Imperial Minister
1991, late autumn. Northern Siberia, Nameless Harbor.
The port was located in the northernmost part of Siberia, facing the vast Arctic Ocean. The port could not be found on the sea map, and the American spy satellites could not scan it. It was gray and white like the surrounding permafrost, and the heat signal was very weak.
There shouldn't be a port here, and the surroundings were uninhabited. The nearest city was Vilhoyansk, which was a place of exile for political prisoners during the Tsar era. It was a city of despair. In the long winter, political prisoners often committed suicide because they could not endure it. Vilhoyansk was 340 kilometers south of the unnamed port. It would take five days to get to the port from Vilhoyansk by dog sleigh. This was a place that had been forgotten by the gods. The only plants here were lichen and moss, and the occasional visitor was a hungry polar bear.
The rusty cast-iron dock led to the frozen sea. A young sentry stood at the end of the dock, carrying a " Bobossa submachine gun " on his shoulder. A five-pointed star was embedded in his bearskin hat. From his collar, it could be seen that he was a sergeant of the Soviet Red Army.
The sun in the sky was warm, like a boiled egg, but it could not warm the ground. However, this was the last sunlight of the year. The polar night was about to begin, and the sun would not rise for the next few months. The sentries looked at the end of the frozen sea. There was a cold wind blowing on the surface of the sea, but the ship still had not arrived. Usually, this sea area was not navigated. There were dangerous ice floes on the surface of the sea, and there were canine-like reefs on the bottom of the sea. Any one of them could make a ship that tried to approach here sleep on the seabed. However, there were exceptions. During summer, the sea ice would melt and crack. At this time, sailors familiar with the route could drive the icebreaker around the reefs to reach the unnamed harbor. This intermittent and dangerous route was the lifeline of the unnamed port, and all supplies depended on it.
Every year, the Lenin-class ship would come, at different times, but it never missed the appointment. It was an old nuclear icebreaker with a red star embedded on the white bow. No matter which day it appeared, it would be a festival in the nameless port. Soldiers waved their bearskin hats and spread the news. Everyone gathered at the dock to watch the huge ship rise from the sea level! The Lenin broke through the ice floes like an emperor, leaving behind a blue waterway. That was the power of the Soviet Union, a fist of steel that could destroy anything. But this year, it was too late. The sea had frozen over, and the ice was growing downward. In a few weeks, the route would completely disappear, and even the Vladimir would not be able to open the passage.
Did something happen in Moscow? The sentry was holding a "Moscow" cigarette in his mouth. His lighter couldn't be lit, probably because the kerosene inside had frozen.
"Damn it!" The sentry took off his gloves and warmed the lighter in his palm.
He suddenly turned his head and looked warily at the end of the frozen sea. The wind started to blow, and the dark clouds were swooping down from the north. In such a high latitude area, the rainfall was less than that of the Sahara Desert, but once black cumulonimbus clouds appeared, the weather would change instantly, and the snow would bury the port. The snow and dust on the sea were swept up like a white sandstorm. The dust was dozens of meters high. The area covered by the clouds was pitch-black, while the other half was the pale color of ice. The dividing line between black and white was so sharp. The sentinel stumbled to the iron frame and rang the bronze bell. The sound of the bell spread across the lonely snowfield.
This was the warning of a snowstorm.
After issuing the warning, the sentry covered his bearskin hat and ran back. At this time, an incredible target appeared in his field of vision. A blurry shadow glided in the shadows under the clouds, agilely bypassing the ice reefs and approaching at high speed.
A skier?
The sentry could not believe his eyes. Who would come to such a place to ski? If that person came from the south, he might be a border guard stationed in Vilhoyansk, but he came from the north. There was nothing there, only the North Pole. The sentry held a cigarette in his mouth, his teeth chattering. He could not understand the situation in front of him. The US special forces had invaded during the snowstorm? But how could they dare to take such a big risk? If that person had been a little slower, he would have been swallowed by the blizzard.
There was no time to think. The sentry pulled his strap and extended his Bobossa submachine gun from his armpit. He had the right to shoot at all intruders because this was a military restricted area. Then the skier waved two small red and white flags. It was the common flag signal of the Soviet Navy. He waved a name-" Lenin." Every year when the Vladimir came, the sailors would wave this word in flag language, indicating that they were special envoys from Moscow, bringing the Soviets 'condolences to the garrison in the unnamed port. Did Moscow change its strategy this year? He sent someone to ski over to deliver supplies? The sentinel's mind could not wrap around it. But no matter what, he couldn't shoot. The flag signal was the secret code, indicating that the other party had the right to enter the nameless port.
Carrying a person's height of snow dust, the skier braked in front of the sentry, took off his goggles, and threw them into the snow. This was a man who made people's eyes light up. He was handsome and tall. His iron-gray hair was neatly combed back and fixed with hair gel. The muscles on his body were clear and gentle. He could be considered sexy. The sentinel had seen such a handsome young officer in Moscow, but this one was too unbelievable. He was only wearing military shorts and a sleeveless vest, sweating in the wind of-10 degrees Celsius. The man took out a lighter from his shorts and lit it up. The pure silver casing of the lighter was engraved with the words " 70th anniversary of the October Revolution ".
The sentry could not refuse this kindness and went over to light a cigarette.
"I'll give it to you." The man threw the lighter to the sentry." In such a cold place, you have to use aviation kerosene with a low freezing point. You should save yours for summer.”
Only then did the sentry realize that he was still holding the unlit lighter in his hand. The man's insight was actually so sharp. Moreover, most people would be eager to find a warm place to rest. This also meant that he still had energy to ski in such extremely cold weather. The man took out a dark gray officer uniform from his military backpack. After a moment, he put it on and solemnly pinned a red flag medal on his chest. One minute ago, he was still a skier. One minute later, he was a decisive young man from Moscow.
"KGB Major Bondarev, I'm from Moscow.”The man took out his ID." Take me to Dr. Herzog and tell him that this is a moment of life and death.”
"Yes, sir! Comrade Major!" The sentry saluted.
The man used the simplest language to explain his identity. He was a special envoy from Moscow and an important member of the secret intelligence department. In the era of the Tsar, such people were called " imperial envoys."
The basement was as warm as spring. The old-fashioned phonograph was playing Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The old man unscrewed a bottle of vodka and poured half a glass into each of the two glasses. There was pure ice in the glass. He handed one of the glasses to Major Bondarev.""Vodka is a good wine that can make a man's blood burn. It's a sin to waste any drop. Every year when the icebreaker comes, it will bring me a box. This was the last bottle last year.”
"To our country and you, Comrade Major. Welcome to Black Swan Harbor.”The old man raised his glass." Every piece of ice in your cup has a history of tens of thousands of years. It comes from the depths of the frozen soil of our great motherland and symbolizes our pure and solid friendship!”
"For our country, Dr. Herzog.”Bondarev clinked glasses with the old man, and both of them downed the wine.
Bondarev played with the cup and looked at the old man with interest. He couldn't determine the age of this " Dr. Herzog ". The doctor had the characteristics of an 80-year-old man and a 20-year-old young man. The woolen military uniform fitted his tall body, the trousers were ironed straight, and the collar was stuffed with a purple scarf. His pure silver hair was neatly combed back, making him look like a young man in his twenties. However, he was indeed old, and the depths of his eyes were filled with traces of time. Gazing at his handsome face, one would feel that it was a mural that was slowly peeling off.
The doctor lowered his head and refilled his glass." Every year, the Vladimir comes here and brings us year-round supplies, food, equipment, fuel... and women's stockings and men's vodka. This place was as cold as the end of the world. Without external supplies, people would die. But this year, it wasn't the " Vladimir " that came here, but a KGB major. Did you carry a year's worth of supplies from Black Swan Harbor in your military uniform pocket?”
" Unfortunately, there are no supplies, and there won't be any more," Bondarev looked straight into the doctor's eyes." Our great motherland is facing a disaster, and the situation in Moscow is very chaotic.”
"Very messy?"
"To be precise, the Soviet Union will cease to exist. There was once a great revolutionary friendship between our reunions, but now these friendships have been reduced to ashes. People doubt whether we can go to Communism along the current road. There is an independent voice in each Republic. At the same time, the country's economic situation continued to deteriorate. The military was undersupplied, and the factories were underutilized. The people's hearts were in turmoil. The country was already unable to transfer resources to supply this port far away on the Arctic Ocean.”
"Will the country disintegrate?"
"Probably not this year."
The doctor sighed softly." Although I had a premonition that the political situation would change, I didn't expect it to come so quickly. In fact, we have no contact with the outside world. There are no telephone lines or radio. The way we understand the outside world is by reading the newspapers. Every year, the " Vladimir " would bring an entire year's worth of newspapers, so my information would lag behind the outside world by a full year. A year ago, I still believed that Communism was invincible and that all difficulties would pass. A year later, I suddenly heard that the country would no longer exist. This is a tragedy that even shakespeare couldn't have written…what will the country do to us?”
"The wealth of the country will be divided among the repires, including fighter jets, aircraft carriers, and even nuclear weapons. This port is no exception. I have been ordered here to take inventory of the property, to appraise it, and perhaps to divide it into some Republic. But first, I have to figure out what this port is for. This port was very mysterious. It cost the country a huge amount of money every year, but no department knew its purpose.”
The doctor was silent for a moment, then smiled: "The KGB found a port on the map, but they didn't know what it was used for. Your boss must be very angry.”
"Yes, as the highest secret agency, the KGB. He had no right to know the truth about this port.”
"You must have tried to investigate this port, right? Did you find anything?" The doctor narrowed his eyes.
" The information that I can find is pitifully little. What I can confirm is that this port is not actually called Black Swan Port. It's just a name that you're used to. It doesn't have an official name, only a code name ''.”Bondarev said," All the institutions in the country have files. The KGB has a backup of all the files, but yours doesn't. This means that someone has taken your files from the archives, leaving only the code name ''. This is not something that ordinary people can do.”
"Science is more mysterious than politics.”the doctor said lightly.
"There are nobles who embezzled tens of billions of rubles of state funds in various names to support you scientists, so you must have extraordinary value. If you have no value, why don't the nobles use this money to support their mistresses?”Bondarev smiled." Since you have value, then it's easy. People with value will be respected in any era.”
The doctor looked at Bondarev through the glass of liquor, and after a long time, he suddenly laughed.
"Are you mocking me?" Bondarev was not angry.
"People who work in the dark tend to exaggerate things.”The doctor finished the wine in his cup. "Comrade Bondarev, you are completely wrong. Black Swan Harbor isn't engaged in some shady research project. Our job is to build the largest gene bank in the Soviet Union.”
The doctor nodded." We collected the genes of all the people in the Soviet Union and built a huge database. "After this library is established, even if a nuclear war breaks out and mankind is on the verge of extinction, we can use cloning technology to revive mankind. Project Delta chose this base not because we have unspeakable secrets, but because Siberia is a natural ice cellar. Even if there is a power outage, genetic samples can be preserved for hundreds of thousands of years.”
"Is that all?" Bondarev frowned.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that's all. I've been working on this project for decades and have feelings for it. But if the country wants to terminate this project, I'll immediately arrange for an assistant to help you count your assets. I can finally leave this place without a heavy burden.”The doctor sighed," I want to go to the south coast to find a place to live and enjoy my old age.”
The door opened, and the head nurse with a kind face walked in."Doctor, the blizzard is over. There will be a few hours of sunny weather. I asked the nurses to bring the children out for some fresh air. After that, there will be another blizzard for a few days.”
"A child?" Bondarev was a little surprised.
"We have an orphanage that adopted some orphans with genetic defects. They were all our research subjects, but they were abandoned by their parents and had nowhere to go. Comrade Major, get to know the children. There are very few visitors here. The children will like to hear about the outside world.”The doctor got up and pushed open the office door.
The lawn was full of children playing and chasing, ranging from three to four years old to eleven or twelve years old. They wore neat white cotton coats and cotton gloves, and their cuffs were embroidered with their own numbers. Their eyes were bright, their faces were rosy, and they ran quickly. It was obvious that they were treated well here, unlike the children in the shabby orphanage. The medical staff chased the children around, calling their names, taking their temperature and blood pressure. After these checks, they were rewarded with a marshmallow.
" I didn't expect there to be grass in such a cold place," Bondarev said." I thought there was only moss and lichen here."
The doctor smiled proudly. When I designed Black Swan Harbor, I made all the buildings close to each other and connected them together with underground tunnels. All the buildings had one-meter-thick cement walls and three layers of glass windows. The windows were small and easy to keep warm. This lawn was surrounded by the entire building complex. The cold wind did not easily invade here. The grass planted was a cold-resistant variety, so it could be seen green for half a year.”
"You are the designer of Black Swan Harbor? So you've always been in charge of it.”
"Yes, I'm very lucky." The doctor waved to each child and called their names.
You look just like their father. said Bondarev.
When you hear me talk about the orphanage, you'll probably think that there's a gloomy head nurse leading a group of sallow and emaciated children. Let's draw blood from the children every day for experiments, right? " The doctor laughed out loud." Then it wouldn't be an orphanage, it would be a concentration camp for the nazis.
"Speaking of Nazism, forgive me for being blunt, but your surname is Herzog, which is a surname of the country.”said Bondarev.
"Yes, I served in the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. At that time, I was the youngest doctor in the Imperial Institute of Biology. I graduated from the University of Ber at the age of 16, and people called me a genius.”" In 1945, I was arrested by the Red Army of the Soviet Union. I was sent to Moscow that year. After a year of investigation, I was sent to Black Swan Harbor by dog sleigh to be in charge of Project Delta. I never left.”The doctor stopped in his tracks." I have a question. After the project ends, where should the children go?”
"They will probably be scattered to the orphanage in various places, right?”Bondarev said," You're so kind.”
" Because there aren't many people here, so we cherish each other," the doctor sighed." I'm already an old man. Other than research, there was nothing more important than talking to the children every day. At the end of this cold world, we pass warmth to each other. I hope they will be happy in the future, even if I can't see it.”
He took a few steps forward and picked up a little girl who had fallen in the snow. He patted the snow off her body. Bondarev had noticed this little girl just now. Some people would be sensitive to unusual creatures in the crowd... if they were also unusual creatures. The little girl seemed very unsociable. She did not chase and play, nor did she circle around the nurses for cotton candy. She carried a teddy bear in her arms and walked along the wall alone, looking around in the corner like a lost puppy. She wasn't pretty. She had some small freckles, and her body was as thin as a paper doll. Her face was pale, but she had a head of prideful platinum hair. Her skin was as white as snow, and her eyes were extremely deep and calm.
"My little Renata, you're so beautiful today. Tell me, what are you looking for?”The doctor caressed the girl's face.
" I want to see if there are still flowers..." Renata said softly, looking very obedient.
Her platinum-colored hair was braided into a single braid with a yellow plastic butterfly at the end. In this world of ice and snow, other than white and black, there was only the gray of the military uniform and the red of the pentagram. The bright color of the plastic butterfly was heart-warming.
The doctor touched her head and sighed. He turned to Bondarev and said,"It's too cold here. Only the Arctic Poppy can bloom. Its flowering period was like a festival for the girls. However, it was only two months, and the flowering period had long passed. Comrade Major, I hope you can send these girls to a warm place to see colorful flowers.”
"I'll do my best." said Bondarev.
Renata looked at the backs of Dr. Herzog and Bundarev without saying a word until they were far away. Then she turned her head and continued to search in the corner. She stepped on every inch of grass and paid attention to every suspicious trace under the wall.
She was not looking for the Arctic Poppy. She had lied without batting an eyelid. Contrary to her appearance, she was a lying girl. Here, everyone had to learn to lie because the result of telling the truth was terrible. Renata was more talented at lying than anyone else. When she lied, she was expressionless and there was no fluctuation in her eyes. The nurses called her a paper doll. They felt that Renata was like a paper doll. She had no expression, no heart, and would not cry even if she was beaten or scolded. So the nurses didn't even bother to punish her, because they had to hear some crying to show that the punishment was effective. No one was interested in whipping a paper doll, and any pain was futile.
Renata actually knew the pain, but she also knew that she had to hold back her tears when she was beaten, because the more she cried, the more they beat her.
She was looking for traces left behind by the black snake. She couldn't remember when it started, but every full moon night, she would dream of the giant black snake. It was like a raging dragon that had tossed Black Swan Harbor to the brink of collapse. Finally, it sat on the high ground of the church and looked at the Arctic Ocean.
It was a good dream. In the dream, the locked door would open and Renata could go wherever she wanted. It was another unusually realistic dream. In the dream, she was walking along an empty corridor. The moonlight shone through the small windows. Every turn and every scene seemed so real. She could even walk into the restricted area where children were not allowed to enter. She walked into the library and sat down. She took a big book from the bookshelf and read it silently. She could read as long as she wanted without anyone disturbing her. She could go to the kitchen and get something to eat. There was always bread on the fire, and whether Renata went early or late, the bread was always just right. Gradually, Renata looked forward to the night of the full moon and the night of freedom.
Until one day, she suddenly began to suspect that it was not a dream but real. On that day, the nurses took the children to visit the library that they had never been allowed to enter. Renata was surprised to find that the layout of the library was exactly the same as what she had seen in her dream. The book she had read on the night of the full moon was inserted in the same position on the shelf. Renata clearly remembered that after she finished reading the book in her dream, she inserted it next to the thick yearbook. Renata tried to stay awake on a full moon night. Sure enough, at midnight, she heard the sound of castanets in the darkness. She leaned against the small window and looked out. The window was filled with black scales. However, just when she thought that she had discovered the biggest secret of this port, she woke up in her little bed the next morning. Everything seemed to be a dream. That strange dream and reality were mixed together. Renata clearly remembered that she had pinched her fingers in the middle of the night to make sure that she was not asleep. Then, she suddenly heard the sound of the iron castanets. It seemed that as the iron castanets sounded, reality became a dream.
The other children did not know about Black Snake. Although they were also in the dream, they just stood silently behind their doors. Their eyes were empty, like lifelike puppets. Their door would not open either. The black snake only opened Renata's room because Renata would shout at it.
Renata suspected that the Black Snake was not a dream but a real existence, but she carefully kept this secret and did not tell anyone. If she told the other children about the black snake, the other children would secretly tell the nurse. The nurse would think that she was hysterical and she would be grounded again. Renata hated being grounded. There was only a lonely chair and smooth walls in the detention room. She sat in the chair and imagined herself dying slowly, like a little mushroom that was gradually drying up.
The small window in the detention room was only 20 centimeters wide, not even enough for a child to climb through. This elaborate design was not to preserve heat, but to imprison the person inside.
This port was a cage, a fortress of solitude at the end of the world. No one who came here could leave. The only exception was the Black Snake. It was unparalleled and omnipotent. One day, when it was angry, it would wave its long tail and smash everything into pieces. Black Swan Harbor, this snow-covered ice field, Siberia... and even the entire world.
"When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison, and he will come out to bewitch the kingdoms in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for battle. Their numbers are as many as the sand in the sea." Renata still remembered the singing that surrounded Black Swan Harbor on the night of the full moon. She had never seen that crazy singer before. She only felt that he was using the frozen sea as a stage to perform his unparalleled script.
The nurses took out black wooden sticks and started to knock. The running children stopped and stood in the snow like puppets. The ball they were chasing was still rolling forward, but their eyes gradually turned white and lost their luster.
The dark iron door in the corner opened. The nurse who knocked on the clack walked in front, and the children followed her. They walked stiffly with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them, forming a long line. Another nurse was counting the numbers on their sleeves by the door and checking them one by one on the list to make sure that these precious " samples " were not lost.
When Renata passed by the door, the nurse grabbed the yellow butterfly from her braid and looked coldly through her glasses."If you wet the bed again, you have to wear this!”
The yellow bowknot did not represent the warmth of spring, but it meant that the child had made a mistake and would be grounded. Renata was grounded again last night because she wet the bed again.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。