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Igor Goriatchev
The one who will be able to survive
Yet this is the watch by night. Let us all accept new strength, and real tenderness. And at dawn, armed with glowing patience, we will enter the cities of glory.
Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell
A little more and the new lifes doors
Shall be carved in silver light
With its aureate roof and mosaic floors
In a great world bare and bright.
Sri Aurobindo
The author considers it his duty to warn readers that all the characters and events in this science fiction novel, although not completely fictional, but any coincidence with real-life or living people is accidental and is not subject to publicity.
Igor Goriatchev (C) 2024
It had rained heavily during the night. The highway was wet and empty at this early hour, and a foggy haze drifted over it in wisps. Victor pulled the zipper of his leather jacket up to his chin, shivering as he drove, and rolled up the cars window, leaving just a small slit so that there would be an intake of air inside. It was a gray early morning. A pine forest stretched along either side of the highway. The masts of huge pine trees reached up into the frowning, cloud-covered sky. Rain-wet bushes, puddles of muddy water, rippled with fine ripples from the drizzling rain, passed smoothly by. Victor occasionally turned on the windshield wipers, clearing his view of small splashes. Splashes flew from under the wheels.
A white horse was galloping down the road towards him. Without a rider. Beautiful. With her mane flying in the wind, she appeared out of the misty haze like a vision in some otherworldly dream. Victor slowed, stopped the car and went out onto the road. The horse ran past, snorting and clattering loudly on the asphalt in the morning silence, and he watched it for a long time until it disappeared into the fog again. "What's she doing here?" he thought, getting back into the car and driving off. "She must have escaped from a village. There are some villages nearby. But she seems like a symbol. What does it mean?Almost at the entrance to the city I see a white horse. They say the white horse is a symbol of victory. While in the Apocalypse, in the Bible, there is a "Pale Horse" symbolizing death. But this horse was exactly white, snow-white, and not pale at all," Victor told himself. "So, let's take this as a symbol of victory, and nothing else. By the way, "White Horse" is the name of the famous Scotch whisky. What's wrong with a glass of good whisky? When the above victory takes place.
A sign flashed: "Checkpoint - 7 km, Arka City - 20 km". "Aha," Victor thought, "not far now." He was approaching the goal of his journey. His thoughts flowed sluggishly, clinging to one another. He recalled his life in the Capital and how much trouble it had cost him to get a visa for this trip to Arka City. He suspected it was due to the fact that he was considered unreliable in some higher circles after being dismissed from the university. And, apparently, an instruction was given from above: "Don't let him go in!" He had to use all his connections and channels, go around and call all his old school friends who occupied more or less high positions. Finally the personal recommendation of his friend, Professor Vershinin, allowed him to get this cherished paper with the state emblem, where it was said that he, i.e. the writer and historian Victor Nedezhdin, was allowed to visit the International Institute for Invasion Zone Research to collect information in order to write a book about the history of the Invasion. That was the formal purpose of his trip. But no one knew of his true purpose.
He thought about the fact that his life in the last two years after Dinas departure had slowly lost all meaning. He could hardly force himself to get up in the morning, sit down at his computer and write his articles on historical topics for well-known magazines. It was his casual work after leaving the university, where he had lectured to students in the history department. Although this work paid well, but it has already bored him to tears. As was stated in his order of dismissal, he, in communication with students, "systematically" allowed himself sharp, critical remarks about the political situation in the country, and regarding even the Super-President himself, which "had a negative impact on young minds". Someone must have informed the dean about his informal communication at elective classes with young historians, where he readily allowed himself to critically analyze the growing absurdity in the life of the country. As a result, Victor lost his job at the university. Students had loved him, and some tried to fight for him. But the most ardent protesters were expelled, and the rest kept quiet, fearing reprisals. Standing for truth and justice has become dangerous again.
Victor didn't want to get an official work anywhere else. Of course, he could have gone to high school to teach history, but he felt that it would be the same everywhere, and he couldn't and didn't want to be dishonest. History was now being tweaked and remade everywhere to fit the present political moment. No one was interested in the search for the true historical truth, and history imperceptibly began to turn into an endless glorification of great past victories and personally the super-president. It now seemed that even those victories that our great ancestors won 50, 200 and even 1000 years ago, were partly due to his modest merit.
It would be good to disconnect from everything and sit down to write a new book. But there was a vacuum in his head, like in open space: there was no plot, no inspiration. And there was also a longing after Dinas departure, an underlying longing that haunted and tormented him all the time when he got up and went to bed, when he sat at the computer and typed articles for magazines, or, without feeling the taste, ate soup and chewed a cutlet, drank beer from a bottle, gazed at the TV, having ceased to be surprised at the degree of degradation and shamelessness that the domestic mass media had reached.
And there came a moment when he realized that he couldn't live like that anymore. It was either to go into a noose, to jump headlong from the nearest high-rise, or to do something radical, to break the established pattern of meaningless routine. And then he wrote to Professor Vershinin and, having overcome all the obstacles, secured a visa to the international Arka City, got in his car and started for the place where Dina had gone.
What would happen when he got there? He didn't know. He couldn't get Dina back, he knew that for sure. None of the "runners" had ever returned from the Zone. He had some crazy thoughts in his head, like getting in a helicopter, taking off over the Zone, and jumping down to them, i.e. to the Guests, there, straight down into the Crater. But he supposed that would be pure suicide. An act of final despair.
The backstory of the events described here and of his current trip began about 30 years ago when the Extraordinary Incident occurred in the N. region. People of the villages in the area were suddenly awakened in the middle of the night by a deafening rumble and looked out to see bright light illuminating everything around them. And in the morning it was discovered that in a clear field, about fifteen kilometers from one of the villages, suddenly appeared a shallow crater, the size of a football field. As if from a meteorite fall. But with a meteorite one would expect debris from the impact, and scorched grass around, and there was none. It was as if a huge hand of an unknown giant scooped up a handful of earth, the size of the crater, and went away. And it left the bewildered lilliputians to speculate on the mystery of its origin.
The first person to spot the crater was a pilot of an agricultural plane, who came to spray fertilizer on the fields the next morning nearby. He flew over the crater several times, but did not dare to land close by. And, as it was realized later, he did the right thing, because it would have resulted in his imminent death. It was he who first reported about the Crater to the The Regional Administration.
First they sent helicopters with military and scientists there. And the surprises began, which no one expected, deadly surprises. The helicopters tried to land next to the crater and suddenly, as they descended to an altitude of about forty meters, they hit an invisible wall, and as if pushed into an invisible press, were flattened, twisted and, in the form of huge warped pieces of metal, crashed to the ground. All the people who were inside died. A column of cars was at the same time heading towards the Crater, also with scientists and military personnel. The head of the column was maintaining radio contact with the helicopters. The dispatchers from the helicopters reportedthat they saw a Crater of a regular oval shape with a smooth white bottom and that they were going to land next to it. The last thing the head of the column heard was the desperate screams of people, and he realized that something terrible had happened.
The column of cars hurried towards the scene. But 10 km from the Crater, all the cars suddenly stalled at once. The drivers and mechanics could not get them to re-start. No mechanical or electrical reason could be found. Moreover, all devices stopped working: clocks stopped, radiation dosimeters, radio equipment, and telephones. A chill ran down the backs of many of those present. It began to smell like outright devilry. Nevertheless, the leader of the convoy decided to send a walking expedition to the Crater.
Now the physiological problems began: every step was taken with great difficulty; severe headaches, dizziness, unbearable aches all over the body began; body temperatures rose to 40 degrees and above, and with each step towards the Crater, the effects were stronger. No protective suits helped. The walking expedition was able to move only twenty meters away from the cars when all its participants suddenly collapsed unconscious.
To bring their comrades back out of the "danger zone", the rest of the group had to show remarkable ingenuity and heroism. The unconscious men were pulled out using ropes, hooks and manually. All the participants of the walking expedition gradually came to their senses, but this idea of walking to get close to the Craterhad to be abandoned. None except the "runners" has ever managed to advance more than 50 steps inside the border of the 10 km perimeter around the Crater.
These events clearly showed that there is a deadly anomaly in front of people, and that no equipment can be thrown into the Crater or into the Area around the Crater. To the great disappointment of the scientists. Thus, it turned out that it was impossible to get close to the Crater on the ground. Just physically impossible. It was possible to inspect and study the Crater and the Area around it only from the air. And only from a height above forty meters from the surface of the earth.
But the main surprise was yet to come. The day after the Crater appeared and was first investigated, at exactly 10.30 am local time, stunned people saw an amazing phenomenon that later became known as Dawn. A huge arc-shaped glow rose above the Crater, covering it from above like a dome. Then this dome expanded rapidly and covered the entire 10km Anomaly Zone, clearly marking its boundary. And the outlines of some unknown and incomprehensible World appeared through the transparent walls of the dome. Bottomless spaces illuminated by sunny orange light burst open; illuminated by sunny orange light burst open; grandiose structures rose up, like tornadoes and fountains soaring upwards; huge, multi-faceted pulsating spheres hung in the air playing with all the colors of the rainbow; elegant paraboloids and hyperboloids floated on the surface of moire seas, as if breathing, narrowing and expanding. All of these forms were connected by thin viaducts-tunnels, along which multicolored sparks were rapidly rushing in both directions. There, grandiose sky-blue waterfalls tumbled down from great heights and crashed into the boundless oceans. There, the sunny rivers carried their iridescent streams through the forests of incomprehensible beauty. And most importantly, some golden creatures, inhabitants of this world, were visible hovering amid all this mobile splendor.
Some of them flew very close to the dome wall and could be clearly seen. They were much larger than humans, three or four meters tall, slender, flexible, with beautiful bodies, light orange in color, but each with its own shade. They were naked, and devoid of any sexual characteristics, no signs of breasts, no genitals. On their heads, a kind ofwaving hair of fiery shades. And the most startling thing was that they had no permanent faces. Yes, yes, their faces were changing all the time. Sometimes the face was just an empty smooth mask without eyes, with a mouth opening without teeth. And very quickly this mask could turn into a beautiful, smiling face of a woman or a man, or a child, or even the face of a different speciesan unknown alien from an unknown planet.
Suddenly, quite unexpectedly, these creatures staged a whole performance in front of the awed people flocking to the perimeter of the dome. One of them turned itself into a magnificent flower, and another launched into the sky like a huge firebird, and a third soared upward like a wonderful fountain of fire spray, and a fourth poured a golden rain. Evidently their bodies could take any shape they wanted. They were not tied to a static form.
At first, people looked on at all this splendor as if spellbound; and then, childlike wonder fading, a terrible commotion arose. This was the first time the word "Invasion" was used. All the nations troops, primarily missile and aviation, were put on emergency alert. But the Beings of this strange new world were not here for conquest. The Dawn lasted for about an hour, and then gradually collapsed, faded and disappeared as unexpectedly as it appeared, leaving againan ordinary-looking field, and shocked people standing on the border of the Incomprehensible.
Then this phenomenon began to appear periodically every day. At exactly 10.30 am local time, on the dot. Never repeating themselves, the Sunrises rose above the Zone, showing spectators more and more incomprehensible facets of the fantastic world, stayed for about an hour, and then disappeared just as quickly.
Of course, there was understandable excitement all over the world and especially in the world of science. Here is the long-awaited contact with another civilization! But who were these golden-orange creatures? Aliens? But no ground-based surveillance system, in any country in the world, had noticed any flying spacecraft approaching the Earth. Moreover, it would have been impossible not to notice, with modern means of observation, the entry of such a spacecraft into the Earth's atmosphere somewhere. Scientists had many different hypotheses here. They spoke about "parallel worlds", and about the "puncture of Riemannian space" by a civilization unknown to us, and much more, but no final answer that would satisfy everyone has yet been found.
By personal decree of the Super-President, the Crater was surrounded by a ten-kilometer restricted zone, police cordons were set up around the perimeter, and barbed wire was installed. And subsequently, a concrete fence, a six meters highWall was erected around the zone so that curious people would not climb and put themselves in danger. And there were many of them..
At first there were many attempts to establish contact with these creatures from another world, which, with someones light hand, people began to call Guests. But, surprisingly, they completely ignored all attempts of people. There was not any reaction from them. They sometimes flew close to the walls of the dome, staged their magnificent transformation performances, but did not react in any way to the huge posters in different languages put up in front of them by people: "Who are you?", "Where are you from?" "What is the purpose of your visit to Earth?" It was quite obvious that they were not interested in communicating with humanity at all.
In time, at a special session of the United Nations, the Crater and the Area around the crater received international status as a place of crucial importance for all mankind. Relevant agreements were signed and construction began around the Zone. The International Institute for the Study of the Invasion Zone, IISIZ, was built here, where Viktor's friend, Professor Yevgeny Vershinin, worked since its very foundation.
But after a while, another sinister property as some believedof the uninvited Guests and the Zone they created was discovered. When young people began to go into the Crater and disappear into it. Panic then rose not only throughout the country, but also throughout the world. Because people fled to the Zone from all over the world. At first, the epidemic of flight spread among children and adolescents aged 12-18 years. Parents all over the planet were going crazy! They tried their best to keep their children! They tied them up and locked them up. It was all in vain. They found only broken ropes and broken bars and locks. And how this was possible, no one understood. All this was beyond the power of children's hands. The children overcame all obstacles, made their way onto planes, trains and ocean liners in all possible ways, using sophisticated cunning and ingenuity, crossed thus the borders between countries, "filtered through" all police cordons, overcame the six-meter wall in some incomprehensible way and penetrated into the Zone. They could only be stopped with paralyzing needles of sleeping draught, which were used in an attempt to preventmass flight. It was visible from helicopter:children who got inside the Zone where they were already inaccessible calmly walked to the Crater, sometimes one at a time, and sometimes ingroups, apparently without any difficulties, unlike ordinary people. They went down into the crater, passed through it and... disappeared: a bright flash... Zilch, and there is no one.
Then it turned out that it wasn't just the children who were leaving. People of all ages left, though mostly young people. It didn't immediately become clear, because older people are more independent. There were middle-aged people among them, and even the elderly. Everyone remembers the story of a ninety-year-old man shown on television, a former farmer from Panamerica, who, even struck down by a needle with a paralyzing sleeping draught, still tried to crawl towards the Zone. These people used completely legal methods to get to the Zone. They bought plane tickets and got visas. At first, their disappearance was attributed to some other reasons, but then some of them were seen from helicopters in the Zone going to the Crater, and it became clear where they were disappearing. These people began to be called "runners".
Now it became obvious to everyone that the Crater was not just a crater, but an entrance or, if you like, a portal or "gate" to the World of these uninvited Guests, and that their intentions, despite their beautiful World, were not at all harmless. In a completely shameless way, without asking us, they somehow attracted people to the Crater for some purposes unknown to us. That's when some leaders of the military decided to hit the Crater with missiles. To solve the problem in a radical way, so to speak. Or at least to show the Guests that we are unhappy with their behavior. This plan was approved by the Super-President and he personally participated. Surrounded by his generals, he personally pressed the buttons and launched four cruise missiles at the Invasion Zone and the Crater to show to the Guests the power of our armed forces.
It was a complete failure. All the rockets descended to the height of 40 meters, hit the invisible dome surrounding the Crater, instantly melted and seemed to dissolve, merged with the dome. "Don't make the Guests laugh with your hardware," people joked later. It became clear that humanity, in the presence of the Guests, was faced with a Force with which it could do nothing. And that the rules of the game are no longer determined by us. Thankfully, no one dared to use nuclear weapons, because the consequences of such a step were unpredictable not only for the Crater, but also irreversibly destructive for the entire territory surrounding the Zone.
In general, one must say that the military turned out to be the most useless group in the whole History of the Invasion. For one simple reason. No weapons were operating in the Zone. After the first rocket launch on the Crater, the military, still not believing in their complete helplessness in front of this tremendous Power that invaded the Earth, decided to drop several powerful bombs into the Crater. Well, what else can the military offer? They can only fire their deadly irons or drop their deadly irons on the heads of others, beyond that their brain gyrus does not work. Here the embarrassment was still the same, but the effect was somewhat different. The first bomb fell and at a height of 40 meters above the Crater, broke into pieces and did not explode. They dropped the second one. The same effect. They dropped the third one. The same parsley. The pieces of the bombs have been lying there in the crater for almost 30 years now,, a symbol of human folly.
A small figure stepped out of the fog onto the side of the road ahead and raised her hand. "So," Victor thought, "this is already interesting!" This early morning, in the middle of the forest, a few kilometers from the checkpoint He slowed down and, approaching, was surprised to see in front of him a girl of 12-14 years old, in jeans, a brown, short leather jacket with shiny buttons, a cap and mud-stained sneakers. She wore a small backpack on her back. He stopped the car and opened the window. The girl came up to the car, leaned over to the window, smiled and asked:
"Can you give me a ride, mister?" She was cute, a little snub-nosed, with straight blond hair falling from under her cap onto her shoulders Victor's heart ached, she reminded him of his Dinka in some way.
"Get in,"Victor said. He reached out, turned the handle, and opened the door. "Only wipe your sneakers on the grass."
The girl cleaned her sneakers on the side of the road with a bunch of grass, washed her hands in a nearby puddle, wiped her hands with a handkerchief, took off her backpack, then sat down next to him, put the backpack by her feet and slammed the door.
"Fasten your seat belt," Victor said.
"No, it's okay, I'm so I would have made it myself, but I was too tired. Drop me off before reaching the checkpoint in a kilometer and a half, please. And then, when you leave the checkpoint, wait for me a little on the road, if possible, for forty minutes...."
"Oh, that's how it is!" said Victor, starting the car. "Shall I conclude that you have no plans to meet with the patrol service?"
"Yeah, you're very smart. I have to walk through the woods all the time. You can't go on the road, otherwise you might be noticed from a helicopter."
"Why do you think I won't tie you up now and hand you over to the patrolmen? Because I know who you are. You're a runner and you're making your way to the Crater."
The girl looked at him in a kind of adult way, attentively, but without fright. And suddenly she smiled.
"But you won't hand me over!"
"And why are you so sure?"
"Tell me, do you have a daughter?"
Victor started in surprise.
"I have... that is... I had. I don't even know right now. She went to the Crater two years ago. Wait a minute How do you know that?"
"That's why you won't hand me over, you came here because of her."
Victor was stunned into silence. Wow, girl! She reads thoughts on the go. A lot of strange things were told about the "runners". He didn't believe a lot of things. Now he knew this at least was true.
"Do you know how to read thoughts?"
"But everything is written on your face."So... interesting And what else is written on my face?"
"That you can help me get to Arka City and to the Wall. And then I'm on my own."
"A very bold assumption Okay, youre right, I wasn't going to hand you over to anyone. Sorry. Let's get acquainted. Victor."
"Nika."
"Which Nika is this? The Greek goddess, the goddess of Victory?"
"Yeah, Mom says Dad called me that. But I don't remember him at all, he died in a plane crash when I was very young."
They were silent for a while, looking at the forest passing on both sides of the road, at the wet roadbed stretching away into the distance.
"Where are your wings? Nika of Samothrace had wings."
"And I have them too," the girl smiled, "only they are invisible."
"OK, if you say so. Listen, how do you get through the cordon, there's fencing and barbed wire everywhere?
"But on these very wings," Nika laughed.
"So, it's getting сuriouser and curiouser!, as Alice said,"Victor also smiled. "It turns out that I'm helping you get to the Zone. By the way, this is a criminal offense, mind you... helping "runners". Up to seven years, and with aggravating circumstances, you can get all fifteen So I'm risking my freedom for you... listen, but what about your mom, she's probably going crazy looking for you."
"Well, Mom, of course, is worried, probably And Grandma But I left them a note so they wouldn't worry."
"Probably!""Victor lightly mimicked. "Listen, I still want to understand," he said with pain in his voice. "I understand that you cannot be stopped. But you're just ruining your parents lives. They love you. Do you even understand that? Dina left too And she didn't tell us anything. Although my wife and I are divorced, but it doesn't matter Just like you, she left only a note: "I'm leaving for a new world, because it's impossible to live in your rotten world. I'm suffocating."
"Aren't you suffocating?"
Damn it, she's right, Victor thought again, stunned. In her simple words, she expressed what he had been going through lately. He couldn't write anymore in the middle of all this sabbat. He couldn't read modern authors either, to say nothing of the pulp fiction and detective thrillers that give nothing to the mind and heart, which have spread out over like a vast ocean and flooded the market. Modern authors, even the most worthy of them, were boring to him. They endlessly chewed through this gray, nauseous reality, even if sometimes fhumorously, or phantasmagorically, or literarily sophisticated, and more often sickeningly gloomy and burdensome, but they did not give any new perspective, no light at the end of the gray tunnel of hopeless ordinariness.
"It's like Fresh Air or like a Call," the girl's words came to him, "which is heard only by those who are suffocating, who can no longer live in this world
"So your Dina couldn't do it anymore And I can't do it anymore either... although I feel sorry for my mother and grandmother, of course And it's also like the promise of some kind of new life, joyful and bright and free, where there are not all these terrible people, death and wars... where there are no borders, and everyone is like children... playing in the universe."
"Listen, maybe I should go there with you...," he suddenly said, "" to the Crater, to their World. Do you think they'll let me through? Maybe I'll meet Dinka there."
"I don't know. No one knows why some people can get through and others not. I think it depends on the age too. Most adults cant get through the Wall. Nobody knows why. May be its because they became too hard... like stones.
"Well, I think I'm already forbidden to go there," Victor said, remembering his age, which was already over forty.
"You know, Victor, let's try it together I'll hold your hand. And what if we manage "
"Just like that?"
"Whats the big deal!" Nika suddenly said cheerfully. "Let's hold hands and ... like... jump over!"
Victor laughed and patted Nika on the shoulder. It seemed that some kind forces from above decided to cheer him up and sent him this little girl. And his heart suddenly jump! What if it's true....
"Well, I'm ready to take a chance with you. Let's try to drive up to the Wall and rush over"
They were silent again for a while, looking at the forest rushing by on both sides. The fog had cleared, and the edge of the sun appeared from behind the pines, illuminating everything with a crimson-pink light.
"Do you want me to tell you a joke?" he said.
"Of course."
"A family of mice was surprised by a big cat.
"Father Mouse jumped up and barked: Woof-woof! The cat ran away.
What was that, Father?" asked the little Mouse.
Well, son, that's why it's so important to know a second language."
Nika was silent for a couple of seconds, and then she laughed like crazy.
"Oh, I can't How, how?! ...know a second language?" She could barely speak, bursting with laughter.
Victor was laughing too.
He did not want to part with this girl, she had suddenly become close and dear to him in those few minutes they were driving together, as if he had met a friend of his soul after years of loneliness He wanted to talk to her again and again, he wanted to tell her that it was great that he had met her, and tell her about Dina, and how much he loves her, and how bad he feels without her but, alas, the checkpoint was already nearby.
"Victor, stop here, please," Nika said, bringing Victor out of his reverie. "Drive a kilometer and a half away from the checkpoint so you are not visible, and wait for me on the side of the road, please."
"I'll wait, I'll wait, honey, don't doubt it," Victor said, stopping the car.
"No more than an hour. If I'm not there in an hour, then leave."
"OK. And if you're not there in an hour, what does that mean?" He was wary.
"That means I've been caught."
"So that's how it is, then...." Victor said. It was as if something inside him had shrunk and turned cold. "Well, I see."Of course, I can't take you through the checkpoint in the trunk, that's clear And if you get caught, what then?"
"They'll probably send me back, then I'll have to try again. If they don't put me in the mental hospital. They say it's hard to get out of there."
"Well, good luck, Nika."
"See you in forty minutes."
She suddenly leaned over to Victor, hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.
" I wish I had a dad like you, Victor.
Then she jumped out of the car, slammed the door behind her, slung her backpack over her back and ran into the woods. When she disappeared into the bushes, Victor stroked his cheek, the place where Nika kissed him, tears treacherously stung his eyes. "Well, that's it." Then he started the car. A few minutes later, he drove up to the checkpoint. A striped barrier blocked the road, three men in military uniforms patrolling it. As expected: square jaws, helmets, semi-automatic carbines. But not combat carbines; these wereoaded with needles containing a fast-acting paralyzing sleeping draught Of course they don't kill children, Victor told himself. He had heard rumors that the "runners" who they managed to catch were placed in special centers, where they were treated for this "unhealthy" craving for the Crater. Then they were released back home. If Dina hasn't returned yet, she managed to break through to the Zone.
One of the soldiers raised his hand and walked towards him. Victor stopped the car.
"Show your passport and visa to enter Arka City, please," the military man said, leaning towards the window.
"Here you go,"Victor handed him his permit and passport.
The military man studied his permit for a while and examined the passport, wrinkling his forehead and moving his lips.
"Open the trunk."
Victor opened the trunk. The soldier looked into the trunk, then looked under the car. The other two were standing with carbines at the ready. Apparently they had done this many times.
"Okay, go ahead. We have already been informed that you would pass, Mr. Nadezhdin."
"Thank you," Victor said and started the car.
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