As tears go by

// 30 The House of Poison

She woke up. She was not in a cell. No naked walls, no windows with bars. She was on a sofa, under a nice and soft blanket. She was not trussed up. She sat up. Looked around. She was in the living room. Wooden floor. Beautiful lavish Afghan rugs. The elongated human and animal figures told her they were probably Shindand or Adraskan ones. In another rug she recognized a Bukhara with the traditional octagonal elephant's foot print. Her mother had a rug like that at home, in Grozny. Her mother was dead. She did not know were her grave was, neither if she had a burial. All lost in the warren of the war. Her eyes watered for a moment. She looked the logs cracking in a fireplace. In the middle of the room, there was a table with twelve chairs. Against the walls, shelves of books and a huge collection of Matroska dolls and Soviet toy soldiers and vehicles were perfectly painted. Against a picture window she saw the driver, Pavel. He was reading a book. He was not watching on her at all. She stood up and turned around. Behind the sofa there were two glass cases. She walked over and looked closer. They were like an aquarium, but there weren't any fish in it. She balked, when a hideous snake with a huge triangular head jumped literally from the sand and bit the glass where it was her face a moment before.

"That is a Malayan Pit Viper. They are very lazy, but they can jump at you with the speed of a lightning. Their fangs are long, and are in the front of the mouth. They like to bite the victim behind the head. They bite thousands of people per year in Malaysia and Thailand. They are dangerous to handle. One day they stay still all the time. The next, or the next 10 minutes – they strike out as fast as a whip. Their preferred habitat is under dry leaves, wood, or rocks. They are active by night, especially if it rains."

She turned around.

Kirill stood in front of her. "Please. Let's sit. You are weak. Better to speak comfy."

She complied. He sat on the sofa in front of her. He fished from his pocket a golden cigarette holder. He put it in his mouth, without a cigarette. He smiled at her calmly. "Pavel was a bit too rude with you in the car, but he is sorry. Aren't you, Pavel?"

Pavel nodded and hailed a hand. She saw her left had has been bandaged. He looked like he was missing a finger.

Kirill realized she saw it and sighed. "The venom of the Malayan Pit Viper is necrotic; it destroys all cells that comes in contact with – red blood cells, muscle, and ligaments. So if you are bitten by this snake, do not wrap a tight band around the bite location. That will stop the venom from moving, from being diluted, and the tissue will suffer much more destruction."

"You made the viper bit him as punishment?"

Kirill smiled. "He knew he had not to be rude with my guests," said again, and smiled. "Nature has created perfect killers. One thousand species of sea organisms, seven hundred fish species, four hundred snake species; sixty kinds of ticks; seventy-five scorpions; two hundred spiders; a thousand species of plants and many birds with poisonous feathers if touched or eaten. Many of them are in my glass garden," he explained to her.

She did not utter a word. She realized she could not speak. Her tongue was stiff as wood, either she could not move her arms or legs.

He smiled. "I own the perfect polygraph to know if you tell the truth, and I use it with people who want to have business with me. It is a tiny polygraph. It doesn't need power to work. Just some mosquitoes or fly in its spiderweb. Most important of all, you cannot outsmart it clenching your ass and holding your breath as you would do with a poly."

"Is it reliable?" She was able to ask finally.

He took from his mouth the golden cigarette holder and pointed it to her. "My polygraph is a poison extracted from an arachnid. It paralyses you but you stay conscious until you die. Before this happens, it makes you run your mouth. Actually, you became a real motormouth."