"Aleksandr Abramov, Sergei Abramov. Horsemen from Nowhere ("ВСАДНИКИ НИОТКУДА", англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

How long this lasted I do not know. Finally he spoke up.
"I don't understand anything."
"Me too."
"A man cannot split into two men."
"That's exactly what I figured."
He gave some thought to that.
"Maybe there is a snow maiden after all?"
"You're repeating," I said. "I have already thought about that. And
that science is nonsense and self-consolation."
He smiled slightly embarrassed, as if rebuked by his senior. Actually,
I was his senior. But then he corrected himself immediately:
"That's a joke. This is some kind of physical and psychic
mystification. What kind exactly, I cannot make out yet. But there is an
illusion.
There is something not real. You know what?
Let's go see Zernov."
He understood me almost without speaking- he was my reflection. And our
thoughts ran to the same thing: did our microscope survive the shock? It
had, it turned out, and was in its place in the cabinet. The slides were
also intact. My duplicate (or counterpart) took them out of the box. We
compared our hands: even the corns and handnails were the same.
"We'll check and see," I said.
Each one of us pricked his finger and smeared the blood on the slides;
then took turns looking through the microscope. The blood was identical in
both cases.
"The same material," he said with a smirk, "a copy."
"You're the copy."
"No, you are."
"Wait a minute," I stopped him, "Who invited you to go on this
expedition?"
"Why, Zernov, of course."
"And what was the purpose?"
"You're just asking so that you can later repeat the same thing."
"No, not at all. I can tell you. Because of the rose-coloured clouds,
isn't that so?"
He squinted, recalling something, and then asked cunningly:
"What school did you finish?"
"Institute, not school."
"No, I'm asking about school. The number. What number was it, have you
forgotten?"
"You're the one who has forgotten. I finished School No. 709."
"Well, okey. But who sat next to you on the left?"
"Now, listen. Why are you examining me?"
"Just a check up, that's all. You might have forgotten Lena, you see.
Incidentally, she got married shortly afterwards."
"Yes, she married Fibikh," I said.
He sighed.
"Your life coincides with mine."
"Still, I'm convinced that you are the copy, a spectre and a bit of