The Great Cleanup - стр. 8
The masked man nodded in understanding and lifted Anna in his arms. The junkie girl's head slid off her lap and hit the bench with a loud thump. The girl did not come to her senses, and the saviour did not notice her at all. He was quickly carrying Anna away, somewhere, into the smoke.
Highway star
She was quite exhausted, yet conscious. She heard some kind of voices, shouting, door slamming, then a strange hiss. And she could only see smoke. A thick smoke, hiding everything else.
For a short time the masked man strayed about the corridors. Then, after yet another turn, he bent down a bit and brought his rescue out from the smoke-filled building, right through a broken window. Upon feeling fresh air, Anna started to catch her breath, coughing, tears running from her smoke-irritated eyes. Because of the tears, everything around her was fuzzy. Anna still could not discern anything around herself, so she shut her eyes, trying to quiet them down and to regain her breath, to gather enough strength for standing up on her own.
Yet when Anna recovered her senses completely, it turned out that her saviour was no longer carrying her in his arms. Instead, she was sitting in front of him on a motorcycle, which started down the street at a crazy speed, weaving its way among the cars. “He is probably taking me to hospital,” she thought. “To the family doctor? Or the ophthalmologist? Hopefully not to the gynaecologist!”
Anna threw back her head to see the face of her saviour and to tell him that she did not need any doctors at all, that she was all right and it'd be better to just bring her home, to the unfinished great cleanup and coffee.
She did see his face, and she was abashed. Now the man had no mask on. She was amazed at the abyss of his blue eyes. It seemed that she could dive into them and resurface at some sultry Copacabana beach.
She also noticed how this smoothly shaved face was handsome like crazy. His proud curved nose inspired her, and the mane of light curly hair was pure rapture. She definitely saw this man before. A long, long time ago…
When Anna was in junior high school, her entire room was plastered in rock star posters. Among them was a calendar, sporting a huge photo of a motorcyclist with the very same blue eyes, proud curved nose and curly light hair waving in the breeze…
Anna ended up so carried away looking at her saviour that she forgot what she wanted to tell him. Noticing her gaze, he smiled, flashing level, perfectly matched snow-white teeth:
“So you've come round? Sorry that I had to smoke things up so much. But I wouldn't be able to get you out otherwise, way too many cops out there. And I couldn't even wait. I saw Borscht's car when I was coming up to the cop-shop. His men might have gotten to you first…”
Anna had no idea what her saviour was talking about, yet she still could not take her gaze off him. Seeing strain in her eyes, the tamer of the bike hastened to reassure her:
“My name is Herman. Don't worry, our mutual friend has sent me. He found out the cops grabbed you, so he asked me to help out. Very soon you will be completely safe.”
An answer like that, of course, ended up perplexing Anna even more. Which friend could have sent for her? Why would she need rescue from the police? It appeared that she was, actually, completely safe right there…