Are you crazy? he asked as he jumped two steps aside.
The girl pulled the weapon out from the back and pointed it at Andrews breast. I will not let you lock my father up! Die!
She made another attack.
Barkov bent his trunk to the right side letting the bar go past him. He snatched the weapon out of her hand and pushed her so that the girl flew over the back of the sofa and fell down on the floor with a crash.
Who is your father? he demanded as she was getting up.
Eddy Housman, the teacher forced herself to speak holding her hip with her hand and grimacing with pain.
Andrew started to understand what was going on. So Eddy Housman is your father?
Yes. Her lips began to quiver, and tears welled into her eyes. I beg you to testify that hes innocent. That it wasnt him who fired a shot at you. Except for you, there were no witnesses.
No. He will be put into prison not only for the attempted murder, but also for cultivation and sales of GMO.
Whats the proof? Maybe he didnt know what was going on in the cellar! Help us, please. He mustnt go to prison hes suffering from radiculitis!
Barkov bit his lower lip. He saw now this slight bit of a woman shuddered with not just pain from him tossing her but from an inner desperation. Her face had the pale anguish of worry over events beyond her control.
Sorry, he said, I hope youve got good health. Because you will have to do time, too!
Im not worried for myself. Release my father, please!
Ill give you some advice. Next time, before asking something from someone, dont try to thrust a crowbar into him.
Rubbing tears on her cheeks, she started to sob loudly. I tried to make friends with you, I even flirted with you, but youre wooden. And I dont have time. My fathers behind bars already. He must not be there!
Even if I stated that your father was innocent, the court wouldnt believe me. Genetically modified organisms grow in his cellar. How could he be ignorant of that? Nonsense! And who fired a shot at me if not him?
Another man! Then he ran away out the emergency exit. Couldnt you say that?
I couldnt. Thats not true. A thud resounded in the adjacent room. Who is in the bedroom? My teacher?
She nodded and hid her face in her palms. Her shoulders started to shudder.
He jumped over the sofa, grasped Emilys hand and pulled her after himself. She didnt resist.
Reaching the bedroom door, he opened it. Andrew saw his teacher, Dan Mortimer, an elderly thin man with the sparse gray hair, dressed in a housecoat and barefooted, lying on the floor near the bed. His arms and feet were tied, his mouth secured with an adhesive tape, and his neck was strapped up with a belt wound around a bed leg.
Seeing Andrew and Emily, the teacher rounded his eyes. Hm-m-m!
He banged on the floor with his feet. There was fear in his eyes. Poor old man. He suffered because of me.
Ill set you free, dont worry, Andrew said and pushed Emily forward so that she couldnt escape while he untied the teacher.
All of a sudden he felt that his whole body became heavier. The bar slipped from his hand and fell on the parquet floor with rattle. It didnt bounce but stuck to the parquet as if drawn up by a magnet. For a couple of seconds Andrew tried to keep his balance. Then he released Emilys hand and dropped down on his knees. How could even a small stress like avoiding her attack and tossing her cause such a shameful weakness in him?! That hadnt ever been the case before. Am I good for nothing anymore?
Instead of running away, Emily, too, fell on her side clumsily on the floor. Looking at Barkov with her tear-stained and horror-struck eyes, she croaked, Whats wrong with me? Help!
Unable to keep a vertical position even on his knees, Andrew propped up on his arms. His limbs, trunk, head everything became too heavy. Muscles trembled from tension. Seeing that resistance was useless, he fell on his stomach.
Emily kept lying nearby. She was groaning as she tried to raise her arms alternately and dropping them at once. At last, she rolled over on her back and started to breathe through her open mouth noisily.
Give me air! Air!
Obviously, it was not a sham. Andrew had a feeling of suffocation, too. An unknown force squeezed his ribs so that they could hardly move apart for breathing. My weakness from my exertion isnt the problem. What is it then?
The teacher bellowed again. Hm-m-m! His face had turned white and Andrew worried the man was about to suffocate between the unseen pressure around them and the tape over his mouth.
Barkov tried to crawl forward on his stomach. Making incredible efforts, he moved forward his right leg and left arm one by one. Then he dragged himself for a distance of a few centimeters and felt totally exhausted. His body was getting even heavier as if it was covered with a heap of sand that was increasing quickly.
Our numbers are up, Emily forced herself to speak making pauses to take breath. Asteroid I did not believe in it Father did.
In the distance a deep and echoing explosion sounded. The glass of the only window in the bedroom vibrated. It was impossible to understand what exploded Andrew could only see the blue sky in the window from the floor.
What did you not believe in? Andrew asked. He heard only one version of the asteroids approach in the news: a large space object would fly by the planet not causing any harm.
He said that the asteroid will increase gravitation and brake the Earths spin. I dont wanna die!
Andrew had never paid attention to predictions of various insane scientists, astrologers and clairvoyants. They had already predicted death of mankind a million times. However, it might well be true that gravitation increase was the cause of what was happening to him, Mortimer and this girl now. What if the same force was affecting the whole city or even the whole world?
Suddenly the heavy weight was gone the invisible sand that had covered him vanished into thin air. All three of them gulped huge intakes of air simultaneously. Barkov raised his head. Then he lifted his body leaning on his elbows. At last, he squatted.
Emily started to rise, too, wiping tears with her palms.
Pushing the crowbar with his foot to a corner of the room, Andrew jumped up and ran to the window. From there, he could see the neighbors house. Behind it, approximately a kilometer away, a column of dense black smoke was rising to the sky.
Hm-m-m!
Turning round, Barkov hurried to the teacher to untie him.
Chapter 3
Shes not a masseuse! Dan Mortimer squealed as soon as Andrew took the tape off his mouth. I did not call for her!
Helping him to rise from the floor, Barkov looked at the girl. She was sitting on the floor looking at the window absent-mindedly.
Why did you let her in then? Andrew asked.
Dan set his housecoat straight and smoothed his thin hair with both hands. Then, casting his eyes down, he answered, I even let her tie me up, old fool She told me they had an advertising campaign one hour of erotic massage for free. Liar!
Emily didnt react in any way to his words.
Dont worry, Dan, Andrew said, keeping a smile from showing. Now Im going to take her to the police department. She wont disturb you again. As for our lesson, well schedule it for next week.
Emily shifted her gaze to the men and said in a quiet but distinct voice, Theres no point in scheduling. In a week you wont exist anymore. Me either.
Youll be behind bars, Barkov promised. Lets go to the car. And dont try to escape. Youll fail!
I know. Youve got outstanding responsiveness. She looked at him, her eyes suspicious. Were you born with it?
No. Many years of training.
Ahem! I dont think so. Ive heard something about the people like you Anyway, it doesnt matter anymore. Im sorry for trying to kill you. She turned to Mortimer. Forgive me for deceiving you and tying you up.
Mortimer asked, looking at Andrew, Why does she say that we wont exist in a week?
Her father told her that the asteroid would slow down the Earth.
The teacher smirked. Rubbish! Then he cocked his head to Andrew. Isnt it?
Absolutely. Barkov looked at the girl. Move!
She stood up in a defeated silence and went to the exit. This time her walk was even, without swaying her hips, her head high.
Barkov made her sit on the back seat of the vehicle, lifted a transparent partition and snapped locks on her doors so the girl couldnt jump out on the road. Starting the engine, he drove smoothly from the empty street to the avenue crossing it.
He had to brake there at once. The road was blocked by a truck that had rammed into a small vehicle. The passenger car was crippled so much that it was impossible to determine its model. A pool of blood spread from under the heap of metal. There was nobody in the cab of the truck that was damaged just a little bit. Probably the truck driver ran away.
Oh my God! Emily exclaimed.
He glanced at the rearview mirror. The girl was looking at the deformed car with wide-open eyes, her hands touching her cheeks. Was she sorry for the unfortunate passengers of the small car? That was strange. She had just tried to kill a human herself!
Andrew turned on a handheld transceiver. Dispatcher!
A female voice answered, Listening.
This is lieutenant Barkov, the northeast area. There is a car crash at the corner of the Seventy Fourth Street and the Eighth Avenue. Two vehicles. Probably there are victims. Send some officers here.
Lieutenant, are you joking? the dispatcher uttered quickly. A few officers because of only two vehicles in a collision? Tomorrow evening, not before. Ive got thousands of calls. By the way, where have you been?
Dont you know? Youve got coordinates of all the police cars!
No. The satellite system has gone mad. According to the map you are now in the ocean, twenty kilometers from the coast.
No, Im on land, here at the accident.
Naturally. Captain wants you to respond to a fight on the Forty Eighth Street
Andrew interrupted her. Ive got a dangerous criminal in custody. Im taking her to the central department.
Okay. Let me know when youre done.
Barkov leaped out of the car and went around the crashed car trying to peep inside. In vain. The metal was pressed so hard that it was impossible to see the cars interior.
Andrew got back to his place at the steering wheel. He drove the car around the truck on the sidewalk with care and accelerated. Thousands of calls. Whats happened in the city?
The answer to this question became obvious as soon as his car got to Dixie Highway where there had always been busy traffic. Crooked, smoking vehicles were standing here and there along the highway. People scurried about between vehicles; many of them were stained with blood. Policemen, firefighters and medical officers were assisting lightly wounded people; seriously injured people were being stretchered off to ambulances. Sobbing and shouts were heard from everywhere.
Gravitation. Thats the reason why the transport went out of control.
Andrew slowed down as he maneuvered carefully between people and cars. A stadium appeared to the right at a distance of about two hundred meters from the highway. It was wrapped in a cloud of dust. People were running out all the three entrances and dispersing on the square before the stadium. Andrew had to stop again at the turn to the stadium to let a few ambulances pass by. At that moment two teenagers with faces covered with white and blue painted stripes fans of a football team came to the crossroads.
Looking out of the car window, Barkov shouted, Hey, boys! Whats happened there?
One of the guys, a short fellow with tousled hair, stopped on zebra in front of Andrews car and laughed hysterically, his eyes wide, looking right through Andrew. A piece of the roof crashed down. Half of the players died. The referee was killed, too! It serves him right, because he denied a goal!
The other teenager returned to his fellow fan, seized his hand and pulled the trembling and wild-eyed friend along.
The guy is in a state of shock. He doesnt understand what hes saying.
There was dense smoke on the road ahead probably the smoke that could be seen from Mortimers bedroom. At first, it seemed to Andrew that a metro station located high above the earth on concrete supports was burning. Having come closer, he discerned that the source of the smoke was closer to the highway. A number of shops or rather what remained of them was on fire. The first three buildings were unroofed, the next five or six were destroyed almost to the foundation, and on the place of the last two, a fuselage of an airplane without wings was burning. On the cockpit, there was inscription Boeing H-17. Some fire-fighting crews stood along the highway, flooding the fire with foam.
Barkov had seen a report on this newest passenger liner just a few days ago. The apparatus was designed for three hundred passengers and was actuated by four hydrogen engines. He even remembered an enthusiastic phrase of the reporter: Before your eyes, there is a non-polluting and absolutely safe wonder of engineering. Probability of an accident is equal to zero!
They had no chance. The plane fell from its own weight when the gravity increased.
A ringing signal sounded.
Listening, Barkov said.
A laser screen flashed up over the dashboard. In it, there was a face of a woman of about sixty with short curly chestnut hair and big, kind gray eyes.
Hi, little boy! she said in a quiet voice. How are you? Did you get hurt in the catastrophe?
Andrew felt guilty. He should have called her first, right after the asteroid flew by. No, Mom. How are you?
Everything is okay, dont worry. Tell me, please, do they have you very busy?
Yes, they have. Im at work now. Why?
Nellie Barkov hesitated. Andrew noticed that she was in the cellar of her garage there was a shelf with tools in the background.
Could you come around when you have some free time?
Whats wrong?
Nothing, sonny. I am alive and kicking.
Mother, speak up! Why are you down there? And why are you whispering?
Well, Ive just gone down. There are strangers up in the house. It seems, robbers. Dont worry, Ive locked myself up. They dont even know that Im here.
Ill be there right away.
It was just like his tactful mother to not want to give him trouble. Barkov instantly imagined big, strong rogues rushing into the cellar and beating her to find out where cash is hidden, even though she had none. She had some savings, but they were small and in a bank account. Would the bandits believe it? She had a good house in a prestigious area. Caches of diamonds are usually hidden in such places and somewhere behind a wardrobe there is a safe full of money or so the robbers would assume.