Читать книгу Fly Hunter: The Story of an Inquisitor онлайн

With Aman-Jalil came two gangs, and in Aman-Jalil's safe were the evidence: both boys had participated in the robbery and murder of the carpet merchant Jumshid. The boys willingly agreed to serve in the government instead of going to prison and to follow Aman-Jalil's orders without question.

All three went to the railway station to meet the arriving train carrying Sardar Kareem, who was going to the capital to seek protection and justice from Iosif Besarionis with the help of his friend Nadir.

The train arrived remarkably on time, without being shot at or robbed along the way, without plunging into a ravine, without any bridges collapsing under it, which Aman-Jalil secretly hoped for.

Sardar Kareem went straight from the train to Nadir, and Aman-Jalil followed him with the gangs. To Aman-Jalil's relief, Nadir was away and expected back the next day; one of the boys "eavesdropped" and skillfully overheard a conversation between Sardar Ali and Nadir's wife. She invited her husband's friend to stay at their home and wait for Nadir, but Sardar Kareem flatly refused, saying he had somewhere to stay, and leaving a basket of peaches as a gift for his friend's wife, he left. As he passed the criminal, he heard Sardar Kareem mutter clearly:

– It's not right to stay under the same roof as your friend's wife when he's not home. The laws of the mountains still exist on Earth…

And Sardar Kareem went to the ancient "Inter" hotel, and Aman-Jalil followed him with his helpers.

Suleyman was a philosopher: "When you stand behind the counter for so many years, giving out keys to visitors, and dozens of people pass in front of you every day, you involuntarily start studying them," he thought, "often I turn out to be right. Studying becomes a second profession, interesting, captivating, like everything else you love, and the main interrogators from the main administration have something to tell… When this mountain man came in, stubborn and proud, I recognized him immediately; I love to read the memories of the strong of this world, while reading, you live his life, and the 'great standing' behind the counter doesn't seem so burdensome. Nadir wrote about him in his book, his portrait, one to one, probably, and they took a picture of him in this costume, not another, they're all poor honest, only such a person can put his chest under a bullet, covering someone else with it. I would buy him a jacket in gratitude, but he won't cover me from a bullet, but his boss for a good soul. I would not have covered my boss for any rugs, and he would not have covered someone else's boss… He took the cheapest room, a pantry, not a room under the very roof, a former attic, one narrow window, and that's the yard, not the room, and he carried the fibrous, cheap suitcase upstairs, very light, probably half-empty… Three more similar, clearly compatriots, entered with this mountain man, and one immediately sat in a chair, covered himself with a newspaper like an inexperienced spy, who recently went in pea coats, and from under the newspaper was examining the legs of the women passing by him. Such a small one, but with such a big nose… The other two, more like wrestlers from the circus than civil servants, as they are in their documents, demanded rooms next to the hero. Oddly enough, they don't look like paupers at all, especially the one who covered himself with a newspaper, what is he hiding, I will recognize you from the first presentation even through a hundred years, if the nose does not fall through. I tried to explain to them that even criminals are not kept in such cages with us, one of the gangs, snorting, said: "You understand a lot in which cages we keep criminals," and I was confused. And they stubbornly stood their ground. The inexperienced spy finished reading the newspaper and came up to us, looked at me with the eyes of a killer, listened attentively, and then ordered to give them the requested rooms. There were only two free ones, but they took them, and when I wanted to register them, the big-nosed man sternly looked at me and said, "We'll settle up in the morning, then you'll register"… They didn't have any luggage, just a small briefcase and that's all… When I hinted that I wanted some tea, the big-nosed man counted out three groschen to me one by one and said, "This is for your tea with sugar, you didn't ask for sugar, this is so you remember my generosity"… Either a straightforward idiot or a cheeky one, like the world has never seen…”