Conductor

By EDGARS AUZIŅŠ

Young conductor Olga Koreneva's whole life suddenly changes when her illegal black caviar is confiscated on one of her journeys. The customers of this transport suffer losses. And Olga, as the culprit of the failure, is forced to deliver a certain secret cargo to Moscow free of charge.
One after another, terrible explosions go off in Moscow, claiming hundreds of lives. Olga realises what kind of cargo she was carrying in her coupe.
This terrible guess turns into the death of the man she loves and her best friend. Will the cruel hand of revenge stop?

• Language: English
• Publisher: EDGARS AUZINS
• Release date: May 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224391219

EDGARS AUZIŅŠ

Dzimis 1989. gada 22. decembrī. Absolvējis Rīgas Juridisko koledžu. Profesijā nav strādājis, bet apguvis programmēšanas prasmes un pašlaik ar to nodarbojas. Kopš 2022. gada ir personīgā uzņēmuma vadītājs, kas nodarbojas ar transporta pārvadājumiem, kā arī programmēšanu. Dzīvnieku, īpaši suņu, mīļotājs. Born 22 December 1989. Graduated from Riga College of Law. Has not worked in the profession, but has acquired programming skills and is currently working in it. Since 2022 he has been the CEO of his own company, which deals with transport transport as well as programming. Lover of animals, especially dogs.

Book preview

Part one

Chapter 1

- Made a mess! You can’t take a step, Ksenia angrily kicked the plastic soldiers scattered on the carpet. - Remove it immediately! Otherwise everything will go in the trash!

Eight-year-old Anton quickly glanced at his grandmother from under his brows and sniffled. He snatched the toy tank from under her feet and reached for the general in the red uniform. But the grandmother got ahead of him.

Shvark! And the general flattened under her slipper, crumbled into a pile of multi-colored crumbs. And Ksenia also slammed him into the carpet, twisted her foot, saying:

- Like this! Here! Understood!

- Mother! - Anton yelled.

His voice broke, and the scream immediately turned into sobs.

Olga flew into the room, grabbed her son in her arms and pressed her to her chest.

- Stupid! Psycho! - she shouted to her mother. - It's time to send you to the madhouse!

- Yeah! Let's! Put your mother in a mental hospital! - she picked up maliciously. She had long been looking for a reason to start a scandal. You’re just waiting for my death so you can take possession of my apartment!

- Why is this your joy?! - Olga started up as usual.

- I received it!

— I’m registered here too!

- So what? It was I who registered you, the slut, out of mercy! And privatization is in my name! - Ksenia triumphantly proclaimed.

- Yes, choke on your apartment! - Olga snapped.

- Don’t open your mouth! Otherwise you'll end up stuck out of here! At least she had a conscience! Who raised you, such a dumbass?!

- State! - Olga said angrily.

Ksenia laughed sarcastically:

- Well, go to your state! Live with him! He really needs you! Why did you come to your mother and your tail got pinched?! Why are you sitting on my neck, shaking my nerves?!

- Yes, I’ll leave, I’ll leave! - Olga barked. I’ll save up for an apartment, buy a small family home and leave! Be patient a little!

- Yeah, go ahead! - Ksenia shouted. - And take your puppy with you! You've done enough yourself, educate yourself! Otherwise you try to throw everything to your mother! Cuckoo!

Olga hugged her son, pressed him tightly to her and exhaled bitterly:

- You don’t need anyone... Neither your daughter, nor your grandson... You’ll die alone, like a dog...

- I won’t die! — Ksenia promised grumpily. - I will outlive you. Do not even think about it!

Anton fell silent, closed his eyes and snorted loudly, burying himself in Olga’s armpit. Ksenia looked at him and barked at Olga:

- Well, why did you sit down?! Go cook and eat! It’s already one o’clock and we haven’t had breakfast! Do you want to starve your mother to death?!

You’ll kill me, Olga muttered. Schizophrenic!

However, she got up and went to the kitchen, and Ksenia jerked her grandson towards her.

Don’t cry, Antoshenka, she whispered. Don’t cry, my sweetie... It’s because of your mother. damn fool, the woman offended you. The general crushed you, didn’t she? And let him die the death of the brave... As if he was torn apart by a bomb. Come on?

He was blown up by a mine, Anton sniffed.

- Well, yes. In German.

- What are you doing, baa?! — the grandson widened his eyes. We are not fighting the Germans.

Well, in Chechen, yes, yes, Ksenia sighed. - In Chechen. And I’ll go to Rostov and buy you another set of soldiers. Or Indians. Want? I saw beautiful feathers on the head there in the Children's World...

- Expensive? - Anton clarified sadly.

Darlings, Ksenia nodded.

He swallowed and courageously decided:

- Then don't. My mother will go to Moscow, there are cheap Chinese ones on the market.

Breakfast was late, so we started with borscht, then potatoes with tomato salad. If gloomy, silent, each staring at his plate. Olga took a bottle of beer from the refrigerator.

- ABOUT! Early in the morning! — Ksenia couldn’t resist. - You'll get drunk...

- Will you? - Olga muttered.

Ksenia took out a second glass and put it on the table.

- Yes, pour it. I'm lost with you.

Olga drank her glass in one gulp and asked:

— When are you on your flight?

- The tenth.

And I’ll be back on the ninth in the evening.

- So what? — Ksenia narrowed her eyes.

- Will you sit with Anton?

- Here! I knew it! — Ksenia declared triumphantly. - Do you think you can bribe me with beer? I needed a mother... I'm crazy! How can you leave a child with me?

- No need! - Olga flared up. I’ll make an agreement with Aunt Tamara. But aren’t you ashamed in front of your neighbors?! Everyone knows that you are at home, and the boy is spending the night with strangers.

We should have sent him to the camp, Ksenia grumbled. - They offered you a ticket, why didn’t you take it?

- Will Pushkin pay for it? Every penny counts for me. I need to vacate your living space...

- Yeah, and the kid breathes dust in the city all summer!

I should have bought him a ticket myself, since I’m so compassionate! - Olga said.

- And I don’t need extra money either! I still need to provide for my lonely old age! — Ksenia grinned.

- Have you eaten? - Olga barked at Anton. - How much can you pickle?!

She quickly began to collect the plates from the table.

- Don’t break my dishes, they weren’t bought by you! — Ksenia couldn’t resist.

- Oh, fuck you!

- She went on her own!

Anton quietly slipped out from behind the table and quietly walked towards the door.

- Mom, I'm going outside...

Yes, okay, Olga responded absentmindedly. I’m with you now too.

- And where are you going? — asked Ksenia.

- To Aunt Tamara. I’ll have to go take the train soon, I need to get Root installed.

The mother took a cigarette from the pack and lit it.

Don’t go, she muttered. - I'll stay with Anton.

Thank you, I respect you... Olga bent over in a silly bow. We’ll manage somehow on our own. Otherwise you’ll fray the boy’s nerves.

I won’t destroy it, Ksenia objected. — Anton and I always live peacefully. Really, small?

- Well! — he confirmed with a nod.

Olga sighed and looked tiredly at her son. Do you want to stay with your grandmother, Koroshok? - Can! - he shouted and disappeared behind the door. - And stop calling your son by a dog’s name! — Ksenia raised her voice. - He has a name.

They call him that in the yard too, Olga justified herself. - From the surname. Korenev, that is. Spine.

Olga Koreneva could not sit still. As long as she could remember, she was always drawn to somewhere, she wanted to leave the small provincial town, where everyone knew each other like crazy, to see the world, and to show herself. People like her. popularly called tumbleweed, a weed, a thorny bush that has no roots, which the wind drives wherever the eyes look. And her last name, Koreneva, as if in mockery, emphasized this restlessness of hers.

Since childhood, Olya grew up in a boarding school. Ksenia’s mother worked as a conductor, raised her alone and only occasionally took her home for the holidays, accumulating time off. After boarding school, she returned home, but immediately became homesick for the provincial monotony and went to the North to build an oil pipeline. She was told that the pay there was just fabulous money.

In reality, everything turned out to be simpler: a cold barracks, hard work from dawn to dusk, and the pay almost entirely went to alcohol and expensive fruits, without which Olga, who grew up in the south, could not live. She didn’t feel any romance in the north, and after six months she became bored there too, but at that time she just started an affair with Gerka, as a result of which her Root was born in due time.

The root was the reason that Olga had to return to her mother. What about with a baby in a cold barracks? And Gerka, when Olga’s belly became round, somehow immediately lost interest in her and rushed further across the expanses of our Motherland.

Olga remembered well how she appeared on her own doorstep with Antoshka in her arms, tried the locked door and went to her neighbor, Aunt Tamara.

And Ksenia is on a flight, she clasped her hands. Did you warn her that you were coming, Olechka?

I gave a telegram, Olga swallowed a lump of resentment. - Three days ago.

- Oh! - Aunt Tamara waved her hands. — And Ksenia has been skating for two weeks now!

- When will I be back? — Olga frantically wondered in her mind whether she had enough money for a hotel.

I’ll go to the HR department tomorrow and find out, said Aunt Tamara. - And you undress, sit down with me for now. Who is this, your son or daughter?

- Son. Anton.

Aunt Tamara quickly opened the cotton blanket, unswaddled the baby and smacked her lips touchingly:

- Oh, what a little cutie! How cute! Looks like Ksenia!

He looks like me, Olga was offended.

- No! Grandma's lips, and nose too. Spitting image! - concluded the neighbor.

Olga could not understand why she was so offended that the child looked like a grandmother. She was used to telling everyone that her son was her copy, because there was nothing Gerkin about him. It’s even insulting... If only I could look at my son and remember him... Or maybe it’s for the best that he doesn’t look like him. Out of sight, out of mind.

Ksenia returned from the trip a week later. Tired, gloomy. She glanced briefly at Olga, as if they had broken up yesterday, and stared at Antoshka.

- Who else is this? Where did the gift come from?

From a camel, Olga muttered.

Aunt Tamara realized that a family scandal was brewing and wisely went into the kitchen.

That means it’s a baby camel, the mother clarified with a grin. - Are you a camel? Or a camel?

Olga jerked as if from a blow and picked up her son in her arms.

Well, well, Ksenia resolutely pushed her away. Let me at least look you in the face. What kind of tribe? In our breed or not? Maybe she got some black stuff?

In yours, in yours, Tamara looked out from the kitchen. - The lips are definitely yours!

I see it myself, Ksenia interrupted her. Well, go to grandma, grandson. How do you like your father? Or according to your mother?

Anton Korenev, said Olga dryly.

So, according to my mother, Ksenia nodded. Why is our Korenev wearing full pants and being silent?

I’ll change it now, Olga removed the sliders from the battery.

Give them here, Ksenia took them away. - I am my own shit...

And since then, Ksenia has pursued a strange policy of divide and conquer. With Antoshka, she either lisped or was like an evil vixen, and the change of masks took place instantly, without warning or visible reason. For some reason, Olga’s mother immediately listed her as her worst enemy.

She was probably angry and took out her frustration on her for her unfulfilled dreams, for Olga’s unjustified hopes. So, I raised my daughter alone, I thought that she would become one of the people, her mother would be proud of her... But she, a worthless scoundrel, did not study, spoiled the child and came to disgrace her mother. So she would have sat quieter than water, lower than the grass, knew her place, was shy... And she, as if on purpose, called all her neighbors about her life in the North, about this dissolute Gerka, who fooled around with her and abandoned her, and about how alcohol is in the cold drank. Well, what kind of fame is he creating for himself, you fool?!

Olga couldn’t stand the endless reproaches for even a year - she went on to seek happiness. I got a job in a factory in Mozdok, got a hostel, and sent Antoshka to a nursery. I’ve just settled in, and here it’s on you! The peaceful, provincial Mozdok turned into a front-line zone, a field hospital was set up next to the factory, it became restless and scary... I had to urgently return back to my mother, out of harm’s way. Ksenia hired her as a guide, Antoshka was sent to kindergarten for five days, and on weekends, if both were on trips, Aunt Tamara took him. This is a neighbor, like a stranger, but better than your own grandmother...

The problems began when it was time for Antoshka to go to school. There was not a single boarding school in the town, Olga was given a referral to a closed-type district one, by an evil irony of fate, the same one where she herself spent her childhood...

Antoshka fumed, sobbed, demanded to be returned home, and did not respond to any arguments or promises. We somehow suffered for a year, and now Olga urgently needed to decide something. But what should you decide if your grandmother doesn’t want to hear about retiring? It’s not a good idea to quit your job... The trouble-free aunt Tamara had suffered greatly over the past year, and it was already a burden for her to look after the nimble, grown-up, active boy. And Antoshka would have to be driven to school across the railroad tracks, because their yard was the last residential island remaining on the right-of-way between the car repair depot and the brigade house.

The rails began right behind the gate, the grass near the fence was covered with a layer of fuel oil, and the whole life of its inhabitants passed under the round-the-clock, endless clatter of carriage wheels, the clanging of couplers and the loud roll calls of the drivers.

Once upon a time, in early childhood, Olga saw an old black and white film, from which she remembered a narrow-eyed boy. He ran along the tram tracks and muttered endless things under his breath:

- Do-de-ska-den... do-de-ska-den... - imitating the sound of wheels, and it was much more accurate in rhythm than ours: knock-knock-knock.

Do-de-ska-den... Olga often whispered before going to bed, listening to the monotonous tapping under the bottom of the carriage. - Do-de-ska-den... Under-knock-to-forest...

Chapter 2

A fast train with the name of the Southern Fool on the green, dusty sides of the cars rushed along sparse villages on the slopes, lonely houses of linemen, past boys with bicycles at crossings, past a scattered mosaic of someone else's, dreary, fragmentary life.

Olga looked out the window. I wanted to sleep badly, so that the landscape outside the window merged into a gray haze, twitching like a veil, and a stinging sensation began under my half-closed eyelashes. Today she had five landings during the night, so by morning she was already exhausted, and in half an hour there was still a large junction station ahead. The last one. And that’s it, it will be possible to wake up Lidka and hand over duty.

Lidka was sleeping in the adjacent service compartment with two shelves located one above the other, and Olga, so as not to disturb her partner, sat in the conductor's room and served tea. The nights were already getting cold. It’s only August, but it looks like autumn...

Lidka loved to sleep, which is why Olga conceded this first, most difficult night to her, when, having barely departed from the night station, the train begins to slow down at frequent small stops, collecting crowds of vacationers rushing to return from vacation.

Buses from Divnogorsk approach Tonnelnaya, and buses from surrounding sanatoriums approach Razgulnaya... And crowds of people with children, backpacks and suitcases rush along the train, trying to find their carriage in two minutes, stuff their luggage into it and load themselves.

And Olga regularly opens the doors, lowers the step, raises the flashlight higher, peering at the tickets and passports. She shudders in her jacket from the coolness of the night and habitually scolds Lidka. Again she whined, the infection, again she managed to persuade her to skip duty...

But for this sacrifice, Olga will receive a bribe upon her arrival in Moscow. During a sleepless night, Lidka will let Olga wander around while she alone counts the laundry, pours water, loads briquettes with coal and washes the carriage. In general, to each his own. If you want to sleep at night, work hard during the day.

The gray morning had not yet warmed up in the sun. The lattice supports of the bridge across the Kuban flashed outside the window - that means Nevinnomyssk is just around the corner.

Olga took the flag, buttoned up her uniform jacket and looked in the mirror. Damn, there’s a red dented scar from the window frame across her entire cheek... Still, she took a nap and didn’t even notice how... She rubbed her cheek, rinsed her face with cold water and rubbed it firmly with a government-issued waffle towel.

That's better. Immediately the look became more meaningful, and the eyes sparkled. Olga tightly twisted a plait of luxurious chestnut hair around her head and placed a cap with a cockade on it, coquettishly, slightly askew.

In Nevinnomyssk, two people got into the carriage, in the last two seats, a guy and a girl. Both are beautiful, tanned, dark-haired. The guy easily carried two suitcases, and the girl carried bags from which the necks of beer bottles temptingly peeked out and the tail of a smoked silver carp protruded. Olga even swallowed her saliva, she really wanted beer with fish... To curb her appetite, she fumbled for cigarettes in her pocket and quickly lit a cigarette. Then she jumped onto the platform and walked a little along the train. Standing here for a long time, fifteen minutes, you can even walk to an ice cream stand.

- Ol! - Baba Tanya called out to her from the next carriage. - Buy me a newspaper with a crossword puzzle!

- Lada! - Olga responded.

Baba Tanya yawned lazily and looked after her. Contrary to her nickname, she was a strong, tall girl with wide hips, and Baba Tanya was only thirty-five. But for a year now she had really been a grandmother, since her seventeen-year-old daughter Lenka, whom Tanya herself also gave birth to at seventeen, presented her with a granddaughter. Everyone took the granddaughter for the woman—Tanya’s daughter, and the daughter for her sister, which Tanya was very proud of.

Olga quickly walked towards a busy spot on the platform, where a newsstand, an ice cream and soda stand, and stacks of cases of beer were crowded together. Everything is locally produced, and therefore Olga glanced at them indifferently. Not inspiring. St. Petersburg Baltika was loaded into the restaurant, Sashka promised to leave a couple of boxes for his own. The newspapers were also local, but Olga spotted several brochures with crossword puzzles and bought two copies for each.

Everyone in their brigade is obsessed with crosswords and scanword puzzles, it’s just some kind of mania. Well, what else can you do when the carriage is cleaned, tea is served, and the next station is still a few hours away? I’ve already talked about everything with my partner ten times, the landscape outside the window is familiar to the point of pain in my cheekbones, I don’t feel like sleeping. So all that remains is to bury yourself in the life-saving crossword puzzle and stretch your brain a little.

A boy with a light sports bag over his shoulder touched Olga’s elbow.

-Are you from this train? - he asked quickly. — Neither Moscow? What carriage?

Not so soon, Olga grinned, already realizing that a bunny was sticking to her. -Where are you going?

- Give me a ride to Armavir. It's desperately necessary.

One hundred, Olga nodded in agreement. The guy was very surprised.

- At the box office, it seems, there are sixty...

Yeah, Olga smiled sweetly. - Then go buy it at the cash register.

No tickets, the guy said annoyedly.

That’s what I’m talking about, Olga shrugged. And in conditions of shortages, prices also rise. Have you heard of a market economy?

Ninety, the guy muttered. - Honestly, not anymore.

- OK. Go to the fifth car and wait for me.

She looked at the guy and grinned to herself. So skinny, with a tucked butt the size of a fist, just to Lidka’s taste. Lidka is so plump for nothing, but she loves men three times thinner than herself.

Olga gave Baba Tanya the crossword puzzles, blinked for the guy to get into the carriage, and she herself stood on the platform, looking around. No one seemed to notice her maneuver.

The guy handed her crumpled tens in the vestibule, and Olga led him into the service compartment. She threw the bedrolls off the top shelf and covered the mattress with a blanket.

- Go to bed, get some sleep, just be quiet. I'll wake you up before Armavir.

Lidka was sleeping downstairs, her thick bare knee hanging out from under the sheet. The blanket slipped to the floor, red curls scattered across the pillow.

Sleeping Danae, the guy snorted.

He kicked off his sneakers, easily pulled himself up on his arms and curled up comfortably, putting his bag under his head instead of a pillow.

Lidka opened one eye, pointed her finger upward and asked with her lips:

- How many?

Olga spread out nine fingers. The friend nodded in satisfaction and fell asleep again.

Shortly before Armavir, when Lidka had already taken duty, and Olga had barely had time to fall into a light, shallow sleep, Baba Tanya rushed from the next carriage.

- Girls, are there any hares? Olka apparently hooked someone up in Nevinnomyssk.

- Controllers?

- In the third carriage. Now they are coming to us, and I have to warn you...

Baba Tanya rushed back, and Lidka flew into the service compartment with unheard-of ease for her plumpness.

- Olka! Get up! We have to hide the hare

- So he should go out now.

I should go out, the guy hung from above.

- Be quiet!

Lidka suddenly jumped onto the bottom shelf, pressed the guy up against the wall, and began piling bales of laundry on top of him. Olga also caught on, the dose of adrenaline even made her sleepy. She rolled up her mattress and also piled it on top of the stowaway.

- Hey, take it easy! — the hare was indignant. I still need to breathe.

- No need! - Olga and Lidka answered in unison - Freeze and don’t breathe!

When two guys with gloomy, sleep-deprived faces appeared in their carriage, both partners were peacefully drinking tea in the conductor's room, bending head to head over a crossword puzzle.

— A city on the island of Cyprus? - Lidka asked thoughtfully.

- How many letters?

- Seven. K is the penultimate one.

— Larnaca.

- Exactly! Fits! But this is a small planet, just two letters... Maybe a typo?

- And about? - Olga asked.

Io... Lidka wrote. - But then the Chilean dictator is not Pinochet.

- Why not Pinochet? Show me! - Olga turned the crossword puzzle towards herself and indignantly grabbed the pen - You yourself are Penochet! Loser!

Take a break for a minute, muttered one of the controllers. — How many passengers are in the carriage?

Thirty-six, Olga readily handed over a tablet with cells. — Two to Rostov, the rest to Moscow. You can check the compartment.

- Are there any hares? — the elderly controller with a bald head on top looked at her suspiciously.

- God forbid! - Olga stared at him with honest eyes and even put her palm to her chest for convincing. We have a compartment, everything is in its place, you can be sure.

- And in the toilet?

Lidka, see your friend out, Olga grinned.

Lidka rattled the plump blank of the carriage key and ordered in a deep voice:

- Let's go.

She