"You assured us there wouldn't be any leaks... And what do we have? Your phenomena, damn it!"—the general's voice, that of a heavyset man of age, sounds hoarse and menacing.
"We call this force majeure," calmly replies someone from the Holding's staff.
"What kind of force majeure, damn it?!—explodes the general—"It's just a regular combat situation."
"But you assured us that the territory of the settlement was cleared, that the approaches were under control... And then a sniper appeared, along with two others armed with automatic weapons."
"Well, what can you do... Enemy sabotage group infiltration. It happens."
"Right in front of our location? What about... Coincidence? I don't think so," the military official's interlocutor chuckles, but not cheerfully at all.—"Someone really messed up our guys... And there's a rat in your headquarters."
"Be more careful with such... assumptions... That's not how it's called," the general exhales heavily.
"We're a private contractor. We call it improper provision of working conditions by the customer. Your counterintelligence screwed up, and my employees got caught in the crossfire. And besides, I warned you right away—operations of this kind are not our specialty. We're media-oriented... To make a loud entrance. To exit spectacularly. Not this whole thing... And I'm not even mentioning restrictions on filming. Every day without content costs a pretty penny... A big one!"
"All right... All right," concedes the general.—"What about your casualties?"
"That's none of your business."
"The Ministry of Defense could take on part of the expenses in case of death..."
"We say that death is the last thing to worry about,"—it seems the Holding employee chuckles again.—"Personally, I'm concerned about the production process. And information support. If we get proper data, the job will be done. Unless, of course, you're still interested in our participation..."
"Of course we're interested..." grumbles the general.