Quiller Meridian

'These deaths,' I said. 'Who's doing the killing?'

'You cannot guess?'

"The Podpolia?'

'But of course the Podpolia.' He lowered his voice. "There are the two factions at my barracks, just as there are in the streets — those who are ready to tighten their belts and support Yeltsin and his programme, and the core of die-hard Communists who want the old order back.'

'How strong are they?'

'They are not strong in numbers, but they are there, working in secrecy.'

I'd got enough background, and broke some bread and started on the gruel. It was still hot, salty and had a flavour I didn't recognize, didn't particularly like. Dogs were at a premium this winter in Novosibirsk, if they had any flesh on them; I avoided the lumps of meat. 'Vadim, 'I said, 'your sister told the militia only that she came to Novosibirsk to see you, as she always does when she gets leave. They can't ask her any more questions now, but they'll be pushing on with their enquiries, especially in Moscow. They hadn't known, when she was at their headquarters, that her father — and your father — was ordered shot by General Velichko four years ago, or they certainly wouldn't have released her at my request. As soon as — '

'At your request…' he said slowly, his eyes boring into me. 'You have the power to «request» such a thing from the militia?'

I broke more bread, leaving the gruel. 'I haven't the power to request anything of anyone, but I wanted your sister out of there, so I had to devise the means. My next concern is yourself. As soon as they dig up the information that you and Tanya bore a grudge against General Velichko, they'll ask the army to arrest you and hand you over. This could happen when you go back to your unit; the military police may well be waiting for you outside your quarters.'

His eyes deepened, hardened. 'I see.' then he said, 'And Tanya?' I liked him for that.

'She's in the safest possible hands, don't let it worry you.'

I assumed I could say that, for the moment. But someone had killed Roach, the support man, and Roach might have gone too close to the Hotel Karasevo, nerve-centre for Meridian, and at any given time Ferris himself, its director in the field, could need a safe-house, and urgently. It might have happened before in the annals of the Bureau, that the DIF of some mission had got blown, but it's never happened when I've been in the field. The DIF is sacrosanct, untouchable, he has to be. He holds the lifeline for his executive.

'You are in,' Rusakov was saying, 'some kind of — ' he spread his hand — 'intelligence branch? The MPS?'

'Not the MPS. I operate pretty well on my own, and you should know that. If you find yourself in trouble, I've no authority of any kind to pull you out of it.' I looked across at the door of the bar as a man came in.' You should also know, Vadim, that at this moment I'm the subject of an intense manhunt by the militia, the police and the KGB — or the MPS, as we're now meant to call them.'

His eyes deepened again; I'd seen the same thing in Tanya.

'So,' he said with a brief nod.

The man looked all right, merchant seaman's rig and cap, bundling across to the bar, freezing, desperate for a rum grog. I looked at Rusakov again. 'I think I told you,didn't I, that I saw your action of last night as a matter of summary justice, when Tanya told me what Velichko had done to you both.' I was kneading a small piece of the dark, heavy bread, moulding it into a disc with a point on each side, like a spinning top. 'Your quarrel,' I said, 'was with General Velichko, and not — can I assume? — with the other two, Generals Chudin and Kovalenko. But do you happen to know if they're still here in Novosibirsk?'

I felt time slowing down.

How long have we got? I'd asked Ferris in that rat-infested shed where we'd made our rendezvous. Have I got any kind of a deadline?

He'd thought it out, taken his time. Yes, we have a deadline. It's zero.

The generals had been Zymyanin's target for information. That was what he'd told me before he was killed. They'd arrived in Novosibirsk and gone to ground and we had to find them, take up from where Zymyanin had left off. That was still the focus of Meridian: Zymyanin had believed that the generals had information of a kind that would trigger the alarm bells throughout the intelligence organizations of both hemispheres. We needed that information.

We don't know — Ferris — that they might not have already finished what they came here to do. They could be leavingNovosibirsk tomorrow morning. Or tonight.

They might have gone by now, and I waited to hear Rusakov say precisely that. He didn't.

'General Chudin and General Kovalenko are at present the guests of my commanding officer.'

I span my little top, and watched Meridian start running again.

'Oh really,' I said.' the official guests?'

'No. Not official.'

'But it's known to all ranks that they're at the camp?'

'It would be difficult to conceal it. Rumours are the lifeblood of the barracks. But nothing official has been posted in Daily Routine Orders or anywhere else.'

'You've seen them? The generals?'

'Only once, and at a distance, crossing from a staff car to their quarters.'

I picked up the little top again and span it. 'Have you any plans to wipe those two out as well, Vadim?'

His head came up in surprise. 'Why should I?'

'I wondered if they were party to Velichko's orders to have your father shot.'

'No. It was Velichko's personal order. I know the facts.'

Had been rooting for those facts for four years, perhaps, until he was sure. Then he'd asked Tanya to keep watch on Velichko as best she could, in Moscow. 'Do you know,' I asked him, 'why those two generals are visiting your CO?'

'He himself is in the Podpolia.'

'Has he got any power?'

In surprise — 'He is the commanding officer.'

'Put it this way — if he tried to bring the whole battalion into the Podpolia, what would happen?'

'There would be mutiny. He is known to belong to the hardline Communists, but he daren't come out into the open. That is why the visit of the two generals is not being publicized.'

'There's a security guard around their quarters?'

'Yes. We doubled it, after a man was seen watching the area with field-glasses from a car outside the camp.'

'When was this?'

'Soon after the generals arrived. The observer drove away before he could be challenged.'

Did he really, now.

I put some money onto the table. 'Vadim, I've got to make a telephone call. You want to wait here?'

'I will leave with you.'

We pushed our chairs back and Rusakov said,' thank you for the — ' he gestured towards the table. For the dog soup.

'My pleasure.'

He was at the door first, holding it open for me, and the black freezing air hit us in a wave as we went outside.

'Where's your car, Vadim?'

'Over there, the army jeep. I will wait for you.'

I felt a lift of relief when Ferris picked up the phone at his end, which wasn't reassuring: if there's one thing the executive in the field has to count on it's that his director is always at the other end of the telephone, inviolate. But the Roach thing had changed that.

'Bit of debriefing,' I told him.