Макс Глебов – Prohibition of Interference. Book 3. Impact Strategy (страница 8)
“Not if, but when, Wilhelm,” Becker grinned. “Turn on the infrared spotlight. The radar is a good thing, but the night sight gives more detail, even though it works at a shorter distance.”
“The
“It was an accident,” Becker brushed it aside. “The Russians can't see us. They have nothing like our equipment. They just changed course for the next target. They won't get away from us – the
Far ahead, the ground was covered with flashes of explosions.
“Well, that's right!” Becker nodded to himself, “They were approaching a new target, so they changed course. Too bad we didn't have time to take them down before they bombed out.”
There it is, the Russian bomber. Huge, even compared to a twin-engine heavy fighter, but that doesn't help it… In the night sight, the plane, illuminated by an infrared spotlight, looked very contrasting, and the Oberleutnant slightly raised the nose of his plane, bringing the silhouette of the
Suddenly flashes flickered ahead, and tracers streaked across the sky, first to the right and above, and then a dozen meters below Becker's plane.
“Shit,” Oberleutnant swore, pulling the plane sideways and simultaneously firing his direct fire machine guns.
“There was no damage to the Russians,” said the flight mechanic with concern in his voice. “They are not changing course. It looks like they can see us after all, Herr Oberleutnant.”
“Even if they do, they don't see us well. The shooting was indirect, but you're right, they knew about us.”
The second attempt did not bring the expected result either. This time Becker decided to approach from the side, but the Russian bomber met him with two machine guns. The Oberleutnant did not try his luck, and after firing at the enemy at maximum range, approached him again from behind. The German pilot felt annoyed. He knew for sure the Russian shooters couldn't see him and were shooting just "somewhere over there," but Becker didn't want to run into a stray burst.
The third run was more successful. The bomber's aft gun mount was firing in a totally different sector from where Becker's Dornier was approaching its target, and the Oberleutnant, firing almost at point-blank range, put two long bursts into the huge carcass of the Russian plane.
“The Russian is on fire! Congratulations, Herr Oberleutnant!”
“There's plenty more of them here, Willie. We're going to have a rough night tonight,” Becker smiled.
“One more mark!” The flight mechanic shouted out in a suddenly changed voice. “It's something small, like our
“The Russians have twin-engine long-range bombers. I think the
“Not likely, Herr Oberleutnant. The speed is too high. It's going faster than us!”
“
“It's coming to us itself, commander!" answered Gönsler in a puzzled voice, "The distance is a kilometer.”
“I see it!” The Russian plane was already quite distinguishable in the night sight, “right,
Oberleutnant Becker was an experienced pilot, and he did not suffer from overconfidence. He remembered how strangely the crew of the downed bomber had behaved, having somehow learned of the danger before his
“The Russian turned too!” immediately shouted out the flight mechanic. “The distance is 400 meters!”
“Take it easy, Willie,” Becker replied in a steady voice, though he himself was no longer confident.
“300 meters!”
Flashes flickered ahead. The tracer flashes passed close to the pilot's cockpit. Becker heard a sharp popping sound that no experienced pilot would ever confuse – the sound of bullets piercing the hull of the airplane.
The flight mechanic shrieked. The neon lights of the radar equipment blinked and went out. The right engine stalled and immediately burst into flames, and the Russian gunner's merciless bursts continued to pound the hull and cockpit of the plane. Not a single bullet has, by some miracle, hit Becker yet. Oberleutnant glanced at the flight mechanic. Willie was dead, there was no doubt about it, and the battered
“Crew, get off the plane!” Becker ordered himself.
The cockpit canopy flew off into the darkness; it was knocked out by the triggered squib. With an unbelievable effort the Oberleutnant managed to flip the burning
“I wonder who's down there,” thought Becker, swinging under the parachute canopy. He absolutely did not want to fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks.
An airborne radar, and even with a night sight and an infrared searchlight in addition! Why didn't I know about this? Probably because it is simply impossible to keep track of everything. The Germans just got their radar up to working order. This "
The Germans knew! They were waiting for us and getting ready, and I failed to calculate their plans, and it cost the Red Army's already depleted long-range aviation new losses. Five heavy long-range bombers in exchange for three German
“Comrade Senior Major of State Security, mission accomplished. Bomb strikes on enemy headquarters, communication centers and key infrastructure were carried out. The air group's losses were three
“Five long-range bombers?” It was dark, but I noticed the change in Sudoplatov's expression. “You lost half the unique aircraft entrusted to you and you report a successful mission?”
“Mission accomplished, comrade…”
“Silence! Senior Lieutenant of State Security Nagulin, you're under arrest! Surrender your weapons.”
Chapter 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.”