Wandering Love

By Sergiy Zhuravlov

The landfill owner and clandestine transplant clinic, aka Natalia, Felix's wife, turns into an outcast herself and faces great hardship while saving her children. She is sheltered by a kind old lady, the mother of the local chairman of the village council. The chairman sells Natalia into an underground brothel. At some point, the brothel's healer decides to save Natalia and takes her and her children away in a car, killing himself in the process. Natalya meets an ordinary Russian man, with whom it is impossible not to fall in love. He heroically sacrifices himself to save Natasha and the children when they are overtaken by the cleaners sent by the "grey cardinal".
Felix tries to legalize himself. For help he turns to his friend Stavros, working at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Once again a number of surprises of fate await him. He is waited for by the killer, who has settled in the attic of the town hall. The bullet fired by the killer hits a seagull flying a dozen meters from Felix...
The secret of the laboratory where the influential Russian conducts experiments on the transformation of consciousness is revealed. The results of the research have attracted the interest of the intelligence services of Russia and other states. In the center for the transfer of consciousness in Tot'ma simultaneously fly helicopters from several intelligence agencies. At the same time, trying to exact revenge on Ilya, Gleb also infiltrates this institution and gets his hands on a brand new technology for controlling people's consciousness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sergiy Zhuravlov
• Release date: Jul 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005337551

Sergiy Zhuravlov

Sergiy ZhuravlovSergiy Zhuravlov was born on 29. 10. 1958 in Lugansk, Ukraine.Lulled by Soviet propaganda - a volunteer in the liberation of Afghans from insidious imperialism...Elimination of the Chernobyl accident - commander of a special company.Gorbachev Perestroika. In 1987 I sent the Soviet and Comunyak people to a well-known address... I was one of the first to start my own business.Some of the things described in my books are based on real events from my life and the lives of my friends and acquaintances.I devote all my free time away from work and leisure to socializing, reading, and creating.I love playing hockey. I love fishing. I like windsurfing, yachting and diving. I like hunting. I like to participate in drag racing. I love my kids, I have three of them. I love my grandchildren, as of today I have eight of them. I love the Earth and the earthlings. I hate dictatorship and dictators. fascism, racism, and putin's russism.In the first weeks of Russia's attack on Ukraine, as a senior reserve officer, I organized and participated in the territorial defense near Bila Tserkva, near Kiev.My motto: Propaganda in any form should be banned, and the main thing is Peace without Borders!

Book preview

Title

Summary of the first book

Summary of the second book

Prologue

Getting out of the water dry, you can't wash away the muddy stains

You got the custodian helping you? So, you have something to take

Any vertical power structure is most often destroyed by its own foundation

Since childhood, I dreamed of marrying Cinderella. Disappointed. She always comes back after midnight

It is necessary to move the brain, at least for survival

The rats did not warn the ship's captain that they were on a drill

Sometimes to remember, it is enough to look out the window

Your inability to lie is no reason to believe you

If you say the stupidest thing, you find someone who thinks the same way

Nothing weighs down like an earlier promise

Share with your daughter your over-the-top youth, and at thirty, you're a grandmother

The job of censorship is to transform truthful information into public information

The more inaccessible the information, the more desirable it is to receive it

If it's profitable, why not…

Going down is often more dangerous than going up

Making a decision means only one thing: one is tired of thinking

You can't walk through the first snow without leaving footprints

You can't tell how fresh it is by the notches on the loaf

Pretty women are most often subject to two manias: grandeur and persecution

A man makes a woman out of a girl and a man out of a boy by an act

We are all born wet and hungry, and this is just the beginning

Jumping high above the marsh, you have a good chance of getting bogged down in it

By ringing the neighbor's doorbell and telling her You're a whore, you learn a lot about your wife

It's silly to scold the rain that prevents you from watering your lawn

A friend cannot be bought! But if it is very profitable, then why not sell

Honey lovers are also at risk of tooth decay

What miracle is there for you to see?

Only a true warrior is a warrior in a field

Positive balance is when good overcomes bad

A wild tree will not produce cultural shoots

From caterpillar to chrysalis

High speed is no guarantee of an encounter with God

Nothing invigorates the body like a foretaste of change

Epilogue

Summary of Book Four

Shortly about the author

WANDERING LOVE

© 2021 Sergey / copyright holder.

All rights reserved.

Author: SERGEY ZHURAVLEV

[e-mail]

Author: Sergiy Zhuravlov

[e-mail]

Drawings Galina Penzareva

SUNRAY 2022

BOOK SERIES

GOLDEN BILLION

BOOK 3

WANDERING LOVE

Summary of the first book

LOVE CHAMBER.

Felix, a successful businessman, is accused of drug trafficking and taken into custody. His cellmates try to intimidate him into giving up his business in exchange for his freedom. Following his wife's advice, he hides under the guise of a homeless man in a waste processing plant owned by her. Here he is faced with a stern ordeal. Attending his own funeral, he realizes that everything that had happened to him was just a good staging aimed at his physical elimination and appropriation of his property. However, he escapes the fate of being eaten by rats. He survives.

Here is an intertwining of the fates of the participants of these events: a girl on a call Liza, orphan Yura, a talented journalist Anna, her husband, cynical scoundrel Gregory, and a desperate commando Gleb. Gleb, Anna, Yura and Lisa become involuntary witnesses to criminal actions aimed at the destruction of Felix.

All together they flee from the junkyard.

Summary of the second book

LOVE USED

Having broken free, Felix receives the support of his longtime friend. The fugitives divide into three groups and go their separate ways. Sometimes dangerous and sometimes funny stories happen to them. Meanwhile, Felix and Gleb hide out on the island of Bali. Buying weapons for self-defense, they fall into the hands of modern-day pirates. They manage to free themselves only because of Gleb's expertise. But even in the Javanese jungle, the Mistress's men try to get them. The main characters have to wage local wars using all modern weaponry. And then finally the reader will discover the name of the gray cardinal, a clever, cynical and cruel. It turns out that the soulless hostess just a puppet in his hands. Having lost Felix, she herself becomes a victim of the manipulator and is forced to flee.

Prologue

The helicopter, having risen into the air, hovered for a minute over the junkyard and flew away, carrying Natalia and the children away.

She looked down... The flames were devouring the junkyard. The administration building was shrouded in smoke. Strands of people with flaming torches were streaming toward it, as if the flames were coming from everywhere. The flames seemed to be wickering toward the detonator of her soul. In a moment, she would explode from the inside, blown to pieces.

Getting out of the water dry, you can't wash away the muddy stains

The hard frost and lack of wind made the air crystal clear and ringing. The woman's hot breath turned into sparkling frost. It would be priceless if it could be picked up by hand and then pulled from memory in the sultry summer and chilled as she remembered the February chill. Dressed only in overalls, Natalia could not feel the cold. Internal heat melted her hitherto living selfishness, indifference, anger, and gave birth to a new, unfamiliar feeling. Compressed into a lump of pain and fear, the brain twists finally came to their original state, gained the ability to think and suddenly heard a still timid voice. It was conscience speaking. The soul, too, was afraid, and it cried out, frightened of the unknown waiting for it in the new world. The woman's tears cleansed the soul from the viscous slime of sins, and it, fragile, weak, but pure, began to give signals to the numbed brain: Run! Run! Run,

A white, frost-covered helicopter, looking like a beautiful grotesque dragonfly and faintly visible against the snow, was waiting for them, lazily spinning its blades. The pilot recognized his mistress in the ridiculously dressed, soot-stained woman and hurried to ask her:

Natalya Andreyevna! Is something wrong? he stuttered a little from surprise.

A fire... It will be put out soon, but I need to get the children to safety, she answered.

Are we going home? The pilot, accustomed to not asking unnecessary questions, asked.

No. We are going to Melenka.

Where is that?

North of Jerusalem.

You're joking, Natalya Andreyevna. I have fuel for 400 kilometers of flight…

First, take the car up and fly away from this place, she said, and thought to herself, Where to fly to? Perhaps she'd made a mistake in not dropping the pilot off. Left alone, she could have used the helicopter control skills she'd learned from her husband.

But where is that husband, and where is that time? Everything was burned. And as she now realized, the torch was in her hands the whole time.

Go towards Vladimir. If you do it right, I'll thank you. It's a matter of life and death, Natalya asked rather than ordered, lowering her voice, which made it take on a trusting tone, turning the pilot into her unwilling partner.

He lifted the car into the air, no longer pondering the extraordinary nature of the situation.

Only the proximity of death radically changes life priorities

The woman feared that the children would be frightened by the abrupt lift and cry. To her surprise, they pressed their noses into the portholes and stared mesmerized at the low-lying ground. The snow, lifted by the propellers, hung in a cloud beneath them. And suddenly, Natalia saw a girl angel in it, waving to them, and heard a voice: Do not be afraid. You are doing everything right. I will be with you...

Soon the helicopter crossed the Moscow Ring Road and turned east, carrying in its belly a woman who an hour ago was on the verge of death. A woman who had given up wealth and power of her own free will.

Living in Moscow, Natalia understood that in order to be taken seriously, you had to make a name for yourself. That required a publicity-conscious act. Chance came when an influential official offered to buy the desired wealth and greatness at the cost of betraying her husband. It was only now that she realized that she could not build her happiness on meanness. Such insights began to come to her after she had been badly bumped in the fire. And now she felt that nothing good awaited her. Not only had she come to terms with it, but she couldn't wait to see what would happen next. The only thing she cared about was saving the children.

In the meantime, the children were gazing excitedly at the ground. The adventure that the strange aunt had arranged for them was mesmerizing and made their hearts beat fast. And even thoughts of Mom and Dad, left down there in the scary place, did not distract them. They knew nothing of their future, nor did the woman holding their hands.

Natalya Andreyevna! Vladimir will be here in ten minutes, where shall I drop you off? The pilot looked at the distant face of the woman, and realizing that she did not hear him, repeated the question: We have arrived. Vladimir. Where do you want me to drop you off?

What? Vladimir already? Can't you go any farther?

Alas, I can't. Otherwise I wouldn't have enough fuel to get back.

Then land close to the road to Murom, she said, and remembering what she was wearing, asked : Do you have any clothes for me?

'Natalya Andreyevna, I don't know and don't want to know your plans, but perhaps you should go back to Moscow?

No, you mustn't. There's evil there. I must protect the children from it…

Shocked by her words, the pilot did not object, as he had experience communicating with rich people. Who knows what kind of whimsy visited the mistress. He made a maneuver and landed the helicopter a hundred meters from the road leading to Murom.

Take my warm jacket and knitted hat. True, they smell of kerosene and oil: I wear them to do repairs. I don't have any other clothes.

And thank you for that, kind man. Can you find some money for me? I've forgotten all mine. And my bank cards, too.

Hearing such a thing, the pilot, who was counting on a serious remuneration, was saddened. But Natasha looked at him with such fondness that he opened the card drawer, took out a small bundle in a red cloth and handed it to her.

Here is a thousand, holding a stash from his wife.

Natasha took the bundle and put it in the pocket of her kerosene-smelling jacket.

Children, we have arrived, she said, being the first to leave the cockpit of the helicopter, and picking up the children one by one in her arms, she set them on the ground.

The people on the field toward the road dissolved in the snow fog, lifted by the blades of the propellers.

Stop! Why were there three and not two children with the woman? The pilot was surprised. And the footprints in the snow are left by two? What nonsense! Maybe my imagined it, he calmed himself and having waited when the travelers moved away from the helicopter lifted the car and headed to Moscow.

It's easier to break someone's life

Natalia walked along the edge of the roadway. Her children were walking beside her, holding her hands. She moved automatically, not noticing the giant trees clad in shaggy white coats, or the feral, wireless poles, or the ruffled, prickly frost-covered shrubbery. Nothing disturbed her thoughts...

... She was six years old at the time. One day in the yard she saw a chick that had fallen out of the nest. It was shriveled up, and its yellow mouth was wide open.

Frightened, looking around, the chick fluttered up, spreading its unfledged wings, and then fell to the ground. The two boys watched the cub. One of them, the older one, took a twig and began to poke lightly at the chick. It fell, got up awkwardly, and backed away, opening its mouth even wider.

Look, he's mad! You want to peck again? The boy touched the chick's beak with his finger.

The beak reflexively closed. The boy jerked his finger back and used a twig to knock the orphan down.

Why was he so stupid? He would have flown away, said the other boy in astonishment.

You are silly yourself. The older one laughed and whipped the younger one on the back with the rod.

Why do you fight? I'm not your chick, cried the younger one.

While the boys were sorting things out, the cub reached the bushes and ended up next to the bench on which little Natasha was sitting.

It's our chick. Said the older one.

Please give him to me! He is still very small, he will not survive on his own, the girl asked, her voice trembling with excitement.

The boy looked at her contemptuously.

You can find one for yourself and do what you want with it. This one is ours. He pushed her hard. She fell on her back, the chick falling out of his hands. Limping and tumbling on one side, chick it staggered back.

Natasha jumped to her feet and pounced on the boys with a cry of.

He's hurt.

Stay out of our business. The burly boy hissed and punched her in the nose with his fist.

The girl fell down again. Her throat tightened, and her eyes filled with tears. For a moment, she was afraid. Not for herself – for the chick. Then, for the first time in her life, she felt that someone is needed, and that someone is waiting for their help. For only she can save it… Her ears rumbled, and her legs shook, but she found the strength to get up and attack again. But treacherous blood gushed from her nose, and when she stopped talking the boys stared at Natasha.

Natasha! What are you doing? Mom's voice came from behind.

The boys took off running. Natasha went over to the chick and took it in her arms.

Mom, the chick has fallen down, shall we take it to us? the girl asked, holding out her hand with the bird.

Yes, of course, the mother answered and squatted beside her. And now home, quickly home, she ordered, holding the handkerchief to her daughter's nose.

At home, Natasha made a nest in the shoebox for her little friend. She crumbled some bread for him, but the nestling wouldn't peck.

Mom, he's not eating! Why? Asked the girl, raising her eyes full of tears.

He is still small and does not know how to eat. Mama starling feeds him bird's milk.

So they call him starling? That's great! And how do we do now?

There is nothing we can do, said her mother wearily, but noticing that the girl was about to cry, she hugged her and said : You can not worry, or you will bleed again. You need to take a sedative and lie down.

What will happen to him? I can't lie down!

Take your medicine, and we'll figure something out about the chick. Don't you worry? You can't. Her mother's voice was lulling. Nata closed her eyes and dozed off.

When she woke up, the first thing she did was run to the box. The chick sat shrieking, its eyes closed. The child carefully stroked it, but the starling was cold and stiff. When she took it in her hands, she saw that it was dead, and she wept loudly. At the crying mother came running and, understanding everything without words, hugged her daughter.

Don't cry, he wouldn't have survived anyway. Nestlings that have fallen out of the nest never survive…

Why?

That's how life works. If you fall out of the nest, you're gone…

You got the custodian helping you? So, you have something to take

Natalia shuddered as the children tugged at her sleeves. Looking around, she saw a bus on the other side of the road.

She took the children in her arms and stepped inside. There were no seats, and she and her children took a seat on the steps by the front door. Warm air from the heater blew right on them. It became warm and comfortable, but here was the trouble: the warmer it got, the more it stank of kerosene and musty clothes. She herself began to feel an attack of nausea, and then began to resent the passengers standing nearby.

Was it difficult to treat heads from lice with a drugstore remedy? You have to smear them with kerosene the old-fashioned way, the old lady mouthed off in a gruff voice.

Mama, I feel sick, wailed a young girl with obvious signs of pregnancy.

The lady in the front seat next to her spoke to the driver:

Either you stop now and let those stinking bums off, or me and my daughter will let them off, and you along with them. I don't want to ride on my bus with the bums!

Yeah! Let them get off, passengers murmured.

It's a paradox. An hour ago, Natalia was buying whole buses of people, and watched from the windows of her office, as they, scared of the unknown, lined up in lines under the supervision of her oprichnikov. Her doctors divided them into fit and unfit. The fit received decent food and care. The unfit huddled in shacks she built and scavenged at the dump for a piece of bread. And she turned her face away squeamishly at the sight of her goods, at the smell of her slaves' sweat.

And now she was being kicked out, like a mangy cat, by those she had bought by weight. Now she felt ashamed of her actions. She wanted to kneel down and beg the forgiveness of all those whom she had ruined.

Surprisingly, Natalya took it easy that she and the children were kicked off the bus. Shivering with cold, she pulled her holey hat lower, took the children by the arms, and walked with them down the road toward the departing bus. Trained by hours of running, she knew that standing out in the cold meant freezing!

A patrol car with three policemen was returning from a call. The usual thing, a drunken brawl. The brawlers were pacified. They received a bribe for the summons and so as not to start a case. We had a good meal and in high spirits we drove to the duty office in Murom. Two sergeants were sitting well tipsy, but the driver, surprisingly, did not even take a drink. His inexperience in conducting such events showed up. He was the one who noticed the travelers. Pitying the young children, he offered his partners a ride.

What the hell do we care about that mongrel? The sergeant in the front seat objected, appreciating the woman's shabby appearance, but ordered the driver to slow down.

Passing by, the sergeant saw Natalya's pretty face under the hat and ordered the driver to stop the UAZ. He opened the door and invited the travelers into the car.

Where are you going, woman? The driver asked.

To my sister, to Murom.

And why do you stink of kerosene? he asked. During the conversation nobody else entered into a dialogue.

We are firemen. I put on what's left.

Do you have any documents?

I don't have anything, it all burned down. I only have a thousand rubles, the neighbors gave it to me.

Throw her the fuck out, growled the older man sitting next to her. I'm going to choke to death!

The car stopped. Natalia, without saying a word, left the car, slamming the door. The car drove away. But before it could disappear from sight, it turned around and drove toward the trio. The woman wondered if they were going to get a ride after all.

A drunken sergeant stepped out of the car. Tapping his left arm with a rubber truncheon he staggered towards Natalia.

Fire victims, you say? No documents... And do you have a reference from the village council?

What reference? The woman asked him perplexedly.

The white one with a blue stamp! And there must be the same papers for the children…

There are! There are the right papers, how could I forget, Natalya took a red oiled cloth out of her inside pocket and unfolded it.

The money scattered like petals of one hundred-ruble bills. The children rushed to pick them up and, collecting every single one, gave them to the woman. She wrapped the bills again in a flap and handed them to the sergeant. He took the money and spat and threw the rag under his feet. It glistened with blood on the white snow.

In two kilometers there will be a village. Twenty out of a hundred houses live there, the virtue gritted through his teeth.