Chapter 33

With everything's back online, things seemed to return to normal in the control room. That was how Volynski found the place after he entered by smashing the door into the wall. His hair stuck to his skin and his clothes laid heavy on him, but this time he was not grumpy at all. He had a look around proudly, at everyone one by one, like a war veteran, who did a great favor by visiting them. Volynski was watching Moskvin for a long time, hoping that the commander might notice his presence, since everyone but Moskvin had been staring at him for a while. But the interception-works chief was busy cleaning his nails with a pointed object that looked like a hairpin, without even looking up.

As nobody said a word, Moskvin's men went back to work, namely to pay attention to a giant display opposite the front door. Volynski was ignored. He did not get a single slap on the back or something, so he joined his fellow companions in a huff, and stopped next to Boris Alekseyev. He could not imagine what was so interesting about that machine.

Before he could be convinced of it with his own eyes, Moskvin stood up from his chair and headed towards the soldiers with his boots creaking.

"All eyes are on you, Comrade," he said that to combat engineer Boris Alekseyev because he glared at him while he spoke.

When he reached the crowd, they opened up like a living gate, so he could reach Alekseyev in a split second.

"How's the situation?"

The engineer jumped up from his seat, scared, holding his hat between his hands.

"Co-comrade Mo-Moskvin..." his voice trembled like drying lines in the wind. "I... I'm afraid I... cannot give you any good news..."

Volynski waited carefully, and as soon as he checked over the shoulders of two other soldiers, he could figure out what happened. Under the giant display, there was a normal-sized monitor full of windows of scanning and cleaning software, as empty ones as well. And as someone looked around, could see such windows about empty drivers everywhere else, too. Volynski was not a big brain in the field of science, but even he understood the point.

"So there's nothing you can do without backup." Moskvin continued "Okay, I get it."

At the moment he only frowned his eyebrows. The atmosphere that was uptight before soon became troubled. Moskvin's cold-blooded attitude was not known to be good.

"I-I tried everything..." the engineer apologized "I'm afraid...there's no solution for that..."

He tried to avoid Moskvin's outburst by explaining everything, but perhaps he had the idea the most of how hopeless their situation was, otherwise he would not have squeaked in a two-octave higher voice.

After taking a deep breath, he turned around, and looked into Moskvin's eyes, though he blinked away fast.

"Despite your orders, Commander," he said in a dying voice "I... did make some backups. When the storm... seemed to be heavy."

He mumbled something the others did not understand. But hearing, that was still hope for the Project, they became excited and started to discuss the incidence between themselves.

Moskvin silenced them by raising his right hand. Nobody could tell what he was thinking. His face seemed expressionless, yet he was looking at Alekseyev like he could have seen into his inside. Then he checked the error messages and empty drivers on the computers.

"Well," he said slowly "I can't see anything working like before."

Alekseyev hung his head.

"The lightning struck into the power lines, right?" he asked two men near him, who both looked soaked.

They were the ones Moskvin sent out for an investigation. Those two nodded.

"There was not enough time." Alekseyev continued "The process of making the backup... was aborted when the lightning did the damage. I..." at first he shut up because Moskvin opened his mouth to speak, but it turned out that he just raised the eyebrows a little higher.

"I had to be very careful. I needed more time." said the engineer "Choosing a server without the leadership noticing..."

"I want to hear it." Moskvin interrupted him suspiciously calmly. "Say out."

"Yes!" squealed Alekseyev in a high voice "Everything's gone!"

Those who were present could expect this answer, yet everybody was surprised as one person. Either Moskvin forgot that it was not Alekseyev's fault or he just needed a scapegoat, so he grabbed the man by the throat and pressed him hard until Alekseyev's face took all the shades of blue as he tried to gasp for air. The soldiers immediately took a step back. They remained silent all the way.

"Everything's lost, huh? No connection with the watches. No danger zones. There's no way to track them down." the commander ground his teeth "THERE'S NO GAME!"

He took Alekseyev out of his chair at a single move and threw him between the desks near them. A strong groan could be heard as the engineer landed on the ground.

"And my command was disobeyed!" he told that more likely to himself while he was walking circles.

He ignored everybody around, and the soldiers were always out of his way. If Moskvin went to one end of the room, they moved into another corner.

"It's over!" Moskvin laughed out hysterically. With the purple circles around his eyes and with his ruffled hair, he looked like a real madman.

He continued to mutter during his walk, without noticing the rest of the team. They still tried to appear as small as possible or even better, to disappear, unfortunately, it was hardly possible in this overcrowded room.

"Alekseyev!" hearing his command, the people froze.

Alekseyev came to his feet among the desks and raised his arms to defend his head.

"Yessir," he answered, a bit shaking.

"Can you tell me the chance of all this?"

"You mean to lose the power because of a thunderstruck, Comrade?"

"This is what happened, yes?" Moskvin's calmer self foretold nothing but bad things again.

The answer came after a short time.

"It was very small."

Boris Alekseyev and all the others prepared for another outburst. The engineer licked his dried lips with the tip of his tongue as a sign of fear. He managed to stand Moskvin's crazy look, he knew that the commander thought he was lying. He tried to find evidence for that. Since Moskvin could not find any signs of that, only fear, he fell with a sigh into Boris's seat. Alekseyev joined his comrades.

Meanwhile, Moskvin stared at his hands on his knees and asked:

"What kind of promotion is worth for you to fix this?"

Astounded silence. The answer did not even have to be said, it was written on every face. The engineer left his mouth open, he did not want to comment on the question. In the end, he had no choice just to say:

"With respect... this is not something that can be fixed."

For their surprise, Moskvin simply rubbed his stubble and replied silently:

"So it's over."

Short break.

"And the kids escaped. We can't use them for our political game. I put so much money into this with the help of republican fundings."

Someone raised his finger to speak, but the person next to him pulled his arm back. There was no need for words, all of them knew, they had to replace the money they've stolen from the Motherland with their assets. But it was not their biggest problem. Since it was way less than the amount of the money they spent on Battle Comrade, it meant that the leadership was going to get knowledge of this secret project fast. Their future became uncertain.

"Shit! Shit! SHIT"

Nikolai Moskvin's nerves finally gave up, he could not control himself anymore. His anger turned him into an unstoppable beast, he destroyed everything in his way without thinking. He kicked the chairs, knocked over the tables after he swept off all the documents from the surface.

After that, he continued kicking things on the ground. Pile of junks, papers, and other objects. He would have not only done harm to the furniture but also the people if they had not competed for the exit right away. They preferred to go into the arms of the ice-cold weather.

Moskvin did not notice anything from all this, he was too busy with raging.


Half an hour had passed, when things calmed down in the control room.

The conscripts could not earn only wet underwear, they won a mission, too. Moskvin insisted that the Project would not stop by any means, they needed the students, they needed to clear the evidence. So those who went outside were tasked with picking up the survivors and the bodies and they could not return to base until everything was taken care of.

To make their job faster and easier, Moskvin allowed deploying the elite: war bears, attack dogs, Terror Drones, and other deadly units.

So his forces swarmed the forest to look beyond their territory if needed.

[Number of students: 13]