“Mr. Cornet!” Gai exclaimed in an agitated voice. “But I really am in a difficult situation here! I know candidate Sim to be a capable, competent individual who is devoted to the goals of the Guards. I am sure that he will be very useful to us. But I really don’t know anything about his past! And as if that weren’t enough, he doesn’t even remember it himself. On the assumption that the Guards is a place for only those of unassailable integrity—”
“Yes, yes!” the cornet said impatiently. “Unassailable integrity, wholehearted devotion, to the very last drop, heart and soul… Let me put it in a nutshell, Corporal. You will retract one of these pieces of paper and tear it up this very moment. You have to think straight. I can’t report to the brigadier with two scraps of paper. It’s either yes or no. We’re in the Guards, not a college of philosophy, Corporal! Two minutes for reflection.”
The cornet took a thick folder of work documents out of the desk and flung it down in front of himself with an air of loathing. Gai bleakly glanced at the clock. This was an appallingly difficult choice to make. It was dishonorable and unguardsmanly to conceal from the command that he didn’t know enough about the recommendee, even when it was a matter of Maxim. But on the other hand it would be dishonorable and unguardsmanly to dodge responsibility by saddling the cornet with the decision; he had only seen Maxim twice, and that was in the company formation.
Well, all right. One more time. Pro: He has passionately embraced and accepted the goals of the Guards to liquidate the consequences of war and eliminate the intelligence network of the potential aggressor. He passed the medical examination at the Department of Public Health without the slightest hitch, and after Cornet To’ot and the HQ medical officer Zogu sent him to some kind of secret department, clearly for assessment, he successfully passed that check too. (Of course, that’s Maxim’s own testimony—he lost the documents—but how else could he possibly have turned up, entirely free of all surveillance?) And finally, he’s brave, a born warrior—he single-handedly dealt with Rat Catcher’s gang—and he’s amiable, easy to get along with, good-natured, and absolutely unselfish. All in all, he’s a person of genuinely exceptional abilities.
Con: We have absolutely no idea who he is or where he came from; he either can’t remember anything about his past or he doesn’t want to tell anybody… and he doesn’t have any documents. But is all of this really so very suspicious? The government only controls the borders and the central region. Even now two-thirds of the country’s territory is rife with anarchy, famine, and epidemics; people flee from those places, none of them have any documents, and the young ones don’t even know what documents are. And there are so many of them who are ill, or have lost their memory, or are even degenerates… In the final analysis, the most important thing is that Maxim isn’t a degenerate.
“Well, corporal?” the cornet inquired, leafing through his papers.
“Right you are, Mr. Cornet, sir,” Gai said in a despairing voice. “With your permission…” He took his own statement about the need to check on Maxim and slowly tore it up.
“A corrrrect decision!” the cornet barked. “That’s the guardsman’s way! Scraps of paper, ink, checks… Combat will check everything for us. When we get into our trucks and advance into the zone of nuclear traps, we’ll see soon enough who is our man and who isn’t.”
“Yes indeed, sir,” Gai said without any real confidence. He understood the old war dog very well, but he also saw very clearly that this war veteran and hero of coastal incidents was rather deluded, like all veterans and heroes. Combat was one thing, and unassailable integrity was another. But then, that didn’t apply to Maxim. Maxim’s integrity was crystal clear.
“Massaraksh!” the cornet exclaimed. “The Department of Health passed him, and everything after that is our business.” After coming out with this rather mysterious proposition, he gave Gai an angry look and added, “A guardsman has absolute trust in his friend, and if he doesn’t trust him, then he’s not a friend and he should be sent packing. You surprised me, Corporal. All right then, quick march to your section. There’s not much time left… During the operation I’ll keep an eye on this candidate myself.”
Gai clicked his heels and went out. Outside the door he permitted himself a smile. The old war dog hadn’t been able to hold back after all, and he had taken responsibility. Well, what was good was always good. Now Gai could consider Maxim his friend with a clean conscience. Mak Sim, that was. His real surname was unpronounceable. Either he had made it up while he was delirious, or he really must be one of those Highlanders… What was it that their ancient king was called… Zaremchichakbeshmusaraili?
Gai walked out onto the parade ground and looked around for his section. The indefatigable Pandi was driving the guys through the upper window of a mock-up of a three-story building. The guys were streaming with sweat, and that was bad, because there was only an hour left until the operation.
“Aaas you weeere!” Gai shouted from a distance.
“Aaas you were!” Pandi yelled. “Fall in!” The section quickly formed up. Pandi gave the command “Attention!” strode over to Gai in quick time, and reported, “Mr. Corporal, the section is engaged in negotiating the assault course.”
“Fall into line,” Gai ordered, trying to express dissatisfaction with the tone of his voice, in the same superlative way that Corporal Serembesh always managed to do it. He walked along in front of the formation with his hands clasped behind his back, peering into the familiar faces.
Those gray, light blue, and dark blue eyes followed his every movement, expressing a readiness to carry out any command by slightly bulging. He felt how close they were to him, and how dear, these twelve great hulks—six active privates of the Guards on the right flank and six candidates on the left, all wearing smart black one-piece coveralls with brightly polished buttons, all wearing gleaming boots with short tops, all wearing berets dashingly tugged down to the right eyebrow…
No, not all of them. At the center of the formation, on the right flank of the candidates, the candidate Mak Sim towered up above the others, a really fine, well-built figure of a man, Gai’s favorite, deplorable as it was for a commander to have favorites, but… hmm… Those strange brown eyes of his weren’t bulging. Well, never mind that, he would learn in time. But that… hmm…
Gai walked up to Maxim and fastened his top button. Then he went up on tiptoe and adjusted Maxim’s beret. That seemed to be all… Maxim was grinning from ear to ear in formation again. Well, never mind. He’d get out of the habit. He was a candidate, after all, the most junior man in the section…
In order to preserve the appearance of fairness, Gai adjusted the buckle of the man next to Maxim, although there was no need to do it. Then he took three steps back and gave the command “At ease.” The section stood “at ease”—moving their right feet slightly to the side and clasping their hands behind their backs.
“Guardsmen,” said Gai, “today we and our company go into action in a regular operation to neutralize the intelligence service agents of the potential enemy. The operation is carried out in accordance with format number thirty-three. No doubt the active privates among us remember their assigned functions under this format, but I consider it useful to remind our candidates who forget to fasten their buttons. Our section is assigned one entrance. The section divides into four groups—three groups of three men and an external reserve. The groups of three, consisting of two active privates and one candidate, go around the apartments in sequence, without kicking up a racket. On entering an apartment, each group of three acts as follows: the candidate guards the front door; the second private, allowing nothing to distract him, occupies the back entrance; and the senior private carries out an inspection of the premises. The reserve of three candidates, led by the head of the section—in this particular case by me—remains downstairs in the entrance, with the aim, first, of preventing anyone from leaving the building during the operation and, second, of immediately rendering assistance to any group of three that requires it. You know the composition of the groups of three and the reserve… Attention!” he said, taking another step back. “Into groups of three and the reserve group—divide!”