‘We’re in a hurry,’ the driver complained. ‘Get out of my way, you’ve no business here.’
The other guard came round to the driver’s window and waved his gun at the cab.
‘Not so fast, old man. Who have you got on board?’
The nurse leaned forward and gave a name, not Misha’s. ‘This is an emergency. We need to get our patient to the Aleksandrovskaya Hospital urgently.’
Close up, Viktoriya recognised the gunman who had come round to her side as one of Kostya’s men from the club. He clearly hadn’t recognised her, but she didn’t think it would be long before he saw through the disguise. She covered the side of her face closest to him with her hand and picked up a clipboard from the open glove compartment and studied it.
‘Artem, go and check in the back.’
The man in front walked round towards the rear of the vehicle. Viktoriya rested the clipboard on her lap and felt for the handle of the automatic, flicking the safety catch to fire. Her left hand fell and gently pushed the nurse back an inch or two when the gunman looked back towards Artem.
The ambulance sank a fraction on its suspension as the second gunman clambered into the back. From the front, she heard him ask for the patient’s card. Viktoriya tensed. He shouted the name out the back. It was the same name the nurse had given a minute before. The gunman stepped back a foot or so as his partner jumped down from the back and slammed the rear door closed. Viktoriya relaxed a little. He was going to let them through.
The driver reached for the handbrake as the gunman looked Viktoriya straight in the eye. A flicker of recognition crossed his face and he opened his mouth to shout. Viktoriya yanked the gun from her belt, leaned across the nurse and driver and shot him square in the chest as he struggled to turn his Kalashnikov in her direction.
‘Let’s get out of here!’ she yelled.
The driver, needing no encouragement, floored the accelerator.
Kostya’s man had virtually no time to react. Viktoriya watched as Ivan and two of his men appeared at the top of the ramp and cut him down.
They cleared the hospital, took the next corner and slowed to a gentler pace. Ivan’s second car tucked in behind.
‘Why so slow?’ cried Viktoriya.
‘You want a dead-on-arrival, or not? Where are we going then? I guess it’s not the Aleksandrovskaya Hospital.’
Chapter 49
NEAR KALININ
Yuri pulled up two hours out of Kalinin The snow that had been falling steadily until then had gathered pace in the last ten minutes. Twice they had nearly left the road, visibility reduced to a few metres. White powdery drifts leaned against the forest edge.
‘What do you think?’ asked Yuri. ‘You’re the pilot.’
‘I thought you were the tank commander… this is pretty wild. Maybe we should pull up until first light. At least they won’t be sending up helicopters after us in this weather.’
A dirt track led off the road into the forest. Yuri took it and steered the jeep through the thickening snow until he reached a second fork. Left or right? He plumped for right. No wonder this vehicle was called the goat, Yuri thought, as the tyres negotiated the thick snow and ice.
Surrounded by dense wood, three hundred metres in, Yuri found what he was looking for – a small log cabin, probably used by local loggers or trappers.
‘Had to be something up here,’ said Yuri.
Yuri climbed out of the jeep and flipped up his collar against the intruding snow. The cabin looked abandoned, but this late it was difficult to tell. He sniffed the air; there was no telltale smell of burning wood, no glow from inside. Derevenko got out the other side and shrugged his shoulders.
The pair trudged the final twenty metres to the raised porch.
‘See anything?’
Yev rubbed off the ice etched onto the window and shone the torch inside. He shook his head. Walking back to the jeep, Yuri rummaged around the boot until he found the puncture repair kit, extracted a tyre lever and forced open the cabin door.
Inside, it was dry, if not spartan. A bunk, a gas cooker with no cylinder, and a small wooden table, covered in candle wax, with four heavily repaired chairs were the sum total of its contents. An old oil can, cut into two, sat on the dusty hearth of an open fireplace and served as a box for kindling. Yuri picked up a small brittle branch and snapped it in two.
Yuri shrugged. ‘Probably better than the car. There’s firewood under the porch outside. I think we’re safe to light up.’
In less than ten minutes a roaring fire burned in the hearth. Yuri and Derevenko sat facing the heat, tucking into the piroshky pastries provided courtesy of the major. For the first time since the morning, Yuri relaxed. Maybe he could sit out the winter here, live the simple life, fish in the ice-covered river, hunt deer.
‘Do you have a dacha, General?’
‘No, but my grandparents and parents did outside Yekaterinburg, where I was born. It has gone now, but it brings back good memories.’ Yuri thought of the lake and golden autumnal forest that rose from its edge and rolled back over soft undulating hills.
‘Some history there.’
‘My grandmother saw the Tsarina shortly before they were all murdered. She worked as a maid in a neighbouring house and heard the gunfire that night. Odd when you think of it. It wasn’t that long ago, generationally.’
‘And now, Moscow… where do you think we will go from here – politically, I mean?’ the captain asked.
‘I’ve been thinking the same question… the general secretary is the revolutionary now. He understands things have to change if the country is to move forward. And the communists? The smart ones – they understand he is their nemesis. They can’t both survive. Have you been to Western Europe, Captain?’
The captain shook his head.
‘Well, it’s a revelation.’ Yuri thought of his visits to Switzerland during the Afghan pull-out negotiations and the journey from there to Milan and RUI’s office. ‘The average citizen does not struggle for the bare necessities of life. More than that… the choice… the freedom… go where you want… buy what you want… of course, if you have the money.’
‘And you, General, how are you caught up in all this?’
‘I’m a revolutionary.’ And he laughed, not quite having put it like that before. ‘I’m not alone.’
‘But one of the more… influential.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘Would you consider going into politics, General?’
‘I don’t think I’m quite ready for that.’
The captain passed Yuri the bottle of vodka. They were silent for a moment. Yuri took a swig as he leaned forward and threw another log on the fire.
‘We could just sit this, whatever-it-is, out, General. Wait until the dust settles. You could make a decision then… stay or go. Rumour has it you have money… according to the major anyway… you could leave the country… but I suspect that is not what you are going to do.’
‘True, Yev.’
He was not going to be an exile. He had to get back to Moscow, figure out what was going on.
Chapter 50
LENINGRAD
‘No Adriana?’ said Vdovin, clearly disappointed not to have seen her on his way down to Konstantin’s office.
‘She’s doing penance, courtesy of the GUVD.’ Konstantin decided not to elaborate. She was finished one way or another as far as he was concerned.
Vdovin shrugged and pulled a long face. ‘Well it was good while it lasted, still—’