Key Breakthrough. Part Three. Breakthrough

A free roaming stalker, the Guide, agrees to take the Amber to the former mentor of his—the legendary Ghost—where the scientist Vasilyev is already waiting to send them together to the X-16 laboratory. But now there are two stalkers. This seemingly minor detail prevents Ghost from dying in the basement of the Amber. The carefree trip that begins throws the partners into a whirlwind of events that change the fates of hundreds of people—and even the Zone itself. Unusual abilities are not the only thing that distinguishes these stalkers from ordinary honest drifters. A secret scientific project reveals the real reasons why the heroes ended up in the Zone. Ordinary life turns out to be a thin veil through which a grand plan for building an entire ecosystem becomes visible—along with the purpose of the existence of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.