As Orlov hung up and waited for the descrambling and transcription, he ate the tuna sandwich Masha had made for him, and thought back over the past three hours. Rossky had retired to his office at 4:30. It was somehow reassuring to know that even the steel men of the spetsnaz had to rest. Orlov knew it was going to take a while for him to strike the right tone with Rossky, but he told himself that for all his flaws the Colonel was a fine soldier. The effort, however long it took, would be worth it.
Orlov had gone out to welcome the night crew to the fully operational facility, and had taken the opportunity to invite the Colonel’s evening counterpart Colonel Oleg Dal, to his office. Dal, who found Rossky even more abrasive than Orlov did, was a sixty-year-old Air Force veteran who had trained Orlov and was one of the many officers whose careers came to a virtual standstill after German teenager Mathias Rust penetrated Russian air defenses and landed his small plane in Red Square in 1987. Dal hated how Rossky refused to relinquish command of anything, even in areas where the Colonel was less experienced. He too understood that that was the spetsnaz way. But it didn’t make him like it any better.
General Orlov informed Dal about the 76T and its eastward progress. It was southeast of Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Ocean. He also informed him about the efforts by United States intelligence to communicate with other Russian transports. Dal agreed that the 76T seemed to be suspicious, not only because it was flying to the east, away from the action, but because there was no record of any transfer of goods in Berlin or Helsinki. Though the records might be held up in red tape, Dal suggested a flyby to signal the pilot to break radio silence and explain his mission. Orlov agreed, and asked him to take the issue up with Air Force General-Major Petrov, who was in charge of the four air defense divisions that patrolled the Arctic Circle.
Orlov had decided to say nothing about the money on the Trans-Siberian train. He wanted to try and find out what Dogin and Kosigan were planning before taking action, and hoped that this call would be somewhat more informative.
Orlov quickly finished the last of his sandwich as the transcription began coming through. He pulled a cloth napkin from the paper bag and touched it to his lips. It bore a trace of Masha’s perfume from when she’d packed it. He smiled.
As the voices began coming in, Titev had tagged them so the computer recognized which was Kosigan and which was Dogin. The text appeared in solid blocks, broken when someone else spoke and punctuated based on the inflection of the speaker. Orlov read with increasing concern. He was worried not only about the prospects for peace but about who was answering to whom in the relationship.
Dogin: General, we seem to have taken the Kremlin and the world by surprise.
Kosigan: That was my zadacha dnia … my mission of the day.
Dogin: Zhanin is still busy trying to figure out what’s happening
Kosigan: As I’ve said, force him to react rather than act and he’s helpless.
Dogin: That’s the only reason I let you move your troops this far before the money was in place.
Kosigan: Let?
Dogin: Agreed, let, what’s the difference? You were right to want to put Zhanin on the defensive so soon.
Kosigan: Momentum we mustn’t lose
Dogin: We won’t. Where are you?
Kosigan: Thirty-two miles west of Lvov, Poland. All the forward regiments are in place and I can see Poland from my command tent. All we await are the great acts of terrorism Shovich’s money is supposed to buy me. Where are they? I’m getting restless.
Dogin: You may have to wait a little longer than we’d planned.
Kosigan: Wait? What do you mean?
Dogin. The snow. General Orlov transferred the crates to a train.
Kosigan: Six billion dollars on a train! Do you think he suspects?
Dogin: No, no, it’s nothing like that. He did it to get the cargo through the storm. Kosigan: But on a train, Minister? So vulnerable
Dogin: Orlov’s son’s unit is guarding it. Rossky assures me the boy’s a real soldier, not a trained space monkey.
Kosigan: He could be in league with his father.
Dogin: I assure you, General, that is not the case. And no one will ever hear of the money afterward. When this is finished, we’ll retire Orlov the Elder and return Orlov the Younger to his military hole where no one will ever hear of it. Don’t worry. I’ll have the cargo met west of Bira, clear of the storm, and flown to you. Kosigan: Fifteen or sixteen hours wasted! The first of the major disturbances should have been happening by then! You risk giving Zhanin the time to take control of the situation.
Dogin: He won’t. I’ve spoken with our allies in the government. They understand about the delay
Kosigan: Allies? They’re profiteers, not allies. If Zhanin traces this action to us and gets to them before some of the money lines their pockets
Dogin: He won’t. The President will do nothing for now. And our Polish hirelings will act the moment they are paid.
Kosigan: The government! The Poles! We don’t need either of them! Let me send spetsnaz troops disguised as shipyard or factory workers to attack the police station and television station.
Dogin: I can’t let you do that.
Kosigan: Let?
Dogin: They’re professionals. We need amateurs. This has to look like a revolt that springs up across the nation, not like an invasion.
Kosigan: Why? Who do we have to mollify, the United Nations? Half the Army and Air Forces and two-thirds of the Navy of the Soviet Union belong to Russia. We control 520,000 Army troops, 30,000 Strategic Rocket Forces, 110, 000 Air Defense forces, 200,000 Navy personnel
Dogin: We can’t break faith with the entire world!
Kosigan: Why not? I can seize Poland and then take the Kremlin. When we have power, what does it matter what Wash ington or anyone else thinks?
Dogin: And how will you control Poland when it’s time to move on? Martial law? Even your troops would be spread too thin.
Kosigan: Hitler made object lessons of entire villages. It worked.
Dogin: A half century ago, yes. Not today. Satellite dishes, cellular telephones, and fax machines make it impossible to isolate a nation and break its spirit. I’ve told you before this must be a groundswell, and it must be guided by the officials and leaders who are already in place. People who can be bought but whom the Poles trust. We can’t afford chaos.
Kosigan: What about the promise of broader powers when they win the elections there in two months? Isn’t that enough to move the constables and mayors?
Dogin: It is. But they’ve also insisted on bank accounts if they lose.
Kosigan: Bastards.
Dogin: Don’t fool yourself, General. We’re all bastards. Just stay calm. I’ve alerted Shovich that the shipment will be late, and he’s told his agents.
Kosigan: How did he take it?
Dogin: He said he used to mark time by scratching lines on the wall of his cell. A few hash marks more won’t bother him.
Kosigan: I hope so, for your sake.
Dogin: Everything is still on track-merely delayed. Instead of twenty-four hours from now, we’ll be toasting our new revolution forty hours from now.
Kosigan: I hope you’re right, Minister. One way or another, I promise you: I will go to Poland. Good evening, Minister.
Dogin: Good evening, General, and stay calm. I won’t disappoint you.
When the transmission ended, Orlov felt the way he had the first time he was spun in a centrifuge during cosmonaut training: disoriented and sick.
The scheme was to take over Eastern Europe, oust Zhanin, and build a new Soviet empire, and it was ingenious in its evil way. A Communist newspaper in a small Polish town is blown up. The Communists in cities from Warsaw to the Ukrainian border counterattack hard, well out of proportion to the blast, and Dogin gets his groundswell as old-time Communists become encouraged-there were still a lot of them who respected the way Wladyslaw Gomulka tossed out the Stalinists in 1956 and formed Polish-style Communism with its odd hybrid of socialism and capitalism. Poland is torn in two as the old Solidarity alliances are revived and, with the Church, they begin railing against the Communists, just as they did when the Polish Pope urged Catholics to make Lech Walesa President. Closet Communists come out in the open, leading to a replay of the strikes, lack of food and other goods, as well as the disorder that Poland experienced in 1980. Refugees pour into the rich Ukrainian west so they can eat, old tensions between Catholics and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are fired up, Polish troops and tanks are called in to stem the exodus, and Kosigan’s troops are used to escort the refugees back to their homes in Poland. Those troops don’t leave, and then the Czechs or Romanians become the next target.