– Small, isn't he? I don't drink at work!
Aman-Jalil stood up, discreetly wiped the bottle and handed it to the pilot.
– Drink up, elder, and understand!
– What am I understanding?
– Understand, I say.
– And what's that?
– I don't know, they say in the capital.
– Maybe it's a curse word?
– Maybe, but it sounds good.
– No, not a curse word: understand, learn, that's what it means…
– Clever! Listen, how clever you are, eh!
– Did you think…
Aman-Jalil suddenly saw a small black fly, it flew past Aman-Jalil and landed on the pilot's helmet.
– Wow, look, a fly on your head, don't move, I'm going to kill it now.
– Are you planning to shoot it with a pistol?
– Why with a pistol, dummy, then I'd have to shoot you in the head too, a fly is smaller than a bullet, don't you understand… Don't move.
Aman-Jalil took out a thread from his rubber band, his eternal companion, he always had these threads, carefully unraveling the most ordinary rubber band that held his underwear together. In a second, the killed fly fell onto the control wheel.
– Sniper! – the pilot praised him. – Look for more, maybe you'll find some.
He said it in jest, but Aman-Jalil seriously searched for flies and, to the pilot's surprise, found another six and calmly shot them down.
Ahmed, upon hearing the joyful news, jumped and clapped his hands.
– Ah, you've done it skillfully, ah, you've done it skillfully. Well done, jigit, the inquisition is all yours, with guts. Take it, command it, just remember: every word of mine is law for you.
– Why offend, father, every breath of yours is law for me… Oh, sorry, boss, got carried away…
– It's okay, it's okay, it's from an excess of feelings… Listen, were there any papers with Sardar Ali?
– None, chief. I reported to you that he first visited Nadir; if there were any, he left them there, but I think there weren't any, Sardar Kareem intended to discuss everything with Nadir first, but he wasn't there.
– He wasn't there, he wasn't there… But what if there were?.. Okay, can't reach Nadir anyway for now… Apples on the table, help yourself.
Aman-Jalil turned to the small table to take an apple and paled: a small human head crowned the pyramid of apples…
…In the daytime, a soldier brought a bag of apples, telling the mother:
– A gift from Renk, just sift through them, they've been sitting a while, might be some wormy ones…
And he left. Mother spread out the sack in the courtyard and poured the apples out… Her wild cry tore little Aman-Jalil away from his game. Running to his mother, he found her lying unconscious near the apples, and his father was sleeping, buried in the apples so that only his head was visible on top of the apple mountain. The boy pushed his mother away and asked her, when she opened her empty eyes:
– Why is daddy sleeping so uncomfortably?
And before his mother could stop him, Aman-Jalil rushed to his father and struck him on the forehead. The head rolled down the apple hill. Aman-Jalil screamed so loudly that his cry startled a flock of pigeons into the air, where they circled for a long time, hesitant to descend to the ground… And his father's head was already swarmed with flies…
…Now Aman-Jalil didn't scream, calmly picked up the apple, and took such a big bite that chewing became uncomfortable.
– It scares me, the old donkey, – he thought bitterly, – but you won't get the documents anyway.
– Do you like it?
– It's a tasty apple, boss.
– I meant something else.
– The real one?
– What did you think? I have one craftsman, a real Indian from the Maya tribe; he can't read knots, true, but he knows how to dry heads in hot sand… I think I'll leave the collection to the anthropology museum in my will.
– Is there a museum that collects skulls?
– You're dense, uneducated. I wouldn't trust you with any other position, but you'll handle the inquisition.
– I'll do my best, boss, just don't deny me in council.
– I won't deny you, not at all.
– The council is all-powerful… Can I go now, boss?
– Go… Wait! – Ahmed stopped Aman-Jalil at the door. – Why did you remove my pilot? I understand getting rid of those two crooks, but why the pilot? He's loyal to me; I don't understand.
– Nadir will dig the ground, and the pilot will be next. He won't cover for me: they flew there together, he'll say, and only one came back… I could see the question in his eyes. The pilot will say, Nadir will understand whose man I am, and that's your end…
– You cut off all the links, you're the only one left?
– If there's nothing else to do, I should be cut off too…
Ahmed suddenly calmed down.
– You understand, then?
– Even a blind man can see…
