up and staggered out of the dining room. Three hundred meters separated the dining room from the officers’ hostel. But on their way was the headquarters of the regiment, in which biennials served, and at the door of the headquarters the deputy squadron commander for political affairs, Major Vedernikov, was waiting. The ape-like appearance of this not handsome officer, who differed from this one in that his skin was of some unnatural color, similar in color, rather like a dried tobacco leaf prepared for rolling cigars. Emphasized, neat in wearing a uniform, he always wore a fresh shirt and carefully ironed trousers. The informant reported to the major about two drunken officers who were dining in the dining room.

      – «And so these are biennials. You can shoot all over the program. BUT

      I wonder who is there? " – thought the major with hunting passion, impatiently waiting for his friends. When they appeared in Vedernikov’s field of vision, and he saw that they were staggering from side to side, he immediately decided that it was possible to play on this and, finally, the generals would notice him. Yeldin was the first to see danger among slender poplars and a clean swept area.

      – There, Major. Go smoother.

      – And I don’t give a damn, – Vitaly suddenly took courage. Truly, truly – a drunken sea knee-deep. Vedernikov was delighted to see who was coming:

      «Oh, so this is a civilian doctor. Fedorov did not want to accept them for nothing.

      This is another plus for me, the general dislikes the doctor, so much the better, «he said out loud:

      – Comrades! Come to me!

      Vitaly, with a dim gaze, looked around the major, vaguely distinguishing the monkey’s figure:

      «Like a chimpanzee in a military uniform, that’s a freak. Fuck it …», – said out loud:

      – Ah, – waving his hand as if from an annoying fly. Yeldin, cowardly, leveled off, depicting a sober, walked past the major in silence. In Vedernikov’s head, from such impudent disregard, sparks of fierce hatred flared up towards this educated «brat» who dared him, a career officer, to ignore the order:

      «Ah well! Well, wait, brat, you’ll dance with me», – hatred swept through my mind. Vedernikov remembered his wife’s betrayal, with such young and beautiful officers. How he suffered then, because of this, because of his appearance. He recalled the service in China, where they trained Chinese comrades on MG-21 planes. How he almost drowned his suffering in booze and opium. And how he was saved by one Chinese man, martial arts master «Wushu» Jing Wu. He explained, then, to a young and ardent lieutenant that Wushu is not only hand-to-hand fighting techniques, but also fortitude, having mastered this art, a person can achieve the intended goal in everything. Vedernikov actually came into his hands with a saving panacea for everything, from his monkey appearance, from failures with women, and from lack of confidence in his puny physical strength. And he began to walk on classes, lead a strict, military schedule, an ascetic way of life. The girl, whom he then courted, after a divorce from a walking wife, gave her heart to another, broad-shouldered handsome senior lieutenant Sapsay. They studied together at the Chernigov Flight School and now served together in China. Dasha, the daughter of the captain of the regiment’s quartermaster service, stopped looking even in his direction and only agreed to a date if Sapsay was with them. So the humiliated and gloomy Vedernikov wandered after them through the streets of Shanghai, sighing in despair and hopelessness. And, when he already doubted Wushu’s saving system, five poor Chinese robbers, threatening with knives, began to demand money from the walking people, Vedernikov put two of them to death. With broken collarbones, they were taken away by the Chinese police. And Dasha left the cowardly Sapsai. Vedernikov was beside himself with happiness. Fanatically devotedly he loved his Dasha, loved the service and abandoned Wushu as unnecessary…

      But now he will show this lieutenant where the crayfish hibernate, and he will once again shine in front of the command from the positive side, you see the next rank, and then the transfer to Moscow is assured. The main thing now is to draw up a report correctly. And he, rubbing his hands, went home, to think about how to write a report to his superiors with the maximum benefit for himself.