Part Seven: Binary Code-7. Doomsday Time
My dear reader, we have passed with you the level where you learned about the top-secret organization, where information from all intelligence agencies of the world flows, were in the underground at the site "Polygon", which is a separate civilization, visited closed cities, secret laboratories, secret clubs, participated in battles and investigated in the virtual world. Now you will have to take a new turn of events, so steep that you may be washed away by a tsunami wave, literally and figuratively. Get ready, fix yourself in the seat of "Cactus" tighter, establish a connection through the chip in your head with your assistant – artificial intelligence ISU-A2, check the satellites, listen to your inner voice and be ready to see a new sky and a new land. Good luck to you!
Yesterday was a wild beast,
Today, it's a human being,
And tomorrow you'll be the one
Will usher new century
Chapter 1: Doomsday Clock
The next day, on his return from Kola, Ruthra was euphoric about his investigation, but still in a foul mood because it had not solved the main secret, but had confused things even more. It appeared the conspirators and instigators of the problem he was busy finding a solution to could be anywhere, perhaps the main bearer of the secret was not alive. Among other things, there was a lot of urgent business piling up at the facility because of all this latest operation. It was only the positivity of Rutru's outcome that made him a little calmer and allowed him to be proud of himself. All of his wanderings and conspiracy solutions, which Rutra had subjected himself to at his level, were not in vain and once again confirmed the rule: the higher your level, the harder it is to not be yourself. After the last operation, Ruthra began to understand why kings and emperors disguised themselves as commoners: to know exactly what was going on in their heads and what their subjects were thinking; Emperor Nicholas I, for example, had resorted to such methods.
Rutru was torn from his musings by Hent's call:
– Rutra Tigrovic, good afternoon, I realize you are in a bad mood, but I must remind you that professionals play by the rules, and you should know the rules.
"Without a magnifying glass I can see you're kents," Rutra thought of Henta and Jarovitovic.
The fact that Hent spoke ambiguously and in riddles did not surprise Ruthra; he was accustomed to it, and was well versed in "words that were not spoken". What did surprise and alarm him was that he addressed him so formally.
– Good afternoon. I'm listening.
– We need to get together. A big gathering of all the friends. The uniform is the same; shorts, slippers, Komsomol badge. The meeting place can't be changed. Gathering tonight, wear a hood, it might be windy or raining.
Ruthra guessed he was talking about the meeting at the board.
– Roger that. Anything to bring? A snack, maybe?
– It's all there, but you need something that's a little something, something about the eternal. I'm nostalgic for Indian movies, so if you've got something, take it.
– You know I can't refuse you, you're like a father to me.
– I'll be in touch.
– I'll be in touch.
Rutra was already in "thought," and after this he was lost in thought. Why so soon, why he did not call him, why he called and spoke "in ciphers" in an extremely encrypted network. Although it was all a game and a friendly performance. The meeting of the board was agreed in advance and carefully organized, with many distractions, up to the meeting of high-ranking officials, sometimes even presidents. Topics and reports were prepared from the collected materials by special organizations in the best centers. But still – something very serious was being planned.
In the evening, Rutra sat on the board. Yarovitovich was the moderator, as always. Those present sat in semi-darkness, wearing hoods.
– Happy future, colleagues," Yarovitovich began with a greeting. – Today's board should approve the final version of our action plan. Let's listen to the variants of a possible scenario and make decisions. I understand perfectly well that each of you has already discussed it many times, researched it, and with the involvement of well-known world institutions, but it is necessary for all of us to listen together at the board in order to make a joint decision. So, let's begin. Gentlemen, I ask you to listen to an approximate version of the consequences for the population in the event of a radical change in our plan, namely, if we have to shoot down missiles over Russia. You have the floor, my colleague.
A light built into the table lit up in front of the speaker, a man with a beard, wearing a pyramid-shaped hood, began his report.
– Gentlemen, colleagues, like-minded people, let me remind you that the Doomsday Clock shows half a minute to midnight. The position of the hands on its symbolic dial is determined by the editorial board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, which once included the creators of the first atomic bomb. Half a minute to midnight is an alarming number. There are several reasons for the current switch. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists board of directors justified its decision by the fact that the nuclear powers are modernizing and expanding their arsenal of nuclear weapons. Does this mean that nuclear war is really close at hand? If two years ago one could almost unequivocally say "no" to this question, now confidence in the unreality of such a scenario has significantly weakened. So: if there is a war tomorrow. Let's imagine that the irreparable has happened: nuclear war has started and American warheads are about to successfully reach their target. In this case, first of all, all forces will be thrown to ensure the safety of the country's leadership. After ensuring the safety of the country's leadership, qualified personnel, without whom the economy cannot function, will be evacuated. Alas, in the event of a sudden nuclear strike, the civilian population will have a hard time – the fortified bunkers will accommodate only a few people. The main measure to save the civilian population is its emergency evacuation 300 kilometers away from the epicenter of the explosion. In general, in the event of a sudden attack in urban areas, only people in fortified shelters, i.e. qualified personnel and management representatives, will be saved. If we talk about large cities, the only hope for the ordinary population remains the subway, but not all of them, but only deep subway stations.
The man thought for a moment and continued:
– The experience of detonating a nuclear bomb at the Totsk test site showed that over the next several decades, the incidence of cancer increased several times in people living in the area. This experiment shows that the use of nuclear weapons in a populated area is not an inevitable death sentence for all its inhabitants. It is important to understand that the use of an atomic bomb in a more densely populated area would, first of all, destroy buildings and people within a radius of several kilometers, but still would not make rescue measures meaningless. The only case in the history of the USSR when the methods of shielding the population from the radiation threat were actually applied is the Chernobyl disaster. The Civil Defense forces performed the evacuation scenario before the nuclear bomb explosion, and it is in it that the three-day period appears. The fact is that the activity of radionuclides formed during the explosion of a uranium charge decreases a thousand times in three days. Of course, even in case of timely evacuation a large number of human casualties cannot be avoided. Civil defense forces will start burying the bodies of the dead three days after the nuclear strike. The mass graves will be huge. According to a model compiled by British colleagues, an attack on Moscow would be carried out with 48 Trident ballistic missiles launched from submarines. The model assumes that the number of casualties in the 12 weeks after the explosion would be 4 million. The contamination of water supplies and the destruction of residential buildings will cause an increase in the incidence of all kinds of diseases,