"Daniel Da Cruz - Texas Trilogy 03 - Texas Triumphant" - читать интересную книгу автора (Da Cruz Daniel)

[Texas Trilogy 03] - Texas Triumphant
By Daniel da Cruz
Scanned by BW-SciFi
1. HOLOCAUST
2 AUGUST 2008
Gone were the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin's Tomb. Vanished were the University of Moscow,
Gorky Park, Lubyanka Prison, GUM department store, the 5,000-room Rossiya Hotel. Drifting over
Central Europe was an enormous cloud of dust-atomized remains of block after soulless block of
gray apartment buildings, bridges that had spanned the Moskva River, museums, sports stadia,
and monolithic Soviet ministries.
Moscow was no more.
Most of the uniformed men around the conference table had not yet fully grasped the implications
of the sudden disappearance of the hub of Mother Russia. In one atomic instant had disappeared
not only the city it-self, but a rich cultural tradition and the intellectual and political leadership of the
land. Those present were themselves the most eminent survivors. Men who had commanded
army corps, presided over provincial uni-versities, chaired party apparatus of autonomous
repub-lics, headed KGB directories-these were the new masters of the Soviet Union, and they
sensed that they must act quickly and with decision to solidify the power history had thrust upon
them.
The Deputy Minister of Defense, Marshal Evgeniy Luchenko, had by grudging common consent
become Acting Premier. After all, the marshal, who had been on an inspection tour when the
atomic explosion leveled Moscow, had the support of the remaining army com-manders, and as
always in the Soviet Union, power came out the barrel of a gun. A career officer, Luchenko saw
the military option as the best means of asserting and consolidating his new power, and the target
was not only obvious but vulnerable. "The Republic of Texas," he intoned.
"Why Texas?" asked Uzbek Communist Party chief Vladimir Dmitrevich Pirogov. Pirogov knew
that Lu-chenko had been a liaison officer with the ill-fated 17th High Seas Fleet when Admiral Grell
led it to a watery death in the Battle of the Black Channel against the Texans.
"Because the Texans are responsible for the annihila-tion of Moscow."
Acting KGB chairman Pavel Pavlovich Milstein laughed mirthlessly. "Nonsense! Moscow was
destroyed by a hydrogen bomb-or bombs. The Texans do not themselves manufacture nuclear
weapons, and our agents confirm that American bomb stockpiles show no loss accountable to
diversion of warheads to the Texans. Your own radar reports indicate that no incoming mis-siles
were sighted before Moscow was destroyed. And as for a bomb's introduction through, say, the
diplomatic pouch-that's preposterous, given the KGB's meticu-lous inspection of all cargoes
destined for Moscow."
Luchenko feigned deep thought and gave Milstein a little rope. "Then what is your theory,
Comrade?"
"Doesn't the explosion speak for itself? The only atomic warheads in the Moscow area were those
con-cealed among the antimissile missiles of our ABM net. They weren't-couldn't have been-set
off simul-taneously ... by accident. Therefore, it stands to reason that the explosions were
deliberate, detonated by suici-dal internal enemies."
"Would you care to name names, Comrade?" Lu-chenko's voice held a hint of menace.
Milstein's smile was bland. "All I can say is that the KGB, at least, doesn't have access to
warheads in the custody of the military."
"You are accusing the military of this monumental crime!" Luchenko thundered.
"I make no accusations. The facts accuse."
Luchenko paused to allow Milstein's challenge to take root in the minds of the fourteen men
around the confer-ence table. They would remember Milstein's insinuation, his disloyalty, his
appalling failure to get the facts that he thought damned Luchenko-a criminal dereliction in a KGB