"Are your songs autobiographical?"

"Partly yes. I can't sing about what I haven't lived or don't feel. Even someone else's story I need to first pass through myself."

(from Rina's interview for the Paparazzi program)

"Did you understand what I said?!" Lebedev shrieked.

How had she never noticed the hysterical intonation in his voice before when he was angry! However, fascinated by Dimitri's courtship, Rina didn't notice a lot of things. For example, she didn't see that in moments of anger, not only his voice becomes ugly, but also his face. She didn't notice how his eyes were turning white with rage. And that he himself, who seemed strong to her, is in fact a nonentity, since he is able to beat the weak, defenseless and defeated.

Rina squeezed her eyes shut when Lebedev swung at her, but there was no blow. She opened her eyes fearfully and saw that he, trembling with rage, still lowered his hand. But, without physically hitting her, Lebedev whipped her with insults and threats, making a lot of fun and reminding her that she was nobody, a nobody from the alley. And as she made her way into show business, she will slide back into the ditch. Rina proudly raised her chin, and this again exasperated Lebedev.

"You... you!" he hissed in her face. "Whore!"

A runaway bride is not a waiter who made a mistake with the temperature of the wine, and not a secretary who served the wrong kind of coffee. This is not even a businessman who stole a lucrative contract from under his nose, because Dimitri is used to solving such problems. But this is how publicly and scandalously he was thrown for the first time, and he will not forgive such a shame.

While Lebedev was yelling, Rina was wondering with some detachment about the fate prepared for her. Dimitri acted simply with the guilty staff - he threw them out into the street. He also dealt with competitors quickly and, worst of all, with Rina's hands. And what will he do to her? Cripple? Will he make it look like the scandalized singer herself fell into the river from the bridge? Rina silently looked into the eyes of her ex-fiance, in which there was nothing but cold rage, and with a feeling that hurt like a healing scratch, she thought that she had once seen love in those eyes.

Is it love? Maybe just a temporary admiration? Complacency? For a while, Dimitri was really passionate about her. And she took his interest for true love. Growing up in an orphanage and used to fighting for a place in the sun, she really missed someone's care. Yes, Nuliya took care of her. But the elderly Korean had her own grandchildren. In addition, immediately after graduation, Rina left to conquer the capital, which shone like a Christmas tree toy.

At first, after each failure, Rina sent her benefactress postcards in which she cheerfully talked about fictional successes: she created the illusion of well-being not so much for Nuliya as for herself. And then she made friends. But they, though they loved Rina, lived their own lives. And in those rare moments when they all managed to meet, Rina dreamed of the same strong relationship as Vsevolod and Violet or Valery and Elvira. How she wished she had someone as real and reliable as her friends' husbands! Therefore, when Dimitri offered her everything that in her understanding was a manifestation of care, Rina easily fell in love with him. It's a pity, but she realized too late that it is necessary to judge a person not by the size of bouquets, but by the way he treats other people: before whom he fawns, and whom he wipes into dust. Dimitri reached out to the strong, but with pleasure beat the weak.

"And don't think that you will be able to escape!"

It wouldn't work - Rina understood that perfectly well. There were not even windows in her cell with a toilet behind a curtain, the door was propped up by guards similar to cabinets, and hungry angry dogs roamed the yard.

"And don't hope that someone will save you!"

Lebedev suddenly laughed, and Rina looked at him with bewilderment, because such a sharp change of mood, from anger to fun, looked very strange.

"You got into show business, but never learned to understand people! Do you even know who you've chosen as your new friends? A journalist who is ready to dig in the trash for the sake of sensation! This brainless idiot in pursuit of the news didn't even notice the surveillance. He brought me to you! And you also favored with your friendship the traitor of a military man who was expelled from the army for a crime. These days you were surrounded by a journalist, a traitor and a criminal soldier. That's it, Rina!"

This time Dimitri managed to hurt her. Rina shuddered and looked at him with an expression that he took for fright. But she immediately looked away, bitterly thinking that no one can be trusted, even the one who saved her life. Especially him. And the trouble is not that Nikolai has not told her anything about himself, but that she has already managed to make him a 'knight'. And he is a military man and a criminal...

"I love you too," he said to someone on the phone this morning.

"I will destroy you," Lebedev said now and, grinning, added that first the puppies that Rina's friends brought to their kennel the other day will die, then 'something will happen' to two twin girls. And then he promised that Rina's other friend, Elvira, would be 'accidentally' knocked down with a stroller at a pedestrian crossing.

"And all this will be your fault! This will be your punishment - to live with a sense of guilt," Lebedev finished triumphantly and stepped back a step. "It's all in your hands, bitch! If you obey, maybe I'll forgive you part of the debt. Now I will become your 'impresario'! You will sing wherever I say, even in the sauna. Understand? I liked that trick you pulled with Serov! You'll send a few more of these 'Serovs' to hell, then maybe you'll save the baby in the stroller. And tonight you will give a personal concert for me! Just wash up first. I'm not turned on by such a dirty thing!"

Lebedev retreated, and his guards, on the contrary, moved closer to Rina.

"Remember... The trick you pulled with Serov and his friends won't work with me! I'm hedging my bets, okay? If I suddenly disappear, my people will immediately do what I have listed. And so you still have a chance to save your friends from misfortune. It all depends on how obedient you are. Whether I will be satisfied tonight."

The door slammed behind Lebedev, and Rina sank to the floor without strength. There were no tears, they were baked into a sharp-angled stone in the heart. Life goes on somewhere. And in that life, Vsevolod and Violet embrace their beautiful daughters and don't know what threat hangs over their happy family. Elvira, having escorted Valery to work, gathers her little son for a walk. The long-awaited son, who was born when she and her husband no longer looked forward to. In that life, Nikolai probably met the one to whom he confessed his love on the phone. Vika received payment for her betrayal. And Yura wrote sensational material.

Rina closed her dry eyes and exhaled softly. Gennadiy Sergeevich was right: all her troubles are because she fell in love with the wrong person. But Nikolai was wrong when he accused the one who manipulated her. She is to blame because she allowed herself to be manipulated.

Rina opened her eyes and stood up. Lebedev, as it seemed to him, had calculated everything: he had posted guards everywhere, he was looking forward to a night of love... His face, distorted with rage, appeared before her eyes again. Rina smiled and tried to recall in detail all the insults and threats that he had said to her. And feeling rage arise in her soul instead of fear, she clenched her fists triumphantly.

With special relish, Rina recalled all the humiliations, failures and troubles that she had experienced in her life. She even mentally returned to the day when she, a thirteen-year-old girl, was driven into the attic by local scumbags. Meticulously remembered the vile pimples on the hated face of the main villain Slavka, the touch of his sticky palm to her bare stomach, and shuddered with disgust. A hurricane of anger was already raging in her soul. Rina closed her eyes and by force of will directed him to the flimsy curtain. She realized that everything had worked out for her right away, feeling a sudden relief, as if she had been relieved of the greatest pain at once. Rina jerked back the swaying curtain and saw a wide hole instead of a shower and a tiled wall.

From the passage there was a cold, damp smell and a putrid stench. Her resolve cracked for a split second. It's one thing to close portals, and another to open them using negative, destructive energy. And not just open them, but try to escape through them. Rina didn't know what might be waiting for her in the opened portal. Hardly paradise gardens with butterflies fluttering over the flowers. Dangerous creatures - yes, maybe. What is fraught with meeting with such creatures, she understood. It was enough to remember how badly one of them hurt Nikolai. And that these creatures are not only biting, but also poisonous, Rina knew. And yet she stepped into the portal and closed the passage behind her.

"I can't anymore!" Vika said in such a tone that Yura had no doubts: she is not capricious and doesn't fall into despair, but really can't take another step.

She sat down on a fallen tree and took off her shoes. Comfortable-looking new moccasins, it turns out, were rubbed. Vika grimaced pitifully and stretched out her legs, while one pant leg was pulled up, exposing a rough scar on a thin ankle. Yura sighed softly, looking at Vika's bare feet - beautiful, elegant, but erased in blood. She understood his sympathetic look in her own way, so she hurriedly pulled down her jeans and tucked her legs under her.

"You can't scare me with scars and you won't push me away," Yura said, squatting down and taking her foot in his palms to better examine the blisters. How can he help Vila?

"Don't tell me you like me," she laughed nervously, but she didn't pull her foot away.

"I like," Yura answered simply and searched his pockets for a clean handkerchief.

"Well..." Vika drawled softly after a long pause.

"There is no handkerchief," Yura sighed regretfully.

"I'm going barefoot."

"What else! It is unknown what kind of creatures are found here," Yura objected and, getting up, ran his fingers through his thick hair. The situation was a stalemate. The clock still showed half past twelve, and the roads were being driven in a circle.

He and Vika tried all possible options: they walked along the river, changed direction and went through the meadow, entered the forest. But it was all to no avail. Sooner or later, any path led them back to the river, wound past a bush with a shoe lying under it and led to a fallen tree. An enchanted circle. Yura has already regretted his spontaneous and thoughtless decision to explore the anomalous zone a hundred times. Well, they investigated, and then what? How to get out? Thank God, Vika didn't reproach him, didn't argue, didn't whine, and most of the time just kept silent. But it would be better if she did. She would say, for example, that shoes rub her feet!

Apparently, his thoughts were reflected on his face, because Vika raised her eyebrows questioningly, and a guilty expression appeared on her beautiful face. Yura hastily smiled:

"Sooner or later we will get out of here! Let's do this: you stay here, and I'll swim across the river and get to the other side. Perhaps there..."

"Stupid decision!" Vika interrupted, pulled on her socks and, wincing, put on her shoes. "First of all, we'd better not split up! We may get lost. Secondly, it is unknown who lives here. Just because we haven't caught any critters yet doesn't mean they're not here. Therefore, jumping into the river is a so-so idea. Nikolai at least dived for Rina, and not of his own free will. And you know how it turned out for him."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"Go on," Vika shrugged her shoulders and got up. "Let's go slower and... let's think. Think about how to get out of the trap. For we will definitely not find a way out by blunt circling."

They again, without agreement, chose the path along the river - to the place where the road should be. Vika walked slowly, limping, and Yura gave her an elbow.

"No, I'd rather take off my shoes!" She exclaimed, kicked off her moccasins and walked down the road in her socks.

"Will you put on my sneakers?" Yura suggested.

"In our conditions, it sounds almost like a marriage proposal!" Vika grinned, and refused sneakers, saying that in size forty-five shoes she would only get worse. But she took him by the elbow.

"I think that Rina is a portal girl," Yura shared his thoughts after a short pause. It's better to talk than to wind useless circles in silence.

"Who?"

"Portal girl. The one that closes or opens portals. In the light of our adventures, such an assumption doesn't look fantastic, does it?" he grinned. And since Vika was waiting for an explanation, he continued: "I suspect that neither Nikolai nor Rina told us the whole truth. But journalists have their own informants. And I can analyze information and put together puzzles."

Yura told Vika everything he had learned about Tivastopol and the island that appeared on the river near it.

"I think Rina included this provincial town in the tour for a reason. There was once a military garrison on that island! Perhaps some secret experiments or developments were carried out there. Rina either received a task, figuratively speaking, to 'raise' that island. Or she did it for some personal reasons, and she was spotted. Hence the interest in Rina from the military. After all, this Gennadiy Sergeevich was a colonel?"

"Yes. And Nikolai, too... ex-military," Vika said softly, looking down at her feet - either she was looking for where she stepped, or any reminders of the offense she committed caused her remorse.

"Here! It was not for nothing that he was instructed to find a singer as well."

"But Nikolai was looking for Rina at the request of her friends!" Vika stood up for the chief.

"And who directed them?"

"Gennadiy Sergeevich."

"This!"

"Hm."

"That's not all, Vika. I accidentally overheard a phone conversation... Rina's friend was worried that Rina could open something like that and disappear 'there'. And now I come back to what else I learned from the informant. Three businessmen who stole a lucrative contract from under Lebedev's nose have recently disappeared. They disappeared right out of the restaurant where they were washing the deal. And Rina entertained them at dinner!'

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"And?" Vika hurried, because Yura made a spectacular pause.

"I think Rina 'helped' the fiance's competitors disappear! That's why Lebedev was looking for her!"

"But this is..." Vika even stopped. "Rina is such a nice girl. Do you think she's capable of that?!"

"Whatever she does for the sake of a loved one," Yura blurted out thoughtlessly and, seeing how Vika had become gloomy again, gently encouraged: "Hey, hey, don't hang your nose! Sorry, it snapped, um..."

"So you're assuming Nikolai knows the truth about her."

"I don't suppose! Almost sure. Surely he had questions for her. He spent enough time in Rina's house to gain her confidence, calm her down and get some answers. If I were him, I would definitely ask her a million questions!"

"All right," Vika nodded. "Why does Lebedev need Rina - it is clear. He doesn't want their 'secret' to become known to everyone. And, perhaps, he is counting on new help. But why does the military need portals?.."

"And who knows! I don't know their plans," Yura replied. "Maybe through the portals you can go unnoticed to any point. It's so cool: to lead an entire army by secret paths! Or maybe some special and powerful energy accumulates in the portals, which can be used in any way. Your boss was taking some measurements! Or maybe there's a magnetic field there that will 'magnetize' even a fighter to the ground! Figuratively speaking, of course. So I think that Rina is a portal girl, and not only her ex is hunting for her - a fact! And who actually helped Gennadiy Sergeevich: Rina, your boss or someone else - is not known."

"Then..." Vika began, but suddenly stopped. "Yura! Look! Someone's coming!"

But he had already noticed a man walking towards them. At first Yura mistook him for an old man because of his hunched shoulders and gray hair. But when the man approached, Yura was amazed to see that the traveler's hair had turned gray only on the left half of his head, and on the right remained blue-black.

"This is the first time I've seen him," Yura muttered. Vika either from excitement, or from tightened her grip on his elbow.

"Perhaps he lives in this parallel. And we don't know his intentions," she murmured softly. But there was nowhere to hide. The stranger noticed them and beckoned them over. Up close, it became clear that there were almost no wrinkles on his face, and his look was young and lively. He looked to be in his early forties.

"Hey! What are you doing here? Are you lost?"

"Lost!"

"Well, let's go, I'll take you out," he said and invited me to follow him.

The river swerved to the side, and suddenly there was a field ahead, which Yura and Vika had not seen before. A fenced-in house could be seen in the distance. The man stopped and waved his hand somewhere to the side:

"You're going there, now you definitely won't get lost. The path will lead to the road, and that will lead to the city."

"Thank you!" Yura sincerely thanked him, and before the stranger left, he quickly asked: "Tell me, what time is it? We've been wandering for too long."

The man glanced at his wrist.

"Half past twelve."

"And the day? What day is it today?" Yura continued to insist. For some reason, he was so tired that he suddenly wanted to get down on the ground and sleep for a good day. His head was spinning as if from hunger, and an unpleasant chill ran down his back. Judging by the fact that Vika swayed a little and shivered, she experienced similar sensations.

"May twenty-seventh," the man replied, not taking his eyes off them.

"The twenty-seventh?" Yura asked, catching Vika's frightened look. "And we got lost on the twenty-sixth. So we've been wandering around here for a whole day. Twenty-four hours without sleep or food."

"Let's go," the man suddenly decided.

He led them through a field where a tractor operated by a young tractor driver was working, cracking and growling, and then invited them to a fenced area. In a clean yard, another man was putting firewood in a woodpile. Yura greeted him, but the employee didn't seem to notice him.

The owner led them into the kitchen, silently pointed to two chairs, put the kettle on and sliced bread and sausage.

A few minutes later, the guests were already turning sandwiches with an appetite and washing them down with very sweet tea. The man didn't ask how much sugar to put, he poured a few spoons into each mug. Apparently, he thought that after the adventures, travelers urgently need to recover their strength. Vika ate in silence, and Yura fidgeted impatiently in his chair, wanting to ask the strange owner a hundred questions. But he pretended that the guests were no longer interested in him: he went out into the yard, but soon returned with a bucket covered with a lid.

While the owner, putting the bucket on the cutting table and blocking it with himself, was doing something, Yura managed to see another man in the garden. He smeared the trunks of fruit trees with diluted lime.

Having finished his task, the owner again covered the bucket with a lid, turned to the guests and folded his arms expectantly on his chest. But Yura, under his heavy gaze, calmly reached for another sandwich.

"Do people get lost here often?"

"It happens," the owner said gloomily.

"And just like us, they wander around for days, unable to find their way? It's strange, don't you think - getting lost in an open space?"

"Finished? I still have a lot of work to do," the man didn't succumb to the tricks.

Vika got up, but Yura got in again:

"She rubbed her feet badly. Do you have a band-aid?"

The owner went out and returned with a small first aid kit. And while Vika was sealing the blisters and putting on her shoes, he watched her with the same sullen silence.

There was nothing else to do but thank the man for the food and help and go home. In the yard they met a tractor driver.

"Wait!" Yura called out to Vika, following him with his eyes. "I can't do that..."

"What?"

"Leave without figuring out what's going on!"

And without waiting for her answer, he turned back into the house.

They found the owner in the same kitchen: he was pouring water into a large mug for the tractor driver. The man didn't seem surprised at the return of the guests, although he looked at them with displeasure. Yura waited until the tractor driver quenched his thirst and came out. And when he came out, he said angrily:

"Gennadiy Sergeevich and there," he significantly raised his finger up, "are very unhappy that civilians are disappearing in portals."

The owner's mouth twitched, but Yura didn't let him insert a word, continuing to bluff confidently:

"We wandered for a day, cursing the porters! And if we hadn't made ourselves known, we would have been rushing here... you know who. You're screwing up! We were specially sent with control. And at the very first point we fell through the portal!"

Yura was getting more and more excited, ignoring Vika's astonished look and rejoicing at the confused expression that appeared on the man's face.

"Where is this good! Thanks for the sandwiches, of course, but you're not coping well with the task. The portal operator of you..."

"I'm not a portal operator," the man suddenly interrupted. "I'm a border guard."

"Yeah, a border guard," Yura nodded as if he understood what was being said. "What's your name?"

"Vitaly."

"So, Vitaly, a border guard, will have to write a report..."

"Report?"

"Well, submit a report!" Yura corrected himself, not at all embarrassed. "The first point and such a failure! And are they out there - also lost?

He waved his hand towards the window, behind which the 'gardener' with a bucket in his hand went to the other end of the garden.

"Lost," Vitaly sighed. "I brought them out, but they no longer remembered their names or their former lives. Two are generally silent. Not a word can be achieved. The third still says something in monosyllables. Apparently, they wandered for so long that they managed to lose themselves. Where do they go like that? Here, while they live with me, they help in the household. I'm a fruit grower, like a farmer. Well, for the locals - a farmer."

"Yeah," Yura agreed again with meaning and, catching Vika's admiring look this time, he straightened up. "This will have to be reported. Screwed up! If not you, then others."

"I don't know where and when they got into the portal," Vitaly was confused. "My business is small - to bring out those who failed. And make sure that no one wanders into the square."

"It's bad, so watch out," Yura continued. "I wouldn't like to file a report, you are a good person. But, you know, they will find out about these comrades anyway. Their loved ones are probably looking for them! Therefore, it is better to report to the authorities before the hype rises. But I'll make it look like you had nothing to do with it."

"Yes, I have nothing to do with it! I'm..."

"I believe it, I believe it," Yura nodded. "But you'd better tell me everything in order. And I'll figure out how to report."

After some time, he and Vika left Vitaly's house, taking with them more information than they expected to receive. Yura could rightfully be proud of himself: today he was on a roll like never before.

Vitaly couldn't add anything more about the three unnamed workers than he had told. He actually discovered them a little over a week ago by the river. There were no physical injuries to the men, but they were all very scared. They didn't remember anything about themselves. But when Vitaly brought them to his house, one of them, seeing a brand-new tractor, perked up. Vitaly decided that in his usual life he was connected with mechanisms and let the man use the levers. And then there was a case for two other guests...

Word by word, led by Yura's skillful questioning, Vitaly also told about himself. His task is to control the 'square' and get the lost out of it. Vitaly emphasized that apart from the three unnamed men and Yura and Vika, no one else had to be taken out of the anomalous zone. And when asked how he became a border guard, Vitaly told a whole story.

More than twenty years ago, he served in the regional garrison. It was easy to serve: no hazing and absurd orders from the ensigns. Order and discipline reigned in the unit. Vitaly remembered several surnames not only of his colleagues, but also of his superiors. Hearing one of them, Vika started up and looked at Yura as if she wanted to say something, but when she came to her senses, she looked down at her hands folded in her lap. And Vitaly got up and put the kettle back on. Sausage, bread, some pickles, homemade cheese and boiled pork appeared on the table. Laying out the treats, Vitaly explained that he had bought a lot at the market, but the early vegetables were his own. And even though the guests were already full, they had lunch with an appetite. Vitaly looked out into the yard, checked that his employees were busy, and continued the story.

It was not allowed to leave the unit during the dismissal, but sometimes the command turned a blind eye to the movements of conscripts. They went to the city one by one or in pairs. It was necessary to return to the unit no later than two hours after leaving, while not catching the eye of the higher authorities and be sure to bring cigarettes for the commander. Taking advantage of the opportunity, other soldiers also made orders to the 'breadwinner'. On that day, Vitaly was appointed the 'breadwinner'. He was already returning to the unit with simple purchases, but lost his way and wandered into the forest.

The recruits knew that important officials from the capital came to their inconspicuous part every now and then. On such days, the soldiers were fed with special generosity. There were various rumors about what these visits were connected with, but they were based mainly on speculation. Vitaly didn't take these conversations seriously at all. Well, they go from the capital and go. The main thing is to be fed tasty and satisfying!

That evening, trying to get on the path leading to the secret hole in the fence, Vitaly walked a long way. Worried about the impending punishment, he didn't even realize how he ended up in a completely unfamiliar place. The forest ended, and the fence enclosing the part didn't appear. Instead, an empty gray field suddenly appeared. Then suddenly there was a chill. Dressed in a thin tunic, Vitaly instantly froze. Time in that strange place also seemed to freeze. Vitaly walked for quite a long time, but did not come anywhere. The cold numbed not only the hands and feet in the shoes, but also, it seemed, the insides. He tried to shout, but only a thin squeak escaped from his throat. And then Vitaly realized with terrifying clarity that he wouldn't come anywhere, he would die of cold and icy wind.

What happened next, he remembered vaguely. It seems that some person found him and took him somewhere. And then there was the hospital where Vitaly got frostbite and pneumonia. Ilya was visited not only by the leadership of the unit, but one day a 'metropolitan' man with an ugly pock-marked face and hair combed in one part also arrived. An important guest was interested in the health of the recruit and his 'adventures'.

Hospital imprisonment saved Vitaly's life. Later he learned about the tragedy that had played out in the garrison. Vitaly himself, in addition to pneumonia, 'got off' with gray hair, and also received a strange ability that he took for a long time for a mental disorder...

Vitaly visibly hesitated, deciding whether to tell the guests everything he had learned. But Yura managed not to let the interesting conversation fade away even here. And the man continued.

After those adventures, Vitaly began to have visions: it was as if a picture in black and white was superimposed on reality. And at such moments, instead of passers-by on the street, he saw strange creatures scattering to the sides. At first, these visions were rare, but over time the cases became more frequent. Frightened by what was happening, Vitaly turned to a doctor. He was treated for a long time, but the pills only temporarily extinguished the visions. Because of this mental disorder, his life didn't turn out the way Vitaly wanted: he didn't marry, didn't have children, didn't study anywhere. He helped his mother to run a simple household and worked in the field.

But one day, returning for lunch, Vitaly found a strange man at home who was twenty years older than him. The guest introduced himself as Koshelev Gennadiy Sergeevich, who served in the same unit where Vitaly once served. Koshelev asked about Vitaly's well-being and added that he was tracking his fate. He also uttered the phrase that Vitaly considered saving: the visions were not associated with a mental disorder, but with an acquired ability after contact with another world. Vitaly could partially see other parallels and their inhabitants.

Koshelev immediately warned that everything he would tell was secret. But even if Vitaly tries to talk with his tongue, his 'tales' will be mistaken for an exacerbation of mental illness. And Vitaly agreed with him.

Gennadiy Sergeevich said that secret tests were carried out behind the part at the landfill hidden in the forest. The purpose of those tests is to make military equipment 'invisible'. As an example, he cited a well-known experiment called Philadelphia...

"Is this the one that was held in the USA in the forties of the last century?" Yura perked up, because he had read about this experiment. Then the destroyer 'Eldridge' allegedly disappeared and moved in space, which they wanted to make 'invisible' for torpedoes.

Vitaly nodded, poured him some tea and continued his story.

The tests in the unit where Vitaly served, according to Gennadiy Sergeevich, were also based on a change in the magnetic field. And, as with the American experiment, something went wrong. No, the whole ship didn't disappear, because the ship wasn't there. But as a result of scientific experiments, completely unscientific phenomena began to occur: first objects began to disappear in the test zone, and then people.

Vitaly became the first missing person, but they were able to return him. But it was no longer possible to eliminate the consequences of the experiment that got out of control. The anomalous zone was spreading like an oil slick on water. This led to a tragedy. The case, of course, was classified, but the research continued. It turns out that during the tests, the force of the impact on the magnetic field was either violated or incorrectly calculated, so the boundary between the parallels was 'punched'. That's all that Gennadiy Sergeevich told, but Vitaly assumed that most of what he knew, Koshelev still hid.

Gennadiy Sergeevich came then to offer Vitaly a job. He had to settle here and conduct the usual gardening. But at the same time, Vitaly had to report on his visions, make sure that creatures from other worlds didn't break into ours and that people didn't wander into a certain square. Later, Vitaly discovered that he could find himself in another parallel for a short time. And even though he left very close to the border line, it helped him bring three men, Yura and Vika into our world. Otherwise, everything was calm: Vitaly kept the house, sold part of the harvest at the market, and gave the other part to the nearest military unit. But recently, some strange things have begun to happen, such as birds suddenly falling silent, darkness covering the 'square' in the middle of a sunny day, and bubbling in the river. This is where Vitaly concluded his story. Yura didn't ask him any more questions, considering that he had already learned so much.

"These are the businessmen who disappeared through the efforts of Rina," he confidently told Vika on the way through the field. "I recognized one of them, Serov. I Googled his picture!"

"Come on!" Vika was amazed and slowed down her pace, even though she was walking unhurriedly. "Then you need to advertise online, and report to the police. Surely their relatives are looking for them!"

"Wait. The hype will be terrible. And we don't need it yet. We don't know yet how... dangerous this is. And for us, and for your boss, and for Rina herself. If she's at Lebedev's, she's definitely not going to be well! And if these businessmen also 'pop up', then it's a real disaster for her. We'll make a fuss, of course, but later. So far, these guys are quite happy: they drive a tractor and rejoice. Tractor is clearly more interesting than deals."

"Nikolai's last name is Melnik. Like one of the bosses that Vitaly remembered," Vika added. "Nikolai's father died in that part."

"Wow! So he participated in the trials?"

"Maybe. Nikolai took up this case to get to the truth. But the truth is already almost clear: people from the town disappeared in a portal that was accidentally opened during the tests. Only they could not return them, like Vitaly. And the rest were killed by the creatures that broke out."

"Nevertheless, after some time everything calmed down, and now it has resumed," Yura reminded. "And I suspect it's Rina, since she's a portal girl."

"Or the experimenters have started testing again," Vika finished.

"There are still not enough details. Nikolai knows something, Rina knows something. We learned something. It's just a pity that we're all apart now. We'd make a good team. Even despite the fact that some people solve questions by the method of 'right in the face'."

Yura grinned and touched his swollen cheekbone.

"But the more I think, the more inclined I am to think that I 'brought' Lebedev after all. Unwittingly. And someone else called you. Someone who was more interested in what your boss would get to."

"We're both good," Vika sighed. And, wanting to change the subject, she exclaimed admiringly: "And you are well done! Cleverly split Vitaly!"

They decided to pick up their things and go to Moscow. Moreover, Manya is probably going insane from the fact that her brother doesn't call her and doesn't answer calls.

The house was met with silence. Yura went up to the porch first and pushed open the unlocked door.

"Wait! What is this?" Vika exclaimed and picked up a piece of paper pushed under the door. "It's from Stas!"

She showed Yura a drawing that again depicted an amusement park, but this time inhabited by scary creatures. Monsters were advancing from all sides on a petite girl with her hair braided in two braids.

"Rina!" Yura and Vika exclaimed at the same time and, without a word, rushed to the car.