Red Moscow

The lieutenant colonel is Zhukov's adjutant, so naturally he cannot leave here casually. He politely said to Sokov: "Comrade General, please wait a moment. I will make a call and arrange for someone to take you to the Adlon Hotel."

While the lieutenant colonel was on the phone, Sokov asked Agelina in a low voice: "Do you know where the Adlon Hotel is?"

"Of course I know." Agelina grinned and said: "The Adlon Hotel is located at the corner of Paris Square, opposite Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate, and next to Berlin's bustling linden trees. Lower Main Street. The Adlon Hotel has six floors, and many rooms can enjoy the beautiful morning and evening views of the Brandenburg Gate, especially the corner rooms facing Paris Square and Unter den Linden. The large double-sided windows offer an unobstructed view of the Brandenburg Gate.

The Adlon Hotel was built and opened in 1907. Wilhelm II took all the courtiers to attend the grand ribbon-cutting of the Adlon Hotel, marking it as a world-class luxury hotel. At that time, the Berlin aristocrats did not hesitate to sell their winter hotels. Villa, I just hope to have a room of my own in this hotel. "

After Agelina's popular science, Sokov remembered something related to the Adlon Hotel. The acclaimed German drama "Adlon Hotel" was filmed based on the hotel's extraordinary history of nearly a hundred years. of. However, this hotel was destroyed during the Battle of Berlin, but it reopened on August 23, 1997. It was still more than a month before 1946. Can people really live in the hotel?

With this question, Sokov asked Agelina in a low voice: "Did you see the Adlon Hotel on our way here?"

"I saw it." Agelina understood the meaning of Sokov's question and took the initiative to explain: "The building is extremely damaged. Even if we can be accommodated, I'm afraid we can only live on the first floor. I saw that along the street The windows were all reinstalled.”

"General Sokov," the lieutenant colonel came to Sokov after making the call and said respectfully: "I have called Major Vaseltsev. He will be here soon and he will send you off. Go to the Adlon Hotel. Also, he will accompany you to the Rhine Camp tomorrow."

When the Major Vaseltsev the lieutenant colonel mentioned appeared, Sokov discovered that it was the major who had picked him up here.

After the lieutenant colonel finished explaining the mission to Vaseltsev, Vaseltsev came to Sokov, raised his hand in salute, and said politely: "Comrade General, please come with me, I will take you to the Adlon Hotel. "

Under the leadership of Vaseritsev, Sokov and Adelina came to the outside of the Adlon Hotel.

Sokov looked at this famous hotel carefully. At this moment, it could be described as terrible. Except for the exterior walls and window glass on the ground floor that are intact, the exterior walls of the five floors above have long since disappeared, and the interior is also in a mess, with all kinds of furniture buried underneath by masonry and rubble.

Seeing Sokov standing at the door and refusing to go in, Vaseltsev explained with some embarrassment: "Comrade General, after more than half a year of repairs, this hotel can be occupied again on the first floor. Not only does the room have heating, but it is also available 24 hours a day." Hot water.”

Since it was Zhukov who arranged him here, even if he was dissatisfied, Sokov could not express it. He clicked, then took Agelina's hand and followed Vaseritsev into the Adlon Hotel.

The lobby on the first floor of the hotel must have been renovated, and it looks resplendent. The huge crystal chandelier illuminates the lobby like daylight.

Vaseltsev walked to the front desk and said to a waitress standing behind the counter: "I'm here to see General Sokov."

Hearing that Vaseltsev was so angry, the waitress quickly took out a key and said respectfully: "After we received the notice from our superiors, we have arranged the best suite here for Comrade General. The room number is 1918. This is the key, please keep it!”

When Sokov saw Vaseltsev taking the key casually and preparing to take him to the prepared room, he casually asked: "Major Vaseltsev, aren't the waiters in this hotel responsible for guiding guests to their rooms? "

"Comrade General, please forgive me." Vaseltsev apologized and said to Sokov: "The original employees of the hotel died and escaped during the Battle of Berlin. Although we posted notices, we hope that the original hotel employees will come back. I continued to work, but got no response. I had no choice but to recruit a group of female soldiers with better image to work here as temporary hotel waiters."

"Female soldiers?" Sokov did not expect that the waitresses in the Adlon Hotel were all female soldiers. No wonder Vaselitsev used Russian when talking to them just now. He continued to ask: "These female soldiers turned out to be What type of military?"

"Signal Corps." Vaseltsev replied without hesitation: "With them here, you can call Moscow without any problems."

Hearing Vaseltsev talk about Moscow, Sokov thought that since he arrived in Berlin, he should definitely call Asya to prevent her from worrying about him. I wanted to make a phone call here, but felt that it was difficult to say something in public, so I could only tentatively ask Vaselitsev: "Is there a phone in our room?"

"Yes, Comrade General." Vaseltsev introduced to Sokov: "If you want to call Moscow, first pick up the microphone and dial the word '9'. When you hear someone speaking, you can then dial the number you want to call." Tell the other party your number and it will take up to four or five minutes to get through.”

After sending Sokov and Agelina to the room, Vaseritsev said politely: "Comrade General, I will pick you up at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Before that, you can dine in the restaurant at the end of the first floor. Everything here is free.”

After sending Vaseltsev away, Sokov picked up the phone and dialed "9" on the turntable according to the other party's prompts. A moment later, he heard a crisp voice coming from inside: "Hello, I'm It’s the operator, where do you want it?”

"Hello, comrade operator." Sokov said politely: "I want to call Moscow. The number is..."

"Okay!" the operator said, "please wait a moment, I will connect you right away."

Seeing that Sokov was about to call Asya in Moscow, Agelina coughed heavily. When Sokov turned to look at her, she pretended to be calm and said: "Misha, sit down. I've been on the train for two days and I already smell bad. Now I'm going to take a shower while you make the phone call slowly."

Sokov knew that Agelina was trying to avoid it, so he did not expose her, but nodded slowly.

After a few minutes of waiting, Asiya's voice came from the microphone: "Hello! I'm Asiya, who are you?"

"Asia, it's me, Misha!"

"Misha!" Asiya said in surprise when she heard the call from Sokov: "Have you arrived in Berlin?"

"Yes, I have arrived in Berlin and been arranged in a hotel by Marshal Zhukov. I will go on a mission as his representative tomorrow."

Asiya did not ask what mission Sokov was about to perform. As a soldier, she naturally understood the confidentiality regulations. If she could tell her something, Sokov would tell her even if she didn't ask. Even if he asked about things that needed to be kept secret, Sokov would not tell himself: "You seem to be much later than scheduled. Did something happen on the road?"

"Well, yes." Sokov said: "We were attacked by gangs in Poland, which delayed us for a while."

"Gangs?" Asiya asked in surprise after hearing this: "The war has been over for half a year, where did the gangs appear?"

"Yes, the war has indeed ended for half a year." Sokov explained: "Some people who worked for the Germans were unwilling to accept their defeat and were still doing evil, attacking roads and railways, and looting passing vehicles."

Although Sokov was talking to himself, Asya became worried: "Misha, you are not injured, are you?"

"No, I'm not injured." Sokov said with a smile: "Before we set off, the military representative at the Belarusian railway station told me that we might encounter gangs attacking the train on the road, so I asked him to prepare a bag for me. It was with these weapons and ammunition that I successfully killed dozens of gangsters.”

"Misha, you don't even have a guard around you now. I'm really worried about your safety." Asiya said worriedly: "Especially now that you have arrived in Berlin, many people there must still think of us. With a hostile attitude, if someone wants to plot against you, it’s really hard to guard against it.”

"It's okay, Asiya, don't worry." Sokov was afraid that Asiya would be in trouble because of her random thoughts all day long and suffer from prenatal depression. He quickly comforted her and said, "I just arrived in Berlin today, and I don't have anyone around me for the time being." Available people. If I stay for a long time, I think Marshal Zhukov will definitely arrange people to protect my safety, so don't worry about it."

"If possible, you should return to Moscow as soon as possible." Asiya said, "I hope you can be by my side when I give birth to the child."

"Asiya, don't worry." Sokov assured Asiya: "I will definitely be by your side when the child is born."

The two chatted for a few more words before ending the call.

As soon as Sokov put down the phone, Agelina walked out of the bathroom, looked at Sokov and asked knowingly: "Misha, have you finished the call?"

"Well, the phone call is over."

After Sokov asked Agelina to sit down next to him, he asked solemnly: "Agelina, now that we have arrived in Berlin, can you always tell me what work your superiors plan to arrange for you? ?”

"The specific job is not clear yet." Agelina heard Sokov's question and replied with a melancholy expression: "But the job location is in Bavaria."

"Bavaria?!" Sokov couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard the name of this place. He thought that Patton seemed to be appointed as the military administrator of Bavaria, so he asked cautiously: "That place seems to be the territory controlled by General Patton. "

"Yes, it is indeed the territory managed by General Patton." Agelina said depressedly: "I don't even know what my superiors did by sending me there? They put me there with the intention of spying on them. You know, Britain and the United States are our allies. I always feel something is wrong when we go to our allies to spy on intelligence.”

"Agelina, you have to remember one thing." After hearing Agelina's complaints, Sokov said to her with a straight face: "There are only eternal interests between countries, but there are no eternal friends. . When dealing with the German invaders, Britain and the United States were indeed our allies and provided us with a lot of assistance. But now that the war is over, our common enemy, Germany, has been completely defeated. In this case, former allies may turn into enemies.”

After hearing this, Agelina showed a shocked expression on her face: "Misha, you mean that it won't be long before we have another world-class war?"

"No, no, no, that's not the case." Sokov shook his head and said: "The war that just ended has severely damaged the vitality of many countries. Even if a new war breaks out, it will appear in another form, not Fighting to the death as we know it on the battlefield."

"Oh, will war appear in a new form?" Agelina asked curiously: "What kind of new form will it be?"

Naturally, Sokov would not tell Agelina that a cold war would break out between the Soviet Union and the United States in the next few decades. He could only pretend to be confused and said: "This is just a guess on my part. Will it actually turn into a cold war?" In this case, I don’t know.”

In order not to dwell on this topic, he changed the topic in time: "By the way, at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, Major Vaseritsev will pick us up and go to inspect the Allied prisoner of war camp on the Rhine River. Your English can handle it. ?"

"Of course there is no problem." Agelina said confidently: "I am a language genius. Not only am I proficient in German, French and Polish, but I also speak English and Persian very well. If you want to travel around one day World, remember to call me, I must be an excellent translator."

"I have no doubts about that," Sokov said with a grin.

"By the way, Misha, I'm curious." Since Sokov mentioned the prisoner-of-war camp by the Rhine River, Agelina naturally had a lot of questions to ask: "Do you think the US military will abuse German prisoners of war? Those Are the prisoners of war who reported it to the International Red Cross spreading rumors?”

"It's impossible to spread rumors." Sokov shook his head and said with a wry smile: "No matter how good the rumors become, you can figure out what's going on as long as you go on an on-site inspection. You ask me, guarding German prisoners of war "Whether the US military will abuse prisoners of war, I can only tell you, this is for sure. However, during tomorrow's inspection, I can only choose to remain silent. Even if I notice that the US military has abused prisoners of war, I will not say anything."

"Why?" Regarding Sokov's statement, Agelina asked in confusion: "Why did you choose to remain silent instead of saying anything when you saw the abuse of prisoners of war?"

"Agelina, don't forget, in the Great Patriotic War, in order to defeat the German invaders, we paid more than 20 million casualties." Sokov said: "For the pain that our former enemies are suffering now , we don’t need to sympathize with them.”