December. James Steel

feelings of shock that the woman was actually part of their faction, mixed with the physical impact of seeing her again. He did his best to cover it as he shook hands firmly and repeated, ‘Alexander Devereux.’

      She flashed a glance up at him; her blue eyes set above sweeping cheekbones to give her a look as wide and dazzling as the sky over the steppe.

      As she moved away, Alex found himself watching the body language between her and Sergey; his hand rested lightly on the small of her back in a proprietorial manner as the two stepped past each other to sit down.

      She sat next to Alex and looked at Sergey at the head of the table. ‘OK, let’s go!’ She beamed at them all; she seemed to have resolved whatever issues she’d had the night before and leavened the previous sombre mood.

      ‘OK.’ Sergey looked at Alex. ‘Lara and Grigory are the media side of this coup. Now, they are vital because in this game it’s not about who has the real power, it’s who appears to have the power. Krymov has many more soldiers than us, but when this all kicks off, people will sit on the fence and wait to see which way the wind is blowing. With the control of the TV stations we can get the images out there that can make it look like we have popular support on the streets of Moscow and then swing the army behind us.’

      He looked at Grigory for comment, who spoke with the confident manner of someone who knew his job.

      ‘Sergey is absolutely right, media coverage was where the KGB really fucked up in 1991 when they rebelled against Gorbachev. Everybody was watching TV to see what was happening and Yeltsin managed to get just a few minutes of airtime on the news of him standing on a tank. It broke their image of invincibility, someone had stood up to them and suddenly it was the emperor’s new clothes time and everybody turned against them.

      ‘Apart from that, Russia is the world’s largest country, more than twice the size of the US.’ He spread his hands across the table. ‘It’s nine thousand kilometres wide, over seven time zones. So to win, we will also need to get support from a majority of the eighty-eight regional governors and the politicians from those zones; as well as carrying business, the international community and the UN with us.

      ‘We can’t guarantee what will happen on the ground. It will be tough—Krymov is not going to give up without a fight—and a lot of people will wait and see, but with Sergey’s TV channels we can at least make the wind appear to be blowing in our direction and that will be a big factor.’

      Sergey broke in enthusiastically. ‘Yes! And Lara will help us achieve it because she is the most popular TV presenter in Russia at the moment!’ He glanced at her admiringly and she smiled and looked down modestly.

      Sergey preened himself a little. ‘Of course, I discovered her when she was…’ Lara looked up and interrupted him with a venomous glance; Sergey continued, ‘…doing other things. I put her on Deal or No Deal, everybody loved her and it all started from there. So now she fronts Big Brother, Star Factory, all the big national festivals…’ He gestured to her to continue.

      She turned to Alex. ‘I’m the nation’s favourite girl-next-door, you know. I’m down to earth—I’m not a Muscovite; I have a provincial accent—’

      Sergey leaned forward to interrupt her. ‘Same hometown as me—Voronezh—only the best…’ he winked.

      ‘Hmm.’ Lara smiled graciously, taking the interruption in her stride. She seemed used to Sergey’s manner. ‘I do flash my boobs,’ she gestured unselfconsciously to her sculpted cleavage, ‘but I’m very sweet as well. All the dads fancy me and all the mums wish I would marry their boys.’ She tilted her head on one side, looked up at Alex with her steppe-sky eyes and gave a coy smile.

      To Alex it felt as if the earth had tilted slightly. He nodded as professionally as he could but in his head he shouted at himself: Get a grip, Devereux!

      Lara switched the smile off and continued in her matter-of-fact way. ‘I’ve also moved into doing some soft news; it’s mainly interviewing celebrities, but I’m sure I can do a good job on reporting the news of the coup and fronting Raskolnikov.’

      Sergey nodded approvingly and turned to Alex. ‘So, that’s the media side. In terms of troops we are confident of support from a key regiment.’ He looked at Fyodor.

      Fyodor cleared his throat. He spoke quietly, with his head down and his hands clasped on the table in front of him. ‘Yes, the 568th Regiment is stationed in the northern suburbs of Moscow and is having some problems.’ He coughed selfconsciously before admitting, ‘It’s not an unknown fact that Russian army life is very brutal: bullying is a part of the conscription process and commanding officers refer to their men as “slaves”. Far more men die from accidents and suicides every year than in combat.’

      He glanced defensively at Alex, who couldn’t tell if the Lieutenant-General was just embarrassed to admit this to a former NATO officer or if he was just a cagey character.

      Fyodor continued, ‘Krymov has pushed for a return to what he calls “the old values” that made the Red Army great. What he means by that is an increase in brutality. He appointed a new commanding officer to the 568th last year—Colonel Karenin, a friend of his—and he has been so sadistic that his men have been pushed to the edge. Sergey has been in touch with junior officers in the regiment who say they are ready to rebel. We believe that they will come out for us.

      ‘The 568th will be vital because they will help us hold on to the Ostankino TV tower—all the TV and radio stations in Moscow broadcast from there and then relay to the whole of Russia.’

      Alex nodded but Fyodor could see that he needed some background. ‘The tower, you know, it looks like the Telecom Tower in London but it’s three times as high,’ he stretched a hand up above the table, ‘five hundred and forty metres. It used to be the tallest building in the world.’

      Sergey interrupted him. ‘Everything is bigger in Russia!’ he said grandly with his arms spread wide, and then leaned towards Alex and said in a confidential tone, ‘Although, did you know that Russian scientists have recently invented the world’s finest microcomputer?’ He looked at him with a raised eyebrow and nodded meaningfully.

      This complete change of direction flummoxed Alex and he looked back at Sergey, unsure as to what he should say.

      The Russian exploded, throwing his arms wide again and shouting, ‘It’s the biggest in the world!’ He burst out laughing, looking round the table to see if they got the joke.

      Lara and Fyodor both smirked and shook their heads, while Grigory bellowed with laughter.

      An obsession with being the biggest in everything was all part of their country’s general insecurity complex but some of the more intelligent Russians enjoyed poking fun at it. Sergey grinned, pleased to have made people laugh. ‘It’s good, yeah?’

      Alex smiled and nodded appreciatively.

      Sergey was finally satisfied and continued his former line of thought. ‘So, the tower is about five miles north of the centre of Moscow but there was a lot of fighting there in the revolt against Yeltsin in 1994—about thirty people got killed.’

      Alex looked surprised. ‘I didn’t realise it was such a big fight.’

      Fyodor seemed to take a gloomy pride in the event. ‘Well, I was there as a junior staff officer. It was a big deal. We had six hundred armoured vehicles out in Moscow. Tanks shelled the presidential palace and burned it down.’

      Sergey nodded. ‘So, that’s the plan. We get Raskolnikov to Ostankino, do the broadcast with him and Lara, call the crowds out onto the streets and win over the 568th Regiment—simple.’

      Again he shrugged off the enormous risks with a smile. Alex was already thinking of a hell of a lot of things that could go wrong.

      Sergey admitted some of them. ‘What we don’t know is what Krymov will do. The OMON riot police and the MVD troops will certainly support him, but the question is whether the other regiments around Moscow