Mark Makkfein and the Find
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– It’s not makeup, it’s what we do when we go out and take a few magical maneuvers – coloring ourselves with clays of different shades, but it has nothing to do with women. The women are getting prettier since the first day on Mertsella, so they don’t have to do such nonsense as coloring their face if they don’t have to do some magical thing.
Christina was devastated, how she’ll live without her lipstick and powder. Bruno sat at the table on the sofa, and we decided to start our conversation.
Chapter 3. «Planned surprise»
– Get to the point, said Bruno.
We were brought a large cup of drink, which here beautifully called
– So, – said Bruno. – You’re on this planet for a reason, but you, Mark…
– What, my visit was scheduled? I thought it was a wild accident, – I interrupted Bruno.
– Yes, Mark, it was a planned surprise, Bruno smiled, but my plan almost failed, you didn’t want to take the satellite with your hands. And the only way to fly with it is to take it with your bare hands, not with a handkerchief.
– I was very afraid of burning or passing out my fingers, I said. – I’m not a fool to take things with my bare hands, especially since this balloon has a very strange shine like a star.
– So I helped you! – Christina said it cheerfully.
– Well, yes, grabbing things with your bare hands, and other people’s things, and when not asked for – big help – I sarcastically noticed. Christina got offended and turned her back. I continued. – And why would you want me?
– You’re right for us, Bruno said. – Don’t worry, you’re not the great-grandson of the great wizards. It’s just that sometimes I go out on Earth streets and look at new faces. This time I had the goal of taking the new Guardian for the Hidden Agency. I really liked your face, Mark. I can tell by the face of the right person. You’re real, alive. I’m not going to tell you that you don’t have to take those words literally and what they mean. Ever since I found you, you’ve been assigned to be a conscript, but the amazing coincidence is that you’ve already been listed in the Mertsella Agency database as an asset to our planet. The conscripted people are the chosen people to live on Mertsella, who come from different planets.
The meaning of his words did not quite reach my mind. I did not understand what was expected of me. Bruno continued:
– Besides, you fit the bill on every level: young, smart, orphaned, not yet married… And besides, you really don’t need all of these characteristics, just because I chose you… I have, as it were, this kind of facial recognition, which is the kind of gift I’ve had since I was a kid, which is why I work for the Chief Hidden Mertsella Agency, which is what we took you into.
– Bruno, I, too, have some strange abilities like yours. I can read from the face, I said, when I saw Christine come out to wash her hands. – It’s my too-innate insight. I can see what a man is hiding, whose manner he is copying, who he really is and who he wants to be. I don’t know how, but when I see a man, his facial expressions, his gestures, all of a sudden I know all about him. It’s like a movie in front of my eyes, it’s like a scene in this man’s life. At first I thought it was just my imagination, but then my «imagination» became 100% likely to coincide with the actual facts. Sometimes I stay away from the person I know about. But more often I get shunned. A lot of people don’t like things to be clear about them, and when their secret thoughts are known to outsiders. Besides, I don’t know how to hide anything, so I make it clear to the person that I know everything about him. I’ve been called a sociopath many times, and I don’t notice when I’m hurting people. It’s not on purpose, it’s on the contrary. I want everyone to be good, I want to be peaceful with everyone, I don’t even want to see the most secret thing about a person, it comes automatically. But it is worth saying something wrong – and I am on the list of enemies. Seeing the hidden life of people, I know nothing about human relations. The same goes for my personal life. It doesn’t sound like anything, but suddenly you realize it’s not your person, or that you’re being silently hated. It’s my cross, and I’ve come to terms with that – being an eternally guilty villain in the eyes of others. So I have never really close friends.
Bruno smiled and responded.
The Agency needs you. Finally, your talent will be appreciated.
– And what does the Agency do? – asked Christine back in her office.
– Helping people is the most important thing the Hidden Agency does. Mark, are you ready to be our Employee? Christina, are you okay with being Mark’s partner?
– I agree! – Christina screamed.
– Wait, I said. – I don’t understand. What are my duties?
Bruno replied:
– You and Christina will be investigating undercover crimes and doing covert missions. Yeah, I forgot to clarify. Your assignments will be related to the planet Earth, because you are its native. There will be fewer missions on Mertsella, although this may not be necessary, accidents here occur once every hundred years, metaphorically speaking, and that is minor.
– More than a hundred years, I think I’ll never live, I said. Bruno was serious and added:
– All you have to say is
– I don’t know, Bruno, – I was confused.
– You have to answer now, – Bruno said.
I would stay here forever, on this Mertsella, in this lovely house, but I wondered if I could do things I can’t even imagine.
– You’re a bore, Christina said. – Are you hesitating? Your gray life is over now. Now you’re going to have adventures and fantasy. Isn’t that an argument you need to make?
– You have time to think until tomorrow morning. When the sun rises, I will be ready to hear your answer, said Bruno, and then added. – You need to remember your motives.
«Remember your motives» are strange words. But I took them with the utmost understanding at the time, as if I had long wanted to remember what motives I had to start working for the Hidden Agency.
– Well, I’ll try, – I said to Bruno, feeling like he wants to sleep… Stop! What do you mean I feel him sleepy? I was amazed, I suddenly realized that I could feel what Bruno feels now.
– What’s the matter with me, Bruno? I suddenly feel like you’re sleepy.
– Really? – Bruno didn’t seem terribly surprised, which hit me even more.
I turned to Christina, hoping to find an understanding in her eyes, maybe she had the same. But I suddenly felt like she was starving. She’s so dizzy. She’s been malnourished, worried about her figure.
– Why starve? Sometimes you can eat something? – I asked her. And she was very surprised and emotional.
– Why would you think that? Why do you care? – Christina resented me.
I felt like I was crazy.
– So you don’t know what’s happening to me?
– You’re just rude, that’s what’s going on with you, implying that I’m fat, you…