Chapter 23.

MDS Terminal. Blast/Shock Warning. Suburb.

Date 26.02.2120.

KANAR Capital. Suburb.

 The alarm that had died down a little less than an hour ago had resumed. Dragovich was hurriedly making his way to the carelessly parked car, almost tugging Lisette by the hand. Fortunately, by the end of the day she had apparently been overcome by some kind of emotional fatigue and was no longer struggling.

 Finally, he pushed her into the front seat and pushed himself in.

 - Have you had any such attacks from below? - he began to chatter, starting the engine. - I don't remember anything like that with us. There weren't any during the entire War. Only ballistics. And it's like that... A terminal will shoot off somewhere, there will be a flare-up in the sky somewhere, in general, nothing special. In general, this one, at the bottom, although it looks scary, is even less dangerous. Experts say... - he began to weave on the go, as if some inspiration had come.

 - I would never have thought so, - Lisette answered doubtfully.

 - I would have too, but that's what they said, - Dragovich answered calmly, already driving onto the avenue.

 - And Madame Landskricht? - Lisette suddenly seemed to remember.

 - The only thing I miss now is Madame, - Dragovich thought angrily.

Although on the other hand, it was quite possible to assume that Lisette herself said this only out of some kind of decency. She said this only when the car was already racing along the avenue in the direction of leaving the city.

 - Madame Landskricht is all right, - Dragovich found himself, - do you know how long she was here? Many times longer than me. See how everyone disappeared from the streets? The locals have long since gotten used to it. We are leaving for purely psychological reasons. I am not used to it either.

 The explanation worked quite well - Lisette did not object.

 The streets really did seem deserted - it was a pleasure to drive along them, however, a certain danger still existed. It was hidden in these damned "Inter-Nitro" factories - they were always mentioned in the context of any attack.

 The enterprise, or rather several enterprises, had been producing all sorts of chemicals since time immemorial, including those so necessary for military needs. Not exactly explosives, but at least components for the glue used to cement composites. In theory, the industrial area was a rather attractive target for any kind of attack, but in comparison with the missile launch site, its importance paled.

 Nevertheless, last fall, a three-hundred-meter mast was erected on the right bank, on which a radar was installed for so-called low-level scanning. The mast with the radar was built, of course, not by the Right Bank, but by the Blok.

 Now, in the place where it towered, only a stump about half its former height was sticking out - one of the cruise missiles flying past and flying to an unknown destination turned out to be not so simple and released an anti-radar submunition a few seconds before its destruction. In fact, it was no longer a cruise missile, but an anti-radar drone and part-time reconnaissance aircraft. Our own, that is, the Western Bloc, also had a whole range of such in service, including those launched by attack aircraft.

 Now one of the security elements of the enterprise, and the entire area, turned out to be, as military experts used to say, non-functional.

 Is your civil notification working? - Dragovich asked, continuing to drive a wagon over his ears.

 - How so? - Lisette responded, having heard another incomprehensible crap.

 - Well, when I see something, I take my phone, open the app as quickly as possible and mark the type of what I see - a drone, a plane, an air strike.

 - Why? I don't think there's a place that radars don't scan, and if there is, no one cares.

 Well, there you go! - Dragovich responded, feigning importance, - We still have the right-bankers with their provocations, especially before Harlington arrived. That's why we have our own detection and warning system. Of course, we have radars, too, but people can do something, too. Especially against small drones. That's it, - he summed up, almost boasting.

 The mood was high. The feeling was as if he had successfully kidnapped a princess from some castle. Lisette really contrasted greatly with the locals, who had so disappointed Dragovich, who had come from his distant lands.

 Dragovich left the city and was now approaching a fork. One of the roads led to where he had managed to visit in the morning. The other, which he was now driving on, went south and after a couple of dozen kilometers came out onto a highway that led through the "border" checkpoint and further to the west. Well, Dragovich certainly didn't plan to go that far, to the border of the region - he needed to drive along the highway and find a decent motel - there was plenty of that stuff there. It was annoying, of course, that having an apartment at his disposal, albeit a little damaged, he had to drag himself to God knows where, but there was nothing he could do about it - everything worked thanks to the version that it was much safer and generally more comfortable to wait out the raid outside the city.

 - We had something like that a couple of years ago, - Lisette suddenly began.

 - What? A raid like that?

 - Well, yes, but not on Paris itself.

 - And how did you survive it? I admit, although I follow the news, I can't remember all the events.

 - Enemy superplanes crept over the ocean and launched several hundred cruise missiles along the entire coast, not on Paris. The alarm was the same as here. Just as long.

 - It's an arsenal transport, - corrected Dragovich. We're being shelled by the same ones now. Have you seen it on TV?

 No, I just listened to it. I watch old movies when this happens. To... To feel like I'm outside of all this.

 - What a fucking way, - thought Dragovich to himself, but, of course, kept quiet.

 - I'll have to try that, too, - he answered instead. - But today I saw, - he continued in a tone as if he were preparing a pleasant surprise, - I saw a B-1001 bomber flying south. It was flying so low, I was scared. A great machine. It's smaller than those damn transports, but it's invisible. It'll sneak up. Maybe it's sneaking up now to hit where it needs to.

 - I've heard about it, - answered Lisette, - it's been circling here for a few days now. It's in constant readiness to escalate.

 Dragovich forgot that Lisette was not so simple in matters of everything related to tactics and the situation in general, even though she wanted to forget herself with movies during the alarm.

 - I didn't hear about it circling, - answered Dragovich and this time he didn't lie - the morning appearance of the giant "stealth" was a surprise for him, as, one must assume, for Landskricht.

 Ahead appeared a large reflective shield with a peculiar sign - on a yellow background there was a black silhouette of a vertically taking off rocket, also clouds of smoke and circles diverging from the launch site, like radio waves. In fact, this is how they designated the shock wave and the spreading sound.

 "Beware of the sonic boom" - said the inscription at the top. Below was an inscription in English that did not quite correspond to the Russian version: "Blast Shock Warning". Somewhere nearby was a terminal. It would have been more accurate to say not somewhere, but on the left side of the road - the object was clearly highlighted by the lights on the lighting masts that broke through the foggy and snowy shroud. Dragovich had seen roadside signs indicating the proximity of launch sites before, but he did not attach much importance to these warnings. It seemed that anti-missile launches could knock out car windows, but this was very close, near the fences, and you had to be a real "woodpecker" to drive in the immediate vicinity of the terminals, near their fences.

 - I once wanted to visit France and Paris in particular, - Dragovich began another, as it seemed to him, rather casual topic.

 - Yes, it's not too late, - answered Lisette. - True, with our symbol, with the tower, now not everything is in order, although I already said. And that some want to keep it as is. But others say that we should dismantle it and build the same, only bigger. Behind the clouds. That would be beautiful. I like this idea. And there would be no reminder of the War.

 Suddenly the road, and indeed the whole area, was illuminated by a bright, quickly flickering light. In a few moments Dragovich managed to realize that the source of the light was moving - the shadows from the unevenness of the road, at first clearly outlined, quickly disappeared, as the shadows from the trees shrank. This meant that the light did not come from an explosion.

 Dragovich instinctively began to slow down, so as not to skid, when suddenly the car shuddered, and his ears heard first a thunderous blow, and then a howl, like from a huge hoarse siren.

 - Terminal! - flashed through his head. Also in his brain, which was completely natural, a picture of the shield he had just seen surfaced.

 Lisette screamed, grabbed her head with her hands and tried to bend over as much as possible. Her bag obviously prevented this.

 Dragovich, who had meanwhile slowed down to ten to fifteen kilometers per hour, finally turned his head there, to the left, and out of the corner of his eye saw a spreading smoke column leaning to the south, going into the clouds, in which something was still dimly flickering.

 - Everything is fine, Lisette, it's an anti-missile. These are ours, - he put his hand on her back, then stroked her and pulled her towards him.

 At Dragovich's home, as in all of Europe, as in France, most of the attacks came from above, which is why the most common defense was this anti-missile defense. However, all these years, until Dragovich found himself here in Siberia, he had not seen the launches of the glorious anti-missile defense so close. It was certainly possible to be close to the terminal in densely populated Europe, but Dragovich had never done so. Apparently, neither had Lisette.

 Lisette was silent, but she pressed herself against him with some willingness. Meanwhile, everything was illuminated by a new glow, and a few seconds later a roar followed.

 He turned his head towards the terminal again. There was now a whole cloud piling up there, which was noticeably darker than the general background of the merged sky and earth. It looked as if the cloud had fallen to the ground. Suddenly, a little further from the cloud, raked to the side by the wind, a new and not very bright glow appeared. Dragovich managed to see another light rising from the ground, followed by a dark trail with an edge snatched by light. A kind of snake with a glowing head. The rise looked unnaturally slow, unhurried. He was unable to see the anti-missile itself - it was too far away, and it was dark. The light was drawing some kind of intricate curve. At first glance, it looked as if the missile was out of order, but Dragovich knew very well what would follow. At some point, the light turned into a bright flash and immediately disappeared into a cloud of fire, fire and smoke, shining like fire. It was bright. At the same time, a fiery stream shot out of the smoky-flaming cloud, immediately piercing the gloomy sky. This is what these launches looked like - first, a low-power engine pulled the seventeen-meter tower out of its shaft, dragged it upward, and steered it as if directing the barrel of an invisible weapon in the right direction.

 It also took the rocket away from the shaft so that the launch site and the container in particular would remain in a condition suitable for further use. At some point, when the nose of the drunkenly dancing missile was looking where it was needed, the cruise engine was turned on. This was what knocked out the windows of cars carelessly left nearby, knocked out onlookers if for some incomprehensible reason they were nearby, and thundered for tens of kilometers.

 As far as Dragovich could judge, Lisette did not react to the second and third launches in any way - she did not flinch, did not try to hide better. In general, everything went without stupidity during the first launch, but now, in response to the soothing speeches, she was somehow silent.

 - I myself have never been so close to their launches before, - he continued. - Partly it is my own fault that I did not warn you, there was a yellow warning sign...

 After half a minute, she seemed to come to her senses.

 - That is how the anti-missiles "System-520" and "580" howl, - she said in a half-dead voice, - thirty seconds have passed, which means they are already in space, about two hundred kilometers from here, a little less... We had the same ones take off. When it flew into the city. Let's get out of here...

 Dragovich started the car and, slightly cautiously, moved forward.

 - Why are you without glasses, - she asked.

 - Just look at the clouds, - Dragovich answered feigning carelessness, - in general, instead of selective detonations, we now use lasers. So even in good weather, you don't have to worry too much.

There was another roar and howl, then another.

 - There's something shining in the distance, - Lisette announced, pointing in her direction, to the right, to the north. - It looks like they're launching something there too!

 - Yes, there's a terminal there too. It's far away.

 - I don't like all this at all, - Lisette said.

 - I don't either, but what will it change? In general, the main target is the rocket launch site. It's far away, so at least that's encouraging.

 - And there were no flashes, so the anti-missiles aren't nuclear, - Lisette noted with some relief in her voice.

 - Well, yes, - Dragovich agreed. In general, we're now increasingly focusing on conventional ones. AEX AMANDA is a very accurate radar - in most cases, it's possible to hit with a little... Well, in general, you don't need to detonate a nuclear charge to hit a target. One way or another, we have one of the most protected places on the entire Earth. True, some things fly, explode somewhere, but overall, this is a reliable place.

 Lisette listened in silence.

 - Were you very scared when the first missile took off? - Dragovich asked sympathetically.

 - Everything is fine, - she answered, - I just counted thirty seconds after the launches. Since nothing happened, then everything is fine, - Lisette admitted innocently.

 - What nonsense! - thought Dragovich. - Although, since she saw the attack on her Paris with her own eyes, it is not surprising.

 - I have never done that, - Dragovich answered, and I saw the launches from very far away, so now I was stunned myself.

 The car moved further, to the west, in search of a suitable place to spend the night. The terminals seemed to have calmed down and did not launch their missiles anymore.