“The assumption will be that we were the ones who murdered or attempted to murder Gorbachev.”
They exchanged silent glances.
“Your arm okay?” Summer finally spoke.
“I’m getting used to bullet wounds. This one’s rather superficial, but a bleeder.” She pressed on it. “They’ll be here any minute. Don’t resist or insist on counsel or someone from your embassy or it’ll get rough. Tell them exactly what happened, but leave out Mrs. Whitney’s landmines. Leave her out all together if you can. They don’t need to know. Say I got them from a Soviet Army contact and Mrs. Whitney only gave us shelter and clothes upstairs at the orphanage. I have my recordings and film I lifted from Kosyk from last night, but it’ll take several hours to get them analyzed and to get an initial forensic analysis of this mess here, so don’t expect a quick resolution.”
“Lovely,” Summer said.
A loud crash came from below. Boots smacked against the steps and heels clicked on the promenade.
“KGB. Don’t shoot,” Zara shouted in Russian. “Over here. Do not shoot! KGB.” She held her KGB identification as high as she could with her left hand, still applying pressure with her right.
“Vot!” someone shouted. “Von tam!”
A dozen nervous KGB troops pointed their Kalashnikovs at them.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
The main difference in the history of the world
if I had been shot rather than Kennedy is that
Onassis probably wouldn’t have married Mrs. Khrushchev.
– KHRUSHCHEV
CNN CENTER, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
8:30 P.M. EDT
Bernard Shaw crossed off a sentence on his copy and looked into the camera. “We’re back. For those of you who have joined us from Europe and the Mideast, recapping the top stories. The traditional May Day military parade in Moscow was disrupted today by a mad gunman. The Soviet news agency TASS reports that a recently discharged psychiatric patient fired a single shot toward the dignitary viewing stand atop the Lenin mausoleum before turning the gun on himself. General Secretary Gorbachev was evacuated as a precautionary measure. After a short suspension, the parade resumed without further incident.
“TASS also reported that several high-ranking KGB and Soviet Army officials were killed last night when a propane leak caused the explosion of a country home during an early May Day celebration. Western analysts pointed out that several of the deceased were known to have privately opposed Gorbachev’s reforms. Ramsey Jackson of the Heritage Institute speculated that Gorbachev may be resorting to Stalinist tactics to eliminate potential enemies and consolidate his hold on power. Dr. Jackson added, ’I believe it’s going to become evident over the next few months that Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika have been ruses to get the West to let its guard down.’
“In other news from the region, NTSB investigators on-site in Moscow have all but ruled out a bomb as the cause of Saturday’s accident on Pan Am 1072 in which four flight attendants and three passengers were sucked from the aircraft. An NTSB spokesman stated, ’Everything we’ve seen appears to be consistent with metal fatigue.’ The final report is not expected until the end of the year.
“Moving west, passengers on a Pan American flight to Berlin were surprised to find themselves landing in communist East Germany. A Pan Am plane made an emergency landing in Leipzig, East Germany, last night after a near miss with an East German fighter. Air traffic control systems and backups responsible for planes in the Berlin corridors went down for several hours, creating havoc in the skies. All other civilian flights were redirected back to West Germany or West Berlin without further incident, but sources tell us that several East German military aircraft weren’t so fortunate. The air traffic control blackout resulted in several midair collisions during a routine National People’s Army training exercise.
“In other news, the CNN Moscow bureau was broken into last night. Nothing was taken, but a Russian policeman was killed. Sources close to the police investigation speculated that rebels from southern Russia broke in with the intent to use broadcasting equipment to spread their message worldwide, but found themselves lacking the technical skills to operate it and fled.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about
Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years.
They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be
no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union,
other than for cosmetic purposes.
– GORBACHEV
LUBYANKA (KGB HEADQUARTERS), MOSCOW
TUESDAY, MAY 2
Six. Five. Faith counted down the footsteps, moving toward where she lay exhausted on the urine-caked floor, trying to stretch out whatever rest she could get. Four. She pushed herself to her hands and knees. Three. She put her arms around the stool. Two. She pulled herself up and draped her body over the stool. One. The interrogator grabbed her hair and yanked her upright.
“If you cooperate with us like your friends, you’ll have a nice bed. They told us everything, so we know you’re lying. How long have you worked for the CIA?”
“Never. I cooperated with the KGB. Talk to Bogdanov.”
“We had a long, satisfying conversation with the colonel.” The interrogator cracked his knuckles. “Why did you kill the General Secretary?”
“I told you, we tried everything to stop it. Guess we were too late,” Faith mumbled.
“When did you first meet Bogdanov?”
The lock turned and the metal door opened. A uniformed KGB officer and a neatly groomed man in a Western-style business suit walked into the room. With the flick of an arm, the officer signaled the interrogator to leave. Faith swallowed hard, but her mouth was dry and she only gulped air.
“Doctor Whitney, I’m Colonel Kusnetsov.” He held out his manicured hand.
Faith flinched.
“You don’t have to be afraid. And this is Viktor Petrov, special assistant to General Secretary Gorbachev. We’re here to offer our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience. We’ve completed our initial forensics and you’re no longer a suspect in the attempted assassination of the General Secretary.”
“Attempted?” Faith opened her eyes and looked up at the colonel. “We did it? He’s not dead?”
“We’re in your debt.”
Tears pooled up in her eyes. “Can you get me out of here?”
Petrov helped Faith to her feet. “We’re taking you to clinic seventeen, a special restricted-access facility that you’ll find more like a spa than a hospital. You’ll receive medical attention and rest as our guest while some official matters are sorted out. In due course, we’ll arrange contact with your embassy, since it seems you’re without proper travel documents.”
“Where are Summer and Zara?” Faith stood, wobbling.
“The commander is right now on his way to the clinic. Colonel Bogdanov is undergoing surgery to have bullets removed. You’ll be able to see them both shortly.”
“And Berlin? Moscow is still here, so I take it there was no war?”
“We came very close,” Petrov said, his voice raspy from years of smoking. “I would say closer than we ever have, but your messages got through to the right people. General Ivanovski’s troops prevented a full-scale invasion of West Berlin. The Americans understood we weren’t behind it and quietly stopped the first wave of infiltrators. We’ll officially deny this, but after all you did for us, you deserve to know. What made it clear to the Americans that we weren’t invading West Berlin was when our MIG-29s cleared the skies of the GDR fighters. It was a regrettable loss of several fine Warsaw Treaty pilots, but it was the only way.”