"Mafia vs. Indians" by Elena Nesterina, summary Automatic translate

Elena Nesterina’s 2004 book "Mafia vs. Indians" tells the story of the summer vacation of young detectives from the Brotherhood of the White Hand. The story is part of the well-known children’s detective series "The Fairest Mafia" and is its ninth installment. This series also includes "The Mafia Gathers at Midnight," "Detective, Find the Thief!" and "Mafia vs. Dark Forces." A distinctive feature of this story is the unusual clash of naive role-playing games with harsh reality, in which children help expose a drug dealer.

Forest secrets and unusual neighborhoods

Twelve-year-old Arina Balovantseva returns from a vacation on the island of Crete. Her grandparents and loyal friends are waiting for her at home. Arina immediately calls her friends, Fedya Gorobets and Vitya Ryndin. Their group is joined by the young poet Anton Mylchenko, known as Humanoid. The group decides to go on a bike ride through the forest outside the city.

Along the way, Arina notices a motorcycle speeding past. The passenger’s face seems vaguely familiar to her, but she dismisses it. Reaching the forest, the schoolchildren find a cozy clearing near a deep ravine with a rocky stream. Vitya shows his friends his secret hideout. It’s a small cave, built by himself, beneath the uprooted roots of an old fallen spruce.

Meanwhile, Anton goes mushroom hunting and gets lost in the thicket. Suddenly, he spots a man in feathers and decorated clothing among the trees. The boy mistakes the stranger for a genuine Native American and rushes to his friends for help.

The foursome follows the Indian’s tracks and discovers a large camp. Tents, decorated with patterns, stand in a forest clearing, and a fire burns in the center. The children hide in the bushes and observe the proceedings. The camp leader, an adult nicknamed Noble Wolf, is conducting an initiation ceremony for the younger troop. He gives the children new names: White Carp, Fire Pumpkin, Shiny Cauldron, and Blue-Eyed Fish. An American flag flutters from a high pole.

Declaration of war and covert operations

Arina feels deeply disappointed. She’s read a lot about Native Americans and considers it a historical mistake to fly a conquering flag in a free tribe’s camp. She decides to declare a guerrilla war on the supposed Native Americans to defend their honor. To wage a forest campaign, Arina revives the secret children’s Brotherhood of the White Hand. The boys eagerly support the idea. Vitya Ryndin undergoes a mafia initiation ceremony over a bonfire, during which he accidentally burns his palm.

The boys take sleeping bags, warm clothes, and food supplies from home. They tell their parents they’re spending the night at the dacha. A smartly dressed Anton makes himself a voluminous headdress of feathers and brightly paints his face with gouache. That night, near the euonymus bushes, the mafia spots the Noble Wolf. He secretly takes off his leather pants and puts on warm, fleece-lined winter underwear. Arina nicknames him "Chief Great Underpants." The mafia plan to steal this underwear.

At dawn, Vitya Ryndin sneaks into the chief’s tent and retrieves the hidden underwear. He nimbly climbs a tall pole, takes down the American flag, and hangs warm blue underwear in its place. In the morning, a television crew arrives at the camp. Reporters and cameramen are filming a story about the Indians’ daily life. The chiefs try to distract the journalists, but the cameras capture the fleece-lined underwear fluttering in the wind.

After the press leaves, chieftains Heavenly Fire and Flying Doe discover the flag and communal treasury are missing. The funds for the camp’s upkeep were kept in a special "briefcase" and have disappeared from the tent. The chieftains reinforce their forest guards. Meanwhile, Vitya spots Arina at the tent of an Indian shaman nicknamed Smoke of the Gods. It turns out that Arina’s half-brother, Stasik, has fallen in with a bad crowd and is buying marijuana from the shaman. Arina enters the tent and demands that the sale of the drug cease.

Smoke of the Gods only laughs in response. Then Arina takes the pack of cigarettes from Stasik, slaps his brother, and promises to destroy the illegal goods. That night, she discreetly sets fire to the shaman’s tent. The entire drug supply burns to the ground. Meanwhile, the young Indians capture Anton Mylchenko. The boy doesn’t betray his comrades and proudly calls himself the White Hand shaman. They tie him to a tree in the camp’s central courtyard.

Escape, captivity and new accusations

The mafia decides to rescue Anton from captivity. But sentries spot them near the camp. Arina orders her friends to scatter. Fedya Gorobets is pursued by Indians, but he manages to cross the road and escape on a commuter bus. Arina is pursued by Combat Scissors and Flying Axe. The girl runs deeper into the forest, but one of the boys throws a stick at her feet. Arina falls, severely cutting her cheek on a sharp pine branch, and is captured.

The boys tie her hands with a leatherette belt. Arina is the last one to cross a deep ravine on a fallen tree. Unnoticed, she loosens her bonds, jumps 3.5 meters into a stream, and disappears into the thicket. She rushes to Anton’s aid. At the camp, the leaders threaten the boy with a hot iron. At that moment, Arina emerges from the bushes, her face bloodied, and offers to exchange her for her captured comrade. Anton is released.

Arina is tied to a tree. An Indian girl treats her wound with green paint, drawing intricate green patterns on her face. The chieftains take Arina to a tent for interrogation, suspecting her of stealing the common treasury. Arina denies stealing the money. She bluntly tells Heavenly Fire that she burned down Smoke of the Gods’ tent because he was selling drugs to children. The chieftains are stunned by this news. They realize that the shaman was indeed involved in criminal activity.

The girl also explains to the Native Americans the inappropriateness of the American flag and tells them where to find it. A folded flag lies on the roof of the main tent. Arina’s behavior earns the respect of Heavenly Fire and Flying Doe. Stasik sneaks into the camp on a motorcycle. He wants to buy drugs, but sees his sister tied up and tries to free her. The teenager is caught by young Native Americans and tied up next to Arina.

Exposing the criminals

Taking advantage of the confusion, Smoke of the Gods cuts the tarpaulin of his tent and escapes with the help of an accomplice on a motorcycle. The leaders give chase, but find only fresh tire tracks in a forest clearing. The clue seems lost. However, Vitya and Anton are hiding nearby. They witness the shaman’s escape and overhear his conversation with his accomplice. Smoke of the Gods promises to bring a new batch of marijuana and meet the next day at 5:00 PM at the Stone of the Morning Star.

Arina is released on parole. As she leaves the camp, two young Native Americans give her a pack of strawberry "pillows" as a token of her bravery. Arina returns to her friends in the cave, where they share a sweet dinner. The Mafia hatches a plan. Arina returns to the Native American camp and moves among the young men. Hidden in the bushes, her friends give a prearranged signal with a duck call — the "quack" of a duck. This helps Arina identify the shaman’s accomplice, who turns out to be the Dreamer in Burdock.

Heavenly Fire assigns the suspect, Roma (Dreaming in Burdocks), and his friends to guard the totem pole all night. This allows the thief to be kept under constant surveillance. During the day, Arina sets Stasik a rigorous Native American test — the Sun Dance. The teenager is required to dance nonstop to the beat of drums until sunset. If he stops before then, he must quit his addiction forever. Stasik can’t take it anymore and vows to give up drugs.

At 5:00 PM, Roma feigns a headache, leaves his duty, and hurries to the Morning Star Stone. Smoke of the Gods is waiting for him there. Roma hands the shaman a thick wad of cash from the stolen treasury in exchange for bags of marijuana. At that moment, the conspirators are surrounded by the camp leaders, led by Heavenly Fire. Smoke of the Gods tries to fight, but is overpowered by grown men. Roma flees into the forest, where he is caught by Vitya, Fedya, and Anton.

The police arrive at the scene and arrest the drug dealer. Roma confesses to everything and reveals the stash under his mattress. The chieftains return the treasury and thank Arina. Finally, the Brotherhood of the White Hand emerges from the shadows, and the grateful Indians sing a song in their honor.