‘Colonel,’ said the senior NCO. He saluted Terentev, clearly recognising him.
Terentev produced a duplicate of the release note.
The NCO was in the process of handing the note back when the wall phone rang. A private behind the NCO lifted the receiver from its cradle when the deafening wail of an alarm suddenly broke above them. Yuri looked up at the flashing box and back down again at the face of the soldier struggling to hear what was being said to him. Yuri could guess. The private’s eyes darted from him to Terentev. Terentev stepped forward, ripped the phone out of his hand and kneed him in the groin. Gaidar and the two soldiers grabbed the other two, forcing them to the ground. They ejected their magazines and lobbed them and the AKs in opposite directions.
‘Let’s go!’ Terentev shouted.
Gaidar pointed his revolver at the prone soldiers as two cars pulled up in front of the entrance. Terentev was the first to make it to the car door and fling it open.
‘Get in!’ he shouted to Yuri.
Yuri did not need any encouragement. He threw himself into the back seat, followed by Terentev and one of Gaidar’s men. Out of the back window he saw the other two soldiers jump into the second car. His car lurched forward. Yuri turned towards the front and the balaclava-covered heads of the driver and front passenger. They took the first corner at speed and accelerated around the next.
‘Where are we going?’
The figure next to the driver turned to face him. All he could see through the mask’s visor were piercing icy-blue eyes and the twinkle of a smile around their edges.
‘So glad you could make it, General. We’re switching cars in two blocks,’ said the now familiar female voice.
Chapter 65
Yuri gazed out of the Leningrad Freight first-floor window over the yard towards the gate, where armed security guards monitored traffic in and out. Terentev, Gaidar and Viktoriya sat expectantly across the table.
‘So we have the general secretary under house arrest, the same for Ghukov, the Emergency Committee with the deputy general secretary in charge, and the defence minister, KGB chair and Volkov in support. No overt military support for the coup… but they are taking orders from Volkov,’ reiterated Yuri. He had already established that Derevenko and Stephan were relatively safe for now inside a military prison on the outskirts of Moscow; the intelligence service had shown no interest in either of them.
‘Yes, except, of course, the Emergency Committee is not painting this as a coup, but a necessary step given the condition of the general secretary,’ chipped in Terentev, ‘whose condition might turn fatal at any second.’
‘Yes, and from what Federov has told you, Vika, the other government ministers are keeping their heads down seeing which way the wind blows.’
‘Federov is certainly not going to stand up and be counted, not as things are,’ said Viktoriya. ‘The KGB and the army are going to be looking for you now. I can get you out of Moscow over the border in twenty-four hours if you want… that goes for all of you.’
‘And you?’ Yuri asked her.
‘I’m staying put – at least in Leningrad with Misha.’
‘What time is the Emergency Committee meeting?’
‘Five this evening at the Ministry of Defence,’ said Terentev. ‘They are going on TV at seven.’
Silence descended again.
‘Sergei,’ Yuri said, turning to Gaidar, ‘do you think you can get someone over to my apartment and smuggle out my uniform and a change of clothes. I need to get out of these,’ he said, pointing at his jeans and soiled parka jacket. ‘I don’t think this will impress anyone.’
‘I’ll see to it straight away, General.’
He caught the flash of a smile on Viktoriya’s lips.
‘So, you are going to stay?’
‘Do I really have a choice? These photos, Terentev, how important do you think they are?’
Terentev shrugged.
‘And you say they are of the KGB chair, twelve years ago. What was he then?’
‘A KGB colonel, foreign intelligence, spent time between East Germany and Moscow.’
Clearly, the photo is compromising one or both of the subjects. How many possibilities could there be? Yuri thought. Was the other man a KGB mole inside one of the Soviet ministries – an informer? But what was so unusual in that?
Gaidar re-entered the room and took his seat.
‘Thirty men?’ Yuri said, looking in the major’s direction.
Gaidar nodded.
‘Well that should be enough. Is there anywhere I can take a shower, preferably hot, while I wait for my uniform?’
Chapter 66
Volkov received the news from the KGB chair in stony silence. How could someone just walk in and escort Marov out? But he wasn’t just someone. Terentev was a KGB colonel. Karzhov had assured him that Terentev and Marov were friends and that they went back a long way; he did not suspect dissent went deeper. But how could he tell? Maybe it didn’t matter; they had figured on opposition, planned for it and if this was the sum total of the remainder, it was an irritant and nothing else. Hadn’t everyone important already fallen in line: the Politburo and the district generals… admittedly some with less enthusiasm than others. Besides, as soon as the deputy was confirmed as general secretary that would all change. The current general secretary would either resign, through reasons of ill health, or fall on his sword… or be pushed onto it.
After this evening, Marov and his merry men would be a mere side-story. Indeed, if Marov had any sense, any sense of self-preservation, he would be on his way out of the Soviet Union by now. General Marov – defector. It had a good ring about it.
There were more important things to worry about than General Marov… or the wellbeing of the general secretary. The Western Army had been brought to full strength. The Americans could posture how they liked, but when the arrests started in East Germany, their promise of intervention would ring hollow. The US was not about to risk war.
Three o’clock… the car would collect him from GSHQ at four thirty and, at seven, perestroika and all the chaos that it had brought would be history.
Chapter 67
Yuri fastened the last button of his military jacket and looked at himself in the small dust-covered mirror balanced on the mantelpiece. The shower had been anything but hot, but he wasn’t complaining. His hair and clothing had reeked of his Lubyanka cell, the odour of stale urine and mould. He hadn’t been able to banish the smell, not until he had stood under running water for five minutes.
A knock on the door made him turn round. Terentev stepped into the room and gave him a mock salute.
‘General Marov,’ he said, looking him up and down. ‘Quite a difference from when we picked you up, Yuri.’
Yuri could sense his friend was bursting to say something.
‘What?’ Yuri said.
Terentev placed one of the black-and-white photos on the desk.
‘I think my man has had a breakthrough; it’s only conjecture. He talked to one or two colleagues on the East German desk and they pointed him at a retired officer. He worked with Karzhov, didn’t like him much apparently. This man said that at that time – 1978 – there was talk of someone on the inside high up in Soviet intelligence feeding information to the Americans. We also know from our own double agent at the time that the Americans had no idea who their agent’s contact was on our side. An investigation drew a blank. One of the officers involved met an untimely end, found drowned in the Moskva. No one has sought to follow up since.’