– I'm listening.
(Finishes the water)
– Is Antipov still flying?
– Still flying.
– Pour some more water. The water from the “neutral” is delicious. Where was I? Yes. Accordingly, we are very fortunate that the Americans fall under the Lightning182, that's the thing. There was no way to hide the Zone because of them. Although Gorbachev, and then even Yeltsin, gave their civilian subordinates instructions to submit such proposals, and then Yeltsin even delegated the question to the General Staff. I know this for sure. I had been transferred from Chernobyl to Kapustin not just because, I was present at all their tea-drinking meetings, have been wasting the time directly from the Lightning, from Ryzhkov's commission. That one, you won't remember. At all, starting from the first, on New Year's eve in eighty-nine…
– Sorry, you said “we are very fortunate with Americans”, Sergey Borisovich. Who are “we”?
(Pause)
– Humanity, damn it. Such an ufologist you are.
(Pause)
– I'm listening.
– So then yes, sir, listen. The Americans… Now what…
(Highlights “now”)
– …we are fortunate – it's understandable why. The internationalization of the Zone, albeit under a moratorium, is not going anywhere. But even then! In ninety-one, when I ran out of money all at once – Americans helped out. And earlier, straight away. In all the editorial offices of the Commission for the Zone affairs there were Americans. There are, for example, Yeltzin, Gorbachev and Nazarbaev sitting down and here is Matlock in a corner, rubbing his glasses. He went there like it was his work. Although, of course, there were secret meetings too. I'll tell you later… maybe. I remember that time I was agreeing with all of them, say, that would be good if the quarantine would be tight, up to the idea that the administrative border with Kazakhstan, at that time still a republic, should be moved for at least thirty kilometers off the exclusion zone around Kapustin and the rest of the test-site, like in Chernobyl, for fifty kilometers – even better. To decide something about the river, to start a project for a bridge across Ahtuba near Kotly, the highway and the railway to Astrakhan through it, through the floodplain… and total unity in military command. And of course, all this is sponsored by Americans. That's what was the politics… In the Soviet Union, until it was over, it would have still been possible, at least at the level of decision-making. We did not have enough time.
(Thinks)
– Actually, later the bridge was built somehow, but with the rest, with the quarantine, it didn't work out…
– Sergey Borisovich, sorry to interrupt, I didn't ask yesterday, the most interesting in all those meetings with the presidents for me…
– So you always interrupt! I have already told you: you can interrupt. Interrupt. You see, I confuse the dates. Enough apologizing. You're not a gentleman, and I'm not a monsieur.
– Have you there, in the Kremlin, considered at least some of the Lightning's other possible reasons? I mean – seriously. Because from the January 1990 there were already regular film shoots at the “thirteenth hostel”, the phalanx was also filmed in the garage cooperative, and things with time-space were already reliably recorded. And there was not a single corpse in the city – that was known from the beginning…
– Exactly so. But in general, there wasn't any talk about aliens, you know… They avoided it. And, accordingly, me too. What damn aliens, they said? Unknown kind and that's it. A gaz meteorite, it’s final. How can serious people talk about this?! Such words aren't even invented…
(Drinks)
– When Gaidar began to drag his father-in-law, the writer, Strugatsky, to these gatherings, I could see how they were jarred. Everybody was jarred. And it jarred me. Fiction writer at the meeting of a top-secret government commission! What a story… What are you staring at? The writer was invited not to a bathhouse for some culture, but to a serious adult meeting, with minutes… Gaidar, yes, he seriously considered it, but kept silent. He was a cunning, clever guy. And this Natanovich, although he's a science fiction writer, he used to be in the military, moreover, he was in our military, special one… He also acted smart. That was impressive. Like, he was just sitting with his stick, but whatever he says – everything is right to the point. He actually recommended announcing an indefinite quarantine, to build the camp for the troublers and not let anybody out… And those who had already left, to relatives maybe, following the resettlement program – make them come back. Notwithstanding the titles. Such a mess started there, whoa! Everybody was stunned. But I was ready to put a candle for him191 because of this for so many times! In the beginning – how they were all barking at him…with one voice. I was also barking, such a fool. Like, it's not nineteen thirty-seven anymore. Democracy, human rights. New thinking. Those times nobody even knew these words, that's what it is about.
– And Matlock? Was he there at the time?
– And Matlock was listening, sipping tea… Or whatever was in his thermos. Coca-Cola. We always kept his own thermos. And an interpreter. He spoke Russian, but not very well.
– And then?
– And he says: I think, he says, the opinion of Arkadiy Natanovitch is a deeply thoughtful opinion (it is full of thoughtful thought). And everyone immediately became silent. Impressive! It's horrendous what would have happened if there had been no quarantine.
– M-m, yes… And Strugatsky, did he also say nothing about an aliens, about UFOs?..
– I'm telling you, ufologist: with Gaidar they were birds of feather. Smart people, but father-in-law was experienced, been there. A drinker, a person who understands. But they both also knew how to keep quiet. And this book… About stalkers… He did write it, invented it in his head! When I was reading it, I did not believe my own eyes! Ten years before the Lightning… even more! With his brother… The book itself spoke for him. Even Yeltsin read it afterwards, I know this for sure… His brother, a scientist, was also at the meeting once… And in general I had a strange feeling that he, this Arkady, somehow knew something more, and knew it in advance. After all, Gorbachev reported object to the Commission about Zhitkur-9 not instantly, but when he had already signed his resignation. In January of ninety-one… The soviet Union was already finished.
(Laughs)
– That moment everybody lost the gift of speech. Yeltsin whacked his chair into the wall, consequently Primakov dropped the glass with kefir… And Gorbachev is just sits there, calm, blinks, fidgeting with a pen in a hands… So, this Arkady Strugatsky, in my opinion, didn't even change his face expression… Set that aside. Listen, ufologist, I lied to you, listen! Gaidar was not even there, at the first meetings! But Strugatsky already was present. He already attended the meetings in eighty-nine, Pavlov was there, Ryzhkov, Khryuchkov, of course, and no Yeltsin in sight, I had been flying from Ukraine… At Yazov's call.. Exactly!
– It is strange.
– Do you understand? Even I do not know everything, okay? Officially, I was transferred to Kapustin on the fifteenth of November, and on the twentieth, the first meeting of the Commission was held with Yeltsin invited as the president of the RSFSR. Because this was still the Soviet Union, not CIS… But Nazarbayev, yes, was already the president. Of the republic. And he was worrying a lot. Such a horror was happening in the Kazashsky Corner of the Zone. The terrifying walls of the fire, this plasma lava… Well, you saw the movie.
– Mm, well… And the name “Kazashsky”, did everybody call it so from the very beginning?
– I do not understand.
– “Kazakh” would be correct. Kazakh Corner, Kazakh Curve.
– Fuck knows. It just happened so. Actually, I never thought about it.
– By the way why did the main word not catch on if everything was by Strugatskys?
– What main word?
– Stalker.
– Stalker? Is this your question? A-a-a fuck kn… Set that aside, I remember! This Natanovich also asked me… it was disturbing him. That is when we were drinking with him later, already in ninety-five or ninety-six, when I was in Moscow for the last time… Why are you smiling, writer? Understandably that it was interesting for him… It did not catch on because of Americans. It's something offensive, from English slang. Wanker, or something like that. Sat that aside, I remember. A peeping tom. A sexual blackmailer, accordingly. Rubbish. So it did not catch on. And then you, ufologists, immediately appeared in the Pre-Zone, at that time there was an extraterrestrial craze among the people, and there, among you, ufologists, climbers and tourists of all sorts, so the “track”, “traverse”, all this, too. Well “track” is “track” and, accordingly, “trackers”. And it happened. In my opinion, therefore that is how. As for me, I prefer “walkers”, as we, military men, used to say. And aliens. Although there is a subtlety. Well, you know.
– I see. I'm very interested in the intensity called the “Mother's cracks”.
