«606».
«Oh! Emergency!» he thought, and punched on the phone the numbers he needed.
A moment later, the next message came, which looked like a meaningless jumble of letters and numbers, but Kanny, of course, knew the cipher and, after reading the message, cursed quietly.
Looking at the road, with a sigh of regret, he typed in the right combination of letters and numbers, which meant: «I’m ready.»
As expected, after a couple of minutes, as soon as the bus reached a level safe area, its engine suddenly died out, and the driver, pressing the brakes, turned on the emergency signal and rolled onto the side of the road.
Grabbing his travel bag, Kanny went to the front door, which, to the driver’s surprise, opened of its own accord as he unsuccessfully tried to start the Mercedes.
«What’s happening? I didn’t seem to press the OPEN button,» thought the driver, but before he could press CLOSE, Kanny walked up as if nothing had happened, said: «Thank you» to him, and got off the bus.
The driver followed him with a surprised look, shrugged his shoulders in bewilderment and turned the ignition key again. This time the bus started right up.
«Strange,» the driver thought, and looked in the mirrors to see the passenger who had just exited. At that moment, Kanny was already crossing the road.
Leaning out of the window, the driver shouted:
«Hey, man! Are you going to come? We’re moving on!»
Kanny shook his head.
«No, thanks. I’m in the opposite direction.»
«What? Are you sure? You have paid your ticket to the very end.»
«Yes, I know. Thank you. It’s just an emergency. I need to get back.»
Shrugging again, the driver moved the Mercedes back to the highway, thinking:
«In any case, everything is recorded on my DVR.»
What he didn’t notice was that the dash cam silently turned off at the moment Kanny received the message on his cell phone, and didn’t turn on until the Mercedes turned back to the highway.
When the bus drove off for a considerable distance so that it could hardly be seen from the place where it had just stopped, a passing black Grand Cherokee jeep suddenly braked sharply and turned-on emergency lights literally a meter from Kanny, who was standing a little to the side of the road.
The werewolf slowly moved to the jeep.
Cursing, the driver unsuccessfully tried to start the Cherokee by turning the ignition key. The car did not react at all.
Kanny confidently approached the front passenger door and knocked.
«Will you take a companion? I need to go to the airport.
«No, I won’t,» the driver replied irritably.
«I’ll pay well.»
«Close the door. I said I won’t.»
«Five hundred dollars will suit you?»
In disbelief, the driver of the jeep looked up at Kanny, who was more than simply dressed, with a nondescript duffel bag slung over his shoulder.
«How much did you say?»
«Five hundred dollars.»
«Are you kidding!? It’s only about thirty kilometers.»
«No, I’m not kidding,» Kanny replied, pulling five hundred-dollar bills from his wallet.
Smiling, the driver answered in a completely different tone.
«You’re crazy! But, even if I agreed, my car stalled, and I have no idea what’s wrong with it.»
«Try again. Maybe I’m lucky and it will start now?»
Shrugging his shoulders, the driver said:
«Well, if it starts now, then I’ll take you.»
He turned the ignition key again, and to his surprise, the car started immediately.
«Hmm… some kind of magic!» He looked at Kanny in surprise. «Come on.»
* * *
On the opposite side of the forest house, which from this angle surprised even more with its size and massive rough log walls, several people were talking quietly at a table on the veranda.
Their conversation was interrupted by Alex coming out from behind the house, who stopped respectfully in the distance and coughed warningly.
One of the speakers, a slender, well-built, neatly trimmed gray-eyed brunette in a dark-green businessman’s suit with a shimmer, drew attention to him and asked:
«Yes, what do you want, Alex?»
«Inquire about 213th, Mr. Tennius.»
«What! Could you not yourself clear out this question from the duty officer? I already told you that I gave it to the operator,» the brunette replied, and looking at the screen of his gadget, he added: «Here… as I thought, the answer was received. The 213th is returning. He’s almost at the airport, so you can be free. The operator will bring him to the very end.»
The sorcerer bowed and hurriedly left, and the brunette, looking up from the touch screen of his gadget, turned back to the conversation. One of them, a tall, fair-haired, short-haired man, dressed in a short-sleeved gray shirt, black shorts and good-quality crocodile-skin sandals, asked him, his blue eyes piercing:
«How could it happen, Mr. Tennius, that the Ch-15 ended up in the possession of these… uh… children?»
«How could these teenagers even survive, and even more so, enter here!?» asked another, stocky, strong, red-haired interlocutor. He was wearing tight-fitting black T-shirt and loose light-colored trousers.
Tennius folded his arms over his chest and arrogantly looked at one and the other, while the third interlocutor, small and thin, but at the same time inspiring a sense of authority, clapped meaningfully and said:
«Hush, hush, dear. Mr. Tennius must have some serious reasons of his own, so I suggest not to hurry, but to give him the opportunity to speak:»
Once again measuring everyone who were gathered with his eyes, the brunette answered with dignity:
«Mr. Saurris is right. You shouldn’t have asked me questions like that. However, listen. My ward turned off the screen to allow 213th to enter. The scanner showed that he is two kilometers from the place and moving quickly. Apparently, the teenagers did not have any gadgets, because if they were close at that moment, then at least the scanner did not detect them.»
Coughing, Tennius stopped and, after taking a few sips of coffee from the cup in front of him, continued:
«The moment Alex finished the transition process with 213th, the two of them knocked on the door. It was clear that if they were not let in, they would try to get into the house, thinking that there was no one inside, and they needed an overnight stay in their critical situation. Just as he was about to annul these two, the buzzer went off with a P El signal. Therefore, he checked them and saw that their older brother was a special affairs officer, the head of the 5th department of a very serious level. If my ward had killed them, this FSB officer wouldn’t certainly have calmed down with the version that his brother and sister had been killed by a beast, but would have started his own investigation and scanned every centimeter of the forest, and something would have to be done with him, which is against the rules, because he is directly subordinate to the initiated person.»
After a spectacular pause, the brunette continued:
«Pondering