Revelations front-line scout. The Last Night of the Young Baroness

Continued. Start at No. 529

For the first twenty-four hours spent in Vienna, Garanin could not sleep a single minute. Therefore, having finished the interrogation of Magda Yagich at three o'clock in the morning, Garanin went to the guard department, took the trench-coat from the hook on the wall, wrapped it and, as he was in full uniform, with a pistol in a holster, collapsed right on the floor and instantly fell asleep.
The next day, waking up from a terrible ora and barely came to himself, Garanin learned that Magda Jagic was running. After interrogation, she was placed in the room of the defendants. The woman was not at hand for a search, and the guard officers of Magda did not dare to search. With a saw hidden in her bra, she sawed two crates of iron rod and descended from the second floor through a drainpipe. No one could understand where the sentries guarding the commandant's office were at that time. Lieutenant Colonel Kuligin raged, thunder and lightning threw on the head of the guard department, Major Slavin, and on all his subordinates. Garanin was ordered to catch Magda alive or dead. But then the lieutenant colonel gave one more task:

- That's what, lieutenant, here we have such a thing, the third day one young lady, a journalist from Komsomolskaya Pravda, hangs. She was assigned to write essays about the life and service of our soldiers. You know, the seal is a holy thing. But she still, you see, and the novel writes about the Soviet front-line intelligence officers. He doesn’t know how to distinguish an automaton from a pistol, but there too ... Well, it’s important, party matter. Moreover, Comrade Fadeev himself patronizes her, and she even has a letter from him to us. So, as soon as she found out that you came here, all of you were beautiful and young, and she even served the whole war in intelligence, living literally for me didn’t become of her - introduce, say, order me to him my questions are answered without reserve. You should be more pleasant to her, tell her everything as if she were going to ask you. In general, show to her, how to say it, a man’s interest, or else he will come to Moscow and will be telling somewhere in the Central Committee how the local press is not respected by the local comrades.
Hearing about the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" and about "male interest", Garanin remembered his romance with the wife of the English attache and became angry:
- What the devil will I show a man's interest to her ?! Let her comrade Fadeev and her friend Fedin show interest to her! Both male and all other! I, too, novelist fucking! Tolstoy in a skirt, Balzac from Komsomolskaya Pravda! She went to the devil! They themselves ordered me to search for Magda Yagich, and not to tell tales to every Moscow fool!
- But-but, oholon troshki. It won't take you long. Three hours, no more ...
- Wow, three hours, but in three hours Magda Yagich will move to the American zone ...
- Treat this as an order!
The door of the office opened, and a young woman appeared in her, fluffy, bright, with high breasts and wide hips. Then Garanin saw beautiful light brown eyes, full lips and white even teeth.
- I understand that this is the hero of my future novel? - said the journalist to the lieutenant colonel Kuligin, pointing with eyes to Garanin.
- They are! - answered Kuligin. - I let him go with you. Cabinet number six is ​​free. I give you three hours for questioning. Three hours - no more!
Within a few minutes, Julia (as the correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda was called) sat with Garanin at a large oak table in office number 6. She opened her correspondent notebook, casually looked through it, took out an eternal pen and said:
- Everything happened so unexpectedly that I did not even have time to concentrate. Therefore, my questions go randomly, without any system or logic ... Do you mind?
- I do not care! - Garanin said gloomily and impatiently.
- Then let's start. The lieutenant colonel briefly told me your biography. You went through the whole war on the front line. How was the rear brethren?
- With disrespect, of course. We talked a little with staff officers, we are here, they are there ... They communicated only when they passed the languages, mostly they are junior officers. With some were on friendly terms. But there was another ... There was such a case, for example. He brought the Germans to the division headquarters. A middle-aged noncommissioned officer. Mother. Also from the front edge. And then some milk shark headquarters jumps out and starts vykobenivatsya before this German. His cheeks beat, shows his "heroism". The German only grinds his teeth. In an open brawl, the German of this “hero” of ours would quickly be confronted, but here, at headquarters, he is known to be afraid of being shot. I looked, looked, German from the “hero-staff” pulled and punched a couple of times in front of the headquarters. He remained lying, and I passed the German to another. Or one day with a staff one, with a countryman, got into conversation. “How many awards do you have for all orders, but you see Germans only as prisoners, you don’t meet with the living,” I say, “how do you manage this?” “Very simple,” the countryman replies. “Your exploits are our surnames.”
- Have to deal with the special person?
“They knew that the informers were full ... They scoffed at them, they often beat them. We sit somehow in our near rear. Just returned from an assignment. Night. Lit the fire, chatting, basking. We look, one soldier walks around. But we already knew their habits. And now let's poison: “I'm tired of this intelligence! Tomorrow we will go on a mission and move on to the Germans, they will feed better there and we will live longer. ” We see, he got the hang of - now lead officer. For sure! The officer came, looked at us, sees - all the guys are desperate. Says: “Well, here's another fool fooled! And the hunt for you guys is up! See, get caught! "
- Have you ever encountered Vlasovites?
- Yes. In Moravia ... When we captured such prisoners, we did not bring them to headquarters, despite strict orders, we shot everyone along the way.
- How were relations with the local population abroad?
- In Romania, it was well received. The girls always had a wicker bottle under their arms and there was a cup. Come out and all our treat. The Hungarians were wary of us, they did not like us. In Slovakia, we were greeted as relatives. There, the scouts, we worked with their partisans - the guys were excellent, reliable.
- Were there cases of rape of local girls?
- There were, but not with us. I strictly forbade it to my scouts. If someone agrees, please deal with her and him, but without violence.
“To you, war is what?”
- Honestly, I didn’t quite understand your question. For me, war is everything, all life. There is no such moral satisfaction from doing the assignment and returning alive to a citizen.
“Was intelligence-related killings perceived as part of the job?”
- Yes. What can you do, got used to it.
- I was told that some people could not serve in intelligence, because they could not work with a knife.
- No, I had no problems with it. I knew: if not you, then you. This is the moment of work.
- Do you remember the first killed German?
- Not. In a battle you kill, but you do not figure out which is the first ...
- At what time of year is the most difficult to fight?
- For us it was bad when the moon. We hated this traitor fiercely. Especially in the winter shadows are visible on the snow. No camouflage will hide you - you crawl, and you can see how your shadow crawls. Crawling, crust crust. Quietly you can not crawl, but also the moon is shining.
- What kind of people in the war did not like most?
- Well, cowards, of course, did not like. Fools and Licking - too. I do not like to obey the fools. Why did I go to reconnaissance - basically you are responsible for yourself here ... Sometimes, of course, the authorities intervene, sending them to impossible tasks.
- At the end of the war strongly wanted to survive?
- I was sure that sooner or later they would kill me. For some reason, he was never afraid of death. Considered it natural. How many moments there were, and then, in peacetime, when I could, for example, meet the execution ... Philosophically, I treat death. But, of course, I want to live. On the way home, while getting from the front, I really wanted to survive. The returnees had the inertia of murder. The slightest quarrel could end in murder. Most rode with guns. And I had a weapon - Walter. In the car I was attached to one fool and offended me great. At another moment I would bring the matter to the end, but here I tried not to clash with anyone. Travelers, scouts from my platoon who knew who I was and that I was, took him to the vestibule and threw him under the train.
- have you seen looting?
- We broke into Hungary in the city, where all the jewelry stores were open, did not have time to hide. Many there took that arm will fall. Some had full pockets of watches, bracelets. True, those who are too greedy, killed in the first place. He only thinks about these trophies. He thinks what he will do with them in peacetime and loses his caution. I only picked one bracelet. Diamond bracelet with miniature watches. Yes, and that Zelde gave.

- Zelda - who is this?
- Zelda? One Hungarian Jew. In the hospital Bratislava sister served. We spent one such night with her ... It’s not a pity to give much for such a night. She was not greedy, said: "Take with you, you will come in handy more." “No,” I say, “this is my gift. Well I was with you. "
And when I came to Moscow to enroll in a special school, I had one tunic, some breeches and trophy boots, which I constantly repaired. Well, in a special school, a new form was issued. Believe me, I did not wear any new clothes after the start of the war. When he became a soldier, in 41, he was given an old, washed-up uniform ... And so it went ... A new tunic was put on 1945 only in June.

Unexpected appearance

Suddenly, behind his back, Garanin heard a female voice:
- Hi Julia!
Garanin turned and saw ... Elsa.
- you? He asked, unable to say more.
- Yes I! - Elsa answered dryly, went to the second desk, which stood by the window, sat behind it, threw out the top drawer in a businesslike manner, took out some folders from there, put them on the table, opened it and suddenly asked, without addressing anyone:
- And, actually, what is the junior lieutenant doing here?
“It's me ...” Julia hurried over, “I asked him to answer a few of my questions.” I told you that I wanted to write a novel about a military intelligence officer, but he was ...
- I do not care who this comrade was, I am interested in how he got into the secret department of the commandant?
“By the way,” said Garanin, and in his voice he could barely restrain the frenzy that had suddenly seized him. “By the way, I’m also interested in how a former Abwehr employee got into the secret department of the commandant’s office?”
Julia in silent surprise looked from Garanin to Elsa.
- Elsa, what are you?
- What am I? You will see now!
She picked up the phone and said hard:
- An unknown person appeared in my office and behaves rather impudently! Could you come here and clarify the situation? - she hung up.
- Well, well, we will behave arrogantly! - said Garanin and, putting his legs on his leg, took out a box of "Kazbek". But he did not have time to smoke.
A short but strong man appeared at the door, the same man with whom unpredictable military roads brought Garanin to the monastery cemetery.
- Liber! Shouted Garanin and jumped up from his chair.
- Lieutenant! - Lieber exclaimed and hugged Garanin.
Then he turned to Elsa:
- This is - Lieutenant Garanin, he was sent to us after graduating from the special school junior lieutenants of the MGB. Lieutenant Colonel Kuligin ordered him to organize an operational unit with us and, by the way, today begin the search for Magda Jagic. By the way, lieutenant, I understand that you have not had poppy dew on your mouth since yesterday morning. Come to me, I have excellent coffee, butter and bread, it is here, at the commandant's office, great baked, according to all the rules of Russian bread baking.
And Liber carried Garanin into the next room. Over the morning coffee, they talked. Lieber briefly told him about the situation in their department.
- I have only two employees. The first is Marina Kirina. She was thirty-three years old, was born somewhere on the Volga, sent to work in the NKVD in 1937 year. Well, although far from perfect, knows German. She conducted in Moscow work with German senior officers and generals who were captured. She even worked with Paulus himself. Then transferred to the management of illegal intelligence and sent to us. Austria does not know at all. Accent and Slavic appearance made her German interlocutors think that she was Czech from the Sudetenland. The second is Elsa, a great worker, underst us in 1940. Almost the entire war worked in the Abwehr as a translator from Russian, she forwarded a number of valuable messages to the center, but did not receive serious intelligence training. Two months ago, she graduated from Moscow short-term courses, but this is clearly not enough, but knows Austria well. Our group is faced with the task of dealing with the Nazi intelligence agent in Austria and investigating some particularly important criminal offenses, as in the case of Magda Jagic. By the way, she is apparently an experienced criminal, and it will not be easy to find her. My advice: go back to Mayerling and try to interview as many people as possible, above all, of course, the Countess and her servant. Maybe you will find some clue, detail, trifle, which may turn out to be the beginning of a clue. One will be difficult for you, take Elsa with you, she will be very useful in this matter.
- She will not go with me! - said Garanin.
- How it will not go? - with surprise asked Lieber.
Garanin told about the meeting with Elsa in Coburg, about his affair with the wife of the English attache. He told everything, without reserve.
“Okay,” said Lieber, “I’ll order Elsa with you, and she will execute the order, and then act himself, try to explain everything to her, only, of course, do not disclose your name or the position of your English Madame.” Go without thunder, it is better in civilian clothes, and not by car, but on the train - to Baden.

To be continued