Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 09 (14 page)

 
          
Sen’kov
seemed to take over where Velichko had left off, but this time the Russian
people had responded positively to his political views and actions. Sen’kov
immediately crushed the rebellion in
Chechnya
; he pledged to modernize
Russia
’s nuclear arsenal; and he resigned his
nation from membership in the Council of Europe, the judicial body formed to
resolve conflicts between European nations, because the Council had denounced
Russia
’s actions in
Chechnya
but refused to speak out against the NATO
bombing of
Bosnia
or
Serbia
. His brand of quiet toughness and conservative, nationalistic ideals
resonated well with the Russian people, who were growing tired of seeing their
country become nothing more than a very large third-world nation. In the
national elections that soon followed, the Russia All-Fatherland Party under
Valentin Sen’kov had captured a huge majority in both the Federation Council
and the Duma, and he had been elected the new president.

 
          
“What
is happening? What are they trying to do?” Sen’kov asked himself. “The
Americans are actually going to leave Kosovo, leave
Bosnia
, leave the Balkans, leave NATO,
leave
Europe
?”

 
          
“Sir,
what it means, if true, is that the
United States
is imploding—literally as well as
figuratively,” Stepashin said. Stepashin was the director of the Foreign
Intelligence Service. He looked at the other members of the president’s Cabinet
there for the impromptu meeting: retired Rocket Forces General Viktor
Trubnikov, minister of defense; Ivan Filippov, the foreign minister; Sergey
Yejsk, aide to the president on national security affairs and secretary' of the
Security Council; and Colonel-General Valeriy Zhurbenko, the first deputy
minister of defense and chief of the general staff. “For years, ever since
their president’s foreign policy debacles, domestic stagnation—and personal
indiscretions—the Americans have been like frightened children.”

           
“Is the tap in the German
chancellor’s office reliable?” President Sen’kov asked.

 
          
“As
reliable as any microwave tap set up over a week ago,” Stepashin replied
noncommittally. “The Germans will undoubtedly find it and shut our tap down.
They may already have discovered it and are feeding us crap, just so they can
watch us have these early-morning meetings and chase our tails around for a day
or two. We may spend a few weeks having to sift through mountains of data and
thousands of pages of transcribed phone conversations and find out it is all
garbage.” He thought for a moment, then added, “But usually when a tap is
discovered, the chancellor and most of the members of the Cabinet retreat to
alternate locations or go on a foreign trip until their offices can be swept.
No one has left
Bonn
, except for the vice chancellor, and he had a meeting scheduled in
Brazil
for weeks. In fact, the Cabinet has had two
unscheduled meetings since President Thom’s call last night. I believe the
information to be factual.”

 
          
“What
are you talking about. General?” National Security Advisor Yejsk asked. 'The
United States
is the most powerful nation on Earth. Their
economy is strong, their people are happy, it’s a good place to live and invest
and emulate. Like
Disneyland
.” He chuckled, then added, “Apparently not
like EuroDisney, though.”

 
          
“Nikki
is right,” Foreign Minister Ivan Filippov said. “Besides, it’s a societal and
anthropological fact: the wealthier the nation, the more they tend to
withdraw.”

 
          
“The
United
States
is
not
going to withdraw from anything,” Minister of Defense
Trubnikov said. “Withdrawing from peacekeeping duties in Kosovo and
Bosnia
—what the hell, we were all considering it,
even before the death of Gregor Kazakov.
Great Britain
and
Italy
were looking for a graceful way out; the
rest of NATO, the French, and the nonaligned nations will not remain behind if
the others pull out.”

 
          
‘That
leaves
Russia
and
Germany
,” President Sen’kov said. “The question is, do
we
want to be in
the Balkans? Sergey? What do you think?”

           
“We have discussed this many times,
sir,” National Security Advisor Sergey Yejsk replied. “Despite your
predecessor’s talk of unity between Slavic peoples, we have virtually nothing
in common with the Serbs or any interest in the civil wars or the breakup of
Yugoslavia
. The Yugoslavs are nothing but murderous
animals—they invented the word ‘vendetta,' not the Sicilians. The Red Army
proportionally lost more soldiers to Yugoslav guerrillas than we did to the
Nazis. Marshal Tito was the biggest thorn in Stalin’s side since that smug pig
Churchill. We stood behind the Serbs because that stupid bigoted shit Milosevic
opposed the Americans and NATO.” He paused, then said, “We should get out of
the Balkans, too, Mr, President.”

 
          
“We
should stay,” Trubnikov said immediately. “The Americans will not leave the
Balkans.
Macedonia
,
Slovenia
,
Bulgaria
—they want to make them members of NATO. If
we leave, NATO will swarm into
Eastern Europe
. They’ll be knocking on the Kremlin doors before we know it.”

 
          
“Always
the alarmist, eh, Viktor?” Foreign Minister Filippov said with a smile. “We
should stay in the Balkans simply because the Americans are leaving. We milk
the public relations value for all it’s worth, then depart when we can sell
that to the world, too. We are staying to keep the warring factions apart; now
we’re leaving because we have restored peace and stability to the Balkans.”

 
          
“The
problem is, getting out before our forces lose any more soldiers like Gregor
Kazakov,” Yejsk added. “If we sustain heavy guerrilla losses and then depart,
we look like cowards.”

 
          
“
Russia
will not flee either
Chechnya
or the Balkans,” Sen’kov said resolutely.
“I like the public relations idea best of all. If it is true, and the Americans
leave the Balkans, it will be seen as a sign of weakness. We can exploit that.
But remaining in the Balkans might be a waste of resources at best and
dangerous at worst. After a few months, maybe a year, we depart.'’ He turned to
General Zhurbenko. “What about you, Colonel- General? You have been rather
quiet. These are your men we are talking about.”

 
          
“I
met with Pavel Gregorievich Kazakov, the night the caskets returned to
Moscow
,” he said solemnly. “He was angry because
you did not attend the return.”

 
          
“Pavel
Gregorievich,” Sen’kov muttered bitterly. “A chip off the old block, except his
piece flew in an entirely different direction. We did a profile of the families
of the dead soldiers that could attend the service. General. I was advised that
it would be politically unpopular for me to attend. The analysis proved
correct: Gregor's wife virtually spat on the flag, in front of the other
families. It was a very ugly scene. It only heightened whatever power Pavel
Gregorievich has in this country.”

 
          
“I
spoke with him at length, and so did my aide,” Zhurbenko said. A few of the
president’s advisors smiled at that— they were well familiar with some of Major
Ivana Vasilev’s unique talents and appetites. “Pavel Gregorievich doesn’t want
power, he wants wealth.”

 
          
“And
he is getting it. I suppose—a hundred drug overdoses a day in Moscow, because
of uncontrollable heroin imports by scum like Kazakov,” Stepashin said acidly.
“A mother will sell her baby for a gram of heroin and a hypodermic syringe. Yet
Kazakov jets around the world, to his homes in
Kazakhstan
,
Vietnam
, and
Venezuela
, raking in money as fast as he can. He does
not deserve to bear Gregor Mikhailievich’s name.”

 
          
“Did
he threaten you? Did he threaten the president?” National Security Advisor
Yejsk asked.

 
          
“No.
He made us an offer,” Zhurbenko replied in a quiet voice. “A truly remarkable,
unbelievable offer.” He had agonized over the decision to tell the president
and the Security Council about Kazakov’s incredible proposals. He had harbored
ideas about trying to manipulate events himself, but decided that was
impossible. But if he had the full support of the government as well as the
military, it might actually work.

 
          
“He
says he can sell two and a half billion rubles’ worth of oil
per day
with a pipeline from the
Black Sea
to
Albania
.” He looked around at the stunned faces in the president’s office. “The
plans for the pipeline exist, but it has not yet started because of all the
political and domestic unrest in southern
Europe
, primarily
Macedonia
and
Albania
. But if the unrest ceased, or if the
various governments turned in
Russia
’s favor, the pipeline project might be
accelerated.”

           
“What was he offering. General?”
Sen’kov asked in a low voice.

 
          
“More
money than any of us have ever imagined,” Zhurbenko replied. “He wants to
invest a quarter billion dollars to build the pipeline, plus another quarter
billion in what he calls ‘dividends’ to investors. Hard currency, in foreign
numbered accounts, untraceable. The pipeline can start flowing oil in about a
year. And he offered more—he offered a way for
Russia
to once again become a great superpower, to
regain its lost empire. He devised a way for
Russia
to earn untold millions of dollars a day in
oil income, like a
Middle
East
sheikhdom.”

 
          
“How
can you believe anything that degenerate shit says?” Yejsk asked angrily. “He
is a spoiled drug dealer who happened to get rich by stinking up half the
Caspian Sea
with his wildcat rigs. Where is
Russia
’s share of the wealth he has created? He
shifts his money around in Kazakh, Asian, and
Caribbean
banks so fast no one can keep up with it,
and yet he argues loud and long that his fees and tariffs from
Moscow
are too high. He should be reimbursing
Russia
for destroying the Caspian caviar trade,
not to mention the thousands of lives he’s destroyed with his heroin imports.”

 
          
“Sir,
I knew Gregor Mikhailievich Kazakov for thirty years, since before we graduated
from the Academy together,” Zhurbenko said. “I’ve known Pavel Gregorievich
since the day he was bom. I was his best man at his wedding when his father
could not attend because he was fighting in
Afghanistan
. He is genuinely angry because he feels the
Russian government has let him down, broken the trust with him and the
military.
Russia
and her military forces are dying, sir. Not just because of hard
economic times, but from a lack of respect, of prestige around the world. Pavel
knew this. And he offered a possible way to fix the problem.”