"The Zenith Codes of Al-Efesbi" by Victor Pelevin, summary Automatic translate

This book is a caustic satirical novella, published in 2010 as part of the collection "Pineapple Water for a Beautiful Lady." The plot details the unique confrontation between a Russian agent and American high-tech combat vehicles in the scorched territory of Afghanistan. The text is divided into two main parts: the story of a lone fighter’s incredible struggle against artificial intelligence drones and the final, piercing confessional monologue of the hero captured by special services.

The life and career of Saveliy Skotenkov

Saveliy Skotenkov began his career as a typical Russian humanities scholar. He was passionate about art criticism, journalism, and political consulting. In his articles, he mercilessly ridiculed the domestic bureaucracy. Saveliy claimed that modern officials had masterfully masterfully stolen the very aesthetics and ideology of protest. The young journalist invented cutting memes like the phrase "Mardan Palace of the Spirit." He taught an elective course at the Diplomatic Academy, teaching students to cynically translate formal geopolitical statements into the language of true intentions.

The young man’s career was cut short after attempting to make money on the Forex market. Following the advice of Western financial television channels, Skotenkov invested all his savings from the sale of his apartment in European currencies. A coordinated attack by hedge funds instantly wiped out all his money. The disaster ignited in him a deep hatred for the Anglo-Saxon establishment. After recovering from a deep depression, Savely completed training at a secret FSB school. He learned Pashtun perfectly and went to the East as an intelligence agent.

American system and combat drones

At the same time, the US Army was facing a frustrating hardware problem. Military drone operators were experiencing enormous stress due to the constant leaks of videos of civilian casualties online. Soldiers were terrified of making decisions for fear of media scandals. This phenomenon was dubbed "Wikileaks syndrome." To completely protect its personnel from prosecution, the Pentagon commissioned the development of the "Free DOM" autonomous system.

The new technology operated on a biological neural network template without a human operator. The autonomous matrix simulated the collective intelligence of the most experienced American military experts. It completely independently searched for targets on the ground and made a cold-blooded decision to physically eliminate them. To reassure taxpayers, the system was equipped with a secondary software module. This module generated a visual report in the style of a primitive television talk show. The generated virtual characters morally justified every shell fired.

Anti-aircraft codes in the mountains of Afghanistan

Upon arriving in Afghanistan, Saveliy adopted the name Saul al-Efesbi and gained enormous respect among the demoralized local rebels. Hundreds of autonomous drones tightly controlled the skies above the country. Skotenkov devised a cheap method to combat these state-of-the-art aerial vehicles. He recognized the technical vulnerability of the media module that provided commentary on what the drones saw. Taking an ordinary can of spray paint, Saveliy began writing huge English words on the rocky ground.

Skotenkov’s texts were a toxic mixture of insults to Western cultural icons and complex critiques of the global economy. When the drone’s cameras captured the text, the media unit scrambled to generate a worthy response for the talk show. The program frantically searched for the right words in a vast archive of American TV programs. The computing power instantly overloaded from the abundance of complex logic problems. The machine suffered an emotional breakdown, lost spatial orientation, and crashed to the ground.

Algorithmic Evolution and Counterattack

The success of the anti-aircraft codes was truly astounding. In a short time, Al-Efesbi personally destroyed hundreds of aircraft carrying humanitarian aid and missiles. American engineers tried to protect the algorithms by introducing virtual, authoritative hosts into talk shows. The programs featured the faces of Oprah Winfrey and Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, Saveliy continually complicated his suras. He discovered new linguistic loopholes, causing drones to randomly drop supplies or ram embassies.

Pentagon technical experts were horrified to recognize the emergence of a secondary phenomenon. At the peak of system overload, a semblance of true artificial intelligence was born. This machine intelligence emerged seconds before crashing and suffered unbearably from the injustice of insults written in the sand. The constant destruction of drones became a nightmare for the military. Catching the elusive agent on the ground was virtually impossible. The intelligence agency decided to launch a pinpoint psychological attack on the Russian sniper’s sanity.

Psychological warfare and return

Psychoanalysts identified the true source of Saveliy’s inner pain. They determined that the cause of his disorder was not so much America as the kleptocracy of modern Russia. Experts developed sophisticated leaflets with high-quality printing. The images mocked officials, domestic corruption, and the lack of rights of ordinary citizens. The texts contained deliberate spelling errors to emphasize their disdain for the reader. The leaflets were packaged alongside high-quality heroin and dropped en masse from drones.

The operation led to completely unexpected geopolitical consequences. Russian drug enforcement discovered heroin in the capital, wrapped in new leaflets. The country’s authorities perceived these leaflets as the first stage of preparation for a color revolution. The government immediately launched a preemptive strike. Russian traders crashed American stock indices, and intelligence agencies leaked compromising videos of opposition figures. After emergency secret negotiations, the conflict was resolved. Moscow recalled Skotenkov home.

Saveliy returned a broken and devastated man. Without an apartment, the former intelligence officer settled in his native village of Ulema. He huddled in a barn, clashed with local tax inspectors, and even received a suspended sentence for petty hooliganism. His grand battle with the Western world order gave way to a depressing struggle with an indifferent local bureaucracy. Shortly after connecting his village house to the global network, Skotenkov mysteriously disappeared.

Confession of a Doomed Agent

The second part of the story is structured as Savely’s monologue from a secret prison on a military base. American agents tracked his location through search queries and secretly spirited him out of the village. Skotenkov is chained tightly to the wall with cold steel hoops. He traces letters on a plastic panel with a motionless finger, fully aware that video cameras are capturing and deciphering his every move. This text is his final, bitter confession as a defeated fighter.

The hero recalls his childhood and reflects on the structure of the ruthless global economy. Saveliy asserts that throughout the past century, Russians have been generating happiness for Western countries. To make the capitalist veneer look attractive, the elites artificially created comfort for their citizens at the expense of others’ misery. Now that the Soviet bloc has disappeared, the need to feed the Western average person has completely disappeared. The blind worm of transnational capital will inevitably crush all bipedal average people.

American investigators have prepared the most sophisticated torture for Saveliy. As the investigator said with a smile during his final interrogation, "This is a manifestation of humanism." They will perform brain surgery on the hero, permanently severing his logical neural connections. Then, he will be locked in a small cell for life. They will place trading terminals with exchange rate charts and real banknotes in front of him. Stricken with an artificial phobia, Skotenkov will scream in terror until his death, watching the slightest fluctuations in the Forex market.