The voice was silent. Ruthra waited a moment, looked at the doppelganger, who was also silent, then asked:

– All of them?

– That's it. Let's go," the doppelganger said calmly and walked forward, constantly turning down monotonous corridors.

Ruthra followed him. When he finally lost his coordination in space, the doppelganger stopped in front of a wall and said into an invisible speaker, "It's okay." The wall slid apart a little, forming a passage. It was the door to a room.

– Come in," the doppelganger "asked.

Ruthra saw an ordinary office, with a long table with a chair and chairs in the middle, a single shelf of books along the wall, and several shelves of electronic modules, each with glowing lights. There were no windows. In the chair sat a man in his sixties, almost completely gray-haired, with a slightly elongated face, blue eyes, neither fat nor thin.

– Good afternoon," he said and smiled.

– Kind," Ruthra replied without emotion.

– Sit down, I hope you've calmed down. It's always like that at the beginning of the journey.

"So it's practiced here. What kind of place is this? In whose department?" – Ruthra pondered.

– Who are you?

The master of the office rose from his desk, approached Rutra, and held out his hand.

– Yuri Yarovitovich," he introduced himself; taking Rutra under his elbow, he motioned for him to sit down.

– Rutra Tigrovich," Rutra introduced himself in turn and sat down at the table.

– I understand you're a bit taken aback," the man said, looking intently at Rutra and then at his double.

The man nodded and walked out, the door closing automatically.

– I'll try to explain everything briefly, but don't interrupt and don't ask questions. You can write down your questions, here's a sheet of paper and a pen. What I will tell you will seem incredible, but I think that your psyche is already a little prepared after acquaintance with Center Zero, Metro-2 and Metro-3. And before that you have seen a lot of things, read special literature, including, as far as I know, radical literature.

Ruthra decided to be quiet and listen to what he would be told to make sense of the situation.

– Tell me, Ruthra, when you were on a mission, where did the orders come from?

– From my superiors," Ruthra replied grudgingly.

– Okay, which one?

– From the direct," Ruthra replied, his whole demeanor showing that he thought these questions were foolish.

– Don't jump to conclusions, listen," said Yarovitovich. – Orders, orders, instructions go from superiors to subordinates. Right?

– Okay.

– And where is the most important link, where the first order comes from, where instructions for instructions, rules for rules are written? Do you know about the existence of commands in envelopes in case of X hour?

– You mean the secret envelopes that are kept in strategic centers? Envelopes that contain orders in case a special event occurs where you have to perform an action according to an enclosed instruction?

– Yeah. What do you know about them? What are they for?

– To ensure that no one knows about the contents of a secret order or instruction before the deadline, so that it does not have to be transmitted through communication channels. The reliability of secrecy and secrecy must be virtually 100 percent," Rutra said.

– If any of those who were to execute the order knew the contents of the instruction in advance, they would have the opportunity to "betray" the secret or deliberately avoid executing the order. When submarines were captured or a group of scouts failed, the command could be given to open package number so-and-so. The one who received such an order opened the package and saw that it was necessary to shoot the coder, launch a missile with a nuclear charge, etc. Some kind of unusual, unexpected solution.

– Yeah, I know.

– You have envelopes like that at Zero, too.

– I am aware of that," Rutra replied. – Yuri Vasilyevich told me that the president has such packages, but no one knows what they contain.

– Yes, there is, and did he tell you that once there was a violation? Gorbachev, out of curiosity, opened the packages and found that in one of them was an order for nuclear bombing of major cities, capitals of NATO strategic centers, world confessional centers. Gorbachev "surrendered" this plan to the NATO, showed that he was on their side, accused the Communist Party leadership of aggressive intentions.

– And there was no control over him? – Ruthra said a little sarcastically.

– The system worked a little differently back then. It was a victim of its own omnipotence. It is information that turns position into power. This system is very complicated. For example, so that no one knows who is the most important, there must always be public figures who are positioned for the public as the supreme power. Let me say even more – the supreme power itself should not know that there is a permanent organized system that controls the change and functioning of the official supreme power.

– So then what happened to Gorbachev?

– After the scandal broke out, which, by the way, was pre-planned (it is foolish to believe that the NATO bloc did not assume that the USSR had such a plan), I reported to Gorbachev on the results of a study of the moral implications for the country. Upon receiving his post, he thought he had taken the devil by the beard. Gorbachev had no idea what structure he was talking to, assuming that I was an ordinary KGB officer.

– All right. What does this situation have to do with it, why am I being treated this way, who is this double and where did he come from?

– You may find it hard to believe what I am about to say, but that is exactly what it is. If someone has secrets and uses them to rule the state and the people, he always wants to have a guarantee that he will be in power; even when those whom he rules are dissatisfied with that power. The real power is hidden. Everyone you see is an "entertainer." There is dirt and dossiers on everyone. The situation is as follows: there must be a guarantee that no one will know or guess about the system's innermost secrets. Even if someone does guess, what they say must border on the fantastic, that is, it must be implausible. Imagine you go out there to people and tell them all this. What would they say? They'll think you're crazy. That's all. The way you're being treated, it's the optimal method, calculated in advance. You're just an ordinary person here, an apprentice. Your future and even your life depend on how you do in your training.

Rutra was a little shocked by what he heard, and in his heart he began to reassure himself that by using the word "life" Yarowitowicz had meant it philosophically, though he began to feel that his own life was in danger. It became a little frightening. Scared that if he died here, his family wouldn't even know what had happened to him. Yarovitovich's calm manner of conversation, his penetrating gaze were alarming. A slight shiver ran through his body, the hair on his arms rippled slightly, and his brain puzzled over the question, "Is this what I wanted?" He hadn't counted on his new assignment leading to this. Like a sane person – the instinct for self-preservation kicked in. Money and career took a back seat, Rutra wanted to go home to his family, his children who needed him and rarely saw him. He blamed himself for sacrificing his personal interests quite often, for choosing service, but that was the way the system had brought him up. The thought of his family never left him, and he decided to get out of here by all means.

– I'd like to know what kind of guy met me?

– That's part of the plan, too. No random people get in here, just like Center Zero. Our system works clearly and without error. At a certain level, all the links in the human-action-result chain should already be clearly known. We have big plans for you. A doppelganger is not just your twin. The technology of genetic engineering after the disclosure of the genome code has gone so far that it is possible by changing it to make any copies, even mutants – half-human-half-animal. We took your biomaterial, processed it, calculated the code, inserted it into the chromosomal chain of the object, and it gradually began to change until it became completely like you. It is necessary for you to become friends, to begin to understand each other. In the future, you'll have to work in tandem. You're probably wondering why we're so encrypted. Understand, even if there is a voluntary/unvoluntary change of power up there, it should not affect us. We should be able to get out of here, with something that is technologically, technically and intellectually much more progressive and stronger, to once again become the power for those who were dissatisfied with the previous one.