Dead Meat

There you go,' said Grushko.

One thing I still don't understand,' said Nikolai. Tolya gives Milyukin a sample of contaminated meat. Milyukin hands it over to Dr Sobchak for analysis.'

Right.'

But the meat that was stolen from the flat. that belonged to the Poliakovs?'

Yes. But of course the two Ukrainians had no idea that Milyukin had already taken the meat to Sobchak. They opened the Poliakovs' fridge and found a piece of beef. They weren't to know it wasn't the right one. Beef is beef and, after all, it wasn't as if there was any other meat in the fridge.'

So the Poliakovs just bought it in the local market?'

I heard Grushko swear violently.

Sasha?' he said urgently. Sasha, are you there?'

Where are you, sir?'

Never mind that now. Look, call Lieutenant Khodyrev and get her to send someone round to my flat straight away. I reckon my wife's bought some of that contaminated meat from a cooperative food market. She's probably serving it up as we speak.' He swore again. Look, I don't care how she does it, but on no account must anyone eat that beef. Have you got that, Sasha?'

Yes sir. I'll call you as soon as we hear anything.'

Do that. And for Christ's sake, hurry.'

Grushko said nothing for several minutes. Then Andrei came back up the aisle and jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

We've got a rough location out of our friends,' he said.

I handed him the walkie-talkie.

There's a warehouse in Kirovsky Region,' he told Grushko. Somewhere off Stacek Prospekt. The two crewmen are not exactly sure where, because they usually just follow the truck in front of them. Anyway, there's this cold store that used to belong to the State Fish Board, until the Mafia paid someone hard currency for the place. They reckon it's pretty well protected too: about thirty or forty armed men on average.'

Grushko grunted. Andrei shrugged and handed me back the handset.

What's the matter with him?' he murmured.

He's worried his wife might have bought some of that contaminated meat,' I explained. And that right now his family might be sitting down to eat it.'

Home cooking,' sniffed Andrei. It'll be the death of us all.' And so saying he returned to the back of the coach and sat down.

Ten minutes passed and Grushko radioed that the convoy had reached the outer suburbs of the city on Moskovsky Prospekt. Nikolai was doing his best to distract Grushko from troubled thoughts.

There's this old priest, right? he said. 'He's been out shopping all day and he's tired, so he stops for a minute to lean against a wall and closes his eyes. After a few minutes he opens them again and by now a queue of about fifty people has formed up behind him. A couple more minutes pass and then the Ivan standing right behind the old priest asks him what they're queuing for. And the priest explains that he'd just stopped to have a rest. Well, why didn't you say so?a__ says the man. And the priest says, It's not every day that you find yourself standing at the head of the queue.a__ Nikolai laughed enthusiastically.

Grushko was losing his patience.

Talk to me, Sasha,' he said through clenched teeth. What the hell is happening?'

Just a minute, sir,' said Sasha. I'm speaking to Olga now.'

There was a long, long pause during which I imagined Grushko's family seated around their dining table watching Lena carve the precious joint of meat. A loud knock summons Tanya to the door where she finds herself confronted by several men wearing radiation suits and carrying a radiometer before them like some small ark of the convenant. The guests jump up with horror as the men make their entrance and then they yell with outrage as the contaminated meat their dinner is thrown into a plastic bag. I almost wished I could have been there to see it myself.

Someone's been to your house, sir,' said Sasha finally. Everything's all right. Nobody ate a thing.'

Just like any other Russian meal, then,' said Nikolai.

Grushko breathed an audible sigh of relief.

Thank you,' he said quietly. Thanks, Sasha.

It's just as well you're wearing a flak-jacket,' said Sasha. Because your wife's going to shoot you. According to Olga she thought it was your idea of a joke. But you were right. The meat was radioactive.'

There was not time for Grushko to react to this latest piece of information.

We're turning off,' said Nikolai.

Grushko waited a second and then said: We're now heading north west on Krasnoputilovskaya towards Autovo.'

I heard Sasha tell his driver to head west, along Taskentskaya.

I think we're being tailed,' said Nikolai. That car's been with us since the airport.

I leaned towards the bus-driver.

I heard,' he said negligently. Krasnoputilovskaya.'

He twisted the wheel round to avoid a horse that had strayed on to the road.

Meat, is it?' he said when we were back in lane. There's plenty around, if you know where to look. Believe me, a man who drives this road need never go hungry.'

I recalled my own car journey from Moscow to St Petersburg. In principle the M10 was the country's most important arterial road and yet in places it was little more than a two-track highway upon which a wide variety of animals pigs, goats, cattle and chickens were allowed to stray. I wondered how a coachload of Americans would have reacted to the prospect of their bus-driver's lethal opportunism.

Heading north on the MI 1 and Stacek Prospekt,' said Grushko.

Heading up Trefoleva,' said Sasha.

By now the coach was in the outskirts of the city and, as if to underline the fact, we hit a tramline standing proud of the road surface with a loud bang.

We have you in sight,' said Sasha. Passing the end of Trefoleva.'

He's signalling left,' said Nikolai.

Sasha, we're turning left on to '

Oboronnaya,' said Nikolai, prompting him.

Drive straight across Stacek,' Sasha told his driver. And then to Grushko: We'll stay parallel with you on Trefoleva.'

This looks like it, sir, said Nikolai. 'We're slowing down.

We're here,' said Grushko. It's between Gubina Street and Sevastopol Street.'

Sasha instructed the driver of the second OMON van to turn up Sevastopol Street and then his own driver to drive on to the end of Trefoleva.

We'll turn right on to Barrikadnaya,' he announced, and then come at them from both ends of the street.'

This is it everyone,' said Grushko. Let's get these bastards.'

23

Grushko told me later that his first thought on seeing the first truck back into the cold store was that the militia might be outgunned. It seemed that there were gangsters everywhere, some directing the trucks, some starting to take the cartons of meat out of the containers and some just holding guns and looking out for trouble. As the second and then the third truck reversed through the steel shutters a man whistled loudly and beckoned Nikolai to drive towards him.

Nikolai slipped the clutch and followed the man's directions until he was best placed to reverse into the loading bay. Hearing another whistle from behind he glanced in his wing-mirror and saw a second man waving towards him.

Stall it,' said Grushko. They mustn't bring that shutter down behind us or the squad won't be able to get in.'

Nikolai engaged gear, took his foot off the gas and then released the clutch pedal. The big truck jerked spasmodically as the engine cut out.

He turned the key in the ignition and without touching the accelerator he made a show of trying to get started again. With a Russian-built truck he might have succeeded in flooding the engine. But the Foden had electronic ignition and started first time.

Isn't that just great,' said Nikolai. A reliable truck.'

Where the hell's Sasha?' said Grushko.