The Before Short Story Series. Part 1 - Иван Перепелятник

raised in the park, were located a few levels below. The snap of cold made the mountain air even more transparent and clean. Everything seemed to be flickering around.

‘I won’t argue with you this time. It’s an amazing place here,’ Igor replied. ‘When I come here, you know, after a few days I begin to perceive things differently. Time flows differently. Watching news channels becomes completely irrelevant for me. Moreover, I’d say that I am beginning to treat the information flow in a somewhat lenient way, you know. I am nearly moved by the seriousness with which we in our the so-called civilized world perceive what is happening in society. Here you finally understand what is really important, and what is just meaningless hustle and bustle.

So, yes, my friend, I am glad that fate has brought me here, where I can live as an individual, not merely as a member of a society with performance indicators that are measured online.’

Edward looked at Igor:

‘I see, you’ve planted deep roots here, taking in the philosophy of life… Ruslana, we have to be careful, and we definitely can’t stay here for a long time.’

‘Okay, okay,’ smiling to his friends, Igor pointed in the direction of the house. ‘Let’s go in at last, or we’ll freeze.’

Microplastic

The date of arrival of his friends fixed, Igor booked in advance the best table in a local restaurant—on the second floor near the window there was a great view of the canyon: they’d definitely like it.’

The choice of a place was not particularly difficult. In a small village, there were simply no other alternatives. But there was no need for them either. The restaurant, more like a local pub in some English village, was full of people at the end of the working week. As, indeed, on any other day.

It was hard to remember a morning when one wouldn’t notice, looking out of the window, skiers rushing to the lifts or just tourists walking around the village. This was the very idea of such small towns scattered across Nepal in its mountainous areas. Investors were ready to put money in the construction of clusters of small tourist centers, where scientific teams could be located as well. Everyone benefited—the flow of tourists, thinning out for a while from time to time, was compensated by permanent residents, for example, involved in research work, like Igor and his team.

Friday night is a special time, regardless of the point on the world map. The upcoming weekend was attracting people to get together. There was a buzz of conversations in the restaurant, with the music playing in the background finally concealing the words and voices, and competing with enthusiastic visitors by decibels of volume. Some young guy with an unruly beard, like a broom, a German judging by the accent, crawled to the panoramic window next to the table where Igor and his Moscow friends were sitting, and tried to explain something to his comrades pointing his finger at the window. A group of snowboarders sat nearby with large mugs of beer, blocking up the aisle with their gear. One might have thought that it didn’t matter in the end what sort of food was served there. But the chef clearly was of a different opinion about his mission. After reading complimentary reviews about the local cuisine, the whole area tried to get into the restaurant, including the two nearest villages.

‘Now, tell us! How is your project going?’

‘That’s a good question, Ed,’ Igor replied.

‘Well, we don’t do any other ones,’ the second round of glasses of red wine finally reconciled them, allowing to relax.

‘Our project is integrated into the global air composition monitoring system around the world. This station is not working in particular in the Himalayas just for nothing. It can be assumed that it is here that one of the cleanest ecological areas on the Earth is. But in fact, everything is somewhat different. In the southwest there is India, and in the north China. Our complex is located between two of the most active industrial zones on the planet. Depending on where the wind blows, we are always experiencing consequences either on one side or on the other. And we are literally experiencing and testing them. Our laboratory continuously monitors the composition of the atmosphere.’

‘Well, that’s it! Our mate got carried away!’ Edward winked at Ruslana.

‘You’ve asked the question yourself. So I’m telling you,’ ignoring the sarcasm, Igor continued enthusiastically. ‘What matters here? This is the key, the important moment,’ he moved closer to the table. ‘Over the past fifty years, we have made great progress on the environmental agenda. Suffice to mention just only one network of the ITER thermonuclear power plants all around the world.

This step alone has fundamentally changed the map of the energy system on the planet. And what is ITER? From an ecological point of view, this is a tangible reduction in the carbon footprint of humanity. And that in itself is priceless. And so far we are talking only about one example from a wide range of steps taken to improve the environmental situation.

‘Wait, Igor. And in such a case why are you… if ITER is such a great achievement, has changed everything around, what sort of negative environmental background from India and China are you talking about?’

‘Ed, let’s go step by step. We’ll get to that now. So,’ continued Igor, ‘as you know, the PAX artificial intelligence has brought in an invaluable gift to people—ITER, as Prometheus once gave us fire.’

‘What a rhetoric! Look at him!’ Edward laughed.

Not paying the slightest attention, Igor continued:

‘A network of decarbonizing installations on all the six continents where people are now leading active life. Recycling and disposal systems for all and everything— we are working hard on their efficiency, with greater depth of processing every year. The civilized world has practically stopped mining