Binary code: Mystery number one. Artur Zadikyan

implementation, the United States has 760 nuclear warhead carriers in service, while Russia has 523. The number of warheads on deployed carriers is 1,534 for the United States and 1,645 for Russia.

      After listing many details, the speaker stated.

      – The report is over, thank you for your attention.

      There was a moment of silence. It was obvious from the faces of the participants that they wanted to end the conference as soon as possible.

      – We, as UN representatives, should ask something, clarify. Ask something," Vasilyevich whispered to Rutra.

      Rutra looked at him questioningly, but he was not confused, nodded, and, after quickly reviewing the entire report, asked about the numbers that interested him because of their inconsistencies with START-3.

      – Please explain the following point," Rutra began his question in English. – You said that the United States has 760 deployed nuclear warhead carriers, while Russia has 523.

      – Yes, it turns out so. I note that this is according to the US State Department.

      – And you said that Washington is satisfied with the way START-3 is being implemented.

      – Yes, such a statement was made.

      Yuri Vasilyevich stepped lightly on Rutra's heel. Rutra took the hint and said:

      – Thank you, I'm all set.

      – Any other questions? – asked a representative of the Presidential Administration.

      Everyone was silent.

      – Since there are no questions, I suggest that we work through the program to clarify data, extent, and prospects for implementation before the next meeting, which will be in six months. Notification will be sent out in advance.

      – Invite a representative of the U.S. State Department to the next meeting," Yury Vasilyevich suggested unexpectedly.

      – Put it in the minutes," a representative of the Presidential Administration pointed to someone. – Any other suggestions, questions?

      Everyone was silent.

      – I declare this regular meeting adjourned. Thank you, goodbye! – said the representative of the Presidential Administration.

      – Goodbye! Goodbye! – came from the speakers.

      The monitor turned off.

      – Now that's the time to check out all these organizations.

      – The State Department, too? – Rutra asked, smiling.

      – Also," Vasilievich replied seriously.

      Chapter 7.

      The Doomsday Problem

      Rutra became increasingly aware that the true purpose of their organization was, to put it mildly, a little different. After the assertion of the U.S. State Department vetting, this became clear. "So who will be vetting him? In what role?" – Rutra asked himself.

      Vasilievich noticed this and gestured him to the corridor. They silently went there, then went into the elevator and, having gone down, came out at a small dark station. It wasn't a station as such; there were no tracks, tunnels, or locomotive cars. It was a large room with dim lighting; there was a single sliding iron door on the opposite wall from the elevator. Beside this door was a small bench on which they sat down.

      Vasilievich smoked occasionally, very high quality rare cigarettes. Now he took out a cigarette. Rutra did not smoke, but he could afford to smoke "very high quality, rare cigarettes," as he put it, "once every five years," so he did not refuse the chief's offer. After the second puff, Vasilievich began the conversation in the tone of a veteran who had lived a long life:

      – Did you really think that all this fuss is just to control the powerful, the smart guys who want to invent something, and their customers who want to control society with it. Analyze charts on monitors, spy on transactions, accounts, uncover hidden channels of funding and control of citizens' activities. Yes, it's very important. But there is something without which all of this loses its meaning. This is an even more important problem. The fate of the world depends on whether we can solve it or not!

      – Peace?

      – Yeah, you heard right. It may not surprise you anymore, but it's true. It's a doomsday issue. The whole world could die. One of the most monstrous inventions of the Cold War could completely destroy life on Earth.

      Ruthra was genuinely surprised that Vasilyevich had called him here to tell him such a story. He was astonished. He decided to resort to his favorite tactic of keeping silent and letting his interlocutor open his mind. So he did – he made a surprised face and at the same time an expression of interest. Vasilievich continued:

      – The authors of this name were science fiction writers. The idea itself goes back centuries, when the losers of battles preferred surrender to collective suicide. Preferably together with their enemies.

      As long as the number of warheads was in the hundreds and the means of their delivery were pre-flood, both the US and the USSR believed that it was possible to win a nuclear war. You just had to strike first in time. Or you could repel the enemy's strike by shooting down airplanes and missiles and strike back. But at the same time, the risk of being a victim of the first strike and losing with a bang was so great that the idea of a terrible retaliation was born.

      – Wouldn't the missiles fired in response be such retaliation?

      – No, it wouldn't. First, a surprise enemy strike would disable half of the nuclear arsenal. Second, it would partially repel a retaliatory strike.

      The Soviet Union was the first to do so, testing a hydrogen bomb of monstrous power, over 50 megatons, known in the West as the "Kuzkin Mother". It was pointless as a weapon of war – too powerful, too heavy to be delivered by airplane to American territory. But it was perfect as the very powder cellar that would be blown up by the last surviving defenders of the Land of the Soviets. In fiction novels there are other options, for example, super-powered hydrogen bombs were located on special space platforms. They were supposed to automatically, a few months after the defeat of the United States, drop their cargo at the poles. The monstrous explosions would not only melt the ice caps, causing a new global flood, but would also shift the Earth's axis. Predictions of sci-fi writers, as we know, sometimes come true. And sometimes interesting ideas are borrowed from them. By the way, our F department is doing the same thing. Who could have believed 50 or 60 years ago that Russia would be at war with Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and that a black man would become president of America?

      By the early 1980s, the size of nuclear arsenals had reached such a scale that their use, even with the deduction of those destroyed, would lead to global radioactive contamination of the planet. In the mid-1980s, the Soviet Perimeter nuclear strike control system emerged, which was something like Skynet from Cameron's famous movie. The main part of the defensive system was the command center. It is known to the public as Kosvinsky Kamen. Deep in the Ural Mountains hides a huge bunker with a special nuclear button. In fact, it is one of the clusters of the system, and it, like all other clusters of the system, can function autonomously. The button can be pressed by only one person, a certain officer, if he receives confirmation from the "Perimeter" system that the nuclear war has begun, Moscow has been destroyed, and the government bunkers have been destroyed. And then the question of retaliation would be entirely in his hands.

      Vasilievich looked carefully at Rutra.

      – You have to admit, it is not an easy task to be alone when your whole country has been destroyed and in one move send the rest of the world into tatters. I am deeply convinced that the concept of the doomsday machine has done a lot of good. The threat of mutual annihilation has cooled down the hotheads a bit. It's largely responsible for World War III never starting. For now.

      Ruthra nodded. He wanted to ask what Yuri Vasilyevich wanted to tell him about what he had brought him here. What the subject was, he realized, but what the story was about, he couldn't decide yet. In any case, he