Chapter 204: Inside the Kremlin (Seeking Subscriptions)

When the emergency call came in, Major General Ivanov, the person in charge of the Northern Fleet's Severodvinsk Naval Base, stared blankly at the faint light outside the window; his brain seemed unable to wake up from the explosive content of the call.

"What did you say? Our naval base was invaded? The invaders used our ocean-going tugboat to drag the Arkhangelsk out of the Severodvinsk Shipyard? And then escaped on it?"

If he weren't very clear that he had only sipped half a bottle of vodka last night—an amount that, given his tolerance, could never have made him drunk—Major General Ivanov would have truly suspected he was suffering from auditory hallucinations!

"Yes, General. You heard correctly. Someone invaded the naval base, and we have lost a ballistic missile nuclear submarine..."

From the other end of the phone came the low voice of Lieutenant Colonel Bunoyevsky, who had been on duty last night. Even through the phone, Ivanov could tell he was trying his best to control his emotions so his voice wouldn't sound panicked or uneasy.

Ivanov swayed, nearly collapsing onto the bed. He struggled to support his body to keep from falling and shouted urgently into the phone: "Lieutenant Colonel, I want to know exactly what happened! Was your security and patrol work last night just for show?"

There was a silence on the other end. Bunoyevsky listened to his roar in silence before his low voice came through the phone once more.

"General, it is not convenient to discuss this in detail over the phone. Please come to the command center as soon as possible, and please prepare yourself mentally; the situation is far more serious and complex than you imagine."

The call was hung up quickly. Ivanov stared blankly at the receiver in his hand for a long while before suddenly coming to his senses. He hurriedly walked out of the bedroom, washed up, changed into his military uniform, summoned his driver, and ordered him to drive him to the command center.

More than an hour later, everything that happened in Severodvinsk was reported truthfully to the main base of the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet in Murmansk, quickly shaking the entire upper echelon of the Northern Fleet.

No one dared to hide the fact that a ballistic missile nuclear submarine had been lost, even if it was a submarine waiting to be decommissioned.

Moreover, behind the loss of the Arkhangelsk, there was an indescribable sense of eeriness.

Consequently, the situation was finally summarized and uploaded to the Ministry of National Defense building in Moscow before dawn, once again shocking those in the know at the Ministry of National Defense into speechlessness.

Defense Minister Konashenkov had no choice but to urgently report to the Presidential Palace after hearing the news and learning of everything that had happened in Severodvinsk; with such a major event occurring, even he dared not make any decisions.

When the news reached the Kremlin, the second President of Russia, the political strongman President Vladimir, was undergoing his morning swimming training as usual.

When his secretary whispered the emergency call from the Ministry of National Defense to him, this political strongman, who had never frowned even when facing the step-by-step pressure of the NATO bloc, had his expression change drastically!

A base at the Severodvinsk Naval Base was invaded, and the nuclear submarine Arkhangelsk had vanished into thin air!

How could this be? Had the Northern Fleet, which Russia prided itself on, really rotted to this extent?

There was no time to care about his daily morning swim now. Vladimir hurriedly climbed out of the pool, took the cashmere bath towel handed over by security personnel, draped it over himself, and asked with an ashen face: "Has the news been verified?"

The Kremlin secretary whispered: "The news was reported to the Northern Fleet by the Severodvinsk Naval Base and then passed on to the Ministry of National Defense. Minister Konashenkov just called to say he has already dispatched an investigative team on a military aircraft to the Severodvinsk Naval Base to verify the situation. However, judging from the materials and images transmitted, the news should be true!"

"Send someone to the Ministry of National Defense to retrieve all materials and images; I want to examine them personally."

President Vladimir's expression was exceptionally ugly. After receiving the instructions, the secretary responded respectfully and prepared to make arrangements.

Suddenly, he called his secretary back again and instructed: "Wait, you go to the White House (Federal Government Building) yourself and bring Dmitri to see me!"

Dmitri was Vladimir's trusted confidant and favorite general. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia began implementing a system of popularly elected presidents, stipulating that each presidential term was four years, with the possibility of one consecutive reelection.

A short eight-year term was clearly unable to satisfy President Vladimir's political ambitions.

At the beginning of his tenure, he was already seeking to extend the presidential term to six years through constitutional amendments and trying his best to erase the unwritten rule that a president could only be reelected once.

Pushing Dmitri into the seat of First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia was a backup plan Vladimir had prepared for himself.

Seeing that the eight years were passing in a flash and his political enemies were firmly suppressing the constitutional amendment bill, not wanting him to extend his political life through constitutional amendments, Vladimir had to consider executing another plan.

He would withdraw from the presidential election after his term ended next year to paralyze his political enemies, while simultaneously pushing Dmitri to run for president. He believed that with his support, Dmitri would certainly be able to win the election.

At that time, Vladimir would have Dmitri appoint him as the Prime Minister of Russia.

He could then use this to continue his political life and continue to steer the reforms of this great country.

To prevent Dmitri from harboring unnecessary thoughts, after pushing him to the position of First Deputy Prime Minister, although Vladimir still entrusted him with important tasks in his daily life, he also frequently took various opportunities to keep him in check, so that Dmitri would know that steering this country required none other than himself.

Now, with such a good opportunity, besides utilizing the other party's wisdom, he naturally would not let such an opportunity to keep him in check pass by.

Vladimir did not have to wait long; he had only just changed his clothes and eaten a simple Russian-style breakfast.

About forty minutes later, Dmitri had already rushed to the Kremlin.

"Mr. President, is the news that the Severodvinsk Naval Base lost a nuclear submarine true?"

"It is basically confirmed; the Ministry of National Defense has already dispatched a special plane to Severodvinsk for verification."

With a gloomy face, President Vladimir pointed to the side, and after inviting him to sit down, he slowly looked at him and said: "Dmitri, the situation is more serious than you imagine!"

"What situation?" Dmitri had only heard a few words from the Kremlin secretary; regarding the specific situation, before receiving the President's order, even his secretary and the Prime Minister dared not speak or ask casually.

Vladimir sighed with a heavy expression and picked up a thick document bag to hand to him: "You had better see for yourself!"

Dmitri took the document bag with skepticism, and after taking it out and looking at it for only a few moments, he immediately looked up at him in surprise.

After Vladimir nodded slightly, he lowered his head and continued to look.

Because most of the documents in the bag were pictures, it only took Dmitri a few short minutes to finish reading.

After finishing, his eyes were full of disbelief.

"Invaders suspected to be Combat Mecha? An unknown number of invading units? Bullets unable to cause them damage? The Arkhangelsk was stolen and managed to shake off the pursuit of naval anti-submarine reconnaissance aircraft at high speed, with its whereabouts unknown? This..."

For a moment, he didn't know what to say either!

Vladimir watched his reaction, feeling a slight sense of relief in his heart.

Just as in his long-term assessment of Dmitri, the other party possessed decent administrative talent, but lacked in methods and psychological quality. Such a person could join the cabinet to govern, but was definitely not an iron-fisted ruler who could lead Russia back to the pinnacle of the world.

A smile could not help but appear at the corners of his mouth, and the gloom on Vladimir's face dissipated a lot as a result.

Looking at Dmitri, he said slowly: "The Severodvinsk Naval Base mentioned in the report that over the past period, quite a bit of equipment and materials were lost in the Severodvinsk Shipyard where the Arkhangelsk was docked; they suspect it was likely used for the modification of the submarine. The Ministry of National Defense also has analyses suggesting that these Combat Mecha might not be invaders from other countries, but unknown creatures from beyond the heavens. I will have the Federal Security Service send elites to Murmansk and Severodvinsk to investigate the situation."

"Unknown creatures?"

Dmitri shook his head; the credibility of this statement was not even as high as that of a Combat Mecha unit from another country invading Russia.

However, he did not notice that Vladimir's eyes were flickering somewhat.

The reason he considered letting the Federal Security Service intervene was because he suddenly thought of the intelligence the Security Service had sent back from the United States a few months ago.

A large-scale battle had occurred in the gambling city of Las Vegas; one side of the battle was the U. S. military, while the other side was unknown creatures of mysterious origin.

Although the U. S. government intervened in time and intelligence agencies actively cleaned up and blocked related news after the war, quite a few photos and content were still uploaded to the internet, attracting the attention of some Security Service agents in the U. S.

"Could the intelligence be true?"

In the past few months, the Security Service had already lost quite a few good men in order to get close to the secrets of the Battle of Las Vegas.

Because of this, Vladimir had agreed to the Security Service's temporary abandonment of the investigation into this matter.

Now, the figure of a mechanical giant had also appeared in Severodvinsk, which made him think of this incident.

After considering for a moment, Vladimir then said, "Fortunately, there were no missiles deployed on the submarine. Although I am very worried that our Typhoon falling into the hands of an unknown force will lead to a leak of classified information and cause unnecessary trouble, I personally believe this matter should not be made public. The Ministry of National Defense has already ordered the Northern Fleet and anti-submarine aircraft to set sail and thoroughly investigate the missing submarine. Additionally, Dmitri, I hope you can immediately go to the United States Moscow Embassy in the capacity of a special envoy to explain the situation to the American ambassador, so as to avoid causing them unnecessary suspicion."

PS:

1. Thanks to the four readers 'Yun Shen Bu Zhi Chu Xun', 'Book Friend 20170524002117334', 'Ricardo M Lu Mingfei', and 'Inner Mongolia Fatty' for their tips.

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