The Makers
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The first bullet entered his head exactly at the moment when he stepped off the cliff.
The second caught up with him two meters below.
That he was mistaken, the sniper realized a couple of seconds later, when his finger, pulling the trigger, has numb. It was necessary first to take the one who remained standing on the rock, he thought, while he was being covered by the hot wave, and then I'd have a time to pick off the second one, while his attention was captured by the stream coming from under the cliff.
But these thoughts were languid and inconclusive.
At this time, somewhere in one of the parallel universes, Lara screamed. She was covering her bleached with horror face with her hands, and Gilels has been fussing over her - he, in his snow-white shirt, has been falling on the ground and pulling out the almost useless gun, that was stuck in the almost inaccessible holster.
And somewhere in another parallel universe at this time the sunset was being reflected on the Lukasz's eyes, while he has stubbornly and concentratedly been weaving the new reality.
In this new reality, there was no place not only for the third bullet that had (or hadn't?) time to exit the barrel of a gun and dissolve halfway between the temple, which now didn't belong to it, and the sniper, who was melting in paralysis: there was no place for the first two too.
In this new reality, Robert was still falling, spreading his powerless wings wide, but death first stepped back from him one small step, and then, when somewhere halfway to the sparkling far away Colorado he threw open his eyes, she finally gave up him fully.
"Oh, what a crazy idiots ..." whispered Gilels.
***
In this new reality, a Polish group called "Ludzie", six men who set out to liquidate both Makers, ceased to exist.
The pilot of the white-blue "Robinson", which was standing at the transparent viewing platform, blacked out and put his dull head on the helm, as if he had not slept for a week and now was making up for lost time. The mechanic, sitting next to him, who once was brisk and vivid, a couple of seconds ago dropped his cigarette from his mouth to his own pants, and the saliva slowly trickled down from the corner of his half-open mouth.
And as for the tracker, who just an instant ago nervously was walking around, pretending to be a tourist, he now was unable to stand on his wobbly feet - he laid down in the middle of the road, leading to the cliff, and looked up at the grand sinking orange sun.
The three others - the one waiting in the hotel in Las Vegas and the two remaining in Warsaw - have had only a few minutes to be horrified at the perniciousness of their intentions and surrender to the local police.
When Robert, who caught the ascending air stream, again appeared on the edge of the cliff, Gilels already was brushing away the rusty dust from his crumpled pants, and Lukasz's eyes were no longer bottomless and have regained their depth.
Lara's face was still white, she still covered it with her hands, but the mask of horror on it almost faded.
"Wow! What a ride!" Robert exhaled. "Lukasz, I hope that's all?"
No, Lukasz thought, nodding in agreement.
"Then I'm taking the lass with me, we'll find you at the hotel."
Robert touched the ground with his feet, picked up Lara in his arms and again stepped off into the abyss, which a couple of minutes ago almost cost him his life.
***
Lara, who never jumped out of a cliffs - neither with parachute nor without, but deeply impressed by the miracle of visible creation that has been just unfolded before her, clutched his neck with a death grip, afraid to close her eyes and leave them open at the same time.
"Don't worry," Robert whispered into her ear. "I'm here. Now everything will be fine."
She nodded, looking up at him and desperately trying to believe it, and her dress fluttered in the oncoming airflow.
"You are in the center of the universe, and the center is always unharmed," he went on in a whisper, realizing with awe that just about a little more and he won't want to think about anything else. "Look how beautiful."
Below, in the canyon, the orange light was gradually ceasing, giving way to the night that was going to cover the earth.
"I want you," she said, as he touched the black bottom with his feet.
I know, he agreed in silence. Any questions of any love were non-existent yet.
***
Then, when the world regained its contours, they were walking for a long time, and a blue night moths were landing on her crumpled white dress. Did Robert know that he'll have a son?
He just didn't think about it.
8. 2327th year. Benji.
I'm Benji, I'm a mediator. But I don't know what an area of mediation I should apply to.
I have been bringing amazing creatures from one amazing place to another. But the further, the more ridiculous seems to me my function, because from such a rearrangement of the summands, the amount of the surprising matter in my locality doesn't change at all.
It's strange: something turned upside down in my world; I began to perceive in another way that trifle, that almost zero, which all this time so masterfully pretended to be me. And also strange that all this is strange to me. Because...
Benji, do remember: you're a machine, you know how not to lie. Because she loves you. Congratulations, Benji: meaningful zero is no longer zero.
Benji's silvery palms lay on the dashboard. He didn't need any screens, scales and indicators to know exactly how the present moment flows here, inside his shuttle.