Before: The Red Button.

‘Look guys, if we want our channel to take off, we need some breakthrough, relevant and resonant material’, Olga was talking. ‘Murzik of course is a pretty boy, and a hero—he saved a mouse from imprisonment in the basement at Tonya’s granny’s—but I’m afraid it won’t be enough to conquer YouTube, even here, at our place. Thirty-two people watched our last video about the repair of a bus stop near Meget, and I think, thirty were our friends, parents and relatives.’

‘Thus, we can conclude that Tonya’s Murzik attracts much more attention than our high-profile investigation about a broken bus stop glass on the Irkutsk-Angarsk public transport service and a heater failer at the bus stop’, Gleb agreed smiling. ‘So let’s film our good old Murzik!’ Gleb roared with laughter.
‘You know what’, Tonya objected indignantly, ‘when November frosts come, it will be below minus 30, and if this stop is not put in order, it won’t be funny to anyone at all. People will freeze waiting for the bus. That’s what matters! I’m sure our report is necessary—we are doing useful work for the community, by the way! So let us guys stop moaning here that we are so unhappy with the number of views. Wait for a month or two.’

‘Listen, you may console yourself as much as you wish, Tonya’, Olga retorted. ‘The point is that it doesn’t change
anything. Statistics: figures don’t lie—the number of views is weakly low. No one really cares about this bus stop. We need to do something about it if we really want to make an impact.’

Three teenagers were sitting in a café next to the window, ignoring the visitors glancing at the young people, enthusiastically discussing in high voices something of their own. Tonya and Olga were sitting on one side of the table. On the sofa opposite, next to Gleb, warm jackets and backpacks comfortably placed themselves. Everything was white outside, snowflakes were covering the street with a veil. Cars on the road confidently, made their way forward letting pedestrians cross the road at the traffic lights. A touch of frost and the first snow brought locals and tourists together in a cozy, warm café in the city center. The waiters were taking orders from the visitors flowing in and casting stern glances at the table where the trio had positioned themselves, consuming two small bottles of drinks already over an hour.

Tonya, blowing air through a straw into a bottle of coke, opened the Irkutsk News app on her communicator. ‘Here’s what people write’, and began reading out short annotations to articles in the app.
‘The Irkutsk Region Government has approved a federal program for the further development of a transport infrastructure in the region. By 2145, the energy supply trunks for a new transport system will reach far wider than just Irkutsk. All major regional centers, including Angarsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye, Sayansk, Tulun and a number of other cities will gradually become connected to the modern ecosystem of Russia and the entire continent, following the program of further integration into the new economy… The travel time from Moscow to Irkutsk will take no more than 6 hours on a high-speed shuttle…’

‘Or here’s another one’, Tonya was scrolling through the news feed further, ‘look, this news has already been viewed by over 5,000 people. “The construction of the second stage of the large Baikal Tourist Center goes on. Every year the Irkutsk region attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world. A new wellness complex, designed for 10,000 residents, will provide a five-star level of comfort for our guests…”

‘That’s not the right place to check, Tonya! Give me the phone!’ Gleb tried to grab the communicator. Tonya covered it with her hand, stopping her friend’s cheeky attempts. ‘Open it yourself then! Under the heading “What happened”. That’s exactly what everyone is always interested in. There’ll be the most of views there.’

‘OK, let’s look through “What happened”,’ Tonya agreed. ‘Well, well, what do we have here:.. “A happy reunion. A five-year-old girl lost her parents in the Siberia Shopping Center. The store employees helped the child and the girl’s parents…”, “A dangerous accident in the city center. An old electric car lost a wheel when turning from Zhelyabov to Federation Street. The rescue service helped the owner to evacuate the car…”, “The buyer could not pick up his order at the self-service point. The equipment breakdown led to a short-term malfunction of the passport scanner…”

‘Oh yeah, very impressive’, Olga drawled, covering her mouth with her hand and yawning. ‘The place is just so lively. The views are sky-high, 314 about a wheel on a wreck in the city center.’
‘Wait a minute! There may be something in it!’ Gleb started tapping his fingers at the table, looking Olga into the eye. ‘Let me have a better look at the message about the passport’, Gleb turned to Tonya.
‘Well, OK, have a go’, Tonya pushed the communicator across the table towards Gleb.
‘So’, Gleb began reading the message carefully.

“A Citizen’s Passport.

Ilya Ponamarev, the Irkutsk News editorial office correspondent, recently met with a resident of the city who couldn’t have picked up his order at the self-service department of the MegaMarket delivery service due to a failed passport scanner of a citizen of the Republic.

Why did this seemingly ordinary story attract the attention of our editorial staff? Our readers might ask such a question. What’s so special about this story? Let’s figure it out.
Let us briefly cover a historical and political-organizational situation. This case requires an understanding of the modern social system, the interaction of an individual, society and governmental structures. Let us remind our readers the basics in terms of structural and technical components.

Since the end of the 21st century, the passport of a citizen of the Federation, or, as it was also called, the Tracker, was implanted into the body at the stage the woman started carrying the child or while it was growing in special incubators, in maternity hospitals. The Tracker or passport, if you prefer it, has long been the key to all the modern infrastructure. Whatever you did and wherever you were, the digital identifier provides you access to everything—from the ability to enter your apartment or house, to get by transport to any point within the city or the country, even to travel all over the planet. You would not have been able to go to a grocery store or a beauty shop, and, perhaps, to any business or trade company without a passport. A person just would not have been served without a citizen identification. The passport provided continuous monitoring and control of the medical indicators of its owner, which was required not only for the citizen support by appropriate services in emergency situations, but was needed primarily for timely, and therefore early detection of negative trends in the health condition, allowing to make required amendments to the individual health program. Finally, last but not least, an important function of the Tracker was security. If the situation occured when the life, physical or psychological health of an individual were threatened by something or someone, the PAX system—a distributed system of quantum computers which was monitoring, analyzing and managing the main life systems—would identify relevant situations and would react to them even in a preventive mode. Summing up, without a passport, a person was not a citizen of the Republic and could not interact with any part of it in the official or commercial sphere. One was simply invisible to society.
It would be safe to assume that bearing the functions of the tracker so critical for a person, the counterpart of the PAX system, responsible for identification and interaction with a person, has to be reliable as a must. For a smooth functioning of the system with a high degree of probability, close to 100%, any built-in scanning system even for the least critical public infrastructure at the very least has a double for back-up. And in critical applications, for example, in automatic control systems of a high-speed mainline shuttle, the system has a four-fold redundancy. Moreover, two of the four backup control units operate remotely via ultra-high-speed communication networks. In the entire history of the PAX, not a single failure of control systems with triple redundancy has been registered, and malfunctions in systems with two modules have been an exceptional event subject to thorough investigation and identification of the reasons for failure. Each such situation is thoroughly investigated by the PAX security specialists in order to identify potentially weak links and eliminate them.

Taking into account the theoretical basis and the unique nature of the situation that took place in Irkutsk in an ordinary post office in the first week of October 2142, our agency could not help but pay attention to it. We found a resident of Irkutsk, who came as a first-hand participant of the story, and asked him about what had happened.

Irkutsk news: Alexey Petrovich, please tell us how it was—what happened to you on October 7 at the MegaMarket post office.

Alexey Petrovich: There’s nothing to tell. There’s not much to tell, I’d say, there’s nothing. In the evening after work I went to the post office, next to my house. I wanted to pick up my order—I bought my daughter a birthday present. Her birthday was on October 10th. Anna, my wife, and I decided to make a gift for my daughter…

Irkutsk news: Alexey Petrovich, please tell us in some more detail just what it was that happened there in the post
office.

Alexey Petrovich: Nothing happened. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. So I went to the post office. I checked on my phone what my cell was, where my order should have been stored. I approached the cell, but it would not open. That’s actually all. You can see everything on the video, on the CCTV.

Irkutsk news: Alexey Petrovich, do you maybe happen to know why the cell in which your order was stored didn’t open? Might the lock mechanism be broken?

Alexey Petrovich: Well no. What can I know. They seem to have said later, when the courier delivered my order to me, that there was a problem with the program. There was something wrong with it. That’s how I got it.

Irkutsk news: Alexey Petrovich, thank you for your answers. And wish your daughter a happy birthday from us!

All the details of this seemingly unremarkable story, as told by Alexey Petrovich, have been transferred to the PAX security service, which will now carefully investigate the situation. We will keep you, dear readers of the Irkutsk News, informed of its development as new details become available to our editorial staff."

‘Well, why do you say it’s interesting, Gleb?’ Olga asked.
‘What do you mean, why! This is the very story for prime news. It will attract attention!’ Gleb retorted excitedly. ‘Don’t you see that!?
‘What? A report about a guy who failed to pick up his order from the post office? Gleb, what’s going on with you?’ Tonya looked at him in surprise. ‘It’s better to shoot videos about Murzik and the rescued micae! And then, there will be a better feedback altogether!’
‘Yes, damn it … Well, you… what does the man have to do with it, Tonya!’ Gleb answered calmly with deliberation. ‘It’s about the passport, about the Tracker, about what it means for a person of today! About what it means to be outside the system, the world! That’s what we have to make our next video about! And it will definitely be an interesting story!’
‘If I understand your idea correctly,’ Olga went on, wrinkling her forehead a little, ‘you are suggesting that we meet with divergents!? So what is it?’
‘Bingo!!’ Gleb exclaimed even too loudly.

The visitors of the café turned in surprise to the table, at which a tense discussion of the teenagers was going on. A slim guy sitting opposite the two girls at the table turned slowly and looked in the café hall. ‘Excuse me’, Gleb muttered.
The waiter came to the table. ‘Do you guys want to order anything else? You’ve been sitting here for more than an hour and still drinking two bottles of Cola. I don’t mind. You are welcome. But there are people standing out there, waiting for the seats to be vacated. So, will there be anything else to order?’

‘No, thank you very much. We are just about to leave’. Getting up from the sagging sofa, Olga answered.
Everyone started collecting their belongings. It was already quite dark outside.

‘It’s been snowing! That’s so beautiful! Everything is clean and white around!’ Gleb spoke in a slightly singsong voice.
‘It’s just a little cold somehow. Brr …’ Huddled in an oversized full-length down jacket, Tonya muttered, wrapped as well in a scarf that covered her face almost to the eyes. ‘I want to go home.’

‘Okay. Let’s do it. I’ll think over all the details of the script tonight, forward it to you, and tomorrow, right after class, we’ll discuss everything again.’ Gleb suggested.
‘I am for. We’ll discuss everything tomorrow. Bye!’ Olga began saying goodbye. ‘I hope you’re not serious about Cheremkhovo, Gleb. This story about an old abandoned mine and its weird inhabitants may end badly.’

‘Well, let’s think over everything and make sure that all goes according to our plan, so that everything is OK! Well, all right, bye!’ Gleb turned around and, making sure that he had time to cross the roadway between the stream of cars, ran across to the other side of the street.

‘I don’t know, Tonya, somehow this whole idea looks somewhat… It’s simply dangerous’. Staring after Gleb, Olga
noted.
‘Look, I agree, Olga. But, on the other hand, we will never be able to achieve anything if we only do what is safe and strictly by the rules. Let’s talk together again tomorrow.’
The friends hugged each other and headed in different directions.

It would seem, one could physically touch the evening energy of the city. Just reach out. Cafés and restaurants on the first line of the central streets, fashionable dress stores outshouted each other with their bright lights in an endless succession ready to lure a new buyer in. High-rise office centers and employees still, though it was so late, unwilling to give in to the will of fatigue, and the endless river of transport carried people over to friends and families, accelerating the pace every minute. Everyone after their own destination, their own purpose.
‘Tonight Irkutsk reminds me of Christmas,’ Sergey thought, sitting on a bench in a park, sipping hot tea with cognac from his small tin flask. He chose a place where no one would disturb them. And the weather was perfect for business meetings. A thick snow veil did its job—you could see the silhouettes, but nothing more. Sergey checked the weather forecast on his communicator. No changes predicted for the next two hours. “Snowfall will continue until at least midnight.”
‘Wonderful. Let’s take this as a good sign,’ Sergey whispered.
He angled his left arm and slightly pressed his palm on the end of the sleeve, holding two fingers for a second, as if measuring his pulse. On his wrist, the scale for adjusting the temperature of the down jacket was barely noticeable, Sergey lightly ran his hand along it. ‘It’s better this way. Too hot’.

‘Good evening. Sergey?’ A man in a gray coat and patent leather shoes, in a lush ushanka hat, obviously not dressed for the weather, approached Sergey sitting on a bench.
‘Hello, Igor. Please sit down.’ Sergey gestured to a place to his right.
‘I suggest we walk a little around the park. Somehow I didn’t guess the weather today. I hope you don’t mind,’ Igor turned to his counterpart, carefully examining him from head to toe.
‘A walk sounds good enough. Let’s go.’
‘You were recommended to me as an exceptional specialist. They say you are able to turn day into night, and night into day,’ Igor addressed his companion.
‘Sounds mysterious, but I must admit my professional skills are somewhat exaggerated. If I can briefly describe the nature of our upcoming work with you, if of course, I understand the task correctly, we can say that those who made recommendations are not that far wrong.’

‘Great, Sergey. May I put this straight? I am a man of business and time is key for me’, Igor stared at Sergey for a second.
‘That’s why we are meeting here with you: to discuss the job and the terms for it to be done. It would be unfair to drag out our conversation longer than required, given your dress-up gear.’

‘It’s good. As I see it, you are an observant and thoughtful person. You were recommended to me as a specialist in your field. OK then. What I need is to have the opportunity to exclude myself from the system, to become invisible when necessary. Or, as a second option, to appear to the system as someone else.

‘The second task will be much more difficult, Igor. Such a solution would require more time and additional resource.’
‘You will get everything you need. But time, Sergey, as I noted, is an important issue. I would like everything to be ready within two weeks.’
‘I am ready to provide a solution to the first part within the next week. The second will require an additional two weeks, and the payment will have to be double.’
‘All right, Sergey. Great!’ Igor agreed without hesitation.
‘I would need samples of your DNA, all the indicators of your personality, from your voice to a complete blood count.’
‘You already have some of the answers, haven’t you?’ Igor glanced at the counterpart. ‘Anything else you need will be forwarded to you. Nice to meet you, Sergey. I am confident that everything will go according to the plan. It can’t be otherwise.’

‘My feet are frozen stiff.’ With a quick step, almost running, Igor moved away from the hacker.

Sergey walked around the park, breaking up the fluffy snow under his feet. Having settled down on a bench to wait for his new client, Sergey took out a communicator and started carefully looking through the collected information. The built-in scanner did its job.

“Petr Ivanovich Iganov.
Gender: male.
Citizenship: citizen of the Federation, Russia.
Age: 96 years old.
Primary place of residence: Moscow.

Height: 1 m 78 cm
Weight: 79 kg
Pressure: 123/86 mmHg
Body temperature: 36,5 ℃
Blood type: 0(I) Rh+

Access to services: unlimited.
…’’

‘A weird guy…’ thought Sergey. ‘A well-known entrepreneur, wealthy industrialist. There is something to work with. I hope he flew to Irkutsk not only for the sake of a five-minute meeting with me. It’s cold for him somehow.’
Sergey took a couple of sips out of his flask.
‘Damn it! The tea is already cold at all!’

‘Sasha, you keep an eye on this Sergey until the end of the month.’ Pyotr Ivanovich gestured in quotation marks.
‘All right, Pyotr Ivanovich.’
‘Nothing else at the moment. Just make sure everything goes according to the plan. That he does his job and keeps his nose clean,’ Iganov ordered, rubbing his hands vigorously, trying to warm himself.
On the monitor at the eye level of the passengers in the back row, a man in an ankle-long black coat was heading towards the exit from the park.

A tall man in a suit and tie stepped out of a dark-blue limousine. The head of security watched the red lights of the boss’s car slowly picking up speed and got into a nearby four-by-four. He watched a man in a black coat in the park for several minutes on the communicator, then pressed a button on the screen. A drone parked neatly on the roof of the car.

‘Alice, turn off the music.’ Olga gave instructions to the taxi management system.
The car was immediately filled with the muffled sounds of the road.
‘Let’s repeat the main outline of the scenario. Gleb, what do we have there? Let’s go through it once again’, Olga turned to her friends.
‘It’s all straightforward,’ said Gleb. ‘(1) Filming on the way to Cheremkhovo. You and Tonya are on the camera. Inside the cabin, you say what kind of town it is and why it is so important for our history. (2) We take a break on the way to shoot more footage that we can then use when editing the video. (3) We do a few shots in the town center when we arrive. We will try to talk with locals on our topic—what they know about their neighbours, what they have heard about divergents, are they worried about such a neighborhood. It is obvious that they know and have heard. The question is whether they want to talk about it,’ continued Gleb. ‘Whatever it is, no matter what they tell us and no matter how they react, such an information will only benefit us. The fourth and most important is the main task: surveying the mines. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to chat with the divergents themselves.’
‘Yeah, if we are lucky’, Tonya giggled nervously. ‘If we’re lucky, we won’t talk.’
‘Listen, with such an attitude’, Gleb turned to Tonya, ‘better not go there at all.’
‘Gleb, you really did a great job’, Olga interfered to stop the next verbal fight and a heated discusion in the bud. ‘I read the script you sent, all your notes and references. Really, well done! Everything just to the point.’
‘Thanks!’ Gleb smiled. ‘I really hope that we will outplay Tonya’s Murz!’
They all burst into laughter.

‘Okay, Tonya,’ Gleb continued, trying to set his camera somewhere. ‘We need to work out the first part—the introductory words about the history of Cheremkhovo.

‘Take one!’ Gleb declared somewhat solemnly.
Tonya fidgeted in her chair, fixed up her hair and began the story.

‘Hello everyone! Today our whole team—Olga, Gleb and myself—are going to Cheremkhovo to the abandoned mines. As for now we have already covered about half of the way to the town, located about 19 miles from Irkutsk. Underground transport highways in the direction of Cheremkhovo are yet not operational, so we make use of a good old electric car for our journey. This means that the travel time will not be measured in minutes, as many of you are used to. I must admit, the road to the town is not in the best condition. So don’t be surprised—the car can sometimes shake a little on bumps. We should be there within half an hour.’
‘Cheremkhovo will soon turn 400 years old, friends,’ Tonya continued. ‘For many years, the city had been living only on coal mining. But since the middle of the 21st century, mining had stopped, which further added to the pressure on its economy. The decline in population, unfortunately, continued. Now about ten thousand people live in Cheremkhovo. Today, the main income for citizens is from two sources. The first one is tourism. Many tourists coming to relax at our unique Baikal resort, known all over the world, are interested in seeing the other side of life. The open-pit mines of Cheremkhovo, where coal mining has been carried out for about 200 years, make a strong emotional impression. Coal mines, like bleeding scars and ulcers on a live body, are a clear demonstration of of how difficult the ecological situation in the region used to be. If you take a bird’s-eye view high from the sky at the entire mining quarry, a complete picture of the damage to the ecological balance caused by man at the time appears. These are such complex routes—walking and flying around the site—that local guides practice, entertaining tourists. They say that this program is very popular and well-paid.’

Tonya stopped, ‘Gleb, won’t this be too much—‘bleeding scars and ulcers on a live body’—isn’t it too eloquent a description? There are yet no such scars there.’
‘Tonya, first look into literature, the history of the town, archive documents. I have prepared thoroughly—the text is based on proven facts. There’re no my devices here,’ Gleb insisted on his line. ‘You’d better keep moving, come on. We have absolutely no time left before we get to the city.’

‘Mining at Cheremkhovo had been stopped long ago’, Tonya continued the story, looking into the camera. ‘Thermonuclear ITERs provide new energy for the world, as an inexhaustible source of modern power and potential for industry and economy. But much more interesting for our story is the second source of income for citizens. About 15 years ago, a new high-tech production of capsules for Trackers was launched in the city. Yes, of course, you are right, those same Trackers or identity passports, the unique chips that identify a person, tracking bio-activity indicators, and which also provide a preventive security function. It is important to emphasize, please don’t be confused, we are not talking here about production of all the complex inner filling for the Tracker—only about its shell. We note right away that although this is a shell of a chip, it is not less complex or sophisticated because of this. Just imagine—the entire range of capabilities of this device has to function reliably in the human body for at least 300 years. Life expectancy at the beginning of the century has reached 200 years. Our contemporary supercentenerians, who get listed in the Guinness Book of Records, live up to 220–230 years. Three centuries is exactly the lifetime of the Tracker as drafted by the designers. Such a chip in my body has been functioning for more than 20 years. Guys, imagine what a critically important element this shell is!’
‘The paradox of this story is this.’ The camera switched to Olga. ‘On the one hand, the regional authorities, stimulating the economy of Cheremkhovo, have launched the production of capsules for Trackers. This is an excellent investment, help for residents, new jobs, taxes to the budget, employment possibilities. Nothing to lose, a world to gain! At the same time, there are rumors that it is in Cheremkhovo, not far from the city, that one of the communities of renegades or, as they are also called, divergents is located. And as you know, divergents are those who reject new opportunities offered by modern infrastructure of the economy, a new quality of life, access to which is possible due to the integration of the chip into the human body even before birth. Tracker is the key to everything! From the monthly minimum social allowance for a citizen of the Republic, to the opportunity to get to the lunar colony. Unless, of course, you are very lucky, or you are very rich, or you are directly related to the scientific programs under development on the Moon.’ Olga smiled and continued. ‘In order to safely hide themselves from the PAX system—and divergents view it as one of the greatest evils of modern life, which deprives us, as they believe, of the right to be individuals, to choose, to destiny and life itself—they have to look for nooks, remote places to carry on life.’
‘Olga, but don’t they have to earn for their living somehow, to buy food, clothes, and anything else necessary?’ Both girls were already on the camera.
‘That’s right, Tonya. Nowadays, it is difficult to live without a digital identifier, to say the least. The reason for choosing Cheremkhovo, as we understand, is not accidental at all. In mines or open pits, in an abandoned industrial zone, there may be laboratories, some production lines or workshops where people can work, almost invisible to the world.’
‘Olya, it doesn’t work out somehow. How can it be that we have heard about divergents in Cheremkhovo, and the
all-seeing PAX is not aware of what is happening under its nose. It’s hard to believe such a story!’
‘This is our main goal for today, Tonya, to understand how really things are in Cheremkhovo, what is happening there, who works, how divergents live, if there are at all.’

‘Great! Filmed! Well done, Tonya, Olya! Camera, stop!’ Gleb gave instructions.

Alexey was walking quickly along the brightly lit, seemingly endless corridor. On both sides of it, at regular intervals on each door leading to the offices of employees, there were screens displaying department numbers, first and last names. Alexey looked at his watch. ‘Pulse 115. Need to calm down. Sergey Semyonovich would not stand weakness. And being nervous is definitely not a manifestation of strength.’ He stopped abruptly and began to take short breaths, leaning against the wall, ‘Inhale-exhale, inhale-exhale. Everything is fine. I’m good. Inhale-exhale…’

‘Head of the Emergency Monitoring Department.
Sergey Semyonovich Zhdanets’.

‘Sergey Semyonovich, good afternoon. Is there a chance to have a quick talk now? There is quite an urgent issue’. Alexey decided that it would be prudent to call him first before interrupting the boss’s work schedule.
‘Ah, Alexey! Hi! Come in. I’m just about to leave for a meeting. Please walk me to my car. Will we have time to discuss everything?’
‘Of course, Sergey Semyonovich! I’m already here, right behind your door.’

‘Sergey Semyonovich, there is some reason to believe that the meeting may have to be postponed. The issue is quite urgent!’ Alexey began from the doorway.
‘Really!? A morning can’t be good? I see you’ve decided to re-enforce the old rule.’

‘Sergey Semyonovich, here is a story. Three teenagers from Irkutsk decided to shoot a video for YouTube about the settlement of divergents near Cheremkhovo. They are already in town, in Cheremkhovo, arrived there. That’s to start with. In addition, Sergey Semyonovich, the system classified this situation as requiring special attention.’
‘Well!? Really, Alyosha? And what does the AI find so important in this case?’

‘So that’s the question, Sergey Semyonovich. If it wasn’t for the red marker, would I have worried you over trifles! The system predicts with a 94% probability a connection between teenagers, Iganov and a hacker from Cheremkhovo.
‘Right!?’ Sergey Semyonovich seemed even more surprised. ‘The same Iganov, the president of that group… what’s the name… System X?‘
‘Precisely, Sergey Semyonovich.’
‘Indeed, Alexey, it does look right for you to take me, so to speak, out of the flow … let’s go through everything in detail.’
‘It turns out that the story is as follows.’ Alexey started reporting quickly. ‘The other day in a café in Irkutsk, the teenagers were discussing a case with a broken mail machine. Moreover, as our security officers found out, the reason for the breakdown at the post office was an external impact on its scanners.’
‘Was it?’ Sergey Semyonovich looked at the young employee in surprise. ‘That is interesting.’
‘So it is, Sergey Semyonovich. More than amazing. Furthermore, the system recorded a meeting, again in Irkutsk, of Iganov with a certain person, at first not identified. Later the same day, the system by the digital passport identified a citizen named Alexey Petrovich Fomin at the metro station entrance in the center of Irkutsk as the person with whom Iganov had met. So, Sergey Semyonovich, this Fomin guy is a chracter directly involved in the story of the broken mail machine, which led the bunch in the café to the idea of a trip to Cheremkhovo. And then it’s already possible to put two and two together into a bigger picture without the brains of the PAX.’
‘Well-well, Alyosha,’ Sergey Semyonovich drawled, looking at some additional information on the screen, ‘it wouldn’t have been easy for you and me to see the picture this way, from this angle, to connect everything like this, and even actually online. A simple mail machine, which did not succumb to the hacked Tracker of this fashion specialist, let him down.’

Alexey was waiting for the decision of the boss who studied the detailed report on the computer for a few more
minutes. Having received authorization, the PAX initiated provisional detention of the hacker and Iganov, and the safe
evacuation of Olga, Tonya and Gleb.