"Caught up, bitches." For some reason, these actions, this attempt to ward off my own countrymen, among whom there were enough wounded and hungry, became a portion of gasoline that fell on the slightly smoldering embers of recent rage.
At home I went up to the second floor, got a bottle of cognac with which I had treated my nerves back in Shastingsorsk, poured a hundred grams into a mug and drank in large gulps, after which I breathed heavily for a few minutes, coming to my senses.
Soon a smell of cooking wafted in from the street, and in half an hour I was called.
- Alex!
I went to the window and looked outside. There was one of the girls who had been rescued from the storehouse, waving to me:
- We're all set! Come on down.
- I'm not hungry, thank you very much, - I refused, I was not in the mood for a joint feast, but it did not work.
- Please! At least have some tea.
I sighed.
- Okay, I'll be right there. - I took a few mugs and glasses and went downstairs. There I was immediately handed a plate of rice porridge, generously seasoned with bits of stew.
- I wish I had some onions, carrots, garlic, a couple of heads of garlic, and it would come out something close to pilaf, - said the girl who called me. - I'm Luisa, this is Irni, Artemis.
- Remember? - The policeman grinned when the performance was over.
- Someone.
- Alex, tell us, how do your people live here, why they look at us with such disdain and why they sent us to you... or rather drove us away, eh? - Luisa asked.
- What about us, - I sighed.
- Let the man eat first," said Norton, the highway policeman. - As in the story: water, feed, and then talk, ha-ha.
- I'm not Baba-Yaga*," said the girl indignantly.
I managed to swallow a few spoonfuls of porridge without much appetite when I saw a few people walking in our direction. Among them I recognized the two who were present at the meeting where I had so unpleasantly erupted.
- I think they're about to tell us something," I said, feeling a twinge in my spine at the prospect of trouble.