“Panmunjom,” Savrova said. “The armistice talks.”
Danny glanced over at the bomb. “Okay, we need to go. Let’s find vehicles. Move!”
The Russians looked at each other in confusion, even as one or two began to step forward, along with Hei Feng and Padilla. But Savrova wasn’t one of them. “We are Soviets,” she said. “We do not follow American orders.”
Danny and Cal traded a look of disbelief. “Good Lord, there’s a bomb here,” Cal said. “Look, now I know you folks think we’re the Devil’s own, and honestly, we don’t think too highly of you either. But Beria’s done sold you out. So you can stay here and die, you can run and hope we take care of him, or you can actually do something about all this. It ain’t about Russians and Americans no more. We got lives to save.”
A few more Russians began walking forward, but there were still holdouts. “Look, we’re in North Korea,” Danny added. “When this is done and you wanna stay, it’s not like we can stop you. But right now, for all our sake — for the sake of Variants everywhere and all these people who are gonna die — we gotta do this. Let’s go.”
At this, one of the Russians transformed into shadows and simply disappeared, which caused a murmur among the others. Finally, the holdouts looked over to Savrova, who finally gave a curt nod.
“Grab weapons from the guards outside,” Danny said as the group surged forward toward the now-missing wall. “Find jeeps. Move it!”
They took off at a jog, though Danny stayed behind to keep pace with Cal, who was doing his best to move fast. “Well?”
“Beria is crazy,” Cal said between breaths. “He’ll do it, no doubt. Surprised he ain’t done it already.”
“Why?” Danny asked.
“You ain’t gonna believe it.”
23
Something’s different.
Frank looked around the room as one of the North Korean envoys droned on and the translator droned right along with him. Everyone looked rather sleepy as the heat of the day grew, and nobody seemed particularly bothered by anything.
And yet something happened in Frank’s mind, like a balloon deflating. All of the voices he’d been holding back suddenly seemed to just… fade. When he dropped his concentration for a moment, all was silent.
“Rose,” Frank whispered.
Mrs. Stevens looked at him wide-eyed. “Something happened,” she said. “Hard to explain.”
He looked over at Beria, who had stopped writing in his notebook, his pen in midair. The former First Deputy Premier was looking around furtively, and he seemed to catch Maggie’s eye as well, who gave him an almost imperceptible shrug in return.
“Weird,” Frank muttered. “Be ready.”
After about an hour or so, the negotiators took a break. Beria closed his pen, stood up, and walked swiftly out of the building, Maggie and Illyanov in tow, causing some murmurs in his wake. Frank and Mrs. Stevens got up and followed.
Outside, amongst the guards from both sides and some of the other delegates, Beria was talking quietly and hastily with Maggie and Illyanov, but noticed Frank and immediately began walking over.
“What have you done?” Beria demanded.
Outline of an object in his left jacket pocket, too boxy to be a gun, one of the MGB men said in his head.
He’s agitated. Something’s not going to plan, General Davis added. He’s going to be unpredictable — be careful.
Frank smiled slightly. It was kind of nice to have them back. “I didn’t do anything, Comrade. What about you?”
“This is a trick,” Beria said, his eyes narrowing. “Some sort of null generator.”
“I feel fine,” Frank countered. “How about you?”
Beria opened his palm and, immediately, a small flame rose above it. “Then what is it?”
“I don’t know, but I feel better than I have in weeks,” Frank said.
Mrs. Stevens stepped forward, putting herself between Frank and Beria. “Sir, maybe this is a good time to take a step back, think about what you’re planning, whatever it is. You told Frank here that people’s Enhancements had changed. Maybe they’ve changed again. Maybe not. But I think we should get a handle on it, your side and mine, before we do anything else.”
Beria stared at her mutely, as if she were an animal in a zoo, then turned and stalked off, Maggie and Illyanov following him.
“I need to talk to General Harrison,” Mrs. Stevens said. “This can’t be good. You follow him.”
Frank nodded and began walking off after Beria, who was heading for the jeeps on the North Korean side of the building. Before Beria got there, however, four other jeeps roared into the compound from the northwest, setting off all kinds of ruckus amongst the guards.
Danny. And… company?
Beria stopped in his tracks, then wheeled around and headed back toward the main building. He’s panicking, said Dr. Koslov, a psychiatrist Frank had absorbed a few years back. I don’t think you should let him in there.
Frank immediately moved to intercept him — but his path was suddenly blocked by Boris Illyanov, who had been walking behind Beria a second ago.
“Shit,” Frank said. “Move your ass.”
Illyanov just smiled and shook his head from side to side.
“Fine.”
Legs, said a voice in Frank’s mind. It was Yushchenko, the double-agent MGB man from back in ’48.
Frank threw a punch, but kicked out his left leg while doing so. Illyanov easily dodged the fist, but hit Frank’s leg as he tried to move around him, and ended up sprawled in the dirt. Frank immediately followed up with a sharp blow to the head, which put out Illyanov’s lights for good.
He looked up to see several people in Russian uniforms running toward Beria — running with Danny and Cal and Yamato and a couple others Frank didn’t recognize. In about a minute, they had Beria surrounded, and Frank rushed over to join them.
“Hand it over,” Danny said in Russian, a rifle aimed at Beria.
By this time, the rest of the camp was in chaos, the Koreans not quite knowing what to do about this confrontation between people who all seemed to be Russian, and the Americans starting to back away and head for their vehicles.
“What is this?” Beria said, eyes shifting quickly from face to face. “Why have you joined with the imperialists?”
“You betrayed us,” said Maria Savrova — Frank was surprised to see her, and doubly so that she’d confront him like this. “You said we would be at the vanguard of a new order! And you lied!”
Beria grew red. “Your sacrifice was a noble one! You were to fuel a new wave of Empowered across the world!”
“You never gave us the choice!” shouted another Variant, one Frank recognized from their initial surveillance activities in Moscow. “You would have killed us!”
Beria quickly reached into his left jacket pocket, even as he pulled out his sidearm with the other hand.
Here we go, Frank thought.
“Drop him, Mags.”
“You’re looking swell,” Frank said. Status report.
Maggie smiled. “The uniform’s not flattering.” Trouble brewing.
“Better than you think. Like Rita Hayworth on a USO tour.” I’m not buying it.
“I was going for Garbo.” Fake-double protocol in place.
“Really?” Frank said. “You don’t have the hair for it.” Still not buying it.
Maggie rolled her eyes. “But I got the chops. Left jacket pocket. See you later.” Double-agent confirmed. Check left jacket pocket. Will rejoin when appropriate.