Page 86

[Alexandr Korol]

So it turns out that before I even knew Big Alexander, before I even knew the Mystic-Old-Man, Big Alexander had already come after the Mystic-Old-Man. And as I understood from the Mystic-Old-Man’s story, he didn’t let himself get caught. What does that mean? It’s unclear. Maybe the Mystic-Old-Man didn’t let himself get caught because he really is a magician, like me. And maybe that ties into what Valentina said, that Big Alexander is not so simple, that he tracks down people with abilities. Because back then Valentina told me he was looking for people with abilities, and in veiled language hinted that there was someone higher up in Moscow or some kind of agencies, and that he was somehow connected to them. At first, I thought he was some kind of boss in those agencies, then I realized he wasn’t exactly that — more like someone who had been recruited. From what I gathered, he was once a magical boy like me, and then these people, some kind of special services, started using him to work for them. But he’s still not quite a regular person — more like one of us — but under their control, and maybe they ordered him to look for certain special people. But that was back then, not now. And back then there were moments when Valentina would often say, “He’s in Moscow, they called him up.” Then I might hear from him that he had been summoned somewhere, to some mountains, some military place. And these military people would ask him, “What do you see?” He’d reply, “I see flying saucers in the mountains.” They’d ask, “Well, should we touch them or not?” He’d answer, “They’re not in sleep mode, it’s like they’re activated, running — just not moving. Better not to touch.” And why were they asking him? Who was he, really? And I remember he also told me something about a Pinochet tower or something related to Pinochet — a Pinochet chapel — something hidden in a hangar in the Moscow suburbs. He said some intelligence service took him there blindfolded to verify it through him, to confirm its authenticity. Again, how do I know — maybe he made all this up. Who’s spreading these rumors? I never saw any of this with my own eyes. He never told me directly that he worked somewhere like that. Never. Seriously. The whole time... he had some kind of foundation where he just organized events for children, for the cultural committee. And he had an office on Admiralty Embankment. And he also organized a concert or some kind of event from his foundation. He had a charitable foundation in a building near Anichkov Bridge, and that’s exactly where I showed him the map with the places of power I had deciphered. And he told me that this was the philosopher’s stone I had discovered, that it was the matrix by which everything is structured.