He didn’t jump at the chance she unwittingly offered. Keeping calm he continued with the conversation. Oksana finally had to take her leave and he asked if he could see her again. She agreed and they set a date and time. If she hadn’t consented, he would have followed her home and gotten the information he needed by force. Desperate times lead to desperate measures.
He followed her home anyway just in case she didn’t show up tomorrow.
The next day they met. Eventually he got around to asking her about her job and she shared the information he needed. They talked at length about her aunt, the great sniper Marie Ljalková-Lastovecká.
Apparently Oskana had no idea what had happened to Marie and how or if she died. Leonov decided to not tell her what had happened to her aunt and niece. Why burden this young mind with tales of horror and give her nightmares? Ignorance is sometimes a blessing.
They met two more times with Leonov gaining more intelligence each time, seemingly without creating suspicion. As soon as he had enough details, any further contact with Oksana would endanger his dream of revenge.
He seriously contemplated “having relations” with her but decided that doing so twice in the same family was bad luck. She had been nice to him so in his mind she wanted to have sex with him.
He was a little bit unnerved that the only person he had confided in about his ultimate plan was her Aunt Marie. Marie had expressed her wish for a more inclusive government and he had gone on about the strengths of the current system. As the vodka flowed he described his scheme should capitalism ever begin to take hold in the USSR.
It was a simple concept and was one of the reasons he was in sniper school. If the USSR collapsed and was in danger of falling into the capitalist cesspool he would spend the remainder of his life assassinating the leaders of this monstrous system. If nothing else his actions would bring a change in leadership. The current bunch of capitalist lackeys and war criminals were particularly heinous. Hopefully their deaths would lead to other forms of government.
He now had his chance with the “Victory Parade” only days away. Leonov would have plenty of targets. With the knowledge gained from Oksana he had a place to shoot from. It was a place she described as her retreat during breaks from work. It was concealed and isolated yet gave a good view of a large portion of Red Square.
Oksana also mentioned that she had listened to many a speech from her place of solitude and could see quite clearly the usual spot that the speaker’s podium was placed.
It was a such a perfect setup that alarm bells of all kinds rang in his mind. Normally he would have passed up on such a too good to be true situation. But he was at the end of his resources and had to act or he would fail in his last mission. For Viktor Nikolayevich Leonov the only acceptable outcome was completing his pledge.
A week later, Gromyko’s head was squarely in the cross hairs of his sniper scope. He had just exhaled and his finger was starting to tighten on the trigger. He had his finger lightly on the trigger as he had been taught by Marie.
Then his life ended. There was no drama, no pain. He just ceased to exist in this world. The leader who put himself in extreme danger for over a hundred small skirmishes and raids was dead.
Leonov’s head was almost split in half by the bullet from Oksana’s rifle. The round hit him in the left temple. He died instantaneously.
If he could have, Leonov would have complimented the shooter on such an excellent shot
The authorities who discovered his body could not identify him due to the damage. They did identify the kind of rifle the bullet came from but never did find the gun.
Figure 87 - Viktor Nikolayevich Leonov
Credit Where Credit is Due
Stanislav rounded the corner and spotted the little river of blood coming from behind an air return duct. He was too young to have been in combat and had only seen one dead man, that being his father.
He was a book worm and enjoyed research and lab work. He was drafted for this assignment because of the need for manpower. Much of the former Moscow police force was dead because they were Stalinists. They needed everyone who could walk to search for the location of where the mystery shot had originated.
Last, he heard they had not found the spent bullet. This was odd. It should have been found by now with the number of men looking for clues. He had lobbied to be assigned to the exterior investigation. Instead here he was in dark buildings hunting for who knows what or whom.
Many of the combat veterans knew the sound of a Nagan sniper rifle. Just one shot was heard, but that was enough to have everyone diving for cover except for Gromyko and Stanislav. They looked at each other with neither comprehending what had just happened.
The irony was that Gromyko was probably the intended target. His appointment as the new leader of Russia was announced two days ago and this parade was his first official outing. The NATO and the Freedom Force leaders still had not agreed on what form of government to adopt. So, Gromyko did not have an authorized formal title.
Teams of men were directed to clear various buildings. His building was one of the largest. Stanislav reasoned that the roof would be the most logical location for a sniper. Now he regretted his reasoning.
Looking at the blood, he just wanted to ignore the whole thing. What would happen if he simply walked away and let someone else find the body?
He would probably get yelled at and punished for not properly doing his job and maybe even docked a day’s pay. On the other hand, he wouldn’t have the nightmares he was imagining would come from seeing what was around that duct.
Stanislav had decided to walk away when the voice of his immediate supervisor asked him what he was looking at?
He had to tell him for he was sure to get caught lying.
“I think there is something over there.”
“Have you not gone to see.”
“Not yet Supervisor.”
“And why not? You are lucky that you are good at other things Stanislav otherwise, you would be disciplined.
Now go over there and tell me what you see.”
“I saw a pool of blood, Supervisor…”
“WHAT! Get out of the way Stanislav.”
The Supervisor took all the credit and that was fine with Stanislav.
Two weeks went by before the body was identified. They finally ascertained from finger prints that the corps was that of Viktor Nikolayevich Leonov. Many were surprised that the twice Hero of the Soviet Union was still alive.
Gromyko and the new leadership decided not to acknowledge the shooter’s identity. There were too many questions still unanswered.
Leonov’s death by sniper caused much consternation among the leadership of the new nation. How was it that he was still alive? Who shot him and why? What was he doing with a sniper rifle on that roof? The possibilities are endless.
The head of the Moscow police held a big meeting and told everyon to basically shut the fuck up about this event. The official story was an accidental discharge of a rifle dropped by a child in one of the nearby apartments. The father was a soldier who lost both legs. He was dead drunk when he was supposed to be watching his three-year-old son.
Stanislav stopped listening after a while knowing the story was not the truth. He never did learn the identity of the dead man. He was oblivious to war heroes anyway. It seemed everyone who came back had some kind of medal for heroism.
If he really examined his motives, the end conclusion was jealousy. But of course he didn’t examine his motives. Few people do. Instead, they come up with justifications then go on with their lives.
101 WPM
William White had been told that this was the last report he would work on for the CIA. The war was over and the agency was cutting back on its workforce. With communism defeated, there was no enemy that justified a large office pool. All throughout the agency layoffs were occurring and many an underling was losing his or her job.
He was somewhat flattered. White was to type the final report to t
he President on World War Three. The report was going to be a grand summary. The typing would take him and six other typists two weeks to finish. Then he would receive two weeks separation pay and that would be it. His career in the CIA was over only six months after it started.
He was assured that his references would be most impressive and that he should be able to land a job either with the government or a large corporation. Either was fine with him.
As usual, his mind wandered and he paraphrased what he was typing in his head.
Huh, from the reports and investigations just completed, it seems that the war actually started on 15 December 1945 when an assassin shot out the front tires of a bus in Nevada. The bus was carrying teams of engineers who were responsible or assembling Atomic-bombs. The production of our A-bombs was stopped cold with their deaths.
The incident was deemed an accident until recently when records of the war started showing up. Most of the documents were being mailed from Europe and were of a highly sensitive nature.
Well, I’ll be damned.
Holy shit!
A Soviet spy had infiltrated the Manhattan Project and had somehow become the Health Safety Officer. From what the FBI was able to piece together the fellow got a hold of some pretty nasty stuff…Polonium. Then he managed to spread the deadly powder to hundreds…no thousands of nuclear workers, engineers and scientists many of whom later died from radioactive poisoning.
I was wondering why we just didn’t bomb the Commies with our A-bombs. Now I know. Man the things they don’t tell the general public. Says here they have no idea where this George Koval aka Delmar disappeared to.
Great the guy kills a couple of thousand people and they don’t know where he is?! I would have thought that J. Edgar Hoover would have lost his job over that kind of screw up.
The Joint Chiefs fall back to a series of plans titled Pincher. The overarching plan basically calls for retreating to the Pyrenees Mountains and hanging on for dear life against the Red’s attack.
Two hours later.
Skinner, I remember that name. Huh this report credits him with saving NATO’s ass. He and some kid name Jim Crenshaw figured out a way to defeat the Soviets magic missiles. Well good for him.
Time for a break
Break Time
William gets up and makes a point of walking past Mary Hart’s desk. He just happens to glance at what she is working on.
Ha, she got stuck typing cargo manifests! While I got the final report for the war and she gets manifests. Well ain’t that something.
William is feeling terrific is uncharacteristically humming as he pours himself a cup of joe. Ruth Ann comes in and comments on his good mood. Which puts him in even better spirits.
He saunters back to his desk. As he nears Mary, he hears her swear beneath her breath. Before she realizes that William is watching she reaches for her eraser. She notices him and very pointedly puts the eraser back and continues typing.
White can hardly contain himself as he sits down and turns the page. She had made a mistake and tried to hide it from him.
Let’s see, where was I? Chuckling to himself, he thinks I can’t believe she just did that. All right enough of that.
Let’s see what’s next? Since the A-bombs are now a bust with most of the scientists dead, the Joint Chiefs of Staff need a new plan.
Their decision is to dust off a proposed plan previously developed by General MacArthur at the beginning of the war. MacArthur’s concept revolved around a series of invasions. Each subsequent action was designed to escalated with increasingly daring tactics. Each attack was meant to inflict the maximum amount of casualties. The ultimate goal was to lure the Reds further and further away from Moscow and isolate them from all support.
Oh, yeah, I remember that report. Something about bombing the Reds from Turkey. NATO’s air raids forced the Soviets to invade Turkey and then Egypt in an effort stop the attacks.
The US land the 1st Army in Italy on the border of Yugoslavia and they go north to Vienna. The Reds don’t play along and just kind of sit there still going for Egypt. Next, we land in Lebanon and cut off the Red armies attacking the Brits in the Suez.
The combined NATO operations forced the left over commies to retreat to the Caucasus Mountains to the north and dig in thinking they’re pretty safe. Next we break into the Baltic taking Copenhagen and landing in Poland. Let’s see who’s the general? Oh yeah Truscott and the 10th Army.
Truscott’s army heads south and the 1st Army under General Walker heads north and they meet in Poland cutting the continent in two and trapping over a million Soviet troops in France and Germany.
Wow! The things you learn from these reports. I suppose it was in the news but I never realized how it all fit together.
Mary
Mary Hart finishes up the manifests and reaches for the next paper in what seems like an endless pile. But the task will be finished soon. The war is over and so is her job.
She begins to type.
“The Soviets attempt to break the Eurasian Line, as it is now called, and are defeated with significant losses. At the same time, a series of NATO invasions called Backdoor commences with the forcing of the Turkish Straights. The final amphibious assault in the sequence of invasions enters the Black Sea and lands behind the Red Army. Dug-in along the Caucasus Mountain Range hundreds of thousands of Soviet units are trapped, including the famous Marshall Zhukov.”
Ten minutes and a thousand words later.
“Throughout this time-period rebels are coming out of hiding. Partisans from occupied France, Germany and most important of all, the former republics of the USSR are creating resistance units.
On 23 August 1947, Stalin dies by poisoning. Lavrenti Beria is suspected of the assassination. One man stands between Beria and becoming dictator. That man is Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev was thought to be dead, killed by an assassin’s bullet months before. The reports were erroneous.
“An agent with the CIA, Colonel Mario Fiat, proposed a plan to convince Marshall Zhukov to defect. Fiat spent the last three months in intense philosophical deliberations with a mystery man named Konstantin.
Konstantin had willingly surrendered to British troops a few weeks before. He was a known associate and friend of Marshall Zhukov and was rumored to be an advisor to Stalin.
Colonel Fiat was able to convince Konstantin of the evils of Stalinism. Fiat reported that labeling the Soviet version of communism, “Stalinism," is an excellent tactic to employ in any defection scenario. Konstantin is recruited to lead an effort to change the hearts and minds of the Soviet citizens.
His first assignment is to aid Mario Fiat in the defection attempt directed at Marshal Zhukov. The attempt is successful (see addendum S4).
On 27 August 1947 Marshal Zhukov leads 300,000 men in a mass defection and all renounce Stalinism.
According to British Intelligence, Beria tries once more to personally kill Khrushchev but dies in the attempt. Khrushchev seemingly rises from the dead and appears in public on 5 September 1947 announcing his assumption of leadership.
Negotiations begin that focus on the surrender of the Soviet Union. Weeks later, the talks stall with NATO announcing its “Unconditional Surrender” policy which the Soviet Union summarily rejects.
‘Huh… nice.
So let me get this straight in my mind.
According to a whole shitload of secret Soviet documents and leaked reports Stalin was poisoned by Beria, Beria was kidnapped by Khrushchev but escaped. Beria then instigated a plan where he kidnapped high-ranking officials' kids and forced the parents to do his bidding.
Some parents were coerced into assassinating Molotov and other politburo members by strapping a bomb to themselves and then committing suicide while hugging their victims.
Now that’s not normal.
Khrushchev’s assassin screws up and later a standin is shot while giving a speech and everyone thinks that Nikita is dead…but he’s not!
Holy mackerel this i
s some story.
This is juicy stuff!
No Words
William continues typing and thinking.
All this insider super-secret information is coming from a former official who kept meticulous records. Somehow, he was able to preserve them during the chaos of battle. In several instances, the files include photos, recordings and even film. The depth and breadth of the material is astounding as well as a bit disconcerting.
Some of the images and audio come from meetings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President, Prime Minister, NATO leaders, etc. Meetings that no one, much less a Soviet spy, should have been able to attend and record.
We know the information is factual. When confronted by the evidence provided, dozens of the surviving participants in the meetings confess to fabrications. All are visibly shaken after being challenged with the truth, including members of the current administration and US military.
Whoever this man or woman is, they have opened up a real can of truth. The revelations really stink for some and for others, it has vindicated their version of history.
Identifying the individual and where the treasure troves of materials are hidden is becoming a major obsession for a number of agencies and staff.
Well shit I know who it is! It’s that fellow that Skinner was matching wits with that disappeared about six months ago...it’s got to be him!…
William White almost said this aloud. He catches himself in time and looks around to see if anyone is noticing. And there is Mary Hart staring right at him. He tries to disappear behind his typewriter, but she gets up and comes over to his desk.
“You know don’t you?!”
She says as she tries to look at his papers.
“Hey, stop that. Know, know what?’
World War Three 1946 Series Boxed Set: Stalin Strikes First Page 134
