"The ringleader!" Stepan says hoarsely, "the sergeant!" and steps back.
"That's the one we want," Sanya says. "Distract his attention, Stepan, tease him, while Cat and I sneak around along the fence and grab him from behind. He's in such a fucked-up state he won't notice."
Cat and Sanya drop down on all fours and creep toward the fence, staying close to the ground.
The sergeant is no longer running but advancing ponderously toward the retreating Stepan, Lyova, and Eddie-baby, who has stayed with them.
"Shoot, you motherfucker!" shouts the sergeant. "Shoot, you goddamn prick! Go on, shoot a Russian soldier, you goddamn militia bastard!"
"Give up, you asshole, or you'll be sorry!" Lyova shouts to the sergeant. All three, including Eddie-baby, retreat before the advancing hulk of the sergeant, waiting for the moment when Sanya and Cat will drop on him from behind.
Suddenly the trolley driver switches on his headlights, and the whole scene is bathed in yellow light. The sergeant is no longer a dark, massive figure but can now be clearly seen. He walks toward them, pulling open his uniform tunic with both hands so as to bare his chest, and despite the November temperature, drops of sweat are visible on his forehead. Unlike the soldiers, whose heads are shaved, his reddish hair is in a crew cut. He comes closer and closer. Stepan cautiously waves his TT, once more holding it out at arm's length.
"You asshole! Don't do it!" Lyova shouts at the sergeant.
"Don't do what, or do it to whom?" Eddie-baby wonders, failing to understand. Suddenly, looking at Stepan, who is bent almost double with the TT pointed straight ahead, he realizes that Stepan doesn't actually know how to shoot. "Was he at the front during the war?" Eddie-baby wonders for some reason.
"Shoot me in the chest, you bastard! Shoot a Russian soldier!" the sergeant keeps shouting in a senseless, brutal way, and bending down, he picks up a cobblestone lying in his path and lifts it over his head.
"I'll kill you-u-u!" he shouts in a savage voice, and lunges forward, only to crash to the ground along with the stone under the weight of Cat and Sanya, who have hurled themselves on him from behind.
The soldiers, who turn out to be closer than anyone expected, silently dash out from behind their fortification to assist their leader and superior officer, but Stepan fires at their feet and legs again, this time more coolly, once again striking beautiful yellow sparks on the pavement.
Almost at that very moment the scene is enlivened by the sudden arrival of three militia cars and the militia officers who leap out of them. Under Stepan's leadership, they attempt to catch the soldiers. Both trolley drivers simultaneously open their doors, and crowds of slightly drunk, festively dressed men tumble out, trying to find out what's going on.
Eddie-baby hears his name: "Hey, Ed!" Sanya is calling him, and has obviously been calling him for a long time, since his voice sounds angry.
"Goddamn it, Ed, where the fuck are you?! Come here!" Eddie-baby runs toward the voice.
Sanya and Cat have the defeated Russian Samson pinned to the ground. The Samson is wheezing and trying to move. Despite Sanya's hundred kilograms and Cat's trained muscles, it's no easy matter for them to keep the sergeant immobile.
"Ed, where the fuck have you been?" Sanya says in a friendlier tone. "Pull the belt out of the stallion's pants!"
Eddie-baby cautiously pulls the sergeant's tunic up and unbuckles the belt on his pants.
"Get your hands off me, you little fuck, or I'll break your neck!" the sergeant wheezes through his bloodstained mouth.
"Shut up, stallion!" Sanya says to the sergeant in an affectionate tone while punching him in the face from above as though with a hammer. Sanya's blow is a heavy one; his hand is hard. He constantly toughens it by striking its edge against hard surfaces. He can easily break a good-sized piece of wood in two. The sergeant falls silent.
Sanya and Cat turn the sergeant over onto his stomach and tie his hands together with his belt as tightly as they can.
"We'll go take a look around while you stand guard over this criminal, Ed," Cat says mockingly. He's obviously amused by his role as defender of law and order. Noticing the wary look Eddie-baby is giving the sergeant, he adds, "Don't be afraid of him. If anything happens, just kick him in the neck or the face with the steel tip of your shoe."
"And don't feel sorry for him," Sanya adds. "If he gets loose, he certainly won't feel sorry for you."
21
Eddie and the sergeant are left by themselves. Nearby, shots and cries are heard – the militia officers are rounding up the soldiers.
The sergeant, still lying prone just as Sanya and Cat left him, raises his bloodied face from the ground and whispers,
"Untie me, son, huh? I'm a Russian, from Saratov. And you're a Russian too. Untie me!"
Eddie-baby remains silent.
"You little fuck!" the sergeant whispers. "I'll untie myself and rip your dick off!" He begins to strain his hands in an effort to loosen the strap binding them together, and propping himself on the ground with his knees, he tries to stand up.
Eddie-baby, hardly even looking at him, kicks the sergeant in the ribs as hard as he can with the tip of his shoe.
"Oh-h-h!" howls the sergeant. "You little scum! You filthy little bastard! You little shit!"
A couple of years ago Eddie-baby would have untied the sergeant. Once, in response to a tearful plea, he had released mean Lyonka the Vixen after beating him up in Building No.3 – Lyonka lay underneath Eddie-baby, who had his hands around Lyonka's throat. Eddie-baby let him go. That unnecessary civility turned out badly for Eddie in the most concrete way: Lyonka stabbed him in the hip. And even though the knife was a small one and the wound was shallow and didn't take very long to heal, Eddie-baby was goddamned if he would ever let anybody go again.
"I'll run into you sometime, you' little scum!" the sergeant whispers. His loglike arms instinctively tense, as if an electric current were passing through his nerves. "I'll tear your throat out in one bite!" he goes on with hatred.
Eddie-baby kicks the sergeant in the ribs several times more, with almost automatic abandon. So the bastard will stop threatening him!
The returning Cat, Lyova, and several militia officers catch Eddie-baby in the middle of this activity.
"Hey, hey!" shouts one of the trashes. "Lad, lad, stop! That's enough, you'll kick him to pieces, and we still have to turn him over to the military authorities."
"There's no way you'll kick goddamn scum like that to pieces!" Sanya says, standing up for Eddie. "Look at him, he's made out of cobblestones or something."
The militia officers, along with Sanya, Cat, Lyova, and Stepan, who has once again returned to the scene of the action, lift the sergeant up from the ground and set him on his feet. Only now does Eddie-baby really appreciate just how unusually large the sergeant is. Sanya and Cat take the sergeant by his arms, which are still tied behind his back, and pull him toward one of the militia cars. Stepan obviously has another plan, however, since he stops the kids, leads them a short distance away from the other militia officers, and says in a half-whisper,
"Listen, Sanya, don't be a fool! If it hadn't been for you boys, there's no fucking way we would have caught the sergeant. After all, these people" – he nods in the direction of the other militia officers – "arrived after the fact. We need to take the sergeant to the station ourselves and hand him over directly to Major Aleshinsky. He's already at the station; they called him at home for a big thing like this." Then, changing his businesslike tone to a more confidential one, he continues,
"Major Aleshinsky has it in for you, Sanya. But if we turn up with these goods" – Stepan nods in the direction of the sergeant – "he'll change his mind and maybe even arrange some official reward for you: 'For assisting the forces of the militia in preserving law and order,' or something like that. What do you say?"