Grig… In the 2060s, a stalker with such a musical nickname was considered the best in the Moscow Zone. That’s why the leader of the order of Druids, Kostya Dum-Dum, assigned him to deliver a cargo to the Brotherhood fortress. But first, the cargo had to be fought for against the cybernetics of the corporation “Scales.” Cowardly, talkative, and completely unadapted to life in the Zone, the cargo—a man named Vasily Koperyov—pretended to be a journalist. Only incredible patience kept Grig from getting rid of such an unreliable charge. He had more than once wondered: who needed to send this walking absurdity into the Zone? And when the goal was achieved, Grig was confronted with a monstrous truth…