Struggle: The Path to Power - Владимир Андерсон

The information transmitted through Desna's encrypted channels turned out to be exactly correct.

Losses of the 28th Regiment: 137 killed, 228 wounded, 8 armored vehicles, including 1 pcs. Т-95. Assessment of the Imperial Army's actions: without our support they would not have succeeded.

They acted inconsistently and out of order.

Signed, Commander Coyote of the 28th Regiment."

The prefect found it very interesting that the work of just one informant among the Maquis was having such success, and moreover that his importance was constantly emphasized even in documents of this kind.

Moreover, what was interesting was that this document, written in Russian, obviously meant the participation of a fighting formation of people on the side of the Chum in a direct confrontation. He had seen several references to the word "Khivi" before, but this was the first where they were operating as some sort of independent force. And it was hard to believe that a unit of humans under the current circumstances could be covering the Imperial army of the Chum, and even using heavy weapons.

Tikhomirov finished reading.

— So what do you think? — The prefect asked.

— First. There are people who are fighting for the chums. And, in this case, more successful than the chums themselves. Two. The informant is obviously very valuable to them. And, three. They call it "Desna channel", which means that they obviously have more than one.

— Yeah. That's right. And we need to help the Maquis find him… And if we can't help, then at least show that we helped…" Gora held out the papers. — This is a list of our four doubts of our entire Deese sector.

Tikhomirov took the papers and began to delve into the text: "What are we looking for?"

— That traitor who bangs on the poppy plague. From Squad 14. He's snitching for one of them. There's a theory that he's snitching to soften the terms for someone… Stupid, sure. But what people do for their loved ones…

Tikhomirov glanced once more at the papers, then at the prefect, then back at the papers and again at the prefect, "I see that you have found no one interesting among them."

— That's right. Damn right. I couldn't find anyone for whom someone would knock off the Maquis… Clearly, no amount of plague conditions would improve. But maybe at least they shouldn't have been touched… But nothing adds up. There's no connection between those who ran away to the Maquis and those who stayed. We haven't had many run away to the Maquis in the last 10 years… And this defector was obviously very much needed by the plagues. And what they wouldn't let happen is that the ones he's snitching for would run away too… Which means they'd have to be in the detention center, in addition to the others. So as not to create doubts… And among those in the detention center, no one has escaped. No one at all. There must be a connection somewhere. But I can't find it.

— Have you seen Among the Dead?

The mountain froze in his gaze. That's right… A dead man can't run away. And special conditions were guaranteed for him. They began to dig through all the archival records, where the dead for the last six months were noted and compare them with those who had escaped in the last six months. There was one option — Alexei Ranierov.

The Mountain remembered him. A very tough, strong and dashing type with a slippery temper. He ran away four months ago, leaving both his parents behind. A month later, his parents were gone. Of course, he couldn't have known about it, but it was strange to imagine how he could vindicate his parents in front of the plagues too. He was clearly selfish. He didn't care about anyone but himself. But who knows, maybe some conscience had awakened for that reason.

They started looking further back. For one and a half years ago. Again, nothing. Until there was only one Raniere left. He was remembered once more. Once Hora had heard the man tell his son Raphael that humans had no chance before the plagues, that humans in general were not worthy of living any kind of normal life. And that in general plagues still spare people, giving way to their insignificance. And that, to be fair, people should have much worse conditions. And that in general one should be grateful that life is not as difficult as it could be.

It was disgusting to listen to all that back then. And I had the impression that Ranierov almost feeds on other people's grief. Playing on nerves, sowing doubts, and as if he was relieving the tension from himself. There was no doubt that in case of anything he would not hesitate to snitch to anyone, but that did not mean that he was the informer. And if they sent unverified information to the Maquis, the real snitch would remain at large. And what's more, he'd be even harder to identify. We need to keep digging.

Nothing was found for a year and a half ago either. The impression was that people only ran away from the mine if they had no one left at the mine. Or they didn't run away at all. Maybe it really is Raniere. There are no other candidates. And after all, you don't have to snitch for your loved ones, you can snitch just for your own pleasure… People sometimes do things like that, even without any apparent benefit to themselves. Just to make things worse for others, as if to make things easier for themselves. As if there would be a spare place for them just in case… And still, the evidence of Ranierov's guilt was only farfetched….

And if we don't hand over the Maquis to anyone, they might think we're covering for someone. Or that we don't want to look at all.

— Vanya. — said the