Chernobyl Murders lh-1

by Michael Beres

  Komarov was aware of his knife tucked inside his jacket with the letter he would deliver. While he waited for the elevator he saw a single half-smoked cigarette smoldering in an ornate Neo-Renais-sance ashtray mounted to the wall. The smoke from the ashtray smelled like burning hair. During the elevator ride, Komarov transferred the letter from his inside pocket to an outside pocket.

  Deputy Chairman Dumenko’s office on the third floor was the largest Komarov had ever seen. Although the ceiling was low, recessed lighting and an expanse of pale green walls and maroon carpeting gave the office and its adjoining conference room a spacious feeling. Wood and leather furniture was dwarfed by the space.

  Ironically, a small portrait of Vladimir Kryuchkov shared the wall behind the desk with one of KGB Chairman Chebrikov and, of course, a larger portrait of Lenin. Komarov felt he should speak softly lest his voice escape into the hall. But echoes from the hall subsided when the assistant who brought him to the office closed the door. As a courtesy to his superior, Komarov did not smoke.

  Dumenko wore half glasses as he opened and read the letter from Kiev’s minister of electric power. Dumenko’s bald head reflected the overhead light while he finished the letter, took off his half glasses, placed them on his desk, and stared at Komarov.

  “Have you read this letter, Major?”

  “It was addressed to you,” said Komarov.

  “But you know the nature of it.”

  “I know it has to do with inquiries made by Detective Lazlo Horvath to Minister Asimov.”

  “It’s a request for an investigation of Detective Horvath regarding a possible connection to the Chernobyl incident. Have you been pursuing the KGB’s investigation as we discussed?”

  “I am, sir. This morning I spoke with Mihaly Horvath’s widow.

  Although she denies corrupt activities on the part of her husband, she may simply want to bury all of this when she buries her husband today. I tried to have her husband questioned after the Chernobyl event, but it was too late.”

  “I understand he died quickly,” said Dumenko. “Two deaths. I spoke with the television and radio chairman today. He hopes there will be no more bodies. I spoke with the health minister. He says there will definitely be more bodies. The agriculture minister is concerned about hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of our richest farmland. Did you know, Major, they have started herding livestock away from the area?”

  “I didn’t know, sir.”

  “Some livestock will have to be destroyed. Entire towns and villages evacuated, and it is feared many more will die. Did you know the resources of hospitals are already strained?”

  “Yes, sir. I visited Hospital Number Six this morning.”

  “What prompted your visit?”

  “After my interview with Mrs. Horvath near Hospital Number Six, I felt I should see some of the injured firsthand in order to acquaint myself with the extent of the emergency. I saw firemen who had been brought in. They had no hair and…”

  Komarov saw Dumenko raise his eyebrows and touch the top of his shiny head.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to imply any connection with your

  …”

  “Never mind, Major. Mine was not burned off by radiation.

  What else about these firemen?”

  “Some had peeling skin and were inside plastic tents. The doctors said radiation destroys bone marrow. As a result, white blood cells cannot be produced and the firemen’s lives can be threatened by any infection.”

  Dumenko stood from his desk and paced back and forth beneath the portrait of Lenin hung above the other portraits. “Tell me, Major, what should be done about all this?”

  “We must find the cause of the disaster. If we find the cause, everyone will rest easier and life can go on.”

  “I was looking for something more specific, Major. Most experts assume it was an accident. The general secretary wants the KGB to forward all information about Chernobyl to his office. Having told you this, what shall we do about your investigation of these Hungarians?”

  “My men are gathering and forwarding all Chernobyl information as ordered, sir. However, on the chance it was not an accident, I believe I should pursue the possibility of sabotage. Mihaly Horvath’s lover has already contacted Detective Horvath, and I have my best men watching them. She worked at Chernobyl’s Department of Industrial Safety and had access to significant information. Some time ago, if you recall, a colleague named Aleksandra Yasinsky was detained. I have a feeling Detective Horvath and Juli Popovics continue to be in contact with Western intelligence.”

  “Who is their contact?”

  “The Horvath family cousin from America named Andrew Zukor. He visited the Horvath brothers last summer, if you recall my report.”

  “I recall,” said Dumenko, turning to look up at Lenin’s portrait.

  “I believe our agency has given him the code name Gypsy Moth.”

  Dumenko turned back to Komarov. “Am I correct?”

  “Your memory is impressive, sir. I’ve been concerned for some time about the Horvaths and this Gypsy Moth. At first, I thought the name Gypsy applied to Horvath because our research has shown his father was of Gypsy origin. A fact the family kept quiet during the war years for obvious reasons. But the name actually came later.

  Detective Horvath has a history in the army of having served near the Soviet frontier and was involved in the death of a fellow soldier.

  The fellow soldier killed by Horvath was nicknamed Gypsy, and Horvath’s comrades, in typical gallows humor, gave him the name.

  But back to the cousin, Andrew Zukor, the American Gypsy Moth.

  He provides the connection to Western intelligence. And with this established connection to the United States, there exists the possibility of sabotage, leading to destabilization, leading to…”

  “Go on, Major.”

  “A coup d’etat.”

  “You’re saying a detective in the Kiev militia and a Chernobyl worker planned this so-called accident as a first step in a coup d’etat?”

  “Not alone, Comrade Deputy Chairman. I’m simply indicating a portion of the puzzle available to me. There are many pieces of evidence. Not only Juli Popovics and her lover at Chernobyl, but also the fact Detective Horvath has leaned to the West and is friends with anti-Soviets, literary review editors, and the like.”

  Dumenko rubbed his bald head. “Since you speak of puzzles, Major, what do you think Detective Horvath and Juli Popovics will do next? If they try to escape capture, we can’t be expected to guard the entire frontier at a time like this.”

  “I’ve arranged to have Mihaly Horvath’s wife and children sent to Kisbor, near the Czech border, where the rest of the Horvath family lives. I will assign men to the area on the chance Detective Horvath goes there.”

  “Is Juli Popovics from the area?”

  “No. Her mother lives in Moscow, but I don’t think she’ll come here. Her mother doesn’t know she’s pregnant.”

  “I suppose you would like to assign more men to the case.”

  “Yes, Comrade Deputy Chairman.”

  Dumenko smiled. “Because you’ve had a fine record in the KGB, especially during your time in East Berlin, I must take these matters seriously. Perhaps we in Moscow have been too busy with Afghanistan to watch under our own noses. Perhaps we’ve been overburdened with the possibility of change at high levels… talk of the union’s future and individuals looking out for themselves.

  Officials at the highest level will suffer because of Chernobyl. A chairman I cannot name suggested the event might be a test to determine how nuclear war would affect government. Events like this bring out the rats below the Kremlin.”

  Dumenko sat back at his desk, opened a drawer, took out an envelope, and handed it to Komarov. “Very well, Major. I authorize you to use the resources necessary to investigate this situation to its swift conclusion. In order to help, I’m assigning another man to your office. Captain Brovko’s orders are in the envel
ope. He was previously assigned to East Berlin. My reason for his assignment is because he’s had training in nuclear engineering. If this case continues, his technical expertise will be useful. I’m told he’s also good at interrogation.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Major, you realize, of course, if there has been a conspiracy to commit sabotage, the national and international implications will be extensive.”

  “I know,” said Komarov.

  “By the way, Major. Did you and your wife and son receive iodine, should the radiation reach Kiev?”

  “We have.”

  Dumenko shook his head sadly. “It’s a terrible situation. I’m told Black Sea campgrounds, hotels, and sanitoriums are filling up. An old comrade of mine, Colonel Zamyatin from the Ukrainian border force, has come out of retirement to take charge of the evacuation.”

  “Zamyatin is a hero, sir.”

  Dumenko smiled and rubbed his hands together. “Enough tragedy, Major. Will you stay for tomorrow’s May Day celebration?”

  “It would be an honor, Comrade Deputy Chairman.”

  “You can join me in the reviewing stand. Gorbachev will be above and to our left. Tomorrow night you’ll join my wife and myself for dinner. Was there anything else you wanted to attend to in Moscow besides the obligatory visit to Lenin’s Tomb?”

  “I’d like to go to an opera. When I was a boy living outside Moscow, my father used to take me to the opera.”

  Dumenko came around the desk and clapped Komarov on the shoulder. “Stay for a visit to the Bolshoi. And when you go back to Kiev, Captain Brovko will be waiting for you.”

  Komarov thanked Dumenko and left the building.

  Rather than taking a taxi, he decided to walk from Lubyanka Square to Lenin’s Tomb. It wasn’t far, and if it rained, he’d seek shelter at the Bolshoi or the Central Lenin Museum.

  While he walked, Komarov thought back to his visit to the Lubyanka years earlier. The streets in Moscow formed a bull’s-eye, and he had been in the center of it once before. If only things had gone differently back then. If only he had been assigned to operations in the United States in his younger days. How different was it now? Was the fellow who took the job he could have gotten from Kryuchkov involved in escalating the Iran-Contra problems of Reagan these days?

  In front of the National Hotel, a man hurrying out the main doors bumped into him, almost knocking him down. The man grasped Komarov’s shoulders to steady him.

  “I am sorry, comrade. I should not have been so clumsy.”

  The man wore a hat and coat too warm for spring. He had a thin face and wore thick glasses. “I was in a hurry coming out the door,” continued the man. “It is my fault. I called a taxi. Can I offer you a ride?”

  The man looked familiar. Was it someone from his past? Someone from a previous Moscow visit? The man’s breath smelled of onions.

  Komarov pulled back. “I prefer walking.”

  The man stepped forward and touched Komarov’s sleeve. “Are you sure? The taxi will be here soon. We can ride together and have a pleasant conversation. I’d like to talk to someone about this Chernobyl business?” The man let go of Komarov’s sleeve, took off his thick glasses, and stared at Komarov, smiling as if Komarov should recognize him.

  Komarov began walking away. “I’m not interested in your conversation.”

  He expected the man to follow, to continue harassing him. And when the man did not, Komarov glanced back to see a taxi pull to the curb and the man get in. When the taxi sped past, the man stared straight ahead.

  Perhaps he was being followed. The man could have been from the Seventh Directorate, simple surveillance, or even from Directorate T. Perhaps the man had some connection to Major Struyev in the Kiev office. He had asked Struyev to attend to the Gypsy Moth in Hungary, and in the process Directorate T followed him. No matter. One could always expect to be followed in Moscow. But why should he recognize the fellow? A thin-faced man wearing glasses, about his age. What if the man was foreign intelligence? What if there really was a planned coup d’etat linked to Chernobyl? No matter. He had his own work to do, his own ladder to climb. What happened in Moscow might make a difference or, as was often true these days, might make no difference at all.

  It was beginning to darken and a light mist fell. In Red Square, final preparations were being made for the May Day parade. Komarov walked along the Kremlin Wall to the Senate Tower. Beneath the tower, the queue of people in front of the Lenin mausoleum was short, probably because of the rain.

  19

  On May 1, 1986, the cities of Moscow and Kiev both held parades.

  While Moscow’s parade was surrounded by Kremlin walls and paved squares wet with rain, spring greenery and lilacs blooming along paths down to the river surrounded Kiev’s parade. The morning was sunny, but by midday the wind changed, and an ominous cloud descended.

  Kiev’s parade went along Khreshchatik past the university with its red facade, past the post office, past the Hotel Dnieper, and onto Lenkomsomol Square. Speeches were typically patriotic, with no mention of the Chernobyl incident. The assembled crowd was quiet, so much so, traffic in the underpass below the square could be heard.

  The absence of the usual food vendors was obvious. News of roadblocks and technicians with Geiger counters had spread throughout the city. Although in subdued voices, rumors made the rounds.

  “Did you hear? Ration coupons may be issued, along with compensation for evacuees.”

  “Collectives are full, and they’re sending Chernobylites to vaca-tion on the Black Sea.”

  “Whatever you do, don’t eat leafy vegetables or drink milk.”

  “Be careful on the phone. If you even mention Chernobyl, the line goes dead.”

  “Perhaps we should put our shortwave radios back in the attic for the time being.”

  The mood on the square during the speeches was somber. Even the sound of traffic, which could be heard through storm drains in the floor of Lenkomsomol Square, became ominous. Heavy traffic meant many citizens were leaving Kiev and perhaps the danger was greater than anyone imagined. Some in the crowd referred to the radiation as “the silent killer.”

  Two days after the parade, Major Grigor Komarov was back in Kiev, standing at his office window smoking a cigarette. He looked down to where he would have seen the parade had he been in Kiev on May Day. From his office, the people would have looked like multicolored beetles, the vehicles like toys, the banners like miniature flags used in cemeteries.

  Even though it had drizzled, attending the Moscow parade was a high point in his career. The parade, with thousands of more participants than any Kiev parade, was impressive. And by simply glancing over his left shoulder, he could see Gorbachev and other members of the Presidium. Perhaps some of them, even Gorbachev himself, wondered who stood with Deputy Chairman Dumenko.

  Someday soon, they would know.

  Were some in Moscow already speaking of Komarov? Had gossip remained behind? During the dinner party at Deputy Chairman Dumenko’s residence, he reassured Mrs. Dumenko and several other guests. He spoke of the orderly movement of evacuees, the generous aid provided, and the cooperation of Kiev’s citizens and surrounding collectives. Later, after most guests were gone, Dumenko took him aside and commended him for his tact.

  Because many were leaving Kiev rather than going to Kiev, Komarov had spent the peaceful trip back with an empty seat beside him. He’d thought about puzzles and chess games and how easily even intelligent men could be manipulated. He drew a diagram in his notebook in which Detective Horvath was represented by a circle surrounded by women-Juli Popovics, Nina Horvath, Tamara Petrov-all of them with power over this man, each a string connected to the superstitious puppet. And if Komarov could manipulate the strings…

  On the plane, Komarov had imagined himself as clever as Dos-toevski’s Porfiry in Crime and Punishment. Detective Horvath a brooding Raskolnikov. But in this case he would have to be more clever than Porfiry. The potential existed others woul
d step in to take credit or, worse, discover some bit of evidence to set the Gypsy anarchists free. The line between revolutionaries, anarchists, and terrorists was a fine one.

  Komarov went to his desk and called Captain Azef. He told Azef to send Captain Brovko, the new man assigned by Moscow, up to his office.

  “Deputy Chairman Dumenko and Captain Azef filled me in on the case, Major.”

  “So now you are an expert?”

  “Definitely not. I wish to gain more knowledge from you.”

  Captain Brovko was thirty-five, unmarried, formerly stationed in East Berlin as a counterintelligence interrogator. His training in nuclear engineering was from the army. He was tall and muscular, his hair the color of sand, his eyes blue. He spoke fluent German and, in the GDR, was probably mistaken for the grandson of an SS officer. All of this had been in Brovko’s file, which Komarov studied earlier.

  “I understand you have skills as an interviewer,” said Komarov.

  “Interrogation was my specialty in KGB training,” said Brovko.

  “We are from the same mold, Captain. I also trained as an interrogator. Of course, the mold might have changed somewhat since then.”

  Brovko laughed politely.

  “As for your nuclear training. Can you tell me exactly what happened at Chernobyl?”

  “Not without more facts.”

  “Deputy Chairman Dumenko said you would look into the situation. I assumed you had.”

  “I’ve looked into a Pandora’s box, Major. Chaos and confusion make it impossible to come to a conclusion at this time.”

  “I need your best guess as to what happened, and what will happen. Please be concise.”

  Captain Brovko leaned both elbows on Komarov’s desk. “Very well. The Chernobyl RBMK reactors are pressure tube devices with graphite blocks to slow neutrons. Apparently the plan was to test reactor number four at low power during maintenance shutdown.

  Normally this would be a routine test, except for two factors. The RBMKs are notoriously unstable at low power, and several safety systems were disabled too early in the test. A power surge could not be handled by control rod insertion, the temperature rose quickly, a steam explosion cracked the concrete shell, steam came in contact with hot graphite, and there was a second explosion exposing the core and igniting the graphite. The first firefighters were fatally exposed to radiation and will die. The fire still burns, and there is talk of tunneling beneath the reactor to keep the molten core away from the water table to avoid another, more serious, explosion. Radioactive dust blown into the air required evacuation of an area of thirty kilometers around the reactor. I spoke with Colonel Zamyatin, who is in charge of the evacuation. He said on May Day, Pripyat was a ghost town in which one could hear only the barking of dogs abandoned by their owners. He ordered his men to shoot dogs and cats because they carry radioactive contamination on their fur. And during my briefing here from Captain Azef, I was told trains have been readied on the chance there is a second explosion and Kiev must be evacuated.”