He leaned over to Ruthra and said in a whisper:

– …I was part of a program to study the effects of a nuclear explosion in a different environment than the Earth. Nobody said anything about it, but the mission was to see what would happen if the explosion occurred in a different physical environment. And later I would learn that NASA had conducted a "bombardment" of the moon. Two vehicles crashed into the Earth's natural satellite at a tremendous speed. It wasn't the first time. I'm surprised you don't know anything about it.

– Why. The dust cloud was studied by two vehicles – the Russian LEND and the American LCROSS probe equipped with spectrometers and infrared cameras. They collected information on the chemical composition of the particles and – most importantly – on the amount of water.

– Yeah, and you know that the experiment cost NASA 80 million dollars, too? Do you think the main goal is to understand whether there are ice crystals under the surface of the Earth's satellite? And if there are, then in the future to build inhabited scientific stations or even whole settlements on the Moon? Doesn't it seem to you that this is a war, and these very inhabited scientific stations and whole settlements already exist?

– Well, I don't know what to say. Aren't there any spies among your acquaintances? You can't hide everything, can you?

– As in Russia, and everywhere else, here you cannot hold a position like mine without approval, or rather, scientifically speaking, some integration into this very intelligence community.

– And which one are you in…

– There are many of them, none in particular. Do you have any idea of their structure?

– I have no idea.

– The United States Intelligence Community is a collective term for 17 separate U.S. government agencies. I'm going to educate you a little bit on the subject. I am sure if we cooperate, you will need information about them. The Director of the U.S. Intelligence Community is the head of the government apparatus for coordinating the work of all U.S. intelligence agencies, he is responsible for the work of the intelligence community to the President of the United States. By the way, they have a budget of $43.5 billion.

– Interesting things you say.

– If you're not too busy, we can have a chat in your spare time.

– I will. I will also tell you about scientific work together with specialists from the "zone".

– Fifty-one?

– Yeah. (chuckles)

Charles smiled, nodding as a sign that he understood. They stood up, said their goodbyes, and separated. At the gatehouse, Rutra and his companions were waited for by a lab employee who escorted them to the reception center. Rutra settled in, checked the program through the briefcase, then contacted Isa. After going through a procedure that had become routine, he heard the voice of the computer in his head.

– Good afternoon. How are you?

– I need information on the director of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

– Which one?

– His connection to an intelligence community unit.

– I don't have that information in me.

– Why is that?

– It's not my field.

– Whose is it?

– Yours.

– Stop "showing off", if I ask, I don't know.

– The information's in your department's cell block, I need access. You can give it to me.

– Uh-oh, I forgot. Okay, thank you.

Rutra contacted the Zero Center through the briefcase and requested information about these intelligence communities, who was in charge of what. It was night in Russia, and the Zero operative on duty had dumped everything at once, unprocessed, something Rutra already knew, but it didn't hurt to refresh his memory. There was a lot of detailed information in the message, with order numbers, names, ranks, service records of important officers and service chiefs, and operations. He didn't find anything particularly new, but still, after a brief analysis, he singled out information that was now worth looking at from a different angle.

The U.S. CIA is the primary political intelligence service of the U.S. government, independent of other ministries and agencies. According to Executive Order No. 12333, the U.S. Intelligence Community has six primary purposes, and the most specific of these, which all intelligence agencies of the world have faced willy-nilly, is special events (paragraph 4). This item is defined as activities conducted in support of U.S. foreign policy objectives abroad that are planned and executed where "the role of the United States Government is not apparent or publicly recognized."

The U.S. Intelligence Community is an administrative, not an intelligence structure.

It includes:

1. U.S. CIA;

2. The U.S. Department of State, specifically the State Department's Information Office;

3. the U.S. Department of the Treasury, specifically the Office of Intelligence and Counterterrorism;

4. U.S. Department of Defense, namely the National Security Agency; the Office of Space Intelligence and Mapping; and the Office of Satellite DER;

5. U.S. Department of Energy, specifically the Office of Nuclear Intelligence and Security;