Assassin by David Hagberg Read Free Book Online

back. He was a terrier of a man, with a sharp, abrasive personality that matched his looks. “He’ll say that his actions are for the best of the nation. He destroyed Riga Power Station so effectively that my engineers tell me it will be at least a year before it’s back on line, maybe longer if there’s other damage beyond what we already know. And the stupid kulaks up there cheered him. They actually cheered him. But this winter when they begin to freeze their asses off they won’t blame him, they’ll blame us.
    â€œI’m also told that Yeltsin ordered his arrest in Nizhny Novgorod, and that Tarankov was tipped off. So he retaliated by having the president assassinated. This time if there are any leaks they will have to come from this room.”
    Kabatov was ranting, he could hear himself but he couldn’t stop because he was deeply frightened. Yeltsin had been a drunken buffoon, but his security detail was simply the best in the entire world. They figured the explosive device had been placed beneath the back seat of the limousine. Supposedly no one outside the security detail, not even Yeltsin himself, knew which car that would be. And there were no early reports of any suspicious activity in or around the secured parking level beneath the Kremlin. Yet they were still cleaning his blood off the streets outside Spassky Tower with toothbrushes.
    â€œThe monster has to be arrested and brought to trial. It’s as simple and as necessary as that if we’re going to survive as a democracy. Now, I want your ideas on how to do it.”
    Alexi Zhigalin looked up defiantly. “Just kill him. We can find his train and send the Air Force in to blow it off the tracks, destroying him, that East German whore he’s married to, and all of his fanatical followers. They’re traitors.”
    â€œIt could be done,” Yeltsin’s military liaison, Colonel Lykov, said. “I’ve
already spoken with General Ablakin. If the FSK could help us with intelligence gathering, it could be pulled off within twenty-four hours. It would send a clear message—”
    â€œTo whom?” Kabatov interrupted. “If this were the United States and its president were assassinated, the government wouldn’t kill the assassin.”
    â€œJack Ruby probably worked for the CIA,” Yuryn said.
    â€œThat’s not been proven.”
    â€œWe’re not the United States,” the FSK director said.
    â€œNo, nor are we England, or France or Germany or any other civilized nation if we kill Tarankov. Such an action would play directly into the hands of his supporters. Don’t you think with a cause like that to follow, that popular support for whatever other lunatic decided to stand up to us would grow?”
    â€œPresident Yeltsin maintained much the same view,” General Mazayev said. “Look what happened to him.”
    â€œAre you saying that one man and a handful of thugs can hold an entire country for ransom?” Kabatov shouted.
    â€œIn Tarankov’s view he is campaigning,” Yuryn said.
    â€œCampaigning for what? Yeltsin’s vacant seat?”
    â€œ Da . And yours, Mr. Prime Minister, and that of the General Secretary of the Communist Party. And that as supreme leader of a new Soviet Union, the Baltics included. As you know, he has a lot of popular support.”
    â€œGained by robbing people of their own money out of our banks and giving it back to them,” Kabatov said with disgust. “Apparently he handed out something less than he robbed in Kirov. Something considerably less.” He shot Yuryn a bleak look. “Campaign funds?”
    â€œProbably,” Yuryn replied indifferently. He worked for the federal government, not for the Prime Minister, though it was unclear at the moment who, other than Kabatov, was nominally in charge of the government.
    â€œYour suggestion then, General Yuryn, is to kill him? Do you agree with