Quiller Meridian

From the centre of the rotunda Marshal Trushin was staring at me, stone-faced, jowls of a bulldog, black eyes locked on mine as he listened to one of the generals' aides, the one who had framed me on board the Rossiya for the death of Zymyanin. His voice was unintelligible at this distance because he was speaking softly, urgently, saying — I very much hoped — Marshal, this man was on board the Rossiya two days ago, and could well have set that bomb. Perhaps we should listen to him…

A log tumbled in the hearth and I heard a man catch his breath.

I went on waiting.

Marshal Trushin was still watching me. The aide was silent now.

'I agree to follow your instructions.'

Et voila.

'Very good. If anyone in this chamber leaves his chair, I shall detonate. Is that clear?'

Silence.

'Is that clear?'

'It is clear,' Marshal Trushin said.

I turned round so fast that the guard flinched, his eyes on the detonator. 'Make him as comfortable as you can,' I told him.'tell him there's a medical officer coming.' those bastards over there had wrecked Talyzin's brain and I didn't thank them.

There was a telephone in the first office I came to and I picked it up, watching the well of the chamber through the doorway as I dialled.

'Military Barracks,' the woman at the switchboard said.

I asked for Ordnance Unit Three.

Took an age, stood listening to the static on the line.

I shall resist arrest. I shall resist very strongly.

But it wouldn't do any good. He'd be outnumbered, and — 'Captain Rusakov.'

'Vadim,' I said,' this is Viktor Shokin, and I'm with the generals. You know where they are?'

'Yes.' A lot of energy in his voice, a lot of questions I didn't have time to answer.

'I need you here. We've got to contain the generals' military escort — their orders are to protect the generals and they're not going to listen to me. Do you trust them, Vadim?'

In a moment, 'Not necessarily.'

'How many trusted men can you muster for an emergency sortie?'

'Two hundred, under my own command.'

'Tanks?'

'One squadron.'

'All right. I need you to surround this building and take the generals out and put them into detention. At the moment they're inn under my control. Bring a medical officer, will you? We've got a man with a broken elbow. And a bomb disposal unit. I've got some work for them. How soon can you get here?'

'Allow forty minutes.'

'I can handle that. Any questions, Vadim, even from your CO, tell the officer commanding the military police to put him under arrest — this is a national emergency.'

'I understand.'

I put the phone down and opened up the radio.

'Frome?'

'Hear you.'

'Where are you?'

'Haifa mile from the building, south edge of the park, but listen, the DIF got through to base an hour ago, wants you to signal.'

Ferris.

I asked Frome for the number.

'All right,' I said and shut down and walked as far as the archway, the thing in my hand, took a look, saw that no one had moved, they were policing themselves, had to, if anyone thought of trying to get out of this place before it went up they'd shove him back in his chair.

I turned and went into the office and picked up the phone again and dialled.

'Yes?' Ferris.

'Executive.'

'I'm sorry,' Ferris said.' they were getting a bit too close, so I thought we'd better move. I told the support base as soon as I could. They said you're very active.'

I gave him the picture.

Ferris is not easy to shake, but it was a couple of beats before he answered. 'I'll report to London.' Then, 'What's your condition?'

He'd caught my breathing rhythm. 'Lingering concussion, broken rib.'

'Frome is still in support?'

'He's standing off but I don't need him. Look, they'll know what to do in London but from this end I'd say they should get this to the Russian president on the hot line and suggest he puts these people under the lamp without wasting any time, because they've set up this rebellion thing nationwide and it could be hard to stop.'

'Noted.' then I think he said something else, but sounds were fading and the floor was coming up, so I got a grip on the desk and steadied things and put the detonator down on the flat solid surface, took my hand off it, we didn't want, did we, didn't want the whole thing to go ker-boom by accident, wouldn't even be good for a giggle, sounds coming in again, that poor bastard Talyzin moaning out there, something Ferris was saying.

'What?' I asked him.

'London will be pleased.'

'Oh. Those buggers.'

'Greetings, incidentally, from Tanya Rusakova.'

Her image came in clearly, surprising me, the green eyes shimmering, no longer wary of me.

'She's safe,' I asked Ferris, 'and everything?'

'Of course. Anxious to see you.'

'Well, then,' I said, for the want of anything better. 'Listen, those Rusakovs — get them out from under, will you? Tell London to talk to Moscow right away, do it at high level. Give or take a bit of circumlocution, they've been instrumental in putting down this coup by wiping out Velichko. Tell London they're my friends, and I've earned this much, all right?'

Promptly and soberly: 'I'll treat it as fully urgent.'

Couldn't say more than that: fully urgent means everyone stops what they're doing and listens, right up to the Prime Minister.

I think I'd been silent for a bit, because he asked me,' Are you all right?'

'What? Yes. Need to rest up a little.'

'As soon as I can get the heat off you locally through London and Moscow we can find somewhere better for you.'

'Don't worry,' I said, 'I'm going to place myself under Captain Rusakov's protection until then.'

'All right. I can reach you at the barracks?'

'Yes, through him. But get the heat off him too, soon as you can.'

'Understood,' Ferris said, and we shut down.

They came soon after that, Rusakov's troops, their lights flooding across the snows, the night full of noise as the tanks rumbled through the trees of the park.

I thought I'd better reassure Frome, got him on the walkie: 'Don't worry, these are ours.'

'Jesus, we got an army now?'

Rusakov dropped off the leading armoured vehicle before it had stopped, his gun out of its holster.

'Who is the officer in charge?'

No one answered. No one moved. The men watched Rusakov.

'Lay down your arms and stand-to!'

They began looking at one another, and then a sergeant brought his rifle up and Rusakov saw it and used a head shot, dropping him, watching for other movement as one of the tanks rolled its turret and swung the machine gun up a degree, firing a burst as a group of men brought their assault rifles into the aim at Rusakov.

'Lay down your arms!'

Weapons began dropping as the smoke cleared, and the men moved towards the tanks with their hands raised. Hydraulics hissed as the turret in the nearest tank rolled again, the gunner watching for targets.

'All right, stretcher bearers!' then Rusakov saw me and came over.

'Where is the bomb?'

I told him, and he waved a vehicle in, black-painted with the yellow insignia of a bomb disposal unit on the side.

I opened up the remote-control detonator and pulled out the batteries and threw them a long way into the snow.

'Vadim,' I called to him, 'we need to get the generals out of there first, under your arrest.'

He swung back to look at me.

'On whose authority?'

It was a reflex question out of the military code book, that was all — I could have told him on the Pope's authority, or Tootsie's — those generals in there had been the confederates of Velichko. Rusakov also knew that I'd been able to 'request' his sister's release from Militia Headquarters and he knew I'd been able to seize control of the generals here together with their entire armed guard, so he wasn't going to quibble.