LITMIR.BIZ

      The next day the training continued. Yuri Vasilyevich took Rutra around the entire center, telling and showing him where everyone was sitting and what was lying around. After a couple of hours, Rutra knew not only that only a very narrow circle of people suspected the existence of Center Zero, but also that there was only one way out of here to normal civilian (and not necessarily civilian) life.

      – Through death," Yuri explained in his joking manner.

      He also learned that even the government and presidential administration didn't know about the center. And that all this supreme power is just one of the subdivisions of Center Zero, and the top-level clearances have only a few. Yuri Vasilievich did not speak very favorably of them.

      – What did you think? You think there's no control over the president? Even Stalin couldn't personally send troops wherever he thought they needed to go. It's all a myth about his unlimited power. Everything was decided by the "rate" and the "committee", and he was in the grip of an organization like ours. It seems to the average person that everything is decided by the power, which they talk about on TV every day. In fact, the real power is always hidden, it is not in public, but deep in the bunker.

      This brought an interesting thought to Ruth's mind. He thought, "How do all these people get from here to the surface? Where to? There are so many of them. Through what checkpoint or gatehouse? The same way I do? Then how can it be hidden? I mean, you have to disguise it somehow. It's not a problem, though.

      He asked Vasilievich about it. He replied in his manner that this was the most interesting thing, and smiled. Indeed, the "most interesting" thing about the Zero department was that they came out through the Institute for Strategic Analysis under the President of Russia. But Rutra learned about that later.

      After a week, Ruthra estimated that not everyone went upstairs in the evening. The dungeon itself was like a large anthill of corridors and rooms, and everyone had access only to their own corridor. Very rarely did anyone within a corridor have access to a neighboring room. Passes were issued in a very interesting way: an invisible bar code was put on the nail of the thumb, which had to be applied to a special scanner at the entrance. Every day the barcode was changed. At the entrance, the hand was put to a special printer, which put a special number. On the way out you had to put your hand to the scanner. After reading the number, the scanner destroyed it.

      Yuri Vasilyevich was willful. He told me that he had been on assignment abroad many times, under different names, where, as he put it, he "did a lot of interesting things". In the specialized circles, it was called "combat service".

      Rutra asked Yuri Vasilievich what was in the neighboring departments.

      – What is it? Come on, I'll show you.

      They stepped out into the corridor. All the corridors were very dark and poorly lit.

      – For example, here it says "F" department. That stands for the fantasy department. That's what I call them. Are you smiling? Officially, it's the Foresight Department. It's where they fantasize about what could be! If you hear what's been fantasized recently, you'll think it's unreal. Think about it, who could have imagined fifty years ago that what happened would happen? There's the P-Division, for example. They deal with the media. More precisely, the means of mass disinformation, – having said this, he chuckled snidely. – This is the "S" department – coders. They invent and decode all possible ciphers and codes. By the way, they are engaged in a very intense and very momentous task right now. The department is working on a sudden and very important problem. Although, perhaps not sudden… If you pass the exam, you will have access to all departments. You'll be assigned to a single task.

      – What task? – Ruthra asked.

      – I can't tell you that yet. Even here, among ourselves, it's a very big secret. I'll introduce you to someone soon," Vasilievich said, looking intently at Ruthra.

      Ruthra listened attentively. He didn't want to offend the old warrior, though he had a fair idea of such objects. He needed to really know with whom and where he would now work and live. The guide in the form of Yuri Vasilyevich gave only general information. Apparently, this was one of the components of the regime of this facility.

      Ruthra noticed that many of the doors in the main corridor were labeled with complex combinations of letters. What it could mean, he couldn't figure out. Almost every abbreviation had the letter "Ts" in it. He understood that it stood for "central", for example CPN – central point or observation post. But it wasn't very clear who or what was being monitored.

      – Yes, of course we come out on top, but there are instances where that happens.

      And Yuri Vasilyevich told a story about a secret physicist who was the main designer of most ballistic missiles and spacecraft, whose name was unknown to society. Rutra, of course, was aware of such persons and yet was surprised that this one was completely hidden, isolated from society.

      – What about his personal life? How, for example, did he go to the movies, to the theater? – he asked.

      – He didn't go anywhere, it's all here.

      – You got everything?

      – You're not getting the big picture. There's a city within a city down here. There's even roads with stoplights. It's a huge anthill. This physicist found out he had a son when the kid turned seven.

      Ruthra was shocked. He knew a great deal about the lives of the invisible front fighters, of course, but such a thing stunned him. He instantly imagined the full scale of the secrecy. Yuri Vasilyevich continued:

      – Soon we'll go with you to check the Cheget system by regulation, then you'll look at the president.

      Ruthra remembered being counseled about the structures of secret societies. The Center was something like that. He also remembered the sign at the entrance: "You are seen, you are not. It accurately conveyed the meaning and content of Center Zero's functioning.

      – Come on, I'll give you a little tour," Yuri said and pointed to the door at the end of the hall.

      They went to the door, Yuri Vasilievich put the fingernail of his thumb to the device, the door opened. It was an elevator. They entered, he pressed the button, the elevator went up. After a while it stopped, they got out.

      It was a huge underground railroad station. There were tracks through tunnels in different directions. Everything was painted in yellow and white stripes. Instead of trains, there were short narrow gauge tracks. There were quite a few people in overalls who were busy unloading oddly labeled cylinders. There was an interesting emblem on the cylinders in the form of a scrawled globe with a griffin on it, one paw covering a nuclear mushroom.

      – This is Metro-2," said Yuri Vasilyevich. – In the secret department you will take special literature, you must know by heart what and where it is, how it works. How it turns on, how it turns off. Communications, control stations, stockpiles. Right down to which pipe goes where, what's in it, every wire, cable, communication line, every marking. You gotta know everything! That's our law, it's not just a whim. In case of emergencies, every specialist of your level must be able to take over the management of facilities.

      Vasilyevich, telling him, gestured

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