Бесплатный фрагмент - Reality mirror

Note from the author

Dear reader, thank you for choosing my work, I hope reading it will bring you a lot of positive emotions and arouse interest in it.

The action of the novel takes place in a fictional version of the future and does not claim to be scientific and factual authenticity. Any coincidence with reality is random and created for a deeper immersion in the plot.

Happy reading!

Prologue

It was the twenty-second century of the human era. The ideas of humanism, equality, democracy, environmental friendliness and love for beauty have reigned in the world. The problem with consumer waste was practically solved, people began to live more consciously, there were no more problems of discrimination against people on national and other visual grounds.

However, the main problem of the whole world has not ceased to exist — a person with his eternal thirst for something more. The calm did not last long. A long-resolvable lack of resources suddenly came to the fore. It is not known for certain what was the impetus for the destruction of the general peace, or whether people were tired of eating artificial meat, which at one time became a revolution in bioengineering and made it possible to no longer grow animals for slaughter. Perhaps they were tired of observing all the rules and trends that had developed in society at that time, but they did not exclude the appearance of people with nationalistic, xenophobic, intolerant views, which they could not fully implement, which made them feel inferior. Or maybe the problem was the exhaustion of almost all fresh water reserves and the low prevalence of sea processing stations. Also a big problem was the agreement signed by the advanced countries with the aim of annually allocating a large amount of money to eliminate social inequality and economic assistance in third world countries.

Unexpectedly for everyone in different parts of the world, wars for territory, long forgotten for everyone, began almost simultaneously. Considered a relic of the distant past, they struck humanity like a bolt from the blue. Former trading partners were already fighting fierce battles for trying to take over each other’s land. The world plunged into chaos. The only salvation was the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. This happened several decades ago, when the countries that possessed it met and decided that although it is a deterrent, it creates the danger of destroying the whole world when it is used by at least two out of a dozen states. An agreement was signed obliging to eliminate all stocks, including developments.

In the first months of the war, many research institutes around the world tried to repeat the achievements of their ancestors, but, fortunately, they could not do this, there were simply no highly qualified specialists in the field of nuclear fission reactions left in the world, which was the reason for the development of a fundamentally new and technological type of weapons....

Chapter 1. Vicissitudes of fate

The weather was clear and sunny. The rays of the rising sun gently touched the roofs of the buildings. This summer has been really warm. The crowns of shady trees created spaces where one could linger with pleasant coolness. In recent years, due to climate variability, heavy rain has become the main type of weather, followed by a sharp drought for several weeks. However, in general, people continued to wait for the onset of summer to enjoy the beauty and warmth of the moment.

Despite this, Sergey stepped out of his car into the parking lot of the research institute, glancing hard at the sign of the building. When he first entered its steps, it seemed to him monumental, impregnable and heavy. Now its walls reflected only melancholy and the burden of unfulfilled hopes and crushed destinies. Ten years ago, when he left the threshold of the Polytechnic University, he could not have imagined how hated his dream job would be.

Dyatlov was a tall, athletic young man with bright, expressive green eyes. His face was slightly proud, but always expressed self-confidence. He was usually dressed in jeans and a neutral shirt to match his business work style. He turned thirty-three a month ago. Sergey graduated from school with a gold medal, and in his youth, he was looking forward to helping people with his inventions.

Even during training, he came up with a method that would allow using electromagnetic waves to significantly increase the speed and quality of information transmission, which became the decisive factor in his interview.

However, as soon as military clashes began, and the country’s economy embarked on a war footing, the task of the research institutes was to develop developments aimed at the most rapid rearmament and technological superiority over the enemy. Sergey’s project was first shelved, and then completely «thrown into the trash» and the task of his department was to develop long-range weapons that could use gravitational waves as a method of mass destruction.

Sergey sighed heavily, measured his ardor, closed the car door and walked with an uncertain step towards the lobby stairs. He was very tired of the daily checks at the entrance, which are inherent in any institution of this degree of secrecy, but now the realization of this fact did not add calmness. After a personal search, he took out a pass and went into the main hall.

It was a spacious hall with a fountain in the middle and eco-design, fashionable for all offices of that time. Along the edges were armored doors, which in fact were gateways leading to dozens of buildings, many of which were underground and did not show their existence to the world. Sergey went to his door and leaned his pass, a camera and a keyboard came out of the wall, she considered his height, face, «iris» of the eyes and hid back. He leaned his hand against the flat surface that was the handprint scanner and entered the password: «Isaac Newton».

It was him who described the «law of universal gravitation», according to which the force of gravitational attraction between two material points with masses m1 and m2 is proportional to both masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. The keypad returned to its starting point and a yellow signal lit up on the door.

Sergey said: “Sergey Dyatlov, department for working with gravitational waves”. A green light came on on the door with the inscription: “Voice recognized. Good morning, Sergey”.

He took a deep breath and went through the airlock. This department was a large cluster of offices, divided into sections of three or four people working as a team on certain projects. Whether it was a sign of fate, or circumstances just happened, however, all four people in Sergey’s project experienced similar feelings towards their work. For two years, their team has not produced a single development that is somehow applicable in practice and is not a device for delivering coffee to the office without getting up from the couch. But this fact was not appreciated by the management, which set a deadline for the delivery of the project by today’s evening.

As always, which is not surprising, the guys did not even imagine the direction of the idea, which could somehow be developed to a mediocre solution.

Sergey slowly opened the office door and, upon entering, saw that Matvey was very diligently trying to get a pencil into the trash can, Andrey was dozing on the sofa, and Konstantin, who rarely appeared at his workplace before lunch, and sometimes came even after, was consistently absent from his work place. Dyatlov coughed loudly, so that Matvey dropped the pencil with which he was actively aiming, and Andrei fell off the sofa.

“As you know”, Sergey began, “we have a lot of work to do. Today is the deadline and we haven’t started yet. First, urgently find Konstantin, and let him bother to come to work on time. Secondly, we need ideas that can somehow pass for the appearance of work, and that we can quickly refine when correcting faults.

Andrey, rubbing his half-asleep eyes, answered, “Comrades, why are we worried, we will present a mediocre device, we will make it in an hour on our knees, we have enough knowledge for this, but, to be honest, we don’t have much ambition. We will not be fired, and everyone is happy”.

Matvey took out all the pencils from the trash can and silently nodded. His glance could only tell that he agreed to everything that would take him out of boredom, which he had been tired of for several months.

Sergey thoughtfully raised his hand to his chin. On the one hand, this idea did not force them to do a large amount of work, but it achieved its goal. On the other hand, what about his dreams, what about those aspirations to which he went, getting a job here? It turns out that all these years he lived in vain, sitting out his pants and a bright mind in an office with a lover of darts with pencils, a person who sleeps a day more than he moves, and also an eternal truant? So everything he wanted to achieve will never be realized?

“No, today everything will be different”, Dyatlov said sharply, not expecting such a surge of strength from himself from the phrase he said. “Today we will do what we should have done a long time ago. Andrey, quickly look for Konstantin and together create a mechanism for a magnetic gun that will economically consume the charge with maximum efficiency. Matvey, go to your colleagues who are developing the equipment and borrow from them a drawing of an all-terrain vehicle on which you can put this gun”.

“Sergey Vladimirovich, can I ask you a question?” Andrey suddenly said with incomprehension. “And what instrument do you plan to create?”

“We will create a cannon that will destroy everything in its path”, Dyatlov, proud of his idea, answered him.

Chapter 2. What is hidden behind the portraits

It was the third hour of the working day. Konstantin arrived earlier than usual, and his gaze reflected complete, resolute hatred either for the research institute, or for Sergey, who ordered him to come to the service. At the same time, Dyatlov walked around the office in circles, trying to come up with a way to distort gravity using a force field, and most importantly, how to fit this development into a compact installation that can be easily installed on a car or armored vehicle. The ideas that came to his mind either contradicted the laws of physics, or were difficult to implement, or, in principle, could not be assembled from inventions already available to humankind.

Sergey stopped and fell into a chair. He had not experienced such desperation in a long time. After drinking his fourth cup of coffee in an hour, he slowly looked up at the ceiling, examining the cracked plaster. “They demand so much, but they can’t do repairs from my device to work,” he thought with anger. “No, we can’t do it, it’s impossible to create something fundamentally new that will change the world in a day”, Sergey whispered bitterly in his voice.

From boredom inspired by depressing thoughts, he got up and left the office to walk around the institute. His favorite place was a candy store that served the juiciest honey cake he’d ever eaten. That’s where Sergey went. On the way, he decided to pass through a winter garden where tropical plants were grown all year round. What kinds of species were not there: Monstera Friedrichstahl, and rattan palms, and a dromelian flower, as well as many others.

Passing through the garden, he found himself in a large hall, which is a tribute to history. There were portraits, sculptures, samples of past times. The central place in the composition was occupied by the department devoted to cosmonautics, as a scientific field, which turned out to be the largest, difficult and poorly studied even two hundred years after the first flight into space. Usually Sergey passed through this hall at a quick pace, since he did not feel much trepidation for the study of outer spaces and their history, but now his gaze caught on a portrait in the corner of the room. He stopped and walked towards him. The portrait depicted Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, a Russian and Soviet self-taught scientist who developed the theoretical issues of astronautics.

Under other circumstances, Sergey would not have noticed him, but now a vague, but obsessive thought has surfaced in his head. Dyatlov quickly turned around and jogged to his office. What the portrait suggested to him can change today, and the world as a whole.

Sergey literally flew into his workplace and jumped at the computer. He was interested in one single concept of Konstantin Eduardovich — “Artificial Gravity Chamber”. Tsiolkovsky believed that it could also be created using a ball, based on a gyroscope with several degrees of freedom. That is, if the so-called “donut” rotates in one plane, then the ball or chamber of artificial gravity rotates in all three planes simultaneously. Thus, the emerging centrifugal force acts on all bodies inside the ball from its center to the inner surface.

So Sergey’s task was to make such a design, only with the amendment that it would work in the conditions of existing gravity, that it was necessary to make the device compact, and also that the resulting overload should be converted into a field in order to “crumple” all objects that fall under the action within its radius.

On paper, everything looked simple in general: just convert the drawing and reduce it. However, in practice, when Dyatlov began test modeling, the design refused to work. The theory about the settlement of other planets with the creation of the Earth’s gravity based on their natural attraction did not function at all to increase and transform the Earth’s gravity.

Sergey fell into despair. Here it is found such a simple but effective solution to the problem, but it cannot be implemented. The only option that came to his mind was to check what his colleagues are doing and invite them to consider creating a model with artificial gravity.

When Dyatlov entered the adjacent office where Matvey, Andrey and Konstantin were sitting, he saw Matvey throwing darts at the printout, which was most likely the result of unsuccessful test runs. Andrey was drinking coffee at that time, the cups from which were scattered all over the room would be enough to create a small copy of the city from cardboard. Konstantin was clearly going to go home. When he noticed Sergey’s questioning look, he immediately turned his gaze maliciously to the window and angrily said under his breath that he would no longer work for bureaucrats, put on his coat, kicked the door with his foot and went out into the corridor. The rest of the team was clearly not surprised by the circumstances and expected his departure a long time ago.

Sergey froze in a daze. Thirty seconds later, he approached the sofa, slowly sat down, leaned on the back and said, “Guys, I found a solution to our problems, it was invented by Tsiolkovsky back in the 20th century. We just need to put it into practice”.

“What is the problem? — Matvey asked, looking up from his already bored lesson. “If everything was so simple, you would not come to us for help, but did everything yourself in the collider and presented it to the management”. Matvey got to the point, but to tell him about it meant to sign his own impotence and arrogance, so Sergey answered, “I don’t agree with the first or the second, but the fact that we are a team and must find a way out of this situation is undeniable and does not need discussion. Therefore, I brought a drawing of a gun for you, it remains only to understand what is wrong in it, why an error occurs during modeling”.

Andrey and Matvey slowly approached the table and began to look at the drawing. At first glance, everything looked accurate: the dimensions corresponded to the required ones, while not reducing the effectiveness of the weapon, it should have created the main function of destruction due to gravity overload under any circumstances.

“We are missing something”, Andrey said, “something important, but insignificant, which generally affects the result, but does not spoil the overall picture.” This version was very similar to the truth. “But what is this detail?” thought Sergey.

“A particle”, Matvey suddenly blurted out. “What?” — asked Dyatlov. “A particle (or a set of particles) must have a negative gravitational mass, or artificial gravity can only be obtained through acceleration. Accordingly, the collider cannot create a gun model that will be assembled from a material with a positive gravity value and will be static at the same time”, Matvey answered enthusiastically.

“You are a genius”, Sergey and Andrey said at the same time. Dyatlov ran to the computer, reconfigured the device so that when gravity was created, acceleration would occur, and launched a test. The program began to calculate, a 3D model of the future weapon with full characteristics began to “assemble” on the screen.

The room froze in anticipation, now or never. 95 percent, 98.99. A flash of green light lighted up the office, and the screen read: “Simulation completed successfully”.

The office exploded with cheers and applause. Never before have they experienced such joy at work. Sergey printed out the result in several copies: he put one in the project folder, and the second one he folded and neatly hid in the double pocket of his jacket. «The main thing is not to sleep during the inspection at the exit,» he thought. Life has already taught Dyatlov that it is not so important who is the author of the idea, you can assign it in no time, so he took the drawing for himself as «insurance» that their idea would not end up on the «achievement table» of some loafer who earned a post thanks to your connections.

After that, Sergey told the guys that he had sent the drawing to the printing and assembly department, and within four hours the experimental sample would be ready, all that remained was to inform the management and conduct a test presentation.

Chapter 3. Billionaire Doctor

Anton Borovitsky woke up earlier than usual today. Glancing at his watch, he saw bitterly that the hands had stopped at the time: five hours twenty-three minutes. Anton tried to fall asleep for a long time, but all to no avail: back pain plagued him for the third month in a row. At first, compresses, ointments, massages helped, but gradually the pain became stronger, and the previous remedies stopped working. And now the lower back ached with such force that the painkiller he had drunk only slightly changed the situation. “Today you need to look to the doctor, it can’t go on like this for a long time”, Borovitsky thought.

Anton Mikhailovich graduated from a medical institute with a degree in prosthetics and bioengineering. It has always been his dream to help people with health problems. And with the modern development of technology, he could do this at a double rate due to advances in biological development. Borovitsky was an athletically built forty-year-old man, but his young and energetic look, lush hair and face without a single wrinkle betrayed in him a man in his early thirties. He was of average height, but this did not prevent him from ever looking presentable against the background of others, and also very confident, which, in his youth, allowed him not to experience a lack of female attention.

Anton worked in his own technology company. Ten years ago, he created a prosthesis that has a titanium frame, while on top it is covered with artificially grown muscles, other tissues and skin. Due to the microparticles introduced there, when the prosthesis was sewn to the patient, all tissues began to actively “come to life” and connect with the natural parts of the human body, thereby creating for him the illusion that he had regrown his hand. At the same time, people did not experience any uncomfortable and alien sensations. A reminder of the performed interventions was only a small scar remaining at the place of “gluing”. Borovitsky named this technology “Schwartz” in honor of the actor who played the killer cyborg in the famous film of the late 20th century. These prostheses made a splash in bioengineering, and Anton very quickly turned from the small “Borovitsky Prosthetics” company created into the international corporation “Borovitsky Technology” with a monthly turnover of several billion dollars.

Thanks to the creation of artificial prostheses, he was able to do what he always dreamed of. His inventions have cured millions of people. The spinal column created by him made it possible to solve the problems of patients who, due to circumstances, damaged the spine and lost the ability to walk. Anton also brought artificial human internal organs to a new level, making them indistinguishable from natural ones, but at the same time overcoming some of the physical problems associated with age-related changes in these organs.

Borovitsky is regularly among the ten richest people in the world, while repeatedly falling into the top three. Among other things, Anton Mikhailovich is an exemplary family man and has repeatedly proved this by refusing to earn extra millions in favor of an evening in a restaurant with his beloved wife. For many years they were going to have a baby, but something prevented them in this matter until, finally, Anastasia became pregnant a couple of weeks ago.

Borovitsky got up from the bed, stroked his still sleeping wife, and tiptoed out of the room. He put on his bathrobe and went to the balcony to get some fresh morning air and look out over his beloved city. Their apartment was in the center, on the top floor of a high-rise building. It offered a beautiful view of the river and the Government building, on the opposite side, in the corner, there was a block of skyscrapers, one of which housed the office of “Borovitsky Technology”.

Anton was about to go back into the apartment, but he bent over sharply and writhed in pain. Reminds me of a persistent back pain. He grabbed his waist and slowly sank to the floor. After sitting like this for about half an hour, when the suffering began to pass, Borovitsky raised his hand, on which the bracelet was located, a small blue rotating circle appeared from it like a hologram. The voice assistant asked how he could help. Anton said in a heavy, barely breathing voice: “Call Herman, I will come to see him today.” Instead of a circle, a check mark appeared with the inscription “Done”.

Two hours passed, the back was slightly released, which allowed Borovitsky to slightly relax. He took a shower, had breakfast of scrambled eggs prepared by a robot chef, and went to get dressed. For this, a special dressing room was set aside in their house. Due to the need for a large space to accommodate automatic mechanisms with artificial intelligence, only a small number of residents could afford such rooms.

Anton entered the room, immediately the assistant’s voice asked what he wanted to wear today. Borovitsky said: «Something light of your choice.» «It will be done,» the assistant replied. He began scanning for suitable clothing, pulled robotic arms out of the walls and ceiling, and pulled a hoodie, sweatpants, and sneakers out of the closet. Anton stood in the middle of the room, raised his hands up, which served as a signal of readiness for the assistant, and he put on the chosen clothes.

Borovitsky left the dressing room and immediately ran into his wife. “Good morning,” she said. “Good”, Anton replied. “Where are you going?” Anastasia asked. “Yes, on business, to work”, Borovitsky lied. He didn’t tell her anything about her back pain and didn’t want her to know anything about it until the time was right.

“I was thinking”, she said, “maybe we fly to the Dominican Republic next weekend? You will rest from work, and the term of pregnancy allows for the time being”. “Great idea”, said Anton. “Sorry, dear, I’m in a hurry, I kiss you.” With these words, he left the apartment.

Chapter 4. Disease

Anton left the entrance and went to the parked car. A white convertible with a convertible roof made it possible to freshen up on the road in the summer. He leaned the bracelet against the handle of the car and stepped aside. Just then, the door slowly began to slam open. When Borovitsky got into the back seat, the door closed and he was greeted by the voice of an assistant, asking where to go. “Pirogov street, house 7”, Anton replied, looking thoughtfully out the window at his yard. Eco-quarters, which gained popularity in the twenty-first century, have already gone out of fashion, but apparently the architect of his house belonged to the so-called “dinosaurs” of urban planning, and the entire courtyard was created in the spirit of minimalism in relation to artificial materials and respect for plants and nature in general.

At that moment, the autopilot lifted the car into the air, the wheels bent and drove into the holes in the bottom, like the landing gear of an airplane, hydrogen engines poked out on the sides and behind, and the car jerked off. At first, with the invention of flying cars, the problem of traffic jams was quickly resolved, but this led to anarchy in traffic. Therefore, it was decided to unify the laws and create a separate section in the rules governing air transportation. After that, the plugs reappeared. Officials also flew with flashing lights, which caused widespread discontent, and eventually a tax was introduced on the use of airspace for the purpose of movement. The exceptions were airplanes, helicopters, spaceships, and, surprisingly, hot air balloons. Therefore, only wealthy people could afford to drive, or even rather fly, to work.

Borovitsky’s car was flying through morning traffic at the moment when he thought it was amazing how, with the modern development of remote technologies, people continue to commute to work.

Anton’s car flew up to a high-rise glass building with vegetation on the balconies, which was made to symbolize the hanging gardens of Babylon. Slowly lowering, the wheels extended, and the engines moved back. When the car completely landed, its door opened, as if inviting the passenger to get out.

Borovitsky got out of the back seats and went to the elevator door, he was supposed to deliver him from the roof to the floor where the hospital was located. At the entrance to the elevator, he was met by a voice assistant with a question about his destination. Anton answered: «Hippocrates», the doors closed and the elevator began to descend.

Borovitsky left the elevator and entered a large hall with many plants in the center and corridors radiating in all directions. The end of one was difficult to see, while the rest went so far away that it was a difficult task to see their end.

Immediately, a car like a golf car with a robot driver drove up to Anton. He immediately asked to which doctor the appointment was made. “To German Veniaminovich”, replied Borovitsky. The robot processed the request within a few seconds and said: “Sit down Anton Mikhailovich, now I will take you to him”.

As soon as he sat in the back seat of the car, the driver quickly taxied out of the parking lot and headed down the right corridor from the elevator, the office door was not far away. On the plate above, on the screen, the inscription was burning: “The reception is conducted by German Veniaminovich Schultz”.

Anton knocked and went in. “Hello, Anton Mikhailovich, what happened to you and me? ' asked the doctor. “For several months now I have been experiencing terrible back pain, no means help, even painkillers”, Borovitsky replied. “It’s sad”, the doctor said sadly, “now we’ll do some tests.” He took out a small plate, like a metal detector at the guard with a screen in the middle, and brought it to the patient’s back, the whole examination Herman shook his head in displeasure. “So”, he said, finishing the examination, and typing something on the computer, “I made you a referral for additional tests, my assistant will be waiting for you at the office and taking you to the right place, when you are done, come back to me”. “Tell me, what’s the problem? — Anton asked with nervousness in his voice. “I can’t say anything specific right now, everything will be clear only after additional tests”, Herman replied.

Borovitsky left the office in confusion. He was immediately met by a robot that accompanied him, announced the list of doctors where he was sent and offered to sit down. Anton, immersed in himself, did everything he was told without hesitation, but his thoughts were completely different. He tried to understand how deplorable the situation is.

Upon returning to Herman, the doctor met Borovitsky with a sad look. “What can I say”, he began, “things are a little worse than I thought”. “To what extent?” — Anton asked with concern in his voice. “You have damage to most of your internal organs, metastasis comes from the kidneys, the main focus is there, unfortunately the disease is at such a stage that intervention will not work, it spreads faster. Let’s say we remove the source, but the tumor is already growing elsewhere. This is a genetic defect. I’m really sorry”.

“How? — Borovitsky asked in the cordon: is it really impossible to do anything?”. “Unfortunately not, we can only delay the inevitable”. “Inevitable? — Anton asked almost hysterically.

Yes, it’s fatal.

— And what if we resort to replacing all the internal organs with artificially grown ones?

— In a normal situation, this would help, but you have a problem in the genetic code, sooner or later it will return. You can only delay the inevitable. With modern facilities, it will be about ten years.

Anton was completely depressed. He felt as if the body had left the body so much that he was ready to slide from the chair to the floor. It was a big blow for him, especially now, when their long-awaited child was due soon.

Borovitsky spent the whole way home in this state. There, his wife met him at the entrance. “You are fast today. Did something happen?” she asked. “Nothing”, Anton answered rudely. “I have already booked tickets,” Anastasia said, as if not noticing her husband’s rudeness. “Now cancel the reservation, we are not going anywhere”, Anton said completely emotionless. “Why? What happened?” his wife asked incredulously. “I say nothing. Just go away, “Borovitsky already angrily answered her and pushed her aside with his hand.

Anastasia was shocked. Never before had her husband allowed himself such behavior next to her. Something definitely terrible has happened that he doesn’t want to tell her about. With these thoughts, she left for another room.

At this time, Anton went out onto the balcony and looked towards his office. There is what he needs right now. He took out the pill that the doctor had given him from the pack and drank it. Then he lit a cigarette bought on the way home, although he had never smoked before.

Chapter 5. Final preparations

As soon as Dyatlov sent the necessary documents to his superiors, Peter Semenovich, the head of the department for working with gravitational waves, came into his office.

Peter Semenovich was a man of overweight type, behind his back he was called a «bear» due to the peculiarities of his figure. As a rule, he did not adhere to a strict dress code and always wore a sleeveless shirt, shabby for years, and a gaudy bright pink tie. This feature made him visually even more ridiculous, given the complexion. However, by nature, he was a tough, even sometimes cruel person with a military bearing (it was from there that he got to the Research Institute), as well as a boss who often did not understand the peculiarities of mechanical engineering and the laws of physics, but often demanded absolutely impossible and impossible things from his subordinates.

“Is all ready?” he asked impatiently. “Not yet, but by the evening all the preparations will be completed, and we will be very pleased to present our invention to you”, Sergey answered.

The chief’s face wrinkled at the fact that he was forced to go down from his office in vain. After several years of work as an overseer and a person whose main function was to sign documents that he did not even always read, he became lazy and flabby to such an extent that even the simplest tasks seemed very difficult to him.

“Keep in mind”, said Peter Semenovich, “this is your last opportunity, you have no chance of making a mistake. Fuck it, fly into the street under the ass of the knee. With these words, he left and went to his office. Sergey for some time wry face, and depicting his dissatisfied behavior, repeated after him with a mockery. After that, he went to Matvey and Andrey. Entering the office, he immediately asked: “Do you think it will work?”

Usually they always checked the operability of the device before launch, but now, due to special circumstances, there was a forced case. You will have to trust your intuition and launch the invention without preliminary tests.

“I think it should work, all the tests for rendering and modeling the gun passed, so …”, Matthew answered. Andrew silently nodded in agreement. “I hope so,” Sergey said almost to himself. At this moment, on the screen where the model of the gun was opened, the inscription was displayed — the design is ready (successfully) and the sounds of notifications sounded. “Well, wish me luck”, said Sergey and went out into the corridor.

Dyatlov went to another department, where the warehouse was located. He entered a huge room that looked like a hangar the size of a dozen football fields. Loaders scurried everywhere in their cars, shifting both huge and small boxes from place to place. As a rule, unsuccessful samples or first trial versions of inventions, which were subsequently successfully finalized, got here.

In front of him, Sergey saw a large box about six meters long and three meters high, which was slightly ajar. Looking inside, he noticed an impressive robotic dog. At least he thought so. However, one of the paws was frozen in an unnatural position, while the others looked badly worn. The box was stamped with signs that said that the invention was codenamed “cyber wolf”, yesterday’s date and the emblem “decommissioned for technical reasons.” “It is not known for what purpose it was created, but apparently it was not accepted due to malfunctions with the limbs”, Dyatlov thought.

Then his eyes darted to the corner of the hangar, where empty carts were located. Sergey took one with him from the warehouse and headed to the assembly department. The cannon was supposed to be about three meters long, so it was not possible to move it alone. It took about four hours to print the parts and put them together, so the working day was nearing completion.

When he entered the assembly department, he saw his invention in front of him. The gun visually looked much more impressive than in the drawing and looked like a television camera on legs enlarged dozens of times with a large funnel in place of the lens. The test specimens were generally assembled without the outer casing, where possible, in order to save materials.

The gun showed the viewer all its insides: mechanisms, electronics, auxiliary elements. So Sergey saw live what a reduced copy of the so-called «Tsiolkovsky bagel» was like, which smoothly turned into a funnel by design. From there, gravitational waves should have propagated.

The gun was on a pallet to make it easier to move it to the hall for demonstrating inventions. Dyatlov glanced at the loading jack, which stood in the corner of the room. It was commonly used to move printed inventions more quickly. Sergey rolled the jack to the pallet and pressed the button, the device itself drove up to the plane and lined up with teeth, looking towards the special holes. After pressing another button, the jack drove under the pallet and began to lift it.

At this time, Dyatlov took the cart and put it under the already raised cannon, after which he pressed another button on the jack, and he lowered the pallet and drove off to the side.

The invention was ready for transportation. Saying goodbye to the workers of the assembly department, Sergey stood on the legs of the trolley, turned it on, and using the joystick drove towards the demonstration department. Matvey and Andrey should have been waiting for him there.

As he rushed down the long corridor, he thought how important the moment would come now, the job where he had worked for ten years was at stake. It doesn’t matter that he hated her for a long time, it doesn’t matter what they have been doing in recent years, the most important thing is that there was a small chance to invent something that will help people.

Dyatlov drove into a large hall with a stand in the middle to demonstrate prototypes. Behind there were chairs for the audience, and in front of the stage there was a long elongated table in the form of the letter “n”, where up to twenty people who headed departments at the research institute could sit to inspect inventions. There was a monitor at each seat, which displayed pictures from different angles from cameras located around the perimeter and above the stage. This was done so that project decision makers could take a closer look at the invention being presented. A drawing and a three-dimensional model were also displayed there.

Usually, only scientists who invented inventions, as well as the head of the department for the direction of discovery, came to such demonstrations to fix the result.

Sergey stopped near the stage, jumped off the cart and began preparations. While he was rolling up the jack and lowering the device, he noticed how the hall began to fill with spectators. “After us, it looks like there will be another show”, he thought. Dyatlov began connecting the cannon with cables to external batteries for charging and connected with a transparent glass tablet to the operating system of the gun. It was necessary to download the control program there. At this time, seven heads of different departments entered the hall, actively talking to each other, they obviously had not seen each other for a long time.

Sergey is very tense. Then he overheard what they were talking about. “To be honest, I don’t believe in them at all,” said a woman with a house-like hairstyle on her head with swirling bird holes. “Absolutely agree, their device is good for nothing”, said an elderly man with drunk and swollen eyes. “Come on, this gun can have some useful effect, no one has done anything like this before,” said a middle-aged woman with well-groomed hair and dressed in a strict but elegant business suit. “I don’t think so”, retorted a man in his forties, with classic glasses and a slicked-back hairdo that made the most solid impression of them all, along with the previous woman: they would most likely be fired today.

The cost of a mistake has skyrocketed. It turns out that about a third of the institute will now follow their discovery. “We are gone”, thought Sergey. “No, you can’t do it ahead of time, we thought of everything, it should work out,” he objected to himself. “Yes, that’s probably how it is”, Dyatlov thought hopefully.

Unfortunately, for some reason, Matvey and Andrey were nowhere to be found. “Where have they gone? Sergey thought. “The presentation should start soon”. He was adjusting the final touches, as Peter Semenovich entered the hall.

“Well”, he said loudly, “I see everyone has already gathered.” “Are you ready to start?” the chief asked. “A couple more minutes”, Sergey answered with a tremble in his voice.

“Yes, where are they? Am I going to present the project alone?” — with fear flashed through the head of Dyatlov. “Well, no, they couldn’t set me up like that”, he reassured himself.

Chapter 6. A fall

It’s been about five minutes since the presentation was supposed to start. Colleagues did not appear, which did not relieve tension, but on the contrary made me even more nervous. The audience began to buzz with displeasure, as if hurrying Sergey. All this time, he tried to collect his thoughts and remember if he had forgotten something important. When he finally finished downloading the required software, the house-on-head woman asked, “Maybe we should start now?” “Yes, of course”, answered Dyatlov. Satisfied exclamations were heard in the hall with ridicule and remarks containing the words “finally”, “not even half a year has passed” and the like.

“Good evening, colleagues”, Sergey greeted everyone. — Today I want to present you the latest development in the field of gravitational waves. This weapon is codenamed “Gravilom”. It allows, by creating an overload of gravity in front of you, connecting the earth and the force of artificial attraction created by it, to distort space, destroying objects in the immediate vicinity. It is based on the old but improved technology of Tsiolkovsky, which allows creating artificial gravity in such a way that the resulting centrifugal force acts on all bodies inside the ball from its center to the inner surface.

Here Sergey decided to look at the audience, all this time he tried to focus on his invention in order to reduce the excitement. The audience mostly listened with half an ear. The majority came there to see the practical implementation of the project. Only a couple of scientists listened with trepidation to the report, as they were interested in the principle of operation of this tool. “In general”, Dyatlov added, “this gun will be perfectly applicable in the military sphere, allowing a new word to be said in hostilities. It can be loaded onto a self-propelled unit, made into a tank weapon, transported in the back of cars, and everywhere it will be equally effective”.

Then he looked at the wall mock-up, built directly opposite the muzzle of the invention he had created. “So”, he added, “let’s move on to the demonstration.” The hall immediately applauded vigorously. The audience whispered. Peter Semenovich bent down to a man in classic glasses and a licked hairdo and asked: “Do you think it will work out? “It’s hard to say, — answered Alexey Petrovich, who headed the radio mechanics department, — let’s hope”.

At this time, Sergey was already launching the device, the software was loaded, and the start menu turned on, he chose aiming, a picture from the camera located at the tip of the gun appeared on the screen. Dyatlov took a deep breath and pressed the start button. The cannon roared, shook violently, whirlwinds began to appear in front of it, lines of errors lined up one after another on the tablet. “Come on”, Sergey thought hopefully to himself. At that moment, it became clear that the internal modules of the weapon turned red from obvious overheating, a microexplosion occurred and the gun shattered into parts.

It is difficult to imagine a more discouraged and exhausted face than the Woodpeckers had at that moment. There was deathly silence in the hall. Someone got up from their chairs and rushed to the exit. Peter Semenovich, gloomy as a cloud, got up from his seat, and at first in a quiet and calm voice said: «Get ready ”, and then shouted at the top of his voice, — «YOU ARE FIRED!!!!!»

Chapter 7. Failed meeting

About a month and a half has passed since that ill-fated examination. Early autumn has come. The leaves on the trees began to turn yellow and slowly fall off, disheveled in the wind. More frequent rains signaled the imminent start of the season, when it would be impossible to walk the streets without soiling your pants with the resulting mud. Anton Mikhailovich regularly drank the pills that the doctor prescribed for him at the reception. In general, they made it easier, but from time to time the pain rolled with a vengeance. In addition, a greenish-pale skin color became a side effect.

Borovitsky became more and more withdrawn into himself, practically stopped seeing his wife. Before his illness, he never lingered in his company, and sometimes tried to return to dinner as early as possible. But everything has changed. At first, he just returned home from work later than usual, but now he practically stopped leaving her and often spent nights there. He paid no attention to Anastasia’s concerns and questions, never telling her about his illness. And when he stayed overnight at work, he turned off the bracelet altogether so as not to receive regular disturbing calls and messages from his wife.

Anastasia fundamentally did not understand her husband’s actions. At first, this worried her very much, she tried to understand what was happening in his life, which influenced his dramatically changed behavior. But gradually she almost gave up and spent the day in constant depression, and when he did not return home for the night, she cried into the pillow.

All this time, Anton tried to find a cure for his illness. He did everything in his power and beyond his control. Borovitsky is obsessed with finding the miracle that can cure him. At times, he might even seem insane.

All the capacities of his company were redirected in this direction. Many buyers who ordered their prostheses or organs waited weeks for delivery across the city, simply because what the company was doing for thousands of manufacturing and logistics employees was now the lot of only a hundred. They were physically unable to cope with the burden placed on them.

All this could not but affect the company’s income. Seven years ago, Anton, after a significant strengthening and creation of Borovitsky Technology, brought the organization to the ipo, which attracted significant investments in it, but had the consequence of the release of full-fledged power from the hands of Anton, and its distribution among the governing board. In it, Borovitsky held only the post of director with the right of veto and one vote out of twenty.

Recently, Anton received an offer to buy a majority stake, but he refused, fearing to lose the last power in the company, which he created from scratch.

Borovitsky woke up early in the morning, at about six o’clock, lying on the table in his office. Today he again stayed late at work and stayed for the night. “Well, I have no other choice, I must find a cure as soon as possible”, he thought. Anton decided to turn on his bracelet to see if there was any news from his wife. The voice assistant said that there was a voice message from Anastasia at four o’clock three minutes. “Listen”, said Borovitsky.

It began with sobs, then continued in an anxious, barely restrained voice: “Anton, you are constantly disappearing somewhere, you almost never return home, you also stopped talking to me. I understand that something is wrong, but you don’t want to tell me about it. You understand that I do not want our daughter to grow up alone. Please come home and tell me what’s going on”. Here the message was interrupted in a half-shout. Apparently, she could not stand it and the hysteria began again.

“Oh, Nastya, Nastya, I’m very sorry for you, and I’m worried about our future daughter, but understand, I must be cured”, thought Borovitsky.

Yesterday Anton was informed that the shareholders were holding a meeting. Usually this phenomenon was planned in advance, but today, judging by the haste in which it was forced, the issue will be raised urgent and quite serious. Borovitsky left the office and went to the shower room, he needed to freshen up after a half-sleepless night. He had long lost track of time, as he usually slept about 3—4 hours a day, and sometimes it turned out that he continued to work for several days in a row without a break. From this, the body was depleted even faster than it should, and having recently talked with German Veniaminovich, he realized that he had even less time.

As soon as he got out of the shower, slightly cheered up, he went to the coffee shop to have breakfast. Usually it was an omelet or sandwiches with sausage and cheese. After eating, Anton went towards his office, where he met one of the assistants to his deputy. He immediately tried to recall the upcoming meeting today. «I remember everything,» Borovitsky replied casually, as if waving the young man away.

All these conversations, as well as their meeting today, only distracted, as it seemed to him, Anton from the ultimate goal. However, due to professional necessity, as soon as the clock struck 09:55, he headed towards the conference room. Most of the shareholders have already gathered there. He entered the room, greeted everyone politely, as required by etiquette, and took his place at the head of the table. Several more people entered the hall, after which Anton’s deputy, Boris Spassky, said, “Well, everyone has gathered, I think we can start”.

Boris was ten years younger than Anton, but that did not make him seem less ambitious. In his opinion, Spassky was a younger and better version of him. A fit, tall man, licked from head to toe, with clear and intelligent eyes. He understood all the intricacies of prosthetics, was ready to plunge headlong into all new technologies and processes, but was conservative in his approach to testing and did not allow any invention to “go out into the world” until thorough testing was carried out. Boris also, surprisingly, having no economic education, understood the intricacies of doing business and more than once gave good advice on how to compete. All these qualities together allowed him to quickly become Anton’s confidant, on whom he could always rely.

“Colleagues”, Boris continued, sitting down in his seat, “many of you know why we have gathered here today, please give the floor to our anti-crisis manager, Alexey Aleksandrovich, who will come up with ideas for solving the existing problems”. He was a rather overweight middle-aged man with glasses and an always funny bright red tie that didn’t go well with any of his suits. A couple of years ago, when such a position appeared in the company, Anton was categorically against it. He believed that this only created additional bureaucratization and an item of salary expenses, with the uselessness and lack of influence of this position on the life of the company. However, with the onset of the global economic crisis, Alexey helped not only to keep the organization afloat, but also to increase its capital.

“So”, he began, “good morning everyone again, as we remember, as of the second quarter of this year, our revenue grew 1.2 times thanks to the modernization of several of our products, and according to all forecasts, it should have reached the level 1.3 more than the previous year. However, as it is not surprising, the situation is reversed, all incomes have fallen by almost 2 times, buyers are dissatisfied, third-party investors want to terminate the contract with us, and all this is because of your, Anton Mikhailovich, new project.

“Let me say”, Borovitsky objected, “we are making a product that will save the lives of millions of people in the future”. “We understand everything and support new developments”, said Aleksey, “but understand that you can’t change the processes in the company so much, you can’t take in so many people working in completely different planes and performing other functions, you just can’t force the buyer, who has given us confidence, to wait for their goods for such an amount of time. Perhaps this simple one will cost him his life”. “Therefore”, the manager said, “we, as the board of shareholders, require you to curtail or significantly cut the budget of your new project to reasonable limits”. “You don’t understand, this medicine will change people’s lives, I am the head of the company and it’s up to me to decide what and how to do here, I refuse to change anything, we will continue to put all our efforts into this invention! — already shouted Borovitsky.

“All right,” Alexey Alexandrovich said in a calm voice, “then, since you forced us to do this, the question of removing Anton Mikhailovich from the position of director and management of the company is put to a vote, who is in favor? Eighteen people raised their hands to show their agreement. Boris had the last word. Anton looked at everyone with disdain and contempt, he did not understand how he could nourished so many vipers in one’s bosom. Then he turned his gaze to Spassky. “Forgive me Anton Mikhailovich, but it will be better this way”, Boris said with sadness in his voice and raised his hand.

“Unanimously, — said Alexey Alexandrovich, — Anton Mikhailovich, you have been removed from the management of the company, but remain its main owner”.

Chapter 8. Bad news

The word “Fired” hummed and echoed in Sergey’s head. He froze in place and did not understand how this could happen, all calculations were correct, nothing could go wrong.

As he stood in a daze in the middle of the room, the entire conference room began to gradually disperse. Then Peter Semenovich came up to him, patted him on the shoulder and said: “Get ready, from tomorrow, you don’t work here”. After that, he turned up his nose with an important look and headed towards the exit.

Sergey did not take his eyes off the muzzle of the cannon, torn in half. The overheating was so strong that a reaction occurred and the element, under friction load, gave a spark that passed into the oil tank, which pumped fluid to the hydraulic components. Coming closer, he noticed that the element that could not withstand the load was a reduced in size copy of the “Tsiolkovsky donut” — the main structural element.

Then the warehouse workers entered the hall, and carefully, having neutralized decay, began to put what was left of the invention in a box, after which they closed it, put today’s date, the name of the tool — “Gravilom”, the initials Dyatlov S.V. and already familiar to him the mark “decommissioned for technical reasons”. Then a jack was rolled up to the box, loaded onto a trolley and taken in the direction of the warehouse. Sergey only with a mute and sad, full of disappointment look followed his invention “on his last journey”.

Heading to the office, Dyatlov hoped to hear explanations from Matvey and Andrey about the current situation. Entering it, Sergey noticed that their tables were completely empty. Even when they were away for several weeks, some of the personal items still remained in place. “Strange”, thought Dyatlov.

After looking around, he found an empty carrying case, and began to collect his belongings. Here are photos of his childhood with his parents on vacation abroad, in which he was truly happy. And here are his university diplomas with a graduation photo. On it, surrounded by other students, he stood in a square academic cap, holding his diploma of education in his hand.

In the desk drawer Sergey found his first inventions, which were rather test samples — a compact radio transmitter, which seemed even smaller if you put it on a nail, since it took up 20 percent of the space from it; a sonic pistol, which, when pointed at a person’s head and pressing the shot button, could cause a collapse in the head, leading to complete disorientation in space and stunning for several hours.

The final touch was a badge with Dyatlov’s data. With a quick movement, he removed it from his chest and threw it into the box, after which he took the box in his hands and headed for the exit.

Having already laid his palm on the door handle, out of the corner of his eye Sergey noticed a translucent disc on Matvey’s desk. Turning around and coming closer, he realized that this was “Message-1”, their another joint development. This invention was a piece of translucent biodegradable plastic, round in shape, about the size of a stationery eraser for paper. Its function was to play the audio or video message recorded on it.

“It was clearly left on purpose, otherwise they would not have been put in a prominent place”, Dyatlov thought. After that, without thinking twice, he pressed the start button. A holographic image of Matvey and Andrey immediately appeared above the disk. “Sorry, Sergey”, the first one began, “we were going to come to the presentation, but we got scared”. “As soon as you went to pick up the gun from the assembly department, Peter Semenovich approached us,” Andrey continued, “and said that most of the department managers would come to the test show, and that many other scientists wanted to be present as spectators”. “Therefore, we did not have the strength to go there, but we were sure that you could handle it”, Matvey summed up.

At this phrase, without listening to the end of the message, Dyatlov, with a furious cry, “FREAKS!”, picked up the disk and threw it against the wall with all his might. The holographic image, along with the invention, shattered into small pieces and disappeared.

Sergey was furious at their act. It was not only uncomradely, but also super unprofessional. Grabbing a box of his things, he opened the office door with his foot, and headed home.

Chapter 9. Reflections

Several months have passed since the demonstration of the invention, October has come. The rains became more frequent, all the leaves on the trees fell off, the nights became longer and the days shorter. The dusk outside the window created an even more negative and depressive mood than Sergey had before. He withdrew into himself, stopped talking to family and friends.

That unfortunate day was a turning point for him. Dyatlov did not want to do nothing, do nothing. He spent all his free time watching movies and eating endless fast food.

Today, watching another day of TV, Sergey decided to turn on his bracelet. The assistant stated that he had thirty missed messages from his parents and twenty messages from his friends. “Read”, said Dyatlov and lay down more comfortably on the sofa, stretching his legs wide. He did not even bother with hygiene and went to bed in clothes, and sometimes in shoes. As now, red slippers flaunted on his feet over the upholstery of the sofa.

Most of the messages boiled down to remarks about where he had disappeared, how he was doing, how his work was, and the like. Sergey stopped playback, got dressed and went out into the street. He was heading to the already familiar beer shop, where he spent most of his free time from sitting at home.

Products have long been delivered by robots or drones to homes, but gradually alcoholism began to flourish in society, as the path to alcohol became even closer. Subsequently, a law was passed prohibiting home delivery of alcoholic beverages, so the sufferers had to go to the store in the old fashioned way for the «green snake». Dyatlov went into the shop and took his standard daily three cans of unfiltered beer. The cashiers from the stores also disappeared a long time ago, therefore, as soon as he crossed the threshold of the store with the goods, an amount similar to the cost of the goods was automatically debited from his account through the cameras. Everything happened with the help of smart scales, as well as cameras that recognize both the face of the buyer and the packaging.

Having reached the house, Sergey opened one can and drank it in one gulp. Going up to the mirror after that, he noticed how swollen his face was during this time. It was also visible flaunting not shaved stubble and appeared beer belly.

Returning to the sofa, Dyatlov continued listening to messages, when he was suddenly interested in an invitation from a friend to go to the stadium for a match of his favorite team. Sergey has been an ardent football fan since childhood and was worried about the colors of the “red” club. “Exactly, today is a derby”, Dyatlov recalled. He immediately dialed Arseny, it was he who sent him such a tempting offer. “Hello, friend, how are you, do you still have a ticket?” Dyatlov asked. “Yes, there is still, do you want to go?” — answered Arseny. “Yes, I really want to”, Sergey said impatiently. “Then meet today at 18:00 at the entrance to the north wing of the stadium, don’t be late”, said a friend and hung up.

Dyatlov quickly packed up, the clock was already around 17:20, and ran out of the house, heading for the subway. On the way, he came across a large puddle, typical of the weather at that time, which he had to go around along the curb from the edge, when suddenly he looked at his reflection in it and stopped.

He remembered a malfunction in the cannon that the artificial gravity created in the bagel had gnawed through the apparatus without leaving it. “Exactly,” Sergey thought, “if you reflect the received force, it will be distributed along the created channels and come out in the directed beams of the gun. How did I think of this before! You just need to figure out a way to reflect”. He immediately called Arseniy, saying that football was canceled, and headed home like a bullet.

Having flown into his apartment, Dyatlov began to rummage through old records, looking for a hidden drawing of a gun. “Here it is, darling”, Sergey declared with joy, finally digging it out. He immediately scanned it, created a 3D model, removed unnecessary details from the structure that complicate it, added a reflective and accelerating element, and started testing.

Dyatlov waited with bated breath, followed the running line, until finally the inscription “Testing completed, result: successful” lit up on the screen. Seeing these words, Sergey flopped on the floor in surprise.

Chapter 10. The one who couldn’t be trusted

Anton, leaving the office after the meeting, was furious. His company, his offspring, his subordinates are traitors. Borovitsky created everything in it from scratch, and they removed him from management.

Of course, he remembered the stories of Steve Jobs and other businessmen, but he never thought that this could happen to him. Entering his personal office, Anton sat down at the table and put his hands on his head, vigorously rubbing the back of his head. “How so,” he whispered softly. “HOW!” Borovitsky shouted at the top of his voice and threw his cup at the wall. “They do not understand how important this is, how close I am to a discovery that will change the world, the fate of people”, he continued. “And these Judas decided to remove me, well, let’s see how you cope without me, how you crawl with pleas for help”, Anton grinned maliciously. “Nothing, nothing, I will remember everything for you”, Borovitsky practically whispered.

There was a knock on the door. A voice was heard from behind her, “Anton Mikhailovich, can I come in?” It was Paul Petrovich Pisarenko, a student friend of Borovitsky. In difficult times, he always supported Anton and was his main adviser for all occasions. “Come in”, Borovitsky said in a sour and sad voice. “Anton Mikhailovich”, Paul began, “I understand how hard it is for you to be thrown out of the company at such a moment”. He said, glancing at the broken mug against the wall. “But it was a decision made by the majority of the shareholders. Profits are falling and they are worried about their assets.” Then he picked up the largest fragment of the mug and threw it into the trash can.

“They are only worried about their wallets, to fill them to capacity, and they don’t give a damn about people”, Borovitsky hissed angrily. “Exactly”, Paul agreed, “but perhaps if you talk to the one who inspired them with this idea and convince him of the significance of your discovery, then he will be able to ‘hang noodles on the ears’ of shareholders about the super-profitability of the future invention”.

“In general, the idea is not bad, he can retain his post and the opportunity to look for a medicine further, while he will look humiliating only in the eyes of one person”, Anton thought. “Okay, and who is this snake? — asked Borovitsky. “The one you least expected this from is Boris Spassky”, Paul answered. “Borya? Anton asked with surprise. But how is it, I always trusted him. “He wanted to take your place for a long time, and with the dismissal, new horizons opened up for him, tomorrow he will be elected at a meeting as the new director of Borovitsky Technology”, Paul remarked with contempt.

“And where is he now?”— asked Anton. “When I last saw him, he was heading to the roof of our office”, Pisarenko replied. “Excellent, then I’ll talk to him without prying eyes and ears”, Borovitsky said enthusiastically, leaving his office.

Chapter 11. Rooftop scenes

Anton went into the elevator in anticipation of a conversation. It was very important to convince Boris, because his life could depend on it. The elevator picked up speed and in 10 seconds delivered Borovitsky to a height of a thousand meters. Stepping onto the roof, he immediately noticed the silhouette of Spassky in a medical gown, standing at the edge. He watched the movement of the clouds and the slow moving cars below. When Anton approached Boris, he immediately said, “They seem so tiny from here, so small and unimportant, running back and forth like insects”. It was especially pleasant for him to realize his importance, the higher he rose, the more arrogant he became. Sometimes there was a feeling that the imaginary crown on his head would soon begin to draw the ceiling.

“I know that it was you who persuaded the shareholders to remove me”, Anton began. “Of course, I don’t even hide it”, Boris retorted. “It was a great opportunity to get rid of you. Lately, you have interfered too much, and you gave all the necessary knowledge a long time ago”.

Borovitsky blushed with indignation, he did not expect such meanness from him. “Yes, how can you not understand”, Anton decided to continue, “the lives of many people depend on this medicine, we will save them and make money on it”. “Don’t tell me fairy tales, I know what you are working on, only half of percent of the population suffers from this disease, we won’t earn anything from this”, Spassky replied and again turned to the edge of the roof, looking serenely down. “Still beautiful, agree?” he said with a smirk and turned around. Unable to withstand such an insult, Anton roared and grabbed Boris by the breasts. “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, I AM SICK!” Borovitsky shouted. “IF I DON’T CONTINUE RESEARCH, I WILL DIE!”

“Then I’ll send you a bouquet for the funeral”, Spassky answered with a pleased expression on his face. “Now let me go, it’s time for me to work, tomorrow I have an appointment”, Boris said dismissively, trying to remove Anton’s hands from his chest.

But Borovitsky squeezed tightly, almost in a death grip, and did not think of letting go, then he pushed him to the edge, so that Spassky’s upper body was slightly beyond the edge of the platform, only Anton’s grip kept him from falling.

“Are you out of your mind, what are you doing?” Boris blurted out frightened. “Either you go and persuade the shareholders to return me, or I let you go, and you fly down for a long time”, Borovitsky answered maliciously. At that moment, he felt the fabric of Spassky’s medical gown begin to stretch and crack slightly.

“You think that you scared me, you are not capable of killing, let me go”, Boris said calmly. “I’m counting to three: one, two …”, Anton began the countdown, as the robe stretched even more and cracked as soon as the threads began to unravel. Seeing this, Spassky shouted at the top of his voice, “HELP!” but no one could hear him. At that moment, the robe finally broke, and Boris flew head over heels down from the roof of the skyscraper.

Chapter 12. Discovery

Sergey was in anticipation, he printed out a drawing of the generated model and was ready to test it. However, the problem was the lack of a place where the invention could be assembled. The only thing that came to mind was the assembly shop at the research institute.

“But how can I get there,” thought Dyatlov, “the pass was taken away and probably canceled and removed from the system”. The only thing that has been preserved for sure is his biometrics. After all, it was the most valuable data that could not be just scattered around, and it was stored for some time on the company’s servers. Moreover, a couple of years ago, Sergey signed an agreement to store his data for a period of ten years, which have not yet been released.

“So”, Dyatlov thought, “you just need to get a pass to the building”. Then he remembered how careless the guards were about security at the sensitive facility. “Perhaps they can give him a new pass, as if in exchange for the lost one, and not look at the records of his dismissal”, Sergey thought hopefully. “It remains to check everything, but you need to come later in the evening to face fewer people, but not arouse suspicion”, Dyatlov summed up in his head.

Therefore, he waited until eight o’clock in the evening, an hour before the end of the working day, and approached the guard post. “Good evening”, Sergey began, “guys, I went out to smoke outside and sowed my pass somewhere, can you give me a new one, please?”

The guard looked at him with a displeased face, as he distracted him from watching a very interesting movie. “How these losties got me”, he muttered under his breath, “your last name, sur”. “Dyatlov”, Sergey said confidently. The security guard found his personal file, compared the photos and, without lowering his eyes to the second line, where the inscription “Fired”, while simultaneously looking at what was happening on the movie screen, took out an empty pass from the box, leaned it against the scoreboard, registered the data in the chip and gave it to Sergey.

He could not believe his eyes, his fraud was successful. Thanking the guard, he leaned the pass against the door, the lock squeaked and opened, allowing Dyatlov to enter his former place of work. As he thought, it was not difficult for him to pass biometric checks, they were still in the system and allowed him to calmly go to all departments of the institute that were of interest to him. When he got to the assembly department, he scanned his drawing, converted it into a model, and pressed the assembly button. The drawing disappeared from the screen and a scoreboard appeared with the percentage of work completed. It remained to wait a few hours, and it was possible to test a new version of the invention.

All the while waiting, Sergey thought if he missed something, if he did everything right, because the last attempt cost him his job. And finally, the assembly was completed, a huge robotic arm left the ceiling, took the assembled cannon from the machine and moved it to a pallet prepared in the center of the hall, and then released it and drove back into the ceiling to its place. “So, it remains somewhere to slowly test it”, Dyatlov thought. Suddenly, an employee of the assembly department approached him from behind, patted him on the shoulder and said: “Sergey, why are you here, you seem to have been fired?” Sergey froze in the cordon, he could not understand what to answer, because the success of his test depended on it. “No, you are confusing something, it was Matvey and Andrey who were fired, but I stayed”, Dyatlov suddenly answered with unexpected confidence. “Ah, I didn’t know, well, come on, I’m going back home”, said his colleague, and indifferently, without waiting for goodbye, he left the hangar.

“Fuh, it has blown”, Sergey thought, rolling the jack to the pallet. He decided to check if there was anyone in the demonstration hall, and after waiting until the institute was completely empty, quietly test his tool.

After waiting for about half an hour, he saw that the corridors of the institute were empty, and rolled a cart with a gun into the hall where the presentation was taking place. Compared to the previous experience, now there was deathly silence. There was not a soul around. Sergey, connected the gun to power, and started downloading the software. “Now everything should work”, Dyatlov thought hopefully.

The software on the tablet screen was successfully loaded. This time, Sergey decided to test the performance of all modules in test mode in order to avoid overheating. He started the diagnostics, all the mechanical parts of the gun clicked and turned, worked separately for several minutes and the message appeared on the screen, “Diagnostics completed, all parts work properly”.

“Well, now or never”, Dyatlov thought, and pressed the start button. The cannon rattled, the motors to spin up the mechanisms sounded, and in front of the gun the air began to glow and sway, then ripples began, as after throwing a stone into the water. There was a sharp flash, and Sergey was thrown aside.

Chapter 13. Evidence

Anton stood in a complete daze. He couldn’t understand how it happened. Just a couple of seconds ago, he was holding Boris in his hands, and now he was flying down hundreds of meters below him.

Borovitsky did not know what to do, where to go. At this time, Spassky’s cries, tirelessly accompanied from the moment of the fall, subsided until they completely stopped. “Apparently he flew to the ground”, Anton thought. “So, you need to go to the police and confess everything, it was an accident, nothing terrible happened, it’s not my fault”, Borovitsky whispered in a quiet and exciting voice. “No, you can’t give up in any case, otherwise you will spend the rest of your life in prison without finding a cure”, he answered himself in his head.

In his hands were still fragments of Boris’s medical gown. They were the reason for his downfall. Anton looked at them and threw them aside, heading for the elevator. “So, calmly, you need to destroy all evidence of my involvement in his death. There are cameras on the roof and in the elevator, you need to remove the recordings from them”, Borovitsky began to form a plan of action. “The records are stored in the server room”, he continued, “I need to distract the guards and destroy the hard drives, after erasing the records”.

Anton got out of the elevator and went to the servers, people were running along the corridors, some were screaming and fighting in hysterics. At this point Maria, Spassky’s secretary, ran up to Borovitsky. A young blond girl in a miniskirt with extended nails that could only hold a spoon, and even then not always. “Anton Mikhailovich, Boris Nikolayevich fell from the roof and crashed”, she began, sobbing. “What the hell are you talking about”, Borovitsky replied, feigning sincere surprise, “When?” “Five minutes ago”, Maria said and began to sob again.

Without listening to her snotty story, Anton continued to wade through the crowds of people towards his goal. When he finally reached the office, he opened the door and was surprised to find that there was no guard. “Apparently she ran downstairs to Boris”, thought Anton. “But it’s even easier to destroy the evidence”, he continued. Sitting at the computer, Borovitsky found the records for today and deleted them all, then took out all the hard drives that were responsible for this week, put them in his bag and headed for the exit. “It remains to destroy them physically”, thought Anton.

When he reached his office, he began throwing discs against the wall and jumping on their remains. Then he collected all the leftovers in a trash can, poured out a bottle of vodka, hidden in a closet for a hard day, and set it on fire with a portable burner, which began to be used for smoking. Previously, he closed the smoke and fire extinguishing sensors.

“Brightburn”, Borovitsky said with pleasure in his voice, watching the burning with pleasure. Then he abruptly turned to the window, where his medical coat hung on a hanger. “Damn, I left pieces of his bathrobe with my prints on the roof”, Anton thought anxiously, “and from them it’s easy to guess that he didn’t fall by himself.”

— — —— — —— — —— — ———

A large number of people gathered around the corpse of Boris on the street. The police arrived and began to interrogate witnesses, conduct an inspection of the scene, collect fingerprints from the deceased. The sergeant approached what was left of Spassky after the fall. Captain Vetvitsky was sitting near his body.

“What do you think the captain, accident or suicide?” the sergeant asked. “Neither this nor that”, answered Vetvitsky, “pay attention to the collar of his dressing gown, you see they are torn off”. “Perhaps caught in the fall”, the sergeant replied. “I doubt it”, the captain said, “judging by the suit, he was definitely not alone on the roof, it is necessary to look around there”.

— — —— — —— — —— — —

“So, you need to quickly return and find parts of his robe”, Anton thought. “First of all, they will definitely go to the roof, and there they will find me”. He quickly made his way back to the elevator to the roof. Hastily finding pieces of the suit before the police, Anton hid the pieces in his pockets. Returning to his office, he quickly pulled the scraps out of his pocket and burned them too. “Now that’s all for sure”, thought Borovitsky.

Suddenly, from a dark corner of the office, an unfamiliar, weak, nervous, slightly ominous, but inspiring voice was heard. “Don’t worry, you did everything right, he only interfered with our goal”, he said.

Chapter 14. The world in reflection

Sergey woke up lying on the floor near the tables for the commission on inventions. There was clouding in her head, and she was in severe pain in the back of her head. The last thing he remembered was the launch of the device and a bright flash of light.

“Apparently at that moment the shock wave threw me aside, and I hit my head on the table, which made me lose consciousness”, Dyatlov thought, rubbing the back of the skull hard. There was a rather large lump there.

Sergey slowly got up, leaning his hand on the table. Standing up, he immediately withdrew his hand, feeling a nagging pain at the touch. Looking at the palm, he saw that it was cut in the middle and blood was oozing from it in a thin stream. His legs were shaking violently, as if he had recently run a marathon.

Calming his breath a little and gathering his thoughts, Sergey thought that the second experiment had gone even worse than the first. “Okay”, he said, “you shouldn’t have done all this in the first place, it’s time to go home”. Suddenly, his gaze caught on the gun. Dyatlov could not believe his eyes, she was completely intact and still working. “But how is this possible? What then caused such a shock wave?” he said in bewilderment into the emptiness of the large hall, as if he wanted to hear an answer from someone. Turning his gaze slightly to the right, Sergey staggered again, this time he almost fell for real. In front of him, Dyatlov saw a vertical translucent rotating cloud the size of a dining table. The rays from it diverged to the sides, and then converged along the edges of the gun, transforming into a funnel.

“What is it?” Sergey asked with surprise. Coming closer, he noticed that this cloud was something like a mirror, cloudy due to rotating currents. It created an additional attraction, and he felt himself drawn there. Behind the reflection, a field with a green meadow and flowering plants was barely visible. The sun was shining brightly, there were not a single cloud in the sky. Dyatlov could not believe his eyes, he did not understand what kind of miracle he saw in front of him. Coming even closer, Sergey felt the attraction intensify. He could not stand on his still unsteady and swaying legs and fell to the floor, after which he was carried towards the cloud.

“Only not this”, Dyatlov thought, “you need to cling to something before I get sucked in”. But there was not a single obstacle on the way, and now Sergey’s leg was already inside him, and then with a sharp jerk he was sucked in entirely and thrown out on the other side. Opening his eyes, he did not understand whether he really saw everything with his own eyes. An endless field with a green, even lawn opened up in front of him, insects and birds flew around. But he had never seen such creatures. The insects were the size of large sparrows, and the gull-like birds were larger than eagles.

“No, it’s all not true, I hit my head and now I’m lying unconscious, I’m dreaming about it all”, Sergey assured himself, when suddenly a giant “ladybug” flew up to him and sat on his shoulder. Frightened, Dyatlov jumped up and brushed it away with his hand, immediately flying several meters into the air. “What nonsense?” Sergey continued to ask. Then he noticed that his legs stopped giving way, his head hurt, and his palm stopped pulling. Turning his brush towards him, Sergey was taken aback. Where there had been a gaping wound five minutes ago, there was no trace left. Touching the back of his head, he did not find the bump that was tormenting him.

“Some kind of devilry”, thought Dyatlov, “there must be rational explanation”. Turning his head, he noticed everything, too, a cloud with rotating streams. Only now, through it, Sergey could see the reflections of the demonstration hall and his working invention. “So, if I got here through this window, then I can return back through it. Sounds like a good idea”, he thought, and jumped up to the reflection. Stretching his hand inside him, Dyatlov noticed how he was being sucked. With a sharp ejection, he flew back into the hall, where he had just passed the first successful test of his invention.

The head hurt terribly again, and the hand reminded of itself with a tingling. Turning his hand over in pain, Sergey watched how a cut appeared on an absolutely even and untouched skin in the same place where it had been before, and blood began to flow. Feeling himself in the back of his head, he also found a swelling bump. “This cannot be”, Dyatlov said in an anxious and slightly frightened voice.

At that moment, the doors of the hall flew open, and Peter Semenovich entered, enthusiastically explaining something to the woman with the house on her head. Behind them was a scientist from the Gamma Ray Department, pushing a huge box on a cart. Seeing Sergey, all three stopped in mute shock, their eyes bulging.

Chapter 15. Start of investigation

Anton abruptly stopped in amazement. “Who are you?” Borovitsky asked with a tremor in his voice, referring to the dark figure. “You don’t know me, but I’ve known you well and for a very long time”, the man began, getting up from his chair in the corner and moving closer to the center of the office. It was dark in the room, it was night, and the side reflections from the light of the sirens of the police cars made it difficult to see his face.

“I repeat, who are you, what is required of me, and how do you know about what happened on the roof?” already in a raised tone and a little afraid to say too much, Anton continued to ask questions. The mysterious figure moved closer to the office door, which made Borovitsky able to see him more clearly. It was a tall man, believed to be in his thirties. His face was still covered with shadow and reflections of light.

“Spassky interfered with the realization of our goal. With him, you would never have found a cure for your disease. Now you can return to the board of directors and continue your life’s work, no one else will stand in our way. I have to go, we’ll talk later”, the figure said, and abruptly opening the door, ran out into the corridor.

“Stop!” Anton called after him and ran towards the door. Leaving the office, he looked around and realized that the corridor was completely empty. “Damn”, said Borovitsky, “I missed him, but who is this, and what does he want from me?” Returning to the room, he fell heavily into an armchair and began to look thoughtfully out the window.

___________________________________

Meanwhile, even more police units were drawn to the skyscraper. The captain gave the order to cordon off the building and not let anyone out. He assumed that this was not just an accident, but that the killer was still in the building. He watched as Spassky’s body was placed in a body bag, closed and placed in an ambulance.

At that moment, a sergeant approached him. “Your instructions have been fulfilled, what shall we do next?” he asked. “Now, it’s time to go and see who we’re dealing with”, the captain replied pointedly, throwing his extinguished cigarette into the urn.

In the lobby, a crowd of employees and security waiting for news met them outside. Everyone froze in impatience, thirsting to hear at least something about Boris. “Citizens, please disperse until further notice and do not interfere with the investigation. The building is cordoned off, so any attempt to escape will be thwarted and will result in your arrest. Calmly return to work, we will inspect the building and will call you in turn to testify”, the captain said, looking around at each of those present, trying to catch notes of nervousness and panic in a possible killer. “Let’s start with security, walk us to the server room. First of all, we will watch the recordings from the surveillance cameras”, he continued.

The head guard nodded meaningfully and motioned for the police officers to follow him. When they got to the floor where the data storage was located, they noticed that the door was ajar. Running quickly to the room, the guard kicked the door with a disgruntled face. Coming closer, the captain looked into the server room and found that hard drives had been removed from the computers. “As I understand it, you decided at the most crucial moment to leave your workplace, allowing the criminal to destroy the evidence?” he asked pointedly. “Um, well, sort of, there, you know, that means…”, began the head of security, scratching his head, clearly being in complete disarray from the current situation. “You don’t have to continue”, the sergeant interrupted him, “everything is clear with you”.

The captain took the radio and said, “All posts, the killer is still in the building, move everyone to their offices, increase vigilance, attention to the windows, do not let anyone out”.

— — —— — —— — —— — —— — ——

Anton all this time tried to comprehend what happened, an hour ago he killed a man. By negligence, but killed. Then he committed another crime, hiding the evidence. How far is he willing to go to keep the truth from coming out? Dyatlov took an already smoldering bucket with the remains of burned-out hard drives with records and pieces of a bathrobe and carried it to the toilet. Opening the toilet lid, he dumped the contents inside and pressed the flush button. The mixture quickly swirled rushed into the sewers, leaving no trace behind. Returning back, he sat down in his chair, when suddenly the office door swung open and a police officer appeared in the opening.

“Captain Vetvitsky”, he introduced himself, “Anton Borovitsky, I suppose?” “Yes, that’s right”, Anton answered a little worried. “Today the murder of Boris Spassky took place, I think you already know. There is no evidence, so the probability of an accident is high, but I still lean towards premeditated murder”, the policeman began. “Yes, I heard, it’s just terrible, he was practically like a son to me”, Anton answered, embarrassed and nervous so that with shaking hands it was possible to beat the rhythm on the table. “Maybe you saw something suspicious? When was the last time the deceased was seen?” continued the captain. “I didn’t see anything suspicious, we last met at a meeting”, Borovitsky said. “What was the meeting about?” Vetvitsky asked, unwrapping the package from the sucking candy. “My removal”, Anton replied bitterly. “Oh, I sympathize with you, two blows in a day”, said the policeman for show, looking somewhere into the distance. Borovitsky nodded in displeasure.

“And where were you today between 21:30 and 40?” the captain continued the interrogation. “I was in my office, then I went out for a walk, and learned from our employee that Boris had died”, Anton retorted more confidently. “Who is this girl?” Vetvitsky found out. “Maria, Spassky’s secretary”, Borovitsky answered even more confidently.

Making a slightly disloyal look, and then again a neutral face, the policeman smiled and said, “We will check everything, I advise you not to leave the city, if you need it”, after which he stood up and headed for the exit. “Wait until we let everyone go”, he said and grabbed the doorknob when suddenly his eyes caught on the trash can. It was completely empty, but burned and everything around was covered in ashes. “Did you grill the kebabs?” he asked Anton with a sneer. “Yesterday it was cold, I decided to warm up the old-school way”, replied Anton, who obviously did not like that he paid attention to the bucket. “Okay, dress warmer,” Vetvitsky said, leaving the office.

In the corridor the policeman once again looked pointedly at the plate with Borovitsky’s initials on the door. “Pay special attention to him. The rest have more questions about him and his relationship with Spassky”, the captain said sharply to his assistants, “let’s get to work!”

Chapter 16. Discovery result

Sergey sat on the floor and watched Peter Semenovich’s darting and uncomprehending gaze. He moved it from corner to corner: from the cannon to the cloud emanating from it and back, and then back to Dyatlov. “Ssssergey”, he began in a voice choked with indignation, “what is this?” Saying this, he almost began to stutter.

“And this, dear Peter Semenovich”, Dyatlov did not lose his head, “my invention brought to mind”. “It’s fully functional, not quite as I planned, but this discovery could change the world”, Sergey continued. He tried to get up, although his shaky legs got in the way a little, and invited those present to come closer to the cannon.

Colleagues approached the cloud and were stunned. “It’s amazing”, said the woman with the house on her head. “No, it’s brilliant!” Peter Semenovich objected to her. “Look, that field is over there”, an employee from another department exclaimed. “Yes, it’s definitely a different green meadow”, the woman agreed. “Where does this portal lead?” she asked.

Sergey, a little embarrassed, replied that he had not quite figured it out yet, but this was definitely a different world. “When I got there”, he began, “I had this cut on my arm”. Then he raised the brush and unfolded it to those present, paying attention to the gaping and bleeding wound. “Once on the other side, I noticed how the wound healed before my eyes”, continued Dyatlov. “Then why is she in your place now?” — Peter Semenovich asked suspiciously, to whom the very idea of miraculous healing seemed implausible.

Sergey was ready for this question and stated that as soon as he returned back, the cut immediately returned to its place, appearing out of nowhere. «It also has a completely different gravity, similar to the moon, while there are no problems with oxygen, I think if tests are carried out, the atmosphere will be comparable to the earth. And yet, there, creatures generated by less gravity grow to unprecedented sizes, «continued the story of Dyatlov.

“These are all fairy tales, this does not happen,” objected the woman-house, heading for the exit, “you are fooling us, this is all not real. “Not at all”, Sergey objected to her, “you can see everything for yourself”. “And in what way?” exclaimed Peter Semenovich displeasedly. “We will test the theory of regeneration, give me a hand”, Dyatlov answered with a pleased look. The chief reluctantly extended his hand to Sergey, when suddenly he, grabbing a screwdriver, quickly struck it in the area of little finger. Small drops of blood flowed from the wound.

“Are you out of your mind?!” hissed Peter Semenovich. “Calm down and follow me”, Dyatlov objected to him in a measured tone and jumped into the cloud. Seeing Sergey landed on the other side, those present plucked up courage, and looking at each other with hope, went through the portal.

Those on the other side were dumbfounded. They have never seen such picturesque and beautiful nature. That stretching endless meadow fascinated the eye. And then the woman, seeing an eagle-sized gull landing on the surface, fell on the grass. But she wasn’t dangerous, she just wanted to snack on the hamster-sized insects crawling in the bushes. If before that it was difficult for Sergey to believe, now everything was quite real.

Peter Semenovich was also in a stupor. He could not understand how Dyatlov managed to create a portal to a new world. Then he looked at his finger and shuddered, not a single cut, so Sergey did not lie, this place is capable of healing. “Dyatlov, I’m sorry that we didn’t believe you, but everything is actually real, both animals and regeneration. My finger has completely healed”, the boss apologized with a guilty look that was unusual for him. “Come on, I didn’t believe it at first either”, Sergey answered calmly.

Then the woman-house got up, took a step and jumped, then another, and another, then ran in a hop. “Yes, indeed, there is a different gravity here”, she said, “and yet, I didn’t tell anyone, because I was embarrassed about it, but I have congenital problems with the joints, which does not allow me to make sudden movements without pain, but here everything is different — no pain at all!”

"So, theoretically, this world is able to cure all the ailments of that world", Sergey suggested. "But what if you buy them in this one?" — he asked himself and immediately took a screwdriver and cut his other hand. Blood flowed from the wound in a thin stream. This turn of events surprised him greatly. "Let’s go back, we need more employees to study everything here", he said, and jumping to the portal, he returned to the research institute.

Chapter 17. Detention

Anton returned home at night. It was about three am, the streets were empty, single cars and random passers-by scurried along the roads. This day completely exhausted him mentally. First, Borovitsky was removed from the management of his own company. Then the accident that led to Spassky’s murder. Then this interrogation.

Now time was working against Anton, and he was clearly not in a winning position. The disease progressed relentlessly. The pills helped, but yesterday the doctor gave a disappointing prognosis. Anton’s lifetime was declining unthinkably quickly and he was left with a couple of years instead of ten, which were discussed earlier. There was a feeling that he was playing chess, left with pawns against the queen and bishops with rooks from the opponent.

Slowly entering his apartment and turning on the light, he jumped back, Anastasia was sitting in the middle of the hallway in the dark, clearly waiting for the arrival of Borovitsky. Her eyes were teary and puffy again. Seeing Anton, she jumped up, ran up to him and gave him a powerful slap in the face. Borovitsky did not look away. He knew perfectly well that he deserved everything that she would do to him for her attitude towards her pregnant wife. Somewhere in the depths Anton even had a conscience.

“How could you!” she shouted, “I’ve been waiting for you home since the day before yesterday, you don’t answer calls and messages, don’t report your plans! What’s happening? Where have you been?” she screamed as she began to cry again.

“Calm down”, Anton answered her, “I worked, today was a very hard day, and I’m tired”. “Have worked? Tired?” the wife continued to shout, “and I’m tired of waiting for you for days. Why do I deserve to be treated so badly? The last weeks I do not live, but exist! I’m afraid to imagine how this will affect our child!” she continued.

“You don’t understand anything, if I’m late at work, then it’s necessary, and now forgive me, but I’m going to bed, if you want, come with me”, Anton said, unable to withstand the attacks of his wife, and went to the bedroom. Sighing heavily and looking in the mirror, Anastasia followed him.

At night, Borovitsky woke up again from pain all over his body. Although they tormented him less often, they became more and more unbearable. Apparently, the disease developed much more rapidly than previously thought. In the morning, the wife no longer raised the topic of the night conversation, and prepared Anton his favorite dish for breakfast. He ate everything, thanked her, kissed her, and began to get ready for work. Today, an emergency meeting was supposed to be held on the return of Anton to the management of the company.

As suddenly the doorbell rang, Anastasia opened it and saw two young men in uniform and two neighbors from adjoining apartments. “Captain Vetvitsky”, one of them introduced himself, “Can I pass?”

“What question are you on?” asked his wife. “About your husband”, the policeman replied. Going into the hallway, they were met by Anton. “Officers, how can I help you?” he asked. “Anton Borovitsky, you have been detained on suspicion of the murder of Boris Spassky. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you”, the captain replied. He continued: “witnesses, we fix everything that you see, then sign the protocol of detention”.

Anastasia jumped to her husband and nervously began to exclaim: “He is not to blame, you have no right to detain him, he will not go anywhere with you!” “It’s all right, it’s not for long, I didn’t kill anyone, I’ll be home soon”, Anton calmly answered her and held out his hands. He was put on magnetic handcuffs, which could be compressed so tightly in case of emergency that no force allowed them to unclench if one did not know the code combination of the lock.

Borovitsky was taken by the arms and taken out of the house, put into a police car. As soon as all the details in the detention protocol were signed, the car took off and headed to the police station.

All the way he thought about how fleeting life is, how soon everything changes, and that, perhaps, he will not have time to see everything he wanted.

The site was a large building with a spacious hall in the screens. On the right was a hologram of the duty officer, who was actually an artificial intelligence that helped process citizens’ appeals in a more or less sane form to start an investigation. To the left was a sofa for waiting.

However, Anton was escorted further into the interior, led through narrow corridors with cameras and launched into a room with plate glass. It was clearly an interrogation room. Having seated him at the table and magnetized the handcuffs to the table, the captain sat opposite. The sergeant remained standing by the door.

“Well, let’s start”, said Vetvitsky. “No”, replied Borovitsky, “I will speak only in the presence of a lawyer”. “All of them have become so smart”, the captain said oin upset. “Well”, he replied, “but before you talk to the defense counsel, I want to warn you that, having interrogated the employees of ‘Borovitsky Technology’, we found out that on that day, under the influence of Spassky, the board of directors removed you from the board, that he interfered You are in control most of all, that is, you had a motive”. “Also”, Vetvitsky continued, “analyzing the ashes from your trash can, we found that it is chromium dioxide, which is used in the manufacture of hard drives”.

“But the most important thing”, he summed up the final thought, “we have CCTV footage from a neighboring skyscraper, which shows that Spassky was not alone on the roof, and that you are the killer”. Then he got up and went to the door, saying, “Therefore, I propose that you sign a sincere confession and reduce your already rather big sentence, so think about it!” Saying this, he smiled, and the police left the interrogation room, leaving Anton alone in the semi-darkness with a monstrous choice.

Chapter 18. Creation of a team

Having jumped out of the cloud, Sergey first began to look at his hands. The cut on the hand remained in place, which did not surprise him at all. “Now the second hand”, he thought, and fell into a stopper. There was also a wound on the other hand. “So that world heals the ailments of this one, but problems are transferred here from it, while returning the cured ones — this is incredible”, Dyatlov said with a surprised look. “Plus from what we know: less gravity, which allows living organisms to grow to large sizes; small items can be carried through the portal”, Sergey continued to list. “I believe that if the cloud is expanded, then it is possible to overtake large-sized equipment there”, Dyatlov expressed his assumption.

Then his companions appeared from the portal. They were no less discouraged than Sergey on his first trip. “That means so”, began Peter Semenovich, “I will immediately report to the leadership about the discovery. Not a word to anyone, all tests will be carried out under the heading of secrecy, we will also create a separate team, which will include Sergey and scientists from different fields for a more complete study of the world. Wait for me here, I’ll be back soon with new information”. He quickly and enthusiastically ran out of the hall, closing it with a padlock along with everyone present inside.

Peter Semenovich returned only an hour later. About twenty people came with him. Most of the Dyatlov saw for the first time. “Attention everyone”, said the chief, “before your eyes, a working group called ‘Mirror’ has been created to study a significant discovery. The project is secret, so in no case should the information go beyond the laboratory. You are all here to analyze various tasks, so as you explore, management will study their implementation and set new goals. At the moment, we know that this gun opened a portal to a supposedly different world. There is a different gravity and living organisms, the diseases of this world are instantly curable there, but they return when they get back here. The whole country is counting on you, good luck!”

The whole speech made a strong impression. Peter Semenovich had not spoken so penetratingly for a long time. After that, he left the hall, leaving the group to chat and get to know each other.

Sergey approached the two scientists standing next to him and extended his hand to them. “Dyatlov Sergey”, he introduced himself, “the creator of the invention and a specialist in gravitational waves”. The first to answer was a middle-aged man with glasses, greasy slicked back hair and an old worn shirt. “Grigory Stolypin”, he introduced himself, “a surveyor”. Dyatlov firmly shook his hand and turned to the second interlocutor. He was a slightly overweight, good-natured-looking man, about 35 years old, in a medical gown, with a mustache and a bald head, which was clearly a necessary measure in order not to leave thinning hair on his forehead and temples. “Aristophanes Bazhenov”, he introduced himself, “a specialist in geology”.

Sergey almost laughed, but he had enough restraint to just smile softly and affably. “Well”, he said, “we’ll get to know the rest in the process, we have a lot of work!”

Chapter 19. Unexpected meeting

It took about five minutes after the police left the interrogation room. Anton was still under stress. He did not understand what he should do: on the one hand, from their words, they have unconditional evidence against him, on the other hand, would they offer him a sincere confession if they had enough evidence? “Here is the main question”, Borovitsky summed up in his head.

“But I don’t want to go to prison, if I end up there, I won’t find a cure, and these will be the last years of my life, I can’t sacrifice like that. Moreover, then I will not see the birth of my child, whom I have been waiting for so long”, continued Anton.

“Maybe then sign a sincere one? The court will recognize this as negligent homicide and give a suspended sentence, which will not interfere with further work”, he suddenly said more confidently in a quiet voice.

At that moment, the door swung open, and Anton felt with his back that one person had entered the room. An unexpectedly resounding voice plunged Borovitsky into horror. Turning to face him, he recognized the very figure that had spoken to him from the darkness in his office. This time, the room’s halogen lights illuminated his face brightly, revealing his features. A slight smirk and brightly burning eyes did not leave him. “But that can’t be, how could you be here?” Borovitsky spoke inquiringly in surprise in a trembling voice. “And hello again” the voice answered him, “Now we will often see each other”.

Chapter 20. Continued interrogation

As soon as Vetvitsky and the sergeant left the room, the policeman asked the captain a question that worried him, “How could we detain him? We don’t have the evidence you told him about”.

“It’s very simple”, Vetvitsky replied, “I forged the protocol of detention, adding there such a circumstance that he resisted arrest and inflicted damage on an employee in the line of duty”. Here he proudly showed the sergeant his hand with a cut. “This cut”, the captain continued, “I made in the kitchen when I was cutting vegetables, but now, thanks to the protocol and inattentive witnesses who did not read it, we have a good reason for the court to extend his detention”.

“But this is not fair, he did not do this, and we have no evidence that it was him, on the contrary, all circumstances boil down to the fact that this is more likely a suicide or an accident”, the sergeant replied.

“Listen, I am one hundred percent sure that this is not an accident”, continued Vetvitsky, “after conducting a survey of all employees, I realized that it was only beneficial for Borovitsky that day to eliminate the person claiming to remove him from his post, plus I saw it for a reason in his office there are ashes in the trash can. What kind of person in his right mind makes a fire in his office, if there is heating, and when the building is already so hot that I could not walk in a tunic?”

“No, it’s exactly him”, the captain summed up, “and our task with you is to prove it and put him in jail. And this little trick will only speed up the process”.

__________________________________

As soon as the figure came out, Anton pondered the arguments presented to her. Indeed, remembering the situation around, he realized that the skyscrapers surrounding the building were much lower in height, therefore, the cameras standing on them could not in any way catch the roof of the Borovitsky Technology office with a viewing angle. Ashes were also dubious evidence. The policeman did not take the substance for analysis under Anton, and it is doubtful that he would later return for it, which means that this circumstance also probably disappears. The only evidence against him was the testimony of the workers, but they did not prove anything and could not fully draw a causal relationship between the murder and the motive.

“So I have nothing to fear”, thought Borovitsky. At that moment, Vetvitsky and the sergeant returned to the room. “Well?” asked the captain, “are you ready to sign a frank confession of a crime? Let me remind you that thanks to him you can reduce the expected punishment”.

“No”, Anton answered clearly, “I am not guilty for anything, and I will not sign it”. “Well”, replied the policeman, looking sadly at the assistant, “we tried to help you, but your fate is in your hands”. Then a sergeant came up to him in his ear and whispered, “So what now?” Vetvitsky turned to him and replied, “We’ll hold him in the pre-trial detention center, in a couple of days he himself will confess, but we have strong arguments for the court. It remains to conduct an interrogation with his lawyer for show, and we will send him to comprehend the ‘joyful’ moments of the life of a prisoner”.

“Then let’s wait for your lawyer and start the interrogation”, the captain exclaimed joyfully, clearly anticipating his imminent victory.

Chapter 21. First steps in research

As soon as the working group met, the “Mirror” project acquired complete secrecy. The demonstration hall where the gun was launched was completely blocked, as well as the entire wing of the research institute around it. This was done to ensure that no random person would enter the testing area.

The participants were provided with sleeping places, a toilet and food delivery, as they were forbidden to leave the fenced area for the first time. At first, they were dissatisfied, but realizing the importance and significance of this discovery for all humankind, they resigned themselves to their fate.

Sergey has already managed to get acquainted with all the members of the team, which consisted of eighteen people and consisted of surveyors, geologists, physicians, speleologists, hydrologists, climatologists, bioengineers, nanotechnologists, volcanologists, chemists, biologists, who were excellent specialists in their field and no less well versed in related industries.

Each member of the team from Dyatlov was given a task in their specialty, which involved expanding the options for its implementation and additional study, depending on the results of the discovery.

Sergey’s first personal test was testing the possibility of expanding the cloud, so he sent two more copies of the gun to the assembly, which were delivered to him and installed next to the working one. Previously, Dyatlov distributed safety instructions based on his experience. The workers donned their helmets and hid behind cover.

Sergey himself created a remote launch program and, crouching behind the large boxes that were left from the assembled guns, ordered, “Preparing for the launch, everyone take cover! Starting in: three, two, one, let’s go!” Then he pressed the power button, the guns started up, began to spin, the air began to discharge in front of them, a sharp flash of light appeared with a shock wave, everyone who was not firmly fixed fell to the floor, and the cloud tripled in size.

Dyatlov got up and shouted to the whole hall, “We did it!” There was general enthusiastic applause. The team was clearly pleased that the first hypothesis turned out to be correct. “This is a success, but we do not rest on our laurels, we go there, and all for work!” Sergey shouted. The workers immediately, grabbing their equipment, rushed into the cloud.

Dyatlov looked at three cannons standing parallel to each other. The first sample was “naked” only with a case with a mechanism on legs. The second version in two copies was technically identical to the first model, but it was already a complete device with a strong and stable inducing mechanism, as well as legs made of material that is more durable. But the biggest difference was in the skin. In the new version, the device was covered on the outside with white futuristic plates, light enough, but at the same time strong, while allowing enough air to pass through for ventilation. It was a new aluminum alloy, which was experimentally mined a couple of years ago.

“We need to analyze the operation of the first device in order to exclude the possibility of a sharp breakdown”, Sergey thought. Taking the tablet, he ran a full system diagnostic. Most of the functionality worked flawlessly. The only problem was the same long-suffering “bagel”. The load on him was so great that he was already working to the limit. Temperature sensors showed that the temperature had gone over thousands of degrees, from which a hot air stream was created around the gun. “We need to work on the cooling system and replace materials with more heat-resistant ones”, Dyatlov told his assistant Pythagoras. He was a small, swarthy, thin young man who had only recently taken a job at the research institute, but with his bright mind, he earned a reputation as a balanced and attentive diagnostic specialist, thereby earning a place in the Mirror project team. “I’m giving you a task”, Sergey continued, “continue monitoring all three guns for all diagnostic metrics, pay special attention to the temperature of all mechanisms, I don’t want us to burn out here. Also think about cooling and materials, the drawing is on your computer.” “Understood, it will be done”, Pythagoras reported in a military manner.

Satisfied, Dyatlov went to the corner of the hall, where an impromptu tent camp was created. This was a temporary measure and, if possible, the task was to transport the device to a hangar specially built for this project, where there would be more adequate working conditions. “I haven’t slept for two days, it’s time to lie down, I hope nothing will fall apart here without me”, Sergey thought, lying down on an uncomfortable air mattress. Surprisingly, with these thoughts, he fell asleep very quickly.

Chapter 22. Pre-trial detention center

After the lawyer arrived, a demonstrative interrogation was conducted, which did not lead to any results. This was immediately obvious, since the main battlefield for Anton’s freedom took place outside official procedures.

During personal communication, the lawyer strictly forbade talking to the police without him, and also that it would be easy to prove his innocence, due to the falsification of all evidence. It only remained to wait for the court to extend the period of detention in the pre-trial detention center, from which they promised to pull him out at the same time.

Unfortunately, nothing could be done now. Borovitsky steadfastly accepted his fate and hoped to return home as soon as possible. He was taken to the isolation ward by an escort, after confiscating a communication bracelet and other personal belongings. The only thing left was his pills.

At that time, there was a caste of fanatical people who implanted chips and bracelets in their brains. Therefore, there were rumors that such people were operably taken back from their heads, but in fact they were put on collars that blocked all signals coming from these chips. Fortunately, such a procedure did not threaten Anton.

They put him in handcuffs and led him across the vast area occupied by the isolation ward. He was behind a tall five-meter fence in order to exclude the possibility of escape. Special earth was scattered along the edges, so that if the wall was still able to overcome, leave footprints.

There were three large buildings on the territory, one of which was the future place of detention of Borovitsky. Entering the room where he would spend all his free time, the handcuffs were removed from him, and the guard left, closing the armored door behind him.

The eyes of all those present immediately turned to Anton. Everyone’s main interest was who he was and why he was here.

The first person to approach him was an intelligent-looking middle-aged man. He introduced himself as Savely and held out his hand. Borovitsky shook it and also called her name. “What are they accused of?” the prisoner asked. “In murder”, Anton answered dryly. Savely made an inquiring look, but quickly continued, “I was detained at the rally, I’ve been lying here for the second week already”.

The other members of the room quickly lost interest and went about their business. No one else was willing to greet the new member of the team.

Anton followed his gaze around the room and found a free bed. “Is the bed free?” he asked. “Occupy”, Savely answered confidently. Borovitsky jumped to his new place and relaxed. He still hasn’t slept. A new acquaintance sat down next to him and offered to introduce Anton to others. Although it was not up to that, it was worth knowing those with whom he would spend the next few weeks, so he agreed.

“This is Prokhor”, Savely began, “he was here for stealing from some grandmother from a bag on the bus, they found him in two hours on cells, he stole no more than a third of the living wage. And this is Pin. “Pin?” — asked Anton. “Yes, that’s what he calls himself”, the narrator replied, “he is eighteen, he began to earn money selling drugs, now it’s all easily tracked and he was caught on the very first order. It’s a pity the boy, very young. This bull is Chisel, it is better not to anger him, he is very aggressive and nervous. Here for robbery. And this grandfather is Matthew. He was a homeless person, and now, under the new law, they give a considerable time for this, so many are ready not to run from the police for a place under the roof and with food. He’s just waiting for his verdict”.

“That’s all”, Savely finished. “Thank you”, Borovitsky answered, “I’ll probably lie down, I haven’t slept for a long time”. At these words Anton immediately fell asleep. He woke up with severe back pain. This indicated that he had not taken the pills for a long time. He immediately went to the sink to get water. Chisel was already there, washing his hands. Bypassing him on the side, Anton filled a glass of water and drank a pill.

Chisel immediately turned to him, blushed with anger and shouted loudly, “Did you get your wires crossed? Can’t you see I’m washing?”

“I see, but I need to take pills every day, I’m sick,” Anton calmly answered him, holding a package with them in his hand. “These?” Chisel asked, snatching them from his hands “Take it! At that moment, he threw them out the window”. “Freak!” Anton said to him in a rage, “I’m dying, I need these pills!” “So drink them,” Chisel said indifferently, giving Borovitsky a strong slap in the face, so that he fell to the floor. Never after he learned the diagnosis in the hospital, Anton did not feel so helpless.

Chapter 23. What is hidden under the feet

When he woke up, Sergey felt no less broken. His swollen face, watery eyes, back aching from the mattress — everything spoke of a bad night. “We need to get back to work”, Dyatlov thought, sighing heavily and rubbing his eyelids.

He immediately headed towards the devices. On the way, he saw Pythagoras with a tablet, carefully studying the graphs, next to him was another assembled, but not connected, cannon in a “naked” state. Apparently, it was a sample assembled specifically for performance tests. The scientist looked at the tablet and carefully studied the structure of the tool, depending on the results of the graphs, making certain notes in parallel with respect to each mechanism.

“How are you?” finally reaching him, asked Sergey. “While I’m studying”, Pythagoras answered, “there are a number of comments, I’m thinking about suggestions, but I haven’t finished the full diagnostics yet”. “Excellent”. said a satisfied Dyatlov, patting him on the shoulder, “when you finish, make a drawing and a description of the errors, comments and suggestions, I will study it, and if everything goes well, we will send the second version for assembly”.

After that, Dyatlov headed towards the portal. There he had already seen how Gregory and Aristophanes work. The first one arranged equipment for creating geodetic points and determining coordinates. His tasks included studying the terrain in order to roughly understand the size of the world and inventing a coordinate system for further convenience in working in space. The second scientist scanned the earth to determine the composition of the soil, the internal structure of the world and the alleged materials and rocks that could be used in the future.

Approaching Grigory, Dyatlov heard only dissatisfied exclamations and complaints, he obviously did not agree on something in his calculations. “Okay, I’ll go to him later”, Sergey thought, heading towards Aristophanes. He stared in surprise at the screen of his device. Raising his eyes to Dyatlov, he began to look with a meaningful look, as if beckoning to him. When he came closer, the scientist enthusiastically declared, “it’s amazing, but the structure of the upper layer of the earth is very close to ours, while the metals lying deeper have a fundamentally different structure, which we have yet to study, presumably these materials can be used in all industries and will be ten times better than ours! The further structure of the world is similar to most of the planets of the solar system, that is, in theory, we can be in another galaxy, where the planet is located at a similar distance from the star and has a similar origin!”

Sergey was very pleased with what he heard, his discovery was important not only for the country as a whole, but also played a role on a global scale. This research not only allowed to have the goal of discovering some other method or material. It could turn science as a whole, making it possible to make a giant leap in all directions due to discoveries hitherto unknown to the human community from the beginning of time.

"That`s great", thought Sergey. Moreover, he talked with only one person, and he had to find out the result from even more than a dozen.

Chapter 24. Deterioration

Since then, Anton spent most of his time lying on the bed, looking at the wall, or reading books. Savely tried at first to get him to talk, but gradually realized the futility of such an occupation.

Every day Borovitsky was getting worse. Without daily pills, he could no longer walk for a long time. My lower back ached with such force that I wanted to scream in pain. The skin began to take on a deathly pale hue, the eyes sunk into the skull, the skin sagged.

At the same time, the meeting at which he was supposed to be released, as luck would have it, was postponed. Every day Anton waged a stubborn fight against the disease. He went out with her as if for the last fight, but relentlessly lost, and devastatingly.

Gradually he stopped reading, everything was cloudy in his eyes, and it became impossible to concentrate on the letters. It remained only to eat, and with great difficulty. They brought it to the cell for everyone, but for the last 24 hours there was no strength even to reach the door.

But thirst and hunger tormented him. It was necessary to gain strength and make the final push.

Rising from the bed on one hand, he found his slippers with his half-blind feet and slowly stood up. Pain stabbed into my lower back with a left hook. She quickly began to spread, and her legs began to tremble. From the outside it seemed that Borovitsky was in a state of severe hangover, but this, unfortunately for him, was far from the truth. Making an effort on himself, Anton jerked his foot towards the door. There were four more steps to go. One more movement and sixty centimeters were overcome. The pain became unbearable. My legs shook even more. Borovitsky called Savely in a weak, barely audible voice from a hoarse voice, he quickly came to the rescue and, taking Anton by the shoulders, helped to rearrange his legs, dragging them to a tray of food.

“Thank you”, Borovitsky said with eyes full of gratitude, “I’ll go on myself”. Then he took the tray, his eyes completely darkened, his legs could not stand it, and Anton fell headfirst against the armored door like a dead weight. All the food was shattered into pieces and smeared on the floor. The cup of tea broke and the liquid spread to Savely’s feet. At first it hurt, but then this pain spread against the background of the general condition. Anton felt his strength finally leave him, and began to gradually turn off.

He heard someone in the background knocking on the door and yelling for help.

Chapter 25. Closing the portal

Sergey’s new tasks were experiments with creating gaps. First, he wanted to understand whether the launch point of the cannon depends on the exit point on the other side of the world. Secondly, it was worth knowing whether it was possible to open a passage from the other side. In addition, finally, thirdly, is it possible to open the portal again if it is closed, and what will happen to the person who remains on the other side in this case.

All this he had to find out today. It was necessary to start with geographical tests, so another sample of the weapon was moved outside the hall into the corridor and launched there. Sergey slipped into the opened cloud and saw that he had come out at a distance of about twenty meters from the first portal. After testing this theory from other points, he became convinced of the hypothesis. This means that a geographical point on earth corresponded to a point in another world one hundred percent. Grigory, having finally figured out his system, confirmed that the coordinates matched.

By moving the cannon inside the gap and launching it in the other direction, a portal opened into the same corridor. The assumptions were confirmed. This means that the gun could work in both directions and fully maintained accuracy in matters of coordinates. The gap opened exactly at the same point where the gun was launched, but in the opposite world.

This opened up additional opportunities, at the same time the risks that a person who possesses this technology, but with malicious intent, can enter the world unnoticed from another point.

Now Sergey faced the main test. He commanded everyone to get out of the cloud. After waiting for the last scientist, he immediately pressed the button and the device turned off. The cloud began to contract, the air prickling, the funnel collapsed in a spray of bright light, but this time without a shock wave. Everyone held their breath and Dyatlov pressed the start button, all the already typical phenomena repeated and the gap reopened. Hall actively applauded.

“And now”, he said to Pythagoras, “you will have to close the portal when I am on the other side”. “But I can’t, it’s very dangerous, we don’t know what will happen to you in this case, maybe you will never return then!” — furiously answered the scientist. “Well, we’ll check it, I can’t risk one of you like that”, Sergey said smiling, having already lowered one leg on the other side of the portal. Once there completely, he stepped back a couple of meters and shouted, “Start!”

Several minutes passed, but nothing happened, when suddenly the portal began to collapse and strenuously pull Sergey along, he grabbed everything that was at hand, but the force of attraction was incredible, his fingers unhooked, and he flew out into the closing portal. The last thing he saw was the world flattening and rolling into a white sheet, rapidly approaching a tear. Immersed completely in it, he flew through a completely white space. His head ached, voices began, and he flew like a bullet into the demonstration hall, hitting the wall painfully.

Everyone looked at him in surprise, after which Pythagoras ran up to Sergey. He said, “We were so worried about you when you disappeared for so long, we thought it was already possible to order flowers for the funeral of the missing”.

Dyatlov rubbed his bruised back, then stood up and looked at the scientist in shock and asked, “How long?” “A few hours”, Pythagoras replied.

Chapter 26. Hospital

After Anton fell unconscious, he continued to hear fragments of what was happening around him. Savely’s cry, knocks on the door. Here he is carried on a stretcher, the sound of a siren. He was clearly in an ambulance, then passed out again and woke up with a wild burning sensation and pain in his chest, with peripheral vision he saw how the defibrillators were put away in the box.

Borovitsky remained in this state for several hours. Now he woke up in a hospital room, feeling much better. Apparently he was finally given the substance contained in those pills that Chisel mercilessly threw out the window. The substance that he now needed was vital.

Looking around, Anton found that he was bedridden with a tourniquet, there was not a soul around him. It was clearly a room in a clinic. The single room smelled of a kind of luxury from the world of medicine, but this did not make me feel better for a second. On the other hand, Anton finally felt the long-awaited loneliness that he had missed so much since his arrest.

White walls, high ceilings, a dropper at the left hand, all the pieces of furniture on wheels, a pipe in his mouth — everything should have calmed him down, but at the same time it evoked some anxiety about what would happen to him next.

Then a doctor in a white coat entered the ward and sat down on a chair next to Anton. “Well, my dear, you scared us pretty much, the fit was so strong that I haven’t seen anything like this for ten years”, he began. He was a middle-aged man with slightly graying and thinning hair, short in stature, but with a strong build and good-natured expression.

“I had to pump you out right on the way out of the pre-trial detention center, otherwise you decided to screw up before you reached the hospital”, he continued. Anton sighed heavily, still feeling aching pain all over his body after resuscitation. But at least, unlike prison, he felt alive here as never before. Weak, sick, weak, but alive. “I noticed,” Borovitsky finally broke the awkward silence. “And what are the predictions? When will I get out of here?” — continued to be interested in Anton.

“Uuuu, it’s not soon, not earlier than in a month, you just picked a place in the cemetery for yourself, and now you want to go to a marathon, take your time, get treated, and then plan stools for the people with renewed vigor”, the doctor replied mockingly.

Anton did not like this phrase very much, but there was logic in it, and most importantly, meaning for him, since the time spent waiting for the trial here was much better than in the pre-trial detention center. With these thoughts, the doctor decided to say goodbye and left the room.

Following him, weeping Anastasia and German Veniaminovich entered the ward. The wife immediately threw herself on Borovitsky’s chest, laid her head on her, and hugged her and did not let go. All this time she was crying without saying a word.

Anton threw a meaningful look at Herman, but he just shrugged his shoulders. “Well, how are you?” he began. “Normal”, Borovitsky quickly replied, stroking his wife on the head. “This is commendable”, the doctor continued, “I looked at your treatment plan, everything is good there, follow all the recommendations, and you will be fine”.

“There is only one problem”, he concluded. “And what is it?” Anton asked with interest. “With your lifestyle and such fun adventures as yours, I’m sorry, there is only a year left, no more”, Herman replied.

Chapter 27. “Gravilom” 2.0

“A few hours?” Sergey asked incredulously. Then he looked at his watch and realized that indeed, turning off the gun and his departure from the portal were with a difference of 2 hours.

“So, why didn’t you fire the cannon again and come back for me?” Dyatlov became interested in the next question. “We tried,” Pythagoras answered, “but the portal did not open, apparently it blocks itself until it releases you from another world”.

“Perhaps”, Sergey answered, “why then did it take me so long to return?” Dyatlov asked himself more questions in his mind, but could not answer them. “Perhaps the whole thing is in gravity, and when space is distorted, time is also distorted”, Sergey thought.

It was the only explanation that fit the big picture and didn’t contradict the laws that had already been established for this world.

“Okay, we’ll deal with this later, it’s time to move to another room”, Dyatlov said and glanced at their property.

To accommodate the project, a huge hangar was built next to the institute, which included testing areas, bedrooms, toilets, a dining room, showers and even warehouses with clothes — in general, everything so that scientists could not deny themselves anything while they work over the project. For them, the restriction on going outside the institute, as well as on communication, continued to operate.

At the moment when the loaders arrived and began to pack the guns into large boxes for transportation, Sergey went to Pythagoras, who was very immersed in the study of his schemes. Then he looked up and saw Dyatlov coming up to him. “I worked on the design”, the scientist said, “here is the drawing”. “I started with a lightweight design, while maintaining strength and all the characteristics”, he continued. “Thanks to the research of new materials, as well as our technologies, I was able to achieve a combination of strength and lightness, reducing the cannon itself by one and a half times in size”, Pythagoras proudly declared. He handed Sergey the drawing and continued. “I also worked on the so-called ‘donut’, thanks to the redistribution of the load, it was possible to reduce the axial weighting, which systematically affected the increased rotation. That is, the number of revolutions decreased with effort, but at the same time the rotation speed increased, which led to alignment with the previous indicators due to inertia”, Pythagoras ended his monologue.

“Well”, Sergey said, carefully examining the drawing and listening to the descriptions of the scientist, “I will study everything, and if it goes well, then we will put it into work, you’re done”.

Pythagoras, making a satisfied face, shook hands with Dyatlov and headed towards the tents, apparently he wanted to lie down after a hard day’s work.

Analyzing the drawing, Sergey never ceased to be surprised at how first-class everything was invented. Little things, risks were thought out, and his mistakes were also well taken into account. At the same time, the metal found in another world played a significant role. It was a great help in the production of durable structures, and also combined with earthly materials. Having thought everything over again, Dyatlov sent the drawing for assembly, the first sample will open a new era of this project in a new place. He took one last look at the hall before moving, took a deep breath, and quickly headed for the exit, towards new research.

Chapter 28. Path to freedom

“A year?” Anton asked with a tremor in his voice. “But how is that possible?” with sadness and despair, looking at the door and back, he continued. “I’m sorry”, German Veniaminovich replied, “excessive nerves, plus a pre-trial detention center and the absence of pills have done their job, the disease is progressing too quickly”.

For Anton, this blow was almost stronger than the first one when he learned about the disease. It was like a blow to the solar plexus that took away his breath and made his eyes go dark. But the saddest thing is that he could not do anything, neither put a block, nor make a response.

“Maybe there is some new drug that will slow down the process?” Borovitsky asked with hope in his voice. “I’m sorry, but you are taking the most powerful pills, there is nothing better in the world”, the doctor answered with understanding and sadness in his voice. Hope immediately disappeared with even greater speed than it crept into Anton’s head. She died last. “So I don’t have time, it looks like this is the end”, Borovitsky flashed through his head. Tears welled up in his eyes and he tried his best to hide them.

“Please leave me, I want to be alone”, Anton said to those present. Anastasia tore herself away from his chest and, with tearful and swollen eyes, raising her eyebrows in surprise, answered, “But how is it, you are in such a state, I won’t go anywhere!” Borovitsky bored into her with an angry, desperate look, saying that he was waiting for the fulfillment of his request. The wife slowly got up, nodded understandingly, and together with the doctor went out the door, leaving Anton all alone.

The silence that hung in the room began to put even more pressure on Borovitsky. He finally gave vent to feelings and began to cry. Anton realized that now he had no time left for a cure.

Since then, a month has passed, little by little he was getting better, but as soon as he had to get out of bed, he felt unbearable pain, as if they were cutting him alive. Looking in the mirror, Borovitsky ceased to recognize himself, the greenish complexion became even greener, giving the impression of a deathly pale hue.

The eyes were swollen, light slits were visible, the hair flew around, leaving behind a slight bald spot.

To date, a court hearing has been scheduled on the issue of extending his detention, and Anton was waiting for an escort that was supposed to take him to the courthouse. Borovitsky first spoke with a lawyer, and he assured him that all the evidence was fake, and that the police told him about it did not exist, so he should have been released today. This was the main hope, because he did not want to spend the rest of his life in prison. With these thoughts in mind, an escort entered the room and handed Anton magnetic handcuffs.

The road to the meeting lasted about ten minutes, but they dragged on like an eternity. The wait was worse than death, because now it was decided where he would live his last year. And then, finally, the car flew up to the roof of the court and began to descend to the surface.

Having landed, Anton was immediately taken outside and led to a semicircular platform, which were randomly located throughout the roof and had a plate next to them with numbers and buttons, as well as holes for key fobs. The employee put a key chain from his neck to the hole, the camera immediately left the plate and stopped at head level. The guard moved closer, closing his eyes. A green light appeared on the sign with the inscription “access allowed”, the camera returned to its place and a transparent capsule about two meters high left the floor. Anton was escorted there, the capsule slammed shut, and he went down with it. Ten seconds later, he already saw the light and suddenly found himself in a packed meeting room. The only thing missing was a judge.

The capsule opened, and Anton went out into a room made of glass and standing to the left of the judge. As he understood, all the defendants were in this place during the process. The capsule immediately closed and went upstairs, after which the hole from where it appeared was slammed shut with a grate.

Then the judge and secretary appeared from the room behind the chairs, and everyone present stood up. Cameras turned on and the judge announced the start of the hearing.

Chapter 29. Court hearing

In front of him, Anton saw the prosecutor, located to the right of the judge, he was actively sorting through the documents on which he would rely, asking for an extension of Borovitsky’s detention. His lawyer was sitting with his back to Anton, but unlike the prosecutor, he was confident in himself and, with an haughty pose, seemed to be looking at what was happening from above.

The meeting room was filled to overflowing. Everyone was interested in the case of a billionaire who could end up in prison for the murder of his deputy.

At that moment, the judge in a monotonous voice began the process, ascertaining the turnout of all parties. Then he asked if there were petitions. The prosecutor quickly stood up, sitting down on the fly, replying that there were no motions. The lawyer, on the contrary, slowly got up and asked the court to add the testimony of two witnesses to the case. Then he handed the judge two sheets of evidence.

“What is it?” the judge did not understand, studying the papers. “These are the testimonies of witnesses who were present during the detention of my client. They claim that they did not read the protocol of detention properly, and having read it, they realized that the stated facts are not true”, the lawyer reported. “Okay, we will examine them along with other evidence”, the judge said monotonously and continued with all the necessary procedures.

When examining evidence, the prosecutor was the first to speak. He was a stocky, short man with a double chin and unkempt stubble. He obviously did not look after himself, and the old suit did not fit for a long time, because of which he had to fasten it only halfway. The prosecutor stated that Anton attacked a policeman during the arrest, which is confirmed by the detention protocol and photographs of the injuries inflicted on Captain Vetvitsky. “Also attached to the file are the testimonies of the colleagues of citizen Borovitsky, according to which, the day before the death of citizen Spassky, they had a conflict caused by the removal of Borovitsky from the post that Spassky was supposed to take”, the overweight man continued.

Anton was very annoyed by the corresponding data. Not only did the colleagues come up with a conflict from scratch that they could not see with their own eyes, but also the police falsified the protocol of detention. They obviously wanted to write off the dead weight case on him.

Here the word passed to the lawyer Borovitsky. He read out the testimonies of the witnesses, which he had just added to the case. “According to the testimony of Smirnov V.I.: during the detention of citizen Borovitsky, there was no attack on the officer on duty, the detention was peaceful, they didn’t let me read the protocol, I just signed it without reading the content”. Then the lawyer voiced similar testimony of citizen Ivanov I.I.

The court moved on to debate. The prosecutor was the first to speak. He stated that the evidence of Anton’s guilt was irrefutable, which in itself was absurd, and also that he was dangerous and needed to be isolated from society. At that moment, the judge looked down at the prosecutor through his glasses with a surprised and contemptuous look. He clearly understood that the case was falling apart before his eyes.

The lawyer skillfully retorted and put pressure on the fact that the court only had evidence of harm to a police officer on duty, which was falsified. At the same time, there is no evidence of Borovitsky’s guilt in committing a crime against Spassky’s life.