"Valery Gorban. No one wanted to kill " - читать интересную книгу автора

your door with fire and signal flares - even in the daytime!"
Aibolit went into the corridor, smiled knowingly, and squinted
approvingly at the two, as if to say, "What a great guy the commander is -
he certainly knows our personnel." But meeting Chopin's cold, restrained
stare, he quickly pretended to be preoccupied and headed for the exit.
"Well, it's time for me to go. Take care of yourself. And don't be such
a bonehead!"
"You take care of yourself too, my friend. There aren't that many real
men around, either." She kissed him tenderly, as if he were a close relative
whom she had known for a thousand years.

Upon returning to the commandant's office, Chopin ordered his driver to
take him to the limits of the surrounding guard posts. He spoke briefly with
those in charge of the work details, then got onto the running board of the
Ural and glanced around. The combat engineers had already stretched a wire
obstacle along the edge of the minefield. The obstacle consisted of lengths
of telephone cable and sections of critically scarce barbed wire, and it
bore fresh warning signs in Russian and Chechen that fluttered in the wind.
Daddy-Well-Done and his mates were digging in the field beyond the obstacle,
emplacing the new mines that they had just received the day before.
Chopin rubbed his temples with his hands and stood there briefly. Then
he said, "Let's go!" and slammed the door.
As if to answer him, mortars began to thump somewhere beyond Grozniy's
air-port, filling the air with their deadly rustle and nauseating,
heart-rending wail.


x x x

1 OZM - an antipersonnel fragmentation mine of the "bouncing Betty" type

2 Nickname for Alexander

3 A narcotic antishock medication that Russian forces carry in their
individual first-aid pouches

4 Nickname for Vladimir

5 Character in a well-known Russian children's film

6 Ural-4320 - a five-ton truck widely used by Russian military and
paramilitary forces

7 BTR-80 - an armored personnel carrier

8 OMON - elite special purpose forces within the Russian police

9 Dzhokhar Dudayev, the leader of the Chechen separatists until his
death in 1996