Stalker Andrei Lunev from the very beginning understood: something is wrong here… The officers of the International Inspection rushed to the center of Pripyat just a day before the next deadly emission, and Andrei, under contract, had to cover their backs, and after the inspectors completed their mysterious mission—to eliminate all outsiders who had touched the secret of the Call. But what if these “outsiders” had already saved his life twice in clashes with “wild” stalkers and countless mutants? Who are they—the short Smoker, inseparable from a flamethrower, and the black man with a Japanese sword, who deftly beheads his opponents? Deadly dangerous anomalies blocked the way for Lunev’s charges, but worse than that was something else: over the group loomed the shadow of betrayal…