Faith tilted her head and threw the last sip of tea into the back of her throat as if it were vodka. “I really hate the smell of fish, but heading to Finland via Estonia on a fishing co-op’s boat might be easiest. Last I heard, the Finnish mobile-phone network bleeds over into part of Estonia, and the Soviets aren’t jamming it. We might be able to get word out to someone.”
“And how would we ever get a Finnish mobile phone?” Summer said.
“Mug a drunk Finnish tourist. They flock to Tallinn for cheap booze and they all seem to have those phones. Personally, I think they’re a fad that will never catch on, but we might be able to call to the West with one. I don’t suppose you could arrange a pickup with your guys?” Faith asked, pouring herself more tea.
Summer watched Svetlana sink the needle into his forearm, then pull the thread through. “The Gulf of Finland is a Soviet lake, shallow and littered with ears. Don’t get me wrong. They could do it if they absolutely had to. The biggest problem would be getting Washington on board, and I don’t think we have the time for that.”
Reagan sprang from his bed with a bark and ran from the room, growling.
“He never does this,” Svetlana said.
Summer took the needle from her.
“I’m not finished,” Svetlana protested.
Rather than take time to tie or cut it off, he stuck the needle through his skin like a body piercing. He drew the gun that he had taken from the guard. “Give me two seconds, then get the lights out. Pull the fuses if you have to.”
Reagan’s bark echoed from the front room.
Then the barking stopped.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
MOSCOW
5:06 P.M.
“Freeze! Hands in the air.” Summer pointed the gun at the intruder. Reagan growled, baring his canines.
“I’m here to help you,” Bogdanov said in American English.
“Faith, check her for weapons. Don’t stand too close, and whatever you do, don’t block my shot.”
“I have a shoulder holster with a gun and there’s a knife strapped to my right leg.” Zara clasped her fingers together, rested her hands on her head and turned toward Faith. “I didn’t know they were going to kidnap you until after I returned to Moscow and discovered I’d been deceived. Only then did I find out you were walking into a show trial and execution. It was too late to warn you, but I wasn’t going to let them do it to you, so I flew back to Berlin and brought Commander Summer here to help you. I didn’t see any other way.”
“I’m touched,” Summer said. “What’d you do with Walters and Meriwether? Keep in mind the consequences if I don’t believe your answer.”
“I ordered them detained for border violations. They’re guests of the GDR until this is resolved. I made it clear they’re to be treated well.”
“As we say in the South, mighty white of you.” He scratched his forearm beside the wound. “Are you alone or working with someone?”
“Alone. I don’t know who to trust. I came to help you and get you out of here before they realize where you are. I bought you some time by removing all references to Doctor Gorkovo from Faith’s dossier, but I was working fast and could’ve missed something. I was unable to delete the computerized files.”
“How did you know to find me here?” Faith said. “I know dozens of people in Moscow.”
“Please, I’m your case officer and I’ve studied you.”
“Where’d you pick up English along with the American accent?”
“Silicon Valley. I once earned a Stanford degree as part of my legend there.”
Faith opened Zara’s black leather jacket. The KGB-issue service pistol made it all so clear. How could she have ever been so naïve as to think she could have any kind of friendship with a KGB controller? She grasped the weapon with her fingertips and held it as if she were removing a rotten vegetable from her refrigerator. Summer took it from her, Sveta’s needle still stuck into his forearm. She returned to Zara and continued frisking her, pausing occasionally when she remembered how it had felt to flirt with her only a few nights ago. Faith’s anger surprised her. She didn’t like it.
“I didn’t have any way of waving you off. And I still have no idea who was behind the Pan Am bomb. My best guess is that someone found out something about the delivery and didn’t know who to trust. They tried to stop it in their own crude fashion.”
Faith patted her way down the right leg until she discovered the bulge of a knife. “So why did you do it to me?”
“I didn’t. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. There’s a lot more going on here than some MfS renegades smuggling explosives to Moscow.”
“Yeah, we figured out that much.” She stepped back from Zara and held on to the knife. “The East Germans are planning some kind of terrorist attack or something to spur a crackdown and a return to more predictable days.”
Zara motioned with her head toward Svetlana. “Can we trust her?”
“More than we can trust you,” Faith said.
“Honecker does believe Gorbachev is endangering the system. The Germans were plotting to take him out and pin it on the Americans. Until I was recalled to Moscow, I thought this was limited to a Stasi operation. It’s not. The GDR leadership initiated it-not that it will matter to anyone but a historian. They approached me to recruit dissatisfied KGB factions to back them to make sure the right side stepped into the power vacuum.”
“Why’d they believe you’d help?” Faith said.
“My father and I haven’t fared well under Mr. Gorbachev. And I haven’t hidden my conviction that he’s bringing poverty and chaos to my country.”
“If that’s the case, why didn’t you join in?” Summer said.
“Commander, I make the assumption you’re a Republican, since you’re in the military. If your president were a Democrat and you believed his policies hurt your country, would you then conspire to overthrow him?”
“Of course not.”
“The KGB and Soviet Army have never stepped into our government. We’re not a Third World dictatorship.”
“I thought Andropov was KGB chief,” Summer said.
“And Bush was CIA chief. What’s your point?” Zara said.
Summer shrugged his shoulders.
Zara continued, “When my boss received my reports about the MfS plans, I’m speculating that he decided to either join forces with the Germans or use them in a plot he was already involved in. Either way, I was ordered to play along with them and make them think we were cooperating so we could catch them in the act after you delivered the C-4. I believed I was feeding them disinformation, but it was the truth.”
“When’s it going down?” Summer said.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“We’ve got to get out of here fast,” Faith said. “A hard-line putsch will shut this place down tighter than North Korea.”
“That’s not your biggest worry. This afternoon they’ve issued warnings to KGB operatives to be on the lookout for two American agents supporting Armenian terrorists. When Gorbachev’s killed tomorrow, a full nationwide manhunt for you begins.”
“We’re screwed,” Faith said. “No one’s going to help us then. This isn’t like the West, where we could go to some remote corner of the country, rent a flat and lie low for a couple of months.”
Summer continued to point the gun at Zara. “The KGB won’t stop hunting us at the border, will it? I remember something about Trotsky, Mexico City and an ice pick.”
“Don’t expect protection from your own government-it won’t want anything to do with you. May I assume, Commander Summer, that you’ll be declared a deserter and court-martialed? May I put my hands down? I’m not a threat. Remember, I was the one who helped you escape.”
“Yeah, what was the think tank with all those brains all about? I know the KGB has to have better holding cells than that,” Summer said.