– Yes, of course we come out on top, but there are instances where that happens.
And Yuri Vasilyevich told a story about a secret physicist who was the main designer of most ballistic missiles and spacecraft, whose name was unknown to society. Rutra, of course, was aware of such persons and yet was surprised that this one was completely hidden, isolated from society.
– What about his personal life? How, for example, did he go to the movies, to the theater? – he asked.
– He didn't go anywhere, it's all here.
– You got everything?
– You're not getting the big picture. There's a city within a city down here. There's even roads with stoplights. It's a huge anthill. This physicist found out he had a son when the kid turned seven.
Ruthra was shocked. He knew a great deal about the lives of the invisible front fighters, of course, but such a thing stunned him. He instantly imagined the full scale of the secrecy. Yuri Vasilyevich continued:
– Soon we'll go with you to check the Cheget system by regulation, then you'll look at the president.
Ruthra remembered being counseled about the structures of secret societies. The Center was something like that. He also remembered the sign at the entrance: "You are seen, you are not. It accurately conveyed the meaning and content of Center Zero's functioning.
– Come on, I'll give you a little tour," Yuri said and pointed to the door at the end of the hall.
They went to the door, Yuri Vasilievich put the fingernail of his thumb to the device, the door opened. It was an elevator. They entered, he pressed the button, the elevator went up. After a while it stopped, they got out.
It was a huge underground railroad station. There were tracks through tunnels in different directions. Everything was painted in yellow and white stripes. Instead of trains, there were short narrow gauge tracks. There were quite a few people in overalls who were busy unloading oddly labeled cylinders. There was an interesting emblem on the cylinders in the form of a scrawled globe with a griffin on it, one paw covering a nuclear mushroom.
– This is Metro-2," said Yuri Vasilyevich. – In the secret department you will take special literature, you must know by heart what and where it is, how it works. How it turns on, how it turns off. Communications, control stations, stockpiles. Right down to which pipe goes where, what's in it, every wire, cable, communication line, every marking. You gotta know everything! That's our law, it's not just a whim. In case of emergencies, every specialist of your level must be able to take over the management of facilities.
Vasilyevich, telling him, gestured him to the platform. They boarded the narrow gauge train and drove off. It was like a regular subway with stations, but a little simpler. There was no pompous beauty or large spaces. At each station Yuri Vasilyevich told what strategic object it was connected with, what it served. It was a city within a city. All strategically important organizations had their duplicate centers in Metro-2. Warehouses, factories, communication centers, military storage facilities were scattered over a huge area upstairs and secretly interlocked through Metro-2 downstairs.
On the wall of one of the stations hung a diagram of both subways, secret and civilian, with their adjacent communications. "Metro-2" was much larger in diameter than the regular subway.
