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Symbols of London
Eugene did not have time to sleep. He had trouble staying awake and in his head he felt some kind of heaviness. He understood that he urgently needed to buy several hours of sleep. Therefore, the former lieutenant of the External Intelligence Service Eugene Kmykh, without stopping anywhere, went to the nearest red telephone box. Why they were called that way, he did not know. Some claimed that once these booths served as a means of communication, when conventional telephones did not yet exist. At first, it remained symbol of London, and then it began to be used for selling sleep. Kmykh did not study the history of the Cenozoic at school, and therefore he had little faith in this version. He had a regular ring-shaped phone, which was usually attached to his ear or finger. On the way to the red telephone box, he put his finger in the ring that was in his pocket. The phone counted the fingerprint, and a hologram of the keyboard appeared in the face. Kmykh never kept the necessary numbers in the notebook of the ring. He kept all necessary twenty-digit numbers in memory.
“Hello, Bill!”
“Hello, Eugene! How are you?”
“Bill, please pay the parking of my capsule for another week. Now I have a two-hour break for eating, buying sleep and need to return to the factory. I was very lucky – the boss allowed me to work in two shifts. In a week I will accumulate weekend hours, and it will be possible to play billiards and drink J"agermeister.”
“You were unlucky. I am three hundred miles from London. Priscilla and me choose a houseboat. Fishermen are selling. The house is in very good condition. We will not be in London for three days. I will drive the house closer to the shore. Agreed with one huckster, he rents out a pile foundation just two miles from the coast. You know, if you cling to a pile, then any storm is not terrible.”
“I agree, near the coast is better than on the high seas. Here you can buy human sleep, and in the sea you have to sleep 6-8 hours daily. I do not understand how these fishermen can sleep for hours. For what?”
“Don’t worry. Your capsule will not be confiscated. Yesterday a decree of the lower house of Commons came out. Now they can only solder forfeit.”
“God bless the queen! I am glad!”
“I'm glad you're glad! Priscilla wants to buy a plot of water at sea. Here, far from the coast, they are inexpensive. She wants to set her own pile. I am against, but away from the coast I liked it. We have been here for two days. I slept twice for ten hours! I really liked it!”
“You're lying again!”
“You would be visit here for a couple of days. It is fantastic!”
“It’s far away. In the capsule I need to change the batteries. Buy energy. I’m already afraid to fly on it with such batteries around the city, that's why I left it in the parking lot. I hope now I will have enough money when working in two shifts.”
“Not will be. They are always not enough. Okay, we'll talk about this later. I have a good plan.”
“You inspire hope. Okay, I'm already at the red telephone box. I’ll buy sleep and return to the factory. It's rainy and damp here.”
“Here sun is shining. Okay, bye. See later.”
Kmykh turned off the phone and went into the red telephone box. Telephone boxes didn’t accept cash in the factory’s area and even two blocks from it, because the hooligans hacked them and the police tried not to visit such areas. Kmykh had 8 Britcoins in cash and 18 on a visa card. At the factory, he was paid 8 Britcoins for an eight-hour shift, but he spent a lot of money for cigarettes. On the monitor screen, Kmykh chose 8 hours of sleep and leaned his forearm against the sensor with an integrated Visa card. A message appeared on the screen that there was not enough money. 16 Britcoins from his account disappeared somewhere. At that moment, he felt the vibration of the ring. This was a message from the bank. Putting his finger in the ring, Kmykh read the hologram, – "8 Britcoins were charged to your account for paying for parking at Sobyaner and Sons and a fine to the municipality is 8 Britcoins. 2 Britcoins are available." Kmykh hoped to get hit by an open-hearth ray to have his body rested and slept, but now he was worried. He had to work 8 hours in this condition. It was dangerous, he could lose this job. Kmykh quickly left a red telephone cabin and headed to the factory. On the way, he went into the ‘Boobs’ cafe for drink a cup of coffee and buy a cigarette. Kmykh was here for the first time. He had not smoked for a day and was comfortably seated in a high chair by the bar. Some unemployed people played billiards. The other peoples played cards at some tables. A bearded man sat by the slot machines and looked around from time to time. The bartender’s face seemed familiar to Kmykh. He wanted to order coffee with Martel cognac, but the bartender was already pouring Martel in coffee. After a couple of seconds, the bartender took a cigarette from the shelf, put it on a saucer and brought it with coffee for Kmykh.
“It's strange. Where I saw you?” – said Kmykh to the bartender.
“Sir, the war in Antarctica, you saved me from a frozen capsule.”
“Indeed! You are captain Military Space Forces, Detachment Delta! You were taught to read minds. I envy you. And what are you doing here with your abilities?”
“I became an invalid, they fired me. I began often to make mistakes. By the way, coffee and cigarettes at the expense of institution. This is my bar and you can go at any time, drink and smoke at the expense of the establishment. This is not much that I can do for you, Lieutenant Kmykh.”
“Thank you, but nobody knows me in this district and there may be problems with hooligans. Now I’m not a lieutenant already. They expelled me from the Army without a pension and gave another year in prison. I had a trampling zone in Acapulco prison.”
“Damn, the corpses we are missing!” – said bartender.
“What corpses?”
“Those two behind the billiards just wanted to rob you. Don't kill them here, please.”
“Good, comrade.”
“The word "comrade" is better not to use, because we have a squealer here, that bearded one, now sitting at a game slot machine. If he hears, then one year of prison Acapulco you will not get. They will be sent you to titanium mines Rosgeology.”
“Well, thanks, I forgot your name.”
“Olaf, sir," – said bartender and added his twenty-digit identification number, which, everyone has as their phone number.
Kmykh already finishing cigarette, while two billiard players came up behind.
“Dude, you owe us money.”
“What money?” – Asked Kmykh.
“You just lost all your money at our billiard table. Give me your cash”, – said the man with a scar on his face and took out a 12-gauge Kalashnikov antique pistol from under the cloak.
“Here we have online cameras fixed for Scotland Yard, you’d better remove the weapons,” – Olaf said.
“You better silent, huckster, otherwise you'll also have to pay,” – said the man with the scar. He was dressed in a tarpaulin cloak, which was usually worn by the homeless. Kmykh realized that cameras record everything, and police will not be able to attract him to get punishment due to excess self-defense. Thus, showing the gun, the bandits untied Kmykh’s hands. Kmykh was already late to work. There was no time to conduct an explanatory conversation. He noticed that the Kalashnikov pistol was on safety lock, and at the same time, with the blow of a finger knocked out the bully's left eye, and then pulled the pistol out of his hand. The bully was shocked for two seconds, his eye hang down on the optic nerve. Then he began to scream wildly in pain and touch the face with his hands. Kmykh did not like the noise and hit by fist to his head, sent the bully in knockout. The bully’s friend was confused and a cue remained in his hands.
“Now put the cue in place and quickly take your friend from the cafe. Pull him away from the entrance”, – Kmykh said quietly.
While the other bully carried the cue, Kmykh to five seconds took the Kalashnikov pistol apart and threw it on the lying bully.
Olaf poured whiskey into a glass and moved it to Kmykh. “There is a card under the glass, it has a little money on it, and it’s also the key to the elevator cabin to the subway. Go into the toilet, the last booth is closed, open it with a card. Inside be sure to stand on the black square and lean the card to tank. Press the drain and elevator will take you down to level 17, right in the subway. Here are cameras everywhere, so take the card from under the glass unnoticed so that I'll don’t invent an explanation for the police”.