In the officers’ mess, at a large table, there was Bartholomew and his team: Frol, Pepper, Torpedo, and Ivan. They had just arrived at the garrison. They were transferred here for further service. On the other side of the table sat Colonel Pyotr Ivanovich, to his right and left there were his assistants: Lieutenant Colonel Prokhorov, Major Batulin, and Lieutenant …

Returning home, Kai immediately noticed the “shadowing”. They were being followed. He and Prokhor were sitting in the back seat of the jeep. Their driver was a young kid, next to whom a thug was sitting. They were followed by two more jeeps with the bros, the rest had left earlier. “The shadowing is behind us,” said Kai’s voice. Prokhor …

Prokhor phoned the guys, explained the essence of the event and, most importantly, what it was for. Kai had faced a different, already adult life, where Prokhor and all of them would not be around to protect and patronize him. Therefore, his friend had to see it. After all, anything could be. He must understand this and know what men …

The next day a car was sent for him. He didn’t even bother asking where and why they were taking him. On Smolenskaya Square, their car stopped in front of the entrance to the Foreign Ministry building, his escort showed him that it was time to get out. Having entered the central doors, he, accompanied by several people in identical …

Soon after Kai’s return, his father summoned him and told him how his new life would now be built. In addition to studying, he would attend a special closed training center, where he would continue training in his future specialty, namely, to become a professional military man. He had to visit this center on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. On these …

It was spring, warmth, love. The meetings of Anna and Kai were short, her parents kept track of her schedule for returning home, so they could only be together on the way to the ballet school or back or when she was sent to the store. But their longest meetings were when she was sent with food to visit her …

The car stopped on a large farm. As it turned out later, his distant relative was the director of a stud farm, which was located nearby. From that moment on, Kai practically lived in the stable. He “got sick” with horses. Once he went inside and inhaled the smell of manure, fresh hay, and warmth from horses, he “became infected” …

Moscow. Fall. Cold. It rains constantly, drops are small and cold. Everything is gray and dirty: houses, cars, and people. They are in a hurry, running along these gray streets with gray faces and empty eyes. Only he stands on the sidewalk and realizes how stupid, senseless everything around him. What is the point of their rush? After all, they …

A few years earlier … The plane was falling. He felt it with every cell of his body, as if he were one with this wounded machine, fighting in the air for its life. Such wounds inflicted on a huge beast flying through space were incompatible with life. Kai understood that. But he fought, fought to the last. Fuel leaked …