The Numbers That Brought Our Fates Together 191 Rick Stein.

The snow stopped, and the city was covered with a white veil, the night slowly came to an end. A man was walking along a dark and snowy street, leaving traces behind him. Where his foot stepped, the white snow was saturated with moisture and turning into black mud.

He stopped and looked at the body of a boy, whose age was about thirteen, lying on the ground. The corners of the man's lips twitched in a stinging grin, "Hmm, yes, what a miserable picture," the man squatted and patted the boy on the cheek, "Hey, are you still alive?"

Rick opened his eyes and saw an unknown man in front of him. Outwardly, he looked attractive and was stylishly dressed, but in his beautiful blue eyes, there was not a hint of emotion, only an indifferent emptiness. The boy tried to get up and sit down, but his body did not obey, as if he had no strength left.

"Oh, I see that you are still alive, it pleases me much. Not that I would be upset if you weren't, but, anyway... Since I found you, why not make our everyday life more fun. Do not you think so?"

Rick raised his eyebrows, he completely did not understand what this strange man was talking about, "Um, what do you mean?"

"What I mean? Obviously, I am offering you a job," the man answered and looked at Rick as if the latter was a fool.

The boy frowned, "And what kind of job do are you offering me? I think, it's better if you call an ambulance, please." Although Rick felt a little better, after he saw that unknown girl, he knew with his mind that he would not last long in this condition.

"Ahaha, you're funny. You have not agreed yet, but still, you're setting your own terms? As I see, you are still the same gate crasher, eh, Richard?"

The unknown name caused Rick unpleasant sensations in the body, but a greater tension caused a change in the expression on the man's face. His smile did not reach his eyes, there was not a drop of sincerity in it, just as there was not a drop of warmth in his eyes.

The man glanced around the boy's clothes, dirty and rumpled, "If you come with me, you will have food, clothes, and money in abundance. You will not need anything at all, and you will be able to move freely around the world. You can go to any country in Europe, Asia or America. Wherever you want. How do you like this interesting offer?"

"Go to America?" This phrase caught Rick most of all if he could go there, that is, he was likely to meet with Corey. But this sentence sounded too tempting, it was too good to be true.

Clothing, food, money. He had already heard something like this more than once. Rick was well aware of his attractive appearance and knew that this appearance was evident not only to women but also to some men.

The boy took a lot of effort to get up and sit down. His breathing was knocked down, his body was in pain, but the pain was not as sharp as before. He touched his sides, Rick was sure that at least a couple of ribs should have been broken, but to his surprise, they were intact and only severe bruises from beatings here and there made themselves felt at the slightest movement.

He looked at the man with a displeased look full of disgust, "I think I understand why you are so polite, sir. But I'm afraid you were mistaken. I do not work for perverts and do not sell my body."

The man's eyebrows rose in surprise, "Pffff, ahahahaha," he began to laugh out loud, he had never been called a pervert in that regard. The man brushed off the tear that came out of him with a strong laugh, "Hmm, I think I will miss you later. Who would have thought that you would be so different from yourself?"

The man shook his head, and the smile immediately left his face, "Listen here, soon this world will not be the same, and only you can decide whether you will be with me at the top or against me at the very bottom."

"And what should I pay for it? I doubt that you are making such an offer to a person like me without any selfish intent," Rick asked.

Somewhere in the back of the subconscious, he realized that something in this situation was not right, as if this unknown man was a disguised demon, eager to get his soul. Perhaps all this only seemed to him, and he was in fact already dead? Then what was the use of holding onto a past in which no one needed him?

"The price is simple. It is your life."

Demon. Indeed, he's a demon.

Rick confirmed his a.s.sumptions, "And what does this mean? Will you kill me?"

The man squinted his eyes, he looked like an insidious fox, rejoicing in a cornered victim, "Common, of course not. You just have to give up on how you lived before. From your lifestyle, from your family, friends, maybe even from your name. What, do you think this is too high a price?"

Rick didn't have to think long to know the answer to this question. Even if this man did not ask him, in the end he himself wanted to give up his worthless life and become a different person. Very often, he found himself feeling that two people were living in him, but that second one seemed to be sleeping and waiting for the right hour to wake up.

Maybe this hour has come right now?

"If I understand correctly, in exchange for my life that I am currently leading, you will provide me with all the conditions for a carefree and pleasant life? But what will I have to do in this case? Are you sure I'm the one you need? My skills ..."

"You are exactly the one I need. But to agree or not, you decide. My plans won't suffer much if you disagree, but I will not offer you this opportunity ever again. So, do you agree?" The man held out his hand, his gaze directed to the very depths of the boy's soul.

Rick looked at the palm outstretched toward him, one voice in his head was telling him to refuse, and the second, on the contrary, was pus.h.i.+ng him to make this decision. He was at a crossroad, but he was sure of only one thing - the way he had lived all this time is not the life he wanted. From these thoughts, the second voice became instantly stronger and louder, Rick took a breath.

He held out his hand and shook the man's hand in response, "I agree."

"That's great," the man grinned and closed Rick's eyes with his other hand.

"W-what the h.e.l.l?!" Rick called out in surprise.

"Sorry, I forgot to warn you. It will hurt." Rick felt something heavy hit him on the head as if his brain was tearing apart from the inside, hoping to break out. Millions of pictures of the past surged into his memory, filling and sweeping away everything in their path until they were lined up in a logical picture. A picture of his past life. A life he was completely unaware of.

"What the h.e.l.l, Marcus! What took you so long?!" he shouted at the man, trying to regain his breath.
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"Long time no see, Richard," Marcus smiled. Everything went as he planned.

"Agh, I can't believe it! What the h.e.l.l did I not remember about this before?! Why did you show up just now, huh?! Couldn't you return my memory before?! Wait. What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?!"

"I think we have enough time, so heart-to-heart talk can wait," Marcus replied and waved to Rick in the direction of the car, parked nearby.

The young man got up from the ground and shook himself, his pedantic German soul curved in convulsions from how disgusting he looked.

"Judging by the fact that I see you and now remember about myself, can I say with complete confidence that the experiments were successful?" Rick looked at Marcus with a pleased expression on his face. Who would have thought that sixty years later he would see that face again?

For him, the events of that war happened as if not an hour had pa.s.sed, in the distant year of 1942, he did not even consider the option that the Great Third Reich would fall with such an inglorious death. Apparently, history had its own plans in this regard.

Well, in any case, the current political world situation was also not the worst one.

"By noon your new doc.u.ments will be ready. Are there any wishes on this subject?" Marcus opened the car door and was about to get inside.

"Wishes, you are saying? Hmmm," Rick thought about it. He did not want to use the word Steiner, his old German surname, but the real surname did not suit him either. He considered several options in his head, and one of them pleased him, "What about Stein? I think Rick Stein sounds not bad."

"Stein it is then," Marcus nodded and got into the car.

The faint rays of the rising sun gleamed in the east, Rick turned his head in the direction of the growing light. It was the first day of his new life. A life in which no one dares to look at him as if he is nothing, no one dares to insult and humiliate him. A life in which old Rick Lawrence will no longer have a place in.

"The king is dead. Long live the new King," he whispered to himself, with an ominous and contented grin on his face. He turned and got into the car, slamming the door behind him.

. . .