Devil -- Fiction; Hell -- Fiction; Short stories; Soviet Union -- Fiction
"And look at this!" roared the big Gorkzy. "'All soldiers and police
throw down their arms. Refuse to shoot the people shouting they want
their Tsar and church back. Satellite countries freed of the odious
Communist yoke. Concentration camps, collective farming, and slave
labor abolished. All spies and saboteurs recalled to Moscow for trial
and punishment. Ivan, the Tsar, to issue proclamation.'"
"What Tsar?" The six stared stupidly at one another.
One man picked up a shiny gold piece and tested it with his teeth.
"The Bolsheviks murdered the old goat and all his family. How can this
be?"
"He probably left plenty of bastards," another man hazarded.
"I get it," Gorkzy shouted. "Prince Navi is a grandson. His name is
N-a-v-i--Ivan spelled backward. Why, the smart little devil! And now
he's here some place to reign over us."
"Oh, no," Cletus protested as he and Nick slithered through the wall.
"You aren't going to make me rule over these dopes, boss. Have a
heart. It's cold here, and the whole country stinks."
"That's your punishment, m'lad, for letting Raphael and Michael catch
onto you. You can't prowl around Heaven just now so you'll have to
work here in Hell's Rear Annex for a while. Look!" Nick thumbed one of
the gold pieces. "Your image stamped on all of them. Also 'Ivan--Tsar.
In God We Trust.'"
"Okay," Cletus said, shuffling a little, then brightening. "Anyhow,
I'll have Nishka."
"Not if the common folks find out she worked for the MVD." As if to
punctuate Nick's prophesy, a dozen bombs exploded inside police
headquarters.
"Heck!" Cletus shrugged resignedly. "Well, lend me that hat, and
conjure up a couple million tons of soap--not perfumed."
Roaring with laughter, Nick promised to spread soap over the entire
country, then watched the little imp zooming back and forth across Red
Square--sprinkling the snowy pavement with Ivan-Tsar pieces of gold.
* * * * *
The Satanic laughter lasted till Nick had whizzed half way across
Chaos. "That caper," he told himself gleefully, "will fool The BBU
about my plan. Or, will it? Great Hades! I did a _good_ deed."
A million miles above the wastes of Chaos, he remembered he still wore
Volonsky whose shade would still be imprisoned in the Pravda room.
Nick shucked out of his unpleasant quarters, halted to watch the thing
spinning downward.
"Cheer up, Vych," he laughed. "Next century I'll gather up what's left
and give it back to you--maybe."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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