Fardwor, Russia!: A Fantastical Tale of Life Under Putin

XXXVII

HER NAME WAS BECKY, that is to say that it was probably something different, but if a girl asks to be called by some other name, when it’s all said and done, why not. She worked for a popular newspaper and had achieved some success, but she hadn’t had a front-page story that would mark her name in the annals of international journalism, and though she didn’t admit it to herself out loud, she suffered because of this and felt underappreciated. The only thing that she asked Close to Zero was why he himself didn’t write about this, he’s also a writer, but he only laughed—there are easier ways to commit suicide, so why go looking for it. He nevertheless agreed to talk into the recorder, and he told everything: what he had seen, about what the director had told him that awful day (that is, about the serum; he, however, didn’t mention Karpov’s name—it wasn’t certain that the director himself knew it), and about the director himself, who in his normal life worked in a “Center for Social-Conservative Politics.”

Becky wrote it all down, and sighed when he got to the part about Nadya, she even cried a little bit, then made a note to herself in the recorder, “New Jerusalem, hospital,” and then was rude to the waiter for some reason and ran off in a huff. Close to Zero drank the rest of his coffee and headed home to read Mutants.

Becky quickly found Nadya, but Nadya, who had sworn to herself that she would not tell anyone what had happened to her at the assisted living facility (after this incident, she and Svetlana Sergeevna had not talked at all, and the doctor understood that they had probably scared her and made her sign an agreement), for some reason immediately believed this woman and told her everything—thank heavens, Becky didn’t tell her about the serum or what Kostya had turned into, nor that Kostya was now dead. She recorded Nadya’s story, gave her a Globus Gourmet chocolate bar that she had bought earlier, and headed home. Passing by the gate to Soyuz, she stopped and photographed the sign with her iPhone, and then continued on her way. No more loose ends remain; you can have a seat for the final report.