Chapter 10.

04/14/1992

 - Is he coming to? - someone's question was heard in the darkness.

 - He'll wake up soon. His pulse has quickened, - a female voice was heard

 Bragin opened his eyes. Everything was blurry and double.

 - Everything is fine, Comrade Captain, - the first voice was heard, clearly addressing Bragin, - your vision is adapting now.

 Meanwhile, the female hands were rolling up Bragin's sleeve. The voice was not deceiving - less than a minute later he could clearly see a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet army standing in front of him, lying on a couch in some room without windows. Judging by the fact that there were several empty places to lie down, this was some kind of shelter. Contrary to initial impressions, the nurse was not young, although what difference does it make now...

 - Do you remember what happened to you?

 - We were repairing the telephone relay, - Bragin began, giving that simple legend that was intended to hide all the unnecessary details concerning the infrasound system.

 - Stop it! You don't have to tell that part. We're ours. We know that you were checking the "Excess-E" system. Do you remember how you were attacked?

 Yes sir, - answered Bragin, feverishly thinking whether the lieutenant colonel belonged to the rebels, or whether part of the army had switched to a position similar to the local FSK.

 - I remember, - Bragin continued, - that I was attacked on the stairs. We were going down the stairs... Our group of three people... We were walking one after another, and no one noticed these... We had to hide like that. I remember that I was paralyzed from behind. That's probably how they gripped me. They just grabbed me or something. It was like an electric shock, they probably hit a nerve. And then they immediately put a bag on my head. The others didn't even have time to scream. What happened to them?

 -They are all right, - the lieutenant colonel answered, - Did you notice anything unusual?

 - No, the stairs were completely empty. As for the unusual, if you recall everything that happened, then at the previous site - we were watching from above, a store was being looted, and the so-called military police arrived there. It was the first time I saw them in action. The second event was that a helicopter landed on our roof. The rebels' "Twenty-Four". With new identification marks, you understand, - Bragin continued cautiously, having set himself the goal of leading this very conversation to the unusual group that had landed on the roof.

 - Rebels? - The lieutenant colonel prompted, having become a little more cheerful, although rather feigning cheerfulness.

 - Exactly, - Bragin answered with visible relief.

 - Was there blyadsky paint on the helicopter? - the lieutenant colonel chuckled slightly.

 - That's right, there were playing cards there. Just like in the movies.

 - The damn cowboys don't know what they've gotten themselves into yet. They've ended up in Russia, and in Russia there's also Siberia, - the lieutenant colonel continued, grinning maliciously. - It'll take us an hour, maybe an hour and a half at most, to repaint the machines to their former decent appearance, and a bunch of Americans will go feed the midges in the tundra. No matter, it'll be a lesson. After all they'll write memoirs. Captain, how are you feeling?

 - I'm fine, Bragin responded cheerfully after the lieutenant colonel and tried to get up.

 - Calm down, don't make any sudden movements. You'll have to lie down for a while.

The body reacted to the impulse only with a convulsive jerk of both hands. Everything inside broke off.

 - What did they break in me? - the thought burned, - the mind was afraid to even mentally pronounce the word "spine".

 - Don't be nervous, the lieutenant colonel immediately intervened. This is not related to injuries. You feel that your arms are mobile. I can show you that your legs feel pain too, - with these words he only squeezed his toe with his fingers. There was indeed a reaction.

 The feeling of relief seemed to even surpass the previous one from the sudden devastation. For some reason Bragin groaned longingly, as if he had a fever of almost forty and he was at home.

 - The attackers used some kind of neurotoxin. We are now conducting standard procedures for primary rehabilitation in cases of poisoning with nerve agents. You woke up and this is a great achievement.

 - Who are they?

 - Now let's take things in order. While carrying out work to bring the "Excess-E" system into working order, you found yourself in the same building with a group of terrorists from among the rebels. They were setting up a long-term fortified position, which, among other things, they equipped for firing TOW anti-tank systems - preparing for possible battles within the city. Having received the information, our units, subordinate to the command of the strategic forces and cooperating with the federal forces of the RSFSR, decided to capture the terrorists, subsequently presenting them to the world community. By the time you climbed to the roof, the entrance to the building was already controlled by our units. Before that, the enemy was under covert surveillance. An assault seemed risky. You found yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 - Or they simply used us as bait, - Bragin immediately realized.

 - And why did they poison us with paralytic gas?

 - It's their standard means. These aren't just militants. These are American mercenaries.

 And what about the others? If these are captured, the rebel leaders will discover the loss.

 - You don't have to worry about that. Your task now is to recover as quickly as possible.

 - How long will it take?

 - It's hard to say, but you can already talk and move your hands. Expect to spend the summer somewhere in the Krasnodar region. The Black Sea resorts are going through a lot of trouble right now, but we have rehabilitation sanatoriums in other regions... go for a swim, relax. Don't worry.

 Meanwhile, the nurse rolled up his sleeve again and began to bend and straighten his arm. Soon he felt a thin needle enter the vein. Judging by the fact that the hand felt even such a small thing, everything really wasn't that bad.

 Suddenly everything became even better and thoughts about whether the lieutenant colonel's stories about a seaside vacation were just a consolation for the now cripple, stopped appearing and disturbing the mind. Here, in the shelter with couches, medical cabinets and this wonderful lieutenant colonel, it was also good. And not all was lost and the insolent Americans would get theirs. - The Soviet Union did not sink into the past, - as if echoing Bragin's thoughts, the lieutenant colonel began, - it only shed its outlived shell in the form of a degrading party and nomenklatura. Of course, this was not some kind of plan that is being put into action. This is truly a catastrophe for the country, but despite the degradation that has struck our society, there are still healthy forces in the country, I mean the entire Union. And not only in the Union but also in Eastern Europe. This even has its own advantage, that now we, I mean every person in our country, will not need to deceive ourselves with these ghosts of building communism. No one will fool us with international duty, the mission of helping Africans and other ragamuffins. Imagine a renewed Union without this ideology that has fallen into insanity, without the party nomenclature and empty slogans. This will be socialism, as it was envisioned by the best representatives of the Russian people a hundred years ago. It will unite all our disunited peoples into a single nation. Into a single political nation with a powerful Russian origin.

 The lieutenant colonel's words echoed dully in some empty head. This had happened before and, just like that painful groan, was associated with a fever, with the flu. Only the devastation in the head then was not during the fever, but after. Bragin did not expect that he would be given such a lecture, although he could have listened.

 - This will be our Soviet Empire. A socialist empire. An empire capable of winning victories in the economy, culture and especially on the battlefield on par with the West. In the same Africa. Russian tanks will beat the foreign legion. Russians will also mean Soviet. All these ethnic differences that the damned Western provocateurs pulled out of the medieval darkness will again become a thing of the past, will remain only on the pages as a warning to future generations. Peoples and nationalities, whose number is countless, will not hesitate to call themselves Russian, not as a denial of their ethnic roots, but as belonging to a new empire, to which the future will belong. We will take what is ours! This empire will be for us, and not like the Internationalist Union, which helped ragamuffins all over the world, then went bankrupt and left its people in line at a lousy supermarket. Moreover, we will take from them what we gave them! It will be fair! Afghanistan, which has poisoned our youth with its drugs, will receive devastating blows from the sky and this will be an element that will spare no one. And we will not lose a single fighter. It will be fair! - the lieutenant colonel repeated again, - This is what we are fighting for and this is only the beginning. You also have the opportunity to join...

 Everything somehow unobtrusively became enveloped in darkness and began to recede into the distance.