– The President?
– Him, the Secretary of Defense and the Chief of Staff. Any one of them. Only the three of them can initialize the launch. One of them can't.
– And the lock?
– If one fails, there's a lockout.
– The minister is gone, he changed his appearance and escaped. He was among those in a group of his own. Soon he will be younger, we won't recognize him at all without the program. He's with a new life," an officer who ran up to the head of security reported to him.
– How? Ah. They were in the clan of those who used your method," he said to Ruthra.
– The body of the president has been found," another officer reported.
At that time, the general siren started howling. Everyone was very excited, constantly contacting someone, running around. Rutra and the crew were excited. The ladies were scared. They did not fully understand the essence of what was happening. Rutra ran up to the head of security who was yelling at uniformed officers, sailors, captains of the first rank. It's tradition – they carry the so-called nuclear briefcase next to the president at all times.
– What's going to happen? Can't it be stopped? – Ruthra asked him in a low voice.
– It's querying all systems. For some reason, our supercomputer isn't responding. To be more precise, it has blocked communication between the Cheget, Kazbek and Perimeter systems. The system, not receiving a response, considers them captured.
– How could this have happened? How did it block itself? There must be outside interference.
– It's getting late! – he shouted. – You must sound a general alarm. We can't stop her. She's launching nuclear missile systems that bypass all the lockdowns.
Ruthra's voice trembled; he realized the provocativeness of his question and asked it nonetheless:
– What's going on? Is all this for real?
Everyone came, and amidst the clamor, Ruthra's serious question was the one that interested everyone. Suddenly there was silence. The Acting Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defense said quietly and calmly:
– It's unbelievable, but the tech shows it's happening. Look at the screen, it's already issued targeting orders, so it's activated the RYAA-01 protocol!
– General evacuation! – shouted the head of the guard, and his shout stabbed a dagger through the ear into everyone's brain. – General evacuation! – he continued to yell.