Named Sherlock

by Bagatur Zhamkochyan

  Fortunately, at that moment I noticed that the sky, even a few minutes ago is yarkogoluboe, zasinelo clearly. Realizing that this was a harbinger of the short equatorial twilight, I mentally prepared to act.

  Unnecessary thoughts away - to deal with the culprits will be then when get out. If you get out, of course.

  The darkness was rolled rapidly. Five minutes later, there was absolute, impenetrable black night. It is interesting that with the onset of darkness, the village is completely stopped the movement of every kind. Nobody walked, immediately fled to their homes women were quiet children's screams.

  To be honest, it was somehow even strange that no coverage was not provided - no torches or primitive oil lamps, though the fire locals enjoyed. Even the square in front of the temple, which was the center of the village, was not in any way covered.

  Although, in my situation worth to rejoice rather than complain and wonder. He waited to be sure for a few minutes, I decided to be nominated.

  No preconceived plan, I had not decided to improvise. Given that the two guards, the risk in any case would have been high.

  The house was able to get freely. A few minutes after watching the behavior of the so-called "time", I concluded that lax and careless guards still have to search. One is already fast asleep, leaning against the wall of the house. And it's just ten minutes after dark! Second at this time staring at the sky, trailing the spear to the side, and occasionally biting the huge bundle full of local herbs.

  I did not kill was going, so the attack was worth little to prepare. The first thing I checked whether I have enough remaining rope to tie the two. Enough, but just enough. It costs to take care of the gag ...

  Unfortunately, the extra fabric I had not, and spoil his clothes, I had no desire. Therefore, it was necessary to throw and not doedennuyu "yascheryatinu" although stomach growled in protest, and a piece of cloth in which it was wrapped, to build two gag. I hope my future victims will not be greatly offended by the smell of burning flesh.

  Coming very close to men, I stopped. One that was sleeping against the wall, did not represent any danger. But the second ... He sat, with his head up, exposing my throat defenseless, it would be by the way, if I were a vampire, or planning to, nevertheless, to kill him. But I had no such plans.

  Therefore, I had to throw a small risk and because of the angle of a small pebble. Fortunately, my pitiful hit enough, and maybe luck worked, but he fell exactly where it was intended - in the dust, a few feet from a seated man.

  We responded at the same time. He looked up from the distant stars and looked down at his feet, I struggled cracked his butt on the defenseless head. The man grunted softly under his breath and fell forward.

  I must say, this incident gave me a few anxious seconds - not enough that his team-mate suddenly began to sigh and toss and turn in my sleep, so still and leaned against one of the copies to the wall, suddenly began to slide down, threatening to fall to hit him on the forehead.

  For a while I stood and, afraid even to move - with one hand supporting the shoulder norovyaschie mislaid native, the second holding a spear. In this case, his own gun, I just miraculously managed to throw over his shoulder and now feel the strap on which it is hung, slowly but steadily slipped.

  Eh! It looks like total silence still will not work. Releasing a native of the incident, I grabbed the gun, ready, in which case, the second stun. However, this did not take the man and did not wake up. Marveled such a strong and healthy sleep, I still decided to interrupt him.

  He opened his eyes and saw the gun aimed at him, and standing next to me Joey, the man calmly extended his arms. Against the gag he also seems to have no objections. In the first hour, and if they were, unfortunately, there was no possibility of their voice. Therefore, after a few minutes he was also connected.

  Guards dragged around a corner, I went back to the entrance. It seems that everything worked, and my actions go unnoticed. Without lighting a fire, I boldly stepped into total darkness of the doorway, before he could think only of what will have to look for friends by touch.

  And at the same moment a heavy blow hit me on the head.

  - Yes, as you can! - Before I could think, and then fell.

  Chapter 17

  I confess honestly, when I first saw the pith helmet, which is almost a mandatory part of the suit for the attacks on the colonial nature unfriendly, only one thought: "You would not wear this nightmare."

  Fortunately, it was more emotion than a deliberate decision, so I send, all the same, I put on. And because of that I am now, instead of lying on the sand with a fractured skull, only lightly moaning, and then more for the kind, listening to Donnie apology. Though, here I also clearly exaggerated - the impact was not so strong.

  - Well, of course. Of course! You are just great! Yes, I have no words ...

  Donnie paused with dejected. Obviously, he was not there more words. But in conversation, Marissa entered.

  - Sherlock, understand us, please. We just could not stay in the city, knowing that you're here, in the jungle, these savages, all alone. How potvoemu had to do friends view you?

  - Marissa, and that's exactly are you? It looks like your aggressive groom something damaged in my head, I'm a little confused in his mind. It seems that this is not your cue, she'll not go - I do not even try to hold back anger. - Friends had to perform my request, or, at least, try to do it. And you have a child and dragged here!

  - I was not dragged, I myself decided to go - Mikoto enjoyed our skirmish, looking from her party to another. It seems, not caring a situation in which we find ourselves. However, at his age, it would be difficult to understand its seriousness. Although I'm sure that age would not be an argument for vaytukku I appeared and the boy risked his life no less than others.

  - We went to the governor - once again gave voice Donnie. - Mikoto came to us with a note early in the morning, and almost immediately we started to act. I had to give a bribe in order to quickly obtain an extract of his birth. Only it was not enough. This inflated mattress, the governor did not even talk to us.

  - Well, it is clear that it could not be that simple. And you give up so easily?

  - No! After we pointed to the door, we decided to discuss all options. We had an extract from the book of births, a pendant with the portrait, which belonged to the Ivory Rodds, and a lot of witnesses who saw her there, and the city with a baby, and potentially ready to confirm that Mikoto - her son.

  Noticing that I listen carefully, Donny began to speak more calmly and confidently.

  - The only problem was that BelizSiti - Mr. Cleary city, and, having no weighty cover, there is nothing we can not do, even with evidence of iron. What was needed was a lawyer, and very good. One that would not be afraid of possible pressure from the governor. Or ... - here Donnie allowed himself almost imperceptible smile - token that gave you the Queen.

  - Aha! - I again began to raise his voice. - the perfect excuse! That is, that you have come here, I'm to blame?

  Although, I must say, I really felt a slight pang of guilt - if the thought of leaving Donnie token could help Mikoto.

  - Sherlock, stop it, do you hear? You can listen to the first, and then draw conclusions? - Marissa reassuringly touched me on the shoulder.

  - Yes, sorry. Go on ...

  - Well. When we discussed this with the boy, the thought that we may well wait for you and then try again.

  - So why did not wait for that?

  - You see, - the conversation Marissa entered again. - When you mention human sacrifice, we did not take your words seriously. It's such a horror as children's fairy tales that mothers frighten naughty children. To be honest, I did not think it happens in reality. And then Mikoto told us ... What is really going on.

  - Yes, it was necessary at all you do not listen, and go immediately! We are friends! - Donnie, if he had forgotten that he was not at home, and in the middle of the village a hostile tribe, almost shouting, albeit in a whisper. - Like I could ever listen to yo
u? Is musketeers would not follow each other at least to the devil horns? And Hamlet and Horatio? And Lancelot, would not have given his life for Arthur?

  Looking at his face, full of indignation and sincere belief in their own right, I suddenly felt that he no longer angry. Angry with this book incorrigible romanticism was absolutely impossible. Obviously, we have become friends with Donnie so, not least for this reason - his attitude to the world was not based on his own experience as, for example, Marissa, and solely on romantic images, taken from the vast number of books read.

  - Lancelot you got excited a little, there was not all so simple ... Ahem. And Guinevere else ... No, that's a bad example - I smiled, though there was nothing to rejoice.

  - A bad example? What Guinevere? He served her only as the Beautiful Lady, I've read!

  It seemed that my friend was carried away instantly forgot about our main problem and is now ready to talk about literature. Fortunately, Marissa did not have such defects and, breaking Donnie, quickly and briefly told about everything that happened to them since this morning.

  After talking to Mikoto, they learn more about hospitality vaytukku scary, and came to the conclusion that I must by all means to save, and very urgently. Once a good tracker, the boy was able to hold them on my trail, about knowing the direction in which we have moved from Ratuunom. However, he could pass on it would anyone, considering how many times I fall into all sorts of holes, clinging to thorn and confused in the vines. I think, for me remains a prospectus., Only a blind man would have seen.

  Spending a morning chat with the governor and fees, Donnie Marissa behind me about four hours. But they went very quickly, driven by thoughts that I have, perhaps, they caught and going to sacrifice.

  Mikoto actually volunteered to help. He knew a little vaytukku language, which is quite different from the one spoken by the inhabitants of the coast. Friends agreed to take the boy with him, naively believing that a child is unlikely to do something bad, even if they are caught. The conductor and the translator was very necessary, and the time to look for someone else to another - was not.

  To the plateau, where I found a photograph and a timer, they arrived quickly, reducing the gap a little bit of time. After rising to the forest overgrown terrace with a small lake, was not satisfied with rest stops, and immediately moved on. Fresh, still warm fireplace prompted that the direction of the path is selected correctly.

  - Well, dalsheto clear. Found a native?

  - Well yes. I must say that to our arrival he almost released and was very unhappy that he was tied up again.

  And then everything was quite simple. Mikoto questioned the frightened man, promising a reward to release, and he gladly not only showed them the passage that I was looking for at least half an hour, so still and held through the maze.

  Therefore, at a time when brave adventurers for the first time with their own eyes saw the valley, I, in fact, ahead of them less than a couple of hours. The natives are, by the way, cheated, but then I was hard to judge. Too much was at stake to think about the purity of conscience.

  - And the more that we have weakened the rope so that it is likely to have long been freed. And we could not risk it - Marissa seemed to read my own thoughts.

  - How did you get that?

  - It was an accident ...

  - It's all my fault, I am! - to talk again I joined Donnie. - I fell into the pit.

  Do not you say! Surely in that same? I do not believe in such coincidences ...

  - In what is still a hole?

  - Lovcen pit. And so poorly disguised that she saw everything - in the voice of a friend heard a sincere grief. - Only I was so inattentive that managed to sink.

  - Honey, do not worry, you're just distracted. In fact, - Marissa turned to me - we still lucky that the pit is already someone fell down to us and pushed and broke all the pins on the bottom. And then all would have ended much more tragic.

  In general, I did not say that it was Joey. Donnie likely in any case would have fallen into the pit, and now it appeared that the dog saved his life. I hold this argument in case another outbreak sobakonenavistnichestva.

  In general, Donnie stumbled and fell into the trap. And when he got with great difficulty, we found that are surrounded by dozens of armed natives. Friends did not resist, believing that the chance of escape might yet appear. Therefore meekly gave guns and supplies, and proceeded with the natives in the village.

  And so it happened that in this area the way the backlog completely reduced, as opposed to me, who was forced to move almost on all fours, they were going pretty quickly, pushed by fear and blunt copies. By the time I got to the area, hunters prisoners just entered the village.

  - Well, so here we are and were. Belongings and weapons taken away, but I still have a knife, so, after a few minutes after dark, they were all free. In fact, at any moment we were going to run, so that your appearance was a surprise.

  I was sure that Marissa saying this sarcastically smiled. Just check could not, because for about a minute ago, my "eternal" match suddenly went out and illuminate categorically refused. So much for the eternal ...

  I'd even brought a word of abuse, how to turn almost in mockery of its original meaning - what are eternal love, eternal friendship. Kakayato is too short, this eternity.

  - And what do you do with Zaishi? - question Mikoto sounded unexpectedly and led me out of reverie.

  - Who is Zaishi and why we have to do something with it?

  - Zaishi, he was there, sitting at the bottom. He was there when they brought us.

  I must say, I completely forgot about that, except for the four of us, in the house really was another prisoner. When I suddenly appeared, I received a blow on the head with a piece of rotten logs kakogoto was not up to it. And after, when we moved to the second floor, in a tiny room with no windows, all thrown out of my head.

  As it turned out, not all. Moreover, Mikoto otkudato knew this man.

  After questioning the boy, I found that really Zaishi resident of Belize, the marginal part. More precisely, it could be said that Zaishi not live anywhere else, because in the jungle, he spent almost no time, no more than in the city.

  - Well, we have a prisoner, of course, release. Just do not know if he could find a way back?

  - No, sir. The prisoner can not let go, then we will all perish. It must either kill or leave immediately. Let go can not.

  So much for the natives, children of nature. Of course, the reason I knew perfectly well that the boy who grew up, in fact, in the woods, in a constant struggle for life, the moral principles and concepts will be very, very far from common in a civilized society. And Mikoto, even though he was familiar with the religion and faith in the mercy of the Creator, in fact, still lived under the law, "devour, not to devour you." But hear the words of the need to murder another man said seriously and with conviction, eight children - it's scary.

  - Why is it impossible to let go of?

  - He cursed. He goes everywhere, where you can not walk. These mountains - vukku valley too vukku. Therefore, it is no soul for a long time, it devoured Loa.

  - And we what? Ate and ate, let yourself go from here.

  - No, sir. Zaishi have no soul, matter and there is no fear. He will not hide, it goes straight. He was caught, and then to us. Because he should be killed.

  Hmm. And I do not even know what to say. It is clear that this Zaishi kill no one but you can not let him go, too, since he is so fearless. By the way, what's the story with vukku?

  - Well, think about what to do with Zaishi. A skazhika me what this vukku such that only selected work? Ratuun walked with me to the stone plateau, you - and even went further. Why are you not afraid of the curse?

  - Ratuun rich, white hunter leads the beast. Because it is not terrible curse - his soul is always kept the shaman. And I protect the Creator, he no spirits Loa uneasy.

  - And where did you get that Creator stronger Loa? - although the time for such discussions was clearly wrong, but I
suddenly became curious.

  - It's quite simple. Creator - God and the spirits of the Loa - a perfume - Mikoto replied matured seriously and thoroughly. - They are the gods steal the souls of men, sends a curse, and a strong Loa can kill. Only, even the weakest god stronger than the powerful spirit. A powerful creator, and my soul he himself needed.

  - What for?

  - That she fought in his army! My mother said that we entrust our souls to the Creator, to the day when the hour of grief, the army struck down a legion of souls of darkness, led by Fallen! - the boy suddenly spoke in a singsong voice, obviously repeating the words from memory the mother. - Because the Creator and protects every soul, which will be able to fight on his side, but otherwise defeat the dark forces.

  - Dark forces? - I repeated mechanically. A yato, it turns out wrong, equating faith in the Creator to Christianity. Here rather smacks of Ragnarok than just ascended to heaven the righteous at the time of the Apocalypse. Interesting…

  - Sherlock, may return to the discussion of pressing issues, and religious discourses leave until more peaceful times?

  Yes, perhaps, Donnie right now is really not up to it.

  - Good. Generally, we untie Zaishi will not, let it sit until then. As for our future actions ...

  I must say that, simply, I decided that I will not risk the lives of friends heard the old man Ashihty a lovely habits tribe vaytukku in any case. And now, when I saw the ceremony with his own eyes, this decision was firmly and completely solid. In general, they have to leave, and now.

  - So, with regard to our future actions - you are now, and I really do not mind going to ask, take the boy and return to the city, all the forces trying not to be captured again.

  - But ...

  - Look, Donnie. I turn to you, because it is you have to make that decision. You need to leave. I do not want someone else to death of you lay another burden on my conscience. Believe me, if you saw that were doing with the prisoners, you would understand me. I have no one I do not want such a fate. Therefore, I ask, I beg you, go back to the city!