The Mingrelian
Page 24
“Today the Russian people extend a helping hand to an old friend. Through turmoil of every type, the Persian people have been neighbors, trading partners and allies with Russia. Through them, we hope to extend our good wishes and assistance to the entire Middle East. This treaty of cooperation is more than a promise of aid in a time of crisis. It is a military alliance, a cultural exchange, a bond of friendship.”
He pauses again, smiling benignly at the crowd of reporters.
“The people of Iran have chosen wisely in their search for one to lead them from the destruction and turmoil of war and despotism. This is a man of the world, a contrite Muslim, a skilled politician and a man who risked everything to mold the inevitable collapse of a corrupt regime into the world’s first pure Islamic state. Today I wish to present to the world Russia’s newest ally, the president of Iran, Eskander Khorasani.
Chapter 57: Six Months After the Crash
A
sound in the night awakens Niko Dadiani, now 10, from the sleep of a child. The fear and anxiety of being without his mother for a few weeks during the winter faded with the excitement of the wedding in June. He’d been to his grandfather’s home in Zugdidi many times, and there had been parties and celebrations there, but nothing like the celebration after Ekaterina Dadiani wed Boyd Chailland.
The entire Georgian National Ballet had travelled to the old Mingrelian capital to dance, and he’d been invited to share the stage with his heroes, the dancers. They leaped and swirled and the lady dancers, including a certain 12-year-old girl from Tbilisi who made Niko feel funny inside, were more beautiful than ever.
That afternoon the big American Air Force plane like the one Boyd Chailland had flown into Iran to rescue his mother had landed at the small airport in Zugdidi, and an American general had brought gifts to his mother and stepfather from America. The highlight, though, was when the Russian president landed in the biggest helicopter in the world, right on the lawn by his grandfather’s house. There were soldiers keeping the crowd back as the great man waved to the crowd, kissed the bride, shook hands with the groom, took a sip of good Georgian champagne, ate some Russian caviar and was gone, back to Sochi.
Niko drifts back to sleep with a vision of that big helicopter flying off into the distance.
Ekaterina Chailland collapses, breathless and happy, onto Boyd’s chest and nuzzles her face into his neck.
“You gonna wake the whole neighborhood every time you get some lovin’?” He laughs quietly.
“I will if it’s like that,” she says, rubbing her naked torso over his.
They lie quietly for several minutes.
“Boyd, do we have to go to Washington? You said you would be here flying the embassy run for three years.”
Ekaterina’s hand is exploring the warm soft space between them.
“General Ferguson got another star. He’s to be the Deputy Director of the National Security Agency, and he wants me on his staff.”
“Travel?” she asks, nuzzling his neck again. Her hand has found something.
“No, he said I’d work for him but not in an administrative role, more as an investigator, or fact-finder.”
“So, we’d live in Washington?”
She rolls off him to sit beside, hand firmly in control of his midsection.
“Northern Virginia probably.”
She is upright now and looking wistfully out the window into the courtyard of their apartment. “You might have some additional duties.”
“What additional duties?”
“At home.”
“Like what,” he asks, smile breaking across his face.
“Diapers, you dunce,” she says and throws her nude body across his. They roll off the bed, laughing and struggling.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ed Baldwin is the bestselling author of The Other Pilot, and The Devil on Chardonnay, both are Boyd Chailland adventures. His first story Bookman, is a southern tale. He lives in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
http://www.edbaldwin.com