Anna lay on her perpetually unfolded sofa with a crumpled blanket, her arms spread out exhausted. Evening was falling outside the uncurtained window. The girl had recently finished a bottle of cheap white wine and now, lying with her mouth half open and her eyes half closed, she was watching some dreary movie projected onto the ceiling in a half-sleep, without making a sound.
"Incoming message," Rima broke the silence.
"To hell with this job today!" Anna replied irritably. "To hell with this damn job all the time!"
"Subject: 'From a friend,'" the voice assistant insisted.
"Read..."
The email viewer appeared on the screen. There was only one photo attached, showing the familiar blonde against the backdrop of some bookstore shelves, making a duckface and showing Astrid Lindgren's children's book "Karlsson-on-the-Roof" The caption read: "Come visit!"
"Oh, these riddles," said the girl, struggling to get up from the sofa and trying to figure out where in the room the clothes were scattered.
Pulling her left sneaker out from under the table and finding her right one under the sofa, Anna put on her shoes. After struggling with the sleeves for a long time, she pulled a sweatshirt with reindeer on it over her head, which was already stretched out in all directions. Finally, she left the apartment and climbed the stairs to the roof.
The cold evening breeze refreshed and cleared her head. Anna shivered as she looked down from above at the fading reddish edge of the sky, the black treetops, and the dark silhouettes of houses gradually lighting up with electric lights.
"Hey! Is anyone there?" she asked quietly, not really expecting an answer.
The girl looked around, hoping to see a silhouette with long blond hair in the darkness, but saw only a strange pulsating glow on the opposite side of the roof.
Passing by barred air conditioning boxes, square ventilation pipes sticking up, and several satellite dishes, Anna came to the same door she had just passed through, leading to the attic above the entrance. The thing was, this entrance was almost never used because it led to a dead end in the courtyard, so it was locked. All the residents used the corridor system and always passed through the main entrance.
The door to the attic was old, heavily rusted on the outside, and even missing a handle. However, for some reason, a miniature webcam was installed under the canopy above the doorway. Wondering what to do next, the girl froze in front of the door for a moment, but then it suddenly opened, as if inviting her to enter. "Another rabbit hole," Anna thought and stepped inside.
The door closed automatically behind her, and a soft, subdued light came on in front of her, revealing a rather cozy loft-style interior from the semi-darkness. Part of the attic was completely separated from the main space by brick walls, forming a real penthouse, no smaller than her own apartment, though without windows. Instead, utilitarian linear lamps emitted a warm yellowish light around the entire perimeter of the ceiling.
Against the left wall was a small sofa with a fluffy pillow and an old wool blanket. To the right, next to the door, were several coat hangers, chaotically filled with various items. In the far corner was a computer desk with two monitors, a laptop, and several system units. The rest of the space along the walls was literally littered with books. They were stacked on the floor in piles without any shelves, sometimes reaching above human height. Finally, the middle of the room was occupied by a round coffee table made of natural wood covered with dark varnish, with a chessboard carved directly into the tabletop, and an armchair with the same wooden armrests, in which the owner of the secret hideout sat with her legs crossed.
"Hello!" the blonde greeted her warmly.
"Hi..."
"Welcome to my place. As you can see, we've been practically neighbors all this time."
Anna suddenly noticed a faint glow around the blonde's figure and translucent, intersecting rays leading to her from the corners of the room.
"Is that a hologram?" the girl guessed. "Cool..."
"The latest model 3D projectors. I can give you one at the end of our conversation. Unless, of course, you mind that they're stolen."
"And you yourself... I understand you're forced to hide?"
"This is an interactive recording. A small imprint of my personality. If you're still talking to her, it means the system recognized your voice profile, and the camera at the entrance recognized your face and opened the door, and you yourself received my delayed letter earlier. If I didn't cancel its delivery, it means I'm dead now."
"Dead? How did that happen?!"
"I can't know that. Another elevator broke down... An emergency situation occurred at the construction site... Or it was a trivial car accident. You know, there aren't that many options."
"Or a fire system malfunction..." Anna said, but the hologram did not respond.
"In any case, it means that our attack failed, the "Veil" fell, and "Voland" continues to work. Now he has the ability to edit the source code and will gradually become stronger."
"Yes, that's right," the girl confirmed.
"It's sad to realize." Some of our guys just died, others were forced to go underground. Many pieces had to be sacrificed. The white queen was removed from the board. But I don't think the game is lost. Because you can still help us," the hologram fell silent, pausing meaningfully.
"And what can I do?" Anna asked.
"That's a good question, detective," the blonde smiled. "It's not that I'm limited in my answers... I just want to tell you a little human story. Sit down."
Anna sat down carefully on the sofa, where the hologram pointed with a welcoming gesture. The blonde sighed silently and continued:
"My boyfriend and I had a lot in common. Besides the fact that we both didn't live to see thirty... We both loved computer technology, we were both fans of the progress we could contribute to... It's just that we didn't see the future the way it turned out in G.A. But that doesn't matter anymore. Among other things, we loved books. "Brave New World", "Fahrenheit 451", and, of course, "1984". In a way, Orwell even defined my life... And death," the hologram paused, looking down at her feet, as if a little saddened, but soon continued. "This small library. My collection. A nice hobby, collecting books by year of publication. They are all real rarities, because they came off the printing press in 1984.
Anna looked around, looking at the endless chaotic stacks. There was everything here: collections of classic works, light entertainment prose, reference books, textbooks, esoteric and philosophical works. She reached for the stack closest to the sofa, picked up the first book she came across, and began to leaf through it.
"You'll have time to rummage through this mess," said the blonde, as if she knew what the girl was going to do. "I haven't told you about Igor yet... When he found out about my hobby, he often joked... He was always ironic, and once announced to me that he would start collecting books according to a more profound principle — the color of their covers. I laughed. But then I was very surprised that he had actually assembled quite a large collection. He loved the color green. So the green spines fit perfectly into the interior of his home. It turned out that he was really into it. We even went to a used bookstore together in search of our precious "trophies"... And we also stole from the library.
The hologram sighed again, turned away, wiped the tears from her eyes, then smiled sadly and continued her story:
"Once he confessed to me that he had a green book from 1984 in his collection, but he would never give it to me. He was teasing me again... He loved to say things like that and then watch me get mad. Damn it! Back then, it really drove me crazy. I told him I didn't believe him. That I thought he had made it up on purpose to play a joke on me. But he just kept laughing and reminding me about the book... Then I deliberately looked through my entire collection and found a green book. Then I had a trump card. The next time we talked, I played it, saying that I also had a book that suited him. And that I would never give it to him either. He laughed... I think he didn't care... But on New Year's Eve, while unwrapping presents, I suddenly found an old book published in 1984 under the wrapping... with a green cover. Interestingly, without agreeing beforehand, I also gave him my treasure — a green book from 1984. But the funniest thing is that they were identical books. Two twins, printed by the same publisher in the same year. Maybe even on the same day," the blonde looked at Anna searchingly. "Now, attention, a question for the club of experts... What was that book? The copy given by Igor is still here, in this room. Find it if you want to know what to do next. Nowadays, people often look for answers on the Internet, but in the past they looked for them in books... Consider this the final test of humanity.
The hologram froze again, staring unnaturally motionless through Anna and trembling slightly in the air. The girl got up from the sofa and slowly walked around the room, carefully examining the spines of the books. Of course, there was more than one green one among them.
"Fowles "The Collector"?" Anna asked uncertainly.
"It seems you're not listening to what I'm telling you..." The hologram shook its head. "Try again. But I won't give you too many chances..."
"Okay, okay! I'm thinking!" the girl replied hastily and muttered under her breath, "Searching online, searching in books... A test of humanity..." So it's not about the book at all, but about history... Human history... Collections... "Trophy"... Something precious... Relationships... Love... An unexpected gift... Giving away your treasure...
Suddenly, a thought struck the girl. She turned to the hologram:
"I hope I'll have a third try... But... Is this O'Henry's "The Gifts of the Magi"?
"There won't be a third try," smiled the blonde, "because that's the right answer, detective. I confess that I don't have O'Henry in my collection. Especially not with a green cover. Maybe I just made up this whole story. Or maybe I didn't. Who knows... As I said... People often look for answers... But wherever they look, on the Internet or in books, they find them in their hearts... After all, everyone has their own book there. Your book is Landau and Lifshitz's "Course of Theoretical Physics. Volume 2. Quantum Mechanics". It's on the top right of the second stack. Take it with you. My time is up... After viewing, this recording will be deleted. But I don't like to say goodbye for long. Bye, Anya!
The hologram froze again, blinked in the air for a few seconds, and finally disappeared. All that remained in front of Anna was an empty room, a mountain of books, a cozy sofa, a coffee table with a chessboard, and an armchair that no one was sitting in anymore. Only now did she notice that there were a pair of kings and a white pawn on the board. The door behind the girl opened again. Anna grabbed the book from the pile indicated by the blonde and hurried out into the cold night darkness.