This Is the Least I Can Help You With.

The arrow on the device froze, and then reverberated once, then two times, then three... and continued its turn, gradually picking up the speed.

Dr. Shefner looked at the device, shocked by its activity. It was impossible! It has been more than three minutes since the heart stopped.

He rushed to the body of Daniel and began to listen to the pulse. At first, it was almost not felt, and then it began to beat more and more clearly. Shefner took the flashlight and checked the pupils of the young man. They immediately responded to the light.

"Yes! We did it!" The man exclaimed, pleased with the success of his cruel experiment.

Richard glanced at the sensors and at Daniel, turned around and left the hall. A smile full of triumph and anticipation lit up his face. This couple exceeded all his expectations. He hadn't felt such excitement about the upcoming events for a very long time.

. . .

Lena opened her eyes slowly and blinked several times to get used to the bright light. She was in an unknown room. The girl looked around. In addition to the bed on which she was lying and the chair standing nearby, the room was empty.

She attempted to get up, but the body did not obey her, as if she had completely lost control over it. The girl made several more attempts, and only for the sixth time, she was able to sit down. The head was aching from the pain, all the feelings were aggravated. She slowly crawled out of bed and headed for the door. The only thing left was to walk a couple of steps further, when the door in front of her swung open, and the man went inside.

Lena reflexively took a step back. Her body lost balance, but the man caught her quickly. "Kitten, you should be careful. You have been unconscious for three days."

Lena threw a hateful glance at Richard, "Let me go now."

"Hmm, kitty, watch your speech. Otherwise, I may be offended," Richard hissed and sat her back on the bed.

"Where is Daniel?"

"Does it matter?"

"Where is Daniel?" Lena repeated her question.

Richard was looking at the girl attentively. She was looking back at him, not looking away, and absolutely not hiding her disgust. No one else dared to look at him like that. He was excited and annoyed by that at the same time.

"If you complete the assignment successfully, I will answer your question," the man waved his hand, signaling her to follow him.

. . .

It was an empty room with gray walls. The lamp was blinking dimly as if it was counting seconds to its final chord. In the center of the room was a table. A girl was sitting at the table. It's been an hour and a half since he brought her here, and every minute Lena was afraid that she would never be able to hear the answer to her question.

The task that Richard gave her was simply impossible to accomplish. She felt his breath close to her ear, and his voice caused the girl's body to tremble,

"My little kitty, how is that possible? You were given such a simple task, and you still make mistakes?" Richard squeezed her throat, and Lena began to choke.

"Kitten, this is a very simple formula. There are only 2300 characters. Well, 2345 to be precise. Is it difficult to memorize? Let's try again, ok? And then I begin to lose my patience. You know, I even thought out a great motivation for you, look!" Richard waved his hand, and his subordinate brought a man and two girls into the room.

Lena had already seen them in the dining room before but never spoke to them. Chatting with members of other groups was forbidden.

"Let's play like that. I give you an hour to retell me this formula. If you make one mistake, I'll kill him." Richard pointed a gun at the man, and the last one stared at Lena in a panic.

The girl began to tell the formula in a trembling voice. She did not understand what Richard wanted to achieve. Did he want to test her memory? Intimidate her? She tried to remember each symbol as best she could, but there were too many of them.

Almost an hour passed, as Richard suddenly interrupted her speech. "There you go, that's a completely different thing! Well done! 1850 characters and no mistakes! Almost perfect!" He raised his gun and,

Bam!

The prisoner fell dead to the floor. Two girls standing next to him began to fight in silent hysterics.

"Sorry, sorry. And it all began so well... until you made the first mistake." He raised his hand and slapped her face.

Lena clutched at her cheek, tears appeared in her eyes. She never expected anything good from this man, but this was the first time he had been so rude to her. From the moment she woke up, he seemed to be a completely different person. Or, more precisely, he simply took off one of his masks in front of her.

"One more time! If you make a second mistake, it will cost two lives. And these two young ladies will say goodbye to their lives and follow their comrade. And if you then make the third mistake... then three little girls are waiting for us outside the door."

Lena began to shake. It's one thing when your own life was threatened and completely different when someone else's lives depended on you. Such pressure was too much for her.

"Don't you worry so, I will not shoot at children. We will give them a magical pill, and they will slowly die of suffocation right in front of your eyes..." Richard showed her a charming smile. "Well, let's begin, shall we?"

An hour later, Lena fell silent, frozen in anticipation of a new sentence. Richard stroked her head and gently said, "Well done, you remember the whole formula. You see, it was not so difficult. Motivation really works wonders!"

He leaned toward her, "Only you know the 2341 symbol is your second mistake," Richard whispered and cocked the trigger.

"No, please stop it!" The girl grabbed his hand. She could not allow anyone else to suffer because of her mistake. "Richard, I beg you, let them go. I will memorize everything. Just don't touch anyone else."

A contented smile lit up his face, "Kitten, you called me by my name for the first time. Well, so be it, I'll give you one more chance." He waved his hand, and his subordinate led the girls into the corridor.

Richard sat across from Lena and smiled. Every time she saw his smile, a cold shiver covered her body. The way he could change his emotions and his attitude in just a few minutes made him an unpredictable and terrible opponent.

"You wanted to know where Daniel is, yeah? All right, I'll let you see him. If you can handle the task."

He took the girl to one of the basement rooms. On the table were the scrolls brought from Tibet.

"As I said earlier, we cannot decrypt the data written in these scrolls. Your task is to memorize and decipher them," Richard said.

"What? But how is that possible? I do not even understand what is written here! How can I remember this and, moreover, decipher it?!" the girl pleaded. He knew in advance that he was giving her an impossible task. He did this on purpose to make fun of her. It would be naive to expect a fair play from such a person.

Lena lowered her head. She was stumped and did not know what else she could do.

Richard looked at the girl and grinned, "You have time until morning. I advise you to start now," he said and left.

She sat on the floor and began to lay out the scrolls. The symbols drawn on the parchment were unknown and incomprehensible to her. Tears came out in the eyes of the girl, she wanted to cry out loud right here and now, but calmed herself down. She had to remain strong no matter what.

Lena did not know how much time had passed since she was brought here. There were no windows or clocks in the room.

Suddenly the door groaned and opened slightly, "Lena? Are you here?"

The girl turned around and saw Armand. "Phew, thank God, I found you." He made sure that no one was around and went inside.

"Common, quickly, get ready. We don't have much time."

Lena immediately jumped up from the floor and followed him. "Here, get dressed," he handed her a hat and a coat.

"Where are we going?" the girl asked.

"Away from here. Follow me," Armand replied and led her down the winding corridors quickly.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Polina said that you are her friend. I can't do much for you, but I hope that at least it will help to change the situation somehow."

They took several turns, occasionally stopping so that the soldiers would not notice them. Armand led her through a passage in the eastern tower, and they reached an emergency exit. Approaching the exit, Lena noticed a man standing at the door. With each step, her heart began to knock faster and faster, and the girl rushed to meet him as soon as she saw his face.

"Daniel!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him with all her strength. He was alive, he was next to her.

Daniel squeezed the girl in his arms and whispered, "I am so glad to see you."

"Guys, we have no time. You have to run before they have discovered your loss," Armand interrupted their long-awaited reunion. "Daniel, here is some money. And this is a map where you need to go. My people will be waiting for you there. You can trust them, they promised me that they would hide you for a little while. And one more thing," Armand held out a pistol to him. "I hope you will not have to use it. That's it, go!"

"Thank you, Armand. You have no idea how much this means to us," Daniel thanked him. "Are you sure everything will be alright with you?"

"Ahaha, what will happen to me?" The young man laughed, and a strained smile appeared on his face. "My own father will not kill me, right?" he scratched his head in confusion. In fact, he himself was not completely sure of his thoughts.

But now was not the time to think about it.

"That's it, guys, just go! I have to close the door and go back before anyone notices."

"Thank you, Armand. Goodbye!" Daniel replied, took Lena by the hand and they ran towards the forest.

"Farewell. I hope you will be all right," Armand whispered, watching the couple retreating, and closed the metal door.