but the Russian soldiers out on patrol grab Lev before he can climb over himself. The soldiers take him to the Crosses, the prison in Leningrad. After hours in his pitch dark prison cell, Lev has come to the grim conclusion that he'll never be a great Russian, since he feels half-broken after just his short time in prison. He hears guards coming, the cell door opens, and a young soldier is ushered into the cell. When they are alone, the young man introduces himself as Kolya, who was accused of desertion, but he tells Lev that in fact he was defending his thesis on Ushakovo's The Courtyard Hound, a book and author whom Lev has never heard of. The next morning, Lev and Kolya are taken to a mansion where the NKVD—the Russian secret police—are stationed. There, Colonel Grechko tasks them with finding a dozen eggs to make a cake for the Colonel’s daughter's wedding the following Friday. He confiscates Lev and Kolya's ration cards and sends them off with a letter saying they shouldn't be stopped or harassed. Lev and Kolya decide that the Haymarket, which is entirely black market, is the place to start. As they walk there, Kolya teases Lev about being a virgin and begins to explain his theory of calculated neglect to him, which he learned from The Courtyard Hound. They don't find eggs in the Haymarket, but a very large man approaches them and says that he has eggs at his apartment. The giant leads them to an apartment building and refuses to bring the eggs down to the street. Kolya cheerfully agrees to do business in the giant's apartment even after the man admits to being a murderer, but when Lev and Kolya enter the giant's apartment, they discover that the giant and the giant’s wife are cannibals. Lev and Kolya manage to escape unscathed. Kolya and Lev decide to stay at the latter's apartment that night, but when they turn on the street where the building is, they find the apartment building has been reduced to a pile of rubble. Kolya then leads Lev to the apartment of a friend, Sonya, where she welcomes them warmly and introduces them to the doctors also staying with her. Lev sleeps that night in the living room and listens to Kolya and Sonya have sex in the next room, thinking that it’s the loneliest