I’ve brought you God!

– And that’s what the High Witch of the Coven will tell us,» interrupted the professor. – Eira, what does your unit do?

– Hello, – began the guest. – Special unit «Witches of Coven» appeared more than twenty years ago. The unit consists of women and is designed solely for the destruction of fanatics, their sympathizers and all the trappings of religion.

– Why women? Sorry to interrupt, but aren’t men stronger than women?

– A man is weaker than a woman,» the witch smiled. – That’s why they will never be in my unit. And physical strength has no meaning or effect now. High technology and developed stagnum are the key to effective work.

– But men’s stagnum has always been superior to women’s. Hasn’t it? – The host didn’t give up.

– It depends on how you show it. But I can say one thing for sure. Do you know why there have never been women in religion? Why they were not taken not only as church ministers, but even as clerics? Because a woman is essentially down-to-earth and dreams of earthly goods. About the love of a real man, about children, about health for their loved ones, about financial well-being. And never worldly will not trade for an invented god. Moreover, a woman is ready to defend everything she has real! With her teeth! With her fingernails! She has no fear of a mythical character that no one has ever seen. Can you say that about a man? Michael, Andrei, haven’t any of you ever questioned the path you’ve chosen? Have you ever wondered if I’m blaspheming? Don’t we look up to the sky with questions?

– Yes… – the host interrupted the awkward pause. – Witches. Do you have any powers, or is that just an antagonistic name?

– Sophisticated stagnum! That’s what witches have in common. Is that how you use your stagnum, Andrei? – Eira asked. – Okay, I’ll answer that. You have achieved your position, you have money, you are loved by women, you are used to luxury. It’s the usual stagnum of an ordinary man with ordinary desires and strong ambitions. With such a stagnum you can achieve a lot in life. To the point of becoming an alpha in Pride. The key is to develop it properly.

– Isn’t that what they teach us at school? – smiled the host.

– It is. But a woman who chooses the path of a witch will never have anything like that. The sole purpose of my stagnum is to kill. I, for one, have a living stagnum. He talks to me. His name is Max. And he is merciless to his enemies, as he embodies all my ideas, ambitions, and hatred of bigots.

– And how does it work? – The professor couldn’t resist, obviously mocking the words about a living stagnum. – Does he tell you jokes? Do you have dinner together? Bullshit! Pure nonsense! A stagnum is stationary in essence and in name!

Eira pulled a pistol out of her duty holster, turned it around, and held it out to Michael.

– Shoot me!

– And what? – The professor didn’t move. – What will the stagnum’s reaction be? Will it stop the bullet? – Michael was clearly enjoying his joke.

– And that’s what we’re about to find out! – Eira raised her voice. – Don’t be afraid! It’s interesting.

– We’re not going to shoot anyone, – Andrei tried to defuse the situation. – Put the gun away. Tell me about your operational work. Do you kill them on the spot? I mean fanatics.

Eira looked at the professor a little more, and hid the gun in its holster.

– The little things – clerics, sympathizers – we destroy on the spot. The more important ones, the spiritual leaders, the preachers, the monks, we take them to the Coven prisons.

– Yes,“ Sulu grinned again, „the last assault ended with the fanatics being found dead with their mouths sewn shut and their severed genitals and mammary glands stuffed into them. Even a couple of journalists got caught in the act. What’s your witch’s name? Boudicca? Everyone knows that any encounter with a witch will end in either an agonizing death or a cruel curse.

– Why don’t you kill the more important ones on the spot? – interrupted the professor.

– Then they immediately become martyrs,» the witch smiled, defiantly ignoring the professor. – They died for their faith. And thus strengthen the faith of other fanatics. Rumors in this environment spread almost instantly.

– So? You just put them in jail?

– No, we release them as soon as the renunciation process is complete. It’s very effective. A person renounces his faith in public, and we show it on a special TV channel.

– But a man can be deceived by renouncing his faith!

– Who? God? – Eira lit a cigarette. – Do you mind? – She asked Andrei and took a deep drag. – If a man goes to deceit to save his own skin, then he no longer trusts his god. You can’t deny your god by pretend. The whole point of religion is to blindly believe that god will protect you from any force. And if he doesn’t, he’s accepted you into the kingdom of heaven without a trial. Either way, it’s a good thing. By denying, you doubt his power and intent.

– Was it successful? Do you have special people for this?

– So far, it’s been successful. But it’s getting harder every time,» the witch took a drag. – You know, we don’t like to talk about it. It’s a very unpleasant part of our work. To give you an example, in one of the last renunciations we had to cut children in front of their parents. Didn’t last long. The parents, of course.

– And how do you sleep afterward? – The professor asked.

– We have sarcasm on sarcasm! – Eira couldn’t stand it and defiantly exhaled smoke right in the professor’s face. – When the life of a billion people depends on you, when you are trying to save this fragile hope from the last effort, when you yourself put a cross on your personal life, then it’s not up to morality. Don’t worry, Professor. When I find you in the company of fanatics, I’ll kill you right there and fast. Let’s call it a day! – the witch threw the cigarette butt into the professor’s glass and left the studio.

Chapter 7

– Whisper,“ Eira said, taking a sip from her tall glass. – That was brilliant! I didn’t believe you could handle so many people at first. You’ve never used mass hypnosis on us before. – She turned toward the bar: „Do we need someone to refresh the alcohol, or should I call the SWAT team here?

Six women sat at a round table in the corner of a small restaurant room in the dim light of the stage spotlights. There was not a single customer in the restaurant, except for the noisy female company of the Coven, and not a single waiter. A moment later an elderly man of short stature appeared from the bar with two bottles. He bustled over to the vacationers and filled glasses and shot glasses.

– The waiters had already dispersed. I’m the only one left. Shall I leave the bottles here? – he asked coyly. – If they run out, you can choose whatever you want at the bar. – He nodded toward the bar. – I’m sorry, but I need to get home to my family, too. Call me if you need anything. – He stood for a moment until Eira gave him a generous wave of her hand, and then he jogged toward the exit.

– When you book a table for tonight, don’t tell me it’s for a coven! – said Cataleya, adjusting the napkin on Boudicca’s chest. – The restaurateur put the restaurant up for sale and all the staff quit retroactively.

– I wanted to get a small discount, not curse the entire restaurant,» Tamura replied. – I really didn’t get charged for the banquet at all.

– What about the restaurant, what about the whispering? – Eira persisted.

– Have you ever heard of the practice of whispering witches? – Ruta asked back. – Vince is coming to pick me up soon,» she said, looking at the bewildered employees who looked at her with a question in their eyes, «my boyfriend,» she said. – The Jap will tell you all about it later. – Ruta pointed her finger at Tamura. – Shall we get to the ceremonial part? I realize I’m a hero who once again saved humanity from fanatics. And I’m smarter than all of you,» she smirked quietly, «but I’m not the birthday girl. Pour it, Tamurych, why are you sitting there selling tabla?

– Do you want to laugh? – Eira stood up and raised the filled glass. – When we had already spent money on the gift, paid for the project to the hardware and software developers, and ordered the sword, Ruta suddenly shrieked, «Holy shit! She needs two katanas. She’s an ambidextrous, after all!» We all froze, and Sylvia from the tech department timidly asked: «Who’s an ambidextrous?» And the white one said, «An ambidextrous person is a person who doesn’t care which hand is holding a pipidaster.»

– Katanas? – Tamura interrupted the raucous laughter of the guests. – It was a gift, wasn’t it? – The birthday girl’s brown eyes flashed like two supernovae. – Tell me it’s a gift! They’re not just katanas, are they?

– One katana so far,» Eira replied. – Or what’s the correct word? One katana? – She pulled out from under the table a Japanese sword in a black jade scabbard with an equally black jade hilt

– Pipidastre! – Tamura held out her hands to take the gift.

– What is a pipidastre? – Boudicca suddenly perked up.

– Wait!» Eira pulled the gift away from the birthday girl. – I’ll tell you first. It’s a work of art and the quintessence of the most modern technology,» she half-bared the blade. – It’s an alloy of the usual combat polymer used for firearms strikers and an isotope of titanium. Ninety times stronger than steel! It scratches diamond, but corundum cuts like bread. Superman’s kryptonite shatters into crumbs! Self-sharpening blade!

– Great! – Tamura exclaimed in amazement, impatiently holding out her hands for the gift.

– Have patience, Major Hogan! – said the commander sternly. – This is only the beginning of the presentation of the toughest and deadliest weapon in the universe! Despite the apparent integrity of the cloth, it is composed of three hundred and seventy layers. This is the optimal number to maintain the sword’s durability and the functionality of the device as a whole. If you look closely at the center of the hilt, you will see a dark display screen that is activated,“ she quickly brought the hilt up to Tamura’s face and immediately pulled it away before the birthday girl realized what was happening, „by a biometric scanner of the user’s face! It’s a weapon that would kill God himself!

– Where’d you get the scan of my face, huh?

– In the database! Don’t distract me! The technology of the whole device resembles a standard witch’s knife, but! The blade performs continuous automatic blood sampling of victims across the entire surface of the blade, separating it by DNA types already at the stage of formation of individual protovacuum cells. The processor continuously sends queries to the database for DNA matches, automatically generating a list of murdered people in the witch cloud, labeling the time and place of the murder or wounding. Immediately after listing, blood is removed through the tip of the blade tip. If no match is found, the sample is placed in a protovacuum cell and can be stored there, uncoagulated, for eight months! When it is no longer needed, it is reset with a touch button on the display. Forty such protovacuum cells can be formed! These dots show how the cells are filling up. If the dot is red, the cell is full.

– Give me my pipidaster already! – Tamura couldn’t resist, she took the katana away and exposed the blade completely. – What a beauty! – She whispered, looking at the play of reflected light on the ornamental patterns of the gilded sword. – I never dreamed of such a thing! How much is it?

– As much as you give! – Cataleya cut in. – You know the rule.

– Of course, – enthusiastically hissed the birthday girl and pulled out of her purse an ancient gold coin. – Aztec gold! – she tossed the coin with her fingers, unwinding it, and in flight struck it with the palm of her hand, pinning it to the table.

– You knew, didn’t you, that the sword would be a gift? – Eira asked.

– I guessed. But I thought it would be a souvenir from ancient samurai Japan. And I certainly didn’t expect such a celebration! Thank you, girls! Cheers! – she raised a shot of vodka. – I love you all!

– Here’s to you, Tamurach! God grant you the health to kill believers! – shouted Ruta.

– Pun intended? – Eira sneered. – Let’s talk about practicing whispering witches.

– Okay,“ the white witch put the phone down on the table, „Vince is late anyway. Listen. If you choose a special timbre, and on the throat bifurcation whisper poetry, necessarily with dactylic rhyme, such as «God», «Sergejenka», «twig», «cell», and the endings of rhymes should be with a fading amplitude, and the rhythm is constantly breaking, not allowing the subject to get used to the tact, you can directly change the cognitive paradigm of perception of reality. Hallucinations created by the subcortex of the subject’s brain are the most harmless thing that can happen to the subject. How does it work? First, you whisper something very close or even sacred to the victim, but with an intonation for unspoken fear. «Not resurrected» and «not crucified» is immediately clear about whom, but the denial itself a priori causes a protective reaction of the brain, forcibly putting the person into an alpha state. Further all the rest of the whispering motive is visualized by a person in a dream, not realizing that he is sleeping. Does that make sense?

– A test subject? – Eira asked.

– I’d like ten people,» Ruta looked to the left and up. – I’d like to practice.

– Wouldn’t one be enough?

– That’s the thing, it wouldn’t be enough. I’ve had more than one! I want to learn how to control a person’s behavior, not drive them crazy, and I certainly don’t want to kill them. So far, all I’ve gotten is negative results! All I can do is make a crowd think something nasty. And I want to rule! We have unallocated children in foster care. It’s the easiest thing to do with kids. I promise not to kill anyone.

– Practice on Vince,» Tamura whispered, mimicking Ruth.

The young witch jumped up on the table and hissed. Tamura instantly nudged the present and took a strong swing, stopping the sword right at Ruta’s neck.

– What’s going on here? – came a stuttering male voice from behind.

The witches looked at a young man in his thirties. The guy was clearly shocked by what was happening. With shaking hands he held a small black box wrapped with a golden ribbon.

– «Left unbalanced,» Tamura said, pretending not to pay attention to the newcomer. Then she turned to the young man: «I was given a sword. Look at it,» she held it out to Vince, «isn’t it beautiful?

– We made it for your right hand,» Eira said.

– Well, I’ll work on it later,» she jabbed the blade at the box the young man had come in with. – Me?

– What’s a pipidastre? – Boudicca was already getting nervous.

– That’s why a right-handed sword should be balanced to the left hand? – Eira persisted.

– What if my right hand gets chopped off! I’ll throw the katana on the mezzanine, right? Let it gather dust, huh? – Tamura turned to the boy again: «So it’s for me?

– Yes, yt… For you,» he replied.

– My boy was hiccupped to the point of hiccups. – The white witch came from behind to the boy, hugged him and kissed his neck, -Hello, kitty. Don’t pay attention to the elderly idiots,“ she took the boy’s hand and turned to the people sitting there, „this is Vince, my young man. Vince is an artist. He draws the subjects of famous works with a simple pencil.

– Give me the present, Vince,» Tamura used her blade to hook the loop of the gold bow on the black box. – What do we have here? – She quickly untied the knot, opened the box, and pulled out a glass flask, sealed on both sides. In the flask lay motionless a huge insect with glossy straight folded wings and long whiskers. – Is it what I think it is?

– It’s a Krasnoyarsk cockroach,» Vince answered. – From the infested borderlands. He’s in anabiosis. Or a she. I don’t know, to be honest. All I know is that you break off the tip and let air in. The cockroach will come back to life. There’s a special cut in the glass. That’s what the store said. Are you a collector?

– Well, as a collector? – Tamura smiled, shook the cockroach onto the table and pulled off the glove on her left hand. – This is for Mitsu!

Boudicca looked at the cockroach and began to howl.

– «We’re going to go, out on the balcony for a smoke,» said Cataleya, picking Boudicca up under her armpits. – I’ll tell you what a pipidastrum is. – The witches got up from the table and slowly moved outside.

– I’ve seen so many gruesome deaths, but I can’t bear to look at such things,» Snyt commented and turned away defiantly.

The cockroach fell on his back and began to slowly wiggle his mustache. Then he jumped up, quickly oriented himself and ran to the edge of the table, where a model-looking girl with red hair was sitting. A spider immediately jumped out of Tamura’s sleeve and caught up with the cockroach in no time. It jumped on his back and began to knit a web around the fugitive. After a couple of moments, the cockroach gave up. The spider turned it over, climbed onto its belly, and looked at Vince for a moment.

– Thank you,» the birthday girl whispered, covering her mouth with the palm of her hand.

The spider slowly pushed its sting into the cockroach’s abdomen, piercing its web and the soft fabric of the insect’s shell. In pain, the cockroach let out a thin squeak, which changed to a wheeze after a second, and then simply subsided.

– Every breath shall praise the one-eyed man! – The white witch whispered quickly.

– That spider, does it live in you? – Vince looked clearly confused, not expecting this outcome.

– Well, what kind of spider is it? – Tamura said affectionately, stroking the furry back of Mitsu’s meal. – It’s a harmless spider. He’s just a little boy. And cockroaches from the eastern infested territories are his favorite treat. – The spider finished sucking the liquid out of the dried and gaunt cockroach and hopped onto the back of her hand, then ran down her outer garment to the birthday girl’s face and sniffed at her nostril.

– Vince, kitty, let’s get out of here. See, aunts are crazy,» Ruta took the boy’s hand and pulled him toward the exit. – Bye, girls! – she said without turning around.

– We’ll go too,» said Cataleya, who had returned from the balcony. – We have work tomorrow. Thanks for the alcohol and the food. And here, I made you something too,» she pulled a metal dragonfly with mesh wings out of her purse. – It’s for evil eye and curses. You wear it on your belt.

– Red, you took it off the corpse, didn’t you? – Tamura asked as she put it on her belt.

– The owner is dead, but he’s not cursed. And as you know, death cleanses amulets. Besides, I know you like that kind of thing.

– Nice girls,» Eira said, finishing her champagne.

– I don’t know,» Tamura replied. – They’re boring. Predictable. Ruta’s cool. And Cataleya… Except for the amulets. She gave Ruta an arrow of love for her last birthday. Lucky her.

– Yeah, lucky. She’s so lucky. As long as I’ve worked with her, I’ve never seen her like this. What happened to her last boyfriend?

– When she was explaining the rhymes, she mentioned Seryozhenka for a reason.

Eira opened her eyes wide, showing a look of surprise bordering on shock.

– Uh-huh,» Tamura nodded. – She had a boy about thirty-five years old. He was macho, and they started dating. And then he began to impose his will on her. A man, he said, and you’re a green teenager. The man said it, the man did it. She found an infusion system somewhere in the lab, tied Seryozhenka to a chair with pantyhose, gagged him with a teddy bear and stuck the donor needle of the drip directly into his brain. She put the other needle in a vein on his elbow. Then she climbed on top of him and started fucking him. And when he came, she pumped all the orgasm hormones into herself with an infusion pump. He’s in a pre-stroke state and she gets a double buzz. And she did it for a week until he went cuckoo. She whispered a poem to him every time. I’ll find it, I had it somewhere,» she pulled out her phone, «listen:

my Sergei

liquid wax

empty eye sockets

I’ll fill them

and two candles

as they do in church

to make it look like eyes

♪ but they’re false ♪

♪ and there’s a waxen tear running ♪

♪ and in my soul ♪

black god

gently

♪ with a dessert spoon ♪

♪ eats my heart out ♪

♪ under the still warm skin ♪

carefully

so as not to eat you at once.

my Seryozhnya

took the devils to the autobahn.

– Oh, come on! – Eira stretched out. – I thought you were the sick one. But something like that! You wouldn’t dream of it. It’s so creepy! The verse, by the way, is no less creepy. It’s also the most prophetic! Let’s toast her,» she topped up the glasses with champagne.

– Let’s toast Mitsu. He’s part of me, after all.

– By the way, you never said anything about your spider. Where’d you get it?

– Nobody believes me. That’s why I don’t.

– Will you tell me?

– Okay, listen. I had an older sister named Linda. Arachnophile. Had a wild fascination with all members of the arthropod family. Raised and bred them. Over 60 specimens in her collection. And she loved to touch them. And even more loved it when they climbed on her naked body. She got goosebumps and moaned when spiders bit her. Most of them were highly poisonous, and her body eventually developed an antidote. Her parents didn’t share her sophisticated hobby, but they didn’t forbid it either. But Linda loved her little sister more than spiders. She was crazy about me. Said she’d never leave me alone and would take care of me till the end of time. But one day she did. She was already fourteen, and her boy asked her out. And I was nine. She put me on a bus and sent me home. There was a fanatic on the bus with an explosive device, which he detonated when the bus was barely away from the stop. I was badly burned and one piece of shrapnel went through my heart. They put me back together piece by piece, but they couldn’t save my heart. Anyway, I needed a baby heart with a high coincidence factor. I didn’t see Linda in pain at the time, but I know what she did. Landed a female hermit spider, the most venomous spider of the new world, on her and it bit her. There was no antidote for it in her system, and an hour later Linda was found blue, covered in some kind of slime. She was dead, and the parents made the decision to save at least one child. The doctors refused to transplant the heart, which had toxin levels that exceeded all acceptable norms. So the father paid them well. The heart was transplanted, but it did not beat, despite direct massage, defibrillators and all the actions of doctors. And this is where the strangest and most mysterious event began. I opened my eyes during my resuscitation and clearly saw a hermit spider descending from the ceiling on a spider web. At one point in time he froze, I suddenly thought he was looking at me with all four pairs of eyes. Then the spider broke away from the web and dropped right into my open chest between my ribs. And my heart gave its first beat, then another and another. I was saved. No one believes me, because I couldn’t have seen it, because I was dead at that moment. But I remember it very clearly and distinctly. That boy has lived inside me ever since. Taking care of me, healing any open wounds, stopping internal bleeding, injecting antidotes and antivirals into my body, fixing broken limbs.

– Cool! – Eira nodded. – Really cool. Doesn’t it cure radiation?

– I don’t want to check. But I have a little girl secret,» Tamura leaned across the table conspiratorially and put her finger to her lips, «shh, shh, shh. I’ve never been on any diet,» she whispered. – All the extra glycogen is consumed by him. That’s who it is, if not Linda’s reincarnation? Yes, I don’t deny the power of my stagnum, and that if it weren’t for the stagnum, maybe Mitsu wouldn’t be here now. But where does a nine-year-old girl with no stagnum come from?

– Okay, but I have a question that’s been bugging me since I met you. May I?

– Yeah, go ahead.

– How do you remove with your fingers the web, the strength of which allows you to stop bullets and, as you say, fix limbs in fractures?

– No way! Mitsu lets me do it. It’s like he’s in constant control of all the coverings on me, and when I start tearing at my webs, he loosens those places. I don’t know how to explain it scientifically, but I think it’s about the protein that makes up the web. It’s like the spider is changing its molecular structure. Or degrades some component that binds the protein. But the web always comes off easily and flushes down the toilet just as easily.