So he did not venture to the opposite edge of the hall. For starters, he had used five cartridges to buy himself a bowl of chopped, grilled mushrooms and a gla.s.s of putrid, bitter-tasting water. He swallowed the muck with disgust, sitting on an overturned plastic box that had once held empty bottles. Then he went over to the train, hoping to get a bit of a rest there, since his strength was failing, and he had been feeling more and more sick as he looked around. But the subway train was quite different from the one at Kitai Gorod: Gorod: the cars were all torn up and completely empty, with the seats burnt and fused together; the soft leather sofas had been pulled out and carted off somewhere; there were bloodstains everywhere, and cartridge cases gleamed darkly on the floor. This place was clearly not a proper shelter, but more like a fortress that had withstood more than one siege. the cars were all torn up and completely empty, with the seats burnt and fused together; the soft leather sofas had been pulled out and carted off somewhere; there were bloodstains everywhere, and cartridge cases gleamed darkly on the floor. This place was clearly not a proper shelter, but more like a fortress that had withstood more than one siege.

Not much time had pa.s.sed while Artyom looked over the train, but when he returned to the platform, he hardly recognized the station. The counters were empty, the hubbub had died down and, except for a few tramps cl.u.s.tered on the platform, not far from the transfer pa.s.sage, there was not a single living soul to be seen on the platform. It had become noticeably darker; the torches were extinguished on the side where he had come into the station, and only a few were burning at the centre of the hall; but in the distance, at the opposite end, a dying fire was still burning. The clock showed it to be a little after eight in the evening. What had happened? Artyom hurried on as quickly as the pain in his body would allow him. The crossing was closed on both sides, not just with the usual metal doors, but with st.u.r.dy iron gates. It was exactly the same on the second stairway, but one of the gates was still half-open, and behind it could be seen solid latticework, welded, like the cas.e.m.e.nts at Tverskaya station, with heavy reinforcement. Behind that had been placed a table, feebly lit with a small lamp, at which sat the guard, a washed-out grey-blue figure.

'No admission after eight,' he snapped, when asked permission to enter. 'The gate opens at six in the morning,' and turning away, he let it be understood that the conversation was over.

Artyom was taken aback. Why did the life of the station come to an end after eight in the evening? And what was he to do now? The tramps, having crawled into their cardboard boxes, looked positively repulsive, and he didn't want to go near them; so he decided to try his luck at the fire, which glimmered at the opposite end of the hall.

It was clear even from afar that standing at the fire was no group of tramps, but rather border guards or something of the kind: silhouetted against the fire, they seemed to be strong male figures, with the sharp contours of automatic weapons visible. But what was there to guard, sitting there on the platform itself? Guard posts should be set up in the tunnels, the entrances to the station, the farther away the better, but here . . . If some sort of creature crawled out or bandits attacked, the men on duty would not be able to do anything about it.

But drawing closer, Artyom noticed something else: from behind the fire, a clear, white light flashed, seemingly going upwards, but too briefly, as if cut short at the very beginning, not striking the ceiling, but disappearing, contrary to all the laws of physics, after a couple of metres. The searchlight was illuminated infrequently, in distinct intervals, which is probably why Artyom had not noticed it earlier. What in the world could it be?

He walked up to the fire, politely said h.e.l.lo, explained that he was travelling through, didn't know about the closing of the gate, and so missed it; he asked whether he might take a rest here, with the patrol men.

'Take a rest?' sneered the man nearest him. He was a dishevelled, dark-haired man with a large, fleshy nose; he was not tall, but was seemingly very strong. 'This is not a place for resting, kid. If you last till morning, you'll be doing fine.'

To the question of what was so dangerous about sitting by the fire in the middle of the platform, the man said nothing, but only gestured behind him with a nod of the head, to where the searchlight was switched on. The others were busy with their conversation and did not pay Artyom the slightest attention. Then he decided he would finally find out what was going on around here, and went over to the searchlight. What he saw there surprised him, but explained a lot.

At the very end of the hall there was a little booth, such as you sometimes see near escalators, for obtaining transfers to other lines. Bags were piled up around it, reinforced here and there with ma.s.sive iron plates; one of the patrol men was taking the cover off an extremely formidable-looking type of weapon, and the other was sitting in the booth. On it was mounted the very searchlight that was shining upwards. Upwards! With no damper, no barrier here and not even a trace of one, the steps of the escalator began right behind the booth, leading up to the surface. And that was where the beam of the searchlight struck, anxiously probing from wall to wall, as if trying to find someone in the pitch darkness, but only picking up some kind of some kind of brownish lamp-frame and the damp ceiling from which enormous chunks of plaster were peeling off, and beyond . . . Beyond that, one could see nothing.

Suddenly everything fell into place.

For some reason, here the metal damper that usually separated a station from the surface was missing: it was missing both from the platform and from above. Paveletskaya was in direct contact with the outside world, and its residents found themselves under constant threat of attack. They breathed contaminated air, drank contaminated water, which is probably why it tasted so strange . . . That was why there were so many more mutations here among young people than, for example, at the VDNKh. VDNKh. That was why the adults looked so sickly: their skulls exposed and polished to a shine, their bodies worn out and subject to decay. They were gradually being devoured by radiation sickness. That was why the adults looked so sickly: their skulls exposed and polished to a shine, their bodies worn out and subject to decay. They were gradually being devoured by radiation sickness.

But still that was not all, apparently. How could one explain the fact that the whole station 'died' after eight o'clock in the evening, and that the dark-haired duty officer by the fire had said that surviving until morning was a big deal?

Trembling, Artyom approached the man sitting in the booth.

'Good evening,' the man returned his greeting.

He was about fifty, but already quite bald, his remaining grey hairs tangled at the temples and the nape of the neck; his dark eyes looked curiously at Artyom, and his unpretentious, laced-up flak jacket could not conceal his rotund stomach. A pair of binoculars hung on his chest, along with a whistle.

'Have a seat.' He pointed Artyom to the nearest sandbag. 'Those guys over there are having a grand old time, leaving me here alone to bore myself to death. So let's have a chat. Hey, did you hit someone's fist with your eye . . . ?'

And so the conversation began.

'As you see, we haven't been able to do anything halfway decent here,' the duty officer explained sadly, pointing to the aperture leading to the escalator. 'You would need concrete here, not iron; we tried iron, but it was no good. In the autumn, every d.a.m.n thing is swept away by water. First it builds, then it breaks through . . . It happened several times, and many people perished. Since then, we've been getting by like this. Only life is not tranquil here like it is at other stations; we're always waiting: sc.u.m can come crawling in on any given night. During the daytime they don't bother us, because they're either sleeping or roaming around on the surface. But it's after dark that things really get desperate. So, we've adapted here, of course, and after eight o'clock, everyone goes into the pa.s.sageway, where we live, and those left here are mostly the people who keep things going. But wait . . .' He broke off, flicked a switch on the console, and the searchlight flared up brightly.

The conversation continued only after the white beam had scoured all three escalators, moved along the ceiling and the walls, and finally died out.

'Up there,' pointing toward the ceiling, the duty officer lowered his voice, 'is Paveletskaya Railway Station. At any rate, it used to be there. A G.o.dforsaken place. I don't even know where its tracks have gone; only that right now something horrible is going on up there. You sometimes hear noises that make your blood run cold. And then when they crawl down . . .' He stopped, and then continued after a minute: 'We call them the newcomers, these creatures that climb down from up there. Out of the train station. So it's not so horrible. Well, a few times some of the stronger of these newcomers wiped out this cordon. Did you see our train there, the one forced off the tracks? That's how far they got. We wouldn't let them go below, where the women and children are; if the newcomers crawled down there, the jig would be up. Our men understood that themselves and so they retreated to the train, dug in there, and finished off a few creatures. But as for themselves . . . just two out of ten remained alive. One of the newcomers left, crawling off to the Novokuznetskaya Novokuznetskaya station. Some people wanted to go after him in the morning, since the trail of slime he left behind was so thick; but he turned off at a side tunnel, went down, and we didn't dare follow him. We'd had enough disaster as it was.' station. Some people wanted to go after him in the morning, since the trail of slime he left behind was so thick; but he turned off at a side tunnel, went down, and we didn't dare follow him. We'd had enough disaster as it was.'

'I heard that n.o.body ever attacks Paveletskaya,' Artyom recalled. 'Is that true?'

'Of course,' the duty officer nodded gravely. 'Who would bother us? If we weren't manning the defences here, they would be crawling from here all the way along the line. No, n.o.body is going to lift a finger against us. The Hansa have given us almost all of that transfer pa.s.sage, up to the very end of their blockhouse. They gave us weapons, just so that we would protect them. I tell you, they really love to get others to do their dirty work! By the way, what's your name? I'm Mark.' Artyom told him his name. 'Hold it, Artyom, something is stirring over there,' Mark continued and he quickly switched the searchlight back on. 'No, I'm probably hearing things,' he said uncertainly, after a minute.

Artyom was filled, drop by drop, with an oppressive sense of danger. Like Mark, he looked above attentively, but where Mark saw only the shadow of the broken lamp, Artyom thought he detected sinister, fantastic silhouettes, motionless in the dazzling beam of light.

At first he thought it was his imagination playing tricks on him, but one of the strange contours stirred just a bit, as soon as a bit of light pa.s.sed over it.

'Wait . . . ,' he whispered. 'Try over in that corner, where there's a big crack, hurry . . .'

And, as if nailed in place by the light beam, somewhere far off, further than the middle of the escalator, something large and bony froze for a moment, and then suddenly swooped down. Mark grabbed the whistle, which almost leapt out of his hand, and blew it with all his might, and in a second all those sitting around the fire rushed from their places and scrambled into position.

It turned out there was another searchlight there. It was weaker, but cleverly combined with an unusual heavy machine gun. Artyom had never seen anything like it: the weapon had a long barrel with a bell muzzle at the end; the trailer was shaped like a web; and the cartridges moved along inside the greased and shining ammunition belt.

'Over there, around the tenth-metre!' The husky, thin fellow who had been sitting near Mark searched about for the newcomer with the beam. 'Give me the binoculars . . . Lekha! At the tenth, on the right side!'

'There it is! We're all here, baby, so sit still,' muttered the gunner, aiming the weapon at the hidden black shadow. 'I've got him!'

A deafening rumble of machine-gun fire burst out; a lamp was blown to smithereens at the tenth-metre; and above, something let out a piercing shriek.

'Looks like we caught him,' declared the husky fellow. 'OK, give me some more light . . . There it is, lying there. Finished, the vermin.'

But from above, for a long time, heavy, almost human, groans could be heard, leaving Artyom on edge. When he proposed finishing off the newcomer to put it out of its misery, they replied: 'If you want, go on, kill it. We aren't a shooting gallery here, kiddo; we keep track of every cartridge.'

Mark was relieved of duty, and went over to the fire with Artyom. Mark lit up a cigarette from the fire, and Artyom began to listen to the general conversation.

'Look, Lekha was telling us yesterday about the Hare Krishnas.' A ma.s.sive man with a low forehead and a powerful neck was speaking in a low, deep voice. 'They sit at Oktyabrskoye Pole and want to get into the Kurchatov Inst.i.tute to blow up the nuclear reactor and bring enlightenment for everybody, but they have not yet got their act together to do it. Well, that reminded me of what happened to me four years ago, when I was still living at the Savelovskaya. One day I was getting ready to go to the Belorusskaya. My connection was at the Novoslobodskaya Novoslobodskaya, so I went straight through the Hansa. So, I got to Belorusskaya, quickly went to the man I needed to meet, we dealt with our affairs, and I figured we ought to celebrate with a drink. So he says to me, you'd better be more careful, drunks often vanish around here. And I say to him: Give me a break, and I won't take no for an answer. So he and I killed a bottle together. The last thing I remember is that he was crawling around on all fours and crying, "I am Lunokhod-1, the lunar rover!" Then I wake up - Mother of G.o.d! - tied up, gagged, my noggin shaved, lying in some kind of closet, probably in what used to be a cop shop. What a disaster, say I to myself. After half an hour, some devils come in and drag me to the hall by the scruff of the neck. I had no idea where I was; all the signs carrying place names had been torn down, the walls were smeared with something, the floor b.l.o.o.d.y, the fires burning, almost the whole station had been dug up, and there was a deep pit below, at least twenty metres, if not thirty. There were stars drawn on the floor and ceiling, all in a single line, you know, the way children draw. Well, I'm wondering, have the Reds got me? Then I turned my head around - not quite. They brought me over to the pit, lowered a rope, and told me to climb down it. And prodded me with an a.s.sault rifle. I looked in - there were people piled up at the bottom, digging the pit deeper with pieces of sc.r.a.p metal and shovels. The earth was being hoisted up with a winch, loaded into wagons, and carted off somewhere. Well, there was nothing I could do, I decided, as long as those fellows were there with their a.s.sault rifles - crazy guys, all of them tattooed from head to toe - a criminal enterprise of some kind. Probably I had landed in the Zone. And it's as if these authorities are digging out, they want to escape. And these petty hooligans are their hired hands. But then I realized: that's all nonsense. What kind of metro zone has no cops? I tell them I'm afraid of heights, that I crash down right onto my head, and that they won't get much use out of me. They conferred among themselves and set me to work loading wagons with dirt that had been brought up from below. The sc.u.mbags cuffed me, chained me, and now they expect me to load their wagon? Pfft! But still, I couldn't figure out what they were doing. The job, to put it mildly, was not an easy one. I was lucky,' he shrugged his gigantic shoulders, 'but there were some weaker guys there, so whenever someone collapsed into the dirt, the skinheads would pick him up and drag him off to the stairway. Then I went past one time, and I took a look. They had one guy there, a real blockhead, the type who used to stand in Red Square, where the heads rolled, and he had a good-sized axe stuck in him; there was blood everywhere, and heads were impaled on poles. I nearly puked. No, I think to myself, I'd better get out here before they kill me and make me into a stuffed animal.'

'OK, and who was it?' the husky fellow who sat by the searchlight interrupted impatiently.

'I asked the men I was loading with. Do you know who? Satanists! Get it? They decided, you see, that the end of the world has already come, and the metro is the gate to h.e.l.l. And he said something about a circle or something, I don't remember.'

'Gateway,' the gunner corrected him.

'OK. So the metro is the gateway to h.e.l.l, and h.e.l.l itself is a little bit deeper down; and the Devil, you see, is waiting there for them - they just have to reach him. So, they're digging. It's been four years since then. Maybe they've already hit bottom.'

'And where is it?' the gunner asked.

'I don't know! By G.o.d, I don't know. Well, I sure got myself out of there: I threw myself into the wagon while the guard wasn't watching, and sprinkled some dirt over me. I rolled along somewhere for a long time; then they dumped out the contents of the wagon, from high up; I pa.s.sed out, then came to, crept along, crawled out by some sort of tracks, just keeping on, straight ahead; but these tracks kept crossing other tracks, and my sense of direction deserted me. Then somebody picked me up, and when I woke up I was only at Dubrovka, get it? And the guy who had picked me up, had gone off already, such a nice guy. So I thought, where am I . . .'

Then they talked about rumours that at Ilich Square and the Rimskaya there was an epidemic of some kind and many people had died, but Artyom paid no attention.

The idea that the metro was the threshold to h.e.l.l, or maybe even its first circle, mesmerized him, and a bizarre image arose before his eyes: hundreds of people crawling around like ants, endlessly digging a pit with their hands, a shaft leading nowhere, until one day one of their pieces of sc.r.a.p metal sticks strangely out of the soil, without sinking down below, and then h.e.l.l and the metro are finally merged into one. Then it occurred to him that at this station, people live almost just like at VNDKh: VNDKh: constantly attacking monstrous creatures from the surface, holding off the onslaught alone, and if Paveletskaya faltered, these monsters would spread throughout the line. Which meant that the role of constantly attacking monstrous creatures from the surface, holding off the onslaught alone, and if Paveletskaya faltered, these monsters would spread throughout the line. Which meant that the role of VDNKh VDNKh is not so unique as he had previously a.s.sumed. Who knew how many such stations there were in the metro, each covering its own turf, doing battle, not for the sake of general tranquillity, but for its own hide. You could go back, retreat to the centre, blow your tunnels up after you - but then you'd be left with less and less residential s.p.a.ce, until all those who were still alive would be squeezed into a small patch of land, and would gnaw their way through one another's gullets. is not so unique as he had previously a.s.sumed. Who knew how many such stations there were in the metro, each covering its own turf, doing battle, not for the sake of general tranquillity, but for its own hide. You could go back, retreat to the centre, blow your tunnels up after you - but then you'd be left with less and less residential s.p.a.ce, until all those who were still alive would be squeezed into a small patch of land, and would gnaw their way through one another's gullets.

But if VDNKh VDNKh was really nothing special, if there were other exits to the surface that it was impossible to conceal . . . That meant . . . Artyom decided to discontinue that line of thought. It was just the voice of weakness, of treasonous, sugary, seductive arguments not to continue the journey, to stop striving towards the goal. But he mustn't give up. That was a dead end. was really nothing special, if there were other exits to the surface that it was impossible to conceal . . . That meant . . . Artyom decided to discontinue that line of thought. It was just the voice of weakness, of treasonous, sugary, seductive arguments not to continue the journey, to stop striving towards the goal. But he mustn't give up. That was a dead end.

To distract himself, he resumed listening to the others' conversation. At first they were talking about the chances of somebody named Pushka to win some sort of victory. Then the husky fellow started to talk about how some idiots attacked Kitai Gorod and shot loads of people, but the timely arrival of the Kaluga brotherhood overpowered them, and the cutthroats went back to Taganskaya. Artyom wanted to point out that it was not Taganskaya at all, but the Tretyakovskaya, but he was prevented from doing so by some scrawny guy whose face was hidden, and who said that the Kalugans had pretty much been kicked out of Kitai Gorod, and now a new group controlled it, which n.o.body had ever heard of before. The husky dude argued heatedly with him, and Artyom started to nod off. This time he dreamed about nothing at all, and slept so soundly that even when the alarm whistle went off and everyone jumped up, he just couldn't wake up.

It was probably a false alarm, because no shots were fired.

When Mark finally woke him up, it was already a quarter to six.

'Get up, time to go on duty!' He cheerily shook Artyom by the shoulder. 'Let's go, I'll show you the pa.s.sageway that they wouldn't let you into yesterday. Do you have a pa.s.sport?'

Artyom shook his head.

'Well never mind, we'll smooth it over somehow,' Mark promised, and indeed, after a few minutes, they were already in the pa.s.sage, and the security officer whistled the go-ahead obligingly, fondling two cartridges.

The pa.s.sageway was very long, even longer than the station itself. There were canvas tents along one wall, and rather bright little lamps burning ('Hansa takes care of us,' Mark smirked), and along the other was a part.i.tion - long, but not high, not more than a metre.

'By the way, this is one of the longest pa.s.sageways in the whole metro!' Mark said proudly. 'What's behind the part.i.tion, you ask? And you don't know? Why it's a marvellous thing! Half of everything we earn goes there! Just wait, it's still early. Things will start up later on. It's almost always the same, in the evening, when the entrance to the station is closed and people don't have anything else to do. Although there can be qualification rounds during the day. No really, you've never heard of it? Why we've got a Totalizator for rat races! We call it the Hippodrome. I thought everybody knew about it,' he said with surprise, when he finally realized that Artyom was not joking. 'Do you like to gamble much? I'm a gambler myself.'

Artyom was certainly interested in watching races, but had never been fanatical about it. Besides, now, having slept so long, a storm cloud of guilt was growing and darkening over his head. He couldn't wait until evening, couldn't wait at all. He had to get moving; too much time had already been wasted. But the way to Polis led through Hansa, and right now there was no way of getting there.

'I probably can't stay here until evening,' said Artyom. 'I have to go . . . to Polyanka.'

'But then you'll be going across Hansa,' said Mark with a frown. 'How are you going to get across Hansa if you have no visa, and no pa.s.sport either? I can't help you there, my friend. But wait, let me throw out an idea. The chief of Paveletskaya - not our Paveletskaya, but the one on the Ring - is a great fan of these races. His rat, Pirate, is a favourite. He comes here every night, with a security detail and full lighting. How about wagering yourself, personally, against him?'

'But I haven't got anything to wager with,' Artyom objected.

'Wager yourself, as a servant. Or if you want, I'll wager you.' Mark's eyes sparkled with excitement. 'If we win, you get a visa. If we lose - you'll get there just the same, although of course it will be up to you how to get out. Is there an alternative?'

Artyom did not like this plan. It seemed somehow shameful to sell himself into slavery and, what's more, to lose himself to a rat Totalizator. He decided to try to get to Hansa some other way. For a couple of hours, he hung around some stern border guards in dappled grey uniforms - they were dressed exactly like those at Prospect Mir - trying to strike up a conversation with them; but they kept mum. After one of them contemptuously called him One-Eye (that was unfair, because his left eye had already begun to open up, although it still hurt like h.e.l.l) and told him to buzz off, Artyom finally abandoned that fruitless effort and started looking for the most sinister and suspicious people at the station, the weapon and drug traders - anyone who might be a contraband runner.

But no one wanted to convey Artyom to Hansa in exchange for his automatic weapon and his lamp.

Evening came on, and Artyom met it with quiet despair, sitting on the floor of the pa.s.sageway and wallowing in self-flagellation. Around this time, the pa.s.sage became more lively; the adults were returning from work, having dinner with their families; the children were making an uproar until time to go to bed; and finally, after the gate was locked, everyone poured out of their stalls and tents, toward the race course. There were lots of people here, at least three hundred, and finding Mark in such a crowd was no easy job. People were betting on how Pirate was running, whether Pushka would beat him just for once, mentioning various nicknames and other runners, but these two evidently had no compet.i.tion.

The important rat owners approached the starting position, carrying their well-groomed pets in little cages. The chief of Paveletskaya-Ring was nowhere to be seen, and Mark also seemed to have disappeared from the face of the Earth. Artyom was even afraid that he was on patrol again today and wouldn't come. What in the world would he do then?

Finally, a small procession appeared at the other end of the pa.s.sageway. Walking with an escort of two morose bodyguards, an old man with a shaved head, lush, well-groomed moustaches, gla.s.ses, and an austere black suit, bore his corpulent body along with no hurry, with dignity. One of the security guards held a cushioned red velvet box with a latticed wall, in which something grey was thrashing about. That, most likely, was the famous Pirate.

The bodyguard carried the box with the rat to the starting line, and the moustached old man walked over to the referee sitting behind a little desk, chucked his aide off a chair, sat down heavily in the empty s.p.a.ce, and started up a leisurely conversation. The second security man stood nearby, his back to the wall, legs spread wide, and with his hands on the short black automatic hanging around his chest. Such an imposing fellow was not the sort of person with whom to discuss a wager; even to get close to him was frightening.

Then Artyom saw the sloppily dressed Mark, scratching his long-unwashed head, approaching these venerable people and beginning to explain something to the referee. From that distance, all he could hear was the intonation, but he could certainly see that the moustached old man at first flushed with indignation, then grimaced arrogantly, finally nodded with displeasure, took off his gla.s.ses, and started to clean them.

Artyom made his way through the crowd to the starting position, where Mark was standing. 'Everything is hush-hush!' Mark announced, rubbing his hands with glee.

Asked exactly what he had in mind, Mark explained that he had just thrust a personal bet upon the old chief, that his own new rat would outrun the favourite on the first round. He had to put Artyom up for it, Mark reported, but in exchange, he demanded a visa for all of Hansa for Artyom and himself. The chief, to be sure, rejected the proposal, saying that he doesn't engage in the slave trade (Artyom breathed a sigh of relief), but adding that such presumptuous insolence would have to be punished. If their rat lost, Mark and Artyom would have to clean the latrines at Paveletskaya-Ring for one year. If the rat won, then, OK, they would get the visa. Of course he was positive that the second option was out of the question, which is why he agreed. He decided to punish the c.o.c.ky upstarts who had dared to throw down a challenge to his pet.

'And do you have your rat?' Artyom asked cautiously.

'Of course!' Mark rea.s.sured him. 'A real brute! She'll tear Pirate to shreds! Do you know how she ran away from me today? I could barely catch her! I chased her nearly to Novokuznetskaya Novokuznetskaya.'

'And what's her name?'

'Her name?'

'Sure, what's her name?'

'Well, let's say, Rocket,' Mark proposed.

'Rocket - does that sound menacing?'

Artyom was not sure that the compet.i.tion was really intended to see whose rat would tear a rival to pieces, but he kept his mouth shut. When Mark explained that he had only caught his rat today, Artyom couldn't stand it.

'And so how do you know she's going to win?'

'I believe in her, Artyom!' Mark proclaimed solemnly. 'And anyhow, you see, I've really wanted to have my own rat for a long time. I used to bet on other people's rats; they would lose, and I would think to myself: never mind, the day will come when I will have my own, and she'll bring me luck. But I never decided to do it - after all, it's not that simple. You have to get permission from the referee, and that's such a drag . . . My whole life will go by, some newcomer will gobble me up, or I'll die all on my own, and I'll never have my own rat . . . And then you turned up, and I thought: here we go! It's now or never. If you don't take a risk now, I said to myself, then you'll always be betting on someone else's rat. And I decided: if I'm going to play, then let me play for high stakes. Of course, I want to help you, but excuse me for saying that that's not the main thing. And so I wanted to go right up to that old fart,' - Mark lowered his voice, - 'and say: I'll wager myself against your Pirate! He got so enraged that he forced the referee to certify my rat out of turn. And you know,' he added, barely audible, 'this moment will be followed by a year of cleaning the latrines.'

'Because our rat will surely lose!' Artyom desperately tried to reason with him for the last time.

Mark looked at him attentively, then smiled and said: 'But what if . . . ?'

Having sternly looked over the audience, the referee smoothed his greying hair, cleared his throat with self-importance, and began to read off the nicknames of the rats taking part in the race. Rocket was last, but Mark didn't pay any attention to that. Pirate got more applause than any others, and only Artyom clapped for Rocket, because Mark's hands were occupied, holding the cage. Artyom was still hoping for a miracle that would spare him from an ignominious end in a stinking abyss.

Then the referee fired a blank from his Makarov, and the owners opened the cages. Rocket was the first to break out, and Artyom's heart leapt with joy; but then, while the other rats charged off along the length of the pa.s.sageway, some slower, some faster, Rocket, not living up to her proud name, got stuck in a corner five metres from the starting line, and there she stayed. It was against the rules to prod the rats. Artyom glanced at Mark apprehensively, expecting that he would either start getting violent, or on the contrary, would languish, overwhelmed with grief. But the stern, proud expression on Mark's face reminded him more of that of the captain of the cruiser who gave the order to sink a warship to prevent the enemy from capturing it, a story about some war between the Russians and somebody else that he'd in a beat-up book lying in the library at the VDNKh. VDNKh.

After a couple of minutes, the first rats reached the finish line. Pirate won, second place was some creature with an unintelligible name, Pushka came in third. Artyom cast a glance at the referee table. The old guy with the moustache, wiping the sweat of excitement from his bald pate with the same cloth he had used earlier to clean his gla.s.ses, was discussing the results with the referee. Artyom was already expecting that they would forget about them, when the old man suddenly slapped himself on the forehead and, smiling sweetly, beckoned to Mark.

Artyom felt almost like he did at the moment when they took him off for execution, although the sensation was not as strong. Making his way behind Mark to the referee's table, he comforted himself with the fact that, one way or another, the coast was now clear for him to cross Hansa territory; the only trick was to find a way to escape.

But disgrace awaited him.

Shrewdly inviting them to come up to the dais, Moustache turned to the audience and briefly explained the wager, then loudly proclaimed that both rascals were being sent, as agreed, to clean out the sanitary facilities for one year, starting today. Two Hansa border guards appeared from G.o.d knows where, took away Artyom's automatic weapon, a.s.suring him that his main opponent in the coming year would not be dangerous, and promising to return the weapon at the end of the sentence. Then, suffering the whistling and hooting of the crowd, they were led off to the Ring.

The pa.s.sage went under the floor at the centre of the hall, just as at the other station of the same name, but there the similarity between the two Paveletskayas ended. The one on the Ring conveyed a very strange impression: on one side, the ceiling was low and there were no real columns at all - arches spanned equal intervals along the wall, with the width of each arch being the same as the width of the gap between them. It seemed as though the first Paveletskaya had been easy for the builders, as if the dirt there was softer and all one had to do was push one's way across it; whereas at the other Paveletskaya, there was some hard, unyielding rock which was a real pain to chew through.

But for some reason this place did not produce the depressing, melancholy feeling that the Tverskaya did. Maybe because here there was so much light, and the walls were decorated with simple designs and imitations of ancient columns, like in the pictures from 'Myths of Ancient Greece.' In short, this was not the worst place for forced labour.

And of course, it was clear right away that this was Hansa territory. First of all, it was unusually clean, comfortable, and large, real lamps cased in gla.s.s shone softly from the ceiling. In the hall itself, which, to be sure, was not as s.p.a.cious as at the twin station, there was not a single kiosk, though there were many work tables piled with mountains of intricate contraptions. Behind them sat people in blue overalls, and a pleasant smell, the light odour of machine oil, hung in the air. Probably the work day ended later than at the Paveletskaya radial line. Hansa paraphernalia hung on the walls - an insignia with a brown circle on a white background, posters, appeals to raise labour productivity, and quotes from somebody named A. Smith. Under the largest flag, between the two stiff soldiers in an honour guard, stood a gla.s.s table, and Artyom lingered there as he pa.s.sed, just to satisfy his curiosity about what sacred object might lie beneath the gla.s.s.

There, on red velvet, lovingly lit with tiny lamps, lay two books. The first was a magnificently preserved, imposing volume with a black cover and a gold-embossed inscription that read, 'Adam Smith. The Wealth of Nations.' The second was a thoroughly dog-eared copy of a pocket book, a piece of trash with a battered dust jacket that was torn and glued together again, on which thick letters spelled out 'Dale Carnegie. How To Stop Worrying and Start Living.'

Artyom had never heard of either author, so what interested him much more was whether the station chief had used remnants of this very velvet to upholster the cage of his beloved rat.

One line was not blocked, and trolleys travelled by from time to time, most of them hand-powered, loaded with boxes. But once a motorized trolley pa.s.sed, enveloped in a cloud of smoke, and paused for a minute at the station before continuing further. Artyom was able to get a look at the strong soldiers, with black uniforms and black-and-white-striped vests, who were sitting on it. Each had night vision equipment on his head, a strange, short automatic weapon against his chest, and heavy body armour. The commander, stroking the enormous, dark green, visored helmet that sat on his knees, exchanged a few words with the station security officers, dressed in the usual grey camouflage, and the trolley vanished into the tunnel.

On the second line there was a complete train, in even better condition than the one Artyom had seen at Kuznetsky Bridge. There were probably living quarters behind the curtained windows, but through bare windows one could see desks with printers on them, behind which sat your usual business types; and engraved upon a sign over the door were the words 'CENTRAL OFFICE.'

This station produced an indescribable impression on Artyom. It was not that it amazed him like the first Paveletskaya; there were no traces here of that mysterious, sombre splendour that reminded one of the degenerated descendants of bygone superhuman greatness and the power of those who had built the metro. But still, people lived here just as if they were not part of the teeming, decadent, senseless, underground existence outside the Ring line. Life went on in a steady, well-organized way; after the work day there was a well-deserved rest; young people did not go out into a fantasy world of foolish yentas, but to business - the earlier you started your career, the farther up the ladder you could move - and adults were not afraid that as soon as their strength began to ebb, they would be turned out into the tunnel to be eaten by rats. It now became comprehensible why Hansa allowed only a few outsiders into its station, and reluctantly at that. The number of places in paradise is limited; only in h.e.l.l is entry open to all.

'Why finally I've emigrated!' exclaimed Mark, looking happily about him.

At the end of the platform, another border guard sat in a gla.s.s cubicle with the sign 'On Duty,' beside a rather small barrier painted with white and red stripes. When someone drove up to the duty officer, stopping respectfully, the guard came out of the cubicle with an expression of self-importance, inspected doc.u.ments and sometimes cargo, and finally lifted the barrier. Artyom noted that all the border guards and customs officials were very proud of their posts; it was immediately obvious that they were doing something they enjoyed. On the other hand, he thought, how could one not like such work?

They were taken over to a fence from which the road extended into the tunnel, and turned off to the side, to a corridor for staff quarters. Dreary yellow tile with scooped-out pit holes, proudly crowned with real toilet seats; indescribably filthy overalls; square shovels with some weird stuff growing on them; a wheelbarrow with only one wheel, making wild figure eights; carts that were to be loaded up and carted off to the nearest shaft that led into the depths. And all this was enveloped in a monstrous, unimaginable stench, saturating one's clothes, seeping into each hair from root to tip, penetrating beneath the skin, so that you began to think that it had become part of your very nature and would be with you forever, scaring away your own kind and making them get out of your way before they've even seen you.

The first day of this monotonous work pa.s.sed so slowly that Artyom decided they had been given an infinite shift: dig, dump, roll, dig again, dump again, roll again, drain, then go back the other way, just so that this thrice-d.a.m.ned cycle could be repeated. There was no end in sight to the work, since new visitors kept coming. Neither they nor the security guards standing at the entrance to the premises and at the endpoint of their route, at the shaft, hid their revulsion for the poor labourers. They stood aside squeamishly, holding their noses, or, the more delicate among them took a deep breath beforehand so as not to have to inhale next to Artyom and Mark. Their faces showed such loathing that Artyom asked himself in surprise, didn't all this c.r.a.p come from their guts in the first place? At the end of the day, when his hands were worn to a pulp, despite wearing enormous canvas gloves, it seemed to Artyom that he had discovered the true nature of man, as well as the meaning of life.

He now viewed man as a clever machine for the decomposition of food and the production of s.h.i.t, functioning almost without a hitch throughout a life without meaning, if by the word 'meaning' one has in mind some kind of ultimate goal. The meaning was in the process: to break down the most food possible, convert it even faster, and eliminate the dregs - everything that was left of smoking pork chops, juicy braised mushrooms, fluffy cakes - now rotten and contaminated. Personality traits began to fade, becoming impersonal mechanisms for the destruction of the beautiful and the useful, creating instead something putrid and worthless. Artyom was disgusted with people and felt no less aversion to them, than they to him. Mark was stoically patient, and tried to cheer up Artyom from time to time by saying things like, 'Don't worry about it, they told me beforehand that emigration is always difficult at the beginning.'

And the main thing was that, neither on the first nor the second day did any possibility of escape present itself; the security guards were vigilant, and although the only thing Artyom and Mark would have to do to escape was to enter the tunnel beyond the shaft, heading toward Dobryninskaya, that was simply impossible. They spent the night in a nearby closet. The door was locked carefully at night, and whatever the time of day, a guard sat at the gla.s.s booth by the entrance to the station.