– Of course, the power, I think, is sufficient, how without it, it's a control center.
– And there's one here?
– You're such a baby. Or are you hinting? – Yarovitovich laughed.
– It's already professional," Ruthra replied guiltily.
– It's a chronic thing with all of us," the leader said with a smile. – Ruthra, pull yourself together, take a wider view of the world. I'll take care of my own. You go upstairs, if there's anything you need to check on Zero, check it with Hent, and get on with it. I know your list, check everyone, don't get confused about it now. There might be a trick we didn't think of. Otherwise we'll be looking for supercomputers and we'll miss a small but key link.
– I need to document my work, put a resolution that on this item you will conduct or it is completed here.
– I told you I'll deal with my own, but if your Hent needs a piece of paper, bring it to me, I'll sign it.
– Can I ask you a personal question?
– I'm listening.
– How long have you and Hent known each other?
– Hmm," he smiled again, shaking his head. – He and I are bastards, but we're the only two who know it.
Jarowitowicz laughed; it was clear he was joking.
– We have been through hell and heaven together. Only after going through fire, water and especially copper pipes with a person, while remaining friends, can one trust uncompromisingly. So that's how we know each other. Give him a hint, don't let him waste all the cognac, he's 50 years old after all. Come on, I'll be in my office.
They got out, and found themselves in a different world, or rather, a world that understood how fragile the real world really was. Ruthra contacted Isa in his quarters and asked him to bring him a computer and printer.
– What do you need them for? – she asked.
Ruthra wanted to be indignant. On second thought, he didn't, guessing intuitively that there must be something else behind it, because he'd asked the computer. And so it was.
– Print a record of the events.
– You still haven't learned how to use your powers, it's because you're in a hurry. If you had completed your training last time, then you would know that you don't need a printer.
– How?
– State your thoughts, pass them on to me, I will process them into a business form and send them to you. You will not be allowed to take papers or anything else out of the facility. You can print it out at Zero with my help, in the same way.
– Wow.
– Form.
Rutra lay down and began mentally "typing" the protocol, especially "whitewashing" the doctor in it. After he finished, he asked Isa:
– Did you get it?
– It's fine, I've already processed it.
– Already?
– I'll throw it to you soon, look on the TV screen, in what form it will be.
Not a minute later, the protocol appeared on the screen, Rutra read it, sent it with Isa's help to Yarovitovich, and went to him himself. Jarovitovich reviewed the protocol, signed it with an electronic signature, and "gave" it to Rutra, emphasizing his concern with the admonition.
– Don't forget the main objective. Time is against us. The most improbable things are possible. What we've played out could really happen. For real!
– Understood. I'll go," Ruthra said calmly and without excitement.
– So long.
Rutra stepped out and headed for the lab, where he was met by the doctor.
– Well? – He asked fearfully.
Ruthra nodded affirmatively. The doctor gestured for him to follow him. He led Rutra into an isolation box and took out the pre-prepared wires that went to the machine in his pocket. Two wires he gave to Rutra and two he took for himself. They looked at each other and synchronously applied them to their tongues. The shock of the current temporarily knocked him unconscious. The doctor, quickly returning to normal, gave him a glass of liquid.
– Drink quickly.
– What's that?
– Hurry up.
While Ruthra was confused, the man uncovered a medical table of instruments.
– Drink it, it's a painkiller.
Ruthra took a drink.
– Sit down and don't move, I'm going to insert a microplate with a chip under your scalp. This is so you can control when your thoughts are available and when they are not. You have two scars on your head, in one place I put the chip to transmit back then, in the other place I will put the chip to block.
The doctor injected local anesthesia, made an incision, performed some manipulations, covered it with artificial skin, applied a bandage with a special remedy, and began to hastily collect tools, constantly looking at his watch.
– Let's do it again.
The doctor pointed to the wires. They repeated the procedure. Despite the anesthetic, the wound was tingling, "sizzling" from the special agent. Ruthra realized it was Epilas, a secret instant wound healer; combined with the modifications they'd made to him at the range, the wound was healing better than it had on the Terminator.
– Now you have a screen, your thoughts will first be reflected, they will go back into your brain, you will hear yourself, and then you will decide which ones to release. You can release exactly what you want, that is, you can lie. That's it, time is running out, find a similar radio-isolated shelter and do a couple of experiments on yourself to get used to it and understand how it works.
– How do they hear my thoughts?
– All in the form of brain bio-signals, they can only be decoded. For example, such as truth, lies, anxiety, euphoria, and the like. Dialogue is by mutual initiation only; in cases where the receiver knows you well and has had numerous non-conflict communication sessions, then your chip will let it through. You will recognize it, it is provided, you can feel it, you just need to get the hang of it. There is, of course, a way around all blocking, directly, but you need a code for that.
– Where, who has it?
– Let's get another charge. That's enough, it might arouse suspicion.
They repeated the procedure with the wires, the doctor explained further.
– I don't know exactly, it's written in the secret department of the coders, kept by the person in charge of controlling the coding and encryption service.
– Where are they?
– No one knows specifically, this is where all the original codes come from, rumor has it – it's called "The Sphere".
Ruthra took a deep breath and began to exhale slowly, shaking his head.
– There is the center itself, which does not exist for everyone, and there are a lot of organizations, which either are or are not. ZKR, "Sphere", what else?
– Go on, everybody, forget about me.
Ruthra couldn't help but ask another question.
– How does ISU-A2 read minds?
– It doesn't read, it sees, as if on a network. The computer-brain interface is like an extension of one in the other. You draw everything from its base, and it draws from yours.
– Why does she have free access to me?
– "Not now," the medic said and pointed to the top of Ruthra's head, then put his index finger to his lips, giving the silence sign, pushing him in the shoulder toward the door.
Ruthra went to the exit, stepping out into the hallway.
– You've been gone a long time, did something happen? – he heard Isa.
"Well, bitch, you're following me," Ruthra thought and immediately realized how the lockdown worked, his own voice sounding in his head. "It's okay," he thought and directed his thoughts to her.
– I'm happy for you," the computer replied.
– I'm going out, goodbye.
– Exit via the stairs or the pod.
– You have a service here. Can I get a regular cab? – Ruthra asked jokingly. – Is there an elevator? I don't want to take the stairs for half an hour.
– Yes, to the left of the capsule hatch.
– Didn't notice. Just like everyone else here. Ready, here I come.
– Did you give a request to get out?
– No. What's the request?
– It's not like we're in a backyard, you have to give notice, get permission.
– No one told me.
– Go to the ops guy you talked to, he'll authorize it.
Ruthra made his way to the CUO and scanned his eye, the door opened. An operative with two assistants sat at a console with numerous glowing indicators, with numerous monitors in front and to the sides. The Operative was not the one who had been in charge of the alert headquarters: it was more pleasant for Ruthra, he didn't want to ask something from a man who had just been court-martialed.
– Here. I was warned," the operative said and held out a small device that looked like a magnifying glass.
Ruthra picked up the object, began to examine it.
– Put it up to your eye," the operative said.
Rutra held the device up to his eye, it shone a directed light into his eye.
– That's it, thank you, you can go," the duty officer thanked him.
Ruthra, eyeing the instrument with curiosity and suspicion, handed it over. A strange feeling haunted him. Although he was in a hurry to leave, something kept him from doing so. It was curiosity. He remembered Alikhanov.
– Do you know if Alikhanov's body is still at the station? – he asked the operative, "in passing" pondering whether the bodies of "secret citizens of an unknown city" were buried here or still as ordinary people.
– As far as I know, it should be in the morgue, the 200th were not sent, – the operative dryly answered.
– Thank you, goodbye.
The elevator ride up was not long, he stepped directly into the room in front of the underground basements of Trekhgorny. After passing through the scanner, through the door, he stepped out into the underground bunker of Trekhgorny. Involuntarily, Rutru was visited by numerous thoughts, "So I really didn't go anywhere in the capsule. How the hell is this happening, since I didn't even feel like sleeping?" Rutru was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn't notice – there was someone waiting for him in the bunker. It was the same people who had accompanied them here, and they had escorted him upstairs. He didn't have to meet with the plant management or explain anything. They took him in a "service car" to the hotel, no one even asked where the old man was. Mushtrika in such organizations was at the highest level. They brought food to Rutra's room, he ate, quickly got ready, and left.
From the beautiful forest park that was part of the virgin forest that had been carefully preserved during the construction of the city, Rutra looked down at the nuclear weapons factory, humming away across the river. Only the roofs of its workshops were visible. It was not hard to guess that they were like icebergs, two-thirds of them underwater. The famous factory staircase of 385 steps descended to the Yuryuzan. Rutru was waiting for a car, he got into it, and the driver took him to the airport in Magnitogorsk. Now he cared little about reports and commitments, he was heading home, his head was spinning, literally and figuratively, from recent events. Now he dreamed of becoming an ordinary man, as before, which, most likely, was impossible, although, maybe, and it was not necessary, the main thing – to take control.
***
Rutra, of course, said he was going home, wanting to spend a couple of days with his family. He was met at the airport by the staff of Center Zero, headed by the administrator, who, although he was a family man, was, according to the firm rules, only the administrator in such situations. On the way home, they outlined the most important events that had occurred in the "invisible" world, which had not been reported earlier in the report via encrypted communication, albeit in coded phrases, for security reasons. From the information received, even with superficial analysis, Ruthra concluded that the game was heading toward a certain finish line. Someone had to be sacrificed. Snowden, WikiLeaks, offshore scandals were nothing compared to the release of information by Stratfor.
"Stratfor was an American private intelligence and analysis company. It has been called the "shadow CIA". It was founded in 1996 by American political scientist George Friedman, who heads the company until now. The company collects and analyzes information on world events.
The company's client list is confidential, but Rutra was aware that among them were major corporations and government agencies – both U.S. and foreign, including Russian.
All this was just a screen for periodic leaks from real intelligence agencies. During Rutra's absence, information was leaked about the Russian president's ties with agents of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND). Naturally, with secret information thrown in, with signatures and seals, meeting places, passwords and safe houses. The seedbed was launched, and no one has ever realized that the president had been working abroad in the past, in the past, in a structure of a different orientation. It was proved that he was recruited under the threat of disclosure of information about his connections with the Colombian drug mafia.
At the same time, the press received information that the United States had allegedly completed work on the missile defense system and secretly tested it. The test was officially presented as a joint firing exercise with European allies to repel a missile attack by a terrorist group whose name was translated as "punishment from heaven" or "punishment from heaven.
The third part of the information pyramid was the leaking to the media of an allegedly existing report by the U.S. Military Space Intelligence Service on the installation by Russia, along the U.S. coast, of the latest Skif ballistic missile capable of being in standby mode on the seabed and ocean floor and, at the right moment, firing on command to hit land and sea targets. It was noted that the laying of such missiles in several areas of the bottom will make it possible to hit the target at the necessary moment without involving submarines. This caused such a stormy resonance that European and American media were "boiling". Some blamed the United States, claiming that it pays so much tax and the military allowed enemy missiles to be placed under their noses, while others were angry at Russia, demanding that it be punished.
There was no less hype in Russia. The country was clearly divided into two camps in terms of its attitude to what was happening, and not on the socio-economic principle. Some were convinced of the incumbent president, claiming that only he would punish Russia's enemies, which turned out to be almost everyone around them, while others were ready to die to free the country from the "junta that seized power. There were those who believed that both options were wrong. Rutru had little interest in all of this, he was just wondering how such a company had turned out so quickly. He even began to suspect that it had been at least a month, not a few days, since the events had unfolded so quickly, then he analyzed the reality that said it was not so.
– How so soon, why now, who authorized it, what is the purpose? – Rutra demanded reports from his subordinates.
– A direct order from Hristoforovich," reported the head of the security service.
Rutra's questioning look was answered by the center's administrator.
