A Guest from Afar

Alexander Lobanțev’s story “A Guest from Afar” is about an unusual mission assigned to a unit of Russian special forces in the mountains of Chechnya. Any task is carried out by the fighters without question—even when the unit commanders don’t know the final goal of the assignment. That’s what happens this time too. Judging by the status of the officers who arrived on site, set the task, and are waiting for its completion, the mission will be anything but easy. Especially because nobody knows the final objective. But the guys aren’t new to this. They keep pushing on stubbornly, regardless of obstacles. Everyone has different thoughts about the final goal, but nobody says it out loud. They don’t want to think about the possibility of a “group dump,” and besides, it doesn’t look like that. So what awaits the fighters when they arrive, on schedule, at the designated place?