Book-12. Gravity cyclone, novella

─Yes, ─ the general dropped. But in the practice of the military, and even in his department, there are no guilty ones, just as there are no reasons that give rise to these guilty ones themselves. Bushy eyebrows parted, eyes regained their usual melancholy, diffuse smoked prune color, and the general pressed a button. A moment later, the door opened to admit the chubby captain. The staff secretary, as in the old pre-revolutionary times, the adjutant of His Excellency, was helpful and transformed, trying his best to resemble his master, both in appearance and in habits.

─Colonel Smirnov’s case?! ─ the general barked as he entered. The captain, not at a loss, in a coolly obliging tone in his voice, gently remarked:

─It is on your table, comrade general, ─ Fedorov fussed. The captain, with lightning speed, with some catlike movement, ran up to the general’s table, throwing on the go:

─Allow me? ─ and took out what was needed from the pile of cases.

─Thank you, captain. You are free.

─ There is! May I go out!

─ I said go.

The secretary went out noiselessly. The general leafed through the gray folder with the «SECRET» stamp on the cover for a long time, step by step studying the colonel’s record. Secret reports of informants ran before my eyes. Characteristics of the commanders of the units where the colonel served and not a single case of violation of discipline. The general snorted in displeasure. Even in his personal file there is a report from the deputy for the political part of the squadron, in which officer Fedorov began his service, that he allegedly, having got drunk with his colleagues, sent him, i.e. Major so-and-so, what the Major’s name was, he no longer remembered. And along with it, the entire leadership of the army in three letters of the expression, famous from Slavic Russia. How beautiful, then, the major inflated – this is the case. He had no doubts of success, that, finally, the generals themselves would envy his vigilance. But the naive major did not take into account that this pimply lieutenant, stupid in appearance, the illegitimate son of the Commander of the Air Force of the Central Asian Military District, General of the Army Comrade Chervinsky, a hero of the Soviet Union, a participant in the Great Patriotic War. Recalling this fact, General Fyodorov smiled maliciously, then again, dissatisfied and angrily, began flipping through the colonel’s file. The report of the major, the future colonel, Smirnov, that he had a personal meeting with a creature of extraterrestrial origin, caught my eye. In the report to the command, Major Smirnov described the incident in detail. The general looked up in hope, staring unblinkingly into the space of the room. However, the hope of bringing the colonel to administrative responsibility for negligent service, with the addition of a tendency to periodically visited hallucinations, was not justified. Since the change in policy regarding the secret study of UFOs did not allow the colonel to be recognized as a nutcase. Oh, how would it be now. What prospects for the service would loom ahead. In Moscow, at the headquarters of the Armed Forces. Business trips. Hunt on government grounds. Young soldiers in the bathhouse with massages and other non-traditional services. Dreams intoxicated the imagination, and Fedorov, with the ferocity of a gambler, began to delve into the colonel’s personal file, looking for possible clues to unreliability. A sharp phone call brought the general out of the «mines» to the mountain. – Yes! he almost growled into the phone. I’m busy! – He briefly threw and slammed the pipe, hammering into place. The phone chirped plaintively. The call was repeated immediately.

– What else?! Five minutes? – he sighed, then added with a suffering look on his face, – Let him come in.

A young lieutenant in a white medical coat over his tunic entered the office. The lenses of his gold-rimmed spectacles gleamed persistently. The general measured the newcomer with an angry glance from head to toe: – Well, what have you got?! – the imperious tone in his voice would have made anyone lose confidence in their own strength, but not the lieutenant:

– Allow me to hypnotize Major Gratsis! – he blurted out outright. The general was taken aback, he was not accustomed to without a «magic»: – «Allow me to turn?» – immediately the subordinates were talking about business.

– This is why?! – the general’s bushy eyebrows went up in surprise.

«You see, the United States Air Force has been searching for and studying Unidentified Flying Objects for a long time,» and the lieutenant bravely, akimbo, stepped closer and threw the «Young Technician» magazine onto the general’s desk with an open article about UFOs from the United States. The general looked as lean as after a heavy hangover with expressionless eyes. Contemptuously measuring the puny lieutenant from the toes of his boots to his uniform cap and fatherly remarked:

– My dear, not a single fact of the existence of UFOs has been accepted by science. And what’s there write these magazines, reacting to the provocative attacks of our opponents, let it remain on their conscience. We need to be more vigilant and not succumb to this kind of provocation.

– What do you call a provocation? An article in a magazine? And what happened to

Elena, how do you think it is?

– Young man, why didn’t you give a nondisclosure agreement?

– I did! But I came to you, not to the policeman at the crossroads! AND

in addition, even a schoolchild today knows that modern services

tracking, both in our country and in the United States, can almost instantly detect any

object in near-earth space. In short, the facts indicate that the major

Gracis has been kidnapped. The general looked at the medical lieutenant with almost bestial hatred: – Are you serious? – why, to some brat, a two-year-old, it occurred to him, and not to him, General Fyodorov. He hesitated for a minute, doubting his materialistic philosophical convictions, then suddenly realized that according to all the laws of physics this could not be, and said aloud:

– Do you understand what you are saying? This article, the purest water provocation

American special services, picked up by politically uneducated journalists.

– Why, journalists? the lieutenant continued coolly, not paying attention to the enraged general. – The article was written by V. Selena, – to which the general did not answer, he stared unblinkingly at the glass of the visitor’s glasses, becoming covered with crimson spots. The doctor watched with curiosity the changing appearance of the owner, what he thought at that time, it was easy to guess. Such metamorphoses are not pronounced by ear. Especially generals, seasoned in the brew of service crossings. Both were silent. The pause dragged on. Finally the doctor spoke up:

– May I leave?

– Go! – barked like an angry lion, the general, waving his left hand, a gesture very reminiscent of the blow of an animal’s paw on a rabbit driven into a dead end. At the same time, the general’s wide cheekbones and round chin wrinkled into a funny grimace, full of evil wrinkles. When the massive office door closed behind the visitor, the general took an abandoned magazine from the table, rolled it up into a tube, and, patting the blue general’s stripe on his right leg, walked to the window. From anger, thoughts were confused in the general’s head, one more absurd than the other. It’s better not to know what was going on in the general’s convolutions, only one thought clearly and distinctly turned out to be correct:

– «Yes, the generals will dismiss me if I fall for the bait of this

jerk. And Smirnov is also good, behaved very stupidly. I would be ashamed report a meeting, and even with humanoids. Unjustified risk, could

put an end to his career, it’s good that he was lucky, the policy has changed. And you must be a fool, a fool, but he rose to the rank of colonel. Well, nothing we are

fix it, expel it as a major.»

Outside the window, a cypress tree stood like a slender minaret, soaring into the sky. The general has been observing for the fifth year how the tree under the window grows, and it has overgrown with ties, like this cypress with branches. And to make the colonel a major, it was as easy for the general as for the sparrow outside the window to fly from one cypress branch to the next. The general turned away from the window. The decision ripened in his head. He took off his cap from a hanger in the corner of the room and left the office.

Chapter 7

The doctor was young. After graduating from medical school, he was among the best sent to the cosmodrome. From his senior colleagues, he heard that there is not life there, but earthly paradise. And so, having entered the earthly paradise, the young man was given a look around. For six months he, among twelve comrades, wandered around the town in the hope of getting a job as soon as possible, but the command seemed to spit on them from a big hill, as the captain, the head of the personnel department, said.

– I hardly managed to break through the allowance, and you still have claims to me.

The guys quickly realized that the captain had nothing to do with it and began to invite him to their company for a bottle of vodka. But although the captain drank, he drank quietly, without noise. The authorities did not pay attention to the impeccable captain, and he imperceptibly served his 45-year term.

– I have only three years left. He spoke proudly to drinking companions. Who, having not yet tasted the joys of service, did not fully understand the captain what he meant. And so, the young lieutenant of the medical service left the general, firmly remembering that more than one instruction did not say about the use of hypnosis as therapeutic purposes for the treatment of the military personnel of the cosmodrome. And if so, then naturally the general could not give permission for this, but since he did not forbid him, the lieutenant decided that with Fedorov’s tacit consent, he could afford to subject Major Gratsis to hypnosis. And inspired by his decision, he did not enter, flew into Elena’s room. The cosmonaut at this time was sitting at her desk and writing a letter home. Surprised, she turned to the flying lieutenant:

– You have to knock, young man.

– Excuse me, Elena Albertovna, but I am twenty-nine years old, and you too. Do you know what the difference between us is?

– What is it?

– The fact that you are the wife of the deceased astronaut, and I…

– The wife of the deceased general, the astronaut interrupted him venomously.

The doctor was clearly arrogant. Lowering his gaze, he fell silent. Then, in a deaf voice, like a guilty schoolboy, in front of a strict teacher, he mumbled:

«I apologize to you.

– Get out, brat, – the woman rudely threw out the insult. The lieutenant blushed from ear to ear, but obeyed and walked out the door. He stood with his back against the door and raised his eyes to the ceiling.

Elena herself did not expect such a surge of emotional incontinence from herself. Somewhere deep in her soul, she was embarrassed for the stupid lieutenant, for his tactless behavior. But on the other hand, that he should run to her with a bouquet of roses and kneel to beg for a date.

– «You want a lot, girl,» – she only had time to think, as there was a timid, barely audible knock at the door.

– Come in! – the door creaked, and the lieutenant stuck his head through the gap:

– Sorry, but I need to talk to you.

– Are you here again?! We have nothing to talk about, Elena protested resolutely, wiping her tears with a handkerchief. «If you don’t leave this minute, I’ll call the outfit!» The lieutenant was no longer listening to her. He stood in front of her and looked like a dog with his huge eyes into her gray tear-stained pupils. The astronaut, sighing, enraged, sank into a chair. Vitaly took her weakened palm and, continuing to look into her eyes, said: