Рафаэль Тигрис - Plague fair

the hotel staff. Waiters, porters, maids, elevators, footmen – all lined up in the lobby.

     After the past events Solomon spent a week in the hotel for rehabilitation under medical supervision. All this time, the staff at the hotel treated him with increased attention, constantly surrounding him with heartfelt care.

– Thank you for everybody my dear ones! I will never forget the kindness and care that you showed me at a difficult time. Thanks again and goodbye!

Solomon began to settle into a cozy London cab.

–I'll go with you, sir. It is my duty to ensure your safety to the end, – said Mr. Spencer, and sat down beside him.

   The cab drove along the familiar streets of London. They drove in silence, each thinking of his own things.

– Mr. Spencer! – Solomon broke the silence, – I don’t understand, – why they scared me with stupid messages on my cell phone? Why did they put a rat in my toilet? They could just steal me from any secluded place.

–It is not so easy to kidnap a serious person in a city that is under total video surveillance.  But, with the help of psychological blackmail, the criminals were able to get you to voluntarily leave the room and through the basement room to find yourself in the London sewers. Well, the rat was planted on you so that we would call the deratization team, which deliberately left the door to the basement open. So it's all very well thought out and quite professional, including your relationship with Yesenia.

At the mention of Yesenia, Solomon sighed heavily.

– Sir, she must be the one you're most worried about.

–Yes, you're right. It's a terrible feeling when the creature you love turns out to be…

    Solomon could not finish the sentence. He silently took a lighter with the image of Sherlock Holmes from his pocket and twirled it with still unhealed fingers.

–I understand your worries, but Yesenia was doomed in any case. As the autopsy showed, she was a heavy drug addict, just like her brother Carlos, who owed a large sum to the Colombian cartel. If he didn't pay, they would sentence him to death. So, an English prison was his only salvation now.

They drove to the airport in silence.

– There's your check-in counter, sir, – said Spencer pointing to the red-green Italian airline signs, – let's say goodbye, from now on you're under the jurisdiction of Heathrow airport security.

– Thank you for everything, Mr. Spencer. Thank you and goodbye.

– I would say – see you soon. As far as I know, you received offers of cooperation with our specialists?

Solomon looked hard at Spencer.

– After what happened to me here, I am not in a position to discuss this topic yet.

– Okay. Let's postpone it until the court.

– What court?

– Trial of criminal gangs. You are an injured party and a valuable witness all rolled into one. Without your presence, it will be impossible to pass judgment on this criminal. So get ready sir. You will soon be summoned to an English court, and at the same time discuss cooperation issues with your colleagues.

Solomon went to check in, and Spencer headed for the exit.

– Where are we going sir? – the cab driver asked him.

– To St. Paul's Hospital, – Spencer replied, – please, stop at some flower shop.

   The cab rolled back to London.

   Spencer entered the hospital, went up to the third floor and approached a room with armed guards at the door.

– How was she? – he asked the guards.

–Fine, sir.

   Spencer quietly entered the room and placed a bouquet of flowers on the bedside table.  The patient lay with back to him, but disturbed by the smell of the flowers, he turned to face. It was Yesenia.

– How are you today? – Spencer inquired.

    It was as if Yesenia had not heard his question.

– Did he fly away? – her eyes were full of tears.

    Spencer nodded yes.

– You still haven't told him?

Spencer shook his head negatively.

    Yesenia sobbed quietly.

– Stop your hysterics, Agent Yesenia! – ordered Spencer sternly, and then added more gently, -Understand, I was acting in your best interests.  Until the trial of the criminals takes place you, the undercover agent infiltrated, must not be exposed.

– Even him?

– Even him.

– But he's gone. You could have at least hinted that I was alive.

– No, I couldn't. Solomon is an unpredictable man, who knows what his reaction would be if he knew you were alive. He might not have gone to the airport, he might have turned back to London.

– That's exactly what would have happened.

– The case is done, a large transnational criminal group was arrested, dealing in drugs, weapons and kidnapping.  You and Solomon played a huge role in exposing them.

–The role of bait, really?

– Don't call things by their proper names,– Spencer said in a philosophical tone, -who'd have thought the Solomon would get out of hand at the end of the operation and run off the ship, James Bond style. I'm not even talking about the incident on the “London Eye”. This is your fault! How could you, an experienced agent, give in to emotion and rush to meet him at the most important moment, without consulting us! You almost blew the whole operation. Thank God, you only got away with those injuries.

– You should have told me that you were going to put his life at risk.

– We had no other choice. We had to take that risk to get hard evidence against the perpetrators.

– He could have been killed.

– That was out of the question. We had calculated everything beforehand. What's the point of kidnapping and killing a valuable specialist at the same time? As you can see, we were right.

Yesenia stopped crying and stared sadly at one point.

– Okay. Winners are not judged. We're all heroes now, including your Solomon. By the way, he'll be in court soon, he'll testify, the perpetrators will go to jail. In addition, Solomon, as a specialist, aroused great interest in our scientists and they intend to invite him to London for joint work. So very soon you will meet him.

– Do you think he will forgive me? – there was a glimmer of hope in her big, see-through eyes.

Spencer smiled.

– I don't doubt it at all.

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