- Are you a foreigner? - said the old lady, who had been sitting unnoticed all this time on the seat opposite Zavirdyaev's. Or rather, in the row opposite - unlike Zavirdyaev, she had prudently taken a seat closer to the aisle.
- That's right, - answered Zavirdyaev, pointing his finger at his earpiece, thanks to which he understood the question, - I speak English.
These were the few words of German that he knew.
- Okay, that's normal, - answered the "dandelion".
- Actually, I came from Russia, - Zavirdyaev began in English. - I'm very disappointed with what they did to this train. It's good that everything is still okay here, inside.
The old lady looked at Zavirdyaev with a rather attentive gaze. Her face expressed a whole range of rather multidirectional emotions. This usually happens when a person has something to say, but can't plan his speech on the spot.
- How long has this been going on with you? - Zavirdyaev asked a leading question.
- Every mobilization for about three years, - answered the granny.
- I heard about something like that, but I didn't imagine that the picture would be so frank.
- Are you from the Airport? You haven't seen much yet. Your Russia was lucky in this regard with the demarche... Sorry, - she immediately corrected herself, - You paid a high price for it.
- You don't have to apologize, - Zavirdyaev answered conciliatorily. - And the exchange process, although slow, is happening. In general, this surprises me a little. It is usually believed that those who returned from the front sometimes go beyond the limits, but here it is the other way around. These are recently mobilized, aren't they? It can't be that they are all on vacation? Of course, Zavirdyaev had heard what these newly mobilized men thought, but it was quite interesting to hear the interpretation from the locals. Besides, it was still half an hour away, if not more, and since the old woman had started talking, let her speak out.
- It's like the "money in advance" principle, - the old woman answered. Everyone knows that not everyone will return. And those who stayed home will continue to watch the War on TV. Those who stayed are staying because they are lucky, and the mobilized were unlucky. At the same time, those who were lucky had lived in prosperity before. They were lucky because everything was good for them. Do you see how this looks? It looks like injustice.
- We are still recruiting contract units, - Zavirdyaev answered. - And a demarche is no obstacle to this. And in the first year, in addition to ideological motivation, there were contracts. And it's like that everywhere. That's why I am a little surprised by what I see here.
- And these are mostly contract ones. These have no other choice. In general, no. In this accounting department, everything has been calculated in advance for a long time, how many will die and how many will work.
- In the accounting department? - Zavirdyaev asked politely.
- You saw the fortress where the factory was located, right?
- Oh, you mean that? After all, this is industry. The command is in charge of sending people to the front and mobilization quotas.
The conversation was somewhat tongue-tied, but overall informative. The granny definitely had not only anti-war, but also "red" inclinations.
- Why do you talk like that when you understand perfectly well who owns everything, - she continued, - The problem is not even that, but that not everyone figured out equally quickly what and how, when the order began to change. So someone did not figure it out in advance. Someone's parents did not figure it out and now the person has no future. There are hundreds of thousands of such.
- Well, our economy is not all right either, - Zavirdyaev answered. - And it was not okay even when the Soviet Union collapsed. I saw it when I was a child. We are probably talking about different things now - there was no Great War then. I want to say that eventually this problem of yours will be resolved somehow. By conversion, for example.
- Well, yes, - answered the granny, - everything ends someday. The question is when. But in general, I think that you and I are talking about very similar things. Your people did not have time to adapt to the Western economy, and not everyone in our country has made the transition from the twenty-first century to the new one. You have probably seen how they show the last century. There is quite a lot of truth there, it is not a lie.
- Are you talking about a carefree lifestyle?
- Well, yes. The most outstanding thing here is that the cult of consumption, as it was called, came from America. Then another way of life came from there. Modern.
- You, in your society, probably have strong anti-American sentiments? We had them in the first year of the War, then somehow there was no time for it. And America itself got it. So they are not such collectors of benefits.
Zavirdyaev decided to take a kind of conciliatory position, although he really was not distinguished by any particular anti-Americanism.
- Of course, why beat someone in trade, if this someone is already your property. We were occupied from overseas so that we would not be captured by the Asian horde. If one thing, then another.
- I think there is some truth in the statement about the Asian horde. The Asians could well have gone for such an advance if our nations were disunited. Now a complete military defeat is considered a theory, but if we had not united, it would have been a real threat.
- I have no doubt about it, - the old woman answered coldly. - But many people say that it was quite possible to freeze the War, if not end it. Without this Conversion.
- I can agree with you, - answered Zavirdyaev. - You know, we have one rather odious region. I live nearby. - Zavirdyaev decided to direct the sad, hopeless conversation to a more lively channel and bombard with the topic of the Super-Federate.
- Are you talking about the Kuznetsk Region? - asked the old woman.
- Do you know about it? - Zavirdyaev was genuinely surprised.
- Who doesn't know? - the old woman perked up in turn. - My son returned from the African Front on leave in 2115, after which he was never seen here again, - she brightened up noticeably.
- Did he go there?
- Yes, exactly. The place is terrible, but it's much better than escaping from that African hell, returning, staying home and obediently heading back.
- Well, well, - Zavirdyaev said thoughtfully. - It's just a region adjacent to my region. Only three hundred kilometers to the east, - he added, continuing to lie, - and where is it for you? The right or left bank?
- RBSF, - the old woman answered, - aka SFS. They have something like a foreign legion there. A foreign corps.
- I know that very well, Zavirdyaev answered. We have a somewhat peculiar relationship with this Superfederant, but I have never heard a single bad word about foreigners.
Of course, Zavirdyaev greatly simplified such a perception of the right-bank units by an outside Russian, although the foreign corps really did have a reputation for being relatively decent people.
- You know, I'll give you one piece of advice, the old woman announced. - The train station will most likely also be full of our soldiers, and unlike the airport, they can be anywhere at the train station. The same can be said about the city. So, if something happens, just start speaking Russian. English will do, but Russian will be best.
- Why is that so?
- They have complaints exclusively about their own, that is, our people. Even an American would hardly get it seriously. This is a showdown exclusively within the framework of our society. Let them know that you are a foreigner, especially from Russia, and can feel at home on the pre-war streets among pre-war people. That's how it works for us.
- I haven't heard of anything like that, - Zavirdyaev sincerely admitted. - I've heard that it's easier for foreigners, but not that much.
Meanwhile, the train was slowing down, now and then taking off onto the overpasses that crossed the bundles of numerous tracks filled with cars.
- If only I could get her to the airbase without incident, Zavirdyaev thought to himself, glancing out the window.
His whole mission to Europe was to pick up the bad niece of the head of KANAR, "Doc," and take her to the airfield, where she would be flown by a Blok service plane to the territory controlled by her uncle. The flight still had to be arranged.
About a month ago, the flighty fool, the "princess", obviously bored in her uncle's "kingdom", left the Super Federation by certain tricks and headed first to the USA and then to South America. If she had somehow ended up, for example in the case of an unexpected landing of transport, on the territory of outer Russia, she would have been in big trouble.
Having predictably squandered the funds at her disposal, she, one must assume with the look of a beaten dog, showed up at one of the semi-underground KANAR recruiting stations scattered throughout all the countries of the Western Bloc.
One way or another, everything ended well for her - through the efforts of external supporters of the LBSF, she was delivered to a "closer approach", that is, to Germany, in the vicinity of Hanover, where she stayed in a private apartment of the same recruiting station. Judging by the video conversation, she had lost her enthusiasm and arrogance from the initial period of her escape and wanted to go home. That was good. There weren't enough stories where she would have disappeared or simply dug in her heels, having recovered from the misadventures she had endured. "Doc" in turn did not skimp on contacting a neutral CSCE officer, that is, Zavirdyaev, so that he would deliver his niece. He did not skimp on contacting him and paying for everything that was necessary and unnecessary. As a CSCE officer, Zavirdyaev could have quite safely escorted the "object" even if he had traveled by train through Russia. With false documents, of course, but still.