Chapter 21.4.

 The conversation about the raid and other military matters continued. The car was getting out of the residential area onto a country road leading to the center, to the bridge. Dragovich, meanwhile, was thinking about how to mention the "training package." It was unlikely that the relationship would be so relaxed after this mention.

 - Look, look! - Landskricht suddenly broke off, breaking into a shout.

 - What? - Dragovich shouted, just in case, starting to brake smoothly.

 - On your side! - Landskricht exclaimed.

She shouted more with admiration than fear. This was encouraging.

 - What about mine? - Dragovich responded reproachfully, already beginning to notice something strange with his peripheral vision.

 From somewhere in the north or northwest, something dark was moving across the sky, spread out like a huge bird. Less than half a minute later, somewhere ahead, half a kilometer, maybe less, a black colossus of a bomber floated across the road. It was a stealth. I think they were called B-1001. By the standards of large aviation, it was small, but by the standards of ordinary aviation, it was huge. In general, it was somewhere on the border of both.

 This one was flying indecently low - at an altitude of about two hundred meters, well, maybe a little more. As far as Dragovich knew, such bombers had nuclear engines, allowing them to patrol for weeks, among other things, minimizing their vulnerable static presence at airfields.

 - Both Dragovich and Landskricht froze, seeing the machine off with admiring glances.

 - Well, - Landskricht was the first to break the silence, - now there will definitely be no time for calm. This one is flying straight south. Is it hiding from radar or something? It's far even to their AWACS. Now it will fly to them, raise the escalation, fly back, and we will hide.

 - "@enemy" has already escalated enough, - answered Dragovich, - they have two arsenals hanging, each three times larger than this one. Do you have a dosimeter?

 - Dosimeter? You mean the plane's trace? Those seem clean, - she answered, not like supersonic ones, those are just a nightmare. It's good that they are gone now. Okay, ready to go?

 - Why not ready? - answered Dragovich and moved off.

 - And it looked cool! - Landskricht did not calm down completely.

 - Yes, Madam, this thing is serious, - answered Dragovich. - Do you know what I saw this morning? Right under my nose, a cruise missile was shot down. Not here, but outside the city. I'm lucky today.

 - They've probably already picked up the debris, Landskricht answered, - people will find something useful in everything.

 Dragovich smiled politely. He didn't even want to spoil the conversation, but there was nothing else to do.

 - Madam, don't swear, but I'd like to ask you one question, - he began anyway.

 - What question? - Landskricht responded with unexpected readiness.

 - But I know you won't like it.

 - Well?

 - I mean this "training package". Well, you know.

 - As if I don't know. Of course I do, - she answered, not really changing her mood. - But I'll tell you once again: I won't do anything. It will be as it is. Do I need to say anything else?

 - No, no need. I don't know. I'm not very knowledgeable about the issue. Anyway, excuse me. My job was to remind you.

 - Well, that's all. You reminded me. Pass on my answer and your job is done. Is that right?

 - That's right, Madam, - Dragovich reluctantly admitted. - But it's an interesting thing. I didn't have anything like that at school when I was a child...

 - Do you know what I could do? - Landskricht continued good-naturedly. - Tell you now that I've thought about it and decided to agree, and when it came down to it, I'd change my mind. That would be nice.

 - No, Madam, that wouldn't be very nice.

 - Well, I don't do that. So let's move on.

 - And did you do the same thing at home as you do here? - Dragovich began to change the subject, - I did almost the same thing. I worked in the police, though a long time ago.

 - Well, almost. Of course, there was no CSCE in Norway, but the essence of the activity is about the same. Social. And what country are you from?

 - Serbia.

 - Well, you talk like a Russian.

 - We are close nations, - answered Dragovich, who did not bother himself with additional stories about his partly Russian origin. - So, you are also from the north. I mean, this is the north. Well, by my standards, it is definitely the north. I had to get used to it.

 - We have a sea, and here... a desert.

 - What kind of desert is this? Have you seen what kind of trees there are here. Spruce and pine.

 - I mean for a person. Since ancient times, people could fish and travel in the sea, and here, what? Pine cones and bears. That's why it is a desert. A desert in the sense of "running a farm". Now everything is not so sad, but when there was no all this technology and energy... And even now it is not so good.

With such chatter, they soon drove out onto the avenue, the very one where prisoners were transported for exchange before the Harlington Agreement. The street was empty - the large-scale alarm had created something resembling a curfew.