Prohibition of Interference. Book 6. Samurai Code

Chapter 4

The phone call interrupted Colonel Schliemann who was writing another analytical report, which was suddenly required by the General Staff of the Ground Forces.

“Erich, I need you,” the concentrated voice of Major General Richtengden sounded in the receiver. “Right now.”

“Heinrich, I would need another half hour, I'm almost finished with this reference,” Schliemann asked, brazenly taking advantage of his friendship with his boss.

“You'll finish it later,” Richtengden said. “I'll wait for you downstairs, on the floor minus two, in my back-up office.”

“I'm on my way.”

Schliemann didn't ask any more questions. Floor minus two, that’s serious. There used to be a bomb shelter there, and, in principle, the underground floor still served the same function, but after the liquidation of Hitler, Richtengden, given a new position, equipped a separate office there, which was protected by all possible means against all methods of wiretapping and eavesdropping known at the time. Schliemann did not know all the details, but it seemed that his childhood friend tried to protect himself not only from existing, but also from prospective means of technical intelligence. And this is here in the center of Berlin, behind several security perimeters! A year ago, Schliemann would have considered such actions a waste of resources, but much has changed since then, and now he regarded Richtengden's innovation with complete understanding.

General Richtengden silently pointed Schliemann to a comfortable chair by the wall, came out from behind the table and sat down in a similar chair opposite. They were separated only by a coffee table with a carafe of water and a couple of glasses.

“Something has happened, Erich,” Richtengden said softly as Schliemann settled in his chair and stopped his expectant gaze on him.

“I already figured that out,” Schliemann grinned, “Don't drag it out, even bad news is better than the unknown.”

“I wouldn't call it bad news, but it changes a lot of things. Well, I will not get ahead of myself and start at the beginning. Admiral Canaris came here today.”

“Even so? He didn't summon you to his place, but came himself?” Schliemann slightly arched his eyebrow.

“He knows about this place, and he seems now to be finally convinced that I didn't invest so many reichsmarks in equipping this office for nothing. So he had to come here.”

“Is it something to do with Nagulin again?”

“Yes and no,” Richtengden shook his head vaguely. “The Admiral received very important information, and he received it personally. That's what made him come to me. The way in which the information was transmitted was quite unusual. Canaris was contacted using his home radio. Communication, of course, was one-way, but the invisible interlocutor knew perfectly well what questions the Admiral might have. After this contact, Canaris immediately requested a report from the direction finding service. You know that in Berlin no radio can go on the air, without being instantly detected.”

“And, of course, they didn't hear anything,” Schliemann said affirmatively rather than questioningly.

“Absolutely. None of the direction finders picked up extraneous radio transmitters.”

“Can I get to know what the Admiral has been informed?

“You can. I've been assigned this case, so you're going to be a part of it, too. Canaris was explained in a very detailed and reasoned manner, that the Enigma encryption machine is not at all as good as we imagined it to be, and that the British have been reading our headquarters' correspondence like an open book for a long time. The Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, the Ground Forces – all the most important things they transmit on the radio are laid on Churchill's desk in decoded form, and it's been on his desk for months.”

“The source did not give his name?”

“No. He said only that he was a German patriot and a couple of other unimportant phrases in the same vein.”

“Is this a provocation?”

“It doesn't look like it. The information is already being verified, but the Admiral has no doubts about its truthfulness. His interlocutor was very convincing.”

“That is, someone unknown simply leaked reliable information of great importance to the Abwehr, and at the same time it is completely unclear, how he got it and for what purpose he passed it on to us. Did I leave anything out?”

“You got it right. Now let me ask you a question. Erich, does this remind you of anything? Who else among the players we know can just as easily obtain any information he needs, regardless of the level of secrecy, and immediately use it for his own purposes?”

“Well, not just any information…”

“Are you sure? However, you are right. We were able to hide something, which is why I'm hoping for this office.”

“The Russian marksman? But why would he help us? He's supposed to be our enemy. Wait a minute, though…” Schliemann leaned forward sharply and gazed into Richtengden's eyes.

“I see that you and I have come to similar conclusions,” the General grinned wearily. “Who told us that the Russian marksman is unique? There could be several like him, and perhaps one of them decided to play on our side. It would be good for us to understand why he needs to do that…”

* * *

“Mr. President, you instructed me to take personal control of General Nagulin's activities in China and report to you immediately of any news related to him.”

“Yes, Harry, I remember my request,” Roosevelt nodded and tore his gaze away from another ministerial report.

“Four hours ago the radio interception stations "Cast" and "Haipo" recorded an intense exchange of messages between the General Headquarters of the Japanese Navy in Tokyo and their base in Taiwan. Within two hours the intensity of the radio exchange was increasing and it successively included the enemy air bases in Hong Kong, Shanghai and northern Indochina. Decoding the messages took some time, but the result was worth it. A group of fighter-bombers bearing the identifying insignia of the Republic of China invaded Japanese-controlled space, from the Chinese coast. They made a diversionary maneuver, simulating a night raid on Taiwan, and then circled around the island and caught up with the heavy aircraft carrier Zuikaku, accompanied by two destroyers, at sea. Their attack resulted in the sinking of the Zuikaku and one of the destroyers.”

“I was expecting something like that,” Roosevelt grinned. “It seemed to me from the beginning that Nagulin would not be willing to indulge in petty local operations, but decided to show us right away that we took his promises seriously for a reason. But a heavy aircraft carrier… Perhaps this young general once again managed to surprise me.”

“Unfortunately, it didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked,” Hopkins replied without a smile. “The Japanese knew of the impending attack, and the aircraft carrier managed to raise its fighters and the destroyers opened barrage fire on the approaching Soviet planes. The Russians suffered casualties. There is no exact information about the number of downed machines.”

“Did General Nagulin take part in the attack?”

“According to the information received by our military advisors from the Chinese allies, Nagulin led the strike group that attacked the Zuikaku.”

“Has he survived?”

“His fate is not entirely clear. It is known that Nagulin did not die in the battle with the Japanese ships, but all further orders came not from him, but from General Kudryavtsev, who also took part in the attack on the aircraft carrier. After the destruction of the Zuikaku, the Russians' problems did not end. The Japanese somehow became aware of their escape route. The group included damaged planes that could not maintain high speed, and over the coast they were intercepted by enemy fighters, but the reinforcements called by Kudryavtsev managed to reach the Russians. More than 200 Japanese planes were involved in the air battle against about 60 Soviet twin-engine fighter-bombers.”

“It's not a good balance of power,” Roosevelt said softly.

“No doubt. But I can't say that the Russians were defeated in this battle. Both sides suffered heavy losses, but the Japanese had to retreat. Now the Soviet pilots are returning to their airfield. Nagulin is not among them. Our advisor to Chiang Kai-shek's headquarters tried to find out the details, but the Generalissimo was in no hurry to share information, or perhaps he did not have all of it himself. All we know is that the Chinese sent a special group to the site of the air battle, made up of the best graduates of the "Wampu" military school, with the task of rescuing and evacuating the surviving crew members of the downed Russian planes. The Russians also sent their own group. The Chinese personnel at the airfield near Chongqing, where the Soviet air regiment was stationed, turned out to be quite talkative. They saw a group of heavily armed paratroopers loading into a transport plane that flew out right after the fighters, sent to the aid of Nagulin's air group.”

“So,” Roosevelt stood up with a visible effort and took a few steps around the office. It struck Hopkins that the President's movements had become noticeably more confident since their last meeting. “What do we have in the end? The Russians sank the heavy aircraft carrier Zuikaku, taking casualties and getting into serious withdrawal trouble. In the air battle that followed, they shot down an unknown but apparently very significant number of Japanese aircraft, forcing the enemy's surviving machines to flee the battlefield. As a result of all these events, an unknown number of Russian pilots found themselves in territory loosely controlled by the Chinese, and with a high probability they include General Nagulin, allegedly wounded in the battle with an unclear degree of severity. Chiang Kai-shek immediately took action, to help the Russian pilots by sending his best men to the coast, while we remain on the sidelines. Is this normal?”

“We don't have any formal obligations in this case,” Hopkins' voice didn't sound confident, “but the Russians have acted in our interests, fulfilling and, perhaps, even exceeding the verbal promises made to us…”

“That's my point,” Roosevelt grinned. “ Chiang Kai-shek immediately appreciated the potential of Russian technology and clearly wants to show Stalin that China can become a reliable ally. I don't think we should let the Chinese get ahead in this matter. Besides, we have absolutely no interest in the death of General Nagulin. Zuikaku was just the beginning, but if we don't get Nagulin out of there, that will be the end of it – I'm pretty sure that the entire Chinese mission of the Soviets rests on him.”

“It's hard to argue with that.”

“Harry, what do we have in this region? I'm not talking about General Stillwell's Chinese divisions right now.”

“Only aviation, and not the most modern.”

“The Flying Tigers?”

“Yes. Clare Chennault’s's air group in Kunming. That's about sixty P-40 Warhawk fighters. Until recently they were mainly engaged in covering the Burma Road and Rangoon. This is all we can quickly use to help the Russians evacuate their pilots from coastal southeastern China.”

“Harry, I need the Tigers to get their orders today, and as soon as possible – every hour counts.”

* * *

I came to my senses from the annoying itching of the implant behind my ear. My head continued to hurt, but it wasn't the same pain that made me pass out. I was lying on a stretcher, swinging gently – I was being carried somewhere, obviously over rough terrain. Judging from the fact that Letra hadn't pulled me out of oblivion earlier, there was nothing threatening me right now. Nevertheless, I was in no hurry to open my eyes right away.

Realizing that I had come to my senses, Letra immediately informed me, “Colonel Lebedev's men found you and five other pilots. There is absolutely no place to land a plane, and the nearest Chinese units are almost forty kilometers away, but these are not the biggest problems. There are three large enemy reconnaissance and sabotage units on the coast. Apparently, the Imperial Navy is preparing another landing, and they've been sent here to find out what's going on. The Japanese have contact with their commanders. Two hours ago they got orders to check the area around the recently ended air battle, and then there were several more communications that I couldn't intercept… Anyway, there's a hunt for you, and if you do nothing, in about twenty minutes your squadron will be ambushed.”

Without opening my eyes, I unfolded the virtual map. Colonel Lebedev's detachment moved among fairly high hills covered with dense southern forest. Sometimes there were terraces of fields right on the steep slopes, but they looked abandoned – the Chinese peasants did not seem to see the point of farming in areas that the Japanese could seize at any moment. We didn't meet any locals themselves either. Rumors of how the Japanese occupiers were treating the population spread quickly, and anyone who could go inland left their homes and became refugees.

Our unit certainly could not be called a walking hospital, but the three wounded, including me, greatly reduced its mobility. I was carried by Ignatov and Nikiforov. The two pilots found by Lebedev's men carried another stretcher. The third wounded man was carried by another pilot, along with the radio operator, who had been relieved of carrying the radio for the occasion.

In the maze of these high hills, the detachment had to move mostly through the winding lowlands, as it was extremely difficult to constantly climb up and down the slopes with the wounded in their arms. Colonel Lebedev had difficulty navigating these places, and if it had not been for the Chinese guide, he would have been able to keep the right direction only by compass. But the Japanese felt much more confident here. Two squads of thirty men each were moving five or six kilometers behind us, surrounding Lebedev's group from left and right, and there was really an ambush ahead of us.

I opened my eyes and met Lena's gaze. She walked beside my stretcher, remembering to look carefully over the lush green slopes for signs of danger in the jumble of branches and leaves of the subtropical forest.

“There's no one there, I would feel it,” I cautiously tried to smile, and I even succeeded. My head didn't respond to my words with a flash of pain, though I didn't hold out much hope for that.

“How are you feeling?” Lena abruptly stepped toward me and leaned over the stretcher.

Ignatov and Nikiforov stopped and a soft report flew down the chain of fighters forward to where Colonel Lebedev was walking: “The Commander’s come to his senses.”

How about that! Lebedev is the commander here, and it wouldn't even occur to me to challenge that.

“Better now,” I took my wife's hand and slightly lifted myself up on the stretcher. My body didn't protest. Even the headache receded a little more, but the head wound under the tight bandage began to itch wildly.

The soldiers gently lowered the stretcher onto the grass. I slowly raised my hand and groped my head. I could feel the big bump even through the bandage, but the shrapnel didn't seem to have broken through the bone. They make tough skulls in the Sixth Republic.

“Comrade Colonel General…” It was Lebedev, who appeared next to us silently as usual.

“Thank you for getting me out of there,” I glanced around the squad. “Did you find anyone else besides me?”

“Five people. Two wounded. Carried on a stretcher,” Lebedev reported clearly, “We have fifty kilometers to go through these hills to the places where we can be evacuated. The last communication with the airfield was an hour ago. Only half of the regiment was left, but we wiped out a lot of Japanese, all the hills near the shore were strewn with the wreckage of their fighters. We wanted to take some of the Japanese pilots prisoner and interrogate them, but there are no survivors – they don't take parachutes with them.”

“They won't let us go quietly,” I sat down slowly, stopping Lebedev, who tried to object, with a hand gesture. “There are a lot of Japanese around here. They are scouting the area before the planned landing. They probably already know about our unit, so we should expect visitors soon.”

I felt a little nauseous, but in general my body was just hinting that I should lie still for another ten hours instead of acting like a mountain goat, no, I don't want to, I'd rather be a panda. Or don't they live in these hills?

I got up slowly. This time no one tried to stop me. If a senior officer thinks he's ready to get in line, that's his decision, and one wouldn't give him advice, unless he's a doctor, of course.

“I need to go up to this peak,” I pointed to the top of the nearest hill ahead. There were no trees growing there, only grass and bushes, and the view from there was clearly better than from the low place.

“Ignatov, Nikiforov, Nagulina, you come under the command of the Colonel-General,” Lebedev ordered without asking any questions. “The rest of you, keep moving.”

If I had relied only on my own hearing, even if it were unique, I would not have been able to make out anything in the cacophony of cries of local animals, who were wildly enjoying life and eating each other in the crown of bushes and trees, but I managed to see something from the top of the hill, even without resorting to Letra.

A fairly wide and calm river with heavily overgrown banks flowed along the bottom of the narrow valley that opened to our eyes. The crowns of the trees almost closed over the water, but in some places there were gaps.

“Left bank, three and a half kilometers, a glade in the bushes.”

The sun was high and shining in our backs, so we could not be afraid of the glare of the optics, and Lena brought binoculars to her eyes.

“Three people. It looks like they are Japanese. They came out to look around, too. Arisaka-38 rifle, Type 99 machine gun… what the hell is that?” Lena held out her binoculars to me, but I just shook my head in the negative.

“Type 100 submachine gun. This is an exotic weapon. Hardly ever used by the regular army, but it has been produced in small batches for over a year.”

“They seem to be serious guys,” said Nikiforov softly.

“There are at least three dozen of them, and this is not the only unit.”

* * *

“Korff, don't you think these Chinese planes turned out to be a little too tough and mean?”

“There aren't many of them left,” his deputy armament officer shrugged.

“But the Japanese lost almost two hundred fighters. Four to one!”

“When machines of different technological generations meet in battle, it can be even worse.”

“The question is, where did they come from?” the destroyer commander asked with irritation. “Something tells me that it was the infected people from the base on the satellite who gave the natives some of our technology. Computer, I need an estimate of the likelihood of interference.”

“My knowledge base does not have an algorithm for analyzing such situations. This requires a specialized neural network package. Only scientific stations in star systems belonging to underdeveloped civilizations are equipped with such a package.”

“So these people, on the satellite, have such a package?”

“It should be there, but only if the base's central computer survived.”

“So you can't tell if they passed on technology to the natives?”

“I can't, but the legal database has a set of instructions for science bases like this one. They are forbidden to interfere with the development of the civilizations they study.”

“Can't you see what's going on? They're infected! They don't give a damn about any instructions!”

“I have no data or algorithms to answer your question and assess the credibility of your claims. This is beyond the scope of my functional purpose.”

“You're just a brainless piece of iron,” said Hirch, cooling down a bit.

“Commander, permission…”

“I'm listening,” the Lieutenant Commander turned his gaze to the chief of engineering.

“It seems to me that it is not only and not so much about the technical characteristics of these planes, it's more about who is directing the pilots' actions and pointing them at the targets. Our computer, of course, cannot answer every question, but if we move sequentially and don't overload it with too complex tasks, that require creativity, it can be very useful.”

“Can you get to the point, Lieutenant?”

“The introductory part is over, Commander. So, I did an analysis of the Chinese pilots' actions in the night battle with Japanese ships, and the result was very interesting. First, these machines are not equipped with radars, which means they simply couldn't find aircraft carriers and destroyers in the night sea. No way! This led me to believe that our opponents were transmitting some kind of information to the wild infected people after all, and that they were supporting Japan's opponents.”

“Let us assume that this is true,” Hirch nodded, “go on.”

“And then I tried to figure out if the textual "advice from orbit" could have helped the Chinese pilots to sink an aircraft carrier and one of the destroyers? And the answer was unequivocal: they could not! In this way it is possible to bring the air group to the target, but how can you help pilots at night to hit a ship that is maneuvering intensely, with active anti-aircraft artillery and aviation opposition, with unguided bombs? The answer is, in fact, very simple. This can only be done by a person who is in the cockpit of the lead bomber and has the ability to use all the scanning, positioning and targeting technology provided by the satellite constellation.”

There was silence in the destroyer's command post. Hirch stared at the chief of engineering for a while in silence, then grinned and rose from his chair.

“Are you saying that some of the science base personnel are operating on the surface of the planet?”

“I have no other explanation for what we saw, and the further behavior of the Chinese pilots speaks in favor of this version.”

Hirch understood from the engineer's voice and facial expression that he was sincerely convinced of the correctness of his conclusions.

“One of their planes, the one leading the night attack, sustained significant damage and could not keep up with the speed of the entire group. Military expediency required them to leave the damaged plane and everyone else to leave at top speed. At the very least, they could provide one or two fighters to escort the comrade in distress to the Chinese coast. What did they do? They did exactly the opposite! They sent only the planes that had minor damage to the airfield, while the rest of the group remained to guard that plane, barely flying. Not only that, but fifty more fighter-bombers soon arrived to help them! Then, without any hesitation, they engaged the Japanese, who outnumbered them three to one and stubbornly defended the stretch of shore over which the pilot of that damaged plane had catapulted. By the way, it was he who dropped the first two bombs on the Zuikaku, directing the rest of the group to the target.”

“It's very interesting…” Hirch put his hands behind his back and took a few steps, looking thoughtfully at the holographic projection of the Pacific region of the planet, “And where is he now?”

“A group of paratroopers, landing from a transport plane, arrived for the pilots shot down in the air combat. They found some surviving pilots and are now moving through the rugged terrain deep into the continent. Their speed is slow as they have three wounded men.”

“Did they find our main man?”

“They probably did, or they'd still be scouring the coast. It's probably one of the wounded they're carrying on a stretcher.”

“I suppose the Japanese will be very interested to know that they still have a chance to get at the culprit of their latest trouble,” grinned Hirch, “and we'll watch. If he really is an infected person from the science base, he won't let them gobble him, but he will be forced to give himself away. Your version seems interesting to me, Lieutenant, except that without checking it out again, I'm not going to risk people; there are too few of us as it is. But if your assumptions are confirmed, we need to bring this infected man to our ship for a visit and talk to him, with all the necessary precautions, about what happened here, and why the cruiser Admiral Kuhn is now sadly circling around the satellite of this wretched planet in the form of space junk. I think he knows a lot about what anti-space defense systems are preserved on the satellite, and whether or not there are any combat-ready ships there.”

“Will there be work for us, too?” said the commander of the landing party nonchalantly. “ And I wondered how it was that the exercise scenario did not include tasks for my men. We ride as passengers and go crazy with boredom in endless training…”

“Prepare the landing craft, Lieutenant Cree. Checking the truth of the assumptions made is necessary, but I'm pretty sure our engineer is right – you do have a job ahead of you, and not an easy one at that. I'm not taking the ship into the system. We will exit the jump outside the outer asteroid belt, and then you'll have to go on your own in maximum camouflage mode.”

“A week in this tin can?” The paratrooper commander grinned, “My guys are stuck on the destroyer and are ready to spend even a month in a dropship, just to get some variety out of it. Permission to begin preparations?”

* * *

“I got the impression that the Japanese decided to show themselves to us. They are the beaters. They want us not to linger here and break forward, trying to get away from them,” I told Lebedev at the end of the story about what we saw from the top of the hill. “There's bound to be an ambush up ahead.”

Lebedev had a map of the area, but its quality, to put it mildly, left much to be desired. To begin with, it was covered in hieroglyphics. As soon as the Colonel opened his clipboard, our shortish Chinese guide emerged from somewhere under his arm, he gazed into a mishmash of isohypses, conventional signs and inscriptions, and jabbed his finger at a certain point.

“We are here!” The Chinaman proudly said in Russian, with a strong Chinese accent, and stretched his lips in a smile.

“Thank you, Comrade Liang,” the Colonel nodded.

Letra immediately superimposed a grid of signs I could understand on the product of Chinese cartographers and marked the location of Japanese detachments with the help of augmented reality mode, and I, of course, immediately put this information into words and reported it to Lebedev, generously enriching my revelations with all kinds of "probably", "according to my estimates" and "if I were the enemy…". The Chinaman, by the way, indicated our location quite accurately.

The situation was changing rapidly, and if until an hour ago I thought that three Japanese detachments were all that threatened us, now it was obvious that the Japanese were determined not to let us leave under any circumstances.

Judging by the presence of three reconnaissance and sabotage groups on the Chinese coast, the Imperial Navy was preparing a large-scale landing operation, and we happened to get right into the area planned by the Japanese for the landing. The story of the sinking of the Zuikaku and the ensuing air battle roused enemy commanders and forced them to speed up preparations for the operation. Ships with marines, of course, could not approach the Chinese coast in such a short time, but the Japanese had an airborne force, some of which was subordinate to the Navy Command and some of which was subordinate to the Army Command. And now the army paratroopers were already loading into transport planes at the Karasehara airfield in the eastern part of Kyushu Island, and marine commandos were preparing to take off from Yokosuga Base on the shore of Tokyo Bay.

“Ivan, get the radio ready,” Lebedev ordered, “We won't last a couple of hours without air support. Group, take up a circular defense on the slopes of the hill, from which the Japanese were spotted. We are not climbing to the top of the hill. If the enemy points aviation at us, it becomes a very convenient reference point.”

The Colonel was doing everything right. I didn't see any other solutions in the current situation either. Breaking through the ambush that waited ahead of us in the narrow gorge, which was squeezed by fairly steep hillsides, was fraught with heavy losses, and an attempt to bypass it would most likely end up fighting in an unprepared position with unpredictable results. The rebels supplied the Japanese with information about our actions, and there was nothing I could do about it, so we could move on only after General Kudryavtsev cleared our way.

The problem was that after the air battle over the Chinese coast, Kudryavtsev had less than two dozen combat-ready planes left. Of course, many more planes returned from the battle, but a lot of them were damaged and could not take part in flights until they were repaired. Theoretically, that might have been enough. After all, burning out a Japanese ambush and pursuing squads with fuel-air bombs is not too difficult a task for pilots who know exactly where the enemy is and when to drop the bombs. Another thing is that the Japanese probably won't sit still and wait for a gift to arrive from heaven. They will begin to move actively, may decide to disperse, or even launch an attack to get as close to our positions as possible, making any air strike an extremely risky undertaking. That is, we need aviation support not in the form of a one-time bombing strike, but on a permanent basis. We can only move forward relatively safely if Kudryavtsev's ILs are hovering over our heads at all times, reacting instantly to any ground or air threats. But the Major-General may not have the forces to provide such support.

“The first five planes will be over us in thirty minutes,” Lebedev reported. “Three with bombs, two fighters. The guys are already taking off. In an hour they'll be replaced by the next five, and then they'll go on in that order. We'll start moving on, as soon as we see our planes.”