The calm that has reigned in the Murom-Vladimir Zone turns out to be deceptive. The Shadow, the dark phantom double of Oleg Kataev, goes to satisfy his thirst for blood in the Kovrov border zone. A conspiracy is brewing at the top of the APBR. The Changed Ones are developing active activities. Kataev is forced to hide in the Zone from everyone at once, but does not give up trying to get to the enemies who have declared him “game.” Mikhail Streltsov, a former colleague of Kataev, is waging his war against both the Changed Ones and the conspirators in the APBR, having special reasons for this. These two outcasts, who received unusual abilities during their misadventures, seem to be embittered and selfish egoists locked in their own problems. But humanity, caught between two fires in a battle between power structures and alien minds, has no one to rely on except them.