Indeed, our ghost did not go a dozen steps, as they began to shoot at it from behind the nearest fence. Dad and I laid a ghost on the ground, as if it had died. And mother screamed in horror:

      “They killed a woman there!”

      “That would be the case with you if I let you go,” Papa said.

      “Is that your bandits?” Mom asked.

      “No, these are the bandits of Semen Andreevich, but they will get no good from it too.

      Meanwhile, three dark figures came out from behind the fence and headed for the fallen body. As soon as they approached our ghost, fragmentary shots rang out from the neighboring roof and all three figures laid down side by side.

      “That’s all,” Papa said, “as you see, you are killed, and there are three bandits next to you. Tomorrow they will announce that the gang of scammers with you at the head of it has been destroyed and that it was you who killed the director of the bank who exposed the whole gang. Now let’s wait for the snipers to leave the neighboring house and then we will get out… only it would be better not through the door…”

      “Let’s go,” I said, “it is an escape staircase there, next to my balcony.”

      Mom quickly collected money, documents and some warm clothes. Dad took his diary and a pack of mother’s letters, including the last unfinished one. I gathered my clothes and some toys. We went out onto the balcony and went down the escape staircase into the courtyard to the garage. Mom and dad rolled out the car from the garage and manually rolled it down the street, I sat inside and pressed the brake when it was necessary. Then they started the engine and drove very quietly to the border of the city. Having driven away from the city, we stopped the car, told mom to sleep and again joined hands with dad.

      Mom was in such a dumbfounded and amazed state that she obediently laid down and immediately fell asleep. And we, as my father said, had to figure out what had happened and how to save mom.

      We were a daddyson again.

      First, we moved to my mother’s work and saw how Semen Andreevich was making excuses to someone on the phone.

      “So he is not in charge here,” Papa said.

      In an instant, we were transported along a telephone conversation right into some elegant room.

      There was an inscription on the door: Club of 13, and this inscription was repeated in 12 more languages. Inside there were thirteen men in black clothes, one of whom was scolding Semen Andreevich on the phone. When he walked away from the telephone, another man addressed him with a smile.

      “Well, you frittered away the annual plan. Starting next year, you will not be the first, but the last… Let’s see how HE will punish you!”

      “Okay,” Dad told me, “these are not in charge either. And who is HE?”

      In the meantime, quiet conversations were going on in the room. A few men played cards. Two argued and made a bet. As my father and I understood, they were arguing about whose army will capture some oil field.

      And our “first”, who abused Semen Andreevich by phone, was walking sadly between the tables and handing out money to everyone. Apparently, he bet someone and now, having lost, he was paying.

      But then a quiet musical sound was heard, and in the middle of the hall in a large stone bowl rose a luminous pillar. All the men knelt and pressed their heads close against the edge of the bowl. All of them simultaneously were receiving instructions for further work.

      “Here HE is!” dad said.

      As if we were pulled into a luminous column and immediately found ourselves in a small room with a TV and a huge number of all kinds of cups, vases… on the shelves. The old man sat with his eyes closed in a huge armchair, and it was from him that all the power creating the luminous speaking pillar in the Club of 13 came out.

      “That’s the goal of our journey,” Papa said. “What should we do? This old man seems to be stronger than both of us put together. For example, I can’t make such things.” We left the room by seeping through the door, and found a young soldier with weapon in his hands.

      “Let’s use him!” Dad said.

      The soldier could not do anything against our joint attack. In the body of a soldier, dad and I entered the room of the main sorcerer!

      We saw on TV how to do this. Turn the shutter, point a weapon on the enemy and demand menacingly!

      “Stop harking after my wife Alexandra!”

      The old man smiled and asked:

      “Which Alexandra? You, Pete, have gone crazy… – Then he became serious, looked closely and said: “Sorry, I was mistaken, you are not my Pete, and you only used him. It is a pity; I will have to part with him. So which Alexandra, from which city, which country?”

      Dad did not know that, and I was afraid to tell him.

      “Well…” he said, “Semen Andreevich wants to kill her, in the same way as he recently killed the director of the bank.”

      “Ah, Semochka, of course, he is the gifted guy. But he does nothing in vain. If he wants to kill, then it is necessary for business. And our affairs are very important; the money we collect is used to build the future happiness of all mankind! So do not worry in vain.”

      “But I don’t want her to be killed!” shouted dad and pressed the trigger.

      I thought that one shot would happen, just like in the movies. But the weapon suddenly started to jump in father’s hands, sending bullets in different directions. And dad still had no idea of releasing the trigger. Then the TV exploded and the fragments of cups and vases from the shelves flew all over the room. I thought that just in a moment a terrible old man would fall dead, but he was not going to fall. He suddenly squealed in a thin voice:

      “Radogast! Radogast! Stop this nonsense!”

      At this scream, Dad was very frightened and dropped his weapon on the floor. The ghostly