If glitches turn out to be not quite glitches and nightmares become fully plausible, you should wonder: maybe it’s someone’s doing? Maybe that “someone” is extremely interested in having Pyotr Makhсin become a obedient tool of some evil will and carry out a “mission” without even realizing it. And if he suspects something’s wrong and resists, getting rid of him won’t take long.
It’s unlikely that the disappearance of an ordinary ecologist sent to backward Russia to save and enlighten stubborn Russians who absolutely won’t join that convenient single global information space would become an international scandal. Still, when State Security takes the case of saving the Motherland and a person, the scenarios of arsonists and saboteurs can be tossed out—whether they’re three times brilliant aliens or four times advanced guests from the future…