The Return to Moscow part 2
Two years have passed since Part 1.
"I can't believe this. Please, just let me go!" the rabbit said running as his life really did depend on it. He was being chased by a hungry lioness, intent on eating the other creatures. He had seen the furry carcasses of the other prisoners in this Siberian hellhole and knew that he was going to face that same horrifying fate. Luckily, the rabbit found his home in time and was able to lock and bolt the door before the crazed cat could come in.
However, the door like the entire wooden house and every other house in the city had been made brittle by prolonged exposure to the extreme cold and after several strong poundings finally gave way.
"At last," Svetlana said sharpening her claws for the massacre that was about to come as the rabbit looked on helplessly, "the time for my meal has come- if you can give me one good reason to keep you alive, I will. Now talk!"
"I-I know of something I could trade for you, some treasure. I wanted to trade it for some rubles but to save my life, I'd give it to you. Just please... don't eat me," the lioness sat, her paw tightly gripped around the parka of her new would-be meal, obviously rapt by such a plea.
"This treasure of which you speak. It better be good or you will get eaten. My husband and I will decide whether or not we want it." She then glared at the rabbit with an evil, menacing look, "If it's not good enough, then your fate is sealed."
Back at the ramshackle house that Shabbethai and his wife call home...
"What is it? Why are you home so early, Svetlana? And who is this guest that the cat dragged in?"
"Not funny at all. This rabbit here tells us that he has something of value that we could trade for rubles and perhaps maybe buy some food. I know you've developed a taste for flesh but we really need to stop to eating the other prisoners." In truth, Shabbethai wanted to go into the boiler room, hot and steamy though it was, the only place to get any sleep at all in this permafrosted settlement. But two miserable years of fighting with his common-law lioness wife and an impressive number of bruises due to her short temper had taught this black wolf otherwise. It was futile, and perhaps maybe even dangerous to go against the wishes of the queen of this accursed city.
"You think he's bluffing. He better not be bluffing or we'll kill him and eat him." Two years of survivalism had also taught him not to question where the next meal would come from and it didn't matter if it was murder and cannibalism. They were desperate and evil and they didn't care who were their next victims. And so the two unhappy felons, mad at the world, with their hapless prey in tow walked down the bitterly-cold sojourn to an abandoned library. The bleak and icy hand of winter spread across this city just as it did the entire land of Siberia, casting down a brutal spell of cold disapproval on the devil-may-care villages and outposts that lined the way to Moscow. This city was once occupied by God-fearing men and women but had now been overrun by bandits and thieves and a whole menagerie of unwelcome creatures.
"Here, by the abandoned library! I saw them! I know you have no use for books but there is something here that you might want to see." He continued deeper into the room, past the bookcases filled with official government files on yellowed parchment that was both indecipherable and prone to fall apart when someone touched it. A forgotten box near one of the corners of the room caught Shabbethai's attention as the rabbit walked over with his arm guarded by the lioness.
"It's right here in this box! A stash of documents written by the Siberiskiy Separatists as well as weaponry for a planned revolution." Both the lioness and her husband were rightly shocked at the vast amount of guns and the power they had behind them.
"Not even the KGB can get their hands on something this powerful! This must have been something stolen from the military. And these documents- can they be sold for anything at all?" The lioness knew the answer to that question and knew that her dinner was waiting to be eaten. But just as she was about to kill her unfortunate rabbit prey Shabbethai noticed a picture, an old black-and-white photo of something truly scandalous. It was the mayor of Moscow consorting with a female who was not his wife. So enraptured were the two scoundrels that the rabbit was given freedom and a second chance at life as the two looked at this revelation.
Meanwhile in Moscow...
"Have you thought about what happened, Beth? Your husband, Alef captured that evil, evil wolf and now he is out of mind and perhaps dead somewhere across the country."
"Da, Mr. Nohl. We all agree that was something great but we need money. I no start family not even having enough money for bread. You might be a high-ranking police officer but when wife has to stand in line for potatoes. I save for months to open shop and take other income..."
This struck Alef Nohl quite hard- even though he had stopped the delusional and insane wolf who tried to kill so many and succeeded in taking twelve men violently. But he would never get the amount of money he would ever truly deserve on account of his religion and upbringing. He was a Jew, he was working for the government and high-ranking but he was still a Jew and so they paid him as such.
"The money that being a member of the Mockba Police has made our lives easier, right? And I truly want to make life better not just for you or for me but for all of the city. And after fighting against some of Moscow's toughest criminals and Mafioso, the prospect of owning a teahouse or selling borscht to tourists is boring." There was no arguing with the wolf.
Elsewhere in the city...
Katya Kolvachuk, a former follower of Zwei and a cat singer about six months pregnant is going to her job entertaining tourists at a restaurant near the Red Square. She kisses her husband on the muzzle and leaves to go because her job doesn't pay maternity and they need dual incomes to make ends meet. Years ago, she gave clues to the Mockba Police which led to the arrest of the insane rebbe but she politely declined the reward money that the police had for her. The entire ordeal is something she'd rather put behind her and not speak of to anyone again.
"Surely, the restaurant owner will give you maternity. The Soviets love a woman who can birth plenty of children," her husband would say as he got ready to leave for his factory job over by the steel mill. But he knew that asking for money or time off from such a worker's paradise would paradoxically be impossible for either one of them.
And now Martine Borodin, the last in a trinity of good (or maybe just agreeable) fellows who brought the black wolf to justice. This fox is now the owner of a relatively successful factory but he realizes that he must give a good portion of the money he makes back to the government lest anyone think he has become capitalist. It is a grudging task to be sure but one that he would gladly do, for Marx's dream to be realized. He is negotiating a business deal with foreign investors, though his contract specifically forbade negotiating with anyone outside the Iron Curtain. Little does the fox know that his entire world will soon be turned upside down by the very wolf he hoped to get rid of.
Back in frozen Siberia,
Although there has been no "official" contact between prisoners and police, this is not always necessarily the truth. Shabbethai is trying to hammer out a deal with an otter who works for the police- his freedom for the incriminating pictures. He has brought the box from the library.
"So you see this stash here contains all kinds of valuable stuff- guns, files, "information" about the sexcapades of various government officials. We could shake up the Kremlin with this wonderful stuff."
The otter takes one look at the wolf, resplendent in his all-black Hasidic garb, looks at the pictures and reasons, "Sure. We can work something out. I can spirit you away on a Muscovite train but I'll want those pictures as collateral."
"Nyet! One my wife and I return to Moscow, THEN you get anything you want." After a few days, an opening arrives for the criminals to begin their trip back to their hometown. A train might be straightforward but the government never assumes that there are stragglers in a freight car. Two weeks pass and Shabbethai and Svetlana find themselves back in Moscow and the otter is given his reward. Shortly afterwards, though his body is found with a bullet hole through the back of the head and his innards completely removed as if some voracious beast had taken them out. In truth, TWO voracious beasts were now walking free through the city and Moscow would have no peace at all. And the ones who destroyed Shabbethai would have to pay.