"Gypsies! Are you stupid? Come on! I followed the familiar voice as Paul stood on the side of the road and waved at me, and around him there were at least two dozen people shooting at the Georgians outside the ramp.

"Withdraw! Evacuate! I yelled and pushed the people around me up the road, and a moment later I was on the highway. The Georgians below had just been hit head-on, and at this moment they did not know much about the situation here, and temporarily retreated to a sheltered place to begin to help the wounded.

I hurried to Paul's side, I had not seen these people he had brought with me, but everyone could see that they had come prepared, not like they had been gathered on an improvised basis.

"Who are these?" I asked.

Paul beckoned people to get into the car and prepare to retreat, and said, "Get in the car first and get out of here." ”

We quickly got into our cars and evacuated along the highway kilometers with the wounded and the bodies of some of the dead. On the way, the Grugi did not continue to pursue, nor did they make any interceptions. After about half an hour, we entered South Ossetia.

"These people are from South Ossetia, and they are here to meet us." Paul spoke.

"We're safe?" I asked.

Paul nodded, "The Georgians won't chase after them." They should know who is going to do this, and even if they don't know now, they will react soon. ”

"Then they're afraid? Do they know that they are afraid that they will have to follow NATO? I asked.

Paul shook his head and sighed, "Although Russia is much better now than it was when it first collapsed, it is not as good as before after all. But you have to know that a tiger that is sick is also a tiger and will never become a kitten. ”

I glanced at Paul and smiled bitterly and said, "Cats can't make it, but we have paid a lot of money this time." The losses of the Serbs are too great, this is training for others, how are you going to deal with the aftermath when it comes to this? ”

When Paul heard what I said, he was stunned for a moment and said, "You don't have to think about this, you should treat your injuries well when you get to a safe place." ”

Two days later I entered the territory of Russia, where everyone was given a chance to recuperate, and the wounded were well cared for and treated.

The old fellow and Klinger did not stay, and after a brief stop, the two of them continued on their way with the captives. It seems that there is something very important to do.

At this point, we have roughly counted the casualties, Berezov's Alpha 1, two killed and one wounded, which is more than half of the casualties. The worst were the Serbs, and almost everyone in my team who was still alive was wounded. Milk and the rest of the people lost most of them, and only thirteen Serbs who had arrived alive were thirty people. Only Paul, a few of them, and the two old fellows are complete.

I looked at the casualties, looked at Milk, who was also wounded, and said, "It's a huge loss." ”

Milk smiled helplessly and said: "I originally expected that this time I would bring this group of Serbs out to bleed, but I didn't expect this to be the result, and in the end, I used my life to find a way to escape." ”

"Reminds me of Chechnya, that night." I sighed.

"The day you withdrew?" Milk asked.

I nodded, "But this time it's much more imposing than that night, and the Georgians aren't as bloody as the Russians." ”

Milk smiled wryly and sighed when I said this, "If we were all so bloody, we would all have gone to hell." ”

A week later, all of us were sent back to Ukraine with minor injuries, leaving only a few seriously injured to continue treatment.

When he returned, Paul gathered everyone together to summarize the operation, and Berezov was among them.

After sitting down, everyone didn't speak, although the mission was successful, but the process was a bit embarrassing. So everyone's mood was not high, and no one spoke first.

I glanced at everyone, and Paul didn't seem to be in a high mood, and he, as the host, kept silent and just looked at everyone. I sighed and said, "We don't really need to bring so many people this time. ”

Everyone didn't say anything when I said this, just looked at me and waited for my next step. I looked at Paul and said, "This operation seems to be well-planned, but it doesn't work very well. I've thought about it for the past few days, and there were so many people dispatched that day, and it was quite imposing with a large number of people at the beginning, and it was quite smooth from entering to coming out, but do we really need so many people to carry out this operation? Looking back now, almost half of the hands are already rubbed together. We actually overestimated our opponent, overestimated it too much, and when we actually started to find that the opponent was not as well defended as we had anticipated, and the counterattack was not well organized. If we only need twenty people, we can still fight quickly. And with so many people in our hands, retreating is a big problem. Our goal is too big and there is nowhere to hide, so we can only fight all the way to South Ossetia. Originally, if we started in the city, the people in the city would be a good cover, and we could quickly disappear into the crowd and slowly sneak back to South Ossetia after careful planning. But when planning this operation, we did not have a detailed discussion about the retreat, and it was all about taking a step by step posture. A group of people rode the bus, swaggering through the city like a visiting group. In the end, everyone took turns to fight hard with the Georgians, and Milk and I were forced to retreat into that town, if it wasn't for the Serbs fighting bravely, and Berezov's Alpha 1 responding to us at a critical moment, I don't think we would have waited for Paul to bring someone to rescue, and we would have all been reimbursed in that town. ”

Paul was silent for a moment when I said this, and then looked at Milk, "What do you say, Milk?" ”

"The gypsies have a point. Our section of the road is not like a sneak attack at all, but more like a war in Chechnya. Milk said.

Berezov on the side said: "Why didn't you say these words when you planned at that time? ”

I glanced at him and said, "At that time? At that time, you gave me the feeling that it would be very intense at the beginning, and as long as we succeeded, we would run to South Ossetia, and the Georgians would have nothing to do with us. ”

"What do you mean by how we make you feel?" Berezov asked dissatisfiedly.

"Alright." Paul waved his hand, "Aren't we here to quarrel?" We were a little too careful this time, we had too many people, and they weren't seasoned veterans, which cost us some of our advantages, as the gypsies say. We really should sum it up. After all, we may have similar actions in the future, this time it was the Serbs who paid a heavy price, and if we make a mistake next time, it is likely that more than half of the people sitting here will be killed or wounded. Paul said, looking at me and Milk, and said, "Speaking of the Serbs, we have used them this time to cause losses and now we want to compensate them." ”

"How to compensate?" Milk asked.

Paul held up two fingers, "Two, one is to help them train personnel." They'll send people in soon. In fact, they were very satisfied with the results of the training. The second is to ask us to send people to them to fight with them after the training. ”

After hearing Paul's words, Milk and I looked at each other, and we could see in our eyes that Milk was the same as I thought, that is, "It can't be me." ”

"The people they sent are still up to you to practice. As for who will be sent to help them then, we will talk about it then. Paul said and looked at Berezov, "What is your opinion on this operation?" ”

"Intelligence! Damn intelligence! Berezov looked a little excited, "The information we have is completely insufficient to support this operation. First of all, where did so many Georgian military and police come, they attacked wave after wave. Yes, maybe we are indeed aiming too big as the gypsies say, but we calculate the time from beginning to end, and our movements are not slow, but how can we be bitten so hard? I've always felt that more than just goals can be explained. ”

"Are you saying that we do not fully understand the target's connection with the Georgians and the defenses?" Paul asked rhetorically.

"Isn't it? There must be a place not far from the military police on the retreat route, otherwise how could those military police catch up so quickly? Berezov said.

"And weapons can't either." Sasha said, "Not to mention the guns, but in the end, it seems that there are not enough ammunition." ”

"It's not enough." Milk continued: "The ammunition I ended up collecting from the wounded and the dead. The last grenade of the gypsies was taken by the Georgians. The RPG that Berezov used to fight BMPs was also Georgian. ”

"Actually, we don't have to carry that much ammo. The point is that the Georgians have been at war for too long. I said.

"In the future, we should really work on intelligence, otherwise we will have to go to hell one after another sooner or later." Berezov said depressedly.

The depressing summary took two hours to end, and Paul recorded a lot of stuff, and finally ended in a gloomy atmosphere. I walked out of the office building and looked at the old Serb kennel, which was now very clean, which made me suddenly a little unaccustomed, and even a little hopeful that the Serbs who would come again for training would come sooner.

The end of this volume, "The Seventeenth Bureau".