Chapter 1517

As far as I know about Russians, they are always inefficient. What can be done in one day can be delayed for at least half a month. That's why I think the geological prospecting team for uranium will not arrive until early may at least.

However, there was something wrong with my judgment this time. Just three days later, I received a phone call from Khrushchev, saying that the geological exploration team had arrived. At the moment, the team leader lavrinko was in his office and asked me to rush to see him immediately.

Khrushchev's temporary office is located in the newly renovated municipal building. Because of his special identity, in order to ensure his safety, the internal security forces in charge of security work should carry out strict inspection on every person entering and leaving the building.

I asked the driver to stop the gas car opposite the municipal building, then got off and led bukov across the road towards the building, ready to go inside to see Khrushchev.

As soon as we got to the door, an interior Lieutenant came out of the mail room. He came to me, raised his hand and said politely, "Comrade General, please show me your identification!"

Recently, I often go in and out of here and get familiar with the officers on duty at the gate. I can't name the lieutenant, but he looks very nice. After carefully checking my ID and pass, he handed it back to me and said with a smile, "Comrade General, you can go in."

I took the certificate and gave him a smile. Just as I was about to go inside, he reached out and stopped bukov, who was following me. He said solemnly, "Comrade major, please show me your certificate."

With great cooperation, bukov took out his military card and handed it to the lieutenant. The lieutenant simply looked at the front page, then looked up and asked bukov, "Comrade major, where's your pass?"

"I'm sorry, comrade lieutenant," bukov replied with a smile. "I've just come back from the field of suppressing bandits, and I've never been here before, so I didn't apply for a pass."

After hearing this, the lieutenant immediately restrained his smile. He said to bukov, "I'm sorry, comrade major. According to the order, no one can enter without a pass."

"Comrade lieutenant," I saw that the lieutenant did not allow bukov to follow me in, and quickly came out to make ends meet: "the major is the deputy head of my guard regiment. He is accepting the task with me today. He can't do without going in."

The lieutenant turned to me and said, "Comrade General, this is a rule. No one can violate it."

Although I'm not happy with the stereotype of the lieutenant, I can understand that he is also devoted to his duty, and there is nothing wrong with it. I pondered for a moment and asked, "Comrade lieutenant, should I be able to apply for a temporary pass here?" After receiving the Lieutenant's affirmative reply, I directly told him, "please take the major to make up a pass, and we will go to see Comrade Khrushchev immediately."

"I understand." The lieutenant made a gesture of invitation to bukov: "Comrade major, please give it to me. I'll take you to apply for a temporary pass." With that, he took the lead to the mail room at the entrance, where he seemed to be going to apply for a pass.

After finishing the pass, I took bukov into the municipal building and went to the door of Khrushchev's office. I said hello to the officer on duty outside the door, then left bukov and walked into the office alone.

Khrushchev sat behind his desk, and in the chair in front of him sat a man. Seeing me enter the office, he stood up and said to me with a smile, "Rita, here you are!"

"Hello, comrade Khrushchev." I walked quickly towards him with a smile, and first extended my hand to him.

When Khrushchev shook hands with me, he pointed at the man just sitting opposite him with his left hand and said with a smile, "Rita, I'd like to introduce you to Comrade lavrinko, the leader of the geological exploration team from Moscow."

I turned around and saw a thin middle-aged man standing in front of the chair. He had a moustache, a pair of round eyes, and a military uniform that was a little whitewashed. He was looking me up and down curiously.

I released Khrushchev's hand, reached out to him with a smile on my face, and said in a friendly way, "Hello, comrade lavrinko. I'm oshanina. Nice to meet you!"

Taking my hand, lavrinko politely and distantly replied, "Hello, general oshanina!"

When Khrushchev asked me to sit down, lavrinko suddenly asked unexpectedly, "Comrade Khrushchev, is she the person in charge you sent to cooperate with us?"

Khrushchev didn't know the destination of the other party's question, but he nodded and replied truthfully: "yes, they will cooperate with your geological exploration team in the next operation, and they will do everything possible to ensure your safety." Speaking of this, his face showed an embarrassed expression, "although we have recovered most of the territory of Ukraine, it is not peaceful in these places. In addition to the possible existence of German scattered soldiers, there are also anti Soviet guerrillas who have been reduced to bandits. These remnants exist, which seriously threaten the safety of your exploration team."

After listening to Khrushchev's words, lavrinko frowned slightly, then looked at me and asked, "general oshanina, what's your major in university? When the war broke out, did you graduate? "

Lavrinko's words make me feel like vomiting blood. Is there any restriction on education to protect the safety of your exploration team? I took a deep breath and replied with some embarrassment, "I'm sorry, comrade lavrinko. I didn't go to college. I got married and had children after I graduated from the tenth grade."

After listening to my reply, the expression on lavrinko's face became more serious. He looked at me with his eyes and asked impolitely, "since you are only in the tenth grade, you must have no idea what we are looking for?"

Perhaps seeing that lavrinko's tone was somewhat aggressive, Khrushchev came out to help me out: "Comrade lavrinko, let alone Rita, even I know nothing about the uranium you are looking for."

"Comrade Khrushchev, I think you should send an expert to follow us." Lavrinko interrupted him and went on, "not such a layman who doesn't know anything."

As for lavrinko's groundless accusation, I felt my blood rush to the top of my head. As soon as he finished, I said harshly, "enough, comrade lavrinko, I'm just a soldier, neither a physicist nor a geologist. My responsibility is to protect my country, not to dig a gully to find uranium mines for making atomic bombs like you."

I am also impatient. The word "atomic bomb" is blurted out. As soon as I say it, I can't help but feel a little silly, because Khrushchev only said "super bomb" a few days ago, but didn't say that the exact name should be "atomic bomb".

Khrushchev and lavrinko were also stunned. They couldn't help looking at each other. They both saw surprised expressions in each other's eyes. After a while, lavrinko coughed softly and said, "general oshanina, please go on." His voice has softened a lot.

I organized some words in my mind, and continued: "there is a specialty in technology, but I don't know what you know; You may not know what I am familiar with. If you don't say anything else, just say the uranium deposit you are going to look for, you are just looking for the location of the vein. Don't you know how to exploit, smelt and purify? Besides, I don't think any of your team members has the ability to process and enrich uranium ore? "

After my words, the room fell into silence. It took some time for Khrushchev to break the silence. He asked me curiously, "Rita, I have a question. It seems that I said "super bomb" that day, but not "atomic bomb". How do you know the name? "

When I made a long speech, I had already thought of the words to deal with it. At this moment, when I heard Khrushchev's question, I quickly replied, "Comrade Khrushchev, do you forget that I have been to the United States with Comrade Molotov?" Seeing that he nodded his head to show that he knew this, I went on to say, "when I was in the United States, I heard someone vaguely mention an" atomic bomb "by chance. It happened that the raw materials needed to make an" atomic bomb "were related to the uranium mine we were going to look for, so I boldly guessed that what you called a" super bomb "was an" atomic bomb. "

"Yes, general oshanina, you're right. We're looking for uranium to make an atomic bomb." Knowing that I could mention the atomic bomb in front of Khrushchev, lavrinko must have sufficient confidentiality level, so he said without hesitation: "enriched uranium is an essential raw material for the manufacture of atomic bomb."

The reason why I mentioned my trip to the United States was to explain to them why I knew about "atomic bomb" and "uranium mine". Anyway, Khrushchev can't send someone to the United States to verify it. I'm absolutely sure I'll muddle through.

From Khrushchev's next performance, I felt that his strategy worked. After nodding, he looked at lavrinko and asked, "Comrade lavrinko, are you sure you don't need Rita to accompany you to search for uranium mines? If you are sure, I will arrange another candidate for you, but it may take a little more than two days. "

"Comrade Khrushchev, I have changed my mind. According to your original arrangement, comrade oshanina should accompany us to search for uranium." After speaking to Khrushchev, lavrinko turned to me, bowed deeply and said apologetically, "Comrade oshanina, I'm sorry. I was wrong just now. I apologize to you."

I quickly helped him and said generously, "Comrade lavrinko, don't say that. It's all for work."

When Khrushchev saw me and lavrinko reconcile their differences, he also showed a knowing smile on his face. He asked, "Rita, which unit are you going to take to protect the exploration team?"

"When I came from Ukraine, I brought a company of guards. Some time ago, after mixing with a new force, they formed a reinforced battalion under the command of major bukov, deputy head of my guard regiment, to suppress bandits in shepetovka area. " I quickly replied: "I heard that the geological exploration team is coming, so I called them back temporarily. Now they are stationed near Rovno. They will be responsible for protecting the safety of the exploration team in the next days."

"Where is major bukov?" Khrushchev then asked.

"He's outside now, talking to the officer on duty at the gate," I said

When I finished, Khrushchev picked up the phone on the desk, dialed a number, and said to the microphone, "let the major outside come in!" As soon as he put down the microphone, the door was pushed open. The officer on duty came in first, leaned back against the open door and made a gesture of invitation to bukov who was still outside. Then I saw bukov, with his cornice hat under his arm, stride towards us. The officer at the door quietly withdrew from the house and closed the door behind him. Bukov came to Khrushchev, raised his hand to salute him, and then loudly reported: "Comrade military commissar, major bukov, deputy head of the guard regiment, reports to you. I'm here on your order. Please give me instructions!" Khrushchev's face showed a bright smile when he heard the other party calling him his former post. He nodded to bukov and asked, "major, your reinforcement battalion will follow Rita all the time in the coming days to be responsible for the security work of the geological exploration team. Are you ready?" I thought bukov would immediately answer Khrushchev's question without hesitation: "we are ready to carry out the tasks assigned to us by our superiors at any time." Unexpectedly, he hesitated for a moment and said, "Comrade military commissar, I think the troops can carry out the security task as soon as tomorrow." As soon as his words came out, we were all surprised. Khrushchev frowned and asked discontentedly, "Comrade major, what's the matter? Why can we start tomorrow?" When Khrushchev asked me what I wanted to ask, I did not add to the story. Instead, I stood aside and listened quietly to bukov's explanation. He said, "Comrade military commissar, the vast majority of soldiers in my reinforced battalion have been in the army for less than ten days and have no combat experience at all. Therefore, I am not going to let everyone participate in this operation of protecting the geological exploration team, but I am going to dispatch a group of elite soldiers to take charge of it." Bukov's explanation was very agreeable to me, so I stood up in time and explained to Khrushchev, "Comrade Khrushchev, a little of this consideration is correct. If 500 or 600 people pour into the mountain, there will inevitably be chaos and the safety of the exploration team will not be well protected at that time."“ Yes, comrade military Commissar. " Bukov added: "I only need to bring 200 capable officers and men to ensure the safety of the exploration team in the process of prospecting."“ Comrade lavrinko, what do you mean? " Khrushchev did not reply immediately, but asked lavrinko with a smile, "if you see it, you can take two hundred people with you. Is that ok?"“ Enough, enough, "lavrinko said in a flustered voice." there are still a little more than 200 people, and a hundred people are more than enough. "“ Comrade lavrinko, "I think that the mountain area is not peaceful. If I bring only 100 people, I am not sure. So I persuade him:" our soldiers not only need to protect the safety of your exploration team, but also need to help you carry exploration equipment. It's really hard to deal with a small number of people. "“ Just two hundred people. " Seeing that lavrinko was still a little hesitant, Khrushchev made up his mind about the number of people, and then told bukov, "major, go back to the army and choose the right people. Let the comrades have a good night's rest, keep up their spirits and set out with the exploration team early tomorrow morning. "