“How do you live with yourself after you kill someone?” Faith said.
“You needed to have aimed lower, at the base of his skull. Where you got him, it would have taken much more force and probably multiple blows to kill him.” Zara pressed on the wound. “You gave him a concussion, that’s all.”
“The thing is, I wanted to. I wanted him dead.”
Silence.
“I want to see Mama now.”
“Why?” Summer said.
“I just killed my father, so I want to sleep with my mother in some twisted Oedipus thing. What do you think?” Her voice cracked her façade. “I need her.”
“The comrade’s right that heads can take a real pounding. I’m sure he’s alive. You try and get some sleep. We’ve got a bit of a drive and it’s pretty much all over now.” Summer crossed his fingers, pointing them toward Zara.
“I’m afraid it isn’t. I was going to give you a couple of minutes of respite before I told you.” Zara peeked under the bloody gauze pads, opened another pack and pressed one on top of the blood-soaked square.
“How’s it look?”
“Bleeding’s slowing. It’s rather deep.”
“I’ve got a good vet here in Moscow I can recommend.”
“Don’t worry about me. There are more important things. We’re facing two separate situations. We stopped the coup back there, but not the assassination. The orders have already been issued and the assassin deployed to murder Gorbachev tomorrow morning during the May Day parade in Red Square.”
“What kind of a dumb-ass outfit is that? You never give the green light until you’re ready.”
“Quite frankly, I doubt he would’ve been sober enough by morning to give the go-ahead. General Zolotov had arrangements to halt it if he had to, but he went up with the banya. Since they never received the C-4-”
“They did tonight.”
“I stand corrected. Since they didn’t receive the shipment as expected, they changed their plans to use a sniper from the top floor of GUM department store.” Zara rifled through the first-aid supplies with her good arm.
“I sure hope that’s the really bad news.”
“Take a right here.” Zara’s face grimaced from pain. “It gets much worse. Honecker is making a move against West Berlin tonight.”
“God almighty.” Summer took a deep breath. “It’s gonna be ironic if I end up getting vaporized by American nukes. Guess, in the end, it doesn’t really matter who they come from.”
“No, it doesn’t. It really doesn’t,” the KGB officer said.
“Any idea of their exact plans?”
“Kosyk said they would seal off the city tonight, liquidate the West Berlin police, take over the government, cut off communications. By morning, he said the Allied bases would be cordoned off by the National People’s Army. Faith, could you help me with this? I’ve reduced the bleeding to a trickle and I want to bandage it.”
“Sounds like a textbook communist takeover.” Faith sat up and took the gauze roll from Zara. Her voice grew stronger. “He forgot the part about installing a puppet government first so it can invite in the National People’s Army and Red Army with a request for military assistance.”
“The Soviet Army isn’t involved. Honecker is acting alone.” Zara opened yet another fresh square of gauze and piled it on top of the blood-soaked ones. “Help me get this blouse off and wrap my arm with the gauze strip.”
Faith leaned over the seat and unbuttoned Zara’s blouse, careful to keep her own mud-caked sleeve away from the wound. “Honecker’s timing really doesn’t make sense to me. They should have waited a few hours. The world would have been so stunned, they’d have a window to move and dig themselves in while the US administration was trying to figure out which faction was taking over in Moscow. The Americans would’ve been stymied asking themselves if the play for Berlin was a result of the coup or was the putsch to prevent the takeover.” Faith pushed the blouse from Zara’s right shoulder, holding it so she could pull the uninjured arm free. She paused for a moment with her hand cupping Zara’s bare shoulder.
“Kosyk set them up. He signaled them that the assassination had already taken place tonight.”
“Summer, I need your knife. I think I’d better cut this off. I’m afraid I’m going to hit the wound when I slip the sleeve over it,” Faith said.
“I’m not that delicate. Go ahead and do your best not to bump it.”
“Summer, the knife, please.”
“Why would they believe him if the assassination hadn’t been confirmed somehow by the news or something?” Summer dug in his pocket and held out the Leatherman.
Faith pulled out a blade. In a single motion, she sliced away the sleeve down to the elbow. Zara unbuttoned the cuff and threw the blouse onto the floorboard. She wore only a sleeveless white undershirt, now stained with specks of fresh blood.
“Kremlin politics are different from the White House. When a leader dies, they usually wait until the body smells before they announce it.” Zara’s strained voice betrayed her pain.
“Are there some painkillers in that first-aid shoebox?” Faith wrapped the gauze around Zara’s arm. “Tell me if this is too tight.”
“I don’t like using drugs unless I really need them.”
“If it’s not something really strong that’s going to make you loopy, go ahead and treat yourself,” Summer said.
Zara shuffled through the box, removed a couple of pills from a cellophane packet and swallowed them dry. Summer turned onto a side road.
“What are you doing?” Zara said.
“Putting the brake lights back before we get pulled over for something stupid. It also helps to focus on a trivial task when you’re pondering global destruction.” He put the car in neutral and set the parking brake.
Faith opened the door, kicking off her shoes. She picked them up and beat them together to dislodge chunks of mud. “Actually, I think I’ll take advantage of the rest stop to get these filthy coveralls off and to get the shoe polish off my face.”
“My clothes are in a garment bag in the back. Please get them out along with a clean undershirt. We might need me in uniform.”
Summer returned to the car wearing a faux leather coat Mama Whitney had found for him. He handed Faith a rag and her own jacket.
“Thanks.” Faith rubbed the tattered T-shirt against her cheek, instantly turning the rag dark. “You know, Berlin is two hours behind Moscow, which makes it a little after nine-thirty there. I doubt they’d take any action until the middle of the night, since West Berlin is a party town. The good bars don’t fill up until midnight and they close around four, though the streets start to really clear out by three. That’s when I’d make my move and get troops in place before anyone realizes what’s going on.”
“Then there could still be time to do something,” Summer said. “How do you think they’ll do it? What comes first?”
“Sever communications,” Zara said without hesitation. “The MfS-the Stasi-has access to the entire West Berlin phone system. It’s no problem to shut it down. Also they’d sabotage the power stations.” She pulled off the soiled undershirt, exposing her small breasts. Summer stole a glance. Zara pulled the clean garment over her head.
“Close the corridor,” Faith added. “It drives the East Germans crazy that they don’t have complete sovereignty over all air, land and sea routes through their territory. If you closed it first, the West would assume it’s the beginning of another blockade, like in the forties.”
“And they won’t go through the Wall,” Zara said. “At least at first.”
“The U-Bahn.” Faith leaned over, resting her arms on the front seat. “Two West Berlin subway lines go under the East connecting to points in the West.”
“East to west sounds pretty direct to me. Why the heck would they build the thing under East Berlin, then back into West Berlin?” Summer said.