– What else?! Five minutes? – he sighed, then added with a suffering look on his face, – Let him come in. A young lieutenant in a white medical coat over his tunic entered the office. The lenses of his gold- rimmed spectacles gleamed persistently. The general measured the newcomer with an angry glance from head to toe: – Well, what have you got?! – the imperious tone in his voice would have made anyone lose confidence in their own strength, but not the lieutenant:
– Allow me to hypnotize Major Gratsis! – he blurted out outright. The general was taken aback; he was not accustomed to without a "magic": «Allow me to turn?" – immediately the subordinates were talking about business.
– This is why?! – the general's bushy eyebrows went up in surprise.
“You see, the United States Air Force has been searching for and studying Unidentified Flying Objects for a long time,” and the lieutenant bravely, akimbo, stepped closer and threw the “Young Technician” magazine onto the general’s desk with an open article about UFOs from the United States. The general looked as lean as after a heavy hangover with expressionless eyes. Contemptuously measuring the puny lieutenant from the toes of his boots to his uniform cap and fatherly remarked:
– My dear, not a single fact of the existence of UFOs has been accepted by science. And what's there write these magazines, reacting to the provocative attacks of our opponents, let it remain on their conscience. We need to be more vigilant and not succumb to this kind of provocation.
– What do you call a provocation? An article in a magazine? And what happened to
Elena, how do you think it is?
– Young man, why didn't you give a nondisclosure agreement?
– I did! But I came to you, not to the policeman at the crossroads! And in addition, even a schoolchild today knows that modern services tracking, both in our country and in the United States, can almost instantly detect any object in near- earth space. In short, the facts indicate that the major Gracis has been kidnapped. The general looked at the medical lieutenant with almost bestial hatred: – Are you serious? – why, to some brat, a two- year- old, it occurred to him, and not to him, General Fyodorov. He hesitated for a minute, doubting his materialistic philosophical convictions, then suddenly realized that according to all the laws of physics this could not be, and said aloud:
– Do you understand what you are saying? This article, the purest water provocation American special services, picked up by politically uneducated journalists.
– Why, journalists? the lieutenant continued coolly, not paying attention to the enraged general. – The article was written by V. Selena, – to which the general did not answer, he stared unblinkingly at the glass of the visitor's glasses, becoming covered with crimson spots. The doctor watched with curiosity the changing appearance of the owner, what he thought at that time, it was easy to guess. Such metamorphoses are not pronounced by ear. Especially generals, seasoned in the brew of service crossings. Both were silent. The pause dragged on. Finally, the doctor spoke up:
– May I leave?
– Go! – barked like an angry lion, the general, waving his left hand, a gesture very reminiscent of the blow of an animal's paw on a rabbit driven into a dead end. At the same time, the general's wide cheekbones and round chin wrinkled into a funny grimace, full of evil wrinkles. When the massive office door closed behind the visitor, the general took an abandoned magazine from the table, rolled it up into a tube, and, patting the blue general's stripe on his right leg, walked to the window. From anger, thoughts were confused in the general's head, one more absurd than the other. It’s better not to know what was going on in the general’s convolutions, only one thought clearly and distinctly turned out to be correct:
