"Mack Reynolds - Day After Tomorrow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

The building was an anachronism as well. It had once belonged to the
Yusopov family, the last prince of which had earned immortality by
finishing off the mad monk, Rasputin. Simonov knew it well and strode
along the corridors ignoring the antiquities, the marble statues,
pre-World War One paintings, and marble benches. No one had ever
bothered to remove them since the days when Grand Dukes strode the
halls.

There were armed guards spotted, here, there, at all crucial turnings, at
all doors. They wore the uniform of the KGB, the Committee of State
Security.

Ilya Simonov began to stride past a group of three of the guards, two
captains and a lieutenant. Suddenly he snapped to a halt. They came to
attention, a ramrod attention.

He looked them up and down, his face empty except for bleak eyes, and
said to the one in the middle, "What is your name, lieutenant?"

The other clicked heels. "Captain Nicolia Ilyichev, Comrade Colonel."

"Never contradict me, sergeant," Simonov said. "When did you shave
last?"

The other paled slightly. "This morning, Comrade Colonel."

"Never lie to me, corporal," Simonov said, his voice as empty as his face.
"What was it, vodka or a woman, that kept you from getting to your post I
properly presentable?'

Nicolai Ilyichev looked at him with sick blankness.

"Comrade Colonel," he said desperately. "I carry the Soviet Hero's
Combat Award. It is a great privilege to be assigned to the Security Guard
of the Minister."

"All members of the Minister's Security Guard carry the Hero's Combat
Award," Simonov snapped. "Do not try to impress me, infantryman. If you
are so sloppy that you come on duty in unpresentable condition, what
would happen if the emergency to which your life is dedicated manifested
itself? Would you be in the physical shape to meet it? I am afraid that the
Moscow climate does not agree with you, infantryman. Perhaps you are
more suited to the Eastern Provinces."

"Comrade Colonel…!",

But Ilya Simonov had strode on.

The former Captain Ilyichev bug-eyed after him. He turned to the
lieutenant flanking him, desperately. "Perhaps he'll forget."