The Maiden Forest. A play in two acts. Maxim Titovets

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      Chopper [Pressing the call button.] Karen! Everyone is in place. Wait for the signal at midnight.

      Slav enters. Chopper stops the call.

      Slav. Chopper, all right. The old geezers departed. Jacket and Moray went inside.

      Chopper. Few surprises there. Natasha is the best drink-spiker on the block.

      Slav. Yeah, this bitch knows how to wrap men around her finger!

      Chopper. You bet!

      Slav. Why would we even need this rifle?

      Chopper. It is Frost’s order. It has to be done.

      Slav. And what if Kolosov realizes?

      Chopper. I don’t want him to bang away at us when we pull off the job.

      Slav. [Opening the furnace door and throwing more birch logs on the fire.] Damned moisture.

      Pause.

      Slav. We have been stranded here all night. Whose digs are these?

      Chopper. It is Moray’s house. It was passed down to him from his folks.

      Slav. They must have died a long time ago. [He takes an old photograph off the table and reads the text on the reverse side of it.] «August. 1997. I sought my love in the maiden forest. With a mocking singer, I spent the night in a stack…» [He takes out a lighter, sets the photograph on fire, and throws it on a plate lying on the table]. My father got a garden plot here as well. But this drunkard never built anything there. The land went for nothing.

      Chopper. A man only seeks for happiness but never has it. And it doesn’t even exist. Slav!

      Slav. Eh?

      Chopper. Try it on. It’s just your size. [He throws a parcel with clothes to Slav.]

      Slav unwraps the parcel.

      Slav. You can’t be serious, Chopper…

      Chopper. A must is a must. It’s gonna get hairy at night.

      Slav changes into the police uniform, puts on the peaked cap, and puts steel handcuffs into his pocket.

      Slav. I look nothing like a cop.

      Chopper. We are going to check it soon.

      Slav. Jacket and Moray… I don’t like these two. How come Frost knows them?

      Chopper. It’s none of your affairs. Frost vouched for them.

      Slav. The chumps will get off as soon as it hits the fan. You and I are sticking our necks out.

      Chopper. Relax. Jacket and Kolosov are settling their personal scores.

      Slav. Is it true that they are related?

      Chopper. Kolosov is his stepfather. It was he who got Jacket and Moray arrested for drugs a few years ago.

      Slav. What a nasty son of a bitch.

      Chopper. Jacket had spent four years in jail. Meanwhile, his mother died.

      Slav. The fellow had damned bad luck.

      Chopper. Kolosov buried Jacket’s mother and got his grubby hands on the icon collection her granddad left to her.

      Slav. How much money did Kolosov make on it?

      Chopper. When Perestroika began, profiteers bid a four-room apartment in Moscow for those icons.

      Slav. [Whistling.] And where is this collection now? [Opening the door of a wardrobe and groping around inside.]

      Chopper. In the old Kolosov’s apartment. The roost is alarmed. We are going to find out the password and take the icons without a big fuss. Karen the cracksman is already there.

      Artyom with the uncased rifle and Moray enter. Slav closes the wardrobe door, Artyom and Moray notice him.

      Moray. Jiggers! Cops! [He takes off towards the exit, stumbles, and falls. Then he sees that Artyom and Chopper don’t run away and keeps sitting by the door.]

      Chopper. [Giving a laugh and coughing.] You do! You do look like a cop, Slav.

      Scene 3

      Midday. The stage setting is the same as in Scene 1.