98
TALES FROMTHE FUTURE
by the hive entrance, and watched them fly. The bees. . . . Lots of bees
crawled over her arms, legs, and cheek, but they didn’t sting. Dashenka held
out her palm to the bees and they would land on it and leave something be-
hind. Then she would lick her palm and laugh. She’s good, Papa.”
“Calm down, Kostya. Don’t get upset. Let’s assess the situation calmly.
Yes, we need to think it all through calmly. . . . Dasha is still a child. She
blew up several modern missile complexes. She could have started a world
war. A terrible war. But even without a war . . . If she’d looked through pic-
tures of our missiles and not just our enemy’s. If all the missiles in all coun-
tries started blowing up, the world could find itself on the bring of total dis-
aster. Hundreds of millions of lives could be lost. I love our little Dasha, too.
But millions. . . . We have to consult. We have to find a solution. But for
now. I don’t know. . . . Dashenka has to be isolated somehow. Somehow. . . .
Yes. She might have to be put into a hypnotic sleep for a while. She might. . .
. But what is the solution? What other solution can be found?”
“Papa, Papa . . . wait up. Maybe we could remove all the lethal missiles,
which she doesn’t like, from the earth.”
“Remove them? But . . . That would require consent by all countries. All
military blocs. Yes. . . . But that can’t be achieved quickly, if at all. And for
now . . .”
Ivan Nikiforovich quickly walked over to the computer which showed the
missile they had kept Dasha from destroying. He turned off the monitor,
moved over to the communications computer keyboard, and started trans-
mitting text: “To headquarters. This message must be disseminated immedi-
ately to all military blocs and international media. The reason for the series
of explosions of missile complexes are bacteria capable of closing the con-
tacts. They are controllable. All pictures of armaments capable of exploding
must be destroyed. All! From the smallest bullet to the most modern missile
complex. The person who controls the bacteria does not need to know the
location of the explosive site; all he needs is to see its shape in a picture!”
Ivan Nikiforovich looked at a now smiling Dasha chatting animatedly
with her mama and added the following text to his message: “The location
of the installation controlling the explosions is unknown.” Ivan Nikiforovich
