Karzhov picked up one of the photos and looked at a younger image of himself, together with another man on the Moika embankment.
‘These are forgeries,’ he fumed indignantly.
‘Do you recognise the other man, Comrade Chairman, the man you are with? The year is 1977, if that will help jog your memory.’
Karzhov looked around the table for support, only to be met with stares of consternation.
‘Who is this?’ demanded the interior minister, pointing at the monochrome image.
‘Comrade Karzhov?’ invited Yuri.
‘You’ll pay for this,’ hissed Karzhov.
‘The other man in the photo was a CIA operative – a Tom Banner,’ Yuri continued. ‘He was imprisoned by us for espionage not long after this picture was taken. Soviet intelligence knew about an inside leak but couldn’t identify the traitor, not until this photo, that is. The man who took it paid the price two days ago. Konstantin Stolin – some of you know him – tried to assassinate him.’
‘His name?’ asked the defence minister.
‘Misha Revnik. He is alive, just. The agent who had him take this photo did not fare so well. Alexsei Baturin disappeared shortly thereafter; Tom Banner died in jail.’
All eyes were now fixed on Karzhov.
‘He’s lying… don’t you see… I’m no double agent. What could possibly be my motive?’
‘Key US intelligence information that helped you rise up the ladder… How many Russians did you betray for your own ends?’
Karzhov jumped to his feet. ‘I want this man arrested!’ he shouted, red-faced.
‘Sit down, Mr Chairman,’ said Yuri in a calm voice. ‘Comrade Gerashchenko, may I put your phone on speaker. I have a call you need to hear.’
Yuri walked around to the other end of the table, switched the speakerphone on, picked up the receiver and punched in the international code. The number connected. Pick up, pick up, he thought. All eyes fixed on the phone.
‘Pronto,’ it was a woman who answered.
‘Ilaria, please will you tell these gentlemen, in Russian, what you have on your desk and where you are.’
‘Milan, General… I have four black-and-white photos on my desk – two men by an embankment.’
‘Can you tell me, the man wearing the hat, what has he on his face?’
‘Glasses, General… dark-rimmed glasses.’
‘And the negatives of these photos, where are they now?’
‘With a friend, who will release them to the international press if your general secretary is not freed by tomorrow morning or any harm should come to you, General, or in fact me or my associates.’
Yuri picked up the receiver and dropped it back in its cradle, ending the call.
‘Comrades, do you wish to be associated with this traitor? If these photos are released, the Russian people will know soon enough that a key member of the interim government sold his country to further his career and even now may be supplying key information to the Americans. Maybe this whole coup – and that’s what it is – is an American invention to bring Russia to its knees, to banish it for ever?’
For the first time, Yuri could see fear mixed with doubt on their faces.
‘Don’t think you are overreaching, General?’ said Gerashchenko.
‘I tell you, Comrade Gerashchenko, if we launch this repression, it will be the end, economically and politically – you will all be branded traitors by the people.’
Yuri looked again at Karzhov, who had turned as white as a sheet.
‘Release the general secretary and we have a reset. I will do my best to intercede on your behalf; it cannot be in the general secretary’s interests to advertise such dissension at the heart of his government – not in the middle of a crisis. That does not go for Karzhov; he is to be arrested for treason.’
They were staring at him now like rabbits caught in a headlight.
‘And two other matters… you will release General Ghukov immediately and until such time as he is back at GSHQ I am to be made acting head of the army. General Volkov is to be relieved.’
Volkov looked across at Gerashchenko, his face filled with fury at the prospect of an end to his ambitions. ‘Gerasim, we can face this down, we can’t pull back now.’
‘You can… that’s the point… you simply have to give the order,’ interjected Yuri. ‘Deputy Secretary, I suggest you speak with the general secretary yourself, in person, before he goes on the air waves. Make your peace.’
Yuri walked back along the length of the room and opened the double doors. Two soldiers appeared.
‘Arrest Chairman Karzhov.’
The soldiers looked from Yuri to Gerashchenko, confused.
‘Do as he says,’ said Gerashchenko, capitulating. Gerashchenko switched on the intercom to the outer office.
‘Anna, organise me an escort to Peredelkino. Comrades, if you wish to join me, please do. General Marov, I am appointing you acting head of the army. I emphasise acting.’
Yuri thought Volkov would charge at him. Instead, he sat down in his chair and stared out of the window. Volkov turned and faced him.
‘General Marov, I admire your courage, but it will be you not me that will ring the death knell of the Soviet Union.’
‘No, General, you’re wrong… time… and people like Karzhov.’
Yuri turned to the soldier standing beside him.
‘Soldier, order me a car for GSHQ.’
Epilogue
On October 18, the East German Communist Party, bowing to mounting clamour for change, replaced Erich Honecker with his protégé Egon Krenz. The new East German General Secretary, in a TV address to the nation, said that within the bounds of “continuity and renewal” the door was “wide open for earnest political dialogue.” He also quoted Mikhail S. Gorbachev: “We have to see and react to the times, otherwise life will punish us.”
A month later, the Berlin Wall fell, and with it, the East German Communist government.
Main Characters
Adriana – Nightclub girl
Agnessa Raskolnikova Agapova – General
Alyabyev – Commander, Central
Ilaria Agneli – Italian model and buyer
Dimitri Bazhukov – Konstantin’s second
Lieutenant Galina Biryukova – Volkov’s adjutant
Luigi Crisi – Italian sales director
Yev Derevenko – Captain in the military air force
Viktor Dubnikov – Defence Minister
Stephan Federov – Minister of Oil and Gas
Major Sergei Gaidar – Commander of a private force
Gerasim Gerashchenko – Deputy Secretary General
Colonel General Andrei Ghukov – Chief of Staff
Erik Fyodorvich Harkov – Sveta’s killer
Karzhov – KGB Chair
Viktoriya (Vika) Nikolaevna Kayakova – Economics graduate
Yuri Romanavich Marov – Colonel
Ivan Antonovich Pralnikov – Mikhail’s friend
Mikhail (Misha) Dimitrivich Revnik – Street trader
Konstantin (Kostya) Ivanivich Stolin – Mafia boss
Lev – Konstantin’s debt collector
Najibullah – Afghan leader
Ilya Terentev – KGB Colonel
Grigory Vasiliev – Banker
General Vdovin – Commander, North West
General Volkov – Commander, Western Group of Forces
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Ann Byrne, and Glen Saunders for being my first readers, for their ongoing support and advice, Juliet Gwyn Palmer for bravely volunteering her professional help, Richard Sheehan for remembering all those commas and much more, and Yulia Sofronova, for being authentically Russian.