Tulips

скачать книгу бесплатно

The girl lit up the shore, and saw a lifeless body.

“What is that, a person?”

“It’s a parsson, ha-ha-ha!” The brothers went on joking like they usually did.

“Leo, I think he’s still alive, he needs help,” coming closer and touching his pulse, said Eva.

“Leave it, he’s been in the water, he’s not alive now anyway,” Leo replied indifferently.

As soon as she turned him over, he coughed and water spurted out of him.

“Ew, that’s disgusting!” Mateo jumped away; he was covered with slime.

“You’re such a clean freak! Leo, help him,” said Eva.

“Oh, my gosh! He’s really covered in slime,” Leo growled, and leaned over the man, who was coughing convulsively and lying motionless on the stones.

It was Joshua. He was still unconscious, and he didn’t understand anything, but he was choking of vomit, saying one word “alive!”

Leo laid Joshua on his side and started hitting him on the back to get all the water out of his lungs.

“Damn, you dumbheads!” Mateo screamed.

“Leo, what are we going to do?” Aldo asked quickly.

“Take the kid, I’ll distract them,” Leo commanded and climbed into the backpack that hung behind Eva’s back.

“Leo, hurry,” said the girl.

“Coming…”

“Hurry up, Leo, they’re coming,” Eva kept pushing him.

“Now, hold still,” he repeated sharply.

“Leo-oh-oh!”, she screamed, pointing to a group of men who had sprung up suddenly from between the rocks near the shore.

At last Leo took out his silencer, depressed the safety, and threw it violently in the direction of the squad. The boys threw themselves to the ground. There was a pop that instantly stopped the hardliners. It was a kind of mechanism whose explosion disorients a man completely for two minutes and stuns him, leaving a strong whistling in his ears for a long time. It was enough to make the rascals easily pick up the young man’s body and disappear into the night.

“Hurry, hurry,” Eva worried.

The friends dragged Joshua back to their shack, where they vigorously began to bring him back to life, for the dead ocean water was deadly.

“Quickly! First, put on the ointment and gloves. Mateo, take off his clothes and burn them. Aldo, get some rags. Eva, get water,” Leo ordered.

Leo himself began to rummage through the large box in which they kept medicines for all occasions, and there were many such occasions in their lives.

“Ready!”

“Bandages and rags.”

“Here, Leo, take the water,” the friends reported one by one.

“Now, use this jar for rubbing and Eve, hold the lamp over his face where I can see him,” he ordered.

The brothers began to rub Joshua with a special ointment while Leo treated his eyes, ears, nose and mouth with a special solution.

“Well… He’s got a chance,” Leo muttered.

There was a sharp creak of the door, everyone shuddered. An older woman appeared on the threshold.

“Eva said we had a drowned man. Here, give him this,” and grandma Rosa, the lady of the house, gave the boys a hot, fragrant infusion.

Eva gently took the pot and began to slowly drink to Joshua, holding his head.

“Breathe calmly, don’t open your eyes, it will soon pass,” she said as she helped Joshua in his distress.

Tulip, half asleep, was unaware of where he was and what was going on. Sometimes he tried unsuccessfully to get up and say something, but each time he lost consciousness until he was completely unconscious.

Chapter 4

After waking from a sound sleep, Isa languished in a half-slumber for a while before he finally woke up. He rubbed his nose, took a deep breath, and looked up at the ceiling, painted with antique scenes of beautiful nymphs. He was lying on burgundy silk sheets, and the whole bedroom looked as if it had been transported from a prehistoric palace, repeating in detail the interior of the distant past from the preserved pictures.

There were elegant statues and crystal vases of flowers everywhere, marble columns intricately wrapped around unusually beautiful plants, and picturesque paintings hung on the walls. There were no windows as such, and they were replaced by television projections of the surrounding area, which looked quite realistic. And in general, the whole space of the room where Isa was resting was saturated with automatics and electronics. There were voice sensors everywhere, activating literally everything on command, lights, humidifiers, music on, movies on, temperature control, and much, much more.

Isa got out of bed and went to the bathroom, stepping on fluffy wild animal skins. He took a shower, fixed himself and went into the next room, where his clothes for the day were laid out.

In the time when no one saw him, Isa could afford any luxury, eat only delicacies that people had long since forgotten about, drink any rare wine, could wear outfits to any taste, but most of all he loved his leopard robe. He could not, of course, go out to the settlers dressed like that; in everyday life Isa dressed relatively modestly, but here, in his secret abode, there were no restrictions. He dressed much the same in public, except on feast days, when tradition had to be observed. Usually, Isa wore a light dark suit, but on solemn occasions he wore white with gold inlays, which were in perfect harmony with his pendant around his neck.

After examining himself in the mirror, Isa took some drops from his pocket and dosed his eyes. He blinked and went downstairs. A horde of servants was already there to greet him. For years everything had been arranged. Some guarded the Supreme, some cooked the food, some did everything to make the ruler feel comfortable. Some of the servants went straight upstairs to clean up, while others escorted the master to the dining table, where the pre-prepared dishes appeared in an instant. For breakfast, Isa preferred to eat toast with butter and lightly salted salmon. Sometimes Atlantic salmon or crab. For dessert, avocado or mango. He would wash it all down with a cup of hot coffee and some fresh cream.