Fall Revolution 4: The Sky Road

– ’
    The jeep came to a gentle halt outside the main door. Myra
glanced sideways, saw a couple of militiamen holding it, ready to
open, their rifles in their other hands.
    ‘Go in, guys, all of you, I’ll keep
talking.’
    They hesitated.
    ‘Go go go!’
    One by one they ran up the steps and disappeared inside. Myra
stepped from the seat-back to the dash, over the windshield and
on to the engine hood, then hopped backwards on to a step,
keeping in view all the time. She backed up the steps, smiling
and waving, and through the doors.
    Jason’s arms wrapped around her from behind.
    ‘Well done.’
    She leaned against him for a moment, tilting her head back on
his shoulder, then straightened up and stepped away, turning to
smile.
    ‘That was scary.’ She laughed. ‘It’s
weird beingthe target of a demonstration – I feel I
should be out there helping to organise it.’
    Jason’s eyes narrowed. ‘That,’ he said,
‘might become an option.’
    ‘Ah, fuck off, you Machiavellian spook!’ She
caught his hand, swept an encircling arm at Nurup and Mustafa.
‘Come on, guys, let’s sort out this mess.’
     
    They held the emergency meeting in Myra’s office whose
broad window overlooked the square. Denis Gubanov had suggested
using the Sovnarkom room, but Myra had dismissed the security
man’s idea. No way did she want to be in a windowless
room.
    Everybody was sitting on or lounging against inappropriate
furniture – desks and filing cabinets and comms junctions.
Myra perched herself on the highest convenient surface, the top
of a book-case full of unread yellowing hardcopy. She cradled her
Glock in her lap. Somehow sitting in a chair seemed frivolous.
Two militia guards stood watchfully at the sides of the windows,
using their eyebands to sample camcopter views from the news
services. Andrei Mu-khartov, Valentina Kozlova and Denis Gubanov
all looked sleepless and unkempt: the men unshaven, Val’s
collar and tie loosened, her uniform rumpled.
    Myra introduced the two mujahedin and Jason. Denis
raised his eyebrows, but made no comment. Myra unobtrusively made
sure that her three men were in a position to protect her –
she wasn’t at all sure who, if any, of those present were
leaving the room alive, whether or not the room was stormed by an
angry mob. She’d once interviewed an unrepentant old
Stalinist who’d been in the Budapest Party offices in
October 1956…
    ‘OK, comrades,’ she began. ‘First things
first. Youknow the Western powers have refused our offers.
I’ve just today been on the shortest diplomatic mission ever, and I can tell you the Sheenisov aren’t
interested in a deal either. So it’s only a question of
time before they’re rolling down the road from Semey. But
that’s just background. We have some urgent matters to
discuss.
    ‘I’m going to start with something that may not
seem like the first item on the agenda, but bear with me.’
She waved a hand at the window. ‘These people can wait.
It’s about Georgi’s death. Jason Niko-laides here has
told me the results of a CIA investigation – murder, using
a spacer nanotech weapon. Hard to detect traces, but Jason says
they’ve done it, and I believe him. What I don’t
believe is that the spacist bastards did it. Whoever did it
wanted two things – one, that Georgi’s offer
didn’t get through to the Kazakhstanis before the
coup. Two, that we wouldn’t co-operate with the space
movement in the coup. Now, seeing as nobody except Georgi
knew he was planning to make that offer, our range of suspects is
a bit narrow. Basically, it has to be someone that Georgi would
run the idea past, someone outside the government information
loop – maybe in the Sovnarkom, maybe not’
    She looked down, playing with the Glock’s slide for a
moment, then looked up. She’d been thinking aloud, she
hadn’t had time yet to go through all the
possibilities.
    ‘Val!’ she shouted. Everybody jumped.
‘If I thought it was you, I’d slam you against the
wall till your teeth rattled to get the truth out of you. You and
Georgi were both in the Party, unlike anyone else
here.’
    She smiled, pleased to see her colleagues off balance.
‘But as it happens, I trust you. Same with Andrei,
who’s never been into that sort of shit anyway. Denis, now
– ’
    The secret policeman looked up and moistened his lips.
    T swear, Myra – ’
    Tt’s all right,’ Jason