When the wind from the hills brought the smell of wet grass and pine needles, Maria often went to the river — where the water flowed quietly and she could think about anything. After her husband’s death, it had become a habit: every evening she would go down to the shore, sit on an old log and just listen to the water whispering.
That evening was like any other. The river glistened in the setting sun, dragonflies buzzed above the reeds, and Maria was about to leave when something flashed between the waves. A small ball of fur was being tossed about by the current. At first, she thought it was just rubbish or a discarded toy, but then she heard a faint squeak.
‘My God… it’s alive!’ she whispered and, without hesitation, stepped into the cold water.
She pulled out a tiny animal — trembling, wet, and covered in mud. It looked like a small otter, but with a strange shape, a short tail, and large, intelligent eyes. A tiny leather strap hung from its neck, with a metal medallion attached to it.
Maria brought her find home, wrapped it in a towel, placed a bowl of milk next to it, and watched it recover throughout the night. By morning, the animal was already trying to walk around the room, waddling comically on its short legs.
‘What a miracle you are…’ Maria said quietly. ‘We’ll call you Rick.’
She carefully removed the strap and noticed that the medallion could be opened. Inside was a tiny metal capsule, and inside that was a piece of paper rolled into a tube.
On it were words written in thin, neat handwriting:
‘If you have found this animal, it carries proof. Do not throw it away. Do not hand it over to the authorities. They will come for it.’
Maria sat for a long time, unable to understand what it meant.
What ‘proof’ could the animal carry? And who should come?
She tried to examine it more closely and noticed a strange feature — under the light of the lamp, a tiny seam was visible on Rick’s side, as if the skin had once been cut and then carefully stitched back together. Maria couldn’t resist, took a magnifying glass — and froze: a shiny metal plate was visible under a thin layer of fur.
‘This is not just an animal…’ she whispered.
A few days later, Rick became completely tame. He followed Maria around the house, ate from her hands, and she increasingly found herself thinking that he seemed to understand words. Sometimes he even tried to ‘point’ at the medallion with his paw, as if reminding her of something important.
And then it all began.
First, the postman came and told her that a strange parcel with no return address had arrived in her name. Inside was a USB stick and a note:
‘Soon you will learn the truth. But be careful. Rick is not just an animal.’
Maria plugged the flash drive into her laptop. A folder with dozens of files opened on the screen. Among them was a video. She clicked ‘play.’
The recording showed a laboratory. People in white coats stood around a table on which small cages lay. In one of them was an animal exactly like Rick. A voiceover said:
“Experiment No. 17. The data carrier is ready. The information is encrypted in the body’s tissues. The code cannot be extracted without a living sample.”
Maria recoiled from the screen.
So… this little creature was a living repository of information? But whose? And why had it been thrown into the river?
That same night, someone knocked on her door.
Three short knocks. A pause. Another one.
Maria froze. Car headlights flashed in the window. She turned off the light and pressed Rick to her chest. The little animal squeaked quietly, as if it too sensed danger.
‘Shh…’ she whispered. ‘Don’t be afraid.’
She heard footsteps outside the door and a deep male voice:
‘Mrs. Volkova? We’re from the research centre. You have an object that belongs to the state. Please return it.’
Maria’s heart began to pound. She went to the window and saw two men in identical dark jackets. One was holding a walkie-talkie, the other a briefcase.
She didn’t know what to do. On the one hand, she was afraid. On the other, something inside her told her that she couldn’t give Rika away.
The next morning, Maria got on a bus and left for a neighbouring town. She knew only one thing: if those people had found her house, they wouldn’t stop there.
She hid the animal in an old box and went to see an old acquaintance, Sergei, a biologist with whom she had once studied at university.
Sergei stared at Rick for a long time, then silently placed him under the lamp.
‘You understand that this is…’ he finally said. ‘This is not an animal. It’s a bioinformation carrier. Data is stored in its DNA. Judging by everything, it’s a government experiment. If what’s on the flash drive is true, it may contain information that cost someone their life.’
Maria looked at the tiny creature sleeping trustingly in her palm.
‘What now?’ she asked.
Sergei sighed.
‘Now they’ll be looking for you. And if you want to save yourself — and him — you’ll have to disappear.’
Maria nodded. She had already made up her mind.
Two days later, she left the city. Surveillance cameras recorded her at the train station, but then her trail went cold.
A week later, a short note appeared in the press:
‘An unknown woman rescued an experimental animal capable of storing encrypted data. The whereabouts of both are unknown.’
No one ever saw Maria or little Rick again.
But rumour had it that somewhere in the mountains, in an old house, you could see a woman sitting by the window with a small animal in her arms in the evenings.
And in her eyes — peace.
As if she knew a secret that the world was better off not knowing.
