01x04 - Kokytos

[bunniefuu]

Wanting to satisfy Gods,
people make the greatest sacrifice.

They sacrifice their own
children, wives, and themselves.

Then Gods play with them

like mythical harpies
with food before a feast.

ERINYES
Goddesses of Vengeance

Chapter 4
Kokytos

BUT GO THYSELF
TO THE DANK HOUSE OF HADES.

THERE INTO ACHERON FLOW
PERIPHLEGETHON AND COCYTUS,

WHICH IS A BRANCH
OF THE WATER OF THE STYX;

AND THERE IS A ROCK, AND THE MEETING
PLACE OF THE TWO ROARING RIVERS.

Homer, Odyssey Book 10, 512-515

We've known each other

since I was active in Podwoloczyska.

And from the beginning,

you've put me in contact
with whom I needed

in Lviv, Ternopil.

Thanks to you I was able to sell goods.

We're one bunch.

And when I finished business
in Podolia,

it was you who accepted me here
in Lviv as your own.

My otriez,

sometimes shot
to aid you with your business.

We help each other,

but not everyone is as good as you.

My daughter, Elżunia,

was kidnapped.

So far there is no ransom demand,

not a word.

Here, in Lviv?
Such a shame, such a pity.

It's normal to give a snitch
a slap on the face,

to threaten a disobedient wh*re
with a knife,

to hire a hitman,
but to kidnap a child--

I would gouge the b*stard's eyes.

You said.

Elżunia,

although almost grown up,
looks and acts like a child.

She is trusting.

She went to the park
with her governess,

and that sl*t was reading love letters

instead of watching the child,

but she was already
taken care of by my Tosiek.

I'll help you, Zyga,
but there are problems with spies.

No solid people these days.

Things have been very fishy
in Lembryk lately.

Our people are no longer
only our people.

You never know, one can be a double
snitch and may go to the police.

I will pay off spies.

You can't buy them all.

No one knows about the kidnapping
but the governess. Oder?

Where is she?

Good. Keep it that way!

Not a word to anyone!

Otherwise the police will catch him,
and you won't gouge his eyes out,

for he'll go to jail.

It can't be.

Throw him into the basement,
I'll deal with him there.

I'll look for the one
who kidnapped your daughter.

I haven't drunk booze for 18 years.

In the Holy Cross Prison I promised

that I would drink
at my daughter's wedding.

Now it's not a wedding.

Down with the b*stard.

Down with the b*stard.

And if it doesn't work out,
I've got something else.

Get your blind wh*re.

The factory yard
on Kochanowski Street.

The r*pist belongs to the upper class,

he took care of the theatrical
setting of his act – the white flowers.

He is perhaps an extreme man

because in his act he combined
mutually exclusive symbols.

He juxtaposed the color of the flowers,

symbolizing purity and virginity,
with urine,

with which he tainted her petticoat.

The chicken egg
with which he smeared the girl

is the Christian symbol of new life--

It's a private visit, doctor.

I'll pay a lot.

I'll add another two hundred
to what I said on the phone.

This thing cannot come up.

It's not a condition, it's an order.

Dear sir, I understand your pain,

I have a Ret*rded child myself.

And the more Ret*rded the child,
the more we love them.

Do you know why?

Because we want
to protect them even more,

take even more care of them.

You have a Ret*rded child?

Right.

A son.

I called him Ivan,

brought him up
in line with our national tradition,

and he changed his surname to Podgórny.

Jan Podgórny is now
studying law in Warsaw.

He mocks Ukrainian poets

and laughs at me,
the old fool who still loves him.

Dear sir, I know you are hurt
by what happened to your daughter.

Take my report to the police,
they will catch the monster.

You must not let him walk free,

even if the price is your daughter's
shame and defiled virginity.

What did you say!

Defiled virginity?

She has no virginity!

Calm down, you dirty boor,
don't you understand what I said?

Your daughter has been deflowered.

Not a word about her virginity,

not a word about the whole thing.

Or someone in Warsaw

will find student Jan Podgórny
and break his legs.

This night is like a dark maze
in which I have to find Lodzia.

But where is the thread
that someone left?

The toilet at the Herring Pub.

I repeat.
The toilet at the Herring Pub.

What? Wait, stop.

HERRING

I'm waiting for someone.

Then go to the station,
it's not the waiting room.

Dear sir, I need to talk to you.

What? Is it free? Step aside.

Wait.

Blimey!
They are beating for nothing here.

A man, probably your friend,

treated me and my colleague
to chops and vodka

and gave us two zlotys.

In return, I have to say this:

list of tenants, Szpitalna 30,

take a fiacre
and make the driver wait for you.

Is this some kind of game, a bet?

It's not a game.

Wait here.

Do you have something for me?
A message, letter?

Madman.

Get in!

Get in if you still want
to see your cousin.

Go!

The hat.

Your cousin is unharmed

and undisgraced.

And it will remain so unless

you refuse my request again.

You have to find
my daughter's kidnapper

and drag him to my feet.

You must know one thing,

I'll k*ll him.

But first I will rough him up so hard

that death will be the happiest moment
in his wretched life.

No way I will rot in prison
for complicity in a crime.

I will bring him to you.

For that I'll get my cousin back.

You will beat him up, and then I'll
bring him to justice.

It's not even about the prison,
Mr. Hanas.

I'll never lose my job again,
do you understand?

Do you think you can bargain, Baldy?

You'll bring the kidnapper to me
on this chain.

Then you can have your cousin back.

She will be my guarantee
that you will not trick me.

No court or police
is to know about it.

And if you try to trick me,
you will be punished.

Not with the chain.

Bring in Tosiek!

Tosiek, Tosiek.

He is not normal, you know, Baldy?

He only listens to me.

He was a great thief at the border.

When the guards caught him,

he'd stick his tongue out
and pretend to be a fool.

The Poles would kick him
in the a*s, the Soviets would laugh.

When they played on a squeezebox,
they made him dance,

but in the end everyone let him go.

What do you think, Baldy?

That if I'm bored, I make him sing?

He is not some wag;
he is very dangerous.

I have to keep an eye on him.

When I'm not at home,
I lock him in the basement.

Last Saturday,

he barged into the kitchen
because I forgot to lock him up,

and do you know what he did?

He grabbed a chicken
ready for roasting,

took it to the basement.

It was barely plucked.

Tosiek, show what you did
with the chicken.

He f*cked a cold, dead chicken
several times.

And when I got home, he was there
with his pants down, smiling.

Do you want me
to take Tosiek to your cousin?

Here is dr Pidhirny's medical expertise

and a list of people
whom Elżunia had contact with.

You'll check police records
and bring me the b*stard.

Go to work.

How can I be sure
that Leokadia is even alive?

That this monster of yours
didn't do anything to her?

For the latter

I give you my word of an old smuggler.

I don't do such things.

And as for the first one,
you will see for yourself.

Here she is.

Edward! I'm begging you,
get me out of here!

I'll do that soon, I swear.

I have to get the b*stard,
but Kiczales

dodged helping me, to hell with him.

After returning to the police,
you are invaluable to me.

Give me that chain.

What must be, must be.

Elżunia Hanasówna
has extremely sensitive hearing

and will recognize her oppressor
by his voice.

All I have to do is check the records,

take the suspect by the collar,
bring him to Hanas,

and his daughter's absolute hearing
will serve as a litmus test.

If she doesn't recognize him,

I kick him out
and look for another one.

I just don't like the hypothesis

that he peed on this girl
to further disgrace her.

Somehow it's so--

Edziu, we need to check these flowers,
maybe it's something rare.

Find the best expert
and figure that out,

then go to the archives

and find every deviant and pervert.

OK.

This Hanasówna--

She is almost an adult
but acts like a child.

She is very trusting.

The number of people
she has contact with is small.

Among the outsiders

are her friends
from the Institute for the Blind

and the well-known psychiatrist
Doctor Gustaw Lewicki

from the Institute in Kulparków.

I will go and talk to him.

Edziu, sorry, I have to go to bed now.

Wait. I want to go to a brothel.

What do I care
if you get a little hanky-panky?

I will go there, but only after
I find out where one is.

You don't know
any brothels in Lembryk?

Take a notebook,
I'll give you some addresses.

I'm looking for a special brothel,

where deviants like to come

and spread petals

or chicken eggs on women's bosoms,

where they can meet little girls,
do you understand, Wiluś?

Edziu, I do not know such addresses.

Get to work, you old so-and-so.

The doctor is now
treating Elżunia at home,

not in the Institution, as before?

After what happened to her,
Elżunia feels safest at home.

I treat her with music
and other sounds.

Music?

That's very interesting,
how do you do it?

I order various recordings
on the radio.

The sound of trees and the sea,
the chirping of birds,

the prattling and chattering
of small children.

In other words,

everything that can be pleasant
to human ears.

I wonder how they make
these recordings.

Do they walk around with a microphone?

Do they go to the sea?

Of course not.

They have a huge archive
of different recordings.

And even if they couldn't find
the sounds I order from them,

they can easily fabricate them.

The head of the amplification room,
Mr. Kukla,

is a real magican.

And when you have
your recording, what then?

Then I choose them depending
on the mood of my young patient.

I'd like to discuss it further, but
unfortunately I don't have much time.

I published it in the last issue of

"Archives suisses
de neurologie et de psychiatrie",

I have some extra copies
somewhere here.

Oh, there they are.

I can give you one.

Yes, this is it.

This is a written version
of the lecture

I delivered at an international
congress in Paris.

It was a well-known scientific event.

Here you go.

I am terribly sorry,

I forgot that your time
is also limited.

I'm sorry.

How can I help you?

On the day of the kidnapping,

Elżunia didn't go far away,
certainly was within call.

At the time of the kidnapping,
she should have gotten scared

and made some kind of cry,

but the babysitter
didn't hear anything.

Could you explain that?

Elżunia, like most
developmentally delayed people,

is very friendly with people.

It is extremely easy to gain her trust.

A candy or a smile is enough for her
to hug a stranger.

So she didn't have to scream,
she just trusted a stranger.

To the beloved doctor
for his good heart

I would like a copy of this lecture
of yours on music therapy.

It's extremely interesting.

I don't speak French,
but someone will translate it for me.

There is no need to translate,

I have an abbreviated version
from The Polish Doctor .

Here you are.

Instincts are rooted
in animal parts of our brain

that are the oldest evolutionary.

They exist to protect us from evil.

Do you understand, Commissioner,
what I am talking about?

Elżunia was not protected by anything,

her instincts are not
as efficient as yours or mine.

Do you think you'll be eliminated
from my list of suspects, you quack?

My instinct is warped,

dysregulated
like an overclocked speaker.

I suspect the prominent doctor,
the friend of young children,

and he, as a psychiatry expert,
has seen right through me

and given me his alibi.

If he gave a lecture in Paris on
June 10, he couldn't have kidnapped her

in Stryisky Park in Lviv
in the morning of June 11.

Instincts are animal relics in us.

When will you finally
become human, Edward?

Maybe he returned to Lviv by plane?

Check if he returned by plane
and when he gave the lecture in Paris.

Check it out!

Okay, I'll check it out!

Aspirant Wilhelm Zaremba,
Voivodship Police.

Professor Kulczyński.

You would help a lot
in an important criminal case

if you identified this plant.

What plant is this, my friend?

It looks like jasminum polyanthum.

Yes, most likely it is white jasmine,

but the condition of these petals,
the withering,

does not allow to determine it
with absolute certainty.

Take a look at this figure.

And why is this flower
considered an attraction?

I find nothing unusual about it.

Sir, de gustibus non est disputandum,

but your taste is not shared
by thousands of people who are ready

to sacrifice a lot to be able
to feel its intoxicating scent.

Can I buy it
at a florist's shop in Lviv?

This plant is extremely rare
in our climatic zone.

But you have to see a florist
to check the commercial aspects.

Florists are reluctant to buy it.
It withers fast in the dark.

You'll have to check
no more than 20 flower shops.

Does jasminum release some toxic

or itchy liquid that could leave
marks on a human body?

No, it doesn't.

I am guessing that

you are looking for someone who
bought this noble plant, am I correct?

It's a pity
you don't work with us, Professor!

Your flawless perception
would be most useful for us.

Florists are reluctant
to import jasminum themselves,

most often they bring the plant
on special request.

And that means--

That there is an order book.

And in it, the names of the recipients.

Thank you, Professor.

So you're saying that you are
looking for underage prostit*tes.

Very strange
to be asking about it indeed.

A little bird
from the High Castle told me

that Commissioner Popielski is the one

considered the ideal source
of information in such matters.

Don't you like your beer?

I will glue the beaks
of those High Castle birdies shut.

Listen to me.

I'm not looking for prostit*tes,
but for a certain client of theirs.

I'm looking for brothels where
such lowlives have their paradise.

I'm looking for--

Swallow or you will puke.

Well, I am chasing perverts
who like very young girls.

I know nothing about such a place.

Mr. Editor, to be clear,

just because you know a pervert doesn't
mean you support the perversion.

I didn't think for a moment
that you've been there.

Everyone else yes, but not you.

Why not me?

Forgive my honesty,

but I do not suspect you at all

because you are already
neck-deep in a cesspool.

And you are barely breathing.

Why do you think
I don't like being in this cesspool?

It's pleasant, warm, stinky.

Maybe I am as happy as a pig there.

I have seen many perverts in my life.

Do you know what they had in common?

Neither of them was a beer lover.

I have never met a criminal
who would only drink beer.

That's an interesting--

interesting theory.

Well?

Do you know a brothel for degenerates
who like little girls?

No, I don't know such a brothel.

But I know another one.

An expensive, luxurious brothel,
where you can fulfill your every whim.

Acting out scenes,

pretending to be upset maids,
governesses,

for the ladies working there
is their daily bread.

If you pay such a girl well,

she can look like a child.

Address?

I want to be the first to report
your entire investigation, that's one.

Two,

not a word about me
while you are at this brothel.

Deal.

Heniu, give us two large vodkas.

That's on him.

Address?

12 Balonowa Street, in the backyard.

You have to speak very quietly,
they record everyone there.

I drank vodka, now what?

Have you started to suspect me
of some kind of abomination?

The answer is: I never stopped.

Dead ends, groping in the dark,

aimless suspicions
are rumbling around my empty head.

Maybe Dr. Lewicki is a pervert,

or maybe it's Editor Schtern.

Or maybe you'll start suspecting
every man in Lviv?

Did you say something to me, sir?

Do you know, my man,
what a gambit in chess is?

Welcome to our sanctuary
of liberal arts.

Manager Leon Stawski,
at your service, sir.

Please, come to my office,

we will arrange everything there.

Sir, it's your first time
in our sanctuary of liberal arts.

I must therefore initiate you.

Would you please take a look
at our coat of arms?

It is a heron.

An Egyptian symbol of silence

and discretion, it holds in its beak

a sealed envelope
symbolizing a joyful surprise.

Yes, sir,
our motto is discretion and surprise.

A guest makes a request,
describes a muse

with whom he would like
to practice liberal arts, and I,

a certified and excellent psychologist,

deliver such a muse to his cozy room.

So,

dear sir, what is your muse
supposed to look like?

Dear manager,

so you fulfill all desires, really?

What if, for example,

I wanted to meet
a woman resembling King Kong?

What a mischief--

In such circumstances you would
have to wait a few days

because we only have
h*m* sapiens in our offer,

but we can do anything.

A child.

A little girl is my muse,

do you understand, Mr. Jackknife?

Bring her to my house.

My phone number is 243 15.

We do not offer our services outside.

Sir, please go to room number 2.

Light the lantern above the door.

In a quarter of an hour, your muse

will come to you.

A gambit is otherwise a provocation
and can be accepted or rejected.

Come in.

I am Anielka.

for Gosia

THE SERIES IS AN ADAPTATION
OF MAREK KRAJEWSKI'S BOOKS:

Erinyes, Charon's Numbers, The Rivers
of Hades, In the Depths of Darkness