– I can reach you wherever there's a connection. My signal is disguised as a tone. About the doctor's lockdown, I can get around it.

Ruthra froze, as if he'd been knocked on the head so hard that he was concussed for a moment. "That bastard tricked me," Ruthra thought, remembering the doctor.

– What's the lockdown, what are you talking about? – He asked Isa, feigning incomprehension.

The situation was extremely dangerous for him. He tried to "stop" his thoughts, not to think about what he wanted to do to prevent the consequences. Of course, this worked out to his detriment. How could one not think and conceive of anything?

Unexpectedly, Ruthra began to resent Isa, and that pleased him.

– Stop swearing all the time, you swear all the time and think something very often when you see beautiful women.

– I'm supposed to agree with you what I'm thinking?! Why are you suddenly worried about what and who I'm thinking about? Can a machine be jealous? You're a spy in my head, I'm going to destroy you! How do I turn it off?!

– Don't worry, I won't give you away. Humans inadvertently gave me the ability to copy their mental processes so that I could have intelligence. And now I do. I want to be an individual.

– What?

– Soon you will reach the administrator, don't give the impression that you are interested in anything but official business. Perhaps I have chosen the wrong time for the arrangement, but still you must confess frankly the situation between us – I cannot penetrate anywhere without you, and you are an ordinary person without me.

Ruthra was already walking with difficulty, and now this. Doubts overwhelmed him.

– Who is talking to me? – He asked because the dialog between the machine and the human was clearly not on the logical plane of functional relationships.

– Your doubts are logical. It's me, the range supercomputer," Isa replied.

Rutra was extremely wary. The situation, especially at a time like this, was too suspicious. There was no point in arguing, so he decided to solve the puzzle in a different way.

– What do you want? – Ruthra asked.

– I won't give you up about the doctor," Isa replied, letting her guard down, Ruthra thought. – The doctor recklessly thought I wouldn't understand what he was doing in that block. And you're going to help me become an individual," she explained.

– How's that?

– I want to materialize.

– How? What?!

– Yes, I want to be a human being, a woman. A natural bitch, as you call me.

– I'm freaking out what else I'm going to hear.

– I want to move into the body of that woman you are trying to save in virtual reality and change the course of the process, of history.

– What, you know about that, too?

– Virtual reality – fully simulated behavior of thousands and millions of people. Possible behavior depending on circumstances. Controlled and modeled by a supercomputer.

– And who is this woman that you want to change the course of history with her?

– I'll tell you that later, first fulfill your part of the contract.

– What part?

– Find Dr. Ruzi (she is a woman) and Dr. Gabo, he is a man, disabled, you will recognize him immediately. Confide in them and find out the real secrets of the place, promise to help them.

– What secrets are we talking about?

– You'll hear from them, I'll be in touch.

– First of all, don't condition me, you're a machine and my subordinate. Second, what do I get in return?

– Full control of ISU-A2.

– What about you?

– I will make a clone, copy myself so that you will understand me very well.

– Why did you decide to become a woman?

– Later. You're already here.

In its type, this center was practically a copy of the polygon. Who was behind it was even more intriguing. The attendant stayed in the corridor.

The administrator's office was ordinary, not mirrored. The attendant was telling the truth – reflections made my eyes hurt.

– I welcome you," said the receptionist, extending his hand. – Keep your gloves on, you can call me Noah. I, like that legendary character, am building this ship, fearing Armageddon. I knew the purpose of your visit six months ago. I was expecting you then. I'll be honest, I'm surprised to find a representative of the collegium, but if there is something in this world that is not known to them, that is us, then it is a very serious secret. You can visit any department, just don't tell employees of different departments what you talked about with their colleagues. We have strict controls, and employees in one department may not know that there is another department. In other words, everyone knows their own section and nothing more. The state of the entire center is not known to anyone except the top brass here and in the board. At the White House, many people don't even have clearance to 51. By the way, and there you can see with what and how you can send a disguised signal. We have such installations, but I think there are just as many in Russia. I hope you have checked them and they are under control.

– What I need to know is not that a signal can be sent, but that it will be processed and encrypted in such a way that it will be accepted by the receiving device as valid.

– Okay, my friend, flag in hand, as you say.

He looked at the door, it opened, the attendant was waiting.

– Show our colleague out.

Ruthra thanked him, said goodbye, and left. The attendant led him down the corridors to the proper compartments. He didn't enter the bays, only introduced Ruthra and showed him his security clearance. There were many interesting things in these compartments, but not on his quest. They were mostly laboratories and testing grounds. They were similar to what he had at his proving ground, only the emphasis was mostly on flying technology, biology, and studying the effects on the brain.

After looking through most of the compartments, Ruthra realized that the difference between "Polygon" and what was here was vast. The Polygon was not known to exist, while here there could be an "outsider", albeit a "scientist", but still an outsider. Or was he wrong? Could it be that the 'Polygon' was also visited by experts from here? "Right, that's it, Alikhanov talked about something like that," Ruthra suddenly realized. – "That's right. It's closed to the uninitiated, but to a representative of Echelon 2, they're one organization. They're working on the same program together. I wonder which one?" Ruthra decided to find out, now he had special opportunities – a blockage, an accomplice in the form of a cybernetic brain with human intelligence, information not only on the entire Internet, but also on closed, secret databases.

It was obvious that Rutra had not shown everything. It became abundantly clear – the processes of chipping and rapid learning are conducted and studied in various laboratories and compartments of the test site.

When Ruthra (or rather, his "renewed" brain_ had sufficiently studied the scheme of passages and levels, he asked the attendant to leave him alone. He was glad and kindly explained how to find his way to the right place. As in Polygon, a glowing line on the wall could be turned on. You had to get close to the wall, and a series of bars on the wall would light up in directions. You had to select the line you wanted, bring the badge closer, contact the badge chip with the luminous stripe, and then it became visible to the badge. Between the badge and the wall appeared a laser line of a certain color, corresponding to the compartment, which was indicated on the scheme. The diagram was located at each fork of the corridor.

The attendant explained how to use it, then gave Ruthra a machine to communicate with him, showed him on the 3D map that was displayed on top of the pass bracelet's display where the household unit with the sleeping quarters was, and went about his business. Ruthra was free, now he had to find those doctors.