by Craig Thomas
They were flying along a valley wall, heavily wooded, dark with firs.
'I can't put you down in this!' the pilot said, as if accusing him.
'Find somewhere where you can!'
They were flying at little more than sixty feet above the trees. The valley widened. Patches of meadow, snow here, dotted houses, and dumps of forest.
'Better,' the pilot muttered He turned to Vorontsyev. 'Look, if I drop like a stone, then I can put you down before they can get down. But that's no good to you — or to me. It has to be a small clearing — the very smallest, so that they can't get down except by a rope ladder, unless they want to crash on top of us. Then you'll have time to start running.' He seemed to beseech Vorontsyev's approval. Vorontsyev nodded. 'And, listen, my Major the prize shit — you forced me to do it, at gunpoint!'
'Agreed. I can stand the infamy!'
Vorontsyev looked at the ground flowing beneath them.
'You'll want a map — in the pocket of the door, beside you.'
Vorontsyev dipped in his hand. His nails filled with crumbs, or dust, then he picked out a folded, scruffy map. It was local, large-scale.
He said, 'How far are we from Khabarovsk?'
'No more than twenty miles.'
'Right. The first one you see that's near enough and small enough — drop in it!'
The pilot managed a small grin. 'Right, my Major.' His smile became more open. 'You really are a bastard! Conning me into this flight when you're really a dangerous villain! I must want my brains tested.'
'Just look, friend. And — thanks.'
'Bloody good luck to you!'
The shallower valley they were following forked ahead of them, and the hills became sheer again. Vorontsyev looked at the map. Villages, not many miles from the valley he could identify. Yes, that was their present position — Khabarovsk more or less south-east, more than twenty miles, he thought. He would need a car, something.
He did not think about what he would do when he reached Khabarovsk. He was under no illusions. Once they talked to the pilot, they would realise that he had seen sufficient to make the guess he had made. He would have to be eliminated. And the whole of Ossipov's army would be pitted against him.
If he got to Khabarovsk, they wouldn't give up. He would be killed, even if they thought he must have passed on a message to Moscow. They would kill him then out of revenge, rage at the loss of secrecy.
He wondered about killing the pilot, once they touched down. He was uncertain. He might not be able to do it, even though it seemed to be demanded by the situation. He decided to compromise, even as the pilot said, 'Down there — up ahead.'
They were passing over thick fir forest now, in a narrower valley that looked very much like a pen, something into which he could be driven, and boxed. It would have to do. Steep sides to the valley, but no altitude. They passed over the spot in the trees, a tiny clearing, perhaps where timber had been cut for local use.
'What — ?' Vorontsyev began. The pilot shoved something into his hand. A small compass.
'You'll need it. Down we go!'
The helicopter stopped almost dead, as if it had struck solid air. Vorontsyev was jolted in his seat. Immediately, the two gunships on either side overshot, and the one following loomed over them.
The helicopter was shuffling in a curious crab-like motion, and descending rapidly, when the voice snapped in the headset: 'Maintain position!'
Vorontsyev flicked the switch so that his voice would be heard by the leader of the flight, and he barked, 'Get down, you bastard, or I'll kill you now!'
The pilot juggled the MIL level, and the trees slid past the windows as they dropped the last few feet. The clearing was only yards across, too small to accommodate themselves and one of the big gunships. The MIL bounced as the wheels touched, and in the same moment Vorontsyev slid the door open. He looked at the pilot, and saw the suspicion of death in his face.
'Sorry!' he said, and struck him across the temple with the Makarov he had drawn from the shoulder holster. The pilot slumped forward.
Vorontsyev jumped out of the door, his legs buckling as he hit the frozen ground. He ducked under the slowing rotor blades, and in ten paces he was under the cover of the trees. The noise from the gunships overhead was deafening, as if expressing the pilots' anger. The trees swayed in the down-draught.
He had only minutes. He took a compass bearing, turned on his heel, and began running deeper into the trees.
Khamovkhin was in a rage of impotence. There was no part of him any longer able to weigh his words, observe himself as if at some performance. He did not care that the duty-officer, Ozeroff again, heard him, or would repeat what he had heard to his companions. He could be a laughing-stock — in two days, he might be nothing at all, hardly a memory. Erased.
'I don't want excuses, Yuri — I want action! he raged into the transmitter. He had broken code transmissions during the first conversation with Andropov after his flight back from Helsinki — impatience had become a black animal clawing at his back while he waited for encode-and-decode in order to relieve his feelings.
'I can only offer you a hope, Feodor. Our opponents are close to panic — they have begun to kill, on the least premise. If — if, we can keep our heads, then we may have a chance.'
'That's politician's talk — just farting in the storm! You've got half a million people in your bloody service — what are they doing? Sitting on their backsides in the restaurants you provide for their comfort?'
'My men are doing their best, Feodor — my survival, their survival, depends upon success.'
'Work it out, man! We know who they might be — get rid of them all! If you hit hard enough, the ones we want are going to get hurt — '
'No! I won't do it — not until there is a stronger indication, a stronger proof. Besides, Moscow Garrison is not replying to our signals.'
'What? What did you say?' Khamovkhin felt his breath coming as from a distance, insufficient to fill his lungs, keep him alive.
'I said — at six this morning, Moscow Garrison appeared to cut off all contact with the Centre, with anyone. I've had people trying to ring up on all sorts of pretexts — without success. I had a helicopter overfly — and it's as still as the grave down there.' Andropov's voice seemed to be coming from a long way away, as if the signal was fading. Khamovkhin nipped the transmit switch.
'Then it's beginning — we're too late.'
'Not yet. Nothing happening yet, anyway. The date is the twenty-fourth, remember, Feodor? Someone must have to get through to them before then. This is only part of the operation. We have to find him.'
'Do it — do it!'
'We will — ' Andropov cut the connection suddenly, so that Khamovkhin thought at first the signal had been lost, then that it had been intercepted, then realised that Andropov was weary of his tantrum. He became aware of Ozeroff behind him, smelling faintly of aftershave, and of the clownish, terrified figure he had cut. And cursed himself.
'You'll see the Englishman and the American now, sir?' Ozeroff asked politely.
'When I've shaved!' Khamovkhin snapped.
Andropov opened the tall window, but did not step out on to the balcony. The early morning air chilled him in a moment, but he remained standing in its draught, feeling refreshed, as if the cold were cleaning his skin, cooling his face of emotion. He hated Khamovkhin, insofar as he was capable of that dark an emotion. A panic-stricken child, an imbecile, a coward. And he the adult, the whole weight of it thrown on him.
In two minutes, he was cold, and he shut the window with hands already slightly numb, and returned to his desk. He hovered, as if about to sit, and then chose to sit in one of the armchairs.
On, yes. Kill them all. Group of Soviet Forces North — Praporovich, and Dolohov. Kill them, and stop the invasion of Scandinavia — easy, if you could be sure of finding them out in the open, with their backs turned, easy targets. And you could be sure that that would be the end of it, that they were in sole command,
and that whoever was behind the whole thing wouldn't be able to order the invasion anyway Or arrest the whole of the Politburo — but, just in case, the Central Committee too, the Secretariat. Only a few hundred, maybe a thousand arrests, just to be on the safe side.
And you were sure that Praporovich and Dolohov wouldn't go ahead anyway.
Find the leader, and stop it all As long as you could be certain that Moscow Garrison would not go it alone.
He wanted to use naked power. Yes, he understood, complied with, Feodor's reasoning that wasn't reason so much as panic of a threatened animal — because he was a threatened animal, just the same.
But he had to face — as Feodor was hiding from the fact in rage — had to face the brute, inescapable fact that naked power was insufficient. That there was no complete, satisfactory solution — no way of stopping it, dead. A tyranny — it was called that, his service, by the journalists from outside, by the malcontents, the dissidents, even by some of the thugs inside it — a tyranny was impotent, incapable of protecting itself.
A tyranny isn't enough — He wanted to laugh, except that, even now, he could not find himself an object of levity.
Khamovkhin had changed his clothing — shaved and washed, then a clean shirt, a tie, another suit; for a moment, in the bedroom still darkened by shutters and curtains, he had thought of changing his long underwear. But he could not bear the thought of so literal a nakedness, or the sight of the shivering old body in the long mirror. As he came into the high room, and saw the two intelligence agents waiting for him, near the huge fireplace, their faces lit more by the log fire than the lamps or the light from the distant window, he quailed as if he were an emperor without clothes.
Aubrey received the impression of a warlord in a grey suit; albeit one prey to doubts, and apparently unsure of himself. There was an impression, a patina, of confidence overlying a tangible lack of assurance. Buckholz saw a much simpler figure — the representatives of an alien system now to be habilitated; and a man to whom his President had given ultimata, and whose representative he was.
'Mr Aubrey — Mr Buckholz,' Khamovkhin said, waving them back to their seats beneath some unidentifiable armorial crest over the fireplace. There was no one else hi the great room; Khamovkhin spoke better English than most of his predecessors, and he would not have admitted lack of confidence by having a security man inside the door.
'Mr First Secretary, good of you to see us so promptly,' Aubrey murmured deferentially as Khamovkhin stood with his back to the fireplace, wanning himself. The crest above him — no, Aubrey reflected, there is nothing chivalric about his face, or his posture. A warlord, Buckholz, next to Aubrey, stirred at the diplomacy of tone.
'Of course. You are now accredited representatives of your governments. You have been — legitimised, mm?' Khamovkhin laughed.
Aubrey dipped his head. 'Quite so, sir.'
'I have this morning for — my affairs. Please to proceed with your counsel, gentlemen.' To complete the spell of confidence, he waved his hands and sat down opposite them, on the other side of the fireplace. The firelight strengthened his square features with shadows and highlights, and Aubrey realised that the effect had been calculated, stage-managed.
'Mr Secretary — ' Buckholz began, bridling at the delicacy of exchange. 'This visit is in the nature of a follow-up, if you take my meaning. The President wishes me to discuss — in more detail — matters of importance to both our countries — ' He tailed off, as if caught himself in some diplomatic web. Then he added: 'You know why we're here, sir.'
'Indeed I do.' Aubrey caught the hesitation, sensed the man shying from the subject.
'OK, sir. Then we understand each other. I have to make it clear to you, sir, that my country will go to war, if that's what it takes. The President, and his allies in NATO, are deeply worried by developments inside the Soviet Union, especially by troop concentrations in the theatre of northern Europe, so dose to the date for the signing of the Treaty — ' Buckholz blundered on, as if reciting his speech in reverse, throwing away the ultimatum as an opening remark.
Aubrey interjected: 'Mr First Secretary, our combined intelligence services are in possession of information which strongly indicates that the Soviet High Command intend to move troops into Finland and Norway — and perhaps to threaten yourself and the legitimate, elected government of the USSR, at the moment when you and President Wainwright would be signing the Helsinki Arms Control Treaty — in two days' time.' He paused, and Buckholz, jaw jutting, prow of a nose in profile to him as he leaned in his chair, seemed to have resigned the task to him. Khamovkhin remained silent, but Aubrey was aware of the sense of strain, of the way in which the words, though familiar, inflicted themselves on the Russian.
He pressed on: 'What Mr Buckholz, in his position as representative of his government, and myself, wish from you — is an assurance that these matters are not unknown to you, and that they are being, and will continue to be dealt with successfully.'
Aubrey waited. He had given the man a means of admission that would not appear damaging, or impotent. Khamovkhin stirred in his chair, then said, 'Very well, Mr Aubrey. You have been candid with me, I shall be similarly so.' He stood up again, and placed his back towards the fire, hands clasped behind him. Irreverently, Aubrey expected a comic policeman's crouch.
'The discontent of the Army towards our mutually beneficial Treaty is well known to you, as it is to us. I will not disguise from you the fact that we have long suspected that elements in the Red Army might attempt some kind of- non-diplomatic, non-democratic action against the time when the Treaty was signed, and ratified. The security service of the Soviet Union has been assiduous, dedicated, in its investigations — in all parts of the Soviet Union and the territories of our Warsaw Pact allies — into possible centres of discontent and subversion — ' He looked at each man in turn. Aubrey saw a quick image of a man hanging wallpaper, and wondered quizzically at the way in which irreverence was creeping into his attitude to his work; even at such a crucial tune as this.
'We have had to tread very carefully, as you will appreciate, gentlemen. We had no wish to trigger, prematurely, the very thing we wished to prevent.' He smiled — an exercise of the facial muscles. 'But, we are now — and I have confirmed this with Chairman Andropov by radio-transmitter only this morning — in a position where the leaders of this conspiracy against peace are clearly identified, their plans known to us — and their arrests imminent!' He finished with an actor's nourish, one hand raised a little in the air. Then he dosed it into a fist, to emphasise his meaning.
'Your assurances are most welcome, sir,' Aubrey remarked smoothly. 'We understand that you cannot order the withdrawal of troops — which you so evidently wish to do — until these dissident elements have been placed under arrest. I am sure that my colleague — and his government — will be reassured, as I know Her Britannic Majesty's Government will be.' He nodded in a little theatrical bow. Khamovkhin watched Buckholz carefully.
'Thank you, Air First Secretary,' the American began, 'for your frank admissions. I will convey your remarks to the President. However, I am sure that he would wish you to know that his sympathies and support are with you — and that he will commit troops to the northern sector at dawn on the twenty-fourth! Unless you can put your own house in order.'
Khamovkhin shivered, very slightly, but Aubrey considered it was with suppressed rage.
'I take your President's meaning to heart, I can assure you, Mr Buckholz. However, the situation you seem to consider with such — calm — will not arise. I have told you, the leaders of the conspiracy will be arrested within the next twenty-four hours!' The voice was slightly out of control, and not simply for effect. Khamovkhin had reached the limits of diplomacy, Aubrey considered — and Aubrey understood that it was hopeless; that Khamovkhin's cupboard was bare, his hand empty of high cards. He was simply wishing for the moon.
Aubrey covered the void of the moment, and his own inward quailing, and said, 'There is one o
ther matter, Mr First Secretary. In the interests of your personal security, sir, we propose 'that a new security team, from our intelligence services, be drafted to Lahtilinna.'
Khamovkhin was visibly disconcerted. 'Why is this, gentlemen? My security officers here have been verted by the Chairman himself.' An edge of fear — rank, personal fear. Surprise, anger too.
'Sir, we have a suspicion — no more than that — that you may be in personal danger while in Finland. The thought must also have occurred to you. Considering the possible ramifications of the plot against your government, it is not inconceivable that a move might be made against you — '
'I am to be your prisoner?'
'Our charge, sir. Only our charge.'
Silence. Khamovkhin fidgeting, uncertain whether to sit or stand. The fire crackling loudly, and visible restraint against the tiny shock from each of the three men.
'We'd like to move the team in tonight, sir.' Buckholz, at last enjoying a small victory. 'But naturally, you can have time to think it over. We have the men selected. You will be safe with them — with us.' The bribe was evident.
'I will consider this — unprecedented step,' Khamovkhin said slowly. 'In consultation, naturally.' A sweep of the arm. 'Now, you will excuse me, gentlemen, I have much to do.'
'Of course, sir.' Aubrey stood up and said, bowing slightly, 'Thank you for seeing us.'
'Yes — thank you,' Buckholz added, as if reminded of his manners.
When they had gone, Khamovkhin stared into the fireplace for a long time, and felt he was looking into a tunnel — he hardly saw the flames, only the blackened back of the fireplace; he was running down that tunnel, and a great train, the monolith of the Soviet Union itself, so it seemed, was thundering and roaring behind him drawing closer and closer.
As they went down the steps of the castle, and their feet began crunching on the icy gravel as they walked to their car, Aubrey said, 'Well played, Charles — we should have worked more often as a team.'