Nordstrum was quiet another moment.
“Is that all of it?” he said.
“So far, yeah,” Blake said. “I’ll let you know if I dig up anything more.”
“Thanks,” Nordstrum said. “I’m glad I gave you an A in class.”
“I earned it,” Blake said.
Nordstrum looked over at him.
“Insolent pup,” he said.
“It’s looking more and more as if you were right the other day, Gord,” Nordstrum said into his telephone.
Freshly showered and wrapped in a bathrobe, he was back in his Pennsylvania Avenue townhouse after his jog, and had just gotten through telling Gordian what he’d learned from Blake.
“I’m almost wishing I’d been wrong,” Gordian said. “This Lian Group… I’ve heard of it before. Didn’t the name come up in the Thompson campaign finance hearings a few years ago?”
“Right again,” Nordstrum said. “The evidence that it was involved in funneling Chinese government funds into our election wasn’t as conclusive as it was for Lippo, among other foreign contributors… but it was strong nonetheless. In my opinion, Lian money gave at least two senators a considerable edge against their opponents, and may very likely have won them their seats.”
“I’m still pretty much with Megan insofar as being confused. What’s the connection between Lian and the Russians? And specifically which Russians?”
Nordstrum sat forward on his living room sofa, absently winding the telephone wire around his fingers.
“The best I can do is speculate,” he said. “I mean, I’d need to look into my files, do some research, before I could expect you to bank on this information.”
“Go ahead, I understand.”
“There are circumstances that would point toward Russia’s Agricultural Minister, Yeni Bashkir, being knee-deep in this affair. He and Lian have a long relationship. As do members of the Chinese regime and Bashkir. Also, Bashkir’s family held commercial interests throughout Asia until after the Bolshevik Revolution.”
“And his motive?”
“Bashkir’s hardly an Americanophile… is that the proper term?”
“I’m not sure,” Gordian said, “but the meaning’s clear enough.”
“Be that as it may, he distrusts capitalism and democracy, and like many in his generation would have preferred to save the old Communist system by fiddling with it, rather than see it dismantled. Also, while not an extreme nationalist in the Pedachenko vein, he’s unquestionably something of a cultural chauvinist.”
“So you’re saying he might have wanted to disrupt Starinov’s pro-U.S. initiatives, make him look ineffectual.”
“In essence, agreeing with what you suggested at our meeting,” Nordstum said. He realized he’d gotten his phone cord hopelessly tangled and worked to extract his fingers.
Gordian sighed at the other end of the line.
“Doesn’t the fact that Bashkir helped negotiate the assistance package undermine our hypothesis?” he said. “Look at any photo of Starinov when he was at the White House back in October, you’ll see the minister at his side.”
Nordstrum made a sound in his throat that was the verbal equivalent of a shrug.
“Gord, I know you’re a glass half-full sort of person. But you’re as aware as I am that Russian politics hasn’t come very far from the imperial courts of Catherine or Nicholas II. There’s a long, cherished tradition of back-stabbing intrigue in the capital, whether you’re talking about modern-day Moscow or St. Petersburg in the nineteenth century.”
There was a brief silence. Nordstrum struggled to untangle the knotted up wire, letting his friend think.
“Okay,” Gordian said finally. “Can you put together a brief for Nimec, get it to him via e-mail by tonight?”
“Might be a bit thin on detail… but yes, I can do it.”
“Send copies to Blackburn and Megan in Kaliningrad. And to Vince Scull, for that matter. Let’s see what our combined brain trust can accomplish.”
“Right,” Nordstrum said. He was getting hungry for breakfast. “Anything else?”
“Only one small favor.”
“Shoot.”
“You ought to work on that habit of playing with the telephone wire while you’re talking, or at least get a cordless,” Gordian said. “I’m hearing all kinds of static here at my end.”
Nordstrum frowned.
“For you, boss, I’ll certainly do my best,” he said.
TWENTY-FOUR
A few moments past eleven o’clock at night, Pete Nimec sat at his laptop computer in his home office, his face a study in concentration as he read the e-mail that had just appeared on its display regarding Gordian’s ongoing investigation into the events in Russia, code-named “Politika”:
Status: Reply 1 of 1, 3 attachments (PEM Sign and Encrypt)
Re: “Politika”
>Pete,
>It’s 2 A.M. here in D.C., but I wanted to
>complete and upload the data files you
>requested before hitting the sack.
>Knowing you as well as I do, you’re
>probably online looking for them right now,
>and won’t be able to tear yourself away from
>the damn machine until they’ve popped into
>your mailbox. So here they are — a bit on the
>sketchy side, but the best I could do on short
>notice. I suggest you give the material a
>quick review and relax. It’s already much too
>late for me to get a decent night’s sleep, but
>there’s no sense in both of us staying up to
>greet the Wolf.
>Best, Alex
Nimec moved his cursor to the menu bar, clicked on the Download option, then rocked backward in his chair and waited, smiling a little. Alex was so often correct it was uncanny. And he never disappointed.
When the transfer was done, Nimec logged off the Internet server, opened the first of the three files, and began scrolling through it:
Profile: Bashkir, Yeni
HISTORY
PERSONAL:
Born 2/12/46 in Vladivostok, Primorsky Kray. Paternal grandfather operated pre-Bolshevik import/export firm with offices throughout China and Korea. Father (deceased) among the first generation of naval officers in Soviet Pacific Fleet. Mother (deceased) of Manchurian Chinese ancestry. Bashkir is married and presently lives in Moscow. The eldest of his two adult sons is a concert violinist who has toured with…
Nimec let his eyes go down to the following section; what Alex meant by “sketchy” might have constituted a full academic treatise for other researchers.
MILITARY/POLITICAL:
Followed his father into distinguished naval career; served with Soviet Pacific Fleet during Cold War; captained November-class and Echo II–CLASS nuclear submarines berthed in Kamchatka Peninsula. Promoted to rear admiralty in 1981, eventually achieved command of entire nuclear sub fleet. Former Communist Party member; joined Yeltsin’s party approx. 1991. Close associations with Beijing regime, esp. government trade officials, extended through period of strained Sino-Soviet relations. Handpicked by President Mikhail Gorbachev to be special consul to China, 1992; instrumental in strengthening political and economic links between the two nations. Primary author of Chinese-Russian cooperation agreements in 1996 and 1997…
The next few paragraphs were devoted to a summary of the agreements, which were more declarations of principle and intent than formal pacts. Something he read farther down in that same section, however, made Nimec sit up straight with interest: