Читать книгу Prohibition of Interference. Book 3. Impact Strategy - Макс Алексеевич Глебов, Макс Глебов - Страница 4

“Comrade People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, your order has been carried out. Senior Lieutenant Nagulin was arrested by me personally right at the airfield and taken to Moscow.”

“Very well,” nodded Beria, looking intently at Sudoplatov. “Come in, Pavel Anatolievich, have a seat. I see you have questions about this case, and I'm ready to answer them.”

“Actually, I only have one question,” Sudoplatov shrugged and sat down in a chair at the conference table. “Why?”

“He is dangerous,” Beria answered briefly, and the Senior Major did not like the expression on his face.

“I absolutely agree with you, Lavrentiy Pavlovich,” replied Sudoplatov, who was not so easily embarrassed, “He is extremely dangerous. To our enemies.”

“Now, yes, but this is now. I look at the situation from a broader perspective and from a different angle. At the moment, the Soviet Union and Citizen Nagulin have a common enemy, and as long as that is the case, he acts as our ally, but he is a stranger here, Pavel Anatolievich. Think about it. You, me, and all of our comrades are Soviet people who grew up, were educated, and had careers in the USSR. Yes, the older generation remembers Czarist Russia, but that was a long time ago. Since then, the very idea of life has changed, new values have been formed, and we are waging a merciless war against the enemy for those values. Nagulin is a stranger here. Our system, all the achievements of the Revolution, are just words to him, behind which there is nothing.”

“That does not mean that he is an enemy,” Sudoplatov disagreed.

“It doesn't,” nodded Beria, “But all my experience tells me that he is fighting not for the Soviet Union, not for comrade Stalin, not even for Russia. Nagulin is pursuing some goals that only he knows, and for him we are all just a means to achieve them.”

“Aren't you being too hard on him, Lavrentiy Pavlovich?” cautiously objected Sudoplatov, but it was obvious that the words of the Commissar of Internal Affairs made him think, “His contribution to the struggle with the enemy…”

“I know,” Beria stopped his subordinate, “if it weren't for that, he would have been felling wood somewhere beyond the Urals a long time ago, or given a capital punishment – he had behaved very un-Soviet all this time. Given his merits, Nagulin is sitting in quite decent solitary confinement in Lubyanka, and investigators are strictly ordered not to use any coercion on him.”

“So what's next?”

“And that will depend on what happens in the next few days. No matter how you look at it, your Nagulin has killed five heavy long-range bombers, and the result of their actions is not yet quite clear. It's such a mess right now…”

“But the corridor to the surrounded troups was cut through!”

“And what grounds do I have to believe that it was due to Nagulin's actions? This corridor was being cut through by ground troops, and they did cut it. But where did the German night fighters, which were also equipped with the latest radar and night sights, come from? Are you silent, Pavel Anatolievich? And I'll answer. The Germans knew about Nagulin's operation and were preparing an ambush, which cost us great losses in the end. There are only two options here – criminal error or betrayal. And I still have to report to Comrade Stalin about it – long-range aircraft, by the way, were allocated to us under my personal responsibility.”

“Nagulin shot down three fighters himself,” Sudoplatov did not give up; he had the arrest of his subordinate stuck in his throat, but he carried out the order without hesitation.

“I know. Our agents were part of the TB-7 crews, and I received detailed information about the operation while the bombers were still in the air. That's why I gave you the order to arrest Nagulin on a formal, but quite weighty reason. Understand, Pavel Anatolyevich, we do not know the limit of his capabilities.

In this night battle, he again demonstrated abilities that an ordinary man cannot possess. He, unlike the Germans, had no radar, and he tracked enemy fighters as if he had been directed to them by radio, and even in the daytime when the weather was clear! Do you understand what this means? No amount of calculating, analyzing, and forecasting skills would help here. He just knew where the German planes were! He knew it, that's all! That means he's hiding some of his capabilities from us. And why should he hide them if he is not an enemy?”

* * *

“In other circumstances, I might have congratulated you, Colonel. You made a brilliant analysis of the situation and accurately predicted the Russians' plans.”

“Thank you, Herr General,” Richtengden replied in a steady voice, “Unfortunately, the correct prediction of the actions of the Russian marksman was not enough to win. This is somewhat at variance with the tone of the official reports, but I cannot call what happened near Kiev anything other than a catastrophe.”

“I would not be so categorical,” the General grimaced irritably. “Let's just say it could have been much worse, and the fact that just about half of the encircled enemy troops broke through, is to a large extent you merit. The night fighter attack failed to completely thwart the Russian plans, but it prevented the destruction of dozens of our headquarters and communications centers and allowed the surviving generals to restore control of the troops relatively quickly.”

“Surviving generals…” Richtengden repeated slowly, as if tasting the words. “We lost top officers who had gone through Poland and France, defeated the British, surrounded and captured hundreds of thousands of Russians. The catastrophe is just that, Herr General, not the fact that a crowd of demoralized Russians, who had abandoned all their equipment and artillery, broke out of the pocket.”

“Five Russian bombers were shot down,” the General, not wanting to continue the unpleasant discussion, changed the subject, “Our troops captured eight crew members of these planes. We weren't able to get all of them to talk, but we did get some things cleared up. You were right again. The Russian marksman was on board one of the bombers, the only Pe-2 the enemy had engaged in this operation. Initially it was not supposed to take part in bombing attacks and in combat operations in general, but after the appearance of our Dorniers, it took on the role of a night fighter, which was a very unpleasant surprise to our pilots.”

“I am aware of our losses, Herr General,” Richtengden nodded.

“The losses were not in vain, Colonel. Enemy pilots who were shot down gave detailed accounts of how the Russian spotter directed the actions of the bombers. Frankly speaking, it reeks of mysticism and makes me want to ask Reichsführer SS Himmler for permission to ask for help from his "Ahnenerbe",” – the General grinned faintly. “Neither the Pe-2 nor the heavy bombers had anything resembling radar, but all the captured pilots had the impression that they were guided to their targets by some incredibly accurate device that "saw" not only enemy planes but also recognized targets on the ground.”

“I don't think such a device exists,” Richtengden shook his head.

“Neither do I,” the General agreed, “or rather, it exists, but in a single copy. I am convinced that the Russian marksman is this device himself.”

“If this is true, and I am inclined to agree with your conclusion, it is not quite clear what we should do next. In this state of affairs, we can expect crushing nighttime strikes anywhere on the front and even in our rear. Herr General, do you have a good idea of the consequences of a direct hit by a two-ton bomb from a Russian TB-7 into one of our strategic facilities? And this plane is capable of carrying two of them…”

“There is one clue, Colonel. I told you that the human intelligence was given the task of establishing the identity and whereabouts of the Russian marksman. I did not believe in a quick result, but sometimes there are pleasant surprises.”

Richtengden said nothing, but leaned forward a little, listening intently to the General.

“It was an accident, of course, but it was good because it played in our favor. In the maintenance crew at the airfield, where the Pe-2 with the Russian marksman flew out, there was our agent. He was a small fry, in general, but with brains and imagination, though these details are not important. The main thing is that he managed to overhear a conversation between the marksman and a certain senior major of the NKVD, apparently his direct superior, and the conversation was extremely important. The marksman reported the mission and the loss of five bombers, after which the Senior Major arrested him. It's an odd decision, given the apparent success of the marksman's actions, but it's only to our advantage. In addition, we now know the name and rank of our figure – Senior Lieutenant of State Security Nagulin. According to circumstantial evidence gathered by the same agent, the arrested marksman was sent by plane to Moscow.

We have an agent at Lubyanka, but this is a very valuable person – a deep introduction of the early thirties. His position is not the highest one. Nevertheless, he has access to serious documents and will be able to get information about Nagulin. Naturally, we try to engage such a specialist only in exceptional cases, but this is precisely the case.

The Führer is furious. He declared the Russian gunner his personal enemy, summoned Herr Admiral to see him, and the Admiral, apparently, heard from the Führer not the most pleasant words about our service. Anyway, we now have a sanction for the "Guest" agent to get involved, and he's already been tasked, and very firmly. Nagulin must be eliminated. "Guest" has been given the contacts of several "sleeping" agents in Moscow. He must assemble a group of them and frame the marksman for their attack. If that doesn't work, he'll have to eliminate Nagulin personally.”

“And what is my role here, Herr General? You are not telling me all this for nothing.”

“The marksman won't be in custody for long. Russians, of course, are very fond of accusing their own comrades of espionage and treason for any reason, but not to this extent! Nagulin is valuable to them, and has done too much for the USSR to just kill him like that. Anyway, "Guest" may not make it, and then the marksman will reappear at the front, and I want us to be ready for that. Think, Colonel. Think and prepare. You have correctly predicted the enemy's actions more than once, and now I expect an equally accurate prediction from you.”

* * *

All of a sudden I had a lot of free time. On the first day, the investigators were still somewhat active, they called me in for interrogations, where I answered their questions in detail about the course of the operation, the purpose of the bombing attacks, and the circumstances of my loss of five planes.

I came across a variety of investigators, and although I behaved in an emphatically correct manner and answered all questions as fully as possible, some of them clearly wanted to beat me in order to stimulate the process of a confession. Nevertheless, no one laid a finger on me. Not only that, when asking me all sorts of bad questions, the NKVD officers did not even try to raise their voice, This, apparently, cost them a lot of effort, so on the second day I was left alone – the interrogations stopped.

Sudoplatov never showed up again. I never understood whether he made the decision to arrest me himself, or whether he received an order from above. However, it was not too important now – even if the initiative came from the Senior Major, it was clearly approved at the top.

I spent some time observing the consequences of my nocturnal actions. The bombing strikes we carried out disorganized the control system of German troops near Kiev for a time. It was enough to allow the tank brigades attached to the 40th and 21st Armies to break through to the encircled troops, and the infantry, which had come up, could fortify the walls of the narrow corridor, along which the remnants of the 5th, 37th and 26th Armies, completely exhausted, immediately began to move out of the pocket.

Unfortunately, not everyone was able to leave. Units of the Red Army, which were in a small pocket near Lokhvitsa, were able to break through to the main forces of the encircled troops, but the Germans quickly closed the gap and no one could help the cut-off troops – they simply had no strength. The main pocket could not be evacuated completely either. Someone had to stay behind to cover the retreat, and the enemy, after the bombardments ceased, was getting faster and faster at fixing the lines of communication and restoring the chain of command.

The corridor lasted only 24 hours, but it was enough to get about 100,000 people out of the pocket. These troops, unfortunately, were completely unfit for duty. They had to be taken urgently to the rear to be re-formed, so they could do almost nothing to help the 40th and 21st Armies, which had suffered losses. The Germans, enraged by the slap they received, launched a counterstrike and severely displaced our forces on the outer edge of the encirclement, finally deciding the fate of almost 100,000 Red Army soldiers and commanders who had not had time to leave the Kiev pocket.

After thinking about the situation for a while, I decided to do nothing. They were clearly not going to shoot me immediately, and I never heard any accusations of treason, although there were hints of it in the words of the investigators, but who cares about hints in a case like this? Anyway, I decided to use the time I had gained to think about my future plans, in case I did get out of here.

Back when I was running with Ignatov through the woods and fields near Uman, I decided that this world needed Space. That's right, with a capital letter. It is the only way I know of, if not to prevent, at least to delay the death of the local civilization, to turn it away from the path of self-destruction that dozens of other worlds, including, unfortunately, my Sixth Republic, have passed before it.

Now, of course, it's too early to talk about it. People on Earth have found a fascinating thing to do – World War II, but it is always war that gives a powerful boost to technology, and it would be absurd to miss such an opportunity.

Can I push the development of the very field of science and engineering that will take people into space in the future? I think so. Of course, we are not talking about any direct transfer of alien miracle devices, but I have other options. In some foreseeable future, I will undoubtedly be harnessing the high-tech materials and products at my disposal, to provide a powerful scientific breakthrough, but I will do so no sooner than I am confident that I am in complete control of the situation. Neither Comrade Stalin nor Roosevelt and Churchill will receive any extraterrestrial artifacts, at least as long as they are the ones in charge of the relevant parts of the planet.

Nevertheless, I will help the Soviet Union. I originally chose this country as having the largest territory on Earth, as well as the richest natural and human resources. In addition, the USSR was able to rise to a level of industrialization that is quite decent by local standards. It was not ruled by an amorphous democratic mechanism, but by a totalitarian regime, which was not very efficient economically, but it was fine-tuned. Now, however, another important factor has been added to all of these considerations: people. Not human resources, but living people, with whom I went into battle, defending their homeland and gradually beginning to treat it as my own.

Okay, let's skip the lyricism. So, what does mankind need at this stage to get closer to reaching outer space? The answer is obvious – everything related to jet propulsion and rocket technology. Ideally, I should have consulted the historical experience of my Sixth Republic, but the computers of the escape pod and the satellites had no information on that period of technological development, and I've never been interested in pre-space-age weapons and technology, so I'll have to use local knowledge.

Let's go. What do we have here and now? I opened the search interface and dug into the Satellite Network databases. The country sampling showed me a widespread and comprehensive primitivity in the field I was looking for, which, however, was quite normal for this level of development.

The USSR, unfortunately, was far from being at the forefront of rocket science, although there was some progress here as well. It is worth remembering, for example, the BM-13 division, which dropped rockets on the German motorized battalion and thus saved my platoon near Uman. But that's not all. The Soviet Union was also working on turbojet engines, but with the outbreak of war all this work was curtailed. True, back in 1933, just the year Hitler came to power, the Reactive Scientific Research Institute was founded in Moscow by order of the Revolutionary Military Council, which was renamed NII-3 in 1937.

This institution brought together a variety of people, but undoubted talents were found among them. The institute was engaged in the creation of solid and liquid fuel engines and rockets, and, of course, primarily developed for the army. In addition to the aforementioned rockets, the third department of the Institute dealt with cruise missiles.

From this point on, I became noticeably more interested. The first flight of the 212 missile took place in early 1939, and a month and a half later the tests were repeated. Surprisingly, the cruise missile even had its own control unit based on a gyroscopic automatic stabilizer, and it had a range of 80 kilometers. The missile could deliver a warhead weighing up to 30 kilograms to that distance. It is not much, and the accuracy, despite the gyroscopes, left much to be desired, but the development was certainly promising, and I was surprised that the research stopped there.

The reason came out pretty quickly. The chief designer of the 212 missile Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was arrested in the summer of 1938, as well as many other employees of NII-3. The missile was brought to testing without him, and then, apparently, the old developments had run out, the team, considerably thinned, was unable to move forward without Korolev's ideas.

The designer was accused of sabotage and participation in a Trotskyist organization. His colleagues from the institute became, as usual, witnesses and denunciators. Korolev went through Butyr prison in Moscow, a transit point in Novocherkassk, and in April 1939, just a month and a half after the second test flight of the cruise missile he developed, the designer found himself at the Kolyma gold mine in Maldyak.

After numerous misadventures and a serious illness, Korolev was transported back to Moscow, where his case was reviewed. A new trial was held in 1940. The designer was sentenced to eight years in prison and placed in the NKVD special prison, where Korolev, along with another prisoner, Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev, worked on the development of the Tu-2 and Pe-2, the same plane in which I conducted aerial reconnaissance and bomber escorts.

I took note of this story and decided to come back to it later. Cruise missiles, of course, are a very serious thing, but no one would let me in on such developments – I was not yet good enough. First I had to prove my competence on something simpler and yet in demand at the moment.

The next object of my interest was Germany. Here the developments were noticeably brisker. Back in the early summer of 1939 the Heinkel He-176 jet made its maiden flight, and just a month earlier, on September 1, 1941, the Messerschmitt Me-163 rocket-powered interceptor aircraft made its first flight. The flying characteristics of these machines, to put it bluntly, were not too impressive. What can you do in eight minutes in the air? And there was simply not enough fuel for more. But right now at the plants of Messerschmitt, a prototype of the experimental fighter Me-262 with two BMW-003 turbojet engines was being prepared for testing. The Germans were still a long way from series production, but in a year or so they could expect to get a very serious aircraft capable of raising a lot of unpleasant questions for the Reich's enemies.

This is very promising, but again, too complicated to begin with. Let's keep looking. In addition to airplanes the Germans did not forget about jet projectiles. They developed their six-barreled Nebelwerfer back in the early thirties. It was originally designed to fire smoke and chemical shells, but in the realities of World War II only high-explosive shells were used. Structurally, the German projectiles differed in the way they stabilized in flight, but the Germans did not invent anything particularly breakthrough for this era, and their system was generally inferior to the Russian Katyusha rocket launcher, even though it had a higher shot grouping. For me, the Nebelwerfer is obviously useless. Let's put it aside.

Okay, now the proud British. What are they doing in the jet field? Here we go again with airplanes. The first flight of the Gloster Meteor Mk.1 took place in May 1941. The British have a turbojet engine, but the islanders are clearly far behind the Germans, although in general they follow the same path. Not interesting. Do they have rocket artillery? They have no analogues of Katyushas and Nebelwerfers… О! Anti-aircraft rockets! Unfortunately, they're unguided and outrageously primitive – only suitable for barrage fire. All in all, garbage.

Strange as it may seem, the original development in the field of jet aviation was even found in Italy. Their Caproni Campini N.1, with a strange hybrid of piston and jet engines, even managed to make a successful flight, but this design did not evoke in me anything but a sad smile, and it was even more useless to me than the British anti-aircraft missiles.

Okay, let's leave Europe behind. What's going on overseas? The U.S. Air Force was not interested in jets. In 1939, Lockheed tried to apply to them for funding for research in this area, but was refused. That is where it all came to a standstill. Now, however, the U.S. military seems to be changing their mind, but so far nothing worthwhile has been done. Rocket artillery is also in its infancy, although there is some potential… So, what is this? No one else currently has one of these! The M1 anti-tank grenade launcher, aka bazooka. Shaped grenade with rocket motor, caliber 60 millimeters, effective range 130 meters. The design… Yeah. But it could have been worse. In this form, of course, it would not be suitable for the Red Army and Soviet industry, but that's why I have computers…

My musings were interrupted by the clang of the deadbolt and the creak of the door opening.

“Arrested Nagulin, out!”

* * *

“How is the Nagulin investigation going?” Beria looked tired.

“The testimony was taken from him by four investigators,” Sudoplatov answered clearly. “The questions were formulated in such a way that it was not clear what it was that interested us most. Nagulin gave detailed answers. Immediately after Nagulin's interrogations were completed, we began working with the pilots and navigators of the surviving bombers, as well as with those who survived from the crews of the downed planes. Now their questioning has been completed. We are conducting a detailed analysis. At first glance, Nagulin's testimony does not contradict their words.”

“Are there any preliminary conclusions?”

“That's right,” nodded Sudoplatov, “Nagulin maintains that he did not know about the German night fighters, and began responding to their appearance only after radio reports of an attack on the bombers.”

“How did he find and shoot down the Germans?” Beria squinted slightly under the pince-nez.

“He claims that he flew into the area of enemy fighters, guided by the known current position of the attacked TB-7s and Yer-2s. Well, then his phenomenal night vision came into effect, the exceptional capabilities of which have been confirmed by our physicians. But even these possibilities are not unlimited. That's the reason he couldn't shoot down all the Dorniers. He just couldn't find two of them.”

“How did the Germans know about the operation?”

“Nagulin does not have a definite answer to this question, except for his assurance that he did not inform any outsider about the upcoming flight. Nevertheless, he suggested that the Germans themselves might have come to the conclusion that we could use night bombers near Kiev, because we had demonstrated something similar to them once before during the evacuation of Captain Shcheglov's group.”

Beria stood up in silence and walked around the office.

“Three hours ago I was with the Commander-in-Chief,” said the Commissar softly. “I reported on the operation and the losses.”

At the mention of Stalin Sudoplatov also rose and turned to Beria waiting to continue, but the Commissar remained silent, and Pavel Anatolievich dared to ask the question that had interested him.

“Did you also report Nagulin's arrest, comrade…”

“Not yet,” Beria interrupted him. “And apparently I won't have to.”

“Has something happened?”

Beria silently went to his desk and took from it a sheet of paper with the text printed on it.

“Read this, Pavel Anatolyevich. It came this afternoon through diplomatic channels.”

Sudoplatov read the typewritten text carefully for about a minute, then looked up at Beria in surprise. “Lavrentiy Pavlovich, is this information verified?”

“By now it has been confirmed by other sources.”

“But this is…”

“Yes. You understand correctly. Comrade Stalin personally congratulated me on the success of the operation and asked me to see to it that all its participants be presented with state awards. Six German generals died under the bombs of Nagulin's air group, Colonel General Guderian, the founding father of the German armored forces and the symbol of the lightning war strategy, was among them.”

“Nagulin liquidated the "fast-moving Heinz"?” asked again Sudoplatov, still not fully believing what he had heard.

“That's right, Pavel Anatolyevich, that's right.”

“And now what?”

“Take your subordinate away from the investigators,” Beria shrugged. “Terminate the case for lack of corpus delicti.”