Reverse Force Volume 3 is read online in full.

Alexandra Marinina

Reverse force. Volume 3. 1983–1997

Part three

... you will be horrified by the insensitivity of human nature to the truth, when the truth is clear and obvious.

From N.P. Karabchevsky's defense speech in the trial of Mironovich

Arrogance is always blind. Doubt is the companion of reason.

From N.P. Karabchevsky's defense speech in the trial of the Skitsky brothers

Chapter 1.183

In the fight against crime, the new Minister of Internal Affairs Fedorchuk dealt several crushing blows. The first was "trial": the country's chief policeman said that no scientific activity, except for the development of forensic technology, is needed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and those who are engaged in this very science are simply eating up state money and sitting out their pants. Immediately after this statement, there was an instruction to significantly reduce the All-Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as to liquidate the Scientific Center at the Academy, where Vera Leonidovna Potapova worked. Eliminate completely. Almost 300 people - officers with higher education and, for the most part, with advanced degrees - they had to find employment somewhere, and it was within the system, because it was impossible to fire them.

And, as luck would have it, at that moment another memorandum was laid on the minister's table with a proposal for a list of measures necessary to increase the effectiveness of the correction and re-education of convicts with mental abnormalities. The minister did not bother to grasp the essence, saw two familiar words - "convicted" and "psyche" - and angrily interrupted the employee who was reporting the material:

- What nonsense! In our colonies, the insane do not serve their sentences, and the convicts cannot have any mental illness.

This was enough for Vera Leonidovna to be summoned to the Academic Council the next day. Her dissertation was withdrawn from the defense.

Completely confused, she called her supervisor with a question: what to do now?

- To write a new dissertation, - the venerable professor calmly advised. - You have more than enough materials, change the name, remove from the text all references to mental abnormalities and focus on stable individual personality traits, go to penitentiary psychology. You can do it in a couple of months.

In a couple of months! Of course, she will edit the text, partially rewrite it, but the problems do not end there. It is necessary to approve a new topic at the Academic Council, having previously discussed it at the department. It is necessary to print a new text, write a new abstract, go through the discussion at the department again and go through the painful procedure of collecting and submitting a new package of documents for presentation for defense. And all this despite the fact that she, like all employees of the Research Center, is "out of the state": within two months they will be paid their full salary - an official salary plus a bonus for rank and length of service, then another two months - only for the title and length of service, and two more months they can be listed in this service already without any pay. Six months to find another job in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Vera had a bad idea of how to deal with this heap of problems.

In the meantime, all the officers removed from the staff began to be invited in turn to the personnel department to resolve issues of their employment. We started, of course, with the heads of departments and their deputies: they were offered better jobs. Then it was the turn of the leading scientific workers, after them they took up the “senior” and “just scientific” ones, who were provided with positions already on a leftover principle. Lieutenant Colonel Potapova was offered the position of the head of the juvenile affairs inspectorate in one of the districts of the Kalinin region.

- You worked in the crime prevention department, so you will be engaged in prevention in practice, apply your scientific knowledge, - said the young personnel officer with a malicious smile.

- Can I think?

- Of course, only for a short time. Two hours is enough for you?

He mocked her and reveled in his power so openly, with such childish joy that Vera could not even get angry with him. "Boy," she thought, leaving the office and hurrying up the stairs to the floor where the department of criminology was located. "Okay, let him frolic."

In this department, Vera wrote her dissertation and went through all the discussions; the head of the department, a well-known scientist, author of textbooks and many monographs, promised Potapova to take her to the post of senior teacher, and immediately after the defense to become an assistant professor. Of course, if there are vacancies. The vacancy of the senior teacher was to be vacated from day to day: the employee who occupied it was drawing up a pension. Vera was sure that the head of the department had fulfilled his promise and warned the personnel officers that Lieutenant Colonel Potapov should be sent to his unit, and today's conversation with an employee of the personnel department puzzled her.

- Nothing works, Vera Leonidovna, - the head of the department threw up his hands. - You know yourself, there are personnel changes in the ministry, the minister brings his people, the former employees are forced to look for jobs. And they are all there without academic degrees, so you can't appoint them either as associate professors or professors. Only by senior teachers. Well, if the officer is young, then you can just be a teacher. But mostly everyone is aged ... I'm sorry. But I was ordered to hire a person from the ministry for this vacancy. If you were a candidate of sciences, I would have arguments why I want to take you. And so I have no arguments, a person from the ministry has much more seniority and experience in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“What stupidity! - Vera repeated angrily to herself, returning to her now former, that is, practically non-existent department. - In the Academy it is necessary to employ its employees, and they filled all the vacancies with ministerial people. However, I myself am to blame, I delayed my dissertation, I had to get down to business as soon as I moved to the Academy, and not put it off. Then all issues would be solved much easier. "

Depression reigned in the department, smelling of mildew. Those who received a new appointment were quietly putting things in order, cleaning safes, destroying unnecessary things, adding articles promised to collections and magazines. Those who had not yet received a new position read newspapers, played chess, talked on the phone, drank tea ... The atmosphere was oppressive and at the same time nervously agitated. Everyone knew that Vera was summoned to the shots, therefore, as soon as she crossed the threshold, all eyes were directed at her.

Alexandra Marinina

Reverse force. Volume 3. 1983–1997

Part three

... you will be horrified by the insensitivity of human nature to the truth, when the truth is clear and obvious.

From N.P. Karabchevsky's defense speech in the trial of Mironovich

Arrogance is always blind. Doubt is the companion of reason.

From N.P. Karabchevsky's defense speech in the trial of the Skitsky brothers

Chapter 1.183

In the fight against crime, the new Minister of Internal Affairs Fedorchuk dealt several crushing blows. The first was "trial": the country's chief policeman said that no scientific activity, except for the development of forensic technology, is needed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and those who are engaged in this very science are simply eating up state money and sitting out their pants. Immediately after this statement, there was an instruction to significantly reduce the All-Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as to liquidate the Scientific Center at the Academy, where Vera Leonidovna Potapova worked. Eliminate completely. Nearly 300 people - officers with higher education and, for the most part, with advanced degrees - had to be employed somewhere, and it was within the system, because it was impossible to fire them.

- What nonsense! In our colonies, the insane do not serve their sentences, and the convicts cannot have any mental illness.

This was enough for Vera Leonidovna to be summoned to the Academic Council the next day. Her dissertation was withdrawn from the defense.

Completely confused, she called her supervisor with a question: what to do now?

- You worked in the crime prevention department, so you will be engaged in prevention in practice, apply your scientific knowledge, - said the young personnel officer with a malicious smile.

- Can I think?

- Of course, only for a short time. Two hours is enough for you?

- Well? What did they say?

- They offered an inspection for minors in the Kalinin region. And living in a hostel, without providing an apartment.

One of the employees, in the past - the head of the Department of Internal Affairs of one of the regions, looked at Potapova with disbelief.

- You? Are they out of their minds? You were an important investigator in the Prosecutor General's Office!

Vera shrugged her shoulders. It is easy for him to be surprised: he himself received the position of deputy head of the department at the special faculty, where foreigners studied - law enforcement officers from friendly countries.

- Who cares now? I do not have an academic degree, but our Baranov, a candidate of sciences, also a lieutenant colonel, was offered yesterday to go to work as a district police officer. By the way, if anyone does not know: all vacant positions in the Academy and in our All-Russian Research Institute are being filled by ministerial troops. So for those who are not yet employed, it is unlikely that something will break off.

I must say that none of the employees was particularly fussy about looking for a new job. Somehow it didn’t fit in the minds of people that they could just be taken and thrown overboard, sent into some hole to the lowest position. That's impossible! And it will not be so. Everything will somehow settle down, settle down, the ministry will wake up and issue some “good”, “correct” order ... scientific activities! This is absurd!

The temptation was very great to take home books and papers, not to go to the Academy and calmly work on reworking the dissertation. But it’s scary ... What if a position becomes vacant somewhere, and they remember Potapova, they start looking for her, they don’t find her, and they immediately remember about someone else. We must get out of our skin, but before the expiration of these damned six months, have time to defend myself or at least submit a thesis for defense, because it is not known what will happen next, and an academic degree is at least some help. And work, if it suddenly appears, should not be missed: Vera, of course, will last two months with a cut salary, she will not die of hunger, but they will be followed by two months without a salary at all, which means that it will be necessary to create at least some financial reserve. She had no other source of income.

The book by Alexandra Marinina “Reverse Power. Volume 3. 1983–1997 ”touches upon many aspects of life. Throughout the entire time, starting with the first volume, the story concerns the Gnedich-Raevsky family, but the novel cannot be called a family saga. At the same time, although it is illuminated here historical events country, it cannot be called uniquely historical. Rather, it is a story of thoughts of members of the same family, along with reflections on what is more important in life. The third book continues this theme.

The life of many members of this family was in one way or another connected with the legal sphere. And the most important questions for them were those related to ethics, guilt. Is it possible to make the only correct decision? And this applies not only to work, but also to your own life. How to make the right choice if its consequences can bring pain to loved ones? If initially it seems to be the right thing to do, but its consequences show that it is not. And according to the law of the boomerang, everything that has been done returns - the reverse force of actions.

Vera lived her usual life, planning the near future, which promised to be pleasant. But suddenly everything changed, difficulties began at work, a loved one is seriously ill. But even yesterday everything seemed so cloudless. Fate seems to say that you should not relax, because one day she will come to take her own.

Lawyer Orlov is in the hospital ward in the intensive care unit. Being in a serious condition, he reflects on the meaning of life, recalls the past and tries to understand what an old letter left by a long-dead relative means. He received it by right as the last representative of the Raevsky family, but he did not understand what one of the ancestors was trying to convey to him.

On our website you can download the book "Reverse Force. Volume 3. 1983–1997" Alexandra Borisovna Marinina free of charge and without registration in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format, read the book online or buy a book in the online store.

Part three

... you will be horrified by the insensitivity of human nature to the truth, when the truth is clear and obvious.

From N.P. Karabchevsky's defense speech in the trial of Mironovich

Arrogance is always blind. Doubt is the companion of reason.

From N.P. Karabchevsky's defense speech in the trial of the Skitsky brothers

Chapter 1.183

In the fight against crime, the new Minister of Internal Affairs Fedorchuk dealt several crushing blows. The first was "trial": the country's chief policeman said that no scientific activity, except for the development of forensic technology, is needed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and those who are engaged in this very science are simply eating up state money and sitting out their pants. Immediately after this statement, there was an instruction to significantly reduce the All-Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as to liquidate the Scientific Center at the Academy, where Vera Leonidovna Potapova worked. Eliminate completely. Nearly 300 people - officers with higher education and, for the most part, with advanced degrees - had to be employed somewhere, and it was within the system, because it was impossible to fire them.

- What nonsense! In our colonies, the insane do not serve their sentences, and the convicts cannot have any mental illness.

This was enough for Vera Leonidovna to be summoned to the Academic Council the next day. Her dissertation was withdrawn from the defense.

Completely confused, she called her supervisor with a question: what to do now?

- You worked in the crime prevention department, so you will be engaged in prevention in practice, apply your scientific knowledge, - said the young personnel officer with a malicious smile.

- Can I think?

- Of course, only for a short time. Two hours is enough for you?

- Well? What did they say?

- They offered an inspection for minors in the Kalinin region. And living in a hostel, without providing an apartment.

One of the employees, in the past - the head of the Department of Internal Affairs of one of the regions, looked at Potapova with disbelief.

- You? Are they out of their minds? You were an important investigator in the Prosecutor General's Office!

I must say that none of the employees was particularly fussy about looking for a new job. Somehow it did not fit in the minds of people that they could just be taken and thrown overboard, sent into some hole to the lowest position. That's impossible! And it will not be so. Everything will somehow settle down, settle down, the ministry will wake up and issue some "good", "correct" order ... Well, it can't be that an unexpected situation ends up with a complete cessation of scientific activity! This is absurd!

Oh, if only the question was about feeding! Vera Leonidovna faced the need for much more substantial spending. First, the wedding of Tanyushka and Boris Orlov, scheduled for early May: in February, the children applied to the Wedding Palace. And secondly, as soon as Tanya moved to the Orlovs before the New Year, Vera finally decided to make repairs in her one-room apartment. Put in order the walls with long ugly cracks that appeared from the shrinkage of the house, change the wallpaper, re-allot the linoleum in the kitchen, whitewash the ceiling, put a new tile in the bathroom instead of the old one that has partially fallen off. Throughout January, she was actively preparing, ripping off old wallpaper, chipping off tiles, looking for and buying materials, negotiating with the craftsmen. And now it turned out that she cannot afford all these expenses.

The apartment was ruined and uncomfortable, Vera constantly bumped into buckets of paint or whitewash, rolls of wallpaper and packs of tiles; furniture is moved; her dwelling, still recently comfortable and beloved, has turned into a barn, in which it is impossible to spend an extra minute. At first it did not seem scary, because not for long! Now it turned out that not just for a long time, but in general it is not known for how long. Vera thought every now and then about how to sort out the things and books piled on the table in the room and do her dissertation at home, but every time she was scared: absence from the workplace could result in loss of work. Lord, only three years before retirement, we need to somehow get settled and stretch, and then it will be possible to sit at home with a clear conscience and nurse the grandchildren, who, God willing, will already appear by that time.

The employees had dispersed a long time ago, and Vera Leonidovna was sitting at the table, carefully reading her own text and pondering: this paragraph could be left, this one should be thrown away, something completely different could be written in its place, but here you can limit yourself to editing ... clock and was surprised: the beginning of the ninth, who can call the department at such a time?

- Mom, Alexander Ivanovich feels bad, I called an ambulance. Borka for a day, I'm alone, I'm so scared! Can you come?

Vera immediately dropped everything, stuffed the materials into a drawer, locked the department's premises and rushed to hail a taxi. On the street where the Academy was located, it was unrealistic to find a "bombila", you need to run to Leningradsky prospect where the flow of cars is much more intense and the chances of leaving are much higher. Sasha, Sasha ... I jumped with my unwillingness to heal my heart. He rarely goes to doctors, no constant observation, does not quit smoking. You can't put you in a hospital, you can't drive you to a sanatorium. Well at least he doesn't drink. If only nothing serious! If only not a heart attack!

At eight in the evening, the central entrance to the Academy was closed; they had to use the checkpoint overlooking a narrow, dark passage, where employees parked their cars: in front of the central entrance, only official cars of the management were allowed to park. As soon as Vera got off the porch onto the sidewalk, she was called out from the slowly driving off dark blue Zhiguli cars.

- Faith! Potapov! Which way are you? Give me a ride?

She narrowed her eyes, trying to see the driver's face in the March twilight - it turned out to be a long-familiar employee of the editorial and publishing department, with whom she had to closely communicate while preparing for publication her never useful abstract. Overjoyed at the unexpected luck, Vera gave the address.

- Sit down, - the colleague nodded, - I’m about the same, I’ll make a small detour.

He bought a car quite recently, he got tremendous pleasure from driving, and Vera Leonidovna knew that this man not only never refused requests for a ride to anyone, but he himself always offered everyone to use his services as a driver.

Vera found herself near the house where the Orlovs lived fifteen minutes later. An ambulance car was parked at the entrance.

- Is it for your friend? - asked a colleague knowingly.

Vera sighed, her heart sank with a premonition.

- Probably. My poor daughter is scared to death.

- And if they take you to the hospital? They can only take one person into the car, they won't put two.

- So, I'll go to the ambulance, leave my daughter at home.

The colleague shook his head.

- One? She will go mad with anxiety and fear. You both have to go. Here's what: I'll wait here, I won't leave. If your friend is taken away, I will at least take you and my daughter to the hospital. And if it does, you just go out and tell me that everything is all right.

- You need to go home, - she doubted. - I'm embarrassed to harness you like that.

“Nonsense,” he answered cheerfully. - I'm a novice driver, I need to ensure that the clock is hit, so the more I drive, the better. And I'm not in a hurry home, I sent my wife to a sanatorium, my mother-in-law's children are found. So I took advantage of the situation, I sit at work longer, rake all debts so that it would not be a shame to hand over cases if they begin to lay off us.

- Do you think they will start? You are not a scientific unit, you serve the departments.

- They will probably start. Since science is not needed, it means that it is not needed in the departments either. There will be fewer monographs, collections of articles, you understand. We will publish only textbooks and manuals. In short, run, if anything - I'm waiting here.

- Thank you!

The door to the Orlovs' apartment was closed, but not locked. Vera Leonidovna quickly took off her coat and boots, did not put on slippers and went into the room, from which voices could be heard. Alexander Ivanovich was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, the doctor - a young man of about thirty - was counting his pulse, a field assistant girl was talking on the phone:

- Yes ... Full years - sixty ... No ... Suspicion of a heart attack, coronary artery disease ... Yeah, I understood, in eighty-seventh. Thanks.

So, after all, hospitalization ...

Tatyana stood to the side, pressed against the wall, trembling and confused. Seeing her mother, she rushed to her, hugged her and cried.

- Well, quieter, quieter, my sun, quieter, calm down, - Vera Leonidovna whispered in her ear, stroking her daughter on the head. - Everyone is alive, everything will be fine.

The doctor released Orlov's hand and turned to her.

- Hello. Are you a wife?

- No, I ... Mother of the daughter-in-law.

- Do you have any close relatives?

- Only a son, but he is on duty until morning.

- I see, - the doctor nodded. - We need to take them to the hospital. Will any of you go?

“We’ll both go,” Vera answered decisively. - Don't worry, we'll get there ourselves, just tell me where.

- Today at the eighty-seventh they send it to Beskudnikovo. Will you find it?

- We'll find it. Below the driver is waiting for us with a car, we will follow you.

The doctor sat down to fill out some papers, and Vera and Tatyana began hastily to collect a bag with everything necessary for their stay in the hospital.

- Did you tell Borka? Vera asked.

- I didn't get through. In the office, no one picks up the phone, I already called the duty room, they say: on the road. I asked to convey that my father had a heart attack, but I don't know ... Maybe they will pass it on, or maybe they will forget.

- It's clear. We need to find Lucy, tell her. Still not a stranger.

- Well, how can I find her, Mom? - the girl responded with annoyance. - She lives in the country.

“Nothing, I'll find it,” Vera Leonidovna grinned. - Pack your things, while I'll call.

At the institute where Lyudmila Anatolyevna taught, the phone was not answered, which was not surprising for nine in the evening. Vera has opened a long narrow notebook lying in the living room next to the telephone, she found a note: "Andrey and Alla, watchman." The recording was made by Lyusenka's hand, apparently back in the days when both families had just met and began to closely communicate. Vera Leonidovna herself never met the director Khvylya and his wife, she knew them only from the stories of Alexander Ivanovich and Lyusenka. It would be nice for Andrey to be in the hostel. Because if he is now with Lucy, then it is completely incomprehensible how to look for them. She, Vera, of course, told her daughter that she would find Orlov's wife, but this was said more in order to calm Tanya. Vera Leonidovna herself was by no means sure of success.

But she was lucky, the watchman agreed to call Khvylyu to the phone, and after a few minutes a man's voice sounded in the receiver. Hearing that an urgent need to find Lyusya and bring her to the hospital, Andrei Viktorovich assured that he understood everything and would try to arrange everything. At the same time, his voice was tense and displeased.

“It seems I did something stupid,” Vera thought. “Andrei is at home, which means that his wife is at home. How will he explain to her the sudden decision to go somewhere? Moreover, they do not have a car, and in order to quickly get to the dacha, he needs to look for someone who will take him, or, again, to catch a "private trader". And what "private trader" at ten o'clock in the evening will agree to cut out of town? If you tell Alla the truth about Orlova, she may volunteer to go with her husband. She's okay, but what will Lyusya and Khvylya have? If he decides to lie, then he will get a lot of problems, because Orlov constantly communicates with Alla, and she will not forgive when she finds out that he was taken to the hospital, and she was not told anything. In short, you screwed up, Vera Leonidovna. Like an elephant in a china shop ... But, on the other hand, one cannot but inform Lyusya. What if what? What if the worst part? "

The paramedic ran downstairs, brought the driver, Orlov was carefully carried out on a stretcher and loaded into the ambulance, Vera and her daughter got into the dark blue Zhiguli that stood nearby.

The road, the excitement, Tanyushka's crying, the decoration of the patient in the emergency room, the pale bloodless face of Alexander Ivanovich - everything merged into a single viscous stream, at the end of which was the word "reanimation" so frightening to Vera. Vera Potapova was well aware of the procedures in hospitals and was really scared when the doctors did not send her home, but allowed her to sit in the corridor near the emergency room. This means that doctors do not exclude the "worst" development of events.

Tatyana sat down next to her, leaning her head against her mother's shoulder.

“You shouldn't have gone with me,” said Vera Leonidovna. - You work tomorrow. Maybe you can come back home while the buses are still running and the metro is not closed?

- The metro is closed at one in the morning, I'll sit still, maybe some clarity will come, - muttered Tanya. - Even if Aunt Lucy comes, then I will be calm that you are not alone here.

So they sat, embracing and quietly talking, until Lyudmila Anatolyevna appeared. Seeing her, Vera immediately sent her daughter away, taking from Tatyana an oath promise to immediately drink hot tea at home and go to bed. And never cry.

- You, too, go, Verunya, - Lyudmila Anatolyevna said wearily, after listening to the report on the situation: according to the results of the ECG, it is not yet clear whether it is an attack of angina pectoris, or it is still a heart attack. - What do you want to sit here?

- Well, how can I leave you alone ...

- It's easier for me alone, believe me. I would like to be silent, to think, and if someone is nearby, then I will feel that I am obliged to talk to the person. He stayed for me, so I have to comply ... True, Verunya, go home.

Vera glanced at her watch: five minutes past twelve, you can still catch the metro if you're lucky with the bus. At such a time and in this part of the city it is no longer necessary to count on any "private traders". "As a last resort, I'll come back here, I'll stay with Lucy, if I can't leave on time," she thought.

She had to wander between houses for a long time in the dark, either sinking into impassable mud, or slipping in the icy areas that had not yet melted. A couple of times she nearly fell, but she kept her balance and eventually got to the bus stop.

Two people were hovering near the pole with a sign: a girl of seventeen or eighteen years old, dancing to the beat of some music, apparently, sounding in her head, and a middle-aged man with a lit cigarette. The girl seemed to Vera to be a random person, but the man looked more like a local resident who knows the transport features of the area well.

- Do you think there is a chance to catch the subway? - Vera turned to him.

The man shrugged indifferently.

- Do not know. This is my first time here. Here is a girl who says that another bus must pass. He says that he always leaves on it and has time before the subway closes.

This means that Vera was mistaken, and it was the girl who turned out to be a regular passenger ...

“I've been waiting for almost half an hour,” the man continued, exhaling smoke after another puff, “so the bus will probably be there soon after all. According to the theory of probability.

- The theory of probability does not work with our municipal transport, - Vera grinned. - That for a whole hour not a single bus, then three or four in a row, almost in a column go. They say that the drivers in the fleet drink tea, play cards, and then get up together, sit down in their cars - and on the flight. I don’t know if this is true or not, but judging by the way the buses run, it’s very similar.

The man took a few steps to the side to throw the cigarette butt into the urn, and Vera involuntarily smiled: she didn’t throw it to the ground, as the majority does, conscious, respects cleanliness and other people's labor.

About five minutes later, an almost completely empty bus arrived, Vera entered the salon and sat by the window. The man did not sit down, he rode standing, and now she could properly examine him in the light. Nice face, but very ordinary, nothing special. An inexpensive jacket, such as are sold in all stores, a mohair scarf in a red and blue check. The man caught her gaze, smiled, walked over and sat down next to her.

“You are clearly upset,” he said, “and just as clearly that you are leaving this area for the first time at such a late hour. Let me guess: you recently started an affair, today you came to your beloved, but something did not work out, probably you had a falling out and decided not to stay with him for the night.

- Why did you have to quarrel? - Vera was surprised.

For some reason, she was pleased that she looked like a woman with whom she could still have an affair. Yes, she was always beautiful and knew about it, and looked younger than her age, but still fifty-two cannot be hidden under the mask of twenty-five. She could be given forty-seven, well, forty-five, but certainly not less.

- If it had not been for an argument, he would have accompanied you, and you would not have been standing at a bus stop alone at such a time. Well, am I guessing?

“No,” Vera laughed. - Didn't guess at all. But you are absolutely right about one thing: the situation really developed unexpectedly. That's not how I planned to spend the evening.

- There are many unexpected things in our life. Have you ever wondered what a thin, almost imperceptible, invisible line separates one period of our life from another? Just now, our life was like this, and suddenly a certain event occurs, which we do not even realize as decisive, and only after some time we suddenly realize that after it our existence has radically changed.

"Yeah! - thought Vera. - Once Andropov did not find mutual understanding with Brezhnev. As a result, I was left without work. How was it in the miniature of one of the humorists? “The head hurts, and the injection is given in the buttock. Just think: what is the connection? "

- I agree, - she nodded to the interlocutor. - Moreover, this event may even occur not in our life, but in someone else's.

- Well, this is already a philosophical question about the role of personality in history. I don't swing that high. I'm talking about the most mundane things now. For example, about pregnancy as a result of a casual relationship. Or about a sudden serious illness of someone close to you.

“As for the disease, that's for sure,” Vera Leonidovna mentally answered. - You begin to understand this especially sharply when you bring someone to the hospital. Half an hour ago, life was completely different, a person was making plans for a vacation or, like me, thinking about renovating and wedding of his daughter, and now he has to think about a possible funeral. "

She herself did not notice how easily she was drawn into the conversation, which seemed to her salutary. Thinking about Sasha Orlov was painful, about repairs - dreary, about Tanyushka's wedding - alarming, about the impending lack of money and vague prospects of employment - scary. Vera Leonidovna came to her senses only in the metro, when she heard from the speaker: “Be careful, the doors are closing, the next station is Paveletskaya. It turns out that they with an unexpected companion passed half of the Circle Line.

What's happening? Why is she still talking to this stranger? Him and Vera on the way? Or is he seeing her off?

Vera Leonidovna stared at the man with incomprehensible eyes. He had just said something about Schopenhauer, and she was distracted by her thoughts and listened. Yes, that's right, they talked about free will, and before that - about the relationship between the social and biological in human behavior.

Vera had to change trains at Paveletskaya. The fellow traveler followed her out, without interrupting the conversation about how a genetic predisposition can affect a person's ability to carry out decisions. Vera was about to ask which station he needed to get to, but suddenly realized that she didn’t want to know. “If he is on the way with me, then it’s good. And if it turns out that he is seeing me off, then I will have to react somehow, make it clear that I like it or not like it. I do not want. Tired of these games. I'm tired of all. The dissertation has made me sore, I'm sick of it already. Bored with the ruined apartment. From being suspended in service - convulsions. Thinking about money - panic. I do not want. Let there be a man who decided to take me home late at night. Smart, intelligent, pleasant. Let be. Even if it turns out that he is only on the way. In theory, I should be afraid of him. A man, at night, rubbing into the confidence of a single woman, may well turn out to be a robber or a swindler. A rapist - unlikely: one of the advantages of my age is that the risk of being raped is greatly reduced. But the risk of becoming a victim of robbery, on the contrary, increases: criminals usually try to choose a victim who will not offer significant resistance. But even so, what will you take from me? There are three rubles in the wallet. The apartment also has nothing of value, except for building materials, but they are of the least interest to the robbers. They need money and jewelry. Perhaps you will not get hold of this from me. I don’t want to think about it. I do not want. And I will not. Here and now I am just a beautiful woman with whom a pretty stranger is talking. "

She never asked anything, she just continued to discuss the work of Academician Dubinin, on which she relied in her dissertation. The train carriage was completely empty, not a single passenger besides them. Because of the rumbling of the wheels, we had to either raise our voice, or talk, bringing our heads together. The car rocked, they kept touching each other with their shoulders, and in all this Vera felt a certain intimacy, which for some reason irritated. She even caught herself getting angry.

Having reached the desired station, we went up the escalator and went out into the street.

- Where now? The man asked.

So, after all, he sees off ... Well, it's nice. And very handy: at 2 o'clock in the morning Vera would not have dared to walk around her district alone.

- Now on foot for twenty minutes, trolleybuses no longer run.

The sidewalks were slippery, and Vera expected the stranger to offer to take him by the arm, but he did not offer, just walked alongside, carried away by the conversation. Suddenly the thought came to my mind: if this person does not live here, but in another area of the city, how is he going to get home? Looking to catch a taxi? But if he has extra money, then why was he freezing for half an hour in Beskudnikovo at a bus stop with the risk of being late for the last metro train?

Vera Leonidovna did not have time to think out the idea to the end, because they approached her entrance.

- Invite? The stranger asked.

And Vera, with horror and confusion, suddenly realized that this was exactly what she was waiting for. And I wanted it. Therefore, she was angry and irritated. She was not angry with this fellow traveler, but with herself, with her strange and such inappropriate motives and hidden desires. No, she didn't need a man, and hormones had nothing to do with it. She didn't need sex, which she was pretty tired of over the years of her last romance. Kostya was wonderful, but he needed a wife, he wanted a full-fledged family and children, and Vera Potapova did not see herself in the role of his wife, and it was too late to give birth to children. They parted from Kostya peacefully, and now he already lives with a young woman who is ready to become his wife and the mother of his children.

And even warmth is not something for which she is ready to let a stranger into her house.

She needs a situation. Circumstances. Another picture of the world. The other side of life. Something completely different from a dissertation, work, illness and hospitals, lack of money. She needs to stop being a police lieutenant colonel Vera Leonidovna Potapova, a senior researcher, the bride's mother and the owner of an unrepaired apartment, for at least two hours.

“I’ll invite,” she nodded. - If you are not afraid of destroyed housing. I started repairs, but so far everything has stalled.

- We're not bothering anyone?

Vera looked at him mockingly: he had come to his senses! Previously, you had to ask ... Well, if he is a thief or a robber, then it was made clear to him that there was nothing to take in the apartment except buckets of paint and rolls of wallpaper.

“You’re already sure that I live alone,” she answered, opening the entrance door. - By the way, I don't even know your name, but you - mine.

He stepped after her, took her by the shoulders, turned her around and hugged her tightly.

“It's even better,” he whispered to Vera in her ear. - We always have time to get to know each other.

“Well,” thought Vera, “everything is quick and simple. I don't know anything about him at all: neither his name, nor what he does, nor where he lives. In Moscow? Or a visitor who has nowhere to spend the night? "

While taking the elevator, she listened to herself, trying to catch signs of the emergence of the very "chemical reaction between a man and a woman," about which so much has been written in books. She did not feel any chemistry, no attraction to him. Only great fatigue and a deafening desire to escape from everyday dullness into a vivid picture.

Reverse force. Volume 3. 1983–1997 Alexandra Marinina

(No ratings yet)

Title: Retroactive Force. Volume 3. 1983–1997

About the book “Reverse Force. Volume 3. 1983–1997 "Alexander Marinin

Sometimes things happen in our life that you don't expect at all. We plan our day to the smallest detail, but events happen that completely knock us out of our usual rut. main character Our story, Vera Potapova, also thought that life would go on in its own unhurried, measured sequence. But at one point, her existence turned upside down. Due to personnel changes at work, urgently had to redo scientific work, in which she put a lot of physical and mental strength. Vera suffers from anxiety and panic attacks from being suspended at work and a lack of money. In addition to this, a sudden illness knocks down the person close to her. How insidious fate can be: it would seem that only yesterday you were making plans for a vacation or were happy about the upcoming wedding of your daughter, and today you are already forced to think about a possible funeral. The evil smile of rock seems to remind you that you should never relax, especially when there is unfinished business in your life. The retroactive force, the boomerang law, will definitely demand its own.

From the serious changes in life, when it was just completely cloudless, and now the sky was covered with clouds and a scythe, incessant rain gushed out, you get mentally and physically tired. I want to drastically shake my life out and fill it with something new: sunny and bright, or at least something that can distract us from pressing problems. So, for our main character, fate prepared a strange gift - a meeting with an intelligent, interesting person, but who, in fact, turned out to be her friend's lover. After such somersaults of fate, Vera realizes that she is even more entangled in the web of her life.

The lawyer Orlov, familiar to us from the previous parts of this family saga, feels even worse. Lying in the hospital, in the intensive care unit, he thinks about life and death, about his past, about a mysterious note, which he rightfully inherited, as the last representative of the Raevsky family. A man still cannot figure out what a long-dead man wanted to say with this strange letter from the last century.

The third cycle of the volume "Reverse Force" continues the well-known saga of one family of lawyers through the mirror of generations. This book shows us the life of the main characters in the prism of the era of perestroika, the collapse of the USSR and the formation of new, independent states. The dramatic events in the life of the protagonists are closely intertwined with the turning points in the life of the Russian state. You will suffer, love, survive together with the main characters, unravel the tangled tangle of strange events, understand the causes and origins of the events of long-gone affairs, and much more. This fascinating historical detective story will immerse you in the atmosphere of past centuries and modern times so much that you will not rest until you turn the last page.

Reverse Force Volume 3 is read online in full.

Part three

Chapter 1.183

About the book “Reverse Force. Volume 3. 1983–1997 "Alexander Marinin

Read also on the topic: